On the 23/05/15 after chatting to Joe and Julie who were mobile on their way to St Leonard with the chance of activating the summit nearby, I bribed the kids with $5 each if they would let us go and activate very briefly, Kooyoora State Park which is VKFF-759 for the WWFF program. It is the nearest park to us, within 35 mins drive of home, and so with a quick scramble of equipment, we took off.
***Info from WIKI: Kooyoora State Park is a state park in Victoria, Australia located 220 kilometres (140 mi) northwest of Melbourne, and 12 km west of Inglewood. It is a 11,350-hectare (28,000-acre) reserve comprising box-ironbark forest and rocky granite outcrops, including the Melville Caves. Facilities include walking tracks, lookouts, a campground, and a picnic ground with a shelter and toilets.Kooyoora State Park was proclaimed in 1985. The original inhabitants of the area were the Jaara people who used the rock caves and shelters for protection from the weather. European settlers moved into the area in the 1840s and gold mining commenced in the late 1850s. The bushranger, Captain Melville is believed to have used the area as a hideout.The native grasslands provide a food source for kangaroos and wallabies. Key tree species include Blakely’s Red Gum, Yellow and Grey Box and Red Ironbark.***
We drove to the park via the Wedderburn-Dunolly Rd and then turned left into Mt View Rd pulling up about 50m or so into a clearing with a convenient post to strap the squid pole to. The kids took off exploring and climbing and the “shack” was up and going by 4:00PM local time. I used the TS-120V and had the usual inverted V setup.
I had no means with which to spot myself (Optus) and neither did Bob (Telstra) so I started calling on 7.105 and figured eventually someone would spot me. Contacts were pretty steady and there were plenty of new park chasers which was great, it shows that the parks programs are becoming more and more popular! I managed 2 park to park contacts thanks to Andrew (VK1NAM) and Adam (VK2YK) who let me know that Ian, VK1DI was in VKFF-853 and Paul, VK5PAS was in VKFF-782. Adam also put up a spot for me after I had made contact with Paul up on 7.141 but with the mozzies coming out to feast, and the temperature dropping along with the light fading, we packed up after I made a further 3 contacts bringing my total QSOs for the park to 22, exactly half the amount needed to qualify the park for WWFF, although easily qualifying for the VKFF so very pleased. I will need to make another trip to the park to get the rest of the contacts needed, and I will be making a bit of day out of the trip to get in some geocaching as well. 🙂
When we got home, I could hear the chasers working Julie (VK3FOWL) on her summit, but unfortunately the 40m band was going long and she was just too hard of a copy and if I can’t give someone at least a 33, I don’t bother making the contact. So we both missed working each other, but there is always another day! 🙂
VK3FQSO 