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Expedition - Fraser Island Australia  IOTA OC-142 - March 2004.

Reference: Lat 25° 23' 42" S, Long 153° 10' 33" E, Grid QF61na

It's been 6 years since the event and no more QSL cards are available.

Direct QSL's

The Club members were active as VK4FRI from Fraser Island off the Eastern coast of Australia from 14th - 19th March 2004 operating on HF bands.

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The Lockyer Valley Radio and Electronics Club activated Fraser Island from the 14th to the 20th March 2004.  John VK4CEJ and Alan VK4SN loaded up the 4X4 with radio gear, food and lots of enthusiasm and departed the Lockyer Valley at 5am.  Four hours later we boarded the barge at Rainbow Beach, crossed the channel and landed on the southern tip of the island.

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A 45Km trip along the eastern beach, (there are no roads on the island) with a few fresh water creek crossings brought us to our accommodation site.  Erection of the 40ft mast and 3 element mini tri-bander soon adorned the sky.

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A 4-band trap vertical was erected on a shed with the owner’s approval.  The radios were set up and coax run.  A couple of CQ’s for testing purposes brought in a few contacts and a small pile up. Ok, so we started a day earlier than advertised, but it added to our number of contacts and gave others a chance to QSO OC-142.

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Conditions from early morning to about 2pm were poor. During this time we took advantage to take in the beauty of the largest sand island in the world. Crystal clear fresh water lakes, rain forest, dingoes, and fresh water creeks are plentiful on this magnificent island.

Our inventory included a 40ft pump up mast, mini tri-band beam, Rotator, HF 4 band vertical, 80mtr mobile whip, Kenwood TS-570 connected to a PC loaded with Logger32 including radio control and digital modes. A Kenwood TS-680 with hand and bug key.

36 solar panels, 36 batteries and a large sine wave inverter provided 240v power. A backup generator was only needed after a couple of cloudy days.

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Operational modes included SSB, CW, PSK31, and RTTY. Conditions were up and down with QSB. One moment it’s 5 and 9, then 5 and 1 and then nothing at all. 20mtrs proved our best band with 1104 contacts being made. Sadly 80 and 40mtrs were s9+ with local QRM. Thanks to a net on 80mtrs for all our 80mtr SSB contacts.

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QSO Statistics