The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862

For National Wattle Day headed off to my local WWFF park, The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862. Activated several times but still good for grabbing P2Ps.

Parked off Springvale Dr in Weetangerra near the water tanks. Sign for the park.

Wattle tree in the park nearby. Fairly common in Canberra.

Headed down the hill to get away from the mobile phone tower here, also to get out of the strong wind. Found an old picket spike, used it to support the squid pole. Set up the radio on the tarp nearby.

Operating spot. Map from Openstreetmaps.

Got on 40m. Good strong signals. Worked a few P2Ps first.

VK2YK/VK5GA in VKFF-0022 Belair National Park

VK2IO in VKFF-1984 Pitt Town Nature Reserve

Worked some park hunters.

VK7PJM, VK3XIF, VK5LA/VK5KAW

VK3PF/VK3KAI in VKFF-2465 Traralgon South Flora Reserve

VK4NH/VK4DXA, VK1RF/VK2MK/VK4CEE, VK2VW/VK2HFI, VK3SG

VK2EG/P in VKFF-1319 Glenrock State Conservation Area

VK5PAS and VK5MAZ in VKFF-4039 Lenger Reserve

VK4JPS, VK4GTX, VK1ARQ, VK3CJN/VK3QHU, VK1CHW.

Briefly tried 20m. Lots of EU activity but not many calls.

VK4NH/VK4DXA, ZL1HIM

Had enough of the strong wind, packed up and headed home.

National Wattle Day Award

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862

While at home had S9 QRM appear on 40m, so decided to get out of the house and escape it activating a WWFF park. Headed for my closest park, The Pinnacle Nature Reserve, VKFF-0862.

Parked off Springvale Drive Weetangera. Sign for the park.

Near the entrance is a mobile phone base station. I knew this generates QRM, so wandered away down the track to an operating spot on a log under a tree

Operating spot. Satellite view from Google Maps.

Checked the SWR. A little high up in the band, but the SWR was so low across the whole band not that worried.

Radio and myself on the log seat.

Spotted and called on 7.144. A bit of a pileup followed, band was in good shape.

VK3VIN, VK1AO/VK2MET, VK5PAS, VK3CBP, VK4NH/VK4DXA.

A P2P with VK4MUD in VKFF-2133 Lower Cann River Nature Conservation Reserve

VK2MOE, VK1RF, VK3TKK, VK2MES, VK3NDG

A weak contact with KG5CIK Steve in Texas. Took me a few goes to get his call, but finally made it. Although weak the band was very quiet.

ZL3RIK/ZL3YB, VK5BJE, VK3ANL, VK3GRK

Worked 3 SOTA stations on VK3/VG-027 Mt Baldhead. VK2IO Gerard, VK1DA Andrew and VK3PF Peter. Part of the Mt Hotham activation weekend.

Another SOTA/P2P contact with VK3TCP Alan on VK3/VE-024 and P2P in VKFF-0619 Alpine National Park

VK4HMI, VK4EMP/VK4TI.

Some light rain started so packed up.

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862 for WWFF 10th Anniversary Weekend

The WWFF program was created in November 2012, so to mark the 10th year Anniversary an activity weekend was announced for 19th and 20th November. With poor weather for Canberra over the weekend I went out Saturday morning only to activate a local park, the Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862.

Parked off Springvale Dr in Hawker, just a few Km from home. Sign for the park.

Walked into the park and headed left, until spotting a fence suitable for squid pole support after a short distance. Ran the 40m dipole along the fence.

Shack on the trap in the grass. Long grass after recent rain. As close to the car I carried my new 40aH battery pack in, to run the FT857D at 50w.

Got on 40m. Disappointingly about an S5 of noise from a nearby mobile phone substation.

Started by working a few parks already active

VK5PAS/7 Paul and VK5MAZ/7 Maria in VKFF-1812 Little Peggs Beach State Reserve

VK2BYF/VK2HQ Bob in VKFF-2698 Parma Creek Nature Reserve

VK3BEZ Peter in VKFF-0480 Tarra-Bulga National Park

After spotting on 7.160 worked several hunters

VK2EXA, VK3NDG, VK2VW/VK2HFI, VK3SQ. Another couple of P2Ps

VK2IO Gerard in VKFF-3246 Barrenjoey Head Aquatic Reserve

VK3TUN David in VKFF-2285 Burgess Swamp Wildlife Reserve

Then hunters VK3UH, VK2JRO, VK4TJ, VK3UAO

VK2MET Alan in VKFF-1410 Port Stephens - Great Lakes Marine Park. Also had call VK1AO.

VK2OKR Richard in VKFF-0595 Hunter Wetlands National Park

VK2JPR, VK3APJ, VK3SMW, VK2LEE, VK3ZPF, VK2FBRU, VK3VIN

VK1ACE Rod in VKFF-0985 Gigerline Nature Reserve. A new park for me as only activated this.

VK2HRX, VK2PKT, VK3GJG,

Tried 20m, only 1 contact with ZL1BQD.

As lunch time and the wind was picking up, packed up and headed home after 31 contacts. Not enough for the 100 contacts needed for the WWFF 10th Anniversary award, but 8 unique P2Ps, plus a few more at home so at least had qualified for the 10 needed Bronze hunter award.

10th Anniversary Activity Weekend | WWFF

My battery pack had dropped from 100% to 90% capacity, good for a one-and-a-half-hour activation running 50w.  

 
 

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0852

Decided to activate WWFF park The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0852. Mainly to work Andrew VK1AD/p park to park in Mt Mugga Mugga Nature Reserve on 2m, also to add another activation towards the Boomerang Award. Parked off Springvale Drive and headed into the park. The ACT Government appear to be updating the old wooden park signs with metal ones. New sign for the park.

Walked along the track to the Pinnacle summit

Approaching the Pinnacle. Not that hard a hill to climb.

View from the Pinnacle. The roads in the foreground with no houses is the new suburb of Whitlam under construction. Mt Stromlo on the right.

Did not stop here, it gets busy with walkers. Headed down the hill to find a suitable operating spot. View to the West over the Brindabella range

Found a large dead tree a bit down the hill, set up at the base of it on some logs.

 Operating spot, map from Openstreetmap

Radio on my pack, using a nearby log as a seat.

Started on 2m FM. Easily worked Andrew in Mt Mugga Mugga VKFF-0852, a strong S9 signal 8 Km South of me.

Got on 40m, worked a few park to parks first

VK3BBB Brian and VK3MTT Therese in VKFF-2382 Merbein South Flora Reserve

VK3CMA Peter in VKFF-2229 Whroo Nature Conservation Reserve

VK3CRG Craig and Debbie in VKFF-0982 You Yangs Regional Park

VK3TV Mal in VKFF-0747 Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park

VK3AWA Daryl in VKFF-2321 Giffard Flora Reserve

Spotted myself and worked the usual Hunters

VK3PF, VK2IO, VK7QP, VK5FANA, VK2VW, VK2HFI, VK2FADV, VK3ANL, VK4SMA, VK2MET, VK2TER

A SOTA contact with VK3TUN David on VK3/VW-016 West of England Fire Tower. Also in park VKFF-0629

VK5CZ, VK5MAZ, VK3MPR, VI100AF/VK5PAS, VK3FRC, VK3PJR, ZL3RIK

I tried switching to 20m. Worked VK1CT Chris in VKFF-0984 Bullen Range Nature Reserve, but no luck with further calls. Packed up and headed home for afternoon tea. The park is only about a 10 minute drive from home.

 

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862

Noticed a few WWFF activations happening on Friday after work, so decided to also activate a local WWFF park. Returned to "The Pinnacle", a Canberra Nature Park only a few Km from home. I had activated it once before and made 35 contacts, so should be easy enough to make up the 44 needed.

Sign for the park off Springvale Drive.

Last activation I made was just down from the Pinnacle itself, a rocky hill, however would have been too warm in the sun there this time, so looked for another operating spot in the shade. Picked a access spot off Springvale Drive for accessing some water reservoirs.

Map from www.protectedplanet.net. A locked gate, but with a large gap in it for walkers to fit through. One of the water tanks visible.

Carried my camping table, chair and radio through the gate and set up beside a track marker for a horse riding trail through the park. Dipole legs tied to a couple of nearby trees.

Shack on the camping table in the shade. Using my TS480 radio with 10-20 watts output power.

Got on 40m. Headed for 7.144 Mhz, the WWFF calling frequency, to hear Stef VK5HSX/p in VKFF-0780 working Paul VK5PAS/p in VKFF-0897. Paul had some antenna problems but sorted it out. He was a good S9. Worked them both easily for park to park contacts.

Tuned about and worked David VK5HDW/p in VKFF-0785, then got called by John VK5BJE/p in VKFF-0825. So a good start, the first 5 contacts all park to parks :)

Found a spot and called CQ parks. Once spotted on ParksnPeaks started a small pileup of callers. Some very strong VK2, VK3, VK5 and VK7 stations, also Rick VK4RF/VK4HA, who was initially weak, then S9 after he switched from the wrong antenna...

Saw another 2 activations on ParksnPeaks, Les VK5KLV/p in VKFF-0820, and Adrian VK5FANA/p in VKFF-0819. Both good strong signals.

Had problems with the wind, the squid pole detelecoped on me twice, having to raise it up again.
Around 7:20pm local time starting to get dark and it fell down yet again, so decided a good time to pack up.

Made 20 contacts, including 7 park to parks, taking me to 55 contacts from this park and qualifying it for WWFF.

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve VKFF-0862

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve is located on Belconnen's southern boundary, adjacent to the suburbs of Weetangera and Hawker. The Reserve adjoins Springvale Drive and private residences to the north, and unleased and leasehold rural land on its southern and western boundaries. It is named after the highest point, The Pinnacle, a prominent hill around 700 m high.

The Pinnacle Nature Reserve is quite familiar to me, I only live about 2 Km away from the park and have visited it many times over the years. A pleasant half hour walk after work with daylight saving. A great spot to sit and watch the sun setting over the Brindabella mountains.

With radio gear to carry I decided to drive there today. Parked off Springvale Drive where there is a locked gate. There was a sign on the gate that it would be closed from 5 pm to 7 am daily, as part of the ACT Government's kangaroo cull, see my activation of Mt Painter which had a similar sign.

So needed to finish my park activation before 5 pm. Planned to leave before then as would be too cold to stay after this time anyway...

Up the hill a gate entrance to the park and a sign for the park. The writings meant to be in white paint, vandals...

Followed the track, called Springvale Track up to a pedestrian gate on the left and a sign with details on the park.

Followed the track into the park, heading for the highest point, the Pinnacle. There is a proper walking track up to it, I followed a short cut track just before this on the left.

This joins the main walking track to the summit.

The summit has no trig, just a survey marker on the ground. The views here are not that good, you need to head down the hill a bit to clear the trees.

Headed down the hill looking for a suitable spot for supporting the squid pole and operating from. An old log looked ideal. The view to the South West with Mt Taylor on the left, the new Molonglo suburbs and Mt Tennent visible. Noticed the fog I had in the morning still visible in the far South.

Set up the 40/20 m linked dipole on the squid pole lashed to the end of the log. Tied off the ends of the dipole on a tree and the end of the log.

View to the station from up the hill, looking South. The white tower building in the distance is in the Woden town centre.

View from the other leg of the dipole to the South East. Black Mountain is just behind the trees to the left of the squid pole. Radio on the log, which made a comfy seat.

Got on 40 m. Found VK3HN/p Paul on 7.090 Mhz doing a SOTA activation of VK3/VE-019, so worked him with a good report. Set up on 7.095 Mhz, called CQ. Got a bit busier after getting spotted on the ParksnPeaks website.

A good steady list of hunters calling from VK1/VK2/VK3/VK4 and VK5. Worked Peter VK3YE testing a new QRP radio, nice signal. A couple of other parks worked, VK2YK/p Adam in VKFF-589 Gir-um-bit National Park, and VK4FFAB/p Rob in VKFF-200 Glass House Mountains National Park.

Switched to 20 m to work the Europeans. Worked John VK4DP in Barcaldine Central Queensland, then after getting spotted on the DX cluster the usual bunch of EU hunters started a pileup...
Some of the usual park hunters, I5FLN, S58AL, S52KM, OK7WA, F1BLL, HA6OB, DL2DN, DK4RM, IK1GPG. Several Russian stations, also a new hunter country for me, 9A2HF Franc in Croatia.

Looked around the band, another park to park contact with Ade VK4SOE/p doing an activation with Rob VK4FFAB/p in the Glass House Mountains National Park. I spotted him on the DX cluster, seemed to help as the EU pileup found him soon after :)

By 4:30 pm the temperature had dropped from around 10 c to 7 c, so decided a good time to leave, plus needed to get out before the shooting started... A total of 35 contacts, so need to return for the 44. Not hard when you live close by.

Track log of walk