New National VK Records

Gidday All,
this to advise the 47 GHz VK National Records on both SSB
and Digital Modes were extended by VK3 Operators on Wednesday, January 11.

The new Distance Records for both these Modes on 47 GHz are now out to
177.9 km.

The following is a brief summary of our activities and the equipment used.

Our initial activities started on Tuesday, Jan 10th with the team of
David - VK3HZ and Peter - VK3APW setting up at the Mt Dandenong
Observatory, East of Melbourne.

Alan - VK3XPD drove to a spot near Mt Cottrell, west of Melbourne. This
site delivered a Line Of Sight (LOS) path of 64.2 km. Crushingly strong
signals were experienced on both 47 GHz and 78 GHz over this somewhat
modest path.

Alan subsequently drove (and operated) further west at Myrniong (90.2
km) and finally Mt Buninyong (127.1 km) where he was visited by Ian -
VK3AXH as an interested observer.

These progressively longer QSO's were a "shakedown run" for the main
event planned for the next day.

To avoid excessive driving on his part, Alan then drove further west and
stayed overnight in a Motel in Stawell. Next day - Wednesday, it was
only a relatively short drive to the Summit of Mt William, south of
Halls Gap.
David and Peter took a little longer driving from Melbourne to Colac.

At around 1030 Hrs, Alan - VK3XPD arrived at the 1158 metre summit of Mt
William in western Victoria. Visibility was only a few metres due heavy
misty clouds and there was (initially) no Cell coverage.

The team of David - VK3HZ and Peter - VK3APW initially drove to a
location south of Colac from which both the SSB and DIGI Records were
extended to 149.6 km.

Later the same day, David and Peter relocated to Mt Sabine in the
Otways, east of Beech Forest from where these new National Distance
Records were further extended to 177.9 km.

Equipment:
VK3XPD/3 - Homebrew OCXO-Locked Transverter, 20mW output, 300mm dish,
FT-817 IF.
VK3APW/3 and VK3HZ/3: - Kuhne OCXO-Locked Transverter, 80mW output,
300mm dish, FT-817 IF.

QSO's on 78 GHz were also attempted and although we did detect very weak
"Ident" signals albeit briefly, we were ultimately unsuccessful due to
poor propagation (high path losses) on this band.

At the end of this very long day, we all headed home - sunburnt and
rather tired but pleased our significant efforts had been rewarded !

Cheers,

Alan - VK3XPD
For and on behalf of David - VK3HZ and Peter - VK3APW.