Met Hugh at Bendleby this morning to head out to the first summit along the station tracks.Hugh had a plan to drive another track to save some walking but unfortunately one creek crossing was washed out and too deep to get across so we set out from the same place as last year. This is a hard hike with lots of smaller hills and gullies to make it hard to head straight to the summit.

Sheering quarters holiday cabins at Bendleby Range property the owners kindly let us 4 wheel drive on their tracks for no charge. We gave my Colorado a run today, tracks are easy going nothing to hard except one creek crossing that stopped us.

Hugh with his trusty GPS setting the pace again .

After many smaller hills and gullies the trig point is in sight it took us nearly 2 hours to hike about 4 km so it’s pretty hard going.

Finally though we made it to this old trip point the wind was strong but nice and cool with full cloud cover helping to keep the flies away.

Hugh hard at work trying to find a chaser who were a bit slow to start with but we finally got some contacts on 80 and 40 to both qualify. I was able to give the KX2 a run on cw this time and I must say it is great.

On the way back to the Ute we made a different path making it shorter back to the flat lands the hiked along a fence line on the track we could not access . It proved if we could drive that track to the end the summit is about half the walk but still hard slog.

After lunch we headed to Eke Hill on the southern side of the property so we had to drive about 30 km of more tracks to get there. I only engaged 4 x 4 for a short while on a rough section near the parking spot.

I always enjoy this part of the hike to Eke Hill up to the top of this water way is about half way.

Looking back from where we started we are now on the shelf above the water way.

Amazing views to the south.

and the north

Hugh working the pile up on 40m

I got to work some cw and ssb today. Good conditions on 40m with lots of chasers.

Good bye to Eke Hill until next time

Thanks to the chasers and the Luckcraft Family for the use of their tracks and hills.

Thanks to Hugh for more ground work following up permission and access .

Thanks for reading

Ian

CZ e e

This week in November Hugh and I finally got the chance to get back up north and finish off these out standing summits on our list. I have a cabin in the Orroroo Caravan park and the air conditioner was very nice when I got back this afternoon. Early this morning I went to The Bendleby Ranges property to meet up with Hugh as he was staying there in the sheering Quarters accomodation. Its about 50km extra for me to travel but I like this cabin here and it can be a good escape from hay fever that has been bothering me for about 6 weeks this year.

While I was waiting for Hugh I had a chat with Ian VK5IS on 3.680 mhz using my trusty old Hustler set up with good signals on the band this morning . Hugh came along and we headed for Price Hill about 30 km further up the track and met the station manager who was busy fencing when we turned up. He was a very nice fellow and he knew about Amateur Radio from when he was a boy scout as he had taken part in several JOTA camps. After a rather long chat and showing him my KX3 he agreed it was a lot smaller than the big Valve radios he remembered from his scouting days.

As you can see the grass is very thick long and dry, we were very careful not to park the hot vehicle in the long grass and seeing the track was completely over grown we decided to walk from here.

Hugh was setting a great pace and we were still not sure how far it was, but Hugh’s GPS said about 3 km so we just had to head in the general direction as long as we gained height as we went. The summit is further south from the hill in the back ground of the picture so finding the best way there is always a bit tricky on a first time visit.

Break through at last the summit range is in the back ground and Hugh is on a Goat track now so that should take us up into the higher parts of the range . Typical stony rough terrain for the Flinders with low trees and native grasses and lots of Spinafex Grass to stick in you through your jeans.

Its a nice feeling when you finally reach the top of a range and you can see even further beyond the sight of a steep climb in front of you , This is my view towards West and Quorn is way off in the blue hills, my other favourite SOTA destination. We then had to walk about 1 more Kilometre along the top of the range to arrive at the old fallen down Trig that is now used as a Roo shelter on a windy day.

Had the shirt undone , as it was not cold but we did have a nice breeze from the south east direction causing us to find a spot on the western side to set up as it was probably too windy right on top.

The Solar Panel runs a UHF CB repeater on channel 1 which was quite active and very handy for the local land owners to keep in touch on their daily jobs around these large Pastoral properties.

Hugh is the proud owner of a KX2 which we were able to give a run this activation . As we got to the summit a bit later than we thought the gang of chasers on 80m were all doing other things so we made no qso on that band.

But after much calling we finally attracted some chasers but not many, Hugh just making 4 qso’s and I made 6 after him. That is a bit too close for comfort .

I must say I like the KX2 it works just like my KX3 in lots of ways but it has a better speaker that can handle higher output or volume levels so even with quite a strong wind it was easy to hear everyone. Getting a few of the function buttons worked out and turning off a few unnecessary settings was achieved without the hand book . One thing with the Tune button being used for a second function it can take you into a menu if you push and hold instead of tapping it for a short period of time. I think the KX3 with two fold out legs makes it more stable when perched on a rock too as the KX2 only has one fold out leg and the stiff mic cord can make it easy to pull the radio off its footing if you are not careful.

On the hike back down we took a different way trying to find a track that might give more chances to drive in a bit closer but we found the track was washed out quite badly with lots of short sharp creeks running across out path and it was 4 km to walk back so our more line of site way up was shorter and no harder.

Bit of a foot note here near the end, I called this summit Price Hill which is it’s rightful name but in the SOTA summit list it is named Prince Hill which I will request an update soon.

Thanks to the chasers and thanks Hugh for organising the permissions for the properties and thanks for reading my Blog.

Regards Ian

CZ e e

This weekend in October was my last chance to get to Black Hill before the weather starts to get too hot.

It ended up being a 596 km trip but I started out on Friday after work and drove to Orroroo for another overnight stay in my favourite caravan park. Up early Saturday morning for the rest of My journey to Black Hill which is about 130 km from Orroroo. I found a short cut half way between Carrieton and Cradock which turned out to be a well maintained road across a pastrol lease property. Lots of Kangaroo activity in the early hours of the morning, I had to slow down several times to let them get out of my way and avoid hitting any. The road then enters Holowillena Station and winds through the hills for several kilometres before Black Hill becomes into view.

I am north of Holowillena Homestead now and it if time to make a sked contact with Ian VK5IS on 3680 kc . I use a Hustler loading coil on this extra long aluminium shaft which works very well. I don’t drive along with this antenna on it’s a bit too long but I needed a stop any how as my Porridge was ready to consume for a bit of carbo loading before the walk I was about to do.

A well used track by the look with Black Hill off in the distance .

This mob of Emu’s were standing around as I went by it’s the best photo I could get they did not wait for me to get a closer photo .

Well into the Hike by now very rocky with lots of low bush and spinifex grass the SOTA transporter is down below parked off the road in a creek bed. I think where I park, the land is leased by another station further north, so I hope it’s ok I did leave a note at the Ute but I did not see another person at any time out there.

Stony up lifts running at a differing angle to the saddle makes it tricky as they get higher on the ends and before you know it is too high to get off back on track. lucky the goats know where to go and I could follow their path mostly.

This part is quite steep and slow picking through the bush and rocks but the summit is now in sight and I think I arrived very close to my Alert time but there is no Phone out here so once again I asked Ian and Nev to listen for me on 3680 kc . These days with low propagation on 40m locally I have been starting my activation’s on 80m so I set up right from the start then unclip the extensions and get on with 40m later . VK5IS VK5NWE and VK5WG called me on 80m  the band was very quiet none of the usual static crash you might experience on 80m. But they all had very good signals and my log was under way.

My set up in the bush was ok but there are not many places to hang up a dipole in clear space, part of the antenna broke from getting caught on something when I was swapping things around.

It was quite pleasant to start with but the wind was building and I had to deploy another bungy to help hold the squidy in place.

When I started on 40m I was unsure what would happen with no phone coverage to Spot but Ian VK5IS set up a Spot for me and I had 5 quick QSO’s waiting in line for me which was great. I made a S2S with Andrew VK1DA/2 and Matt VK1MA/2 chased me up for another S2S . Then VK3PF,VK3CAT and VK3SQ were soon in my log. After a few CQ calls on 15m with no signals even heard I did a swap to 20m with no respons to my CQ calls. In that situation sometimes the RB network will pick up a CQ SOTA on CW and Spot you on SOTAwatch but nobody answered me so  I decided to pack up and head down.

On the way down I noticed Wilpena Pound and the ABC Range off to the north .

Got back to the Ute ok and found todays walk a bit easier than the first time Hugh and I came here and tried a different way to make the top . Now for the 300 tired kms home .

Thanks for the contacts everyone

Thanks for reading and taking an interest in this obsession SOTA .

Ian

CZ e e

We finally got a chance to get to Waite Hill VK5/NE-066 again for some more Huffing and Puffing on the climb to the summit.

It starts out right from where we park the Ute so there is not really an easy way to make any ground on this summit,although it does get easier eventually as you get to the top of the range then we just pick a way along the top for a while .

We are about to start the climb to the summit  which is the further est hill in the picture.

Hugh normally set the pace on the climbs and I puff along behind, this time I shot some video to put on the SOTA face book page, now that I have come to terms with the editing software from GoPro.

Once we get this jump up behind us the climb becomes more gradual along a rocky goat track.

It’s great when you make the top of the range and can see the other side, most of the hard work is done by then.

Last rock scramble to the top then it’s SOTA time.

Hugh’s good work at standing this post up in the rocks has survived 3 years so far .

So on with the activation report.

As usual with activating first I had a small pile up but when Hugh went second the chasers dried up.

In future I think Hugh should go first and work the pile up then I can fall back on cw if the SSB chasers head off to find someone else to work. Thanks to the chasers who put spots on for us too we had a patchy link to the phone out there but it was mostly good. Getting to the summit is a bit of a challenge at times and meet the deadline of the original Alert, this time I think we missed by about 30 minutes. Hey its the weekend and this is supposed to be a fun activity.

It was a very low score for both of us really, we didn’t run out of log pages on this one.

40m to vk3 was probably the best path, we had some contacts to Mt Gambier again which seems to be a good skip distance as well.  VK5IS was my only vk5 contact on 40m, Hugh worked VK5EE on 40m then we had to add the 80m extensions to the dipole and worked VK5WG and VK5MBD on 3.680 with good signals.

The extensions for 80m are clipped onto the ends of the 40/20 link dipole then run out further using their own end strings to tie off beyond the ends of the 40/20 dipole. It works really well around vk5 from our experience lately and brings in locals as you may expect to copy them on 40m under good conditions.  Sorry we did not try 20m it was getting quite hot and windy with the northerly change blowing in plus we had another track to check out on the way home to try to shorten the trip to this summit. On the Western side of the property we meet another road which ends up on a track just near the southern end of this range of hills and if we could get permission to enter from there it would cut off about 28km of road plus 15 km of station tracks and several gates to open and close . But it’s a work in progress Hugh did get the land owners name out of the rather wary farmer we spoke to who was his neighbour. But that is fine if it happens it will save us time and travel that is all, we still have to climb that hill.

Thanks to the chasers and spotter who made the activation achievable

Cheers from Hugh and Ian

CZ e e

On Sunday I hit the road at 4 am to drive to Hawker and meet up with Hugh and Kate to do a couple more summits on the list. Pretty uneventful trip apart from some foggy patches to slow me down just in case a Kangaroo decided to cross the road in front of me. I did see a few but the nice driving light I have now work very well and I saw them from a long way off. I met Hugh and Kate at the caravan park where they stayed for a few days and we swapped my gear into the Mitsi and headed out east of Hawker to find the Summits. The weather was very sunny and nice temperature for climbing hills and not too much wind.

The first creek crossing on the way to VK5/NE-031 an unnamed summit on the south side of the property which is about 5 km from the homestead. No problems for Mitsi just a bit of a scrape on the tow point . We headed for the summit with about 2 km to hike, it is a bit of an up and down walk crossing over several gutters that wash down from higher places in the hills.

No trees out here, about to start the last of the climbs to the summit .

View to the Afternoon summit of in the distance.

Getting set up,this large rock is the only thing on the Hill lucky for us to hold the antenna up.

Both Hugh and I both made lots of contacts this time with 40m in good shape for a change with both local vk5’s and interstate stations all nice strong signals. One surprising contact for me was VK5IS on 20m cw over a distance of maybe 270 km.

Thanks to the chasers and off to the next summit.

Mount Plantagenet is 930 m asl with a long stony 4×4 track following along the ridge until the top. 

Only rocks and spinafex with the odd tree on this hill but the weather again was nice so we set up in our usual spot on the south side of the summit out of the wind.

Hugh went first this time and made a nice score of contacts . I was lucky to find enough left to get 4 on 40m ssb then only one dx station EU2MM on 20m cw. I am sorry about the spotting my phone battery gave out and I could not spot any more by the end of the activation to alert the band change .

Great views all round up here this is looking South, the homestead is in the valley below a really pretty spot .

My camera does not really do the view justice that is Wilpena Pound in the distance .

Thanks again to all the chasers

Thanks for reading.

Till next time 73

Ian CZ e e

WAROONEE HILL VK/NE-102.

————————————–

Hugh and I finally got the chance to get back to Yunta and claim the two summits we missed on the last trip there when it rained heavily and the tracks were closed. Hugh’s wife Kate came this trip also, she is also a good bush walker and enjoys recording native plants and birds in the area. I spent some time walking with her on the way to the summit and I got a wealth of botanical names for all the plants and which bird was singing at the time. I must say I can’t remember much of what she told me but it made me take notice of the different bird calls you can hear if you pay attention. There was a real “pile up”of birds at times mostly smaller ones but we did hear a smaller Falcon and saw a Wedge Tail Eagle cruising over head .

Waroonee Hill was the first summit and we arrived in good time to make the summit close to Spot time .

This is as far as the track goes so we walk along the bottom edge of this massive rock up lift which is right along the summit and it is probably about a 2 km walk to make the Summit.

Once you get on the ledge it doesn’t take long to gain altitude and the going is a steady one as the goats make a track to follow some of the way.

Kate could tell you the names of all the bushes here but I forgot, this cliff must be 80 to 100 m high .

Hugh checking out the cairn which has some interesting names of people who have been here over many years previous to us first visiting here 3 years ago.

This trip I used some wire extensions added to the 20/40 link dipole to get on 80m which worked well as I was able to get through to VK5FANA VK5WG and VK5IS on 3.6 mhz at that time of the morning.

On 40m Hugh and I went Tag team on the microphone to make our contacts that way we could each make calls with all the chasers who were about at the time. Most times on these activation’s it is often hard for the second operator to find anyone .

My Go Pro walking stick, I have been working on getting better at posting video on F B with mixed success. Now that one is in the log off to the next summit we head.

Thanks to all the chasers on 40 and 80 metres.

KARKALA RIDGE  VK5/NE-104.

—————————————

When we arrived at Yunta that morning I had 215 km on the trip recorder in my Ute and when we got back to Yunta to refuel and head home I had 298 km on my Trip recorder so that works out to be 83 km of travelling on station tracks between summits and we were always on the same property. We did not 4×4 to Karkala this trip it seemed quicker to walk up the side of the hill than take extra time slow going on the rocky track along the ridge to the top.

Parked the SOTA transporter in the shade and had lunch before heading off on our hike to the top. Those Hella Roo Cookers are great for night driving.

Up there is the goal and Kate is setting the pace this time, Hugh and I were checking the lines on a track we could see off on the other ridge that may lead to the top. But its a nice day for a walk .

Setting up Hugh’s gear this time to give it a work out, a very dry rocky summit with Waroonee Hill way off to the south on Hugh’s left shoulder. We are able to use the steel guy support post for the repeater station antenna tower to support the squidy. This repeater was very busy with the Tetalpa Property Jackaroo’s doing a muster on Motor Cycles this weekend keeping in touch about the mobs of sheep and locations around there. They mount remote head UHF radios on the bike and have a vox set up in their helmet and ride and chat at the same time passing logistical information among themselves.

Good to give the IC 703 a run this time with a steady pile up on 40m we even got good signals into vk5 this time on 40m. Hugh went first this time and made several contacts and when someone spotted us I took on a steady pile up for a total of 9 minutes then it was over.

Kate questioned our sanity about driving a 500 km round trip for about 30 minutes radio time with a couple bush walks thrown in. The Jury is still out but SOTA fever does funny things to mere mortals.

Thanks everyone from Hugh and I for the contacts this trip.

Regards and thanks for reading my Blog.

Ian

CZ ..

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

Great little summit this one with a very hard climb for the last few hundred metres to the top, but I have to first follow the fence line to reach the easement to the summit, put the hat on backwards and head for the clouds. In this case the weather was good so no clouds today but an ankle burner just the same.

It takes about an hour from the ute to the top.

Thick bush and rocks all the way no real path .

Finally made it to the top with good band conditions on 40m, with the RD contest in full swing for the final hour of their contest. I made several contacts with stations on 40m ssb and swapped reports with SOTA chasers and RD contesters, there was no alternative the band was just too busy to find a quiet frequency on either ssb or cw . The RD swap was easy just RST and number of years licenced which for me is 36 years.

This was my shack for the activation with nice sunshine and very calm wind conditions, I made a S2S with ZL3CC on 20m ssb along with ZL2AJ and a cw qso with ZL1BYZ .

Working the pile up and getting some vitamin B as well.

My last view on the way down before the real decent starts .

Thanks to the chasers

Cheers from Ian vk5cz

CZ e e

Got away to a good start this morning and decided to try the newly found dirt road short cut to Hallett which cuts off quite a lot on the trip out east. I changed plans a bit with an over night stay in Orroroo, that way its only about an hours drive to The Dutchman in the morning, so I activated at Mount Bryan on the way. The farmer lets me use the 4×4 track to get to the back of Mt Bryan and that saves a 5 km hike for the activation. The weather was overcast and quite cold but it did not rain this time like last year and a strong wind was blowing. The track up has been graded recently so no issues getting there although the road was a bit washed out in one place on the side of the hill.

Parked the SOTA transporter and made the short walk about half of a kilometre to the activation zone on the eastern side out of the wind.

Too windy here but a great view out east this is near the trig.

The wind was quite strong I needed ear buds to hear the radio properly.

Perched on the edge on the Eastern side it’s a great take off to the Eastern States as I had great signals into vk7 vk4 vk3 vk2 vk1 on 40m ssb . I had to brave the strong wind and go back up over the western side to make a 2m simplex qso with vk5wg who was not hearing me on 40m but we made the swap on 2m. I always take the 2m half wave AREG antenna these days and connect it to my vx8g to make sure I can work the locals if there is no short skip on 40m.

No answer to a CQ on 15 or 20 m cw today not sure if bands were dead, as I did not watch or listen for long on these bands as I was getting the shivers a bit.

My shack for the activation, shot some GoPro but its full of wind noise.

Thanks everyone for the contacts and all the S2S as well really good conditions on the longer skip today.

On my way to Orroroo I had some spare time so I looked up another land owner about permission to get up on Coomoroo Hill as I thought I was passing through their property on the walk but as it turned out I was not trespassing.

Arrived at the Dutchman’s car park about 7 am with some frost still on the ground meaning it was going to be a nice sunny day 0nce it warmed up .

This is the start of my journey of about 15 km round trip. I usually go up to the top on the down track, it is further but an easier grade over all and closer to where I head bush.

Saw several Kangaroos feeding on the frosty grass on the way up who where very tame and did not get too far out of my way when passing by.

The hill in the back of the picture is at one more to go once I get there but I have to follow the walking track further on from here, just stopped to get another kangaroo in the shot.

So up we go and turn south at a GPS reference i have saved in the e trex  near the small pile of rocks I placed there last year.

Into the bush I go and I discovered an old grown over fence lying in the bush but it is very dense and no real track to follow. Once I get over about 700m asl the She Oaks are not as thick and the walking is a bit easier.

Now I am above the She Oaks and can finally get a view towards Quorn .

This is my first view of the western side of the range Port Augusta is down there some where and the Summit is still about 2 km south from here and I can now pick my way along the western side of the range where less bush grows as it is more exposed to the wind. But my camera is playing up again and it won’t let me take any more photos.

I reached the Summit a little earlier than my Alert time so I experimented with 2 m and my hand held but only managed to make a qso with VK5KLV Les via RMN repeater . I tried to call Nev VK5WG simplex but I did not get a signal into The Brook. VK5FANA told me after I got home he could hear me in Arthurton on Yorks but did not have the off set switched out so I did not know he was there and by the time he worked it out I had given up on 2m and went to set up HF.

The VK SOTA party was in full swing when I got my stations set up using the link dipole and KX3 and made contact with 10 other operators on summits in vk1 2 3 and 4 home stations on 40m. The band was really hard work with no short skip at all everyone was having the same problems and I did hear two conversations on the same frequency oblivious to one and other. The only vk5 I worked on 40m was Tom VK5EE in the south east of the state but I did make an unusual contact with Paul VK5PAS on 80m phone of all bands. I saw the spot for him on my phone and tuned the kx3 to my 40m dipole and worked him with hard copy but we made a swap for the S2S. It was 11 30 am, well into the middle of the day and my swr reading was higher than the power out put on the rig so i must have been only getting a few watts out the antenna. I called cq on 15 and 20 but again no answer so I packed up and headed along the range north to meet up with the walking track to take me back down to the ute.

Stop Press

I was checking out my camera when I got home and i found that the sd card was not clicked in properly so that is why the memory full warning was on my camera and only letting me take about 10 photos at a time. It may have been dropped the other day and i don’t treat it very well either so no wonder it was playing up.

Thanks to all the chasers.

73 from Ian vk5cz

CZ ee