VK4KC Marty’s Ham Radio Adventures

About 200km west of Mount Isa almost to the Queensland/Northern Territory border is the quite desolate Camooweal Caves national park. In total 10 contacts were made on 20 and 40 metre bands over a 90 minutes period. On the way out to the national park I passed this quite large windmill at a water pump station.  To get to the park turn left at the pub and drive for another 30 minutes   After 30 minutes on a dirt road car is covered in bull dust! This tree will do fine for the antennas. It was a struggle to find a tree tall enough to get the dipole up 7 metres. Photo of the 20/40 fan dipole (only showing the 40m elements) before hoisting up the tree to 7 metres. There is a 1:1 choke in the box. The elements are inverted and ends pegged down which provides a good impedance match.  End fed half wave vertical for 20 metres with 2 counterpoises. There is a matching network in the plastic box to get around 200 ohms at the base of the antenna.  

Blue sky’s and 25 degrees ... what a perfect winters day for park activation 100 metres up Mt. Ngungun within the Glasshouse Mountains National Park. Made 2 contacts on 40 metres and 8 contacts on 20 metres in 90 minutes. This is the start of the trail walk to the top of Mt. Ngungun. Quite a steep slop I was sitting on the ground and had to did my shoes into the ground to prevent myself sliding down. The G90 with the vertical quarter wave in the back ground. The view south Quarter wave wire antenna Supported by 5 metre squid pole. Kept the radials horizontal by attaching to tree branches.