Activated 23rd April 2013
The activation of Mt Dandenong was a spur of the moment thing as a result of some work out near the foothills and some time to spare afterwards. I parked the car a fair way down Ridge Road in the Kalorama village and walked to the Summit via the fire track through Jennings Reserve.
I set up the station and the vertical HF antenna at a picnic table around the back of the Sky-High Lookout and out of the direct path of any wayward tourists ambling by.
I tried the HT firstly on 2 metres and jumped on VK3REC repeater first to hopefully stir up simplex contacts on 146.500mhz. My first 2m simplex contact was with David VK3JDA mobile on the Westgate Bridge and copied with some difficulty. Immediately after was a contact with Mike in Reservoir with a 55 report. Not too bad for a hand-held. The rest of my contacts were on 40m. I logged a total of 8 contacts and then quickly packed up and headed home. It was rather cool and the clouds were threatening. All well timed as it did begin to rain a little later.
The activation of Mt Dandenong was a spur of the moment thing as a result of some work out near the foothills and some time to spare afterwards. I parked the car a fair way down Ridge Road in the Kalorama village and walked to the Summit via the fire track through Jennings Reserve.
I set up the station and the vertical HF antenna at a picnic table around the back of the Sky-High Lookout and out of the direct path of any wayward tourists ambling by.
I tried the HT firstly on 2 metres and jumped on VK3REC repeater first to hopefully stir up simplex contacts on 146.500mhz. My first 2m simplex contact was with David VK3JDA mobile on the Westgate Bridge and copied with some difficulty. Immediately after was a contact with Mike in Reservoir with a 55 report. Not too bad for a hand-held. The rest of my contacts were on 40m. I logged a total of 8 contacts and then quickly packed up and headed home. It was rather cool and the clouds were threatening. All well timed as it did begin to rain a little later.