1999 saw us traveling to East Cape.
The team this year was John ZL1ALZ, Dave ZL1AMN, John ZL1BYZ, David
ZL1TTS, and guest Geoff ZL1APO. Again we headed of very early on
the Friday morning for the 486km trip. We picked up Geoff ZL1APO
at Paeroa then continued on eastward. The weather was good for the
trip down, but was changing when we arrived. We had arranged the
use of a house at this location and this was a great improvement to our
comfort over the weekend. Just as well too as the weather did pack
it in and we had rain and |
high winds. The main pole with the tribander was well anchored
and was not a problem. The dipole antennas did not fair so well and
broke several times until we found some heavy telephone wire.
The tribander didn't seem to be performing correctly until we realized
it had been assembled backwards, so had to be dropped and fixed up.
After that things settled down and the contacts started coming in.
Again most of the equipment worked fine, but the SB200 started smoking
again and after much muttering was retired for the rest of the weekend. |
The house was in a valley behind the hill that the lighthouse is on
several hundred metres higher. It is quite a trek up to the lighthouse
which challenged some of the team. Great views from the top and the
lighthouse it self had just been painted so was in good shape for the photos.
All too soon it was time to pack up and head home. By now the weather
was fine again and the trip home was good. We were lucky that a petrol
station turned up soon after David moved his cell phone and saw that the
E on the gauge was looking rather plentiful compared to were it now pointed. |
