(by Greg Lee VK2XE)

Once again, the Manly Warringah Radio Society decided to operate the Trans-Tasman Low Band contest as a portable station.  This year we operated again from the Berrima Scout Camp which is just outside of town and located along the bank of the Wingecarribee river.  In conjunction with the contest we held our annual JOTA planning workshop where we attempt to plan out the logistics of participation in JOTA in October later this year.

The field station this Trans-Tasman Low Band contest included: 

  • ICOM IC-7300 operating on 160m, 80m and 40m bands.
  • A 160m dipole as an inverted V with the feed point ~15m above ground.
  • 80m Off Centre Fed Dipole at ~ 15m above ground at the feed point.  This antenna was used for both 80m and 40m.
  • An ICOM 2m radio was used for local simplex communications with day visitors and site comms.

The field station was located at the Berrima Scout Camp again this year and the overnight weather was much milder than last year with overnight temperatures around the 0-degree mark and warm sunshine during Saturday and Sunday morning.

Mike VK2UCT, Jeff VK2MZZ, Greg VK2XE, Greg’s son Declan and his assistance dog Kara all arrived on-site Friday afternoon/evening and a nice dinner was had at the local Berrima hotel bistro.   After dinner general unpacking and some initial radio and logging station preparation was attempted.

Saturday morning consisted of deploying the 160m dipole and 80m OCF dipole in the trees surrounding the scout hall and then general testing of SWR and antenna tuning in preparation for the contest start at 18:00 local time.

During Saturday we had a number of day visitors to provide moral support and in some cases actual help.  This included:

  • Greg VK2XEs wife Denise and son Caelan joined Greg and Declan for lunch with pies from the local Patisserie.
  • Yves VK2AUJ and Connie VK2CON arrived in the morning and assisted with the antenna work.
  • Our new President Rod – VK2ZZM also joined us to help and offer moral support and to give his dogs a run.  Rod and Mike also had pies from the pie shop.
  • Geoff – VK2TGO also joined in the fun of setup and testing.
  • Jeff VK2MZZs wife Barb and her friends Helen arrived to have lunch with Jeff and have a general tour of the site.
  • Stuart from Robertson also came over and had a look.
  • Later in the day Phil VK2XPL joined us and assisted with contest operations until around 10pm.
  • Nick VK2FS and his daughter Zara also called in and stayed for dinner before heading home

During setup, lunch, operations, and take down, the following participated or assisted in their own way. Many thanks for all the extra hands and feet as it makes it much easier with many hands to share the various tasks and even to just have a chat.

Attendees:

  • Jeff – VK2MZZ
  • Jeffs wife Barb and her friend Helen and Stuart – from Robertson
  • Mike – VK2UCT
  • Greg – VK2XE
  • Declan and Kara
  • Gregs wife Denise and son Caelan
  • Yves – VK2AUJ
  • Connie – VK2CON
  • Nick – VK2FS
  • Nicks daughter Zara
  • Rod – VK2ZZM and dogs x 3
  • Phil – VK2XPL
  • Geoff – VK2TGO

During the contest the operating team consisted of a number of shifts starting with Mike and rotating with Phil, Jeff and Greg finishing.  We finished with the following:

  • 26 contacts on 40m
  • 115 contacts on 80m
  • 40 contacts on 160m

We finished with a total point score of 3,271.  

The best contact of the night I think was Gerard – VK2IO/VK8 just setting up portable in Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory.  

The final result is that we finished with ~700 more points than we obtained in the previous year.  I feel that the station, antennas and the day was a great success and I personally look forward to next years contest in 2020 and hope that we can grow the participation rate and have many more operators next time.

Greg – VK2XE