02/11/2006 | VK2CZ Hi from Australia,
Having lost the 8 ele yagi I've been using for the past 2 years to government red tape, I managed to erect a small 45' long 7 ele yagi up at 30'. All a little temporary, I had not finished tuning the hairpin match - yes minmum VSWR but still very reactive. This caused all manner of problems with RF feedback in the shack and not having the TL922 load properly either mean't it was probably a little stressed as well. During the first quiet hour, I tore apart some old computer power supplies and used some ferrites to settle things down. Adding a bodgy ATU added a level of complexity too, and thank goodness I wasn't changing bands.

Conditions were flat to say the least, but sufficient propagation into the USA, Japan and EU to at least get VK into some logs..

Managing just 30 US states and I think around 21 countries, made my past clean sweeps (of US states anyway) look impossible. Of worthy note, Ed W0SD was audible here for hours, even though he worked just 3 VK stations. Having a 5 ele yagi at 200' clearly beats my 7 ele yagi at 30'... ideas brewing for 2006 :-}

Rated 176(first day) +80(2nd day) = 256 Phone QSO's all up. Having good intent to do some CW, the VSWR and RF hassles on the day distracted me from a mixed mode entry.

Best rate for the whole weekend was 49 in the hour 0600z to 0700z.

Openings to the east coast USA were heard (short path) at 17:30z, but could not punch thru the back of beams 12,000km away :-{ No long path signals were heard - anywhere.

All the best for 2006.
David VK2CZ -- VK2CZ