I can drive another km closer from here but just having smoko before I head off to activate the summit.
I only need to hike for 1 km once parked up and its a steady climb to the top.
Once on top of Tothill Range this is my view South You can see Lagoon Hill another summit for later in the year.
View North towards North Of Lake Summit access denied to that one.
Once set up and ready to activate I had a good pile up on 80m SSB with 6 QSO then onto 40m 5 QSO on CW and 3 on SSB. Swapping to 20m CW I made 6 QSO and no answer to my CQ on 20m SSB or 17m CW .
This was my set up on Tothill Range 20/40m link dipole with extensions for 80m and using it as an OCF it works on 17m quite well also.
I run out of shade quite quickly under this small tree so did not stay on the summit very long as it was getting quite hot.
Thanks to the chasers on this one.
Next chance to do some Summits with Hugh came up on 5th April or Easter Monday.
With all the access permissions granted Hugh and I made an early start from his place to beat the UTC roll over again on New Mount Campbell. This proved a bit tricky as the hike was quite hard for us through the long dry grass and steep pinch to the top. Hugh had not done any hiking for quite a while so we took it easy and arrived at the top in an hour or so.
Hugh inspecting a shepherds hut from a by gone era.
Hugh gave his 2m Flower Pot 2m antenna a run this summit and made plenty of VHF qso’s to qualify the summit before making some QSO on 80m SSB.
I had a lot of chasers on 80m SSB this time working 8 chasers before going to 40m where I scored 6 QSO on CW then no answer on SSB I went to 17m and worked JA ZL and K0RS again.
My setup in the shade.
Trig point at the top looking at the only trees left after this forest was demolished by a fire some years ago.
Looking out east at what remains of the forest the burnt out area is now privately owned as grazing land for sheep. We are lucky the farmer still grants access to the summit at this stage.
After a hike back off the summit we headed north of Jamestown to Mt Nadguri VK5/NE-058 a drive up summit we can access. It was getting quite hot the temperature was 31c by lunch time so we did not drive all the way to the summit as the grass was very dry in the middle of the track and I was worried about my hot vehicle in this situation. Hugh and I decided after a short walk instead to set up under an old tree with some shade but I could not extend my pole up to 7m so the dipole was up at about 5.5 metres for my link dipole. It did not seem to make a lot of difference as far as working went the lack of 80m chasers was mostly due to being there at lunch time probably. Hugh just managed to get 4 QSO on 2m FM and I got only 2 80m QSO this time. I noticed on SW3 a couple on summits active in vk1 so I was quick to track them down on 40m SSB working VK1MIC on VK1/AC-039 then VK1AD on VK1/AC-043 for 2 S2S in the log. 40m CW in the afternoon seemed better than the morning this time and quickly rounded up 6 QSO on CW and 7 QSO on SSB on 40m then ZL VK4 VK5 VK6 on 20m CW.
My first Blog with the new WordPress format so I hope it turns out ok I find it a bit hard to change stuff on this format. Must be set in my ways with the old format.
The Obvious first activation for 2021 was a New Years roll over event so VK5/SE-013 Mt Gawler was the closest 1 point summit to visit New Years Morning. Adam VK2YK/5 came out to meet up for the first time and activate with me which was great to have some company. Couldn’t find any photos for this one but I remember it being a warm morning with no shade in my set up posy so I did not stay on the summit long but did manage to work enough stations either side of UTC 00:00 to get two activations for the one trip. Before roll over I had 8 QSO with some local vk5 chasers on 80m SSB then 3 Summit 2 Summit contacts into vk3 on 40m CW, then after roll over scraping in with 5 QSO being 2 on 80m SSB and 3 QSO on 40m CW with a bonus 2 S2S in that lot.
Checking back in my SOTA logbook I remember it being a very pleasant 26c day on 6th February so I decided to make the long hike to The Battery summit VK5/NE-055. This is a good 11km hike round trip and a good training hike for the rest of my season as it is not a slog really to get there and back as I follow a fire track which runs along the top of the Range. Not a lot of altitude gain on this one in spite of the 5.5 km distance to walk there, with only a short gully to cross through then the climb up to the Battery summit track close to the set up point.
I had a nice group of chasers this time with 5 QSO on 80m SSB from the locals then a quick fire round of 5 S2S with VK3 Activators on 40m CW, then 3 other CW QSO on 40m CW before changing to 40m SSB and finding another 6 QSO there with another S2S with VK4 which is quite rare these days. Resetting the link dipole to 20m only netted ZL1BYZ on CW so I set up my new link dipole for the higher bands and worked some DX to ZL W6 and JA with another S2S with old mate JP1DGT on JA/KT-017, all on the 17m band. No answer to my CW on 15m I decided it was a good score anyhow so set off back to the SOTA transporter for lunch and coffee on the tailboard of my Ute which is common practice for me. This summit hike is a good one to push the hiking pace for some quality miles in the legs so My hike time was 1hour 20 minutes there and 1 hour 30 minutes return not bad for an old fella.
Sorry Folks still no photos but my next outing was another nice cool morning snd the Wife and Hounds came for a day out this time to Hallett Hill VK5/SE-003.
This activation was a bit different I decided seeing the higher bands have been open and there were a few JA activators out on this day I would try some DX before Roll over then make it a bit more normal activation after roll over. I first put up the 3 band link dipole for 20m 17m 15m and listening to the beacons 17m seemed to be working best to JA so I started there. Much to my surprise I got several VK chasers along with ZL1BYZ as well but the band did not disappoint I worked S2S with JR8MHA/6 on JA6/MZ-027 with good signal swaps both ways. After UTC roll over I put up my normal 20m 40m link dipole and extensions for 80m netted 5 80m QSO before switching to 40m CW with 4 QSO including a S2S with VK7LTD on VK7/WC-005. On 40m SSB I made 4 more QSO with a S2S with VK7FAMP also on VK7/WC-005. The last band to try was 20m CW and worked 4 ZL and VK3ARH as my last QSO for the day. A great day out , Rocky and Jack took a particular interest in a couple old Rabbit burrows in a rock pile near by the summit so that kept the hounds amused while we were there.
At last some pictures.
View to a cloud covered Mt Bryan north from Mount Cone.
Hugh and I went to Mount Cone on the morning of 26th March to activate two Summits for the day.
View to the South Nice rolling grassland hills
The plan was to be there before UTC roll over and Hugh could activate on 80m with the locals and I would try for some DX on the higher bands. It worked out well but 15m was the best band this day with an S2S with ZL1BQD on ZL1/AK-014 and S2S with JP3DGT on JA/SI-019, then some other JA ZL chasers and a surprise call from K0RS.
This is Hugh at work on 80m
This was my Higher band set up at the next post below where Hugh was.
So all went well before roll over Hugh had given all the locals a score for their logs and I was intending to do the same after UTC roll over but a big rain shower came across the valley and we quickly packed all the gear into our bags asap.
My bag and I got wet but I managed to get my gear in out of the rain, it looked like hanging around so we headed off to the next Summit for the day which was about an hours drive to Brown Hill Range.
We arrived at Brown Hill Range VK5/se-004 in good time and we were on air a bit before Alert time but sometimes its a bit hard to get those times right seeing we got rained out on the first one and did not spend the expected time there.
However SW3 is a handy tool and if the Chasers are on their game they will be watching and waiting anyhow.
On this summit Hugh and I stuck to the theme for the day Hugh worked the chasers on 80m and I set up the link dipole for the higher bands. After a quick QSO with VK5GY on Hugh’s rig I went to work on 17m CW netting VK2IO then 2 other JA stations then an S2S with JI3BAP on JA/OS-001 a 10 pointer.
Hugh hard at work on 80m behind the wall out of the wind.
My set up
Both 15m and 20m gave me several more QSO from VK ZL JA BX YC on CW so a very nice mixture of DX this time too which gives me some hope that the bands are going to only get better as the new cycle lifts in Sunspot numbers.
Hard at work ear buds in to help with the wind noise and the very large wind turbine spinning at full noise behind me.
That was all I had for this Blog I must say now that I have had some more practice with WordPress its seems ok to use.
Thanks to all the chasers for giving Hugh and I a score on these summits, thanks to the land owners for access.
vk5cz 