One of the best things about our wonderful hobby of amateur radio is going portable. Just getting out of the shack and finding your way to the beach or a mountain top can make for a great day out. When your passion is microwave, getting up on top of a hill is even more motivational. Trying to find a hill that has minimal foliage can be a challenge but as you’ll see in the video, we did. Having checked the weather for the day a few days prior, it was decided that the weekend was the day to go portable.

The video in this blog post is about just that. It’s a record of event where 3 stations went portable on April 9 2022. The motivation for Rob, Heath and I was a personal best on the 10 GHz band as well as the opportunity to get out of the shack before winter. For Gavin, any excuse to use 10 GHz is good.

Rob VK3KRD and Heath VK3TWO found their way to Mount Macedon, Gavin VK3HY went to Johns Hill Reserve in the Dandenongs, and I went to Krowera lookout in the Strezleki ranges to the southeast of Melbourne. The path was 151km.

Rob was keen to try out his 10 GHz horns from the roof of his car and compare them to his prime focus dish. Both Rob VK3KRD and I have Kuhne transverters, but Rob also has a homebrew transceiver that he’s built from scratch. We also took some 23 and 9cm gear too.

All in all, a very successful day and a lot of fun. The next adventure will be 250km, so keep an eye out for that video in the coming months.

Getting started in amateur microwave can be a little daunting, but there’s always a local close by that help. There’s even a video you can watch as a starter. Microwave activity is quite high during contests in VK, especially the VHF UHF contest.