Monthly Archives: July 2021

Amateur Radio, field and portable

Black Range VK2/ST-040, 6th June 2021

I activated this summit with Peter VK2PET some years ago and had been unable to return due to some complications in the access permissions. So when Mark VK2KI mentioned he was planning an activation and had secured the required permission I was keen to join him.

As he was planning a long activation we each took our own car. After chatting with the land owner we headed up the winding access track, opening and closing about 8 gates on the way. Mark went ahead and he opened the gate, moved his car through and continued up the road, while I drove through and closed the gate behind me. There were sheep everywhere.

At the summit I refreshed my memory of where the previous activation had been made and decided against using the same position. Mark wanted to start on 20m so I started on 40m. After a while we would probably swap bands.

I set up my support pole using the familiar guying ring and three guys at 120 degree spacing. There was sufficient space for a dipole on about 1 MHz within the activation zone so ample space for two doublets with decent spacing. My log shows that I started with contacts to VK1 on 2m FM, vk1MIC on Black Mt VK1/AC-042, Chris VK1CT in a park VKFF-0833, Matt VK1MA at home and Andrew VK1AD at Mt Tumorrama VK2/SW-027, so the activation got off to a good start with several S2S contacts.

Then I moved to 40m CW and SSB, making 20 more contacts there, with several dx contacts on 20m CW with France and Japan to finish the activation.

Mark was making steady progress and was happily sheltered from the wind in the lee of a small building on the summit. He had repurposed some of the infrastructure there to support his antenna and feedline. He made contacts on 14, 7 and 3.5 MHz, as well as several contacts with VK1 on 144. I also made a contact with hm from my car on 433 MHz once I was clear of all the gates and was back on Black Range Road.

  • The usual operating position inside the shelter
  • Towers and other buildings in the distance
  • Mark VK2KI sheltering in the lee of this building on summit
  • One of the towers near the parking area
  • The trig
  • Base of tower where Mark operated

I left the summit in good time to drive back home to Yass. Mark had somewhat less distance to travel so was happy to continue a bit longer, continuing about an hour past sunset.