Late on Sunday afternoon (21st May 2017) proceedings had started to slow down a little, and I had a small window of time to head out to a park and operate as VI5WOW before the scheduled 6.00 p.m. BBQ tea at the Hahndorf Oval. I decided on Mylor Conservation Park 5CP-156 & VKFF-0785, as it is just a short drive from Hahndorf.
Map showing the location of the Mylor Conservation Park in the Adelaide Hills. Map courtesy of Protected Planet.
Mylor Conservation Park was proclaimed on the 27th day of February 1997. While most of the land around the park has been cleared for residential and agricultural purposes, the park preserves an important area of remnant bushland. The park is mostly Open Forest with Candlebark Gum, Brown Stringybark, Messmate Stringybark, Cup Gum, Pink Gum and Manna Gum. Understory plants include Myrtle Wattle , Spiny Wattle, Narrow-leaf Bitter-pea, Large-leaf Bush-pea and Silver Banskia.
Aerial shot of the Mylor Conservation Park, with Adelaide in the background. Image courtesy of Google maps
The park takes its name from the nearby small town of Mylor which was proclaimed in 1891 by Acting Governor of South Australia, Sit James Boucaut who named it after his Cornish birthplace.
Sir James Penn Boucat (1831-1916). Image courtesy of Wikipedia
There is a 2.3 km track winding through the park which is rated as ‘challenging’ and will take you around 2 hours to complete.
The park is home to a large amount of native wildlife including Western Grey kangaroos. More than 50 species of bird have been recorded in the park including Adelaide Rosella, White-throated Treecreeper, Superb Fairywren, Grey Fantail, and the Australian Golden Whistler.
I set up in my normal operating spot off Whitehead Road and Centre Track which is part of the Heysen Trail.
Aerial shot of the Mylor Conservation Park showing my operating spot. Image courtesy of Protected Planet.
I ran the Yaesu FT-857d, 40 watts and the 80/40/20m linked dipole for this activation. I was set up and ready to go by just after 0710 UTC (4.40 p.m. South Australian local time). I had around 60 minutes of on air time before I needed to pack up.
My first contact was on 7.144 on the 40m band with Steve VK4QQ. This was followed by Phil VK3GTS, Cliff VK2NP, Gerard VK2IO and then Colin VK4PDX. All had good strong signals ranging from 5/8-9. The band appeared to be in pretty good shape.
I had contact number 10 in the log in around 9 minutes, this being with Matt VK3FORD. Contact number 44, with Ian VK1DI, was reached in around 45 minutes. I worked a total of 52 stations on 40m from VK2, VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5, VK6, and VK7, including a Park to Park contact with Nikolas VK3NLK who was operating portable in the Tocumwal Regional Park VKFF-0978.
To finish off the activation I headed to 3.610 on the 80m band where I logged just 4 stations from VK3, VK5 and VK7. Sadly I was really pushing for time and needed to go QRT.
So in around one hour in the park I had logged a total of 56 stations. Hopefully I gave people another good contact towards the special 2017 AGM/Convention Award.
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK4QQ
- VK3GTS
- VK2NP
- VK2IO
- VK4PDX
- VK4SMA
- VK4KX
- VK3FPSR
- VK3SX
- VK3FORD
- VK3AWG
- VK5NJ
- VK2YW
- VK4DA
- VK5HDW
- VK5FMAZ
- VK5XD
- VK7DIK
- VK4HNS
- VK3LPG
- VK2NSS
- VK2QR
- VK2SWL
- VK4FMAX
- VK6NU
- VK6MAC/m
- VK7ZGK
- VK4BX
- VK3BL
- VK4TJ
- VK2FKDM
- VK7EV
- VK2FOUZ
- VK2BY/p
- VK5GY/m
- VK5NFT/m
- VK7FRJG
- VK3BKT
- VK4JWT
- VK3MAB
- VK1HW
- VK6EA/p
- VK4HDY
- VK1DI
- VK3YV
- VK2SK
- VK3NLK/p (Tocumwal Regional Park VKFF-0978)
- VK2TMC
- VK5GJ
- VK2LEZ
- VK2LMT
- VK4NHH
I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-
- VK5GJ
- VK5GY/m
- VK3LDB
- VK7CW
References.
Birds SA, 2017, <http://www.birdssa.asn.au/location/mylor-conservation-park/>, viewed 26th May 2017
National Parks South Australia, 2017, <https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/Find_a_Park/Browse_by_region/Adelaide_Hills/mylor-conservation-park>, viewed 26th May 2017
VK5PAS 