Mornington Peninsula National Park

The weekend of November 17/18, 2012 was the Victorian National Parks Weekend to promote activation by radio amateurs operating portable from these parks to earn points toward the Keith Roget Memorial National Parks Award and also to give others the chance to work the National Parks to earn points toward the award also.



The award is managed by Amateur Radio Victoria and is popularly sort after here in VK.

There are 45 parks on the award list, with 23 of them being known to be activated by VK hams for the weekend.

I decided to activate the Mornington Peninsula National Park as it is not too far (2 hours drive) from my QTH, and also it had not been activated much in the past.

I made 8 contacts QRP (less than 5 watts) including 2 other parks - Barmah N.P. and Kinglake N.P.

Rig was my Yaesu FT-817 and a 1/2 wave dipole tuned for 40 metres.

Wx was great and enjoyed the day.

73

Cambo

SOTA Operating Practices

Being new to Summits On The Air, I posted a few questions on the SotaWatch reflector (link to SOTA sites in Footer) and got some great replies from experienced operators.

The Questions I asked were:

1. I was wondering if there is a "standard" and/or recognisable way to call CQ for both SSB and CW for SOTA activations, and also give the summit number.
    
2. As there are no band or mode multipliers for SOTA, how do activators decide on frequency and mode for the activation? Do you try to do multiple bands and modes, or just one band/mode?
    
3. As there are no multipliers for the number of contacts, do activators just get the required number of contacts for official activation, or spend time on the summit to give as many chasers a point as possible?
    
4. And lastly, if you are some distance from the peak, say because the peak is on private property and you cant get any closer, but are still within 25M of the summit HASL, does that still count as an official activation?

SOTA: Mount Rouse VK3/VS-048

Mt Rouse, in Western Victoria, is an extinct volcano that is now 367 metres above sea level at the summit. When it was active, its lava flows extended 60km's to the sea at the current coastal township of Port Fairy.

Mt Rouse coming from the South along Penshurst Road.

Entrance to Mt Rouse.

As it is relatively low in height, it only rates 1 point for SOTA activation, however it has fantastic views, and is an easy activation. The car park is only about 100 metres down from the summit, with the final ascent up a flight of steps.