The VK4 Microwave Activity Day was held on Sunday with a number of stations operating from mountain/hill tops across SE VK4. I activated from the side of the road at Mt Mee QG62iv as all but one of the stations known to be activating would have been with a clear take off to the south/south west. I activated 1.2, 2.4 and 10GHz (with thanks to Doug VK4OE for the loan of his 'three-in-one' box)

Unfortunately the advice that Wayne VK4WS, John VK4JMC and Rex VK7MO would be activating from a number of sites to the north was received late on Saturday, meaning this site would be unsuitable for a path to them.

 

The weather at the start of the day was fabulous, and improved as the morning progress. By 11AM it was bright sunshine... albeit a little cool (cold for us VK4's) with a southerly breeze blowing from the valley below.

 

But by just after 12noon it had changed, and a very heavy down pour brought operating to an end, and forced a quick back-up and retreat. After the rain, I attempted to move to the lookout at the northern end of Mt Mee, but to no avail, the rain was torrential!

Fantastic opportunity today to meet Rex VK7MO. Rex was visiting KJ VK4UH and was setting up for 10GHz EME this evening.

Rex VK7MO at the dish

KJ VK4UH peaking the BNE 10GHz beacon

Rex's 10GHz station is a 'work of art' with beautifully engineered AZ/EL mount for the dish!

This will certainly help on the next 1,296MHz or 2,403MHz yagi build!

Was great to have a quick test of the 432MHz station again this afternoon.... first with Col VK4MIL (QG63it) on SSB, and then with KJ VK4UH and I running on JT65B towards Col.

It gave the VK4GHZ Multi Send another test on digital as well as the SSPA. Both worked well!

A small tweak to the VK4GHZ Multi Send.... added bezels to the LEDs making the slightly over sized holes (drilled 5.5mm not 5mm) a neater finish!

Now all that is lacking is the labels.

Nice arrival today.... 2 x ON4402H LDMOS RF devices... one to replace a failed device, the second as a spare!

Four days door-to-door from Hong Kong (via FEDEX).

Hope to be back 'off the moon' soon.

Spoiler Alert

Was happy to be the 'guinea pig' to test the 'VK4GHZ Icom Multi Send' yesterday.

The Icom IC-910H is a fantastic VHF/UHF tcvr, but in the design Icom 'failed' to provide band based PTT switching for external accessories like linear amplifiers, requiring operators to make manual changes when QSYing between bands. And if using the ACC socket for digital modes, then PTT required further changes!

The new kit enables band based PTT activation based on the QRG of the main VFO. Simple mods and construction required. No more manual amplifier changes.

Full details to be released at Gippstech 2013!

Another step towards the 2.4GHz tvtr... arrival of two 10db attenuators!