SOTA Mt Coree VK1/AC-023

With a high 38c forecast for Canberra decided to head into the mountains and escape the heat for a while. Decided on Mt Coree as little walking involved and at 1400 m should be nice and cool.

As per other activations took the Brindabella Rd up to Picadilly Circus, turning off onto Two Sticks Road on the right. Then turned off onto the Coree Summit Trail. Note the sign for this on Two Sticks Road seems to be missing now so need to watch out for the turn off.

The road passes the Coree camping area, then climbs steeply in a series of turns up to the summit. This road is rough with lots of rocks, so care needed. You need a 4WD for most of the ascent. I stopped around 3 bends from the top and walked the rest of the way. View from one of the bends to the North

The final ascent. There are some tricky rocky bits here, probably could have driven up but it does get crowded at the top with 4WDs, so better off just walking up.

Top of Mt Coree with the fire tower and trig at the end.

Mt Coree Trig

View out to the West towards Tumut

View towards Canberra to the East

View to the North of the trig along the Brindabella range

Set up the squid pole on the trig. At first just put up the 2 m slim jim ribbon antenna.

Radio on one of the legs of the trig, partially out of the sun. 

As the trig is on the border of Namagdi National Park in the ACT and Brindabella National Park in NSW, was set up on the Western side in VKFF-0054 Brindabella National Park. Got on 2m FM on 146.500 and spotted myself on SOTAwatch. Worked

VK1MA

VK1AD

VK2PET/m

VK2VEX

VK1DW

VK2ADB

VK2KI

VK1GH

All the VK1s were pretty much full scale signals. Some very strong signals from Yass, Bowning too. VK2ADB was in Booroowa past Yass, almost 100 Km away. My furthest contact was with VK2PET, Pete mobile at Breakfast Creek, North of Booroowa, 128 Km to the North.  Mt Coree has an excellent take off to the North.

Tried putting up the link dipole and getting on 40m. Disappointingly found about an S7 of some electronic type noise across the whole band. Would have to be from the fire tower. Had not had this noise here before, although that was in 2016 so some new gear must have been installed. Stopped and called anyway, limited to only working some of the stronger stations I could hear over the noise.

VK3PF

VK1AD

VK5HAA

VK2VH, VK4AAC/2

VK1FJNG

VK3SQ

VK5IS

VK2KI

VK2IO

VK3YV

Switched to 20 m. Luckily the noise was gone on this band, so able to hear stations. On 14.310 Mhz heard ZL3MR putting out final calls from ZL3/CB-617, a SOTA peak North of Christchurch New Zealand. Called him for a S2S, worked with a good 53 signal.

After he went clear took the frequency. Worked

ZL1BYZ

VK1MA

VK5HAA

VK3CAT

VK5AYL

VK5WG

VK8BL

ZL1TM

VK1CT

As around noon and the wind had picked up, packed up and headed back down to the Coree camping area for lunch. Drove home.

  

SOTA Mt Coree VK1/AC-023

With a nice sunny Canberra day holiday Monday decided to activate another local summit, Mt Coree, VK1/AC-023. Drive up fairly uneventful, dry and dusty so no problems with muddy roads.

As per other activations parked 3 bends down from the top and walked up the rest of the way to avoid the final rough bit of the track onto the summit. Set up the squid pole on the trig.

Another view of the squid pole on the trig

The sky was clear out to the South West, but a bit murky over Canberra to the East and South.

Looking to the North West

Shack on the tarp at the base of the trig. Note the trig is at the junction of 3 parks, chose to operate inside Brindabella National Park on the Western side

Got on 40 m, managed a S2S first with Bob VK5FO/P on VK5/SE-005 Mt Lofty. Then worked Allen VK3ARH/p on VK3/VC-019 Mt Warrenheip.

Didn't seem to be getting much power out, found one of the dipole links not connected for 40 m. After fixing this called CQ. Quite a few of the regular chasers from VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK5. Lots of QSB, and some QRN from storm static crashes. Had Rick VK4RF/VK4HA call me a few times and dropped out, finally got back to him.

After 15 contacts chasers stopped calling. Had a tune across 20 m, it sounded dead...did't try calling there. Headed back down and home.

SOTA Mt Coree VK1/AC-023

With a fine warm Sunday decided to head to the coolness of the mountains and reactivate Mt Coree for this year.

The drive there was a bit tedious, there was a major cycling race on Uriarra Road with hundreds of cyclists, so had to wait behind packs of cyclists before getting a chance to overtake...Eventually they left me at the Brindabella Road junction. Drove up to Piccadilly Circus and took Two Sticks Road to the turnoff to Mt Coree. The roads were nice and dry, can be muddy up here at times. The road signs in Brindabella National Park have been updated since my last visit, instead of the sign to Mt Coree Summit its now Coree Summit Trail.

Drove up the switchbacks to about 3 bends before the top. The last bit is rather steep... Some good views on the bends to the North

The final rocky climb to the top. I could probably have got my Nissan Xtrail up here okay, but there is not a lot of room up the top and it gets very busy with large groups of 4WDs.

The summit with the fire lookout tower at the far end.

Mt Coree Trig was behind the fire lookout tower. Set up the squid pole and my station on the Western side of the trig, as this placed me in Brindabella National Park, VKFF-0054 for claiming contacts for the WWFF Award. The trig is on the park boundary.

 Some great views to the West off the cliff. Watched a few hawks riding the wind looking for prey below.

The view to the South off one leg of the dipole. The other end tied to a leg of the fire tower.

Shack at the base of the trig. A bit of shade for the radio but nothing for me, a hat was needed here.

Got on 40 m just before UTC changeover. Worked S2S first with VK3TST/2 Marcus and VK4DD/2 Dave on VK2/RI-031. Then put up a spot and worked some of the regular chasers from VK2, VK3 and VK5. Another S2S with Peter VK3PF/2, John VK2YW/p and Warren VK3BYD/2, making a rare SSB contact :) He is usually on CW. Fairly hectic up to rollover then worked VK3PF/2 and VK2YW/p again for more S2S points.

After the chasers stopped on 40 m tried going to 2 m FM, using the FT817 and the Slim Jim ribbon antenna. Very pleased to make an S2S contact with Marcus on VK2/RI-031, Wheel of Fortune near Wagga Wagga, 117 Km away! Not too strong but quite readable. Worked some of the locals, Grant VK4JAZ/1, Matt VK1MA, Tony VK1VIC/p on VK1/AC-042 Black Mountain. Andrew VK2MWP.

Heard Al VK1RX/p come up on 2 m on top of Mt Gudgenby, VK1/AC-009 for the first activation of this summit! Also Adan VK1FJAW with him. Andrew VK1NAM was absent from the summit, having got stomach cramps and stopping mid way up. Matt VK1MA worked them, but they had problems working Tony VK1VIC/p and Andrew VK1MBE/p on VK2/ST-034 Mt Gillamatong and VK2MWP. Acted as a relay but they had problems with low signals.

Al and Adan then went to 40m, and were able to work everyone okay.  Made another S2S with Allen VK3HRA/p on VK2/RI-026 The Rock Hill. The wind on the summit had come up in the afternoon so headed back down for lunch at the small camping ground at the base of Mt Coree, then home. A good morning on the summit.

SOTA Mt Coree VK1/AC-023

Andrew VK1NAM asked on the VK1 Yahoo forum for activators interested in a SOTA VK1 mass activation day. As I had worked all the local town summits opted to activate Mt Coree, VK1-AC-023.
This is not too far a drive out of Canberra, offers tremendous takeoff for radio, and also at over 1400 m is high enough to attract 3 winter bonus points :)

The plan was to start with a mass S2S session on 2 m at 2315 z or 9:15 am local time, so set off early from home at 7 am to get on the summit around 9 am. Weather was fine but cold, outside the car sitting around only a few degrees C for most of the drive. Drove the easiest way, up the Brindabella Road, turning off onto Two Sticks Road at Piccadilly Circus, then along Pabral Road. to the turnoff to the summit.

Two Sticks Road after Piccadilly Circus turned out not too good to drive on, lots of muddy patches and water over the road, drove it in 4WD... Took it slowly and didn't get bogged. Reached the Pabral Road turnoff.

Pabral Road passes a camping ground, after this it got fairly boggy, felt the car slide now and then...however once I got to the uphill bit it got easier, the road up was drier. Map of the ascent. It is a series of bends, parked a few bends down from the summit out of the activation zone and walked.

Some good views to the North from the bends on the road

Got to the final ascent up to the summit. This is where some good 4WD clearance is needed, there are a few scrape marks on the rocks here...

You are then on the top. There is a small area to reverse and head back down. Past the "Dangerous Cliffline"  sign is the fire lookout tower and the trig.

Wandered over to the trig. Snow on some of the distant peak, like Mt Gingera. Surprisingly no snow here as it is over 1400 m, probably melted with milder weather recently.

I had operated from the trig last time, however there was a cold strong wind blowing across the summit, that I hadn't noticed down the bottom, so dropped back down to the Dangerous Cliffline sign and used the base for squid pole support, setting up the SOTA shack in the shelter of a large rock.

Had to use a few small rocks around the base of the squid pole to stop it sliding sideways. The split section threatened to come out, so only extended the pole up to about 5 m. The summit has fantastic takeoff, so not much height is needed anyway. Ran the 40 m dipole legs out to a couple of bushes.

View out to the West off the cliff

View to the East over Canberra.

Shack out of the cold wind in the shelter of the large rock.

 Got on 2 m FM first on the hand held. Heaps of activators on already. As I had an excellent position most were full scale signals. After working a several local activators moved to 40 m, this was just as packed with activators, seems like several VK2s, VK3s a VK1 portable VK4 and a VK5 had decided to join the party!

It was bedlam. For a while just tuned about chasing other activators. Quite amusing hearing small pileups of "summit to summit" calls coming back to activators! I eventually found a free spot on 7.080 Mhz and got spotted and worked the usual chasers. Managed to grab 16 S2Ss before UTC rollover and another 13 after. Notable contacts John VK5BJE on VK5/SE-005 as the VK5 activator and Andrew VK1MBE/4 on VK4/SE-094.

All up 31 contacts before UTC and 20 after. Tried 20 m but no luck, the band poor. Packed up around 11:30 am to try and make the lunch in Woden by 1:30 pm.

The trip down was interesting as several large 4WDs were heading up...managed to pass them on the bends.
This is a popular place for 4WDs, had 4 groups come up while I was activating. Most just drove up, took a few photos and left after a few minutes.

Managed to make it back to the Brindabella Road without getting bogged in the mud. It was actually a fast trip to lunch in Woden, got onto the Cotter Road, Eucumbene Drive then Hindmarsh Drive straight to Woden, about an hour and a half. Met up with the other activators at a cafe for a good meal and chat about SOTA and the days activations.

Thanks Andrew VK1NAM for organizing this, it was fun!

SOTA Activation Mt Coree 1421m

Drove up the Brindabella Rd, got to "Picadilly Circus" intersection around 9am

The road straight on is the Mt Franklin Rd, which you take if you are activating Mt Ginini or Mt Gingera, like VK1NAM Andrew and VK1RX Al were doing today. On the other side of the junction is Two Sticks Rd, which I drove down to Mt Coree (main road on the right)

Drove down Two Sticks Rd, a narrow dirt track. After a while the cliffs on the south side of Mt Coree came into view.

Thankfully Two Sticks Rd goes around this to the west. After passing around the side of Mt Coree there is a junction on the right with a sign to Mt Coree summit.

This continues past a camping area then starts to climb quite steeply up the side of Mt Coree.

Parked off the road on one of the bends and continued on foot. Some good views to the north

Finally just before Mt Coree summit there is a steep bit. This is usually where 4WDs come into play, quite rocky and a bit of clearance required. Although have seen the odd 2WD make it.

 On top there is a fire tower and a trig. The fire tower is locked to keep out vandals.

Just near the trig is a recently placed plaque explaining the initial surveying of the Australian Capital Territory border, it started from here over 100 years ago. The early surveyors had it tough, no roads back then and snow in the winter to battle through...

I set up my 7m squid pole on the trig and laid out the 40m dipole

The fire tower provided a handy support for one leg of the dipole.

Set up the FT817 and operated just under the trig.

I used the whip that came with the radio to get on 2m SSB, turned horizontal for beam users.

Worked Andrew VK1NAM on Mt Gingera with a booming 59+ signal! Although he did admit to running 30w and a beam...Also worked Andew VK2UH in Yass on a portable yagi.

Got on 40m, found most spots from 7.080 to 7.095 taken up with SOTA activators! Made several S2S contacts with VK1 and VK3, plus heaps of VK1s, VK2s and VK3s. All up around 37 contacts. Got quiet after lunch and headed home.