My second activation for Friday 27th December, was the Scott Conservation Park.  This is located just a short distance from my first activation at the Cox Scrub Conservation Park.  In fact it is about 4 km south, after travelling along the Bull Creek Road, and then along Deep Creek Road.

Scott Conservation Park (not to be confused with Scott Creek CP or Mount Scott CP) is located about 75 km south of Adelaide, and is 210 hectares in size.  The park is relatively flat and consists of Blue and Pink gum woodlands.

Courtesy of: http://mapcarta.com

I could not find a lot of information on the internet on the park.  It looks like it is one of those little secrets on the Fleurieu Peninsula, which might not be a bad thing.  There are a number of walks in the park including the Watercourse Hike, and Orchid Hike, and they are both rated as easy.

There is a wide range of vegetation within the park and there were many of the native plants in flower during our visit.  The park consists of forest, woodland, and heathland.  The park contains a wide variety of animals including Western Grey kangaroos, Ringtail Possums, and Western Pygmy-possums.  A huge amount of bird life is also found in the park including the endangered Chestnut-rumped Heathwren and Diamond Firetail.

Marija and I found a carpark (gate 1) on Gould Road, and set up the equipment there.  It was a nice shaded area out of the very hot sun.  There was also a convenient fire track/break, which allowed me to run out the legs of the 40m/20m linked dipole and a permapine post/railing to attach the squid pole to.

After switching on the FT-817nd to 40m, I heard Ian VK1DI/2 on SOTA peak VK2/ SE-049, calling CQ.  So I gave Ian a call and he was my first contact in Scott CP.  I then moved to 7.095 and called CQ and was soon Hunted by Brian VK5FMID, followed by keen Park Hunter Larry VK5LY and then Graham VK5KGP.  A steady flow of callers followed from VK3 & VK5.

After things had slowed down on 40m, I changed bands to 20m.  The 20m band was really quite, with very little activity.  I did hear  few Latin American stations but their signal strengths were well down.  I tried calling CQ on 14.330 on 20m, but there were no takers.  So it was time to pack up the gear again and head off to Victor Harbor.

I worked the following stations:-

Ian VK1DI/2; Brian VK5FMID; Larry VK5LY; Graham VK5KGP; Bernard VK3AMB; Col VK5HCF; Tom VK5FTRG; Norm VK5GI; Ian VK5CZ; Allen VK3HRA; Tom VK5EE; Nick VK3ANL; Don VK5NFB; Nev VK5WG; and Steve VK3MEG