Daily Archives: July 5, 2019

Kinchina Conservation Park 5CP-277 and VKFF-1764

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Today (Friday 5th July 2019) after work I headed to the Kinchina Conservation Park 5CP-277 & VKFF-1764 for a quick late afternoon activation.  I have activated and qualified Kinchina a number of times previously, so today’s activation for me would count towards the Boomerang Award.

The Kinchina Conservation Park is located just to the west of the town of Murray Bridge, about 75 km east of the city of Adelaide.

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Above:- Map showing the location of the Kinchina Conservation Park.  Map courtesy of Location SA Map Viewer.

I drove east along the South Eastern Freeway and took the Monarto exit.  I then travelled east on the Old Princes Highway and then turned left onto Maurice Road.  This is good cropping land, and many of the crops were full of kangaroos.  Much to the farmer’s disgust, I suspect.

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I soon reached the western section of the Kinchina Conservation Park which is very well signposted.

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The Kinchina Conservation Park was established on the 22nd day of September 2016 and is 414 hectares in size.  It is located in the north of the Gifford Hill Range on the eastern flanks of Rocky Gully and White Hill, west of the town of Murray Bridge.  The Gifford Hill Range was named after South Australian pioneer John Gifford.

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Above:- An aerial shot of the Kinchina Conservation Park looking east.  The town of Murray Bridge and the mighty Murray River are located nearby.  Image courtesy of Google maps

During my visit to the park, it was alive with Western Grey Kangaroos.  The beautiful Diamond Firetail finch can be found in the park.  However, it wasn’t spotted by me during this visit.  I did, however, see a number of other bird species including Red Wattlebirds and Mulga parrots.

Walking SA has a number of great walks in this park listed on their website.

I parked my vehicle in the second carpark along Maurice Road, just above the Mobilong Prison.  I walked a short distance inside the park gate and set up my station consisting of the Yaesu FT-857d and the 20/40/80m linked dipole.  I ran about 30 watts for this activation.

I placed a self spot on parksnpeaks and started calling CQ on 7.144.  First in the log was Brett VK2VW with a big 5/9 plus signal, followed by John VK4TJ, Deryck VK4FDJL, and then Rick VK4RF.

I logged a total of 18 stations on 40m from VK1, VK2, VK4, VK7 and New Zealand.  Not a single station from Victoria or South Australia was logged.  It appeared that the close in propagation was not working resulting in no VK5’s.  I’ve also noted of recent times that the 40m band often shuts down into Victoria.  And today was no exception.

It was getting a bit late, about 0715 UTC, but I then headed off to the 20m band.  I called CQ on 14.310 and logged a total of 5 stations, all from Queensland.

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I then tried my luck on 80m.  For whatever reason, I had strength 7 noise on that band, which resulted in me missing a few callers.  However, I did log a total of 22 stations from VK2, VK3, VK4, VK5 and VK7.  This included a number of stations from Victoria and South Australia, but also as far afield as Queensland.

To complete the activation I went back to 40m hoping to log Stuie VK8NSB in Darwin who had posted on Facebook that he was keen for a contact and unable to hear me on 20m.  However, it was not to be.  I logged 5 stations from VK2, VK4, VK6, and Vanuatu.  It was a real pleasure to be called by Mike YJ0MB in Vanuatu who had a bit 5/9 signal.

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I was being eaten alive by the mosquitoes and it was time for me to pack up and head for home.  I had a total of 50 stations in the log.

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

  1. VK2VW
  2. VK4TJ
  3. VK4/AC8WN
  4. VK4/VE6XT
  5. VK4FDJL
  6. VK4RF
  7. VK4HA
  8. VK4CZ
  9. VK4FARR
  10. VK1DI
  11. ZL1TM
  12. VK2MG
  13. VK2FSAV
  14. VK2NP
  15. VK2YK
  16. VK2DJP
  17. VK2JON
  18. VK7AN
  19. VK4HDY
  20. VK4SMA
  21. VK2MOR
  22. YJ0MB
  23. VK6EA

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

  1. VK4NH
  2. VK4DXA
  3. ZL4TY/VK4
  4. VK4CZ
  5. VK4FE

I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

  1. VK5BJE
  2. VK3PF
  3. VK2NP
  4. VK3ARH
  5. VK5AYL
  6. VK5FANA
  7. VK4HNS
  8. VK5YX
  9. VK5CZ
  10. VK5LA
  11. VK7AN
  12. VK3FORD
  13. VK2YK
  14. VK5PTL
  15. VK3MCK
  16. VK3LAJ
  17. VK5JDS
  18. VK3AJA
  19. VK3MPR
  20. VK5SF
  21. VK3ZPF
  22. VK4JK

 

 

References.

Wikipedia, 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinchina_Conservation_Park>, viewed 5th July 2019