Our second activation for Sunday 26th November 2023, was the Brassey Mine Bushland Reserve VKFF-4293. The reserve is located about 6 km northwest of Newstead and about 144 km northwest of Melbourne.
Above:- Map showing the location of the Brassey Mine Bushland Reserve. Map c/o Google Maps.
The Reserve comprises three sections and is located south of Brassey Lane, south of Fishermans Road and south of Leathbridge Road.
Above:- An aerial view of the Brassey Mine Bushland Reserve. Image c/o Google Earth.
The reserve is about 26 hectares in size and was established on the 24th day of August 1982. (CAPAD 2022)
Band conditions once again were absolutely terrible. We managed to qualify the park for the VKFF program, but were a long way off of the 44 QSOs required for the global World Wide Flora Fauna (WWFF) program.
We started off on 80m for this activation, knowing that the HAP charts suggest 40m would be bad. We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole. I used the special call of VI10VKFF.
Marija worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK3SQ
- VK2BD
- VK3GJG
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK2LEE
- VK5FANA
- VK5HW
- VK3CLD
I worked the following stations on 80m SSB:-
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK3SQ
- VK2BD
- VK3GJG
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK3PF
- VK3KAI
- VK2LEE
- VK5FANA
- VK5HW
- VK3CLD
During our activation, I received a message from Tony VK3KKP from the Bendigo Amateur Radio Electronics Club (BAREC) to advise that they were meeting for coffee at Castlemaine. As the band conditions were so bad, this sounded like a great idea. It was terrific to be able to catch up with the BAREC group.
References.
- 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 4 Apr. 2024].
VK5PAS 