The Westlakes Cup contest was on tonight and I again went to the local footy oval and strung up a 1/2 wave dipole, about 15 metres in the air.
As I did last year I went along early in the day and thrown the centre rope up in the tree so it would be easier knowing I had to set up in the dark.
The weather between when I placed the ropes and when I came to put up the antenna was quite wet. A large amount of mud was now present under half the antenna. My boots came home about 30 mm thicker than when I left.
Conditions here were noisy with some static crashes as storms were passing to the north of my station.
I managed to get the antenna up without getting too wet and the rain had stopped altogether when it came time to pack it all away.
The SWR on the antenna was better than 1.4:1 so I didn’t have the concerns that I had last year.
I was working this contest with the FT757 from the passenger seat of my car. Power was from a second battery in the boot.
I must add a high current power outlet inside the car for these events.
Just before I worked VK2ATZ, the Westlakes’ club station, for the second time Dave had told another station, that it was OK to work them twice in the contest as long as VK2ATZ was answering a CQ call.
I couldn’t find any reference to this in the rules but, since VK2ATZ is the official station of the organising club, who am I to question it.
So I got to work the club station twice and claimed the points accordingly.
I went to email off my log but it was returned with the reason “mailbox is full”
I will try email again during the week. If that doesn’t work I will print it and post it ‘snail mail’
73