In SOTA news this week, if you think that climbing up a mountain is an enviable feat of endurance, have a thought for Dimitris VK2COM who not only did that last week, but took a 160m antenna with him and managed to make contact using CW with Warren VK3BYD, also portable. Several other stations achieved similar highlights on 160m last week.

Warren also let us know that he made appropriate donations to the SOTA gods by leaving the rubber stopper for his brand new squid-pole and the battery monitor for his Lithium Polymer battery somewhere near his operating position. So, when you next climb up a peak, be on the look out for a free battery monitor.

Paul VK3HN points us at some research into the disappearance of office teaspoons in an Australian research institute and suggests that we might learn from it in order to protect the rubber stoppers of SOTA squid poles. A link is on the vk6.net website. [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1322240/pdf/bmj33101498.pdf]

Andrew VK1AD managed the activation of Spring Hill VK2/ST-036 with summit to summit contacts and AM activations. His log contains VK1, 3, 5 and 7. Ron VK3AFW also activated a peak, took along a 160m off-centre fed dipole and joined in the fun. Bernard VK2IB was heard from Mt Granya, VK3/VE-165 making contacts on 160m and 80m. David VK3IL, Paul VK3HN and many others also participated.

Paul sums it up best proclaiming that he'll be framing a quote by Ron "Paul VK3HN/P on Mt Gordon was extremely loud on any band he used" - not bad for low power.

Marcus VK5WTF, newly elected WIA Director is off to Japan next week and has plans to activate at least one summit in a park while there. Mt Oyama (JA/KN-006, 8 pts) is in JAFF-0050 Tanzawa-Oyama, He has an alert up for 05:30 UTC on 26 April. He's also pencilled in a trip afterwards to Mt Shiroyama (JA/KN-022, 1 pt) for 08:00 UTC. You'll hear Marcus on-air from Japan with JJ1CIP.

Marcus also pointed us at a web-page by Gerard VK2IO with Japanese Summits and Parks. There's a link on the vk6.net website to his Amateur Radio Adventures site. [https://vk2io.wordpress.com/]

In other SOTA news, Andrew VK1AD will be taking over from Bruce VK1HBB as the VK1 Association Manager. So, if you have questions about SOTA in VK1, and there are more than a few peaks there, get in touch with Andrew VK1AD.

And finally, a reminder that if you plan to go into the bush, make yourself aware of fuel reduction burns before you go.