It may have been a chilly 8 degrees celcius when we started, but the cool start to the day didn’t dampen the enthusiasm for those enjoying portable activities this morning, despite the traffic noise from the adjacent motorway at Carrington Park Wahroonga, it soon warmed up to be a pleasant morning for radio activity.

With the 40m band across the Tasman wide open, QRM from New Zealand stations resulted in a few frequency changes as we sought to find a clear spot for the net, but a successful net with approximately 17 participants.

Portable participants were Richard VK2ARH, Colin VK2JCC, Carmal VK2NO and Chris VK2YMW. Brian VK2AXC dropped to confirm his theory about how many radios were needed to participate effectively in the hobby as he heard that Richard VK2ARH was testing out a newly acquired QRP radio. The theory is that if ‘n’ represents the number of radio’s you have, the number you need is always ‘n+1’ – in Brian’s mind Richard proved the theory 😊

Lots of fun, with coffee at a local café afterwards.

This morning’s participants:

Carmel VK2NO – Ammo Box mounted G90 with EFHW antenna

Chris VK2YMW running QRP with a vertical 40m Antenna
Colin VK2JCC (aka Professor Portable) with his G90 custom made housing and a 40m Dipole

Richard VK2ARH testing his uSDX+ which he had tuned for optimal efficiency and spectral compliance – it worked amazingly well for these sorts of activations, running from an internal battery and output of 4.5w. It’s just one of the many low-cost options to go portable with a good wire antenna and join the fun.

You could only describe it as a ‘work of art’ – improvised ‘standoff’ to support EFHW UnUn above the ground, which then runs up to the top of a portable telescopic mast – Richard VK2ARH