Saturday just gone (2nd June 2018) was another lovely day for this time of the year.  So I packed the 4WD and headed down to the Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide, hoping to activate the Gum Tree Gully Conservation Park.  I have never activated this park previously and have tried to access it previously without success.  And I was to be disappointed again this time around.  I drove down Hammond Road and spoke with one of the land owners and I found that access gates to the park from this road was now locked.  I obtained the actual farmers name and tried to make contact them without success.  So there is more work to be done before I can get into this park.

So option number two was the Spring Mount Conservation Park 5CP-219 & VKFF-0789.  I have activated this park previously, but it is such a beautiful park I decided to head back there.

The Spring Mount Conservation Park is 279 hectares in size and is located about 15 km south east of the town of Myponga.  Sections 633 and 715 of the park were first proclaimed on the 3rd February 1966 as Spring Mount Wild-Life Reserve.  The reserve was re-proclaimed on 27th April 1972 as Spring Mount Conservation Park.  Additions were made to the park on 13th September 1973 and 17th October 2013.

The park is mostly Open Forest of Brown Stringybark and Messmate Stringybark with understorey plants including Myrtle Wattle, Beaked Hakea, and Yacca.

Birds SA have recorded a total of 90 species of native bird in the park including Adelaide Rosella, White-throated Treecreeper, Yellow-tailed Black cockatoo, Superb Fairywren, Crescent Honeyeater, Grey Shrikethrush, Grey Fantail, Scarlet Robin, Brush Bronzewing, Sacred Kingfisher, Yellow-faced Honeyeater, Buff-rumped Thornbill, Bassian Thrush, and Beautiful Firetail.

Each time I visit the park I always see a lot of Western Grey kangaroos.  And I wasn’t disappointed on this visit.  They were in abundance.

I drove along Mount Alma Road and enjoyed some great views of the surrounding countryside.

I then along Strangways Road and set up along a walking track at gate 10.  I ran the Yaesu FT-897, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole and the 1/2 wave 15m dipole for this activation.

My first contact was a Park to Park contact, with a QSO with Rob VK4AAC/3 in the Buckley Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2054.  Rob was calling CQ on 7.144.  I then moved down the band to 7130 and started calling CQ.  Phil VK3MB came back to my CQ call, followed by Shaun VK3VLY/p and then Gerard VK2IO.  The 40m band was in quite good condition and I had a steady flow of callers.  Contact number 12 was Peter VK3PF/p who was activating SOTA summit VK3/ VE-168.  Contact number 32 was with Mike VK4DX/p activating IOTA OC-137.

I logged a total of 36 stations before I headed to the 80m band, hoping to get some of the local South Australian amateurs in the log.  My wife Marija VK5FMAZ had sent me an SMS message telling me she was listening on 40m but was unable to hear me.

First in the log on 80m was Adrian VK5FANA who was 5/9 plus.  Adrian gave me a 5/9 plus 30 signal report.  Next up was Marija VK5FMAZ and then Greg VK5GJ who was running QRP.  Rob VK4AAC/3 then called in for another Park to Park from the Buckley Nature Conservation Reserve.  My fifth and final caller on 80m was Peter VK3ZPF.

I then headed to the 20m band and found John VK6NU/p calling CQ from SOTA peak VK6/ SW-042.  John was a strong 5/8 signal and he reciprocated with a 5/8 for me.  I headed up to 14.315 and called CQ, and called CQ, and called CQ.  But sadly no takers.  This was a little disappointing as the band was definitely open to Western Australia.

I then lowered down the squid pole and put up the 1/2 wave 15m dipole and started calling CQ on 21.245, but sadly I had no takers.  So I tuned across the band and found Ken JA2GPR calling CQ.  Ken was 5/8 and gave me a 5/6 signal report.

I then headed back to 40m and logged a further 10 stations from VK2, VK3, VK4, VK7 and New Zealand.  Regular park hunter Andrei ZL1TM made it into my log once again.  I was also called by Gar ZL3SV who was a super strong signal.  Gary advised I was peaking 20/9 to Nelson on the top of the South Island of New Zealand.  But, that was all due to Gary’s antenna, a 2,000 foot long (640 metre) centre feed sloper.

To finish off the activation I headed back to 80m as I had seen a spot pop up for Peter VK3PF/p who was on 3.615 activating SOTA peak VK3/ VE-163.  After logging Peter I moved down to 3.610 and logged a further 6 stations from VK2, VK3, and VK5.

It was time to pack up and make the 1 hour journey back home.  I had a total of 60 contacts in the log.  It was slow going on the way home as the sun was just starting to set and as a result the roos were out in great numbers.

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

1. VK4AAC/3 (Buckley Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2054)
2. VK3MB
3. VK3VLY/p
4. VK2IO
5. VK3CWF
6. VK2LEE
7. VK7QP
8. VK3FRC
9. VK3FLES
10. VK2PKT
11. VK3PAT
12. VK3PF/p (SOTA VK3/ VE-168)
13. VK3MPR
14. VK3ZPF
15. VK7KR
16. VK6KRC
17. VK4SMA
18. VK6XN
19. VK4NH
20. VK4DXA
21. ZL4TY/VK4
22. VK3ZZS/7
23. VK4TJ
24. VK3ANL
25. VK4FDJL
26. VK1NP
27. ZL1TM
28. VK3FRAB
29. VK3SQ
30. VK2JXA
31. Vk7FRJG
32. VK4DX/p (IOTA OC-137)
33. VK2APL
34. VK2YK
35. VK3EI
36. VK2KYO
37. VK7JON
38. VK4FW
39. VK7ME
40. VK4VXX/5
41. VK8PAT
42. VK7DW
43. ZL3SV
44. VK4MDZ
45. VK2ZK
46. VK2MCG

I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

1. VK5FANA
2. VK5FMAZ
3. VK5GJ
4. VK4AAC/3 (Buckley Nature Conservation Reserve VKFF-2054)
5. VK3PF/p (SOTA VK3/ VE-163)
6. VK5BJE
7. VK3KWB
8. VK3UH
9. VK2NP
10. VK3SQ
11. VK3ARH

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

1. VK6NU/p (SOTA VK6/ SW-042)

I worked the following stations on 15m SSB:-

1. JA2GPR

 

References.

Birds SA, 2018, <https://birdssa.asn.au/location/spring-mount-conservation-park/>, viewed 4th June 2018.