Aranda Bushland VKFF-0833

Aranda Bushland Nature Park is located between Black Mountain and Mount Painter Nature Reserves, bounded by Bindubi Street, William Hovell Drive, Caswell Drive and the suburb of Aranda. It protects a rare collection of Snow Gum trees in the South and Eucalypt forest in the North.

I chose to park at Vargi Place and walk to Aranda Hill, the highest point in the park. I could have parked closer but wanted to do some walking :)

Aranda Bushland park sign

After a short walk along the summit track reached Aranda Hill. Marked by yellow concrete markers marked McKier. Black Mountain partially visible through the trees.

Set up the squid pole using one of the concrete posts for support

Radio shack at the base. I'd forgotten to pack the tarp so sat on my pack.

Got on 40 m. Good strong signals from VK1, VK2, VK3, VK5 and VK7. SOTA contacts with Tony VK3CAT/p on VK3/VE-033, and Peter VK3ZPF/P on VK3/VC-037.

Made 28 contacts on 40 m before the hunters dried up. Changed to 20 m, this time spotting myself on the DX cluster to help the EU stations find me.

They found me quite well...Several of the regular park hunters, S58AL, I5FLN, IK1GPG, DK4RM, EA4DTV and DL2ND.

The band died off around 4:30 pm and starting to get cold, so packed up and headed home.
A total of 35 contacts so a good activation.