On 24th October 2024, after leaving the Litchfield silo, Marija and I drove to our next activation for the day, the Carron I124 Bushland Reserve VKFF-4749.
The reserve is located about 43 km east of Warracknabeal and about 305 km northwest of Melbourne
Above:- Map showing the location of the Carron I124 Busland Reserve. Map c/o Google Maps.
The reserve is located on the southern side of Pearse Road.
Above:- An aerial view of the Carron I124 Bushland Reserve. Image c/o Google Earth
The district of Carron takes its name from the village of Carron in Stirlingshire, Scotland. This is a small reserve, only about 1 hectare in size. It was established on the 22nd day of September 1987. (CAPAD 2022)
This was an easy park to access with no fences. We ran the Yaesu FT857, 40 watts, and the 20/40/80m linked dipole supported on the 7-metre telescopic squid pole.
It was incredibly windy, and our squid pole snapped during this activation. We also experienced a solar flare, with the noise on the band going from zero to strength 8 and then back down to zero after a few seconds.
Marija worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK2IO/P (SOTA VK3/ VE-237 & VKFF-0980)
- VK3PF
- VK3APJ
- VK3ZSC
- VK3MCA
- VK3WSG
- VK3HJW
- VK3CEO
- VK3KRL
- VK5DW
I worked the following stations on 40m SSB:-
- VK2IO/P (SOTA VK3/ VE-237 & VKFF-0980)
- VK3PF
- VK3APJ
- VK3ZSC
- VK3MCA
- VK3WSG
- VK3HJW
- VK3CEO
- VK3KRL
- VK5DW
- VK1AO
- VK2MET
- VK5TR
- VK7XX
- VK3PWG
- VK3TTK
- VK3UH
- VK3MIJ
- VK2LEE
I worked the following stations on 40m FT8:-
- VK3PF
- VK3CEO
- VK3APJ
- VK3KAI
I worked the following stations on 20m FT8:-
- VK1AO
- VK2MET
- VK2MG
- VK3APJ
I worked the following stations on 20m SSB:-
- VK2VW
- VK2HFI
- VK2AKA
- VK2BUG
- VK7XX
- VK2MG
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 17 Mar. 2025].
- Leslie James Blake, 1978, Place Names of Victoria.
VK5PAS 