Daily Archives: March 1, 2024

Yehrip Bushland Reserve VKFF-4273

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Our first activation for Tuesday 21st November 2023 was the Yehrip Bushland Reserve VKFF-4273. The park is just 7 km to the northwest of Avoca and about 188 km northwest of Melbourne.

This was the first time the park was activated for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.

After leaving Avoca we headed north and crossed over the Avoca River.

Our drive took us through beautiful farming country with views of the Pyrenees.

Yehrip is a Parish in Victoria. Yehrip is an aboriginal word for paperbark. (Blake 1978)

Above:- Map showing the Parish of Yehrip. Map c/o Mapshare Vic website.

Parks Victoria has a page on their website for this park but it contains no information about the park other than a park boundary image.

The park is about 7 hectares in size and was established on the 24th day of August 1982. (CAPAD 2022)

We set up in a clearing amongst the scrub off the Robinson-Percydale Road. We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole. I used the special event callsign of VI10VKFF.

Above:- An aerial view of the park showing our operating spot. Image c/o Google Earth.

Band conditions on 40m were absolutely terrible and we scraped up just 11 contacts each on that band. At least we qualified the park for the VKFF program (10 contacts), but this is a park we will need to return to at some stage to get the required 44 QSOs to qualify the park for the global WWFF program.

Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

  1. VK1DI
  2. VK3CLD/p (Kosciuszko National Park VKFF-0269)
  3. VK2IO/p (Namadgi National Park VKFF-0377)
  4. VK1AO
  5. VK2MET
  6. VK4NH
  7. VK4DXA
  8. VK7PSJ
  9. VK4KLA
  10. VK7ZA
  11. VK5HAA

Marija worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

  1. VK3PF
  2. VK3KAI
  3. VK3SQ
  4. VK2BD
  5. VK3APJ
  6. VK3UAO/p (Wood Point Flora ReserveVKFF-2489)
  7. VK3BEL
  8. VK2DG

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

  1. VK1DI
  2. VK3CLD/p (Kosciuszko National Park VKFF-0269)
  3. VK2IO/p (Namadgi National Park VKFF-0377)
  4. VK1AO
  5. VK2MET
  6. VK4NH
  7. VK4DXA
  8. VK7PSJ
  9. VK4KLA
  10. VK7ZA
  11. VK5HAA

I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-

  1. VK3PF
  2. VK3KAI
  3. VK3SQ
  4. VK2BD
  5. VK3APJ
  6. VK3UAO/p (Wood Point Flora ReserveVKFF-2489)
  7. VK3BEL
  8. VK2DG

I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-

  1. VK1AO
  2. VK2MET
  3. VK4NH
  4. VK4DXA

References.

  1. Dcceew.gov.au. (2023). Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2022 – DCCEEW. [online] Available at: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/science/capad/2022 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2024].‌
  2. Leslie James Blake, 1978, Place Names of Victoria.

Avoca Riflerange Bushland Reserve VKFF-4271

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Our final activation for Monday 20th November 2023 was the Avoca Riflerange Bushland Reserve VKFF-4271. The park is just 2 km to the east of Avoca and about 184 km northwest of Melbourne.

This was the first time the park was activated for the World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.

The park is about 103 hectares in size and was established on the 25th day of November 1982. (CAPAD 2022)

Above:- An aerial view of the park with the town of Avoca in the background. Image c/o Google Maps.

We accessed the park via a 4WD track that ran off Barnett Street.

Above:- An aerial view of the reserve showing our operating spot. Image c/o Google Earth.

We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole for this activation. I used the special event call of VI10VKFF. It was late evening when we set up and by the time we were ready to pack up it was completely dark.

Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

  1. VK2IO/p (Brindabella National Park VKFF-0054)
  2. VK1AO
  3. VK2MET
  4. VK3CTM
  5. VK2EXA
  6. VK2YK
  7. VK5GA
  8. VK5LA
  9. VK5KAW
  10. VK4SMA

I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-

  1. VK2IO/p (Brindabella National Park VKFF-0054)
  2. VK1AO
  3. VK2MET
  4. VK3CTM
  5. VK2EXA
  6. VK2YK
  7. VK5GA
  8. VK5LA
  9. VK5KAW
  10. VK4SMA
  11. VK4NH
  12. VK4DXA
  13. VK3CA
  14. VK3PF
  15. VK3KAI
  16. VK2MOE
  17. VK4HMI
  18. VK2LWK
  19. VK1CHW
  20. VK5AEZ
  21. VK3DAC
  22. VK4FE/3
  23. VK3OAK
  24. VK3YV
  25. VK3SG
  26. VK3CWF
  27. VK3APJ
  28. VK3VIN
  29. VK3HJW
  30. VK2KET
  31. VK5AAF
  32. VK5HAA
  33. VK5KLV
  34. VK3SPG
  35. VK2WWV
  36. VK3YUN
  37. VK2EMI
  38. VK5HS
  39. VK3SO
  40. VK3TNL
  41. VK2DL
  42. VK2IMP
  43. VK5JOS
  44. VK5WWW
  45. VK3ACZ
  46. VK2EG
  47. VK4GJW
  48. VK3MLT
  49. VK2UTC

I worked the following stations on 40m AM:-

  1. VK5HS
  2. VK3CA
  3. VK3VIN
  4. VK2YK
  5. VK5GA
  6. VK3YV
  7. VK3TNL

References.

  1. Dcceew.gov.au. (2023). Collaborative Australian Protected Areas Database (CAPAD) 2022 – DCCEEW. [online] Available at: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/land/nrs/science/capad/2022 [Accessed 1 Mar. 2024].‌