VK4CP Portable Operation from Townsville
October 22 - November 5, 2001     This article appears in "Six News" Issue 72 February 2002.
Can you believe how much difference being 8° closer to the Equator would make?
This is a pictorial of my recent portable 6M operation, (still within my home-call area), October 22 - November 5 2001 from Grid Square QH30.
Situated 200 feet ASL on a small rocky outcrop known as Mt Low just outside of the major North Queensland regional town of Townsville.
An extremely quiet location with the nearest neighbor over 1km away.

  

I had originally planned to set up the once and operate from the resort where I was staying at, but decided against this for a variety of reasons.  On good advice from one of the locals Gary, VK4ABW, I operated from nearby Mt Low.  This meant a 20 minute drive each way to Mt Low and anywhere between a 45 - 90 minute setup depending on what went wrong!!!  De-rig was a consistent 40 minutes.

What a pain setting up each day, but the results were worth it -  over 300 QSOs with EU stations in over 30 countries.  We would never experience propagation like this back in my home town of Brisbane, 1200km South as the crow flies. 

On site - at the top of Mt Low.
The CBD of Townsville is located 5km in the distance.
Note access track on right.  
A very rough 2WD track requiring the ground clearance of a 4WD vehicle.
Welcome to Townsville!

4pm in the afternoon, and it's time to setup!

The 3-stage telescopic mast is removed off the roof racks and inserted into the tilt-over mount.  Next, the M2 6M7JHV 7 element yagi is off the roof.

Time to start assembling the JHV, beginning with the boom.  To minimize the setup each day the boom was only disassembled into two halves (the boom actually comprises of 7 sections).

On many occasions I heard EU stations on the ¼ wave whip whilst setting up the JHV.  I even worked SV7BOT for a new one on the whip!

Once assembled the boom is U-bolted onto the mast which slips into a custom mount on the rear of the vehicle.  A step ladder helps enormously!