2023 Australian Holiday
Saturday 1st April 2023
The two-hour flight Aubry on Friday 31 st March was pleasant, we arrived on time collected our hired car, our first stop was to purchase a few food items for the weekend,
Leaving Aubry, we set our course for Hotham which was about a 2,1/2 hours’ drive, we arrived at the ski lodge at around 17.00, the welcome which we received was overwhelming.
Once we were settled in our room it was time for dinner at the small restaurant, and time to catch up with old friends which we had made on our previous trip to Hotham, after dinner it was time to plan and decide on which summits, we were planning to activate on the Saturday.
Unfortunately, one of the members and his daughter had an accident on the way down from a summit on the Friday thankfully they we not hurt, although there 4X4 was not as lucky.
Day1
The morning temperature was 2 degrees outside, with a very fine rain, when we left for our first summit,Our plan was to activate 4 summits on the first day,our team consisted of Peter Vk3PXS , Dave VK3KR, Adele VK3/ZS5APT and myself as VK3/ZS5AYC, our planned summits for the day were VK/VG-giving us a total of 36 points, after the day’s activities we planned meeting on BLUE RAG Mountain for nibbles
Day2
Once again the morning temperatures were very low again 2 degrees, our second days activations were Vk3/VG-022 VG-012,VG-011 and VG-018, today out team was Brain VK3BCM,Dave VK3KR,Peter VK3PXS and Adele and I ,most of our activations were on VHF, in Australia the 2m band is from 144 to 148 MHz,on both days we were able to work a few DX stations as well, the station consisted of a EFHW antenna and a ICOM 705, what a great radio for SOTA running at 10 watts.
After dinner on Sunday, it was time to reflect on the weekend’s activities, saying buy to those who planned on leaving early Monday morning.
Monday morning, we said our buys to the group with a special thanks to BRIAN VK3BCM and Peter VK3PF a fantastic and well-planned weekend, I must mention that nothing was too much trouble for Peter, I asked him so many questions and received feedback within a few minutes’ thanks Peter.
We left HOTHAM at 08.30 for Aubry where we arranged to meet up with Elaine and Johann, we handed our rental car back, after placing all out baggage in Johan’s car, stopping at dam for bit to eat before we set off for Healesville which is situated in the Yarra Valley. where we were going to spend for 4 nights.
On Wednesday 5 April Looking at the SOTA Goat we notice that st Lenord Mountain (VK3/VC-006 was only 15K/m away from where we were staying so we decided to activate the summit at around 10.00, after driving the 15 k/m to the car park we still have a 1.2 k/m walk up hill to the summit
We set up the station, TX output power was set to 20 watts, Adele and I starting calling CQ, and soon we each made 11 contact on 40m, we move to 20M each making 3 contacts then onto 10m where we made 4 contacts each , while on the summit we met up with Brad VK3WMD and his wife, after have a nice chat ,we arranged with him to stay on the summit until we got down so that we could contact him making it a summit complete.
After descended the mountain we decided to go to a cheese factory for lunch, taking a cheese platter with 6 different cheeses was excellent
Thursday 6 April
At 07.00 Elaine said that the summit Donna Buang VK3/ VC-002 was only one hour away, after quick breakfast we set off for summit which is situated in National Park on top of the summit is a picnic area where there are benches etc, plus a fire lookout which gives you a view of the surrounding area Johan Elaine’s hubby was off doing birding while Adele and I set up station for the activation, calling CQ we soon made 13 contacts on 40m 3 contacts on 20m and 2and 10m with the furthest been Japan, while on 40m we spoke to Sue the developer of the SOTA logging program for Apple.
After descending it was time for coffee and a bit to eat which we did in the town of Warburton which was situated basically at the bottom of the summit, after lunch it was time to head back to Healesville.
We left Healesville on Friday the 7 APRIL heading off towards Adelaide where we were meeting Wendy our other daughter and Paul her hubby who flew in from Brisbane to join us for the week in Goolwa.
We left Goolwa on Saturday 12 April and headed of to Jamestown where we spent two night with our son in-laws cousin on a farm, after looking at SOTA Goat app we saw there was a summit very close to where we were staying, called the Bluff VK5/ so arrangements were made for us to activate that summit after church, Adele and set off on the approximately 1.67K/M hike to the summit we activated the summit making 13 contacts before we packed up and headed down to where we had parked the vehicle.
The next morning we stared our way back to Brisbane with a few overnight stops our first stop was Brokenhill which is basically a mining town
This trip with our two girls, and their hubbies was absolutely amazing
see you next time
Sid ZS5AYC/VK4AYC