My final park for the 6 days was the Penola Conservation Park which is located about 12 km west of Penola on the northern side of the Robe-Penola Road. This was another unique park for me for both the VK5 National and Conservation Parks Award and the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.
Above:- Map showing the location of the park. Map courtesy of mapcarta.com
The park was gazetted on the 10th day of September 1970 and covers an area of around 226 hectares. Vegetation within the park consists of woodland of brown stringybark, river red gums, swamp gum, and rough barked manna gums. The park contains two large wetland areas including Green Swamp.
I drove into the park along the main track which leads to a beautiful little campground area. There was a wooden table and benches here which made a perfect shack. Again for this activation I ran the Yaesu FT-857d, 40 watts and my 40m/20m linked dipole supported on a 7m telescopic squid pole.
Above:- Map showing my operating spot. Map courtesy of mapcarta.com
This time around I started off on 20m. And I actually found 14.244 free which is quite a rarity. I started calling CQ and it wasn’t long before this was answered by Brian VK4HBB (5/9 both ways). Ron VK7VDL from Tasmania followed (again 5/9 both ways), and Tom VK2KF from Kandos then gave me a shout (and again 5/9 both ways). My next caller was my first DX station for the activation, Al S58AL from Slovenia. Al spotted me on the DX Cluster and this resulted in quite a few callers from Europe and a handful of VK’s. Countries worked were VK, Slovenia, Russia, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Germany, Serbia, France, Czech Republic, and Spain.
After working 24 stations on 20m, I decided to check out 40m. I called CQ on 7.095 and first taker there was Mick Vk3PMG who is a big follower of WWFF as both a Hunter and Activator. This was followed by another active park Activator & Hunter, Col VK5HCF. And as per normal, it wasn’t long before a mini pile up commenced. I went on to work a total of 29 stations here from VK2, VK3, VK4, and VK5.
I then moved back to 20m, and I’m pleased I did. Because I stumbled across Gerard Vk2IO calling CQ on 14.290 from SOTA peak VK2/ NT-021. Once I finished working Gerard, Adam VK2YK came up and asked if I could QSY up to 14.310 which I did. I worked Adam who was a ncie 5/9 signal, and Adam was also kind enough to place me on the DX cluster. This resulted in a number of calls from both VK and Europe again. Countries worked this time around were VK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary, and Canada.
I was very pleased with the results of this activation with a total of 73 contacts in the log. This was another unique WWFF park that I had qualified.
The following stations were worked on 20m SSB:-
- VK4HBB
- VK7VDL
- VK2KF
- S58AL
- RW6AEW
- VK2GKA
- DF8WZ
- I5FLN
- DL2ND
- IZ2IHO
- HA8TI
- DF2RR
- VK5BJE
- HA5MA
- YU1AB
- F5OUD
- S52KM
- OK1XP
- RA3PCI
- F1BLL
- DK0EE
- EA7TR
- VK7ZGK
- VK4MJA
- VK2IO/p (SOTA VK2/ NT-021)
- VK2YK
- ON4BB
- DL4MDO
- VK6HAD
- VK4HNS
- IK2SAV
- EA4DTV
- IZ5JMZ
- IW2NXI
- OK2TS
- IK1GPG
- UT5PI
- I8OCA
- VE7CV
- DL3NDD
- HA6OB
- DL5MPO
- UR7ET
- HA0LG
The following stations were worked on 40m SSB:-
- VK3PMG
- VK5HCF
- VK5GK
- VK5HEL
- VK5JK
- VK2LX
- VK3OF
- VK5FANA
- VK1AT/3
- VK3PF/m
- VK5FAJS
- VK5BJE
- VK5MBD
- VK3FSMT/2
- VK3DBP
- VK3AV
- VK3ANL
- VK4CPS
- VK3CAB
- VK3TKK
- VK5WG
- VK2NP
- VK2NNN
- VK3FJAE
- VK3NBL
- VK2SK
- VK2QS
- VK4GSF
- VK5FTVR
References.
National Parks and Wildlife Service-Department of Environment and Planning, 1990, Small Parks of the Lower South East Management Plans
Reblogged this on VK3HXT / XU7AGA's HAM Radio Blog and commented:
Many of you may not know Paul Simmonds (VK5PAS), but he is passionate about activating Parks all around Australia, specifically those in his home state of South Australia. Here is one of his recent blog posts, where he talks about his activation of Penola Conservation Park.
Paul is the Awards Manager for the VK5 National & Conservation Parks Award, and the Australian co-ordinator for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program).
To top it all off, he is a top bloke, and somehow manages to log huge numbers of QSOs per activation, whilst still putting in the effort to have a decent QSO with Amateurs he’s worked before. Additionally, he always takes the time to explain what he is doing and why, and is the guy to talk to if you’re interested in the aforementioned programs.