In the past couple of weeks I have received a few emails querying why Park to Park (P2P) contacts are not showing up on WWFF Logsearch for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.

The answer is simple.  Some activators are not recording their Park to Park contacts in their log.

This post is a follow up to a previous post on P2P contacts which can be found at…..

https://vk5pas.org/2016/02/12/the-wwff-park-to-park-award/

Please note, that P2P contacts need to be recorded in your activator log, which in turn must be uploaded to WWFF Log Search.  Log Search looks for a match between the two P2P activator logs, with the following information:

• the two dates
• the two bands
• the two modes

To see your Park to Park stats, conduct a search on your callsign in WWFF Logsearch.  This will bring up your Summary Statistics.  You will be able to view your Unique Park to Park combinations confirmed, and also your Total Park to Park QSOs.

If we first look at ‘Unique References Confirmed’, you will also see 2 figures, e.g. 112/158.  The second figure indicates the number of unique P2P contacts.  The first figure indicates the number of those P2P contacts which have been confirmed in Log Search.

The same principle applied for your Total P2P stats.  The second figure indicates your total P2P contacts, while the first figure indicates the number of park to park contacts that have been confirmed in Log Search.

In my case (as per the screen shot below), I have a total of 158 Unique Park to Park combinations, but only 112 of those are confirmed.  I have a total of 186 Park to Park contacts, but only 129 are confirmed.

When completing the CSV template, please ensure that you complete the ‘hunterRef’ column (see below).  Remember to use the correct format, e.g. VKFF-0029.  Many people are leaving out the hyphen in the reference.

If you are using Fast Log Entry (FLE) version 2.6, please ensure that you are accurately recording Park to Park contacts by using the keyword of WWFF and then recording the appropriate VKFF reference number.

Once you convert the information over to the data field, the Park to Park contact should show up in the column titled ‘His WWFF Ref.

Have you ever wanted to create a KML file for use with Google Earth and/or Google My Maps?  Here are some instructions which I hope you find useful.

What is a KML file?  KML stands for ‘Keyhole Markup Language’.  It is an XML based file format which is used to display geographic data in an Earth browser such as Google Earth.  There are serveral ways to create a KML file, but this is the way I was shown some time ago (courtesy of Ian VK1DI).

Lets create a KML file of the VK1 Parks for the VKFF program.

To start, head to parksnpeaks and click on ‘Parks’.

Then scroll down to WWFF VK1 List.

Highlight all of the entries/data in the WWFF VK1 List and then copy those contents.

Next up, open Excel and paste the copied content into a new workbook.  It should show up in Excel as follows, after pasting.

There are some portions of the spreadsheet that we need to delete and some changes that need to be made.  First up, you need to delete columns that are not required.  They are:-

• Type
• State
• Region
• District
• Area
• Info
• Count
• Last

If you included lines 1 & 2 as I did above (including the WWFF VK1 List) title, you will need to delete that as well.

You also need to change the column headings to match what our KML creator (which is GPS Visualizer) requires.  The columns required are:-

• Name (was originally ID on the spreadhseet)
• desc (was originally Name)
• latitude (was Lat)
• longitude (Was Long)

You should end up with the following….

To convert this excel spreadsheet into a kml file, next open up GPS Visualizer.

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/

From the home page, click on Google Earth KML.  See below…

The screen below will appear.  Where it says ‘Or paste your data here’, do exactly that.  Paste the copied info from the spreadsheet.  Under the heading ‘General map parameters, change the  Output file type to .kml (compressed).  Then in the ‘Google Eath doc name’ area, name the file as you choose.  In the Waypoint options area, change from small square to Paddle, and then set the Icon colour that you would like.

Then press the ‘Create KML file’ button.

After pressing the create button, you should see a link to your kml file.  Save the link as whatever you like and then open up the file in Google Earth or My Google Maps.  You should end up with something like this….

Fast Log Entry version 2.6 now has some excellent features for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.  Here is a short video I’ve put together describing how to put a log together and some of FLE’s features.

Here is my latest WWFF global Hunter certificate issued for working 644 different WWFF reference areas.

Many thanks to Pit YO3JW.

On Friday (6th May 2016) I caught up with Brian VK3MCD and his lovely wife Kathy at Stirling for a coffee.  John VK5BJE and David VK5KC came along as well.  We had a good chat and compared notes about SOTA & Parks activations.  I had spoken many times with Brian on air, but this was the first time we had met in person.

Yesterday morning (Saturday 30th April 2016) I travelled out to the Wiljani Conservation Park 5CP-274 and VKFF-1159, which is located just a few km north west of the town of Mount Pleasant.  This was to be the very first activation of Wiljani CP.  Bob VK5FO had sent me an email a week or 2 ago advising that he had stumbled across this park whilst surfing the web.  I checked the South Australian Government Gazette and sure enough Wiljani had been gazetted as a Conservation Park on 25th February 2016.

Above:- Map showing the location of the Wiljani Conservation Park, to the north west of Mount Pleasant in the Adelaide Hills.  Image courtesy of Location SA Map Viewer.

I headed out from home through Nairne and Woodside and then the little town of Charleston.  I continued north east to the historic little village of Mount Torrens and then on to Birdwood, the home of the National Motor Museum.  From Birdwood I took the Torrens Valley Road until I reached the town of Mount Pleasant.  Just after entering the western side of Mount Pleasant I turned left onto Cricks Mill Road, and I soon reached the junction with Elliotts Boundary Road (photo below).

I then travelled north east along Elliotts Boundary Road, which is a dirt road.  The road is in good condition and there are no problems for conventional vehicles.  I followed the southern boundary of the Mount Crawford Pine Forest.  It was quite slow going, as it was only 8.00 a.m. in the morning and there were quite a few kangaroos out and about.

I soon came to the south western corner of the park.  There is a track here which follows the western boundary of the park.  However, the track was inaccessible as there was a locked gate with a large sign stating that tree felling was in process.

The park does not currently have a Conservation Park sign erected.  However there is a sign which states ‘Boundary Road Conservation Reserve’.

Wiljani was a family group of the Peramangk aboriginal people whose traditional lands are primarily located in the Adelaide Hills.  The lands of the Tarrawatta and Yira-Ruka (Wiljani) extended to the east down as far as Mount Torrens and Mannum.

Above:- the lands of the Permangk aboriginal people.  Image courtesy of Wikipedia.

This is a beautiful little piece of surviving Mount Lofty scrub and it is not surprising that it has been declared as a Conservation park.  The land was previously set aside as Crown Land and was proclaimed as a Conservation Park due to its diversity of flora and fauna.  The park was alive with Kookaburras and Superb Blue Wrens whilst I was there.

I drove to the end of Elliotts Boundary Road to check out my options for an operating spot.   The north eastern side of the park is not able to be accessed, as the road following that side of the park is a private road leading to private property.  The western side of the park was not accessible due to the locked gate, unless you are prepared to jump the gate and walk a bit.  The easy option is the southern side of the park.  However, there is a power line following part of the road, so I tried to find a spot away from the power line.

For this activation I used my normal operating station consisting of the Yaesu FT-857d, set at 40 watts output, and a 40m./20m linked dipole, and a 15, dipole.

After setting up I headed to 7.144 but found that the frequency was occupied by a station from the USA.  I headed up the band but struggled to find a clear frequency as there were some strong European signals coming through.  So I headed down the band and found 7.135 clear and commenced calling CQ.  I put out about half a dozen CQ calls but had no takers, so I self spotted on parksnpeaks.  The very first hunter for Wiljani was Les VK5KLV in Port Augusta with a very strong 5/9 + signal, followed by Bob VK5FO, then Geoff VK3SQ, and Peter VK3PF.  It was very pleasing to get Bob in the log as he was the person who had advised me of the existence of the park.

I worked a total of 35 stations prior to the UTC rollover from VK1, VK2, VK3, and VK5.  Contact number 10, qualifying the park for me for the VKFF program was Mick VK3GGG.  After the UTC rollover I worked a total of 27 stations on 40m from VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, and VK7.  Contact number 44, qualifying the park for me for the global WWFF program was Neil VK4HNS.

After working a total of 62 stations on 40m, I lowered the squid pole and removed the links in the dipole and headed to 14.310 on 20m.  My first taker there was Robert VK2XXM, followed by Cliff VK2NP and then Marty VK2RZ.  I worked a total of 9 stations from VK2 and VK6.

I then took down the 40m/20m linked dipole and replaced it with the 15m dipole and commenced calling CQ on 21.244 after self spotting on parksnpeaks.  Allen VK6XL was the first responder, and it was nice to get Allen in the log, after we had also spoken on 20m.  Allen’s signal on 15m was an excellent 5/9 and he reciprocated with a 5/9 for me.  Next up was Aki JA1CTB in Japan.  I worked a further 3 stations from Japan: Kaz JR0WZR, Masa JE1CWQ, and Take JH1RFZ, and also Rick VK4FTRL.  Interestingly I was spotted on the DX Cluster by YC9CT, but I did not receive a call from him.

I headed back to 40m for around 30 minutes, and worked a total of 22 stations.  This included a park to park contact with Stef VK5HSX who was portable in the Little Desert National Park, VKFF-0291, in western Victoria.  Callers had slowed down for me so I handed the frequency over to Stef, and I had one last quick look around the band before going QRT.  My final contact was with Tony VK7LTD who was operating portable on SOTA summit VK7/ SC-003.

It was time to head home and have some lunch.  I was very pleased with a brand new park under my belt and a total of 101 contacts in the log.  Thanks to everyone who called.

The following stations were worked on 40m SSB:-

1. VK5KLV
2. VK5FO
3. VK3SQ
4. VK3PF
5. VK5QI
6. VK2IO
7. VK3ZPF
8. VK2GAZ
9. VK5HSX/p
10. VK3GGG
11. VK3PMG
12. VK5GJ
13. VK1MA
14. VK3FPSR
15. VK5FTVR
16. VK3DAC
17. VK2HHA
18. VK3MCK
19. VK3VIN
20. VK5NAQ
21. VK5HEL
22. VK3ARH
23. VK5ZGY
24. VJ3FOWL
25. VK5NFT/m
26. VK5FMID
27. VK2XXM
28. VK2NP
29. VK3MRH
30. VK1DI
31. VK5TN
32. VK5FANA
33. VK4FTAD
34. VK5PL
35. VK3FOTO/m
36. VK3FSPG
37. VK3MRG
38. VK2NWB
39. VK3VBI
40. VK5FVSV
41. VK3UH
42. VK5FUZZ
43. VK3FQSO
44. VK4HNS/p
45. VK5YX
46. VK7CW
47. VK3TKK/m
48. VK3OE
49. VK5AO
50. VK5FTVR
51. VK3LSD
52. VK5NNT
53. VK5SFA
54. VK3ZMD
55. VK5LDM
56. VK7BC
57. VK5WG
58. VK5TRM
59. VK3BBB
60. VK3FAPH
61. VK5FDEC
62. VK3VCE/p
63. VK2EJW
64. VK3FMRC
65. VK5BJE
66. VK3SIM
67. VK3CM
68. VK5KLV
69. VK3ELH
70. VK3BNJ
71. VK3TCT
72. VK3VGB
73. VK5FAKV
74. VK5GJ
75. VK3BWZ
76. VK2LEE
77. VK5KKR
78. VK3TJK
79. VK5FMLO
80. VK3AZZ
81. VK3MVP
82. VK3YW
83. VK5HYZ
84. VK5HSX/3 (Little Desert National Park VKFF-0291)
85. VK7LTD/p (SOTA VK7/ SC-003)

The following stations were worked on 20m SSB:-

1. VK2XXM
2. VK2NP
3. VK2VCC
4. VK6RZ
5. VK2MZZ/m
6. VK2MOR
7. VK2HTM
8. VK6XL
9. VK2LKW

The following stations were worked on 15m SSB:-

1. VK6XL
2. JA1CTB
3. JR0WZR
4. JE1CWQ
5. VK4FTRL
6. JH1RFZ

References.

Wikipedia, 2016, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peramangk&gt;, viewed 1t May 2016