Issue 38 Six News, July 1993
By Steve, VK3OT
My 6M station of the eighties was an IC551D and a 5 or 6
element yagi cut for 52.050MHz. There were also a few KLM clones
of 8 and 11 element LPYs, which were great dummy loads with no
gain, little directivity but a great VSWR. To further cloud the
issue, no one had really listened to what the PTT had said about
the return of 50MHz to the amateurs following the closing down of
Band 1 channel zero in Melbourne and Sydney.
In fact the situation in Victoria was really frustrating because
the high power channel 0 closed down in the mid eighties only to
return to air in less than two years as the new SBS 0-28 ethnic
channel in both Melbourne and Sydney. Then some bright engineer
in the 0-10 network decided to shift the Brisbane channel zero to
Mount Mowbullan near Toowoomba and convert it to stereo sound as
well, which is the main reason it occupies 46.172MHz, which
allows the second stereo sound carries to occupy 51.950MHz just
below the exclusive amateur band of 52-54MHz in this region. Much
of the development of 6m stations was centered around summer Es,
few operators had F2 experience of any sort and little was
documented before 1978 and was mostly hearsay. The long distance
record from Australia to Mexico existed from when it was set in
1959 for almost 20 years and then was only extended a mere 300km.
Two years later the record was broken again and extended out to
16,663km to VP2VGR in the British Virgin Islands and on 52MHz to
make it even more significant.
Apart from these unusual contacts not much happened in cycle 21.
We worked a few Americans (I worked 3 in total) and some
intermediate distances of around 8000km to 12000km. The VK6 area
had a couple of crossband contacts with Europeans but it was
never fully documented and few on the east coast ever got to hear
about it. So it was quite a surprise on December 23rd 1988 when
Seppo OH1VR/2 reported via Jan OH1ZAA that he had briefly copied
CW signals from a VK3 station calling CQ on 50.110 between 0743
and 0745 UTC at up to 559. In hindsight that could have been the
first two-way 50MHz QSO between VK and Europe, had it been
co-ordinated at the time and not hours later. About 15 minutes
earlier I was copying 48.250MHz TV video and logged it as
Malaysia because experienced operators had told us that Malaysian
TV occupied those frequencies and although we were aware of
European TV allocations, no one in their wildest dreams imagined
that TV from Europe would propagate into VK east.
So the reason for the CQ call was probably to grab a QSO with
VS6. We had also been having very strong openings to JA in
October and November 1988 along with Korea and JR6 Okinawa, so
amateurs were aware that the F2 was on the increase, but no one
had taken dramatic steps to improve or upgrade stations. My own
station was a 5 element yagi cut down from the old thirty foot 8
element I had used to set the VK distance record some 7 years
earlier. The rig was an old FL/FR101 and FTV650B transverter
running 75 watts and pretty deaf as well. At 0750z my log shows
that FM TV sound was clearly audible on 53.750 and carried a very
loud echo, which sounded like a church service, but I did not
twig to it coming from Europe. At 0755z I hooked up with Paul
P29PL on 50.100 SSB at 59+ and then JA3EGE and ended with JF2MBF
at 1045z.
Around 1055z OH1ZAA called frantically on 28.885 to relay the
information from OH1VR/2. A group of Australian amateurs were
very skeptical about this and did not believe that such an event
could have taken place. All through the summer Es I was subjected
to shouts of "CQ Greenland" or some such rubbish and
these shouts only ceased when about six months later someone in
VK6 made a contact into Europe. It is interesting to note that
since that occasion I have only heard FM sound from Europe on two
other occasions and both during fantastic openings, so one can
only imagine how much was missed during the October to December
period in 1988 when no one was aware or looked for rising MUF
indicators from Europe.
Courtesy of a local amateur who imported containers with aircraft
in them I was able to import one 11 and two 9 element Mike Stahl
M2 yagis at near cost price, a new TS680s as well as a new Mirage
A1015 solid state amplifier with U309 preamp. The TS680s was
modified for a direct 50MHz socket and the M2 yagi erected at
60ft and fed with Kyushin RG10FB low loss 3/4 inch foam cable.
This was all finished by the equinox of 1989 and some spectacular
contacts were made into the Caribbean, including the first
contact between VK and KP2A, which took my long standing distance
record out by a mere 15km and was not worth counting. Although
the equinox was great, the north west path eluded everybody so
liaison was set up with OH2TI at the Helsinki University and all
the information on the location and frequency of every
Australian, New Zealand, Asian and European TV station was
exchanged by FAX or mail. I purchased the World TV Handbook and
studied the location of all the listed TV stations. Peter VK1RX
who was a manager in the DOTAC extracted reams of frequency
listings from the ITU database and all the data was plotted on
grid square maps obtained from the RSGB.
Despite all the preparations the path remained mute and although
contacts were made with SE Asia all through 1989, Europe remained
out of range. OH2TI was rewarded with vigilance, when the radio
club finally contacted Australia and although it was 3000km short
of the east coast it was Australia. The second reported reception
from Sth/Eastern Australia was made by Ken Ellis G5KW who had to
contend with very strong VK8 stations shielding his path into
VK3. He was sent a 559 but sent out a 319 in amongst QRM when
VK8ZLX worked G4CCZ simultaneously and then G2ADR, G4FXW and
G3ENZ. Ken said on his card that he was very unsure of the
contact, but the numbers matched my loggings so I rang him on the
phone to let him know he had in fact worked 2000km further than
PG66 Alice Springs. He was delighted and I am proud to have him
in my log as the first VK3 to G QSO on 50MHz, October 11 1989 at
0932 UTC. Eight days later at 0900z I received a response to my
CW sending and scored PA3BFM and PA0HIP in succession and then
worked HIP on SSB at 5 by 5 and was heard by Peter PA3EUI. In
fact I was heard by lots of people who usually told me about a
year later or the next day, at some time when action could not be
taken. It was to take a few more weeks before everything really
got sorted out.
The VK4 tormentors stopped writing poison pen letters about the
time I worked 4 or 5 french stations on SSB on October 29th 1989
between 1045z and 1105z. Its pretty hard to say rude things when
5 screaming French stations all come up in turn on 28.885 to
proclaim they had just worked into East coast VK. I could not
have orchestrated that kind of response even if you could create
an imaginary contact. I must profess I was at a loss to
understand the antagonism and skeptics that I encounted over
these 50MHz contacts. No doubt those of you in Europe who
received the accusing letters saying that we were cheating, have
their own ideas as what should be done to the person concerned.
If it is any consolation after the magnificent opening to the UK
on November 11 when I worked G3WOS, G3JVL, G3VKW and G3RFS along
with The Netherlands, the "ratpack" stopped being
concerned that what I was claiming was false and became concerned
that if they did not get their act together they might miss out.
Comments from VK4 about "those 48.250 carriers can not be TV
stations" were not heard any more and VK4 stations began to
appear in overseas despatches, which took the heat off me to some
extent.
I became actively involved with The UK Six Metre Group and found
a wealth of information available to me, for this reason, I
attribute my success from Victoria. 6m Group members such as
Brian G3HBR, were always helpful, particularly with liaison and
QSL card enquiries. Ian Cornes RSGB awards manager was very
supportive and encouraged me to apply for various awards. That is
why you see my callsign in the 6x6 table and RSGB listings. I
believe I also broke the UK distance record on no less than three
occasions when I worked GJ4ICD, G4UPS and GW3MFY during the
openings in 91 and 92.
It is nice to hear G stations operating from our region such as
G4SMC and G3ZSS (V85PB), where we can chew the fat and relive our
experiences in cycle 22. Unfortunately I believe that cycle 22 is
really over, as February 1993 did not produce a damn thing,
despite all the preparation, so we may have to wait until 1999 to
do it all over again! Unlike some of you who made DXCC in two or
three years, it could take me another two or three years to work
the last two or three. However without the help of the UK6MG I
think my confirmed total would be about 10 down, at least. Seppo,
OH1VR, if you read this, glad you told me and stuck with what you
thought you heard, yes I finally worked him as OH3MMM. Just to
prove it was not a fluke I worked G3WOS and G3RFS three times
over three years. We also did tricky things like working in
November, December and January, just to upset the antagonist in
VK4, who still accuse me of having some phoney contacts in my
country total.
My only regrets are not working W6JKV/CT3 on Nov 23rd 89 who I
heard in QSO with N6USV/DU3. This was the first observed
Antipodal signals anywhere in VK and it was not until 1992 that
the path was again noticed allowing N6AMG/CU3 to work VK2QF and
VK2FLR. No doubt by 1999 we will all be at it again and all of
the above will be ancient history.
My European contacts can be summarised as following.. 18 Gs, 19
DLs, 10 Fs, 5 ONs, 5 YUs, 12 SMs, 9 OZs, 11 OHs, 17 PAs + IS0LYN,
9H1CG, LX1SI, LX1JX, OE3OKS, SV1EN, LA9ZV, IK1EGC, IK2GSO,
OK1DDO, OK2ZZ, OK2PZW.
