post mortem for John Moyle Field Day Contest 2019

the plan was to go to Mt.Lambie to operate the contest from, however, the weather was a let down, as it rained  all the way from Sydney to Lithgow and onto Mt.Lambie. In fact the whole of Mt.Lambie was engulfed by low cloud, as were any hills around Lithgow area.  So a plan of action was required, checking the BOM radar it was showing it as raining in Bathurst, that meant the alternative plan of going to Mt.Panorama was out of the question.  We noted that no rain showing on the radar to the north, ie. up to Ilford, Rylestone area. Started driving towards Ilford, as we progressed the weather improved, by time reaching Ilford it was mostly sunny, the road was dry. Once at Ilford, turned onto the Sofala road and headed along looking for a high location suitable for VHF and above, particularly for microwave bands.

Found a high spot just a few kilometres north of Sofala, about 860 metres ASL, QF46ux, an all open hilltop, setup off the road, then noticed the wind was suddenly increasing, by time we were ready to make contest contacts, the wind became so strong it was knocking over equipment and trying to blow away out portable gazebo.  Meanwhile, over on another mountain to the south west, Dave VK2JDS and Matt VK2DAG were now getting wet from a  rain squall and had to pack up all their equipment.

This lead us to the decision of packing up and go look at other potential mountain tops for future contests and microwave field days. One spot was up on the Old Ilford Road, QF46vx, this road runs along a ridgeline, all well above 1,000 metres ASL,  better than the location we stopped at on the Sofala Rd. We will keep this location in mind for future events.  Another potential area was at Wattle Flat QF46uu. we travelled back to Bathurst, then headed east, detouring up through sunny Corner and Dark Corner looking for potential high locations.  A really good spot is at a  farm at corner of W.Mitchell rd and Dark Corner Rd. (QF46wp). This might worth stopping and asking if we could use their paddock.

After returning to highway, we passed Mt.Lambie, it was still shrouded in low cloud. We proceeded onto Lithgow, purchasing some dinner and heading up to Hassans Walls lookout to check this as a potential site. Aft this heading up the Chifley Rd, stopped at Dargan next to railway line,  could hear 439.700 repeater from Nelson Bay,   also the Somersby 6m, 2m & 70cm repeaters are all 60/9 signals even though it pouring rain and sitting in cloud. It poured rain all the way back to Sydney.

Note: in this picture, you can see the ridgeline in the background of Old Ilford Rd.

John Moyle Field Day 2018

I actually went portable for John Moyle Field Day this year,  held across Saturday 17th March and Sunday 18th March, I operated just for the 6 hour session on the Saturday.
I had just over half a dozen contacts, not that I was not really trying hard, as I was also testing equipment, checking for beacons and trying a couple sites, helping a few people get some contacts, get some fresh mountain air.

I operated from two spots, QF56cm, near Zig Zag Railway at Clarence, I had a look at a few spots around, before settling on one site at approx 1150m ASL, nice clear mountain top, low level scrub, it was actually discovered by some friends Geoff VK2AVR and Dom VK2JNA, who had stopped  by when I was operating at a nearby location for a 23 on 23 Microwave Day last year.

After a couple hours, I was not having much luck with making some contacts to some specific people, so I packed up and moved to Mt Lambie QF46xm, it is about 1350m ASL, from here I could actually make some successful contacts.

I'll get all this documented on my website with more photos and map details soon.
The first pic at QF56cm,  the 2nd pic at QF46xm.

www.qsl.net/vk2kfj