VK2/SM-052 BALD MOUNTAIN Saturday 13 April 2024

A cool foggy morning greeted me as I set off on my two-hour, 106-kilometre drive to Bald Mountain VK2/SM-052. All was good.

For trip planning, (this was my first activation of this summit), Google Maps offered me three or four options. The most direct (shortest) route suggested was to depart via Queanbeyan to Captains Flat and then track south via Jerangle Road. Previous activators suggested (by virtue of leaving an excellent GPX track on our local Groups IO ‘SOTAvk1area’ chat group) that I just head south down the Monaro Highway to Bredbo – turn left and heading east then north along Jerangle Road, which results in a half circle looping back towards Captains Flat – and away from the summit.

Being somewhat familiar with the Monaro Highway and wanting to explore some new territory, I opted for the shorter and most direct route via, you guessed it, a coffee drive though at Queanbeyan. For the record, my trip to the summit took 1 hour, 50 minutes, including a brief stop at Captains Flat, which was the last civilisation before the summit! From Captains Flat take Jerangle Road south, then turn onto Anembo Road, which becomes the Slap Up Firetrail. The roads are narrow, rutted – but a 2WD with decent clearance could easily navigate the entire route… just take it easy! Ruts, potholes, very narrow, on-coming traffic, many (MANY!!) kangaroos and wallabies, and just to make things interesting, it was foggy. The route does not involve steep, winding ascents, and effectively follows a ridge line. I did have my Garmin Overlander operating and recording my journey as well).

Google Maps Timeline record of round trip.

Image of GPX track recording of my trip to the summit.

I drove my car right up to the locked gate, which was barring vehicular access to the trig area.

It is a 100 metre walk from my 4WD to the Bald Mountain trig and, according to my Suunto watch with barometric altimeter, and confirmed by my GPS Garmin Overlander, I was 1466m ASL… The summit, iaw SOTA Database, is 1469… placing me well inside the AZ, so I decided to set up beside my car.

I set up my 10m flowerpot antenna (https://vk1nam.wordpress.com/2022/12/02/28-mhz-antenna-project-10m-flowerpot-antenna/ ) as well as an EFHW which covers 80m, 40m, 20m, 15m, 10m and 6m. Radio IC-705 with 7.5Ah Lithium-Ion battery. It’s a drive up – so yeah – table and chair and even a fancy Begali CW key. Unfortunately, I only remembered to take a photo after I had started packing up!

A successful activation with 10m DX into JA, mainland USA, New Zealand as well as some local VK including S2S with Matt VK1MA on VK1/AC-008 Mt Ginini, and Gerard VK2IO/P on VK2/ST-009 Mt Palerang.

Callsign	Band	Mode
ZL2IFB	28MHz	CW
WY7N4	28MHz	CW
JH1MXV	28MHz	CW
W6LEN	28MHz	CW
KF6HI	28MHz	CW
JG0AWE	28MHz	CW
JA1VVH	28MHz	CW
W7USA	28MHz	CW
KG8P	28MHz	CW
VK5IS	14MHz	CW
VK2GAZ	7MHz	CW
VK3PF	7MHz	CW
VK1AO	7MHz	CW
VK2IO/P	7MHz	CW
VK3DL	7MHz	CW
VK1AO	7MHz	CW
VK1MA	28MHz	SSB
VK1RX/P	28MHz	SSB
ZL3ASN	28MHz	SSB
ZL3MR	28MHz	SSB
VK2IO/P	28MHz	CW
N6PKT	28MHz	CW
ZL1TM	28MHz	CW
WA7JTM	28MHz	CW
VK3PF	7MHz	CW

With contacts drying up and the temperature dropping I headed for home – arriving at around 3.45pm…………………

My positive mood rapidly vapourised on hearing the horrific news breaking out of Sydney…… it certainly put the rest of my day in perspective.

73, Stay safe

DE
VK1MCW

VK2/SW-027 Mt Tumorrama & VK2/SW-028 Snow Gum Mountain Saturday 23 March 2024

With the 10m SOTA Challenge, and aware of the fact that 28MHz has been running hot of late, combined with the opportunity to acquire a bunch of Summit To Summit (S2S) contacts with those charging around the Victorian Alps, a chance for some Long Path DX to Europe, what better excuse does one need to just to get out in fresh air, on a summit and to have fun.

A perfect Autumn day for a drive across the Brindabella Mountains out to Mt Tumorrama VK2/SW-027 and then over to Snow Gum Mountain VK2/SW-028 – a round trip of 287 kilometres . This was the 4th time I have combined these summits for a day trip.

Brindabella Road is in need of work. I have seen it much worse, but it is quite rough in places. At one stage I was forced to crawl along behind a tiny 2WD hatchback – it was swerving between small rocks that most cars/4WDs would clear easily…. Why do people do this? Crazy….. The route I take to Mt Tumorrama is to head out Brindabella Road and take a right onto Wee Jasper Forest Road then left on to Tumorrama Trig Road – the left again onto Lookout Rd. I suggest to those heading out from Canberra that one ignores some published advice to approach via Cockatoo Rd.
One possible issue I noted as I headed to my first summit was that Nottingham Road was closed to traffic entering from Brindabella Road – hmmmm… How would I get to Snow Gum? One mention of this to Andrew VK1AD who had trod the path MANY times before me suggested an alternative – and my day continued as planned….Thanks Andrew!

Mt Tumorrama is thickly covered with thistles and blackberry bushes. Local RF noise ( from the adjacent communications tower ) on 20m was about S5. My log for 10m included 2 x JA and 2 x ZL – (Andrea ZL1TM and Wynne ZL2ATH), local S2S contacts with Andrew VK1AD and Al VK1RX. Just one 40m CW contact – also an S2S – with Bernard VK2IB on VK3-VE-082. I had contact with John VK6NU, but could not complete the exchange… but we caught up later!

I headed back to Brindabella Rd and turned left back towards Canberra… drove past the closed entry to Nottingham Rd, but then turned hard left onto Ridge Road which made a T intersection with Nottingham Rd beyond the ‘closed’ portion. From there it was an easy drive to Snow Gum Mountain. I spotted some slithering wildlife on the way to Snow Gum – and no, I did not run over the poor thing – it managed to get out of the way.

Snow Gum was deserted ( no surprise ). I set up two antennae – the 10m flower pot, and an EFHW that covers 40, 20m, 15m and 10 m.

My radio of choice was the IC-705 powered by a 7.5 Ah 12.8v LiFeP04- through an Elecraft T1 antenna tuner-(needed for 15m on the EFHW). With a fully charged battery, that gave me and advertised 10watts of output.

Unfortunately, the team at Hotham could not be heard – I could see some of their spots – but no luck. The number of SotaWatch ‘Spots’ related to their activity seemed quite small – but that can probably be explained by a lack of internet coverage.
Time certainly whizzed by -and I was kept busy… See the following image of the contact paths of which the EU were all Long Path (LP) – but the map is generated with Short Path….
10m Challenge – just six contacts,
15 m – 5 contacts including John VK6NU
20 m – was excellent for LP to EU – 11 contacts, all CW to EU

And…. The view at sunset?

An uneventful drive home via Wee Jasper – lots of creatures out inspecting the road – but we managed to avoid impact. Pulled up in my driveway at 2130 local. It was a great day out. Loved every minute!
Thanks again to Andrew VK1AD for putting out the’ SOTAvk1area’ Group email to confirm those of us who ventured out on Saturday had got home safely. Green lights all round.

Bill VK1MCW

Mt Tumorrama VK2/SW-027 & Snow Gum Mountain VK2/SW-028 Saturday 26 November 2022

Mt Tumorrama
(Image captured from my dash-cam.)

With some long-awaited clear weekend weather forecast, I decided to complete a double summit activation beginning with Mt Tumorrama VK2/SW-027 which is worth 8 points followed by Snow Gum Mountain VK2/SW-028 worth 6 points.

I posted my alerts 5 days prior and, given the welcome arrival of decent weather I was surprised to note that no other VK operators had posted an alert for the weekend. This was perhaps explained shortly after I had also posted my plans on the VK1 Sota email group. I was made aware that the VHF UHF Spring Field Day was also happening that day and that I would have some company on Snow Gum. The more the merrier, and as I operate mostly HF there would be no major interference issues, and the summit has plenty of space…it is the size of football field!

Mt Tumorrama is a 108-kilometer drive from my home. Departing at 7am and yes – with my usual detour for a travelling large coffee, I was quickly back on track. I made my way to Uriarra Road, then to Brindabella Road, Cockatoo Road, to Tumorrama Trig Road and up the short “Lookout Road” track to arrive at the summit at 0930. After so much rain, and little to no road maintenance, the roads were rough, potholed and littered with roadkill. I lost count of dead wombats – grateful that I did not contribute to that count… and not just for welfare of our wildlife. So, I drove to the conditions making the trip just a little longer than planned. To be fair, some ‘road maintenance’ was evident – Lookout Road up to the summit of Mt Tumorrama had recently been dug up – you know, ploughed, ripped up… There was a sign ” Part Road Closed”… OK. just where was it closed? Having spent two hours of my life I will never get back just reaching this point, I decided to engage 4WD and carefully made my way to the summit. It was rough – but a few other vehicles had been over it recently, so it was easily navigable.

The entrance to Lookout Road – at the intersection with Tumorrama Trig Road.

I began my activation on 2m (146.5 MHz FM) and was immediately rewarded with a Summit to Summit (S2S) with Mat VK1MF who was activating Bobbara Mountain VK2/ST-044 …. but that was that. No other replies on 2m (including 2m SSB). So, I moved to HF 40m CW and gained two relatively quick contacts – but a similar story – the band was not helping at all… nothing more… the pre-rollover hour – gone. I did not get the four contacts required to qualify my summit pre-rollover. After rollover I heard Andrew VK1DA who was working Matt VK1MA on 2m SSB. Andrew was operating from VK2/ST-001 Mt Cowangerong, so on the new Zulu day, there was my first contact and 2nd S2S for the day… the next three contacts were definitely hard work! Andrew had good 2m communications with Matt who was down on Livingston Hill VK2/SM-093, Matt’s signal to my summit was (unusually!) very weak and unreadable. Neither of us was working with much power – I was QRP…. With hindsight I should have taken my FT-857D… but I decided against it…it just was not to be. I even switched from the Oblong Loop to a 3 element yagi……crickets. So, an easy decision to switch back to HF.

Two 40m contacts -VK3BEZ which is the club callsign for the Eastern Zone Amateur Radio Club in Morwell VIC (a town I drove through many times when I first joined the RAAF and was based at Sale in Victoria). My other 40m contact was Jeff VK5BJF. I tried 20m but the RF noise was S5 to S6 and nobody around. Fearing again that I was not going to collect the 8 points, I tried 15m – nothing. So, I went to 10m.,,,, and thank goodness. My very first call was answered by Kaz 7N1FRE who is located to the east of Tokyo and at an approximate distance of 8000k from my summit. With time being of the essence, I had my four contacts and 8 points, I packed up and headed to Snow Gum Mountain a 35-minute drive away.

The journey took me back to Brindabella Road – backtracking to turn left on to Nottingham Road.. I did not see any outlaws or merry men….. or the Sherriff… little wonder… but more on that road a little later.

Al VK1RX – fully emersed in the VHF UHF Spring Field Day

I arrived on Snow Gum where Al VK1RX was set up for the VHF/UHF Spring Field Day. Of course, there were no surprises here – Al and I had been in contact during the week. I was happy to ignore 2m and just operate HF and there was ample room for “social RF distancing”!! I did not have my 23cm and 13cm gear with me anyway. No hassles and I was most impressed with his set up, and I also enjoyed listening to him work his way through 6m 2m 70cm, 23cm and maybe 13cm… It looked like fun…but I am not sure of the appetite for CW on those bands! In my previous SOTA outings I have CW S2S points on each of those bands except 13cm (SSB) …. Definitely food for thought, but I will need a bigger 4WD!!!

Anyway – back to why I was there… 😊

I set up right on the edge of the summit – as far away from Al as I could. Much more success this time – and I quickly had my four contacts… and a few more – with 10m featuring again.

Five contacts on 40m, Wal VK2WP, VK3BEZ, John VK4TJ, Gerard VK2IO/P (S2S Vk2/CT-032) and Jim VK2TER, two contacts on 15m – another JA station Hatori JH1MXV, and Wynne ZL2ATH, and my one contact on 10m, Andrew VK1DA with a second S2S with him – one from each summit.

My rig for both summits: 2m FT-817 ND through the popular Oblong Loop antenna. For HF I used my Elecraft KX-2 with an 80m to 6m EFHW 9:1 I love this antenna for SOTA. It is short (50′ wire), light weight, compact and very easy to deploy with inverted L configuration and, the huge time saving bonus, not needing to swap antennas or alter connections switching between bands.

I said farewell and thanks to Al and headed for home. My GPS route was via Nottingham Road to Wee Jasper – then home via Wee Jasper Rd, Mountain Creek Rd back to Uriarra Crossing. A few years ago, I traversed the same road in a 2WD XR6 Turbo without issue. Don’t even think about trying that now. You need something with good clearance, and I recommend 4WD. This time I was treated to ruts and washouts all the way from Snow Gum to Wee Jasper. The roads are in urgent need of repair.

Home safely by 5.40pm. A great day in the beautiful and unforgiving mountain ranges and bush country to the west of Canberra doing what I love…Amateur Radio and SOTA. If you haven’t tried it, DO IT!