VHF UHF Summer Field Day 2010

The VK3ER team operated from McLaughlins lookout (Maidenhead location QF22CM), about 100 km North West of Melbourne. The weather conditions were cool and windy during the contest, which resulted in no significant enhanced conditions to the west, as occurred during the 2009 Summer Field Day, 17-18 January.

We were able to try out our new 3.4 and 5.7 Ghz 800mm offset dishes with horn feed mounted transverters. They were able to hear better than they could transmit.

We also proved our new offset 1.2m dish with dual feeds for 1.2 and 2.4Ghz. This was a success. The best DX on 1.2Ghz was VK2KRR. Leigh had a fantastic signal over the 350km path.

Six meters was down somewhat with only a few VK4’s and one ZL on sporadic E.

Two meters and 70cm were pretty much as expected for average propagation conditions. Activity in VK3 was good in the west of the state, but very few stations from the east of the state were on air.

As usual, we had a few minor issues with equipment and antennas, but what would be the fun of a field day without having to do some "on the fly" fixes during a contest?

Overall our group was very satisfied with the weekend and hopefully have improved our score from the last Summer Field Day with around 500 QSO’s total.

The VK3ER team for the 2010 Summer Field Day were Mike VK3AVV on 6mx, Jack VK3WWW on 2mx, Max VK3WT on 70cm and Peter VK3QI on 1.2 Ghz and above.

Cheers,

Peter for VK3ER/p.

Jack VK3WWW, Peter VK3QI, Max VK3WT & Mike VK3AVV

Photos by Mike VK3AVV