With a break between Christmas and the New Year, it was obviously a good time to get some summits under the belt. These summits are some of the closest to home that I hadn’t yet activated and I had my chance to do so with the family camping at O'Tooles Flat in the Eildon National Park. Due to the adhoc nature of these activations, I did'nt put up alerts prior and couldn’t reliably spot myself when on the summits.
Mt Terrible Spur VK3/VE-134
Activated 27 December 2013
This summit is accessed via the Eildon-Jamieson Road from Bald Hill Gap. The vehicle track climbs steeply from here and was no problem to get to in dry conditions in 2WD. I parked on the northern side of the summit just before the activation zone and hiked to the top. The summit is a cleared area but to the side there are plenty of large trees to string an antenna from. I elected to spike the vertical HF antenna into the ground and run the radials out to save time.
My first contact was an S2S with Ian VK1DI and over the next 20 minutes I only logged another 6 stations. Not wanting to hang around I packed and went back to the car and continued south along the Mt Terrible Track to Mt Terrible.
Activated 27 December 2013
This summit is accessed via the Eildon-Jamieson Road from Bald Hill Gap. The vehicle track climbs steeply from here and was no problem to get to in dry conditions in 2WD. I parked on the northern side of the summit just before the activation zone and hiked to the top. The summit is a cleared area but to the side there are plenty of large trees to string an antenna from. I elected to spike the vertical HF antenna into the ground and run the radials out to save time.
My first contact was an S2S with Ian VK1DI and over the next 20 minutes I only logged another 6 stations. Not wanting to hang around I packed and went back to the car and continued south along the Mt Terrible Track to Mt Terrible.
Mt Terrible VK3/VE-067
Activated 27 December 2013
Mt Terrible Track gets a little more challenging from Mt Terrible Spur. I was able to do it in 2WD but the additional ground clearance of my vehicle was an advantage over the spoon drains and rocky bits. Forget attempting this track in the wet unless you have 4WD capability.
On arriving at the summit I parked past the fire tower and strolled around to contemplate a suitable position to operate from. I was tempted to set up by the remnant concrete foundations of Mt Terrible Hut that is no longer but I was sure that it would have been noisy with all the other comms gear on the site. The guy in the fire tower was looking down at me and yelled out hello. I told him what I was up to and he suggested setting up on the nearby helipad well within the activation zone as other radio operators have done. This seemed to be a sensible option so I strolled to the site and beyond to ensure that I walked out of the activation zone and back prior to setting up the vertical HF antenna.
Activated 27 December 2013
Mt Terrible Track gets a little more challenging from Mt Terrible Spur. I was able to do it in 2WD but the additional ground clearance of my vehicle was an advantage over the spoon drains and rocky bits. Forget attempting this track in the wet unless you have 4WD capability.
On arriving at the summit I parked past the fire tower and strolled around to contemplate a suitable position to operate from. I was tempted to set up by the remnant concrete foundations of Mt Terrible Hut that is no longer but I was sure that it would have been noisy with all the other comms gear on the site. The guy in the fire tower was looking down at me and yelled out hello. I told him what I was up to and he suggested setting up on the nearby helipad well within the activation zone as other radio operators have done. This seemed to be a sensible option so I strolled to the site and beyond to ensure that I walked out of the activation zone and back prior to setting up the vertical HF antenna.
My first contact was an S2S with Glenn VK3YY in company with Kevin VK3KAB and Trevor VK3ATB on Mt Reynard. After working all three I quickly worked another 4 stations before packing up hand heading back to the car.
Bald Hill VK3/VE-131
Activated 27 December 2013
Bald Hill is oddly named as it is not bald at all. It is accessed by a steep track heading north from the Bald Hill Gap on Eildon Jamieson Road. I drove up to near the summit in 4WD and had to walk out of the activation zone and back in past my parking spot to a sheltered clearing providing good opportunity to string up a dipole. Because I wanted to hurry along, I spiked the vertical HF antenna into the ground and was on the air a few minutes later.
I was only on air for 10 minutes and logged 7 stations, all regular SOTA chasers. I was kept amused during the activation watching ants carrying off a number of stunned march flies I swatted. With the march flies constantly attacking and seemingly unbothered with a liberal application of Aeroguard, I was glad to pack up quickly and head back to rejoin the family at our camp site at O'Tooles Flat to partake in a good camp meal and a bottle of red.
Activated 27 December 2013
Bald Hill is oddly named as it is not bald at all. It is accessed by a steep track heading north from the Bald Hill Gap on Eildon Jamieson Road. I drove up to near the summit in 4WD and had to walk out of the activation zone and back in past my parking spot to a sheltered clearing providing good opportunity to string up a dipole. Because I wanted to hurry along, I spiked the vertical HF antenna into the ground and was on the air a few minutes later.
I was only on air for 10 minutes and logged 7 stations, all regular SOTA chasers. I was kept amused during the activation watching ants carrying off a number of stunned march flies I swatted. With the march flies constantly attacking and seemingly unbothered with a liberal application of Aeroguard, I was glad to pack up quickly and head back to rejoin the family at our camp site at O'Tooles Flat to partake in a good camp meal and a bottle of red.