VK2JI/5 – SOTA – VK5 – One Year of SOTA in VK5 celebration

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South Australia SOTA regions

SOTA activations in South Australia.

I was very lucky to be able to combine a trip back to where I once lived in Adelaide to visit friends with the celebration of 1 year of SOTA in VK5 on October 6th. 2013.

I planned to activate two summits – Mt Gawler (VK5/SE-013) on Saturday the 5th. and Mt Lofty (VK5/SE-005) on Sunday the 6th.

I was surprised at the contrast between these two activations, with the lower scoring and lower in height Mt Gawler proving in many ways to be a better activation than Mt. Lofty. Perhaps it was just conditions or the direction I set up the antenna at Mount Lofty but contacts were harder to obtain from Mt Lofty on the Sunday than from Mt Gawler on the Saturday, despite the fact that the Sunday was the official celebration of 1 year of SOTA in VK5.

Activation #1 – Mt. Gawler VK5/SE-013

The actual summit for Mount Gawler is on private land. Ian VK5CZ had kindly given me the contact details of the land owner but as this was to be a “flying visit” and there was the possibility that I might have to cancel the Saturday activation if other commitments came up, I preferred to leave this open. When I looked at where the activation zone for Mount Gawler goes to I could see that a long stretch of the road (or rather track) was indeed in the activation zone, so I decided to risk the fact that I might not find somewhere to pull off the road to set up. In fact, the contrary was the case as I found a great spot at the junction of Richardson Road and Mount Gawler Road, that was perfect for my use.

Upon arriving a little earlier than planned after an hours drive from Glenelg near Adeliade and finding the site so quickly, I walked down Richardson Road which drops very steeply away out of the activation zone. Down was easy, back up somewhat harder. I did this to follow the accepted VK practice of walking out of and back into the activation zone when you arrive in a car and park it inside the activation zone. As clarified by the SOTA MT, this is not actually needed and there appears to be an incorrect linking between the activation zone definition and “final approach by non-motorised means rule.

In any case once I had done the walk and then rested a little I looked around at several possible points to set up and before I knew where I was, it was almost the time that I had posted on SOTAWatch to start the activation! It turned out to a busy day with many more activators on than expected.

Video of both activations follows the report on Mt. Lofty.

Activation #2 – Mt. Lofty VK5/SE-005

A little later start from the hotel for the Mt. Lofty activation as it was only about 30 minutes out of Adelaide. The weather was cold but the high winds of Saturday were gone. On this activation my wife joined me and I had her drop me out with my equipment down the road so that I could walk up into the activation area.

Rather than block the summit’s look out area, I decided to set up in the bush land, just away from the car park, near a small monument. I put up the antenna and set up as usual but this activation was a disappointment compared to the previous day. Perhaps the location was not so good, perhaps band conditions on 40, 30 & 20 were worse than on the previous day or perhaps I had put the antenna up facing in the wrong directions. Whatever the reason, contacts were fewer and harder to get. I operated before and after the UTC change-over but by lunch time, I’d had enough and decided to pack up and have a leisurely afternoon.

Video

Unfortunately audio quality on this video was not good but I hope you find it interesting in any case:

Stations Worked

Saturday from Mt Gawler

VK5LY Larry, VK3AZZ Mal, VK3FPSR Peter,
VK3WAM/P Wayne (S2S), VK3ANL/P Nick,
VK3CAT Tony, VK3PF Peter, VK3OHM Mark,
VK3UBY Colin, VK3YY, VK2UH Andrew,
VK5HCF Col, VK3GRW Greg, VK3DET Ernie,
VK5PAS Paul, VK3GHZ Rhett, VK5LA Andrew,
VK3HRA, VK3AMB, VK3BYD, VK1MA Matt,
VK2GEL/P Brendon (S2S), VK5WG, VK1RX Al,
VK2DAG, VK7DC/P David, VK6MB Dale,
VK3AFW Ron, VK3MRG/P Marshall (S2S),
VK5CZ Ian, VK3YAR/P Ray (S2S), VK3MCD Brian,
VK3XPT/P Perrin (S2S), VK2YK/P Adam (S2S),
VK3FTRV/P Ben (S2S), VK2AWJ/P3 John.

Sunday From Mt Lofty

VK5LY Larry, VK3FPSR Peter, VK3CAT Tony,
VK5WG Nev, VK5BJE John, VK3YE/PM Peter,
VK3UBY Colin, VK3PF Peter, VK3DET Ernie,
VK1RX/P2 Al (S2S), VK3JM, VK5CZ/P Ian (S2S),
VK2YW, VK3AFW Ron, VK5PAS/P Paul (S2S),
VK5FAKV, VK1DA/P2 Andrew (S2S), VK3YY,
VK2IB/P (S2S), VK5HCF/P Col (S2S), VK5TX Ben,
VK1MA/P2 Matt (S2S), VK5LA/P Andy (S2S)

VK2JI – SOTA in VK2 – 15th. September Mt Elliot VK2/HU-093 – A special day in so many ways

Posted on 19/09/2013 by VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

While I had already activated Mt Elliot, activating it again would not gain me any activator points this year but while I had decided to get away from the urban electrical noise, chasing from a SOTA summit rather than you a good portable location, has the advantage of giving other chasers points in the award scheme and I would gain chaser points from any Summit-to-Summit contacts. As I had given a lecture on SOTA to the Central Coast ARC on Saturday, I wanted to be on-air to give any of the lecture attendees who decided to try SOTA chasing, a point and indeed one, Karen VK2AKB was on chasing on Sunday.

The weather forecast was for light showers and for once it was correct, just a few sprinklings of rain en-route to site and a couple of times after I was set up.

But today was to be a very special day as I had quietly crept up on the 1000 chaser points (Shack Sloth) level and being at 993 points by the Friday, I was confident of tipping it over the 1000 through contacts on Saturday. When I saw Glen VK1FB was heading out to Mount Ginini, this was ideal – an 8 pointer that would take me to 1001 points, so I dropped Glen an email and we set up a sked for 9am local when he planned to be on the summit.

With my activation of Mt Elliot on the first day of SOTA in VK2 I had activated in 5 associations (G, DL, OE, VK1 and now VK2), this meant I could apply for the Bronze Mountain Explorer award, which I did a week ago. During last week I was looking through at the various awards, I realised I was also eligible for the 100 point unique summits chased (more wall paper for the shack, so I applied for that as well). To my surprise I also realised I was only one contact away from Mountain Hunter Bronze! Would you believe it on Friday evening I see that Brendan VK4FADI and Glen VK4FSCC will be out at 7:30am(!!) activating Mt Mary Smokes and that would be the one I need to have chased 2 summits in each of 5 associations (VKs1,2,3,4 &5). The only small problem is 7:30 am, when they plan to be on, is about when I would be leaving to go to Mt. Elliot in time for my sked at 9am with Glen. So the night before I packed everything in the car ready to go. At 7:30am I am alert and listening for the VK4 boys. Then exactly on schedule, Brendan VK4FADI/P starts calling CQ at a good 5-3 into my home station. I call and work Brendan and Glen (VK4FSCC/P), that’s the Mountain Hunter in the bag and I quickly close down the home station and dash to the car to get up to Mt. Elliot.

Summit activation –

As it turns out I had a good run taking about 10 minutes less than normal to get to site, I grab my packs and head down the trail to descend 25m out of and back into the activation area and (out of breath) return to my usual activation spot, where a clear track has been beaten through the brush from previous tests and the last activation. The antenna goes up first, followed by the chairs and lastly the rig itself. I have about 10 minutes to spare and tune around 40 to check I can hear OK. This time I hear Glen VK4FSCC calling CQ (now up at 5-5 from the better location) and so decide to give him and Brendan a call. I will not gain any points from these calls as I had already worked them, but this would give them points for a Summit to Summit contact. Most importantly this wont kick the total over the 1000 point mark. I wanted that to be my contact with Glen VK1FB as agreed and indeed about 15 minutes later after chatting to Andrew VK2UH on Glen and my agreed sked frequency, there was Glen with a solid 5-9 signal on his new antenna. That was it – 1005 chaser points achieved!

So now I could relax and enjoy the activation both before and after UTC change-over. Apparently my second contact with Marshall VK3MRG/P (who was portable from the banks of the Yarra) tipped him over the 1000 chaser points as well, that was a nice surprise – this has really turned out to be a special day.

I tried 20m and 30m as well. I was disappointed with 20m with no contacts despite spotting and calling, calling, calling but when I moved to 30m I bagged 5 contacts a couple who reported they could not quite hear me on 40m but 30m was fine. This is a relief as my previous attempt to get onto 30m from Canoelands Ridge the previous Sunday failed with errors being displayed on the FT817. After a reset to factory defaults, all seems fine now. The SOTABeams Band-Hopper linked dipole seems to be working fine. I wonder if I should modify it to add 12m to its current 20,30,40 & 80m capabilities?

As usual an important part of any activation is making a few pictures or videos, this time I have more radio “footage” of contacts I made and listened to – perhaps you are one of the stations I “caught” on video?

I’d like to put out a big thanks to all of the activators and chasers who have made my participation in the SOTA scheme such an enjoyable and pleasant one. I’d like to thank particularly Glen VK1FB/P for tipping my score over the 1000 mark and Brendan VK4FADI and Glen VK4FSCC for getting me my Bronze Mountain Hunter award but of course I would never have got near these scores without the whole community of activators and helpful chasers guiding me to these levels. It’s taken me just over 6 months to get to Shack Sloth. Now that I’ve started activating, I suspect i will most likely need nearer to 6 years to get to Mountain Goat (if I ever do). I know this is a part of the hobby that I am really enjoying and it’s mainly because of the kindness and politeness of all of the rest of you helping each other along. Something that I try to emulate.

List of stations worked –

40 metres.

VK4FSCC/P – Glen (S2S)

VK4FADI/P – Brendan (S2S)

VK2UH – Andrew

VK1FB/P – Glen (S2S)

VK3FPSR – Peter

VK2YW – John

VK2MEV /QRP – Brenton (2W)

VK3PF – Peter

VK4GSF /QRP – George (7W)

VK3MRG/P – Marshall

VK1MA – Matt

VK5LA – Andy

VK2JCC – Colin

VK5PAS – Paul

VK1MDC – Marc

VK2GKA / QRP (5W)

VK1RX – Al

VK2AKB / QRP – Karen (10W?)

VK3YE / Pedestrian Mobile – Peter

VK1MA – Matt

VK3DET – Ernie

30 metres.

VK3DET – Ernie

VK3PF – Peter

VK4BG – Glen

VK3KAN/P QRP – Rik

VK5LA – Andy

Awards

(Thanks Barry GM4TOE for sending these so quickly)

19th. May 2013 – “reccy” of two possible future VK2 SOTA summits.

Posted on 20/05/2013 by VK2JI DD5LP G8GLM

Mount White & Mount Elliot.

Having done the work to classify the summits in the southern half of the Hunter region in VK2, Rod (VK2LAX) and I decided to go and check out the two closest to our home locations to see how easy access would be once (hopefully) they are accepted into the SOTA system.

SOTA – VK2 – Hunter Region.

Mount White.

The first area we planned to visit was Mt. White, which is part of the Central Coast of NSW just north of the Hawkesbury River. We aimed to get there in time for the multiple activations planned in VKs 1, 3 & 5 before and after the UTC clock change-over. Our intention was never to scale the actual peak, just to operate portable from somewhere in the area. Not having been to the area before we did not know what to expect and when we arrived and headed for the end of the highest road, we found there was nowhere to pull off the road to park and set up station. The fields, used in the most part for horse breeding and training in this , were fenced right up to the roadside or where there was some space it had be prepared like a front lawn by the owners of the adjacent property and certainly would object to us parking our cars on it and setting up a mast! So we headed for our second choice high road in the area only to find similar problems except on one verge were all seemed OK, there were high voltage power lines so low that our vertical antenna would be amongst them. Luckily after parking, we realised this before we set up the antenna. After more searching (and with time running out), we eventually found some space at the side of the road and set up quickly. There was still a cable overhead but just a telephone cable this time. Although it looks sunny in the photos there was a bitter wind and we had set up in the shade so the sun did not help to defrost the frozen fingers trying to operate – I must remember gloves next time!

Generally access to the actual summit looks like it will be only possible through negotiations with the local land owners, There does not appear to be any public right of way to the summit and if there were, there’s no where to park on the public roads.

After setting up we managed to work a great number of activators most, both before and after the change over – so thanks to: Rik VK3KAN, Ian VK1DI, Marshall VK3MRG, Al VK1RX, Kevin VK3KAB, Glenn VK3YY, Paul VK5PAS for the chaser points!

Following verification of summit data, unfortunately it has been found that Mount White does not have the required prominence to qualify – so the issues to get access to the summit are no longer important.

Mount Elliot.

Mount Elliot, just north of Gosford is almost certainly one of the easiest summits anywhere to reach with a road right up to the summit. As you will see from the photos there is a communications station almost on the summit, that we parked outside of. I say almost on the summit, as the actual highest point is actually in the garden of the house across the road. The owner of that house came by while walking his dogs to ask us what we were doing and was very interested (he was duly left with a WIA brochure and contact card for our local (CCARC) club. I’m sure it would be an easy negotiation to park the cars in the car park down the hill and walk up the last 100m to the top, set up and operate in this residents front garden. There’s more here however. Down the road (a lot less than 25m drop in vertical height), there’s a small park with seats and an electric barbeque, where it should also be simple to set up a SOTA station. Activation in 5 star comfort!

Although we heard several none-SOTA stations from this location, it was at the time when the activators in VK1 & VK3 were moving from their first to their second summit and we ran out of time because of other commitments to wait at this location for their return. The noise level here was also high, most likely from being so close to the communications station, so the park a little way down the hill sounds like the best place to try – perhaps another Sunday.

Phegans Bay Heights.

I stopped off on my way home at Pheagans Bay Heights where another local amateur, Doug VK2MDC was operating from with an FT-817 and a home made dipole, and was able to work Kevin VK3YY and Glenn VK3YY who had by this time moved from Mount. Stirling to Mount Buller through the snow and also Allen VK3HRA. This was not on a prospective SOTA summit but the set-up used by Doug is closer to what will normally be used and I’ve included a couple of photos here because of the fantastic view from up above Brisbane Waters and the Woy Woy Peninsula.

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Blog of Amateur Radio enthusiast Ed Durrant

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