23cm portable QF43xe90 Porcupine Hill/Mount Trickett/Jenolan Caves/Kanangra-Boyd National Park

 Spent last week at Jenolan Cabins (QF46xe90) near Mount Trickett and Porcupine Hill in western Blue Mountains, whilst relaxing, I   worked 23cm stations  on FM and USB, using ic910 and a 23cm Bi-quad  antenna.

Noting working these 23cm repeaters:
VK2RWC Chatswood 1273.200MHz was 60/9 at 110km east
VK2RWI Dural 1273.500 was s9  at 99.1km east
VK2RAG Somersby 1273.400 was s7 at 131km nth east
VK2RMP Maddens Plains 1296.850MHz simplex parrot repeater was s3 at 100.5km sth east

Contacts:

Gary VK2KYP portable at Somersby via 1296.100 USB and FM, 10w signal 10/9,  and also qrp  both ways at with a few mW

worked Ivan VK2FUR, Ron VK2GO, Mick VK2CMP & Alex VK2KQ via Chatswood Repeater

and also called in on the ARNSW Broadcast on Sunday night on Dural 23cm repeater.

If looking for a good RF location to operate from, or operate nearby, then book a holiday at  Jenolan Cabins

WIA VHF UHF Winter Field Day Contest 2025

 WIA VHF UHF Winter Field Day Contest 2025, 

here is a snapshot from the Contest Radar site on 21st June, 2025

Contest Radar

WIA VHF/UHF Field Day Contest - Winter 2025

 two weeks away to the  2025 WIA VHF UHF Winter Field Day Contest  over weekend 21st-22nd June, 2025

The Wireless Institute of Australia

Some new VHF & Above DX locations

 on trip out to Mudgee and return, I looking out for good locations to operate VHF, UHF  and above, two good accessible, clear locations found are :
1. intersection of  Aarons Pass Road, Castlereagh Highway and Perrams Road,  a few kilometres north of Ilford, the two side roads are on the crest of a hill, clear of trees, good place for microwave portable.
2. Cherry Tree Hill, on Castlereagh Highway, place called Running Stream, south of Ilford, north of Capertee, it was sign posted as being 1100m ASL, north of Razorback Road.  That is a significant height, as Mt Canobolis near Orange is 1250m ASL

VK3 MAD (Microwave Activity Day) 2nd November, 2024

 

VK3 MAD (Microwave Activity Day) 2nd November, 2024

VK3's having some fun for the MAD, plus some VK4 activity.

as per extract from vkspotter.com

VHF and above portable site Cape Hawke, Forster, NSW, QF67gs

 

I recently visited Cape Hawke (QF67gs)  lookout near Forster on the NSW Mid Coast, I had not been out to the lookout on previous visits to Forster, but after visiting the lookout I realised it is a great spot for VHF,UHF and SHF portable DXing, you can drive most of the way to the lookout, it has a 15minute walk to reach the summit, it is a National Park, so it is covered in dense vegetation and trees, but there is a large 20metre high lookout tower, stairs and platform at top, solid structure with metal posts for temporary connecting antennas too. Ground level is dense bushland, you want to do microwave you have to go up the lookout tower. It is a triangular platform  approx 3m x 3m

this photo is looking north west towards Forster.

this photo looking south west towards Newcastle, Sydney etc, it just catches the tops of trees.

looking west

looking north east up the coast 

QF46xe VHF/UHF/SHF location for portable operation/contest operation as of 1st August, 2024

 if you looking for a good high spot, with cleared of trees and good all round direction, then this location is currently ideal. It is approximately 600m north of Mt.Trickett (NSW),(SOTA site) is 1362m ASL and currently cleared of forestry pine trees.

Ideal for VHF/UHF/SHF location for portable operation/contest operation.  I just visited it recently whilst up that area. This area is very bare after recent forestry logging. Grid Square QF46xe.

You can see high rise buildings of Chatswood, North Sydney and Sydney city from here.

The VK2RCH repeaters are full scale here 60/9.

To get to this location, head for Oberon and across to Edith on road to Jenolan and Kanangra Walls. 
I pretty much given up on using Kanangra Boyd NP for portable operation, as everything is locked up.

On the subject of the VK2RCH repeaters, I could hear them fine from within Oberon. They were the only Sydney repeaters I could hear on a handheld from Oberon.

23cm contacts with VK2KYP portable 29th July 2024

 tee'd up and made contacts on 23cm, 1296.100 USB and 1294.000 FM simplex, on Monday 29th July 2024 at approx 10.30am AEST, 

Gary VK2KYP was portable at Somersby, on Central Coast NSW  QF56po, using a gridpack

and I was portable at Porcupine Hill, up the back of Jenolan Caves, in Western Blue Mtns of NSW, QF46xe, using a bi-quad antenna,

 distance was 130km,  signal strength was s5 on 1296.100 and s6 on 1294.000 FM.

logged the contacts on vkspotter.com

2024 Easter Sunday MAD session.

  2024 Easter Sunday MAD session (Microwave Activity Day).

Nick VK3BA portable about 15kms west of Geelong at QF21CU41 for todays Easter Sunday MAD session.

MAD - Microwave Activity Day - Easter Sunday March 31st - VK3BA/P at QF21CU41 Barrabool Hills (youtube.com)

John Moyle Memorial Field Day Contest 2024

 John Moyle Memorial Field Day Contest 2024

The Field Day will be held over the weekend of the 16th-17th March 2024 and run from 0100 UTC  on the Saturday to 0059 UTC on the Sunday

The Wireless Institute of Australia (wia.org.au)

VK0DS Davis Station, Antartica - 2metre WSJT EME - 10th Dec, 2023

 Dave VK0DS Activating 2metre WSJT EME from Davis Station, Antartica.
showing 2 way wsjt contacts on 2 metres, Using Icom at 70 watts at antenna

VK3 Microwave Group Activity Day - 17th November, 2023

 Here is a snippet from the VK3 Microwave Chat group from their field day operations yesterday.

These guys are getting out on mountain tops and activating the microwave bands.

Stations worked by VK3KRD and the Group.

10.368.1 Gig and 5760.1 Gig.

VK3IE VK3TWO VK3HY VK3ACR.

2.4 Gig  beacon VK3IE.

144.1 SSB VK3ZO Vk3 ACR.

439 Fm, VK3ZO VK3BCU VK3DYD VH3CH VK3PI VK3TWO VK3IE VK3ACR

vk3-microwave@groups.io

Dave VK0DS / VK2JDS arriving at Davis Station (Antartica) on Saturday, 11th November, 2023

 Some Antartic photos from Dave VK0DS / VK2JDS arriving at Davis Station on Saturday, 11th Nov 2023 after cutting through much ice. Dave will operate on 2m EME, 23cm EME and HF as time permits between work duties over the next 14 or so months.

WIA VHF UHF Field Day Contests for remainder of 2023

 

Upcoming Contest Date & Time

  Spring 2023 - 0100 UTC Saturday 25 November through 0059 UTC Sunday 26 November (0400 / 0359 in VK6).

  Summer 2024 - 0100 UTC Saturday 13 January through 0059 UTC Sunday 14 January (0400 / 0359 in VK6).

WIA VHF/UHF Contest 24th/25th June 2023

 Manly Warringah Radio Society will be operating the WIA VHF/UHF Field Day contest this weekend from Terrey Hills QF56oh , 6,2,70,23 on Saturday afternoon under callsign VI100MB

Re-purposing Dyson 56v (50v) lithium pack as a 12v 20A/hr pack

 Recently,  Dave VK2JDS directed me to build a 12v 20/A/hr lithium pack for amateur radio use for portable use when lugging microwave equipment up to a mountain top for DX. We used a discarded Dyson vacuum cleaner 56v lithium pack,  because Dyson use high quality 18650 cells, so it is only the BMS boards that fails, therefore you can repurpose and reconfigure the lithium cells as a  high current 12v pack with a bit of careful plastic cutting, and a bit of snip and solder of battery tags in the right places, plus adding a new cheap BMS controller board from Ebay, plus remove and discard the temperature sensing boards as shown.

The pics show the original pack, plus the cell pack removed and a chopped up cell pack which can be resoldered  in parallel to provide 12v at 20A/hr, once separated you left with four single cells for other projects, and 4 x 12v cell blocks to solder in parallel,  keep all ground points soldered, then all 3.7v points soldered in parallel, then all 7v points all soldered together, then all 12v points soldered together, then when ready you solder the 0v, 4v, 7v and 12v points of the new BMS board to the cells, trying to do this earlier in the soldering phase can damage the new BMS board. Check at each step that you still measuring the expected voltage at each parallel point, ie. 3.7v,, 7v and 12v, otherwise you could end up with sparks and smoke. 

BECAREFUL not to short out any opposing contacts, as you will get big sparks and smoke. When finished, add a circuit breaker or inline fuse, then tape it up and place in a suitable sized plastic jiffy box as your portable 12v 20V/hr rechargeable battery supply.

Road Trip 19th to 21st May 2023

 road trip to Wangi Wangi and surrounds of Lake Macquarie. I took 23cm all-mode, but no luck working VK2RAG  or VK2RTZ 23cm rptrs. 
 I did go up to top of Mt. Sugarloaf to check out possibility of doing some portable microwave activity from here in the future.  I gave some CQ calls on 1296.100 and 1296.150 from Sugarloaf carpark aiming up the coast.

VK2KFJ-9 APRS track 

VK2KFJ APRS track

Mt.Sugarloaf, QF57sc,  436m ASL at the lookout, need to carry gear up about 100m from caarpark to the lookout, to be above trees.

Road Trip 12th - 14th May 2023

 Sydney - Orange - Gowan - Sydney

return trip late Sunday night, with low temperatures 6 to 10deg C yielded fuel consumption of 9L/100km from my Jackaroo. Only used a tank of 95 octane, usually it consumes 3/4 of a tank in warm weather.

3.5Hrs via Katoomba  return trip, compared to 4hrs via Bells Line Rd for previous similiar late night returns

APRS VK2KFJ-9 is RF  145.175 MHz  and VK2KFJ is TCPIP

Whilst at Gowan QF46pu, did some RF testing, accessing VK2RYL 147.225 MHz requiring 91.5Hz ctcss, VK2RCD 146.725 at Dubbo, VK2RYG 146.875 MHz requiring 91.5Hz ctcss at Young, VK2RKG 146.900 MHz Bathurst, VK2RCW 146.900 MHz at Gowan, VK2RCC 146.800 MHz at Coonabarabran, VK1RGI 146.950 MHz Mt. Ginini, plus contacts on 146.500 FM simplex.  I could hear WIA broadcast  via VK2RAG 146.725 MHz, VK2RMP 146.850 MHz Maddens Plains, VK2RWI 147.000 at Dural.

Also heard on Sunday morning at 7.30am, two U.S. stations talking on their local 29.680 MHz 10m repeater for 30mins.  Later that day could hear the WIA broadcast on a 29.680 repeater.either in vk7 or vk6, plus activity on 29.600 MHz including Murray ZL3MH,  plus Indonesians on 29.120 MHz

VI100MB operating on the John Moyle Field Day (JMFD) Contest 18th/19th March 2023

 

update below  from Dom VK2JNA and team, operating VI100MB Centennial Anniversary  callsign for VK2MB Manly Warringah Radio Society (1923-2023): 

We have setup horizontal OCF antenna about 35ft & predominately using that. 

We have also setup 18m vertical with radials at edge of salt water mangroves.  Will use on low bands tonight

Running on batteries on club IC-7300

Great sigs

Nice & rf quiet here at Culburra Beach (near Nowra)

Taking turns & Leo has participated in his first contest. 

We had to build a long feedline, so Nick volunteered his 100m roll of Benelec coax.

We intend to go 24hr & just plod along waving the MWRS flag 

It’s nice that every so often we get asked what the special call is for giving us a chance to explain our MWRS Centenary 

Currently 14190

Operators :
Dom VK2JNA

Nick VK2FS

Leo VK2LEO

WIA VHF UHF SHF Field Day Contest 2023

 

Upcoming WIA  VHF UHF SHF Contest Date & Time for 2023

  Summer 2023 - 0100 UTC Saturday 14 through 0059 UTC Sunday 15 January(0400 / 0359 in VK6). - COMPLETED

  Winter 2023 - 0100 UTC Saturday 24 June through 0059 UTC Sunday 25 June (0300 / 0259 in VK6).

The Wireless Institute of Australia (wia.org.au)