The team for 1998 was John ZL1ALZ, Dave ZL1AMN, John ZL1BYZ,
David ZL1TTS, and Jack ZL1IJ.
We elected to activate Cape Egmont Lighthouse.
We traveled to the location on the Friday before the weekend.
When we headed south from Papakura very early for the 400km plus trip the
weather was a bit drizzly, but as the day progressed the weather cleared
and when we got far enough south to get our first glimpse of Mt Egmont
the sky was almost totally clear with just a couple of clouds hanging around
the Mount. We picked up the caravan that was to be our main accommodation
just outside New Plymouth. Then some supplies at New Plymouth, and
on out to East Cape. When we arrived there early afternoon the sky
was perfectly clear and |
we had great views of
Mt Egmont.
We camped on a narrow strip of public land only feet away from the
Ocean.
Our accommodation was the caravan and tent.
The main station was a TS830S with a SB200 set up in the caravan and
a mosley triband antenna up 15m. This provided 20,15,10m operation.
We had a second station set up in one of the vehicles, which was an ex
Japanese ambulance. This was a TS440S and the antenna was a 80/40m
dipole. Our radio operation was casual, but managed a few good pileups
and made 725 contacts over the weekend. We had to generate our own
power, and all the equipment behaved other than a couple of worrying events
with the SB200. |
We had several short and longer term visitors over the weekend.
One being the last lighthouse keeper before the light was automated.
One funny event of the weekend was when Jack ZL1IJ had organized breakfast,
a bowl of rice bubbles. He unwisely stood in the entrance of the
caravan awning when a gust of wind came through and just about cleaned
out the bowl. Another was when leaving, we had hooked up the caravan
and were moving out just as the weather was packing up. It took a
bit more effort to pull away with the caravan than I expected, and had
traveled about 30ft before I realized that the park brake was still applied
on the caravan and it was sledging along behind. After much laughter
and releasing the brake we headed off for the trip home. |
