For ARSI VHF hilltop contest 2015 i was looking for place which has clear line of sight view towards Mumbai & Thane area where most of ham population is located.
my first choice was tallest hill in borivali national park because of its height and centre location, unfortunately it is already occupied by air force radar station and is restricted zone. 2nd choice was dronagiri fort at uran (mountain is visible from gateway of india) i found out from hiker/trekker friends dronagiri also comes under sensitive area category because of close proximity to ONGC gas terminal and there is permanent 24*7 CRPF guard base on hill top and one needs prior permission to visit fort. finally i explored kharghar hills i never visited this place before and only source of information was internet
on paper its just 40-50 min drive away from my office in airoli and there is motorable road to kharghar hill top hill area is approx. 1000+ ft high and as seen from google earth has clear line of sight to Mumbai city, central suburbs, panvel, thane etc. voila life is set for contest what else you need?? i finalised on kharghar hills and sent my request to contests@…
but we know life it never that simple, over busy work week i was sparing some time to find out there’s no last minute surprises, there was lack of latest information on kharghar hills on internet, most of information was about how great view is from kharghar hills in monsoon and how to reach pandavkada waterfalls. there was some news about restricted road access to vehicles in monsoon due to landslides, drunk reckless driving by kids etc. i asked about current status of kharghar hill road to panvel hams group on whatsapp but they also didn’t had latest information. i couldn’t do more on busy weekdays. i invited interested hams to join me in contest as i don’t have much experience in VHF contests, no one responded to invitation except Ruzbeh VU2KWI (even ruzbeh couldn’t make on Saturday.)
Then comes contest day i already had NAGOYA NL-770H antenna and mobile trunk mount fixed to my maruti zen estilo car, i also had battery, Yaesu FT-857D for 10 watt operation. contest is for 24 Hrs starting from 12 noon on 24th january to 12 noon 25th of january
i left office post lunch and reached kharghar hill gate at 2.40 pm then come big surprise road has Checkpost with security guards. there is big board highlighting kharghar hill & road is CIDCO property and entry is restricted only to authorised persons. i talked to security guards and explained them my purpose of visit. they clarified they need written permission from CIDCO executive engineer to allow anyone entry to hill road they suggested me to go and visit kharghar CIDCO office and meet mr phadke for entry permission, i went to CIDCO office @ 3 pm Saturday is half day in CIDCO luckily mr phadke was available but he informed me kharghar hill area charge is now transferred to Ms geeta and she already left for the day. even if she was available written application with valid reason for kharghar hill access usually take 2-3 days to get processed. heartbroken i come back to checkpost to talk back to security guards. after talking for sometime and explaining them situation in CIDCO office one of guard changed his mind and allowed me to go to hill top. surprised i thanked him and drive directly to hill top 5km away from checkpost, reached hilltop by 3.30 pm. parked car on lonely road, take out my rig connected antenna and start giving CQ calls on frequency allocated to me for contest 144.475 MHz i was operating alone on deserted road and worst deserted frequency. by ARSI dedicated frequency were assigned to each of hilltop contest station, all frequency were published on yahoo groups but catch was exact mapping was not revealed for excitement after 30 min operating on 144.475 MHz i lost my patience and switched to 145.500 MHz randomly i also giving CQ calls on matheran repeater which was easily accessible from my handy on 1 watt. after lots of CQ calls on 144.475 MHz i copied just 1 faint response from VU2IVV (jayesh banatwala) who was operating from Lonavla his signal report was 57 but was unable to copy my signal report. after few more minutes in frustration i started doing what i wanted to avoid msg on whatsapp i send msg to ruzbeh to let him know i’m on hilltop and whether he can copy my transmission from town side. he responded and went to terrace and was able to copy me clearly on handy using rubber duck antenna, VU2IVV transmitted but i could copy only noise, clock showing 6.15 pm by this time. i was also giving random CQ calls on on Matheran repeater from my 2nd handy and also on 144.300 MHz for VU2TBV (Pralhad ji) he was expected on frequency after 5.30 pm unfortunately no one responded. finally i called my mentor VU2NXM (Basappa ji) over phone and requested for signal report, he was out for evening walk and could QSO after 6.30 PM
it was total dark by 6.45 PM in lonely hilly area i got final response from VU2WAG (Shankar) and 59 signal report from his QTH in lodhivali near panvel. i was thirsty with empty water bottle after giving continue CQ calls for nearly 5 hours, i decided to pack up and by 7.15 pm left kharghar hill for way back to home in dahisar, mumbai 50km away .
Although contest was till 12 pm on 25th January i decided to not operate on 25th due to challenges in entering kharghar hills without proper permission.
From this entire experience i could think of below points for contest
HF contest is comparatively easy to participate in India than VHF contest, this is due to scarcity of active hams,
Need to advertise your participation, place, date & time as much as possible before any indian contest.
Apart from licensing and other restrictions we have very limited options near Mumbai city for hilltop operations. must visit place personally and arrange to get necessary approval before operating.
Need to have excellent knowledge on antenna for any contest
And most importantly positive attitude
73s
de vu3one -shriraj
PS- received my contest participation certificate its worth the efforts
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