Today I activated three new uniques for me, vk4/se-045,*-039 and *-043. At around 600-700m these are 4 point summits in VK4 (though would be only 1 point in vk1).
The first required a 90 min drive from where I’m staying for a few days, followed by a 2km walk/climb up a pleasant trail surrounded by lush forest. The 2km walk too almost the same as the road trip to the trailhead, but at 0148 (11:48am) I made the first contact, with Warren VK3BYD on VK3/VE-178. About 16 more contacts around VK and a few into ZL followed.
Then after walking back to the car, eating some of the lunch in a cold pack there, I drove about 12 km north to Kluvers Lookout, ref VK4/SE-039. This is the site of a huge telecommunications installation, with power apparently from many solar panels, like about 40 or 50. I was concerned about the possibility of noise from the cooling systems but it was quiet and only a few spurious signals were heard on the HF bands I used (40/20/17). Surprisingly even at 0430 UTC I was able to make 7 EU contacts on CW 20m.
After 27 contacts on that site I packed up again and travelled 20km further north and about 10km westwards to a summit near Mt Byron. VK4/Se-043.
Arriving at about 5pm just on sunset I knew I had limited daylight left at this time of year. So I made a few quick contacts on 40m ssb with people I heard there, then messaged VK1AD to let him know I was at the third summit. After a few moments we had a contact in the log and I had also worked several vk3s. I went to 20m CW and found some of the European contacts from the previous summit were waiting for me, which was nice. Worked JA5QJX/0 for an S2S, thanks for listening so carefully, Yasu san. Finally VK4TJ and JH1MXV to finish the activation at 0747 in the dark, with only faint traces of sunlight to the west, then pack up with the head torch and then navigate out of the forest and down to Dayboro, then back to the Sunshine Coast. Sunset happens quickly at this latitude.
The milestone? The first activation today was my 500th activation. It’s been a little over 9 years and what fun it has been.
Many thanks to all the chasers and activators who shared this with me today.
Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
(Dad joke)