| VK6AAL Licensed 21st December 1978 as VK6ZH Operated until 20th August 1986 when changed to VK6AAL due to a license renewal error while travelling for 2 years around Australia. Grid SQ - OF78we Location - Latitude 31 Degrees 50 mins South - Longitude 115 Degrees 52 mins East |
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| Operated in Perth WA from 1978 until 14th March 1979
Our first station was an old FRDX400 this was soon upgraded to a TS520S and a FL2100Z.
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The antennas consisted of a Home Brew 10/15m Yagi and an 80 m Dipole the Yagi was soon upgraded to a TH3M3 |
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| Operated in Wickham a mining town in the North West of
Australia from the single mens quarters (SMQ) until 2nd July 1980 The first 144 megs contacts between Wickham and Port Hedland, Newman and Tom Price sparked an interest in a 2 m repeater network that functions in the region today.
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My station was in the Quarters and after much negotiation with the town office we put an 18 AVQ Trapped Vertical on top of the SMQ block with a 10 element 2 m Beam that I still use today 30 years later.
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| The first ever Tilt Over tower I was involved in
constructing was in Wickham for with VK6SL as being a Cyclone Zone we needed to be able to
lower it down before the Cyclones hit. The region has winds of 260kms / hour recorded
during past Cyclones so no tower or antenna could be put up to with stand these storms.
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| Operated a JOTA station at Cossack a historic
settlement Court House by the coast between Wickham and Roebourne we operated portable
with a desiel generator for the weekend with the heat the dust and the flies :-) This was
first for Cossack and the local scouts who lived and grew up in the remote mining town of
Wickham.
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| During our time in the north the first Radio Club was
established between the various mining towns aptly named the North West Radio Society this
fostered further interest in AR and many new operators where licensed over the following 3
years.
The first hamfest of the NWRS was held in 1980 on the banks of the DeGrey river that was in full flood after a recent cyclone that is an annual event in the North West of Australia.
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| Operated from Newman a mining town in the North West of Australia until 22nd December 1981. We were fortunate to have a Club room on Communications Hill thanks to the company complete with Airconditioning to combat the 48 degree heat by 7am and a 100 ft radio mast. With 50 watts and 5 elements on 6 meters at 110 feet 100's of JA openings where worked at 20 and 40 over 9 signals, several openings into VK8 and back to Perth worked but the most prolific were to JA. |
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| After leaving the NorthWest we returned to Witnoom
Georges for a Hamfest on a weekend round trip from Perth Wally VK6YS and myself drove up
on the Friday and back on the Monday. We where the furthest travelled with it being
1184 kms to Newman then a further 200 kms of dirt road from Newman to Witnoom Georges a
round trip of 2768 kms for a 1 Day Hamfest. Some Antenna repairs after the pole holding the beam decided to fold in the middle. |
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| Operated from various locations around Australia while
travelling by 4WD from Perth to Adelaide. Then from Adelaide by straight line through the
deserts of central Australia to Cape York Peninsular in the far north of Queensland. The picture was typical of many signs we found in the Outback it read "The Enterance to HELL turn Back while You Can" Then back to Perth via Darwin and the Gibb River road in the Kimberley region of WA until 7th August 1983 |
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| Operated from Kalgoorlie a gold mining town in Central Eastern WA until 20th August 1986 moved to current location 21st March 1987 been here ever since.... |
| Equipment: TS430S AT250 + Home brew Equipment ATU, PSU Amplifier: Emtron DX-2 Antennas: All Home Brew including 15m Tilt Over Tower 20 M - 4 ELE Mono Yagi 26 FT Boom - Rotary 20 M - 2 Verticals to a Phasing unit for QRM/QRN Nulling 40 M, 15M - Inverted V 2 ele Wire Beam for Europe N/W S/E orientated 80 M, 40M, 15 M - Wyndam OCF Dipole for US Eastern States N /S orientated 10 Elements 2 M Beam at 15 Metres 45 Watts SSB/FM |
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| Software: DigiPan Ver 2, BPSK31 Zakanka for RTTY MMSSTV Ver 1.11G SSTV EasyPal + HamPal HDSSTV Interface: Home Made PC: Pent 4 Twin Processor 2.8Gig 1 Gig Ram Dual 17" Screens Cluster: DX Monitor on 256K Broad Band |
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See you later 73 + Good DX....
QSL E-QSL or Via Buro or Direct
