19 April 2015

09 Fold Up 2 Meter Moxon


2 Meter Moxon (18 April 2015)

SOTA is appealing for many reasons. One of the reasons is that you need to carefully think about your kit because you will have to carry everything up to a summit (so it must be light and portable) and when you get there, it must work, come rain, wind, hail, comets or whatever (so it must be reliable).

Being of an engineering bent, I tend to easily slip into the infinite loop of "further optimization" because - to take this antenna as an example - it could always be lighter, more compact, have more gain, be simpler to set up and take down, be more robust... And this does not even touch upon the further dimension of buying new components to suit a design, or designing to suit what you already have on hand. So although it's definitely not the best 2 meter SOTA Moxon "this side of Alpha Centauri", iteration 1 works really well. To read more about how it saw the light, dive in!

Why Introduce Directionality into a SOTA Antenna?

Gain is introduced by focusing the radiation pattern. Focus reduces the beam width, and turns an omnidirectional antenna into a directional antenna, trading omnidirectionality for gain. A bit like turning a light bulb into a laser, not adding energy but concentrating what is already there. Although LASERs are cool, sometimes you rather need the diffused glow of a light bulb than the focused beam of a LASER. In the same way, there are arguments for and against focusing an antenna radiation pattern when building a SOTA antenna.

The case against it:
You never know where your callers will call from. Directionality may cost you a summit activation if someone calls from a location perpendicular to your antenna's beam, directly in your deaf spot (null). Or from behind you, if your antenna has a huge front to back ratio.

The case for it:
 When you are activating a summit out in Woop Woop, especially in Australia, you most likely want that extra bit of gain, especially if you want to make Summit 2 Summit Contacts (something that you could plan for by monitoring alerts on SOTAWATCH before you go out). Furthermore, unless your beam is as thin as a pencil, you would have no dramas if you point your antenna to the nearest big population centre. Finally, some of the SOTA Summits host radio and mobile telephone equipment and sometimes the equipment can cause quite a bit of RF interference that one may want to null out by rotating your antenna to align the noise source and your antenna's null.

In my mind, the case for more directionality won out, so I steamed ahead.

Requirements

Before I started out, I thought about what I wanted from it.
  1. A compact, light and portable 2 meter antenna with some directionality and gain.
  2. It must work with existing kit, utilise the squid pole as mast and play nice with the link dipole.
  3. Ideally it should require nothing that I do not have available.
  4. It should be robust enough to last for "a while". (To be specific, at least 50 summits.)
  5. It absolutely had to have a weird part or two that I could design and print out with my new shiny Rostock Max V2 3D Printer.

Design

I settled on the Moxon design pretty quickly, because I thought I could make something up with wire (junk box) and 9mm fibre glass rods (junk box) and shock cord (junk box). Besides, I have already built a Yagi (based on G0KSC's LFA design) and I thought that a Yagi would be hard pressed to match the Moxon in terms of weight, portability and cost. I also ruled out the Hentenna design, because it looked like the design may not work as well with floppy radiating elements. I also had a Hentenna 4NEC2 model that I did back in 2011 and I thought I may return to it if the Moxon design did not fare too well during simulation.


Modelling and Optimization
I calculated the rough dimensions for the reflector, director, short elements and the gap, starting off with a symmetric set-up where the reflector plus its short sides would be an exact mirror image of the driven element.

Image courtesy of the Moxon Project (http://www.moxonantennaproject.com)
 
Next, I modeled the Moxon in 4NEC2, my go-to Antenna Simulator. It is free and it works great. It integrates with other free tools such as GNUPlot and run models through the free NEC2 (Numerical Electromagnetics Code) engine. See the Downloads Section below for the NEC file.

I used 4NEC2's Genetic Algorithm Optimizer to find a solution that maximized gain and minimized VSWR. From memory I think I used a weighting of 50% Gain and 50% VSWR, I put the optimized model through the mill two more times, after I had a look in my junk box and found 4mm thick Green and Yellow insulated wire. Once the optimization was complete, I ran an average gain sanity check and then rounded off the all the fractions of millimeters to end with round numbers for all dimensions. This was the final model that I used to build my 2 meter Moxon. The results from 4NEC looked better than the old model from the Hentenna, so I dropped the Hentenna from the running.

2 Meter Moxon average gain prediction of around 10 dBi and a F/B Ratio of around 5 dBi*.
The 3 patterns are for the same antenna at 3 different frequencies: 144, 146 and 148MHz.

This is a far field radiation plot from 4NEC2, showing the normalized gain of the radiation pattern from the side (left) and from above (right). Simply two sections of the same 3 dimensional radiation pattern from different perspectives.

*Note that dBi refers to the antenna's gain relative to an imaginary isotropic point source that emits radiation equally in all directions. To compare it to a dipole, subtract 2.15 dBi. In other words the Moxon is predicted to have a gain of about 7.85 dBd (dBd is gain with reference to a dipole. dBd = dBi-2.15 dB).

When I mentioned to Andrew VK1DA that I was busy building a 2 meter Moxon, he asked how it would stack up against a simple 3 element Yagi-Uda. I didn't know, so for a laugh I modeled it in 4NEC2 (and subsequently built it, but more about that later). Here I have included the modeled comparison between the Moxon and the Hentenna's radiation pattern (in elevation/from the side), and as a sneak preview, the Hentenna, Moxon and simple 3 element Yagi on the right.

Left: Moxon vs Hentenna. Right: Hentenna, Moxon vs. a 3-ele Yagi.

By running a frequency sweep in 4NEC2, I could get a feel for what the Moxon's VSWR would be across the 2 meter band:

Predicted VSWR looks good, with 144 to 149MHz around 1.5.

 Final Dimensions

Marked Up Moxon for dimensions below.




Update on 24 April: I made a mistake when entering the diagonal spreader dimensions: they should be 380mm and not 572.5 as I originally had them. Sorry about that. ;-)

Building Tip: The antenna can start of as two pieces of wire, ABCD and EFGH. So measure ABCD and then EFGH, attach their ends to each other with elastic shock cord. Snip the driven element in half and solder in a BNC connector. That is it. Then you need to think about spreading the wire into a rectangular pattern according to the dimensions above. I used old tent poles and a 3D printed hub that slips over another tapered pole.
 

 Building the Antenna

I had the dimensions and all the materials, but was missing one final piece of the puzzle. The central hub that would hold it all together and mount on the Squid Pole Mast, out of the way of the Link Dipole. It needed at least four holes to hold the glass fiber rods that would give it all some stability and it needed to attach to the Squid Pole. I had a look at some of the hubs on The Moxon Project's website but none would do. In the end I knew I had to make some sort of sleeve that slips over the Squid Pole, like the hub of a bicycle, with spokes radiating from the central hub - a bit like what I did to 3D Print a guy rope mount for my Squid Pole.

Guy Rope Mount for Squid Pole

I settled on a flattish square block that could slip over the pole and had radiating holes to accept the spreaders. I had one last look on the interwebs and stumbled onto this great design for a "central hub" on SOTA Beams' website. I shamelessly adopted their round doughnut shape because it was simpler to combine with radial holes in FreeCAD, and it looked just right - so much better than having a square block. I also got the idea to add a fifth hole for a rod to support the BNC Connector and Coax from their Central Hub's design. I punched the dimensions into FreeCAD and this is how it came out:

Moxon Doughnut with Spreader Holes at the correct angles.
I also added Spreader Ends to fit snugly onto the Antenna Wire, printed out the lot and assembled it. All up about 6 hours to design, print and complete.

Spreader Rod End Caps


The Little Fold-up Moxon on One Tree Hill, Ready to deploy

When disassembled it collapses into a tiny bundle of wire and rods
 
It came together rather nicely and works a treat. The antenna has some gain (I am not sure how to accurately test real-world gain yet), slips nicely over the Squid Pole and folds up into a tiny bundle of wires and rods which I bind up with elastic bands before they go into the backpack. It also has a really nice and flat VSWR Curve, as can be seen from the MiniVNA output below and it weighs next to nothing.

Measured VSWR (Green Line) is below 1.5 from 140 MHz to 150 MHz.
For some idea of the antenna's real world performance, have a look at the SOTA Activation of One Tree Hill, under the Contacts section.

I hope you found this useful and was able to duplicate or improve on this little antenna. If you have, please let me know. Happy building!

Downloads

These downloads are free to use and change as long as you credit the source, don't use it for commercial purposes and license your improvements under the same terms:

To print out for yourself: Moxon Doughnut Hub STL File
To print out for yourself: Moxon End Cap STL File
To tweak the design and make new STL files: FreeCAD File for Doughnut Hub
To tweak the design and make new STL files: FreeCAD File for End Caps
To tweak the antenna design for this or other frequencies: Moxon NEC File



08 SOTA Activation: One Tree Hill VK1/AC-035



One Tree Hill VK1/AC-035 (18 April 2015)

One Tree Hill is my local SOTA summit and only about 5 km away from me as the crow flies. I wanted to go out for a quick summit activation and get back because I had an idea that I wanted to work out (whenever I rotate the Squid Pole to orient the directional Moxon, my Dipole Antenna would rotate along with it, being tied to the top of the Squid Pole, snagging and winding up - a bit of a hassle. So I had an idea to sort that out, but more about it later.). I therefore thought (but not very deeply...) that my nearest summit would give me a summit activation and some time to work this idea out at home. I completely forgot about the 8.4 Km return walk from Hoskins Street to the Summit and back. What was intended to be a 2 hour affair turned into at least 4.5 hours but it was great...I love One Tree Hill and I have not been up there in a while.

View to the South from 1 Tree Hill with Mount Majura and Mount Ainslie in the background.

View to the South-West with Black Mountain, Mount Taylor and Mount Stromlo in the background.

How to Get There

Access to the summit is via a 4.2 Km footpath that starts out at the corner of Hoskins and Hall Streets in Hall. Hoskins street connects to Victoria Street which in turn connects to the Barton Highway.

Access to One Tree Hill from Hoskins and Hall Streets, Hall.
 The footpath is unsealed but the last hundred meters to the summit has been improved: TAMS installed compacted earth steps to make access easier. There are a few small cattle grids to get over along the way but these have been done really well, most people won't have any hassles to get to the top.

The start of the Train to One Tree Hill Summit

 There is one fork in the path where you should take the left path up the hill. The right path continues on to Forde.

Take the left path to reach the summit.

Special Permissions or Arrangements

None required. Access is via the public Canberra Centenary Trail. Please note that this footpath forms part of the Northern Link to Forde (Hall Village to Forde), which  is closed during Total Fire Bans.

Summit Information

One Tree Hill’s summit is 876 meters above mean sea level and it is worth 1 SOTA activation point. Its Maidenhead locator is QF44nu. There is a bush fire lookout on the other side of the fence (on private property). TAMS has installed a nice Canberra Centenary Trail marker and sturdy wood benches.

There is no shelter on the summit and the sun and wind could be a nuisance.

I set up my squid pole against the northern fence, lashing it to a fence pole with bungee cords, running the dipole cords to the gate on the one side and the fence on the other. Plenty of options for set-up.

Ham Shack on One Tree Hill


Contacts Made

Andrew VK1NAM was on Gourock VK2/ST-012 and we had a good summit to summit on 40 meters SSB and 2 meters FM that bagged me an extra 6 points. Thank you Andrew!  I had good contacts with a few regular Chasers in VK1, VK2 and VK3, but experienced some QSB (signal fading) towards the end.

Just before I signed off, I got a call from Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH who proposed that we try 2 meters FM. I switched to the front connector on the FT817 and got a pretty poor signal report from Andrew who was not too far away in Yass. Upon closer inspection I realised that the little 2M Moxon was pointing towards Canberra, and away from Yass.

This, and the horizontal orientation of the Moxon was the reason for the poor signal report. When I had it pointing in the direction of Yass, Andrew's signal report increased from a 5/4 to a 5/8. Although on-air signal reports cannot be treated as scientific measurements, it was interesting to find that by rotating the Moxon through 180 degrees, I could improve the signal report by an apparent 4 S-points (equivalent to at most 24 dB), suggesting that the Moxon has a front to back ratio of at least a few dB.

Pete VK2FPMC joined in and we did a few experiments where I dropped power levels from 5 watt to 2.5 watt, 1 watt and 0.5 watt, attempting each time to make contact to see what effect it had on the QSO (communication). I could read Pete and Andrew on all but 0.5 watt. I think I missed Andrew VK1DA on the 0.5 watt over because he was also experimenting with his handy talkie's antenna orientation at the same time. He later said that he could null out my horizontally polarized signal completely if his HT Antenna was perfectly vertical.

While this was going on, I heard Andrew VK1NAM call me with a "Summit to Summit". He was behind me and I was able to work him with the rear of the Moxon now pointing towards him. We completed the contact and he gave me a 5/1 signal report - not bad for a 90 degree polarization shift and only 1 watt!

In the picture below you can see that Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH was 37Km to my NNW whereas Andrew VK1NAM was 63 Km to my SW.

Gourock, One Tree Hill and Yass (Courtesy of Garmin Basecamp, OzTopo and Sotamaps)

Thanks again to every Chaser who came up for a contact!


Useful Links

SOTAWATCH Summit Information: http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=VK1/AC-035
Canberra Centenary Trail: TAMS Centenary Trail with maps
TAMS Map for Section 3 of the Centenary Trail: Section 3 Northern Border Campsite to Hall Village

07 SOTA Activation: Mt. Ainslie VK1/AC-040


Mt. Ainslie VK1/AC-040 (17 April 2015)

There are few hills around Canberra that can compete with the view from Mount Ainslie. It is not the highest but I think you could spot most of the significant landmarks in Canberra from up there. It overlooks the Australian War Memorial and if your eyes travel down ANZAC Parade, you will see Old and New Parliament house on Capital Hill, across Lake Burley Griffin. You also have a line if sight to other nearby SOTA summits including Black Mountain, Mount Stromlo, One Tree Hill, Isaacs Ridge, Tuggeranong Hill, Mount Taylor and neighbouring Mt. Majura.


The view from the Mount Ainslie Lookout

How to Get There

Access to the summit could be as easy or hard as you like. A nice (mostly paved) footpath takes you from Treloar Crescent, opposite the War Memorial to the summit. It is a steady climb that usually takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Alternatively you could take Mount Ainslie road to the car park that is about 10 meters below the summit. Mount Ainslie road turns out of Fairbairn Avenue.

Mount Ainslie

Special Permissions or Arrangements

None required. Access is via a public road or footpath.

Summit Information

Mount Ainslie's summit is 843 meters above mean sea level and it is worth 1 SOTA activation point. Its Maidenhead locator is QF44nr. The summit is about 10 meters higher than the car park and Mt. Ainslie road that surrounds it. The lookout on the western side is quite the crowd puller so there are always people coming and going.

I set up on what I thought was the highest spot, next to a metal pole that was perfect support for the squid pole. Two bungee cords later and I had a stable mast for the whole activation.

Ham Shack on Mt. Ainslie

Contacts Made

This was my second activation for the day, coming straight after the earlier activation of Mount Stromlo. Andrew VK1NAM was on Spring Hill VK2/ST-036 and we had a good summit to summit that bagged me an extra 4 points. Thank you Andrew!


Useful Links

SOTAWATCH Summit Information: http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=VK1/AC-040
Wikipedia Mount Ainslie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Ainslie
Wikipedia Lake Burley Griffin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Burley_Griffin
Australian War Memorial: https://www.awm.gov.au/

18 April 2015

06 SOTA Activation: Mt. Stromlo VK1/AC-043


Mt. Stromlo VK1/AC-043 (17 April 2015)

I had a few days of leave up my sleeve and decided to go for a few activations. Mount Stromlo is the site of the ANU's Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics which lost all their telescopes in the 2003 Canberra bush fire. A new main building and telescopes have since been put up. Mount Stromlo is also a part of the Mount Stromlo Forest Park, used for mountain biking and other outdoor sports.

Mount Stromlo Rd. becomes Oddie Way, which terminates at this car park.

Taking advice from Andrew VK1DA about RF noise at the Trig Point, I walked further up the hill, past the Trig Point to the north, first going down a footpath and then up the other side on a dirt road. There I found a perfect spot to set-up.

Go past the Trig Point, up the dirt road on the next hill.





This was only my second solo activation but I was already finding a good, efficient unpacking and set-up rhythm. I could see a water pipe sticking up out of the ground but decided not to use it as anchor point for the squid pole. Instead I wanted to try a 3D-printed guy rope sleeve that slips over the squid pole, coming to a rest just above the junction between the lowest and second telescopic segment. Have a look at the red object around the squid pole in the picture below. I originally wanted to have the guy set-up slightly higher, around 2 or 3 meters from the ground but heard from Andrew VK1DA that this lower mounting point works really well for Andrew VK1NAM. I tried it and I like it. To simplify setting up the pole, ideally one would want the squid pole inserted into a fishing rod holder, or something that fixes the base to one spot.  I have come across the perfect rod holders from K-Mart, for $5.


Ham Shack on Mount Stromlo with the Antenna Domes and Brindabella Mountains in the background.
 
On the squid pole, I had the 40 meter link dipole antenna at the top and the 2 meter Fold-up Moxon mounted horizontally about 4 meter from the ground. The Moxon's red central doughnut slips over the squid pole and slides all the way down until the doughnut's inner diameter matches the squid pole's outer diameter.

2 Meter Fold-up Moxon

The link dipole is simply two pieces of wire, each one quarter wave length of the 40 meter band. In other words, they are approximately 10 meters apiece, and jointly 20 meters long. The wires have been chopped up into 5 pieces, each piece terminated in a RCA plug. By connecting all the plugs, I have a dipole antenna that is resonant on 40 meters (7.1 MHz). By decoupling the outer two RCA plugs, I have an antenna that is resonant on the 20 meter band, and so on, all they way up to the 6 meter band. To switch frequencies, all I need to do is to pull the squid pole down and change the configuration of connected RCA plugs. This takes no more than 2-3 minutes.

The dipole's two wire elements (with RCA plugs) are joined in the middle, not directly to each other, but to a BNC Antenna connector, so that the one connects to the centre conductor of the BNC connector and the other to the outer conductor.

The dipole and Moxon are fed by stock RG58 50Ohm coaxial cable, terminated in BNC connectors.

How to Get There

Access to the summit is pretty straightforward. Mount Stromlo Road turns out of Cotter Road and can be followed to to a car park that is about 50 meters from the summit.


Mount Stromlo Road turns out of Cotter Road

Special Permissions or Arrangements

None required. Access is via a public road, but according to the VKSOTA site, the road to the summit is closed at night. Reference: VKSOTA.

Summit Information

Mount Stromlo’s summit is 782 meters above mean sea level and it is worth 1 SOTA activation point. Its Maidenhead locator is QF44mq. The summit is open with great views all round. There are a few Mountain Bike tracks, so take care when you set up that you don't run your dipole or guy ropes across a track. The summit is exposed so the wind and sun can be a nuisance.

Contacts

I finally settled my feud with Rucksack Radio Tool and it logged me into Sotawatch at last, so I could spot myself. In fairness though, I was using the wrong username all the time. My bad, not RRTs!

It was a great start to the morning, with 30+ contacts. This was off course helped along by the activation time that coincided with the UTC rollover from 8 to 9 April, allowing Chasers to gain points for the summit on the 8th and the 9th of April.


Useful Links

 SOTAWATCH Summit Information: http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=VK1/AC-043

 


05 SOTA Activation: Mount Bowning VK2/ST-042 with VK1DA, VK1NAM and VK1PFMC (17 April 2015)


Mount Bowning VK2/ST-042

Andrew VK1DA and Andrew VK1NAM arranged the activation of Mount Bowning near Yass and Pete VK2PFMC and I jumped aboard. Andrew VK1NAM collected me from my house at 07:30 on Saturday and we drove down to Yass where we met up with Andrew and Pete. One of the Andrews made arrangements with the owners of the property so we were able to gain access to Mt. Bowning from Black Range Bowning road.

The weather was rotten so we took the easy option by driving to a clearing near the top in Andrew VK1DA's Landcruiser FJ. We walked the last 50 meters or so and set-up in a small tin shack. There was a lot of RF interference though, so we ended up moving the antenna further from the bush fire lookout and ended up, out in the open, trying to keep the radios covered under a tarp.

The first 30 minutes was pretty cold, wet and windy but all of us managed to snag a few contacts, with Andrew VK1DA and I working on HF and Pete and Andrew VK1NAM on Andrew's UHF HT. After a bit the weather opened up, and Andrew VK1DA broke out his paddle for some CW contacts.
Meanwhile Pete, Andrew VK1NAM and I tried some of my home brew antennas. Firstly the little 2Meter Moxon, then the 2Meter/70cm Yagi and finally a toroid coupled RG213 Magnetic Loop antenna with variable capacitor.

2 Meter Fold-up Moxon

The Moxon and Yagis worked great, with the 3-element Yagi beating  the little fold-up 2 meter Moxon by about 20dB, according to Matt VK1MA's signal report, whom we worked on both antennas within about 15 minutes. We also managed to make 2 SSB contacts with the 70cm vertical Yagi (on the same beam as, and perpendicular to the 2 meter Yagi).

Finally I broke out the 40 meter Magnetic Loop and its variable capacitor, which I lovingly installed into a snug box, with reduction drive for fine tuning... Only to be hugely disappointed. The Mag Loop may be great on RX (receive) but there on the hill it failed dismally on TX (transmit), with me trying about 50 times to complete a QSO with VK3KAB but unable to do so. We had to complete the QSO on Andrew VK1DA/2UH's 40 Meter dipole. You cannot buy experience and I learned that day that I could not depend on that Mag Loop.

How to Get There

Access to Mount Bowning is through private property. We used "Common Road" (which runs between the Hume Highway and Black Range road on the western side of Mount Bowning a.k.a. Bowning Hill) to reach the it. Please note that some mapping products, including Google Maps, refer to "Common Road" as "Black Range Bowning Road".  This road can be reached from Yass Valley Road, which is about 10 Km from the Yass MacDonalds and Caltex Service station next to the Hume Highway.

Mt. Bowning with the Hume Highway to Melbourne to its North

Special Permissions or Arrangements

One needs to pass through private property in order to reach Mt. Bowning. Access can be arranged with the property owners, whose mobile phone number is on the gate of the property. 

Summit Information

Mount Bowning’s summit is 792 meters above mean sea level and it is worth 4 SOTA activation point. Its Maidenhead locator is QF45jf.

The summit is open with great views all round. There is a bush fire lookout, and a few mobile phone installations. The S7+ RF interference on 40 meters, is certainly due to some of the equipment up there. We found it much better, towards the northern side of the hill, away from the lookout. There is a small tin shack with a door that may serve as shelter in case the weather turns for the worst, and there are also a few tallish shrubs on the northern side of the mobile installations that could also protect against wind from the South and West.

We did not walk all the way up, having used the gravel road to about 50 meters from the summit, but it is approximately 2 Km from the farm house and should take no more than 90 minutes to walk.

View to the North from Mount Bowning

Contacts



Useful Links
SOTAWATCH Summit Information: http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=VK2/ST-042

04 SOTA Activation: Mt. Taylor VK1/AC-037, the 1st of April and a strictly AM Affair (17 April 2015)


Mt. Taylor VK1/AC-037

Andrew VK1DA proposed that the 1st of April would be a fine occasion to run up a hill and use AM for SOTA contacts. AM is no longer frequently used and this sounded like a good idea. Andrew VK1NAM and I took up the challenge and the three of use set-up on different mountains that afternoon. A few local VK1 operators joined in and all of us managed to get the required 4 contacts for a summit activation.

The activation was not only special because it was on the 1st of April, and we exclusively used AM, but because it was also my first solo SOTA activation.

Read Andrew VK1DA's account of the day at his blog.

Mount Taylor on a different day - beautiful view to the west over the Brindabellas

How to Get There

I set-up on Mount Taylor for the afternoon. It is easy to get to, with public parking on both sides. I parked near the gate next to Sulwood Drive. The initial 500m or so is pretty steep but the climb is pretty relaxed from there on.

Mount Taylor Access via Sulwood Drive or Waldock Street

Special Permissions or Arrangements

None required. Public parking and nature reserve.

Summit Information

Mount Taylor’s summit is 856 meters above mean sea level and it is worth 1 SOTA activation point. Its Maidenhead locator is QF44mp. When you get to the top, carry on past the antenna building to the Trig Point on the summit or beyond. There were quite a few walkers in the 2 hours that I was on the summit. There is a footpath running in a North/South direction, next to the Trig Point.

Ham Shack on Mt Taylor

Contacts



Useful Links

SOTAWATCH Summit Information: http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=VK1/AC-037

03 SOTA Activation: Tuggeranong Hill VK1/AC-038 (17 April 2015)


Tuggeranong Hill VK1/AC-038

On 25 March I activated Tuggeranong Hill with Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH. This was my first SOTA activation and I bagged a bunch of contacts, thanks to Andrew's foresight to post a SOTAWATCH Alert and Spot.

View to the North from Tuggeranong Hill

View to the South from Tuggeranong Hill

How to Get There

Tuggeranong Hill is real easy to get to. We parked in the public parking spot just off
Callister Crescent in Theodore and hiked up the hill. It was a pretty relaxed climb and we took our time, arriving at the top after about 45 minutes of relaxed walking. There were a few hairy spots when we walked back down: pretty steep inclines covered with loose gravel.

Tuggeranong Hill

Special Permissions or Arrangements

None required. Public parking and nature reserve.

Summit Information

Tuggeranong Hill’s summit is 855 meters above mean sea level and it is worth 1 SOTA activation point. Its Maidenhead locator is QF44nn. When you get to the top, carry on past the antenna building to the Trig Point - a convenient spot to attach the squid pole with bungee cords. There were quite a few dog walkers in the 90 minutes or so that we were on the summit. There is also a footpath running in a North/South direction, passing next to the Trig Point.

Contacts

Useful Links

SOTAWATCH Summit Information: http://www.sotawatch.org/summits.php?summit=VK1/AC-038

How did I embed this Excel Sheet?

This is more for my future self (in case I forget) but I thought this was pretty neat:
  1. Go to office.live.com and create new blank workbook.
  2. Enter the tabular data inside the office live Excel sheet and then choose File -> Share -> Embed -> Generate HTML. Credit to the guys from labnol.org.

02 Dipping my toe into SOTA (17 April 2015)


What is SOTA?

SOTA or Summits on the Air, is a really cool award scheme for radio amateurs. Basically there are Activators and Chasers. Activators pack their gear and hike up hills and mountains that have at least 150 meters of prominence in the area. Chasers on the other hand, try to contact the Activators once they are on the air.

Chasers and Activators accumulate points as they make contacts, and the points count toward certificates such as the Mountain Goat (for Activators) and the Shack Sloth (for Chasers). Higher summits count more points, ranging from 1 to 10. The SOTA pearl, off course, is the Summit to Summit contact, where two activators contact each other from listed SOTA summits. In such contacts, both activators gain the points for their own summit as well as that of the other activator. I could go on, but right now I only have a superficial understanding of the rules.

What struck me about the way the scheme has been set-up, is that:
  1. it is free.
  2. everyone can participate whether they are more goatsy or slothful in their inclination.
  3. the more, the merrier. Especially if they coordinate to achieve S2S contacts.
  4. It's wombats and watts - the perfect union between bush walking and technology.
Ham Shack on Mt. Taylor

What is a contact?

A contact can be as formal or informal as you like, but at the very least the participants must exchange Call Signs and Summit Codes. Although its not required in the data submission to the SOTA database, it is also useful to exchange signal reports. A typical contact may go like this:

Activator: CQ SOTA, CQ SOTA, CQ SOTA, this is VK1FJAW, VK1FJAW, VK1FJAW calling CQ.
Chaser: VK2UH
Activator: VK2UH, you are 5 and 9, 5 and 9 on One Tree Hill. The summit reference is VK1 AC-035. QSL?
Chaser: VK1FJAW, I copy 5 and 9, and summit reference VK1 AC-035, you are  5 and 5, 5 and 5, 5 and 5, QSL?
Activator: VK2UH, I copy 5 and 5, thank you for the contact! This is VK1FJAW, 73.
Chaser: VK1FJAW, have a nice day. VK2UH clear.

QSL means "Please acknowledge" and 73 means "Goodbye". Have a look at the international amateur radio Q-codes at Wikipedia.

Coordination, Points and all That

An Activator needs at least four unique contacts on a summit to receive the summit points. If you want to make sure you are not disappointed, declare your intentions to activate a summit by creating an Alert on SOTAWATCH at least a day before the activation. When you are ready to start making contacts, also Spot yourself on SOTAWATCH.

Have a notebook and pen ready to record the details of each contact. You will need this when you get back home. Once you return from the activation, log the contacts with the SOTA database at SOTADATA. SOTA keeps track of the summits and will credit your points balance once you have submitted your log. Remember to log your Summit to Summit contacts separately.

What's in the bag?

I have the following with me when I go out for an activation:
  • GPS, Map, Compass, pocket knife, matches, cash, food, water and a charged mobile phone.
  • Hiking Boots, Hat and clothes to suit the weather on the summit. (Usually windy and cold.)
  • Squid Pole, coax, 2 meter Moxon antenna, 40m, 15m, 10m Link Dipole antenna, rope and pegs.
  • Notebook, pen, torch, FT817 (charged) and VHF/UHF Handy Talkie (charged).
  • Electrical insulation tape, needle nose pliers, rubber hammer.
  • Personal first aid kit.
  • A list of nearby repeater frequencies and details such as activation tones.
Please be safe and remember to let friends and family know what your plans are.

With Andrew VK1DA, Andrew VK1NAM and Pete VK2PFMC on Mount Bowning

Links:

VKFAQ SOTA page: http://vkfaq.ampr.org/opersota.php
VK SOTA Group: https://au.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SOTA_Australia/info
VK1 SOTA Group: https://au.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SOTA_VK1_area/info
VKSOTA Summit Info: https://sites.google.com/site/vksota/

SOTA: http://www.sota.org.uk/
SOTAWATCH: http://sotawatch.org/
SOTADATA: http://www.sotadata.org.uk/default.aspx
SOTAMAPS: http://www.sotamaps.org/
John Evans' ACT Bushwalking Website (Andrew VK1NAM): http://www.johnevans.id.au/wp/
Victoria Police Trip Intentions Website (Andrew VK1NAM): http://tripintentions.org/tripinformation 




01 Regular service resumed (17 April 2015)


Hello world!


Well I thought it's time to get onto the blogosphere again. I've had my F-call (VK1FJAW) since 2010 but have not done much with it since then. But as we know, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy..so enough of that.

I was introduced to the hobby by Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH whose name you'll find next to "avuncular" in the dictionary (my new word for the day). Andrew has fielded my million questions without batting an eyelid, taken me on field trips and shown me the ropes. So here is a big shout out to Andrew, all-round great bloke and radio guru - thank you mate!

Here is a link to Andrew's blog, vk1da.net/blog and a link to his radio FAQ at VKFAQ.


Andrew VK1DA's Ham Shack on Mt. Ginini during the John Moyle Memorial Field Day, 2012.
(Antennas still going up.)