SOTA Yellow Rabbit Hill VK1/AC-039

With an alert for Andrew VK1AD to activate Pheasant Hill VK1/AC-021 there were several alerts from other activators to chase him Summt to Summit, so thought I would join in and activate Yellow Rabbit Hill, VK1/AC-039.

I had not activated this summit since 2016 so the drive there was a bit hazy at first. I remember taking Warks Road off the Brindabella Rd. Not long after turning off onto Warks Road saw a familiar sign for entering the Lower Cotter Catchment Reserve

Followed Warks Road for a while, then took a connecting road off it on the left and left into Yellow Rabbit Road, which the summit is named after. Turned off on the right to a road climbing the hill. This was still a bit rough but seemed better than the last time I did it. Still good to do in an AWD/4WD car with clearance. Once close to the summit parked and walked up through the bush along a ridge, a short distance to the top of the hill and a small clearing. Andrew VK1AD's unofficial summit cairn 😀

Just behind the cairn a rotting log suitable for squid pole support and a seat

Looking the other way to the North

Shack on the log. Sat on the tarp instead of the rotting log

Got on 146.500 FM 2 m first with the ladder line Jpole vertical. Worked

VK1MA Matt very strong

VK1ZDJ/VK1DJ Doug on VK1/AC-043 Mt Stromlo also strong 59

VK1MIC Wade good 59

VK1MCW Bill on VK1/AC-040 Mt Ainslie strong 59

VK1MF Matt on VK1/AC-034 Mt Majura strong 59

Saw a spot for VK1AD/p in Namadgi National Park, VKFF-0377. Due to road works on the Boboyan Rd around the parking area for Pheasant Hill he had abandoned the SOTA activation and was doing a WWFF park activation instead. I could not hear him on 2 m, however could on 80 m. Only an S1. I found out later I have a bad connection in one of the 80 m extension plugs, so really was working him on 80 m mainly on the 40 m dipole... anyway did the job.

Worked a couple more summit to summits on 2 m

VK1DA Andrew on VK1/AC-041 Isaacs Ridge, about a 53 but had a battery going flat

VK1CT Chris on VK1/AC-042 Black Mountain, a strong 59

Spotted myself on 40 m. Worked

VK7DR, ZL1BQD, VK2IO/4 in VKFF-0683 Hampton National Park, VK5IS, VK4NH

Also worked VK1MF and VK1ZDJ again on 40 m.

Switched the links to 20 m. Worked

ZL1BYZ John, ZL1TM Andrei. Both good strong signals.

Packed up and headed back to the car. Heading down the ridge a view towards Canberra

Cotter Dam and Mt McDonald on the left. In the middle Black Mountain and Mt Ainslie, on the right Mt Stromlo. So good line of sight to some of the summits worked.

Headed home for lunch

 

 

SOTA Yellow Rabbit Hill VK1/AC-039

Andrew VK1AD had organized the Annual VK1 Winter SOTA party, and I selected Yellow Rabbit Hill, VK1/AC-039 as I had not activated this summit this year.

Travelled via Cotter Road, Brindabella Road, turning off at Warks Road. Not far along the road noticed a new sign, proclaiming the area as Lower Cotter Catchment Reserve. This is to protect the water catchment of Cotter Dam from contamination.

Continued along Warks Road, turning right into Yellow Rabbit Road, which the summit is named after. Otherwise it is an unnamed hill on maps.

Turned off left onto a side road running around the Western edge of the hill, then took a minor track on the right, heading along and up the hill. Note the erosion gully at the start, needed to keep well left to get over this.

Otherwise the drive wasn't too bad, just a few minor bumps to go slowly over. Got level with the blocked off road that runs over the summit top. Parked opposite here, after continuing up and finding no-where to pull off the road, reversed and parked pointing down the hill. Not a lot of room to park but off the road here, not that this road would get much traffic anyway.

Hopped over the logs and reached the top of the hill, only about 150 m away. Set up the squid pole and radio on a handy log, and laid out the dipoles.

As well as my usual 20/40 m linked dipole, had a full size 80 m dipole that I had just made up the day before. An 80 dipole is long, very long! :) Bit of a walk each way to lay it out. One end of the dipole looking North. The squid pole is way in the distance... Had both antennas on in a fan configuration so could switch bands easily.

Looking back to the South from the other dipole leg.

SOTA Shack on the log.

Got on 80 m. Found the SWR wasn't that good, but wanted to grab a few activators first before investigating. Worked Andrew VK1AD/Tony VK1VIC on nearby Castle Hill VK1/AC-032, Matt VK1MA on Black Mountain VK1/AC-042, Gerard VK2IO on South Black Range VK2/ST-006 and Andrew VK1DA on Mt Ainslie VK1/AC-040. Had a break and examined the antenna, it wasn't the dipole, just a loose earth wire on the coax, so had been running on half an 80 m dipole! After fixing this signals were nice and strong. The dipole was resonant on 3.570 Mhz and fairly flat across the band. Managed to work Ron VK3AFW on VK3/VN-012, and a strong signal from home station Roald VK1MTS.

Switched to 40 m. NVIS signals missing so only able to work close by stations on ground wave and more distant stations. Worked Andrew VK2MWP on nearby Mt Stromlo, VK1/AC-043, VK5PAS Paul on VK5/SE-016, Andrew VK1MBE on VK2/ST-001, Paul VK1ATP/2 on VK2-ST-008.

Saw a spot for Brian VK3MCD on VK3/VE-006 Mt Hotham, so returned to 80 m and worked him with a 53 signal. Also Bernard VK2IB/3 on VK3/VE-165.

There was a spot on 20 m for Kyle ZL2KGF on ZL1/TN-006. My 20 m dipole didn't seem to load up too well, but managed to work him at a 52 signal.

Returned to 80 m, working Nick VK2AOH on VK2/CW-043, Mt Nangar, a first activation in Nangar National Park. Also another chaser, VK2AYM Bruce near Albury.

Returned to 40 m following a spot by Ian VK5CZ on VK5/NE-028.

At around noon started packing up and headed back down. An enjoyable lunch later in the afternoon with some of the other VK1 SOTA party operators.

80 m proved its worth taking along when the bands are not so good. Just need some space!

SOTA Yellow Rabbit Hill VK1/AC-039

Time for another activation of this local summit. Approached it a bit of a different route this time, instead of Bullock Paddock Road took the turnoff onto Warks Road off the Brindabella Road. Followed this along until turning off onto Yellow Rabbit Road on the left.

Followed this down the hill before taking it off to the left and around the side of Yellow Rabbit Hill

Fairly twisty but not requiring 4WD. Took an unnamed road off this heading up the hill, it got a bit steep and narrow so parked and started walking. View of the summit ahead

The road dropped and then headed to the left of the summit, climbing steadily. View to the North

The road joined another road that rises and passes close to the summit. Took an overgrown track off this on the right to the summit

Arrived at the usual operating clearing just down from the summit. Andrew VK1NAM's summit rock pile, added a few more rocks to the pile...

Set up the squid pole on the usual log.

SOTA shack on the tarp on the ground nearby. Found I had to move it later as the sun got more overhead to keep in the shade.

Got on 40 m. Peter VK3PF/7 on VK7/NW-046 was on 7.090 Mhz, so worked him first for an S2S. Found a clear frequency and spotted myself, got a good list of chasers in the log, VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK5 with nice signals. Another S2S with Al VK1RX/2 on VK2/SM-014 The Cascades, very strong signal.

Switched the linked dipole to 20 m, a few more in the log, Mike VK6MB with a good signal and John VK5BJE. Matt VK1MA popped up to advise me that VK2MWP Andrew and VK1EM Mark were now on 40 m on VK1/AC-002 Mt Gingera.

Went back to 40 m, worked them both with good strong signals, although they should be as Mt Gingera is an excellent SOTA peak and not that far away from me. Worked them again after UTC rollover, and another S2S with Peter VK3PF/7 on VK7/NW-046. Worked Mark VK1EM on 2 m SSB with a good strong signal.

Finally tried 10 m. The band was full of USA stations in a contest, sounded like a 10-10 contest going by the reports. Listened to some, they were running 500 w, 1500 w...Didn't bother trying a return call from my weak 5 w station...

Tried calling on 28.490 SSB, got Matt VK1MA with a very strong report, otherwise no other replies. I tried answering one USA station calling CQ, he came back, K0TT Denny in Minnesota. He was peaking S7, but was running some power into a good sized beam to pull me in...

Packed up and headed home for lunch. Track log of drive/walk

SOTA Activation VK1/AC-039

Being the 1st day of a new year meant I could now reactivate some of the summits I activated in 2013. I picked VK1/AC-039, an unnamed summit in Uriarra Forest to the West of Canberra, not too far away and a bit more of a challenge over the suburban summits.

As per last activation VK1/AC-039 drove down the Brindabella Rd, the Bullock Paddock Rd to Padovans Crossing. VK1/AC-039 in front.

Parked near the junction with Yellow Rabbit Rd, started walking, about 1.3 Km to the summit.

Mid way up took a "short cut" up a disused logging trail, this was a bit of a log hopping and blackberry avoiding walk though...After a while joined Yellow Rabbit Rd again and continued to the top, photo below. My last operating spot was on the disused road on the right. The pile of rocks in the foreground is where Andrew, VK1NAM activated from, going by the photos in his blog.

Set up the squid pole on a log and set up the 40m dipole.

Used the tent fly to get a comfy operating spot behind the log in the shade.

Got on 40m. The band was a S2S hunters dream! Seemed everyone else had decided to activate this morning...Worked 9 S2S contacts before I even got my first chaser!. Ended up with 12 S2S contacts and 3 chaser contacts.

Packed up around noon and headed back down, took about 30 minutes walk to the car. View heading down. Cotter dam on the right, black mountain tower on the far right horizon.

Track log of walk. Next time think I'll follow Yellow Rabbit Rd around a bit further and avoid the logs...

SOTA Activation VK1/AC-039 855m

Set off to activate SOTA summit VK1/AC-039, an unnamed peak just to the West of Canberra in Uriarra Pine Forest. Drove down Uriarra Rd, Brindabella Rd, and turned off at a junction onto Bullock Paddock Rd.

The road initially runs through pine forest

The a little later into land cleared by the 2003 Canberra Bushfire.

I somehow in the maze of unmarked forestry roads managed to miss a turnoff to Yellow Rabbit Rd, which would have taken me up the Northern side of VK1/AC-039. Instead followed a link road around the South of the summit. As behind time decided to drive as close as possible and walk directly up the spur at the Southern end of the summit, around 800m from the posted coordinates.

This turned out to be an old forestry road, long closed off by logs to stop access. No problem on foot...

Got to the top, found a still used road going around the summit, and another heading straight up it, with access blocking logs.

After some more log hopping/weaving got to the summit, worked 5 stations on the 2m hand held, signals were marginal with the tree cover. Set up the squid pole and radio on a log.

Strung the legs of the 40m dipole out to a couple of trees up and down the disused road.
View South.

View North

Signals on 40m were good, 2 19 more contacts including S2S contacts with VK3BYD and VK3ZPF.

Packed up around 11:30am and headed home. At home I looked up Andrew VK1NAM's Google Earth points on this summit, seems I missed a clearing in the trees just North of where I operated from, which explained why he did better than me on 2m...Next time I'll know...