Apr 16, 2022
NEWS UPDATE – Hello from a wet and soggy Norfolk Island where we’ve had about 70mm of rain in our first two days…
As some may have heard (or not…) our signals have been subdued since we arrived on 14 April. Sadly, our luggage did not make the flight with us from Melbourne; no-one’s did. We understand Qantas has had some staffing issues with baggage handlers. All Luke (VK3HJ) and Chris (VK3QB) have with them on the island is their carry-on bags… which thankfully included the QRP radios, a paddle, computers, and some ancillary equipment.
Alan, VK6CQ flew in from Perth and his bag arrived… so, we have an FT8 station. We also have a bunch of antenna stuff we left on the island last time.
What we don’t have are the amplifiers, balanced ATU and all of the antennas we’d packed in the suitcases.
Our first day was spent assessing what we had and getting a basic station established. We have FT8and an EFHW focused on 15m, and one of the QRP radios (7 Watts) has been on CW using a mobile whip with 12 radials and a 17m vertical (home made yesterday) with 20 radials.
Yesterday a local loaned us an amplifier for a week or so and this is (obviously) making a huge difference to our CW signals.
So, what’s next?
We will assume our luggage won’t make it…. Our focus will be on keeping the QSO rate up on the most productive bands, as well as getting 160m up and running.
The Terlin mobile whip is doing a surprisingly good job, so we’ll focus daylight CW ops on the higher bands, and night-time will be 40m (as well of course as any other higher bands that present opportunities). We can at least run 100W into this antenna now, and with 16 radials it is performing admirably well.
Luke has been up the tree and we have the fly-lines up for the Inverted L at 30 metres. Today we will get this antenna up and at least one of the beverages for receive.
We’ll keep the FT8 station running on 15m in Fox & Hound mode on 21.084MHz, keeping clear of TX5N; so, if you need Norfolk Island on FT8 this is where you’ll find us.
Please be patient as we hobble together a station with what’s on-hand. We’ll update our QRZ.com page and send email updates every couple of days.
In the meantime, we’re having fun adapting and applying a bit of amateur ingenuity to radiate the best possible signals we can.
73 from the VK9NT Team
