During  August I was able to activate a new summit Mount Benjamin and Mt Arden as the last two summits I can go to around Quorn for the 2016 season. There are still at least 4 near by but I am still working on finding the land owners to try to increase the amount of summits while using Quorn as a great place to stay. If I had permission for them all it would be a total of 11 summits but at this stage I have 7 so got to be happy with that.

Mount Benjamin

What a great rock uplift like so many of the formations around Quorn with a bowl in the middle. I started the climb from the eastern side and got on top of the rim without too much effort then stayed on top and slowly worked my way west around the rim to the highest point on the far western side. It would be about 3 km of scrub bashing with no defined tracks to the top to find an amazing rock up lift at the very top and a great view out to the west .

Lots of rocks low bush and native pines grow here.

This is a view to the northern part of the bowl with Mount Arden off in the distance.

Slowly getting to the top bit of a goat track now to follow.

Then suddenly you come to the western edge and can go no further without wings.

That is the entrance to Warren Gorge down below .

I did climb up that rock and add to the pile after my activation.

When I got set up it was a very nice sunny day ideal conditions to be out on the summit , the 40m band was very busy with the Light House weekend in full swing as well but I managed to find a clear frequency to get things under way.

I worked 3 Light House stations first just by tuning around as I could not get a phone signal to put up a spot until someone else kindly spotted me then I started to get my band of faithful chasers on ssb and cw.  Conditions were quite good I was even able to work some closer more local stations for a change on 40m .

This was my shack for the day a lot of fallen old timber here among the rocks but enough room to run out the 40/20 dipole.

This is a photo I took once I had left the summit from the road to Argadels my night camp ground.

Here is a shot from halfway to Mount Arden showing the prominence of Mount Benjamin a great summit and spectacle once you are there on top.

I would like to thank the land owners Bob and Elaine for showing me the best place to start my hike on their property and them welcoming me back any time .

Thanks to the chasers .

I am working on editing the GoPro movie I made and will post on FB if it works out.

Buhd Northeast is my FB page.

Mount Arden

After leaving Mount Benjamin i arrived at The Argadels late in the afternoon and booked in to the accommodation

with Malcolm and Judy , who are kind enough to let me 4×4 to Mount Arden with out charge . So enough time for a practice run in the afternoon to Mount Arden to find lots of euros out feeding in the afternoon sun and some of them very tame, not really hopping far away as you drove by.

A great start to the day with frost on my Colorado and no wind which is good for Mount Arden.

I got some good GoPro on the way up but of course it does not look half as steep as it really is, I have driven up there 5 times now and I was trembling this time too at the top. But the track is a lot smoother these days than my first trip up a few years ago.  My Colorado does it easy in second low on the climbs just let the old 3 litre chug away and feel for traction and momentum .

Great view of all those other summits I have to walk to around Quorn,it sure is nice to be able to drive to one now and then.

Just enough wind to fill the flags on my antenna support.

Nice operating spot here and again the 40m band was very busy with Light House activations going on, I was able to have a quick chat with Paul and John who were operating from Kangaroo Island. Band conditions were not as good as Saturday with several stations all talking on the same frequency at once. I had to stick to my guns on 40m SSB but managed to get my chasers among the rest. Being QRP as well probably made me hard to read among the more powerful stations. Thankfully the SOTA operators are more skilled at this portable operating and do it more often rather than once a year coming out with all guns blazing across the bands. I tried out my add on wire extensions for 3.6 mhz this time to make a qso with VK5WG as we had no comms on 7 mhz and they worked well . I made up the extensions last weekend and tried them in my back yard so I knew it would work. A simple alligator clip on the extension wires and clip onto the end of the 40m dipole leaving the string in place and running out further works well. From memory it was about 9.6 metres extra either side is needed .

Seeing it was such a nice day up there I did some SOTA and called into the 40m CW net and caught up with my old CW mate VK2COX and later found VK2AOH and VK3BYD for a S2S qso on 40m CW . Then i worked VK5CWL on 40m SSB at the light house and caught up with Paul VK5PAS and John VK5EMI .

 

Track looks easy on the way down .

Thanks to all the chasers and others I was able to communicate with over the weekend.

Thanks to Malcolm and Judy for great hospitality and the use of tracks to the summit.

Thanks for reading my Blog, cu next time.

Ian.

CZ ee