Monday 14 September 2015

SARL FD Sep 2015 – Golden Gate National Park



I set up a field station on the veranda of our highlands retreat log cabin, situated in the magnificent Golden Gate National Park some 4 hours drive from my home . The views to the east and north were awesome.

I used a telescopic fibre glass mast and erected a link dipole for 15, 20 and 40m. I used my trusty Elecraft K2 transceiver and Begali HST paddle.

I started calling CQ on 40m CW, after 20 minutes I gave up in disgust, I did not have a single reply. IMHO CW is in danger of becoming obsolete in South Africa.

I tried my luck on 20 and 15m, but the propagation was simply too poor to enable any QSOs with my QRP setup.
 
I had no option, but to revert to using the ‘muggle’ mode. I really don’t enjoy using SSB…..

I was looking really looking forward to the field day event and I had high hopes that the event would be well supported, but alas that was not to be.

All this effort to end up with only 22 QSOs in the log :-(


Overlooking the log cabins

Mast errected even befor we were unpacked

Shack with a view......