QRP portable from Phillip Island (IOTA OC-136)

[IK0ZCW]

A QRP portable mini-expediton to Phillip Island, about 100km SE of Melbourne.

The Ten Tec R4020 provided CW contacts on 40 & 20 metres. 14 contacts were made - 4 on 40m and 10 on 20m. 4 VKs and 10 DX stations (mostly Europe) were worked.

Most operating was during a 4 hour operating session covering the late afternoon and early evening. Then the station was on a pier, with salt water underneath. Highlights were contacts with VK2ACL (running QRP) and G3LDO (running a c1939 vintage station). Two G contacts were made by the contacted stations answering my CQ calls - a sure sign that the station was working well. At this time only the ZL Reverse Beacon Network sation was decoding my signal - indicating that manned stations generally have lower noise, better antennas or ability to decode weak signals.

Several antennas were tried on 20 metres - a 2-radial ground plane, a horizontal inverted vee and a vertical dipole. Bother vertical antennas picked up much more noise than the inverted vee. The most successful transmit antenna overall was the vertical dipole.