Sota Activation – Mt Alexander VK3/VN-016

The other day, I had to head to Bendigo for work, so packed the SOTA gear in the car for a quick late afternoon activation on the way home.

Mt Alexander VK3/VN-016 sits just south of Bendigo and has the local TV and FM transmitters sites on the top of it, also a tower form my organisation, so I popped in and checked the site and then went for a quick Sota Activation.

I headed across the road from the summit and walked down the hill until I was outside the activation zone, then walked back to a small clear grass meadow. It was a glorious spring day, and I set myself up in the sun. Ran out the new link dipole, picked 40m and called CQ (i didn’t even self spot).

The band conditions were great, and a nice afternoon in the sun was had chatting and working stations. and in the end, 33 contacts, the most for a SOTA activation for me. And one S2S for the extra points.

IMG_3440 IMG_3444 IMG_3435 IMG_3438 IMG_3449 IMG_3460

The Link dipole worked well, the Microphone compressor / amplifier worked even better with very positive reports from all chasers. It appears to sound good and increases the received signal strength by 1-2 S points.

IMG_3446 IMG_3451 IMG_3445IMG_3442 IMG_3474 IMG_3473

For reference sake, i purchased a simple power meter that I put inline with the 817, the blow photo shows how much current I used over the activation. This microphone amplifier has seen a small increase in used power, as it drives the radio harder. 1hr of operation = 1.214Ah of usage.

IMG_3462

Date:17/Oct/2014 Summit:VK3/VN-016 (Mt Alexander) Call Used:VK3BQ Points: 4 Bonus: 0

Time Call Band Mode Notes
04:20z VK3MNZ 7MHz SSB 43/57
04:26z VK3AMX 7MHz SSB
04:27z VK3BHR 7MHz SSB
04:28z VK1FIVE 7MHz SSB s2s thanks
04:29z VK3CAT 7MHz SSB
04:30z VK7WH 7MHz SSB
04:34z VK3HRA 7MHz SSB
04:37z VK2PDW 7MHz SSB
04:42z VK5LY 7MHz SSB
04:42z VK3OHM 7MHz SSB
04:45z VK3AFW 7MHz SSB
04:47z VK2YK 7MHz SSB
04:48z VK3EK 7MHz SSB
04:48z VK3BYD 7MHz SSB
04:49z VK5WG 7MHz SSB
04:50z VK3TKK 7MHz SSB
04:51z VK3JP 7MHz SSB
04:53z VK3NGD 7MHz SSB
04:54z VK7NWT 7MHz SSB
04:55z VK3PH 7MHz SSB
04:58z VK2IO 7MHz SSB
04:59z VK3ZPF 7MHz SSB
05:01z VK3AXF 7MHz SSB
05:03z VK3ZZS 7MHz SSB
05:05z VK3NBV 7MHz SSB
05:07z VK2MWP 7MHz SSB
05:08z VK3MEG 7MHz SSB
05:10z VK2DAG 7MHz SSB
05:10z VK3GFS 7MHz SSB
05:11z VK3LEE 7MHz SSB
05:12z VK5WCC 7MHz SSB
05:13z VK2KTT 7MHz SSB
05:14z VK3FOWL 7MHz SSB

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