6/10/2024 - AKV-005 Mount Wellington

There was a bunch of us too eager to wait until the 'official launch' of VOTA and so with some coordination ZL1SKL Soren arranged for three of us to head up our local volcano at 2.30pm one Sunday afternoon.

Soren was up AKV-027 Taylor's Hill, Scott ZL1KB was up AKV-019 Mt Albert, and I was up AKV-005 Mt Wellington.

Initially on 2m at 146.500 MHz, the three of us made quick volcano-to-volcano contact and then had to wait several minutes until people started coming out of the woodwork.

Once they did, they came thick and fast, and we even spurred on ZL1BK to head up AKV-028 Pigeon Mountain to join in the fun.

Contacts that day included:

• ZL1SRP Steve

• ZL1TGS Jimmy

• ZL1LZ Matt

• ZL1TZP Steve

• ZL1NL Nick

• ZL1JRW Jason

• ZL1BK Harry

We also decided to have a go at 70cm DMR simplex, so Soren, Scott, and myself made contact on 432.750 MHz.

It started to rain for me, so I descended down the mount and left Soren and Scott to have a go at making contact on the ~900MHz band, which I believe they were successful at.

From the day's efforts I was able to claim the VEI-0 award for chasing three volcanoes on the same day.

This was definitely a successful first VOTA activation, and I look forward to completing more of them as we head into the warmer months.