The NZART annual conference was in Wellington this year, a perfect opportunity to get my first WL summit activation under my belt. Pete ZL2SLD offered a lift and Wynne ZL2ATH was keen to join the fun so after checking in at the Brentwood, Pete and Annie picked up Francie and I and we were off!
Upon arrival at the summit, Wynne was there to meet us and show where he normally activates. Being a weekday the carpark was empty and, as it is in the activation zone, he threw a rope through a convenient tree and strung up Pete's Sotabeams Linked Dipole.
The seats and camp table were set up (completely foreign to me!) and we were on air - 40m CW was a bust, not a single contact to be had. I switched to SSB and worked ZL3MR, ZL3RIK and ZL3QR. With that, Pete asked if I wanted to work parliament on 2m?! Steven ZL4CZ popped up from his courier van and gave us a solid 4th contact (using Pete's nice Diamond 5 element 2m Yagi).
Pressure off, I went to 20m CW and worked VK2IO, VK3PF and VK5HAA, all good signals to me but I was obviously really light with them.
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| See, I can use a mic!! |
About this time, a security guard arrived and we all thought - "here we go!" As we were right beside the prison walls, he asked us what were doing, said "cool" when Pete explained and went away happy, wishing us good luck!
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| Guard departing happy with our operation (behind the gum tree) |
Pete then hooked up his KX2 with new Digirig interface to try some FT8. After a bit of messing with settings he was away and made plenty of contacts throughout VK and ZL. He was being reported in the US and EU using just 5W. He also worked Brendon ZL1ALF on 2m - that yagi works very well.
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| Pete in action on FT8 (and multi-tasking!) |
This is a really unusual summit - you can catch a bus to the top!! In fact we had a bus-jam up there with two head-to-head!
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| Bus stop outside the old prison wall, in the AZ! |
The guys caution that although this is a good one to do if you are in Wellington for a business trip etc, it's very tricky on 2m only unless you pre-aarange contacts and have a good antenna - bring your portable HF gear.
Thanks to Pete ZL2SLD and Wynne ZL2ATH for their hospitality and welcome - Francie and I enjoyed our afternoon out immensely.
Getting there: drive up - follow the sign to the summit from Miramar or catch a bus!
Permission: Not needed, public carpark
Notes: Busy summit, be prepared to explain what you are doing and try not to have wires all over the place!
