Qualified first go thanks to some CW and Rick and John a couple of chasers who followed me about the bands and modes.

 

I just happened to be in Newcastle overnight and had 30mins spare to run a quick activation. Hunter wetlands was the closest park to where i was staying so off i went and played a little radio. Pretty much had an instant pileup going that lasted the 30mins i was there. There were only 2 annoyances, broadcast breakthrough on the uBitx, never had that before and mosquitoes and big as helicopters. The Bushmans dealt with them, but there was nothing I could do about the broadcast breakthrough.  30+ contacts in 30 mins, not bad at all really for an unplanned activation.

Another day, another activation. 😉 So this morning the wife and I packed up the ute and headed off to Mapleton National Park to do a little radio, do some bush walking and generally relax and slow down for a time. The park is about 100km from home. We setup in the day use area and had the place to ourselves for the better part of 2 hours. Did not make a lot of contacts, enough to qualify the park for VKFF and not a lot more.

 

Spent the couple hours i was there following the shade. I left my hat at home and even though i was covered in sun screen, its not a good idea to be out in the hot Aussie sun without a hat.

While we were out there, we did a bit of bush walking. It was a good to get a few Km under the belt today. We have decided that next trip will be to Lamington Np, probably to Binna Burra to do a few walks there and the a little bit of radio afterwards.

This one has been a long time coming. Its alot harder for us in vk4 to work the southern stations in VK3 and VK5 where most of the action is, so getting here with only 10w and a crappy dipole is a pretty good effort.

I guess it has happened to just about everyone. You drive for an hour, get to your destination and go to set-up the radio gear and notice you have left the antenna at home. LOL well it happened to me yesterday. Its the first time i have forgotten anything before.

So rather than waste all the effort, we popped over to Bribie Island and went to the beach. Its not radio, but have look at the weather. Nice huh.