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Australian Naturist Ham Radio Event January 17/18, 2003 Report from Tony VK3JED

Jim, here's my report of the event.
Well, as planned, we headed down to Pt Impossible this afternoon to try and make contacts with other amateurs around Australia and overseas on the air. The equipment included:
Icom IC-T81A VHF/UHF handheld radio - this was used for accessing the local IRLP node. Icom IC-745 HF transceiver Home made dual band (10 MHz and 14 MHz) vertical antenna for HF. 55 Ah sealed lead-acid battery - The type they use in electric wheelchairs. Home made antenna tuner.
Arrived at Pt Impossible around 1:30PM (0230z), and was setup by just after 2. Was greeted on arrival by sunnnibunny, one of the members of the Melbourne nudist Yahoo group, who watched on during the earlier stages of the exercise, and missed some of the best parts (more on that later). Soon, we had out first contact with Bob, N5KF, in Austin, Texas . Bob was using his club callsign NU5DE for the day. At about the same time, we had a contact on a much more local scale - 2 police officers walked up to check out what we were doing, out of curiosity - was good to see the beach being patrolled.
Anyway, conditions on HF were patchy at first, but steadily improved as the day wore on. By 7PM, signals were being received from half the world on 14 MHz- basically Australia, Asia, Middle East and Europe were identified. The location was particularly well suited to the Middle East and Eurpoean signals arriving via the long path. As for the Barely Operational stations, a few were contacted N5KF/NU5DE in Austin, Texas worked via IRLP. HF was attempted, but conditions were unsuitable. VK2*** at Samurai beach in NSW was worked via IRLP. Unable to attempt HF, due to vehicle problems his end. Our VK4 contact was attempted on HF (14 MHz), but no contact made due to poor conditions. VK3*** was unable to make it on the day.
Anyway, 12 contacts were logged (there were a few more of minor importance that didn't get logged). The more notable results were as follows: N5KF, Bob (Austin, Tx) via IRLP NU5DE, Bob (the naturist club call) via IRLP KG4SVX, Richard (Palm Beach, Florida USA) via IRLP KE4EVN, Darren (Palm Beach, Florida USA) via IRLP 4Z4UR, Ed (Tel Aviv, Isreal) on 14.202 MHz. EA1ALE, Carlos (Northern Spain) on 14.197 MHz. Various stations in Victoria and NSW were worked on 10.120 MHz. Anyway, had a good day. Bit of fun, even if we didn't get everyone. Next year, intend to make it a bit higher profile and incorporate into the National Nude week in early February. From my point of view, it was a success. It was the first time the portable station was taken out and it worked extremely well.