I had done lots or research but really had no clue. I packed my IC-705, a 7Ah LifePo4 battery from Jaycar, a portable EFHW antenna, Haverford 9m squid pole, LDG antenna tuner and 50W amplifier. My pack weighed way too much but I headed off on the walk from the carpark at the end of Estuary Drive. It’s a mostly gradual uphill walk with a few short steeper sections. I saw one small snake. The summit at the time was on private land beyond a sign (I think it’s since opened up for walkers) but the end of the track was still within the activation zone so I started setting up.
I strung the antenna up with the squid pole attached to the sign. The wire headed well off away from the track so that I didn’t annoy anyone. As soon as I was about to call CQ a small group of American tourists arrived and the lady who appeared to be their leader came straight up to me and demanded to know what I was doing. I was keen to explain so ignored her abrupt tone of voice and was as nice as possible but before I’d managed a few words she (I think her name may have been Karen) went right off. Apparently it was illegal to be doing this on a public walkway. I asked how my setup was interfering with her enjoyment of the walk and she said that the radiation could cause them long lasting effects. Bear in mind I hadn’t even started to transmit yet. In an amazing turn of events she then told her party to follow and ignoring the private property sign continued up the closed part of the track towards Tinderbox. I was offered a whispered “sorry” from one of her party who was obviously embarrassed.
I was now free to get started and call CQ SOTA for the first time. I put out a spot using VK Port-a-Log and called. Peter VK3PF was my first ever contact on a SOTA activation. Little did I know that he would end up being my first contact for almost every SOTA activation there after. Peter had difficulty hearing me and said that my audio was very bad. Peter offered lots of advice and said that it appeared RF was getting into my audio. Next up was Andrew, VK2DA who gave the same report and a lot of great advice. This was followed by Ian VK7IAN in northern Tassie and Tony VK7LTD, both of who also gave similar reports and some great advice.
It was such a battle that I decided to stop at four contacts as that activated the summit but not the park unfortunately. I was a bit shattered. I’d struggled with my logging, been abused by Karen, had issues with my equipment, and really struggled to make contacts. I really felt down. I realised when I was packing up that my mic cord was very close to the feedline. I assumed that was probably the issue and knew I could do better next time.
VK7ID 