13082017 – VK3/VC-003 & VK3/VN-030

13082017 – VK3/VC-003 Mt Ritchie in (VKFF-0556) Yarra Ranges National Park

Parked at the gate of Road Fifteen off Acheron Road. Got out, grated up and got on with the walk,

Mt Ritchie is a great walk. Your are walking down a maintained road that is seasonally shut. No issues with navigation or rough areas just a case of keep going up until you reach the summit.

Using a Garmin VirbX and still getting use to it. The mountain is square just my mount is not aligned.

Not as much snow this year as previous. The summit is a clear open space with signs to use as squidpole mount and enough room for a long antenna. I took 41m end fed as expecting the use of 80M given recent conditions.

Looking down the antenna here to the operating position. 41m end fed. The KX3 tunes it to everything. 9 contacts. All CW. Two S2s. First for the day with VK5CZ on VK5/NE-082  and after a lot of work with VK4JAZ on VK4/SE-117. This contact demonstrated the value of CW. It was marginal at best but we managed to get through.  Two 80m contacts to work the local CW enthusiasts. Despite being 10℃ and being a ‘sunny’ day the wind was chilling and kept rugged up. Spent an hour on the summit and decided it was time to head home picking up another summit on the way.

VK3/VN-030 Mt Strickland

After reading Paul VK3HN blog I added Mt Strickland to the list for the day. Had been up  and yes it was was a clean run. 

Headed back down Acheron Road to turn right into Feiglins road to Mt Strickland. 

Operating position on Mt Strickland. This is a open summit with enough room for the biggest antenna. I ran up the 20/40 dipole as was intending to qualify and keep heading home.

Park contact with VK4SMA in Mount Perry Conservation park and two ZL contacts. Headed back down to Acheron Road then into Healesville and home. Back in  time for tea.

2 Summits, 2 S2S and 22K steps for the day.