Wednesday 31 December 2014

SOTA The Cascades VK2/SM-014

Left Jindabyne at 8:30 am, drove up the Alpine Way to Thredbo, stopping to pay $16 for the Kosziusko national park one day entry fee. Just past Thredbo stopped at Dead Horse Gap, a car parking area for several walks in the area. Quite full at 9 am. Took the Cascade Trail.


This follows the Thredbo River up the valley. Quite scenic.


After 2.5 Km the track crosses the Thredbo river. NSW Parks have provided a good foot bridge here for walkers.


The crystal clear Thredbo River


After the river crossing the track climbs steeply up Bobs Ridge. To get to the Cascades peak, cut off cross country to the left of the track for about a 400 m bush bash.


Not very hard, some marshy bits and a few rocks to navigate around.


Reached the top. There is a trig here, a simple post on the highest rock.


Just below the trig to the South a pleasant grassy area in the activation zone


Set up the squid pole on a dead snow gum, with the dipole legs strung out to some trees


Set up the SOTA shack in the grass in the shade of the trees. Quite pleasant, apart from the odd March Fly...


Got on 40 m about 20 minutes before UTC rollover, got swamped by chasers...from VK1, VK2 VK3 and VK5. All good strong signals, even VK5s quite good. A S2S with Peter VK3PF on VK3/RI-033 Hamilton Hill. Post UTC rollover another S2S with Peter, also Matt VK1MA/3 on VK3/VE-105 Mt Big Ben

Tried switching the dipole to 20 m. Worked Ernie VK3DET with a good signal, Andrew VK3BQ/2 with a weak signal from nearby Thredbo Diggings. He invited me to say hello after activating. Went on to work VK7YP, VK2UH and VK2KTT, before packing up and heading back down for lunch in Thredbo. It took me a bit over an hour to get back down.

After lunch drove to Thredbo Diggings. Found Andrew by his Antennas :) He was camping there with the family, his wife Christine VK3FCEK and his 2 boys Toby and Nathan. Had a good chat about SOTA and a cup of tea. He suggested an easy nearby summit to try in the afternoon, Box Ridge VK2/SM-065, with instructions on getting there. Thanks Andrew :)

Track log of walk.



Track profile. About a 4.8 Km walk each way with a 300 m climb


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