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.

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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.

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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

Hello everyone I have been a bit slack lately since the FYBO contest I have only managed to get 3 summits done for July as the weather has been really wet and cold so access to some of the properties has been impossible.

This is My FYBO set up where I sat for 5 hours making contacts. Set up in the scrub block near home and the path is an old Mountain Bike track we made a few years ago for training and having a bit of fun. Sitting under this shelter for 5 hours is a similar pain as riding my bike around here, just another form of torture.

On with SOTA , my first activation for July was Hill NE-041 up from Mambray Creek on the western side of Mount Remarkable National Park. This is my hardest hike for the season as it goes from 140 m asl in the car park to 810 m asl at the top in about 5 km.

This is guna hurt !!

Setting out from the park it will take me 3 hours to get there .

View of the Summit a way to go yet from Black Hill lookout which is now up to 480m asl after about 1 hour of the hike, I am in need of a water stop and rest.

Buggered would be a way to describe how I feel here after 3 hours I finally made it to the top with a bush bash off the walking trail to get the last bit.

It’s a bit awkward to set up the squidy on this hill this is the only clear area, so this was the best i could do.

Had good contacts on HF with a S2S to VK2AOH on 40m cw and worked most of the band of faithful chasers on 40m ssb and cw with JS1IFK on 15m cw who has chased me a few times now. I took the half wave 2m vertical as well so I was able to get  2m simplex contacts to VK5WG and VK5IS who were hard to hear on 40m ssb.

Just for interest I took my heart rate monitor I use for cycling and I reached 140 bpm at one time during the walk considering my Maximum is around 156 for my age.  Of the 3 hours time to make the top I spent 40 minutes stopped to rest or drink but it is really hard to gauge as the cycling gps has to be moving faster than 3 kph to record the trip. Just a gauge really all I know is it hurt, it’s a hard won 6 points.

The next SOTA weekend was Mount Cone on the Saturday and The Bluff on the Sunday.

Mount Cone is a windy cold exposed summit north of Burra . An easy summit for me to get to in the Colorado with the track up there for other services.

Not much to slow the wind down up here looking north to Mt Bryan and only a short walk up to the smaller hut from the GRN compound. I had to set up behind the hut at the top to keep out of the wind and try to stay warm.

I had very good conditions on 40m both ssb and cw and bagging 2 S2S as well to vk3cat and vk3byd this time.

I also made some good contacts to vk2 and vk6 on 21 mhz cw and 14mhz ssb. I worked every mainland state except vk8.

Thanks to all the chasers.

Sunday I was off to Laura to meet up with Dave vk5dmc who had a trip to RMN and ATV broadcast sites so I hitched a ride to the cross road near Go Cart Track and walked south along the Walking Trail to the summit of the Bluff.

After the big bushfire up there a couple years ago it is not possible to get on top of the ridge any more because the under story is now regrown so much. I used a burnt out post on the side of the road to hold my squidy this time and crouched in the bush as best i could.

This activation went well with qso’s on 40m ssb and cw once again, vk’s on 15m cw and JS1IFK  on cw, more vk’s on 20m cw to vk6 and vk3 . S2S with vk1ma and vk2oah .

This was my operating position at the side of the road I had a nice big rock to set the rig up on and it was a very pleasant day sitting in the sun shine. Dave was still busy at the repeater site so I made the 3 km walk back down to my ute when I was finished.

Thanks to all the chasers thanks for reading.

Ian vk5cz ..

Set out early Saturday morning for Quorn one of my favourite SOTA towns to get 3 summits done for the weekend.

Had a nice drive up with the wind screen wipers going most of the way thinking this will be fun and how am I going to keep my KX3 dry. I did think about it before I left home and I had a large shopping bag with me that all my gear would shelter in if it did rain during the activation. As it turned out it never rained during any of the activating times but it sure rained in between. I went straight out to Richmond hill when I arrived at Quorn and had my Colorado in 4×4 on the wet road more to stop bogging  up the road than the need for 4 wheel drive .

With the SOTA transporter parked and a gloomy looking hill in site it was time to walk into the mist to see what was on the other side.

Ready to go, this way please Sir. I took to the bush which was quite a nice walk considering I have been doing lots of walking the last couple weeks sighting and marking out a new vineyard at work. Maybe my sore body was imagined because I was half way up near the old fence line before I stopped for a puff. I saw a few goats on the hill and they have a track for me to follow, I did get wet from the bushes and it was a bit slippery in places.

Not many Rocks on the pile at the top of this hill which suggests not many people come here but it has a clear area to run out my link dipole so it’s a nice summit.

I made lots of QSO on 40m as the band was in good shape with a nice pile up on SSB and CW . I had a check for JA’s on 15m but did not hear anyone or see any Spots on my phone so I went to 20m CW to see if VK6NU was there and sure enough he was plus a few other vk’s and  zl1byz gave a report on 20m.

Well with that activation in the water proof bag and nobody else chasing I carefully climbed down through the slippery rocks and headed for Devils Peak which is in the clouds also.

On the walk to Devils peak I met a group of bush walkers who steamed up behind me and I think every one of them beat me to the top.

The low cloud was on every summit I went to and I guess these big bolder’s were once up the top .

Quite slippery on the rock climb up near the top but everyone made it safely and it gave me a chance to tell the bush walkers about SOTA .

Foggy view out to Dutchmans but nice to see the area green, they have had lots of rain so far this year.

Band conditions were still good and I made lots of QSO on 40m ssb and cw  but no QSO on 20m this time.

I could see the rain coming in again so I quickly packed up and headed down but I did not make it I got wet on the walk back. I discovered under my back pack there is a compartment that contains a cover which water proofs my back pack which worked well to keep my gear dry. So no excuses now.

Next morning on the Sunday I headed for Mount Brown, the rain had eased off and apart from one wet patch the road was surprisingly good to drive on. This is a 6 km hike and I recon I did it in a record time of 1 hour 40 minutes and when I got there the summit was completely covered in cloud so I could not see any thing from the viewing platform. Even the pens in the visitors book were not working so I could not enter anything and couldn’t be bothered  pulling my back pack apart to find a pencil to scribe anything so I got on with my activation. It was cold and damp and I was hot and bothered from my trek so I put on some warmer clothes first and then set up the kit.   

Before I go on my camera was playing up again it has a cracked screen from a previous accident and for some reason I only got a few photos before and during the first part off my walk. Leaving the Ute and at 4 km to go is where the pain begins as you leave the creek bed and start on the real accent .  When the camera was in my back pocket it was turned on for quite a while and the battery warning was on next time I tried to get some photo’s, not sure really whats wrong with it.

I digress

The band conditions again were very good on 40m with lots of ssb and cw chasers, a summit 2 summit with vk3mcd and a qso with Les vk5klv and Peter vk5kpr in a conservation park was good too. Thanks to Pat vk5hae and John vk5kjg for the 2m simplex qso with my vx8g into Whyalla. This time I had some chasers on 20m cw several vk’s and zl1byz who worked me on every summit for the weekend .

This is a photo looking north from about half way up Mount Brown of Richmond Hill and Devils Peak in the middle and my next challenge, Dutchmans Stern way off in the clouds.

After I got back to my SOTA transporter I had some spare time to go and visit with some land owners to give wine as an appreciation gesture to say thanks and meet them. I have only ever talked on the phone with them so it was good to have a chat about my quest. I now have 8 summits I go to within the Quorn area and I now have permission for a new one never activated before I hope to do on my next trip. This weekend took me up to 501 activating points.

Give me strength to do this for another 3 years at 3.6 points average per activation and NO winter bonus like some other associations, that’s another 140 summit to climb. I will be a worn out old goat if I make it.

Thanks for reading

cheers Ian

CZ e e

We got to Yunta for lunch about 2pm after a long bush track drive from Pualco then we headed for Waroonee Hill but the station track was getting too wet.  As we unloaded getting ready  to start the hike we noticed a big black rain filled cloud coming across some distance away so we bolted for the property boundary and was chased be a heavy shower of rain which produced about 11 millimetres. This terrain turns to soup very quickly, if we had that much rain in Clare it would hardly make any difference, Mitsi became covered in red mud but we got to the better roads in time. That was all we could do for the day accept maybe some public relations at the pub and settle down for the night .

Next morning we headed out to vk5/ne-095 a summit the locals call The Bluff and took a well made road this time to avoid the mud.

This one is going to hurt as we work our way up the water way then climb even higher to reach the rock pile on top. The goats like this hill so we had a well worn track some of the way and made to top in about 40 minutes .

Hugh is a good hiker and I just puff along behind once he has found the best line, this must be about half way up the water way.

This is a view out to the north across the salt bush country, me having a rest.

Working the pile up on 40m as there was a cw contest raging on 20m . I did have a listen for a couple JA activators but could not hear them on 15m and the contest was quite strong there as well.

Hugh on ssb working plenty of Chasers,  I worked some CW to cater for all the chasers .

Farewell to the bluff for another season and back to Mitsi way down below.

Thanks to the chasers

On to Oulnina Park to go to Oulnina Hill vk5/ne-071

This summit is about 5 km south of the homestead which is located in a really nice wooded valley which is unlike the saltbush country around Yunta . We need the 4×4 to get along the ridge for this summit and Mitsi did it easy really although we shifted a few large rocks that would have damaged under the vehicle if we tried to drive over them.

This is a very nice summit and this ledge is very near where the track goes along the top so we activated near by with this great view . Lots of contacts again on 40m with really strong signals,I set the KX3 on 5 watts and got s9 reports all over .

Once again Hugh handled the ssb chasers and I did some cw and ssb this time, Nev got home from work in time to catch us on this summit.

Hugh working the pile up. This is the first time we have been able to activate and enjoy the view from this side of the summit the last two times we have been here the wind from the north west was very strong so we had to go down a bit on the eastern side in a more scrubby area out of the wind.

WX was nice just a bit chilly and the flags were filled out nicely.

Can’t get much better than this thanks to all the chasers.

Gently down into the valley we go, no problems for Mitsi just some rolly rocks under foot, but generally plenty of traction.

Sunday Nackara Hill vk5/ne-081

After a nice breakfast and refuel we headed south on the Barrier Highway for about 30 km to the small extinct rail siding of Nackara where we turn west to head for the summit. This is a big lump of dirt which is mostly tree less with rocky outcrops on the eastern edge so we need to work our way around the side then weave up the south side to the top. It is probably only a kilometre to walk but took a while with sore legs from yesterday. Great view in all directions and we could see all the summits we intended or did actually activated over the previous days.

That’s it’s prominence right there.

Mitsi way down there after about 40 minutes of ankle burn I made the top .

Looking South West from out shack, VK5RMN is out there somewhere.

WIA Broadcast was full scale from VK5RMN easily 120 km away not sure how far really but I was able to get a signal back into the call back to VK5MCB net controller.

Once again band conditions were great to the eastern states on 40m but the locals had trouble hearing Hugh when we first started. We could just hear VK5MCB when he came on to talk on 40m and he made no response to Hugh’s answer. So we gave up thinking vk5’s were out for the activation, Hugh had enough qso’s to qualify , then 10 minutes later I worked VK5BJE WG NTT MCB IS all at 5/9 plus signals on ssb . The interstate stations were still strong as well so I made some cw qso’s as well once the ssb chasers died down.

Great spot to activate from out of the wind behind the rock ledge, we both got plenty of qso’s for the 3 days so thanks everyone.

Nice to have a mix of ssb and cw qso with a special mention to VK6NU on 40m cw and pleasant surprise call from VK5PF John on two occasions this trip.

Great weekend away activating we did watch out for some of the VK9 portable stations but often we were travelling when they were on or we had our phones on flight mode to save out battery in the marginal phone coverage area. So we often got back to the network to see a txt msg of an activity we missed.

Now we have to work out when we can go back to catch up the rainy day summits we missed.

Cheers all thanks for reading

Ian

CZ e e

Today started quite early leaving Farrell Flat by 6am to get on the road heading for Pualco Range VK5/NE-107.

Hugh had a different way of getting there this time with less bush track and better roads considering the rain we have had this week. We still had some bush tracks and gates to deal with but it was a very pleasant trip this time with lots of wild life along the way.

One of the gates we go through

Old Man Emu running along side at about 50 km per hour.

Working my way across this stony saddle .

Hugh is of picking a line to the summit.

Amazing old Yacka grass trees here they must be very old these are about 2m tall.

We did not find many chasers today Hugh could only find 5 contacts on ssb and I found 6 on cw.

We stayed on 40m and did not stay on the summit long because it started to rain. Sorry to those who may have been listening on other bands but I am a bit fussy about getting water in my KX3 .

We had to travel about 50 km of station tracks to get to Yunta so we could head out to the next summit for the afternoon activation. Once again the rain stopped us activating the second summit as the tracks were getting very wet and slippery and the land holders don’t like their tracks cut up with 4×4 vehicles so we  got off the sticky roads as quick as we could.

Thanks for all the qso’s when on Pualco Range a great summit to visit.

Well I am finally back into some regular SOTA activating most weekends.

The first activation was Brown Hill Range VK5/SE-004 and I had the pleasure of some company with Halima this time. She had to keep the hounds under control as Rocky found a rabbit under the stone wall and that kept him entertained for most of our visit. The old rabbit just stayed put in his possy out of harms way and there was no need to restrain an attack from Rocky who is fond of chasing Rabbits, but its mostly exercise he rarely catches them.

Halima has her hiking shoes on and a substantial lead on the dogs, the white and black spotty dog is Jack and Rocky is the other Tenterfield Terrorist looking content to be out and about.

Band conditions were really quite good and because it was ANZAC day I used the AX prefix as did many others when we remembered to say it instead of the call sign you are used to using.

Several Summit 2 Summit QSO’s were achieved on this occasion as many other activators were out taking part in ANZAC Day Holiday. Probably the best contact was VK6NU on 40m CW, I usually need to work him on 20m so it tells how conditions were that day. S2S with Brian VK3MCD on VK3/VE-019 Hugh VK5NHG on VK5/SE-010 Peter VK3PF on VK3/VT-046.

Not mentioned in my Title for this blog is another summit I went to a week later which was South Hummocks  which was my first attempt at a movie with my new GoPro camera . Boys and Toys you know the drill.

South Hummocks VK5/SE-017

This summit has had some work done with the removal on the shot up trig point and the usual blue poles have replaced it so no a nice area to put up the Squiddy. With the excitement I forgot to take my trusty old camera so I have no photos of the activation. Once again I had a great mix of QSO’s with many vk’s on 7 mhz ssb and another great S2S on 14 mhz ssb with ZL3CC on his first activation and his first S2S with VK . While I had the link dipole on 14 MHZ I worked some more vk zl then some eu and ja staions on cw before returning to 7 mhz cw to find even more chasers, then finally using the same antenna on 21 mhz I worked N7 Ja and vk6nu on cw just to fill up my note book nicely. One thing I also noticed on this summit the, small ants were not active this time they chased my around to a couple spots last time I was there biting and getting in my clothes.

Now back on track.

Hallett Hill VK5/SE-003

No sooner set up I found the couple of parks activators had gone clear so I was able to use 7.090 they were chatting when I was driving up the summit track. This track is a very nice drive and you travel several kilometres along the top of the range.

Most of the turbines were working as the wind was quite steady but not too strong.

I was able to activate without my wind jacket and woolly hat so WX was really nice. A really good pile ups on 7 mhz ssb and cw with a S2S with Tony VK3CAT on VK3/VT-040 on cw and I had the pleasure of a call from some new activators this time. VK5PCM running 2 watts on ssb, his antenna was in the roof of his house but I was able to hear him quite clearly with no noise at my end. VK5BUG came up and we had a QSO using his bug key and it just sounds so good on cw to listen to. I made the joke with him I thought is was a bird singing in the bush when I first heard it.

This poor old land scape is a bit eaten out and dry and could do with some rain .

I had a good time working 40m ssb and cw with vk’s then on 20m I got some more vk’s and dx to Europe with a S2S with 2E0YYY on 20m ssb. Tony VK3CAT was also trying to bust the EU pile up for a S2S so I hope he was successful.

Thanks for reading

CZ ee