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| Three band linked dipole in a gum tree |
Today my son had an exam at his University so I dropped him off and then had just enough time took drive over to Mt Macedon VK3/VC-007 for a mid afternoon SOTA activation.
I parked near the summit grabbed my gear and walked away down Francis Red until I was clearly out of the 25 metre activation zone. I returned to the survey cairn and set my three band linked dipole antenna in a gum tree and got on air just before 1500 local time. I tried 12 m first but found a very song noise level. I doubt if I would have heard any stations that answered my call.
Moving to 40 metres, the first station I worked was Ernie VK3DET who was activating Mt Warrenheip. A summit to summit QSOs is always a good way to start an activation. Over the next 20 minutes I made a further 19 QSOs including a summit to summit with Brian, VK3MCD over at Mt Terrible.
This rate of contacts was much better than Friday afternoon where 20 minutes only yielded 5 QSOs.
I was able to pack up and get off the hill and pick up my son on time.
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