SOTA Wingecarribee VK2/IL-002

From Bowral, drove South East along Kangaloon Road until reaching Trig Station Lane on the right.

Note Trig Station Lane does not take your to the trig.. This is a fairly narrow lane, parked at one of the few spots with enough room to get off the road and walked

The road passes a property on the right then takes you up the hill, passing to the right of the summit.

The summit is on private property. As per previous activators took advantage of the 25 m activation zone rule to get around this. The road runs parallel to the 830 m contour, and as the summit is 849 m, you are just inside the activation zone. The GPS confirmed I was at 830 m. Set up the squid pole on the property fence

SOTA station on the tarp at the base of the fence post. The radio was in some shade but I wasn't...

Got on 40 m. As around midday signals were not the best, a struggle to work some chasers. No S2S contacts. After 12 contacts had enough of the sun and packed up.

Track log of walk.

SOTA Mt Gibraltar VK2/IL-001

With a few days off work decided to do a few Illawarra summits. The first one for the day was VK2/IL-001, Mt Gibraltar, near Bowral.

Approached as per my last activation. Not the most attractive operating position, as before on a concrete slab near the trig point.

Put up both 20/40 m and 6/10 m dipoles. There was a spot for Andrew VK1NAM/2 on VK2/SW-074 on 6 m. I couldn't hear him on this band, only QRM from the nearby transmitters. Managed to work him on 40 m okay. Another S2S with VK3XL/2 on VK2/SC-022. Made 20 contacts on 40 m all up.

Tried 10 m. All I could hear was the Sydney 10 m beacon VK2RSY on ground wave...Still quite a bit of local QRM on 10 m too. Tried some calls on 20 m with no luck.

While I was there had a visitor, a VK3 doing some sightseeing with his family, had a chat.

Packed up and headed for my next summit, VK2/IL-002 Wingecarribee

SOTA Black Mountain VK2/AC-042

For the upcoming SOTA 6 and 10 m challenge made a new linked dipole to cover these bands. Thought I would test it out in the field with an activation of my local summit, Black Mountain.

As per my previous activations parked in the car park just below the summit and walked up.

The track passes close to the base of the tower and joins the road running around the top car park

Headed up the road to the lookout

Black Mountain lookout. Or it would be if the trees hadn't grown up...Set up the squid pole on the fence and strung out both my old 20/40 m linked dipole and my new 6/10 m dipole.

Shack in the small amount of shade behind the distance marker

Tried 10 m first. Worked a couple of locals, Matt VK1MA and Andrew VK1NAM with good signals.
Tried listening for 10 m beacons in the 28.2-28.3 Mhz segment of the band, could hear several, including V73TEN Marshall Islands on 28.297 Mhz and ZL3TEN New Zealand on 28.227 Mhz, so the band was open to the Pacific okay.

There were some signals from the USA, tried calling W7CI in Arizona with a good strong S8 signal. He misheard my call as K1DI and turned his beam to the East and lost me...

Popped over to 40 m to grab an S2S with Adam VK2YK/p on VK2/MN-117. Not very strong but quite readable with the low noise floor on the summit. Worked a few of the regular chasers, then went to 6 m.

Managed to work Andrew, VK2UH in Yass with a weak signal, otherwise quiet. Band didn't seem to be open. Went back to 10 m. Worked a few more locals, VK1MT Matt and VK1EM Mark, before packing up and heading home for lunch.

Track log of walk

SOTA Blackfellows Hill VK2/SM-033

After completing the activation of VK2/SM-036 drove to nearby Wares Yard Camp Ground. This is a large camping area popular with horse riders

As the end of the school holidays a lot had already packed up, but still several horses and campers there

At the far end of the camp the walking track to Blackfellows Hill, although suspect more used by horse riders than walkers

The track initially runs at right angles to the direction to Blackfellows Hill, gaining altitude. It was steep in places but not too bad.

Once on top of the ridge it head for the summit, passing over a couple of minor peaks. On the grassy ridge the March flies were really bad, a constant low buzzing around me as I walked along. If I stopped I would hear the buzzing stop, this meant they had landed on me ready to bite :( Note only the females bite, but the males are still annoying. I had repellent on but it didn't seem to put them off much.

Approaching the summit. It doesn't look far, but still over a Km to go here.

Reached the top after 4.5 Km walking. The ridge had seemed to go on forever...A grassy area with a few trees.

A bit of a view to Tantangara dam and the camp below. Mt Nungar VK2/SM-027 visible

Set up the squid pole on a fallen tree, with some shade from the trees

Shack in the grass. I left the blue tarp behind, the march flies would have loved it...Moved the radio around as the sun progressed.

Got on 40 m, to hear more activators out doing new year S2S contacts. As well as many chasers worked the following S2S contacts

VK3YY/p on VK3/VT-026
VK3BQ/2 on VK2/SM-065
VK3EK/p on VK3/VG-074
VK2IO/p on VK2/HU-093
VK1MA/2 on VK2/ST-036
VK3CAT/p on VK3/VN-030
VK3HRA/p on VK3/VN-030
VK2IB/p on VK2/RI-010
VK3PF/p on VK3/VE-004
VK3ANL/p on VK3/VC-005
VK3MTB/p on VK3/VT-057
VK1NAM/2 on VK2/ST-001
VK1DA/2 on VK2/ST-001
VK5BJE/3 on VK3/VC-019
VK2QR/p on VK2/SW-007
VK3MCD/2 on VK2/SW-007

After over an hour swatting march flies I had had enough. Walked back down the track, the march flies didn't let off until leaving the ridge.

Track profile of walk, 4.5 Km each way, with about a 250 m climb

Track log of both VK2/SM-036 and VK2/SM-033

SOTA VK2/SM-036 Unnamed peak off Tantangara Road

After staying overnight in Jindabyne drove to Berridale, then across to Adaminaby, then followed the Snowy Mounatins Highway heading for Tumut. Turned off onto Tantangara Road

Drove on Tantangara Road for about 5 Km, then turned off to the right on an unnamed dirt track

This is where the fun began...It was a narrow overgrown 4WD track. Even with the fairly good clearance of my Nissan Xtrail had bushes between the wheel tracks scraping underneath. The track wandered up the side of the mountain, squeezing in between trees. Think I picked up a few extra scratches to the car doors on the way. Not really too steep, just a bit overgrown. To my surprise made it right to the top of the plateau...The road swung South here so parked. Looking South.

The top was swarming with March flies...They seemed to like my car a lot for some reason. Walked out of and back into the activation zone, then along the plateau to the highest point, about 500 m away. Easy walking. After a few minutes walk reached the top of the mountain. A nice open meadow with some rocks and fallen trees.

Set up the squid pole on the largest log and ran the dipole legs out to a couple of trees. The wind here was quite strong, so got some shelter from it and the sun behind the log

Another view of the station

SOTA shack in the shade of the trees. Windy with March flies...

Got on 40 m just past 2300z. The band was full of activators making S2S contacts...I managed to get a spot on 7.090 Mhz and started working them...After a while moved around hunting activators across the band, plus several of the usual chasers.

Pre UTC 2014 New Year rollover S2S with

VK2HRX/p on VK2/CT-012
VK3PF on VK3/VG-001
VK2IB/p on VK2/RI-004
VK7TW/p on VK7/SC-003
VK3YY/p on VK3/VT-040
VK3EK/p on VK3/VG-114
VK3CAT/p on VK3/VN-012
VK2CDS/p on VK2/HU-020
VK1MA/2 on VK2/ST-036
VK3BQ/2 on VK2/SM-053
VK5PAS/p on VK5/SE-001
VK7FREU/p on VK7/SC-003
VK3ARR/p on VK3/VC-002
VK2IO/p on VK2/HU-093
VK1NAM/2 on VK2/SM-049
VK1DA/2 on VK2/SM-049
VK2QR/p on VK2/SW-004
VK3MCD/2 on VK2/SW-004

Post UTC 2015 New Year

VK3YY/p on VK3/VT-040
VK3ARR/p on VK3/VC-002
VK3ANL/p on VK3/VC-025
VK3PF/p on VK3/VG-001
VK1NAM/2 on VK2/SM-049
VK1DA/2 on VK2/SM-049
VK3CAT/p on VK3/VN-012
VK5PAS/p on VK5/SE-001

I very weakly heard VK6MAC on 40 m, not strong enough to make out though. We were both activating on 7.095 Mhz...

Switched to 20 m. Worked VK6NU, VK6MB, another S2S with VK5FO on VK5/SE-013, VK5CZ on VK5/NE-058 and worked Paul VK5PAS/p on VK5/SE-001 again with a good signal.

Packed up and drove back down the 4WD track, then on to Wares Camp for lunch and the next summit, VK2/SM-033 Blackfellows Hill.

Track log of drive/walk

SOTA Box Ridge VK2/SM-065

This summit was suggested to me by Andrew VK3BQ as a nice easy one to activate close to Jindabyne. From Jindabyne drove South on Barry Way, turning off to the left into Gullies Road. Initially sealed, turns to dirt later. Note this road runs past another SOTA peak, VK2/SM-064 Jillamatong Hill. This looked like it was on private property. Came to a junction, took Thorneybush Road on the left. This is marked as a Private Road.

A short distance later reached an unlocked property gate. A warning about No responsibility from owner no insurance. Also a warning about a locked gate 3 Km ahead. Andrew had advised me this is not locked.

After passing a property and climbing up a ridge reached the gate, open.

Continued on the road. A sign indicating entering Paupong Nature Reserve. Here I encountered a couple of young trail bike riders, they seemed surprised to see me...Also a 4WD driving up. The road down the hill was rough, lots of large rocks, but not too bad to need 4WD. It improved at the bottom.

Passed the park ranger, who also looked surprised to see me. Think this road does not get much traffic...Reached a road junction, Thornybush Trail with Paupong Trail. and Ventnor Trail. Parked and walked down Thorneybush Trail and back up to leave and enter the activation zone, only a short walk from here to the summit.

Followed Paupong Trail to the top of the hill. Not that steep.

The activation zone was quite large with the road running over the highest point. Used a Telstra cable warning sign on the side of the road for squid pole and dipole support.

Forgot to actually photograph the antenna! Anyway this is where it was, dipole parallel to the road

Got on 40 m. The band was in good condition, signals from VK1, VK2 and VK3 very strong, with even VK5 and VK7 good copy. I had Justin VK7TW a good 58 from Hobart! No S2S contacts though, a bit late in the day.

Tried 20 m, only 1 contact, Andrew VK3BQ/2 at Thredbo Diggings nearby.

Packed up and headed back to Jindabyne for New Years Eve celebrations.

SOTA The Cascades VK2/SM-014

Left Jindabyne at 8:30 am, drove up the Alpine Way to Thredbo, stopping to pay $16 for the Kosziusko national park one day entry fee. Just past Thredbo stopped at Dead Horse Gap, a car parking area for several walks in the area. Quite full at 9 am. Took the Cascade Trail.

This follows the Thredbo River up the valley. Quite scenic.

After 2.5 Km the track crosses the Thredbo river. NSW Parks have provided a good foot bridge here for walkers.

The crystal clear Thredbo River

After the river crossing the track climbs steeply up Bobs Ridge. To get to the Cascades peak, cut off cross country to the left of the track for about a 400 m bush bash.

Not very hard, some marshy bits and a few rocks to navigate around.

Reached the top. There is a trig here, a simple post on the highest rock.

Just below the trig to the South a pleasant grassy area in the activation zone

Set up the squid pole on a dead snow gum, with the dipole legs strung out to some trees

Set up the SOTA shack in the grass in the shade of the trees. Quite pleasant, apart from the odd March Fly...

Got on 40 m about 20 minutes before UTC rollover, got swamped by chasers...from VK1, VK2 VK3 and VK5. All good strong signals, even VK5s quite good. A S2S with Peter VK3PF on VK3/RI-033 Hamilton Hill. Post UTC rollover another S2S with Peter, also Matt VK1MA/3 on VK3/VE-105 Mt Big Ben

Tried switching the dipole to 20 m. Worked Ernie VK3DET with a good signal, Andrew VK3BQ/2 with a weak signal from nearby Thredbo Diggings. He invited me to say hello after activating. Went on to work VK7YP, VK2UH and VK2KTT, before packing up and heading back down for lunch in Thredbo. It took me a bit over an hour to get back down.

After lunch drove to Thredbo Diggings. Found Andrew by his Antennas :) He was camping there with the family, his wife Christine VK3FCEK and his 2 boys Toby and Nathan. Had a good chat about SOTA and a cup of tea. He suggested an easy nearby summit to try in the afternoon, Box Ridge VK2/SM-065, with instructions on getting there. Thanks Andrew :)

Track log of walk.

Track profile. About a 4.8 Km walk each way with a 300 m climb