From: Andrew VK1DA
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2023 21:56:05 GMT
Hi all,Thanks for the invitation to operate as vk1wia, it was a pleasure and I believe I worked all other VK HQ stations at least once, which was neat. From my perspective the portable operation was great fun, I am definitely a field day junkie and this was an opportunity not to be missed.I find those huge signals from UK and VE stations quite astonishing, and working some African prefixes as well is a real treat for someone who rarely even hears any African country during the rest of the year.  I can still recall marvelling at hearing GB5CC at s9+20 on either 20 or 15, simply amazing. I had to overcome some station deficiencies which I will write about elsewhere, but eventually arrived at a combination that worked.  I used my Begali key, which I rarely take to a field location but it is simply a pleasure to use for higher speeds (20 is about my usual limit!) It’s also very nice to have the big guns in the vk teams knowing my name and including it in the contacts, that is appreciated by all HQ stations I’m sure.  Note to self: keep a list of names of the HQ ops handy for same purpose.  
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA