Our VK 100 call sign weekend was held on October 2nd, 3rd & 4th. We would like to thank the following members – VK4 FABD (Ian), VK4 FJLY (James), VK4 MJF (John), VK4 KSY (David), VK4 NEF (Eric), VK4 NE (Mick) & VK4 CRO (Ron) for helping out over the weekend. The weekend was a great success & enjoyed by everyone. A big thank you to Ron (VK4 CRO) for letting us use his property for the event. Also thanks to all the other club members for calling in & getting your name in the VK 100 log. Thanks also to the visitors that came & gave us moral support over the weekend. Individual reports for the weekend are as follow:
Report from James (VK4 FJLY)
“I arrived at Ron’s (VK4 CRO) place on the Saturday afternoon of the club’s VK 100 WIA weekend & I spent a few hours helping to operate a couple of the HF bands. 20 metres was alive in the evening with contest activity from the Oceania DX Contest, which was also on during the weekend. There was a lot to be heard on the (very impressive) 40 metre setup as well. I made a few good contacts on 40 metres whilst getting use to using a foot switch & headset. This was my first time on HF & I must say I really enjoyed it. I can’t wait to get on HF myself now!!!”
Report from John (VK4 MJF)
“Well what can I say, after all the work done to antennas and last minute adjustments done by all, I arrived on Saturday, early in the morning in my radio van and set up at the cro’s QTH, with the trusty TS520D in the Mariot (chook shed) and the FT857d in the van. As the first contacts were made and we all settled in, the bulk of the operators stepped up to the plate. With the arrival of VK4NEF’ s radio gear, added to the pot, soon we all were making contacts to all points of the compass. Other than living in the chook shed (Marriot) for about 3 days, I personally enjoyed the experience with the company of good fellowship, with like radio nuts, and the fact I spoke all round the world on Monday from Alaska, Texas, Europe & China etc. without leaving the chair, what more could one ask for. The weather was not kind to us but who really cared. We were also looked after by NEF the chef extraordinaire and Ron and Jenny with some oriental flavours, (dim sims) as well. I left keeping in mind we all had very little sleep for the time period, smelt a bit off and looked a bit off. With that thought, I leave you with this, that very soon we have another field day coming to do it all again.”
Thanks for the memories VK4MJF
Report from Eric (VK4 NEF)
“My thanks to Ron (VK4CRO) and xyl Jenny for hosting CBRS with VK100WIA at their home. During the setup stage there was Ron (VK4CRO), John (VK4MJF), Mick (VK4NE), Ian (VK4FABD), Eric (VK4NEF), and John (VK4HBG) attend on that morning of the18th September when we were assembling the spider quad.
All lending a hand with the antennas to be used on our block period. The weather for our three days was a mixed bag, sunny, showers, and a storm on Monday night. We enjoyed Long Path QSOs on 20m to Europe during this time and Antarctica worked us and had fun on the 80M DX window working VK, ZL, W6, JA, ON and SM stns. The W6 was worked again 7hours later on 15M and said that we had a good signal on the low bands last night. We were pleasantly surprised with the good audio reports received when using the TS-480 and a Heil Proset with a HC4 mic insert.
Total QSOs was 702, daily QSO breakdown is Sat 307, Sun 155 and Mon 140. Have had the time to now look up the other Clubs QSO totals which range
from 69 to 1000 odd, most falling in the 200 to 400 QSO range, with our total about the 5th highest number of contacts. Therefore more Hams had the
opportunity to get in the log from our effort than most previous block operations.
Operators over the 3 day 2-3-4 Oct 2010 block were Ron (VK4CRO), Mick (VK4NE), David (VK4KSY), John (VK4MJF), Ian (VK4FABD), James (VK4FJLY) and Eric (VK4NEF) who for a small club put in a mighty effort that we can all be very proud off. We must not forget our XYLs who gave us this time so that we could help other hams from around the world make contact with VK100WIA celebrating 100 years of the Wireless Institute of Australia, as this does not happen every day but, once in a life time.”
Report from Ian (VK4 FABD)
“I arrived at Ron’s home on Saturday morning not knowing what to expect. There was some fine adjustment needed on the 40m dipole that morning, in the rain. Got the new line over the tree and moved the antenna about 20 feet further down the yard. 12utc come around so we decided to jump in the deep end and just go for it. Started my stint on 40m by calling CQ 40m CQ 40m vk100wia listening. I didn’t have to wait long for the first call and they rolled in thick and fast after that. Apart from the rain pouring down and making it hard to hear the Kenwood ts520d radio of Mick’s in the chook shed (Marriot) the radio was working well. I made contacts from north Qld down to Tasmania and everywhere in between. I would like to give a big thanks to Ron and his wife for holding the event. And to all members that were able to give their time. I would also like to thank all members that made a contact with the wk100 call that weekend. Without their help none of this would have been possible.”
Report from Mick (VK4 NE)
“I worked from my QTH with the VK 100 call sign. I made a few contacts on 2 metres. There weren’t many stations available for contacts, but I still had fun.” Regards Mick
Report from David (VK4 KSY)
“The VK4WIA weekend. What an honour to be part of this event, that few new ham’s will achieve in the years leading up to the VK200WIA. Chester and I took the new FT857 and set up at Ron’s (Vk4CRO) house. The main aim was to get 2 metres up and going. Searching the repeater’s with the VK100WIA call sign I only made a couple of contacts for the night. There were many calls made on all available repeaters, but the response was poor. I put this down to the fact that our allocation was late in the celebrations and other clubs had taken the glory early.
Time for dinner and Eric (VK4NEF) was cooking up a storm on a wet and cool night. A cup of tea/coffee and back to the event.
Morning came and Ron (VK4CRO) took to the SSB section looking for aircraft enhancement to the south. Over all a good weekend, for such an important event.
Cheers. David VK4KSY
And Woof Woof from Chester.
Ron (VK4 CRO) was also on the radios & was the main man for putting all the information into the computer. A job well done.
The equipment used over the 3 day weekend were:
Radio equipment
- Elecraft K3
- Kenwood TS-520D
- Kenwood TS-480Sat
- John VK4MJF in Van (Yaesu FT-857d)
- David VK4KSY in Van (FT-857d)
Antenna’s
- 80m and 40m Dipole
- 2 element Spider Quad 10-15-20 metres
- 6m 7 element Yagi
- 2m 12 element Yagi
- 2m/70cm Vertical
Amp
- acom 1000
