Robbie's Amateur Radio History

QTH: 5 km North East of Bairnsdale in East Gippsland on 1.5 acres of land and on a nice hill top at 90m absl. (I reckon two things that Amateur's have to do when selecting a new QTH is try to find a Hill Top and some space for the antennas).

I was first licensed as a Novice on 17-12-1990. Call Sign was VK3VRA and from there it was back into the books for the next 9 month's till I passed my AOCP on 18-10-91. The new callsign was VK3DEM,  

How did VK3EK come about? Well, on 18-12-90 my first 80 HF contact as an Amateur was with Jack VK3EK from Pascoe Vale South. We had a chat about every thing and everyone on almost every day till Jack's passing. With that Jack's Family signed the callsign over to me. I still remember some of the long rag chews we had over that time. It was a lot of good fun and Jack is surely missed.

With the all the exams out of the way and now having access to VHF frequencies and above on ssb and cw, my goal was to make the longest distance contact that I could make on what ever band we had at the time.

Finding the right Mountain top:
I can tell you the Nissan has somehow or another visited a lot of them in East Gippsland. The good ones are marked as a waypoint in the GPS as well. One hilltop that has been very good to me over the years is Mt Nowa Nowa, QF42. Having checked it out I've been up there for the National Field-days many times. A another Mountain that is good is Mt Bemm it is a pity is a bit further away, But if it means a contact and I have the time the rest is History.