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...

SOTA Isaacs Ridge VK1/AC-041

Forecast for Sunday was good so decided to activate another SOTA summit, Isaacs Ridge, VK1/AC-041. This is a 840m hill at the top of a pine plantation at the back of the Canberra suburb of Isaacs. Parked off Long Gully Road and started the walk.

Soon found the road heading steeply upwards through the pines.

The road joins the top ridge road, after which walking became a lot easier. Several transmission towers in sight.

Some good views out the West. Can see Mt Taylor which I climbed last Sunday, and the Brindabellas in the distance.

Also see the Tuggeranong valley

Set up the 40m dipole on a fence post near one of the towers, close to the summit. Turned on and found S9+ noise over the whole band...

On 2m hand held simplex heard Andrew VK1NAM and Matt VK1MA discussing where I was, so told them the bad news on the local RF QRM...Will need to move the antenna to a quieter RF spot. In the meantime worked 6 stations on 2m, so at least I got the summit activated. Tried jamming the squid pole in a rocky outcrop nearby, unfortunately the pole fell down and split in one of the middle sections...so left with a 3-4m squid pole instead of 7m.... Mounted it as best I could on the nearby fence on one of the star pickets.

Set up the FT817 on a nearby rock

This rather crude arrangement at least got me on air. Noise over the band was down to S7-S8 so could at least work stations with signals over this strength. In all managed 20 contacts on 40m, including S2S contacts with VK3ZPF, VK3KAB, VK1RX and VK3MRG, so not a bad result from a bad site and antenna. I seemed to be getting out okay, just not able to hear that well. Sorry if I missed anyone calling.

SOTA Activation Mt Taylor 856m

Mt Taylor, being right in the Canberra suburbs, is a popular summit to activate, not very hard to get to and ideal for a morning activation.

Drove to the end of Waldock St in Chifley where there is a walking track up the mountain.

The track continues on the right to the Summit Foot track, a closed off gravel road for access to the radio masts on top.

After a short steep bit good views over Woden towards the North of Canberra appear. Black Mountain with its tower can be seen, Lake Burley Griffin and Woden town centre.

Looking back down the steep track.Canberra looks good in the Autumn with the leaves changing colour.

After about a 10 minute walk reached the summit, Mt Taylor Trig.

Near the base of the trig was a flat topped rock, used this as a table for the FT817. Another nearby rock made a handy seat, with my mouse mat for comfort.

Strapped the 7m squid pole onto a leg of the trig, ran one leg of the dipole down to a nearby log.

The other leg of the dipole ran across to a nearby tree branch. Had to make sure the wire was fairly high so the constant stream of walkers, joggers and dog walkers didn't run into it... While operating even got fitness fanatics doing pull ups on the bars of the trig!

Got on 40m at 9:30am and got a nice pileup of chasers going :)  Usual chasers from VK1/VK2/VK3. Into the new UTC day worked several again. Worked Paul, VK5PAS and Andy, VK5AKH portable on  VK5/SE-017, South Hummocks for a VK1-VK5 S2S :)

Also worked Andrew VK1NAM on VK1/AC-012 Orroral Hill on 2m SSB and FM, and on 40m.

Another portable station I worked was VK3YE, Peter, pedestrian mobile on Chelsea Beach in Melbourne, only 51 but good signal. Peter is fairly famous for his pedestrian mobile operating, check out Youtube.

All up 33 contacts. About 11:30am packed up and headed back down for lunch in nearby Woden.

SOTA Activation Booroomba Rocks 1382m

Saturday 30th March 2013

After activating nearby VK1/AC-027 set off to do nearby Booroombra Rocks, VK1/AC-026. This is an area well used by rock climbers so was a car park and walking track to get within 500m of the summit.

A 2.5 km return walk. There were lots of people on the track, a lady asked me what the squid pole was for, was I going fishing :)

Got to the top of the track and bush bashed across to the summit. 

Booroombra Rocks is really 3 peaks with the highest being the SOTA summit. Lots of rocky slabs, with some scrub bashing/wading to get between them. Okay once you get onto the rock slabs...

Reached the rock cairn on top. Managed another 2m hand held to hand held with Wayne, VK3WAM/1 heading up to Mt Scabby. 

Worked a few locals on 2m FM, all very strong. This is a great VHF site! Wedged the squid pole in a rocky crevice and set up the FT817 nearby on the rocks

Didn't seem to be many of the regular chasers about, only worked 5 stations on 40m. The band was good though, there was a CQ WPX contest on, could even hear Russian and European stations quite well.

View was fantastic! Photo below of Mt Tennent and Tuggeranong valley to the left of it.

Packed up about 4:30 pm. Headed back down the same way.

SOTA Activation VK1/AC-027 Honeysuckle Creek area 1365m

Saturday 30th March 2013

SOTA summit VK1/AC-027  is an unnamed peak near the former site of the Honeysuckle Creek tracking station, now a camping ground, to the south of Canberra.

Drove through the camping ground until coming to a turnoff marked "Management Vehicles Only", this is where I parked and started walking.

 After a short walk spotted the peak in the distance.

Didn't look too hard, I was to learn later this was not the case...The road climbed up the hill a bit then to the left, ending at some water reservoirs. Probably for use in fire fighting.

At this point the GPS showed around 500m to the summit. Left the road and started bush bashing my way up hill.

Lots of fallen branches, logs and thick vegetation. Also rocky outcrops to climb over and around.

Got quite scratched and bruised my knee on a fall. It was tough going! After almost an hour, reached the top at 10:30pm.  Got the hand held out and worked Wayne, VK3WAM/1 on Mt Murray, hand held to hand held, he was packed up and waited to work me before heading off. A good signal. 

The Summit appeared to be a bunch of boulders on top, nowhere to put a dipole so dropped down a bit.

GPS showed around the correct height and location

Set up the FT817 on a nearby log, worked VK1NAM and VK1MA both with weak signals on 2m. Not a great VHF takeoff to Canberra.

Set up the squid pole using a nearby sapling tree as a support and strung out the legs as best as possible given the thick scrub.

Found 40m in poor shape, stations very weak. Only worked 8 stations. From comments seemed to be just poor propagation and not the antenna. Heard another activator, VK3KAN/p but too weak to make out. Also managed another contact with Wayne, VK3WAM/1 hand held to hand held, no longer on Mt Murray, but gave him some more chaser points.

Packed up after lunch. Battled back down through the scrub, coming out a different way, but still hard going.

On to the next summit, VK1/AC-026, Booroombra Rocks

SOTA Activation Pheasant Hill 1455m

Decided to do a first time activation of SOTA summit VK1/AC-021, Pheasant Hill. Note this is misspelt on the VK1 summit list as "Pleasant Hill". Drove down Sunday morning to the far end of the ACT, took about a hour and a half, slow going on the unsealed Boboyan road. Arrived just before 10am at historic Brayshaw's Hut for morning tea.

Pheasant Hill can be seen at the back of the hut. The GPS showed the summit a bit under 2 Km away. There is a sign near the hut telling a bit about the history, and the start of the Settlers Track to Westerman's Homestead.

After morning tea walked to the edge of the hut clearing and started climbing. Fairly open scrub, could push through it easy enough, just following animal tracks.

There were even a few nice grassy areas on the way.

Eventually got to the top after about 50 minutes. The summit is not really well defined, and I could not find any trig or cairn. Just a hilltop with rocks and trees...The altitude on the GPS seemed to agree with the published height of 1455m.

Close by to the summit was a nice grassy clearing with a big log to sit on. Strapped the squid pole to a small sapling wattle tree and set up the shack on the log.

Ran the legs of the 40m dipole out to a couple of nearby trees.

  First contact on 40m was Andrew VK1NAM/p on VK1/AC-039, for a S2S. Then worked heaps of VK3s, most with booming S9 signals! I was worried the local VK1s would have been in the skip zone, being only 70km away from Canberra, however several were good signals too. Even worked Peter, VK3PF portable using the squid pole near the car. Band really quiet and easy to work. Waited until Allen, VK1HRA/p came up on Grampians peak VK3/VW-001 at 12:30pm and had lunch. Worked several more stations, most very strong VK3s. 25 contacts in the log.

Headed back down around 2:30pm, a slightly different way. Did find a bit of scrub in a gully, otherwise not hard. A pleasant day on Pheasant Hill :)