One of my regular activities is walking and on Sunday last, I walked my usual trail in Mylor Conservation Park. I listen to the Wireless Institute of Australia (WIA) broadcast on the VK5RDF, two metre C4FM repeater. The signal is good for the whole walk, although it weakens towards the northerly end of the park because of a rise on the westerly side. I always call in on the callback and announce that I am pedestrian mobile. Now I know that this is not HF, no WWFF, but it is still fun. I have taken this walk for a number of years and never mentioned that this is how I usually listen to the broadcast. Of course the regular listeners know! I use a Yaesu FT-70D set for 0.5 watts, that is, half a watt. I have no trouble accessing the two metre and 70 centimetre repeaters (VK5RDF) with such such low power.

You can see from the walk profile that the total ascent is just 42 metres and most of that is from the entry to the park to the north-south track – the hard part of the walk (about 500 metres) is over at the beginning!

And the listening is great, the WIA national news, VK5 club news and then the call back. We have a group from Detroit, Michigan, which is expanding in numbers and who call in, a Californian and one or two from the East plus some interstate amateurs. VK5RDF is linked to all of the C4FM repeaters in the state and the 10G backbone as well as being accessible through Wires x.

Thanks go to Pete, VK5JP and friends.

Thursday was a magic Winter’s Day. While the temperature was in the low teens the sun shone in a cloudless sky and there was no wind. I thought I would make it a radio day and try out my new Icom 705 in the field. My last activation was on the 18th April and I sustained an injury which kept me at home following hospital treatment.

I went to my usual activation spot about 100 metres into the Park on Whitehead Track. I tried out the radio as a QRP rig, running five watts, using the supplied battery and later supported by a Lithium Iron battery (LiFePO4) I ran 10 watts. I used a home made dipole and the Icom AH5 coupler. What I am attempting to do is make my footprint and load smaller, without going overboard! I have even tried out my Palm Iambic paddle matched to the keyer in the radio. It works well. I have had it for some years but did not use it, preferring a hand key. But I have made this move to reduce weight as I want to walk to more activation spots.

Secondly, I am chasing the first level WWFF Boomerang Award, that is, five activations on separate days with at least 10 contacts at each activation. I will check this out over the next few weeks.

Here is a link to my last activation at Mylor Conservation Park.

https://wordpress.com/post/vk5bje.com/8094

Contacts

7.144 Mhz 0136 VK3BEZ/P Park to Park VKFF-2094

7.150 VK5PAS Paul

VK3PF Peter

VK2YK/5 Adam

VK5GA/P Adam

VK5BJF Geoff

VK5LA Andy

VK3SQ Geoff

All the contracts listed above were completed using the internal battery on the IC 705, that is, five watts. I then changed to an external battery and worked the following stations:

VK5KAA Gordon

VK5NFT Tom

VK3ZFC Graham

0226 VK3BEL/P Ross Park to Park VKFF-2021

Thanks to all who gave me a call and to Paul, VK5PAS, who spotted me on ParksnPeaks. Unfortunately, my Night Hawk modem has died!

Today the weather was not as good and I was going to add a few more contacts using a vertical antenna – but I changed my mind and walked the Park instead.

I entered the Park at the Whitehead Road entrance and walked up the hill on Whitehead track to the junction and turned left and walked to the end of the park at Hooper Road. I then re-traced my steps to the southern end of the Park near the entrance to the Thai Forest Monastery. The walk is about three and a half kilometres and took me about 47 minutes, including time out to speak with another walker.

I have described this park in previous posts and I have enjoyed my many visits. However, I will now shift most of my walking to Mark Oliphant and Scott Creek Conservation Parks where the walks are more challenging. Mylor Conservation Park is one of a number of parks make up the Greater Mount Lofty Parks.

I am interested in the Park tracks, which includes a section of the iconic Heysen Trail. Are these tracks built on earlier walking paths established by the local First Nations People? I cannot answer this definitely. It is unlikely as the Park contains re-growth forest and there is a sign near the main gate which suggests the Park was once a farm.

Here is some photographic evidence I have collected on my camera as I have gone about my walks.

I have found about five of these stumps and they are all located on the Eastern side of the Whitehead track and all are on the shoulder of the road. These were big trees and my guess is that they were removed when the road was made. Much of the forest re-growth is made up of trees with smaller diameters.

Once again I thank all of the radio amateurs who gave me a call and got me over the Boomerang Award threshold.

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Excellent weather greeted me on day two of the special WWFF Activation Weekend. My chosen park was the Mylor Conservation Park near home. This is also quite a small attractive park which I have been walking in (along with the Mark Oliphant Conservation Park) while Scott Creek Conservation Park remains closed due to the fire about 12 months ago. I was hoping the Scott Creek Conservation Park might have been opened in time for this weekend. It was not to be. I have activated Mylor Conservation Park on three previous occasions and I will return for a fifth to make up for the lack of contacts over the weekend due to antenna faults.

I arrived at the Park about 8.30 on Sunday morning and carried my gear into the park: about four trips. I have got to reduce the amount of clutter I carry. Take antennas for example. I carry about five antennas for all bands but only one of my antennas is designed for 80 metres. I have resolved to build another antenna which will cover 80 metres. There are lots of antenna designs for 80 metres but by the time you filter out verticals, loops and doublets you are left with just dipoles. I use a centre fed resonant linked dipole for 80 metres. Mine is from SotaBeams. I laid it out on the ground, an old sealed road, Whitehead Track, and armed with my MFJ analyser and my eyes I set out to find the fault in what has been an excellent antenna. Now I am gentle with my gear and look after it carefully but the antenna is long and it is easy to snag on a bush or a stick on the ground while laying it out or packing it up. The antenna works 80, 40, 30, 20 and 15 metres and a check with my analyser confirmed it was not working on any of the bands. With a linked dipole set for 80 metres all of the links need to be closed. I checked mine and found that to be correct. At the Knoll on Saturday I confirmed my radio was working by changing to a home brew antenna for 40 and 20 metres. So I started at one end and began a check by examining every soldered joint. I eventually found the fault: the wire had broken at the point where is attaches to the crocodile clip at the 15m metre links just on one side. It was hanging together by the insulation on the wire!

So I packed the antenna away and substituted another and proceeded to work 17 stations on 40 metres. I missed the 80m band. I enjoy this band for close-in contacts in South Australia and Victoria. I only worked one VK5 station at home (John VK5HAA).

The Park

I have visited Mylor Conservation Park on three occasions and here is a link to my last visit:

https://vk5bje.com/category/amateur-radio/sa-conservation-parks/mylor-conservation-park/

This Park has been described in detail with photos in my previous posts.

Contacts

2234 7.150 VK7DW/P 53 41 VKFF-1818 Drew

2236 7.155 VK3PF/P 57 57 VKFF-2329 Peter

2240 7.160 VK3VIN 59 57 Ian, Bendigo

2250 7.160 VK4AAC/3 59 53 VKFF-2189 Rob also spotted me on 7.160 Thanks Rob

2253 7.160 VK2VH/3 59 54 VKFF-2189

2253 7.160 VK3SQ 59 55 Geoff Beechworth

2255 7.160 VK3YE/P 53 54 Peter portable at Seaford Beach

2257 7.160 VK2VW 57 55 Brett

2258 7.160 VK2HFI 57 55

2252 7.160 VK5HAA 59 39 John at home in noisy environment

2301 7.160 VK3IH 59 54 Paul at Walkerville

2318 7.113 VK5MAZ/P 51 52 Marija VKFF-1078

2319 7.113 VK5PAS/P 51 52 Paul VKFF-1078

2321 7.120 VK3PF/P 59 59 Peter VKFF-2431

2326 7.160 VK3AWA/P 59 57 Darryl VKFF-2141

2328 7.160 VK3TV 59 57 Mal 2141

2352 7.140 VK2IO/P 51 44 Gerard VKFF-0473

I enjoyed the morning in the park and spent some time speaking with visitors about amateur radio. And a special thank you to all who gave me a contact.

Moss glistening in the sun: Mylor Conservation Park

On Friday morning we, myself and xyl, Jenny, decided to go for a walk in the Mylor Conservation Park, VKFF-0785 and  5CP-156. Mylor Conservation Park is 49 hectares and preserves remnant bushland in the Adelaide Hills. The walk though the Park is not strenuous and the bush is magnificent. The Park is near Mylor and is just over seven kilometres from my house. I previously activated this Park for the WWFF program two Friday afternoons previously, that is on the 12th February. On that occasion I brought the activation to an end as a result of being bitten by ants. I was aiming for 44 contacts. I did not reach that goal.

So we thought we would explore the Park thoroughly and we did. I was hoping to find an activation spot away from power lines, nearby houses and on gravel or some other hard surface to minimise the risk of ants. We entered the Park at the main gate and followed the sealed track to the end of the Park. Here we saw a wooden building which can be hired for camping.

There were also open areas nearby, which, if not for the high tension lines on Whitehead Road, would provide great activation spots. The Park is on the left hand side of the picture opposite Gate 2.

Private Road to Thai Monastery.

I explored another side track which took me to Gate 5 and we returned to the car park on the track which is also part of the famous Heysen Trail. The picture below shows that the unnumbered Gate was on the Hooper Road boundary. I did consider this previously (12th February) as an activation spot but thought the bundled power lines overhead would cause too much noise.

Entry point for Heysen Trail

Heysen Trail Marker

We also took coordinates where we found a very small patch of couch grass on the track in a low spot which was still damp. These coordinates will be sent to the Friends of Mylor Conservation Park.  About half way along the sealed track (an old road) there is a cross road: this is roughly in the centre of the Park and there are posts in place for mounting squid poles. This would make a great QRP location away from the noise, reasonable elevation, probably 330 metres above sea level, but the only access is by hiking. You would have to be prepared to take a ground sheet and sit on the ground. This is not much fun for a Park activation!

Map of Mylor Conservation Park

The map was taken from http://www.walkingsa.org.au

My operating point was half way between 1 and 8 on the Centre Track.

I decided to compromise. I would walk into the Park carrying my gear. In preparation for the late afternoon activation, I loaded the large ruck sack with my Ipad and modem, three LiFePO4 batteries, two antennas, log book, water and jacket. The exercise required two trips to carry my gear. On the first I carried my tripod, squid pole, table and chair. The walk was about 300 metres uphill. On the second trip I carried the back pack and my FT897 in its black plastic case. I have learned the hard way: the gear is heavy but I have an FT857D on order which will help! All together with the walk in the morning and the afternoon return visit my pedometer reported I had walked 15,146 steps (my goal is 10,000 per day) or 12.25 kilometres and that I had burned 2990 calories. I have to report that on Thursday afternoon, VK5PAS, Paul, VK5KC, David and I had indulged in coffee, cake and cream! So I had extra motivation for the walk!

Contacts

I set up my gear and was on the air at 05:52. I found 7.120 to be clear and called CQ. I was answered by VK5HDW, David in Ferner Conservation Park.  I gave David 5 and 8 and received 5 and 9. I thought that 40 metres looked pretty good for a change! I saw that Rob, VK4AAC/P5 was operating on 7.100 from Danggali Conservation Park and secured a contact before going back to 7.120: 5 and 9 each way. VK3PMG/M, Mick, was driving west near Ararat and we had a contact 5 and 6 each way. Then I was called by VK3PF, Peter who gave me 5 and 8 and I gave him 5 and 6. Then Brian, VK5FMID, from Mount Gambier called: he was 5 and 8 and he gave me 5 and 7. At 06:03 Rick, VK4RF/VK4HA called: signals were 5 and 6 each way. Thus with six contacts around South Eastern Australia, I was able to determine that propagation on the 40 metre band was really quite good and it should be a fun activation.

Then in quick succession followed VK5NRG, Roy; VK5FANA, Adrian on Yorke Penninsular; VK5PAS/M, Paul on his way to Kaiser Stuhl Conservation Park; VK5GJ, Greg; VK5YX, Hans; VK3TKK/M3, Peter 5 and 9 both ways; VK3DBP, Paul; VK5NFT/M, Tom; VK3FJBA, Joe near Melbourne;  VK5PL, David; VK5AV, Tim; VK2HHA, Dennis from Albury 5 and 8 both ways; VK3FIRM, Mike; VK5EE, Tom; VK5ZGY, Greg from Mount Gambier. I them moved to 7.144 and listened before callling VK5HSX/P, Stef in Deep Creek Conservation Park. I decided to chase Stef, VK5HSX/ because DX stations, although weak, were on 7.110 and making the going a bit hard. I decided to stay on 7.110 for just a little longer to and worked VK5KLV/P, Les in Winninowie Conservation Park.  At 06:45 I worked a succession of stations: VK5FPAC, Bob; VK3JK, Craig; VK5KKS, Kevin; VK3BNC, Bob; VK5KPR, Peter; and at 07:08, VK5PAS/P, Paul, at Kaiser Stuhl Conservation Park, and on 7.085, VK1DI/P1, Ian in Pinnacle Nature Reserve, VKFF-0862, 5 and 7 and 5 and 8.

I thought I would try for some VK6s. I posted my intention to migrate to 14.312 which I found clear. I called CQ a few times to allow chasers to see my post on Parks and Peaks and was soon answered at 07:33 by VK4RF/VK4HA, Rick 5 and 9 each way: F1BBL, 5 and 5 and 5 and 3 received and finally, JA1QVR, Sam 5 and 8 both ways. I was using 40 watts and a linked dipole and Sam was transmitting with a kilowatt and a four element beam. He was chuffed and so was I.

I enjoyed myself making 36 contacts with one duplicate. Thanks to all of the chasers and, of course, the activators. I made five park to park contacts.

Today was a Parks and radio day. In the morning my wife Jenny and I went for a walk in the Scott Creek Conservation Park. This was my first walk in the Park for some months due to health issues. It was great. The day was warm and sunny, the kangaroos were out and about watching us and the birds were singing. I was living for the day! Jenny was identifying a weed for the authorities: an Ivy plant that grows on the indigenous eucalypts, the brown stringy bark trees. She found at least three examples. We also saw a mob of dorper sheep. When they spotted us they ran towards SA water land which adjoins the conservation park. They owe their freedom to private gates nearby which were left undone during the motor car rally held in November. The Ranger will be advised.

When we concluded our activities at Scott Creek Conservation Park we drove to Mylor Conservation Park which is also nearby in the Adelaide Hills. (I measured the distance in the car last evening when leaving Mylor Conservation Park and driving home the most direct way at 7.1 kilometres: thus I am in the fortunate position of having three parks within ten kilometres of my house). The purpose of the visit to Mylor was to check out possible operating locations. In the end I finished up going to the main gate off Whithead Road. This is not far from houses and a Buddhist Monastery and the noise was about S7. It was hard to tell how much of the background noise was simply that and how much was power-line noise. But at the end of the activation the noise had dropped to about S3. We also explored Hooper Road which runs along the Park boundary. We drove to the end of the road and the beginning of the fire trail. At this point the road branches into two private driveways. There is a Park gate about half way along this road but a glance over head showed bundled power lines. I did not even bother to try from that location! I decided I would return to the location of my first activation near the main gate off Whitehead Road.

This photo shows my operating position with the FT897 on the left hand side of the table and 8.4 amp hour LiFePO4 battery. Even after 30 contacts the battery voltage was 12.9 volts.

This photo shows a ten metre squid pole attached to my tripod. For this activation I did not guy the squid pole or use ten pegs to hold the tripod legs in place on the ground. There was only a light breeze.

The Park

Mylor Conservation Park is a small park in the Adelaide Hills. It conserves remnant bushland in an area largely cleared for agriculture and residential development on small holdings (four hectares mostly) except in townships. There is a Friends Group and flora and fauna lists are available on the State Government parks web site.

Contacts

I began on 40 metres and after 17 contacts I decided to try 20 metres. I made five contacts on 20 including three DX qsos before moving back to 40 metres where a further ten contacts were made. Thanks to all who gave me a call, who posted my activation on Parks and Peaks as well as the DX cluster. I decided to end the activation because of the impact of my trespassing. While I gave my operating position a pretty good check for local inhabitants I decided to end the affair when I was bitten twice, simultaneously on the right hand pointer finger and left arm just above the wrist. The attackers were ants. I am not sure what species they were but they surely packed a punch. My arm is still swollen as I write this blog entry on Saturday morning. While ants have been attackers in the past on many occasions, these guys had the most impact on me. When I return to the park to try and secure 44 contacts I will set up in another location. The ants that can cause the most problems are hopper ants.

THIS is the angry little ant that’s putting up to two South Australians a week into hospital emergency rooms, some with potentially fatal anaphylactic shock.

The native hopper ant (Myrmecia pilosula), also known as the jack jumper, packs a painful sting from its tail — but for a significant proportion of people the consequences can be much greater.

Last Sunday a 71-year-old Stirling man was taken to hospital by ambulance after being stung, a situation that has become common during summer, according to Professor Bob Heddle, SA Pathology’s chief pathologist and head of Clinical Immunology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.

Prof Heddle said the aggressive ant, which moves with a distinctive hopping motion, has been responsible — along with its cousin, the inch ant — for a least six deaths in Tasmania and Victoria in recent years, although he believes deaths caused by the insects are probably under-reported.

Sunday Mail, January 14th 2015

So I cannot tell what bit me, except that the impact of bites from hopper ants are cumulative. So I will be careful in the future.

I was on the air at 0552 after checking that 7.105 was clear:

VK5PAS 58 58 Paul

VK3FORD 55 55 Matt

VK3PF 58 55 Peter

VK3PMG 58 44 Mick

VK2HAJ 59 57 Dennis

VK3FLCS 56 57 Brett

VK3DBP 57 57 Paul

VK3FQSO 57 56 Amanda

VK3MCK 59 55 Don

VK3NBL/P 57 55 Ray

VK3TKK/M 57 55 Peter

VK2YK 57 56 Adam

VK3PAT 59 59 Cliff

VK5FRCP 58 59 Rex at Piccadilly. There had been no propagation locally through the afternoon until VK5FRCP called. Rex is located in the Adelaide Hills, a kilometre or two from Mylor Conservation Park.

VK3EMI/P 56 55 Gerry

VK3ZPF 59 55 Peter

VK2NEO 59 59 Peter

I decided to try 20 metres, but not before trying to contact VK5FANA, Adrian on the Yorke Peninsular. I called VK5PAS after he worked VK5FANA at 0552. I also listened for VK5FANA, operating just higher in frequency that me a few times while I was having a quiet moment between calls. I could not contact him.

At 0700 I checked 14.310. It was clear and I spotted myself.

9A3NM 57 55 Sasa in Croatia

VK4RF 59 59 Rick

VK4HA 59 59 Rick

I5FLN 57 55 Luciano

IW2NXI 57 58

Twenty metres then went quiet so I migrated back to 40 metres:

VK5PAS/P 56 55 Paul at VKFF-077

VK4RF 59 59 Rick

VK4HA 59 59  Rick

VK4GFS 59 57 George

VK3KRH 59 59 Roscoe

VK5NRG 55 43 Roy

VK5KC 56 45 David

VK2NP Cliff 57 53

I then listened for VK5FANA, who briefly popped up out of the noise and was not heard again by me. I could hear stations contacting Adrian and giving him great reports.  Sorry Adrian, may be next time!

VK7LTD  55 43 Tony

VK3ALA 59 59 Ken

Then the ants struck!