After leaving Christmas Rocks I was hoping to activate Talapar Conservation Park. However, the GPS led me on a wild goose chase and despite my best efforts I could not get into the park. This included following an 8km section of very sandy and boggy track which showed on the GPS leading straight into the park. But by the time I got to the end there was a locked gate and I was still 2 km short.
I was starting to get very frustrated and tired, so I took an easy option and headed back into nearby Naracoorte and activated the Naracoorte Caves National Park, VKFF-380. This was not a new park for me (I had been there before in June, 2014 – see below), but I knew that it was an easy park to access and there was shelter there from the never ending rain.
https://vk5pas.org/2014/06/12/narracoorte-caves-national-park/
The Naracoorte Caves National Park is about 351 km by road, south east of Adelaide.
Above: Map showing the location of the park. Map courtesy of mapcarta.com
Naracoorte Caves National Park is Australia’s only World Heritage site, officially recognise in 1994 due to its importance to the fossils located there. There are 28 known caves in the park. Four are open to the public. The park preserves Australia’s most complete fossil record for the past 500,000 years. For more detailed information, please see my previous post on this park, or have a look at the following site…..
http://www.environment.sa.gov.au/naracoorte/Home
I set up in a BBQ shelter shed on the edge of the oval, which is adjacent to the main carpark. It afforded me plenty of shelter from the rain which constantly came down. You know it is wet and cold when the kangaroos are sheltering underneath trees on the oval, which they were. For this activation I ran the Yaesu FT-857d, 40 watts and my 40m/20m linked dipole supported on a 7 metre squid pole.
I started off on 40m and called CQ on 7.095. First taker again was Tony VK5FTVR, followed by Larry VK5LY, Les VK5KLD and Col VK5HCF. All with great signals from all around South Australia. Getting wet and cold was made up for by the large number of callers who gave me a shout. Adrian VK5FANA called in again, running his 5 watts as per usual, with a very nice signal. I was also called by Lou VK5EEE who was formerly G4OJW in the UK. I was just Lou’s third QSO with his new VK call. Welcome to Australia Lou.
A number of other hams running QRP also called in, including Norm VK5GI and Greg VK5GJ, both running just 4 watts (5/7 sent and 5/9 received). And also Adrian VK5AW running 5 watts from the Riverland (5/9 both ways). Quite a few mobiles also called in, including Ian VK3TCX mobile north of Bairnsdale, Gerard VK2IO, Peter VK3TKK, Wayne VK2PDW, and Peter VK3PF.
Sadly, at about 0540 UTC (3.10 p.m. local time), two stations from VK5 & a VK2 (I know their call signs, but will not mention them here) came up on adjacent 7.093. They are regular participants in the Kandos Net which commences at 0600 UTC on 7.093. I was aware that the net was to start at the time and had indicated that I was going to go QRT prior to the net commencing. However, that did not stop those individuals from firing up on 7.093, just 2 kc below me, where I had been for about one hour. Clearly they knew I was there, and others were calling/working me. It was impossible to continue to 7.095 due to the bleed over.
I normally bite my tongue. But one of these individuals had previously communicated to me that park & SOTA activators should stay away from 7.093 as it was ‘their net frequency’. On that occasion, after informing this individual that no-one ‘owned’ a frequency, it appears that it has fallen on deaf ears. So I came up on 7.093 to calmly voice my disapproval of their poor behaviour. One of the VK5’s sheepishly apologised, but the VK2 station accused me of getting ‘a bit upset over nothing’.
But out of everything bad, comes something good. There are some excellent and professional operators around. And here are two of those. On the record I would like to thank both Tom VK2KF and Tom VK4ATH (net controllers for the Kandos Group), who had personally heard what had occurred and were very quick to apologise, both via e-mail and on air for the behaviour of a small few. Not that they should have to apologise for others. But they did. Thanks to both Toms. The Kandos Net is a terrific net which has been running for a very long period of time and should in no way be tarnished by the behaviour of a very select few.
And also thankyou to the two hams who followed me down to 7.093 and also supported me and voice their disaproval.
I then headed up to 14.2498 and started calling CQ. This was answered immediately by Ray KB6LQV in California in the USA with a nice 5/9 signal. John VK5BJE was kind enough to spot me on the DX Cluster and this resulted in the European park hunters finding me. It wasn’t long before the regulars were giving me a shout. On 20m I worked into the USA, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Spain, Israel and VK. I went on to work 24 stations on 14.248 until things slowed down.
So I tuned across the band and found Tony G7OEM who was pedestrian mobile, calling CQ on 14.197. Tony had quite a pile up, but I eventually made it (5/5 both ways).
After 2 hours in the park I had a total of 63 contacts in the log. It was time to head off to Mount Gambier. It was now 4.10 p.m. and I still had a 100 km drive ahead of me.
Thankyou to those that spotted me on parksnpeaks and thanks to I5FLN, F4HMR, VK2SOL, and IZ1JLG for spotting me on the DX Cluster.
The following stations were worked on 40m SSB:-
- Tony VK5FTVR
- Larry VK5LY
- Les VK5KLD
- Col VK5HCF
- Les VK5KLV
- John VK5BJE
- Jeff VK5JK
- Adrian VK5FANA
- Terry VK3UP
- Tim VK3TJK
- David Vk5KC
- Jim VK1AT/3
- Erik VK7EK
- Lou VK5EEE
- Rob VK4AAC/5
- Micj VK3PMG
- Cliff VK2NP
- Grant Vk5VGC
- Ian VK5IS
- Ian VK3TCX/m
- Mark Vk7MK
- Allen VK5FD
- Paul VK3DBP
- Bruce VK2FBJM
- Gerard VK2IO/m
- Norm VK5GI
- Greg VK5GJ
- Peter VK5PET
- Brian VK5FMID
- Ivan VK5HS
- Adrian VK5AW
- Phil VK3BHR
- Peter VK3TKK/m
- Wayne VK2PDW/m
- David VK3FDAV
- Peter VK3PF/m
- Robin VK5TN
- Tony VK7LTD
The following stations were worked on 20m SSB:-
- KB6LQV
- ON4BB
- I5FLN
- DL2ND
- F1BLL
- HA6OB
- DK9HN
- SP6KEP
- EA4DTV
- WB4JSB
- F4HMR
- EA1LQ
- VK4NAI
- DL4PT
- IW2NXI
- 4X4JU
- IK1GPG
- DK8PY
- VK2SOL
- VK2NRB
- ON4STA
- HA0LG
- IZ1JLG
- ON5SWA
- G7OEM pedestrian mobile