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3 Summits in One Day and 2 Long Hikes.

Middle of May already and Hugh and I have several summits in the log for this year. The cooler Summer and Autumn gave some opportunities to get out on Summits much sooner this year. April 17th was good for getting a 3 summit day trip done so we chose Hogshead, Coomaroo and Maurice Hill as a big day out on Summits.

Hogshead VK5/NE-051 is near Pekina and a rather steep climb up in a very short distance of about 900m from the parking spot.

Great view out to the South from Hogshead Summit

On this Summit is a great example of a Stone Cairn that are on many of the summits we visit.

Hugh worked on 2 metres this time with his home made Flower Pot antenna with good results having good coverage to several local chasers on 2m FM.

I had several contacts on 80m SSB with the local group of chasers then made contact with some interstate chasers on 40m CW to give me 9 QSO in total.

Hazy day being so dry up here but nice weather for us on the hill.

This one in the log Hugh and I headed off to the next summit via some dirt roads near Mt Robert and hitting the bitumen road near Morchard before turning off to the Coomaroo Summit. It was Hugh’s first visit to this summit so he now has a new one to his list and it’s about a 2km to hike up from the parking spot.

Once again Hugh was able to work several 2m FM contacts from here but had to resort to 40m to find a couple extra contacts to make a score of more than 4 QSO.

VK5CZ working chasers on Commaroo Hill VK5/NE-088

It was hard to find chasers on Coomaroo as it was around lunch time by the time we got there and the bands were a bit quiet but we managed to find a mixture this time of VK and ZL stations I could work on cw. Hugh had a couple chasers on 2m FM and lucky to find a couple more on 80m SSB. We did not stay long as it was another 40 km back to the next summit along some more back roads. This activity lets you find a way on roads that would never be travelled by me other wise.

Next Stop Maurice Hill VK5/NE-049

Maurice Hill is a drive up summit so a good reason to leave it until last for the day when the old legs might be a bit sore from the mornings hikes.

Operating on Maurice Hill behind this rock shelf out of the wind.


This was a bit of an unusual activation for us as Hugh found enough contacts on 2m FM but we could not get much sense out of 80m SSB with the locals this time. I did however work VK5PAS VK5MAZ mobile in VK3, VK3PF at home and VK7QP in Tasmania on 80m during the day. It seemed the further away the caller was the better the signal.

A good amount of 40m SSB and CW chasers from VK 2 3 5 6 and some ZLs as well. My contact with VK3YE appeared on one of his portable operating You Tubes I noticed the other day on 40m CW.

Back to Clare and fill in the logs after a big day out on summits with Hugh.

With a few rest days but not wanting to lose any fitness Hugh and I headed for Mount Brown VK5/NE-014.

It was a mid week activation this time and really nice weather as it can get pretty windy on Mount Brown as it is over 900 m ASL. We left the SOTA transporter at 9 am thinking it would be about 2 hours to the top but we were suffering a bit on this hike and it ended up being 2 and a half hours to make it. We had the pressure on to make our Spot time on SW3 but lucky for us there were plenty of chasers waiting.

I set up HF on the side of the walking track and Hugh climbed onto the viewing platform and set up his Flower Pot antenna again for VHF 2m FM.

Being so high above sea level Hugh had very good coverage on 2m working as far south as Moonta Bay on FM voice with the signal path being over water in Spencer Gulf for most of the time.

Hugh made a good score on 2m FM then also worked some chasers of 40m SSB to top up his score.

Platform on top of Mt Brown.
The Flower Pot Antenna

Great take off point on VHF from on the Platform we both had plenty of contacts while on Mt Brown.

The hard walk up was worth it as we were both pretty sore and tired by the time we got back to my Ute with 12.5 km in the legs and feet.

Devils Peak and Dutchman’s Stern across the Valley.

Amazing views from the platform above the trees on Mt brown.

Next Summit in view Mt Remarkable off to the South.

Next big hike is Mt Remarkable, Hugh and I and a local non ham friend Garry started from Melrose early to make the 2 hour hike to the summit which is 6.2km on the North track.

Screed Slopes site of a plane crash.
Having a rest near plane crash site at 5 km mark on the trail.
Farmers Dry Seeding on Willowie Plains.

Once we arrived at the summit and got set up the weather was really nice and warm with hardly any wind on the summit. Hugh set up his Flower Pot again and made some VHF 2m FM contacts. I set up the HF and made lots of contacts on 80m SSB with local VK5 chasers and the Special Event call sign VK100AF for 100 years of the Air Force.

Garry Chilled out on the bench while Hugh and I did the SOTA thing then we headed off back down the Mountain on the new South track as a different way down.

Link Dipole set up on a bench quite handy as a resting bench too.

All I can say about the South track is it meanders for a lot longer and is steeper and a very rough surface making it a harder way to get off the Mountain and it’s at least 1 km further if not more.

Great day for a hike and nice to get some long hikes done for this year I only have Dutchman’s Stern Summit to do some time later.

Thanks to the land owners for access and thanks for reading my Blog.

regards

Ian vk5cz ..


Start of SOTA for 2021

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.

Thanks for reading my Blogs.

Regards Ian vk5cz ..