Sota Activation – VK3/VC-002 Mt Donna Buang 2015

It has been an eternity since I have activated a sota summit. 2015 proved to be extremely busy for me with work and a lot of interstate travel, this made my weekends family time and limited my ability to head for the hills.

However, this weekend just past saw us have some time, and a very warm Melbourne Sunday was the perfect reason to head for a summit for a picnic dinner (easier now the kids are a bit older and bed time is a little more variable) and some radio. It was 33 in Melbourne and only 22 on top of Mount Donna Buang, VK3/VC-002. This is an 8 point summit, with a winter bonus. We had hoped to visit when it had snow earlier in the year, but we didn’t manage that trip.

The family piled into the car, we stopped at the local shops for a roast chicken and some bread rolls for dinner and headed up the hill.

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We arrived at the top and setup, going by 5pm, I organised Christine and made sure she would qualify for the summit first with 4 contacts on 40m before I had a play. Conditions were strange, with difficult local contacts on 40m, but strong into north new and SE QLD.

One of the contacts suggested 10m and 6m were open and active, so I headed up the band, using my antenna tuner and 40m dipole. This wasn’t ideal, but I was still able to work a number of stations into new and old on 10m, and 4 locals on 6m. The sota program has a 10m/6m challenge in progress at the moment, and these contacts netted me bonus points. Christine also qualified the summit on 10m. I then tried 20m without much luck and then packed up. The kids were keen for me to climb up the lookout tower with them. They had spent the evening between dinner running up and down the thing. I took the 2m/70cm Handhelds up lookout tower and tried to add some FM contacts. I managed 2 on 70cm, both operators didn’t know about Sota, but a contact is a contact.

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Date:06/Dec/2015 Summit:VK3/VC-002 (Mt Donna Buang) Call Used:VK3BQ Points: 8 Bonus: 0

Time Call Band Mode Notes
05:59z VK3MQ 7MHz SSB thanks rob
06:09z VK2UH 7MHz SSB thanks andrew
06:10z VK4RF 7MHz SSB thanks rick
06:11z VK4HA 7MHz SSB thanks rick
06:15z VK1AT 7MHz SSB thanks jim
06:16z VK3FPSR 7MHz SSB thanks peter
06:18z VK5IS 7MHz SSB thanks ian
06:18z VK3LED 7MHz SSB thanks col
06:19z VK2GSP 7MHz SSB thanks gary
06:20z VK2MWP 7MHz SSB thanks andrew
06:21z VK7NWT 7MHz SSB thanks
06:22z VK2YW 7MHz SSB thanks john
06:24z VK3PF 7MHz SSB thanks peter
06:25z VK3BHR 7MHz SSB thanks
06:25z VK3ZPF 7MHz SSB thanks peter
06:25z VK3UH 7MHz SSB thanks
06:38z VK3MEG 28MHz SSB Thanks Steve
06:42z VK3CAT 28MHz SSB thanks Tony
06:44z VK4RF 28MHz SSB thanks rick
06:44z VK4HA 28MHz SSB thanks rick
06:47z VK5WG 28MHz SSB thanks
06:49z VK3LHB 28MHz SSB thanks Bill
06:55z VK2FSAV 28MHz SSB thanks brett
06:57z VK3PI 28MHz SSB thanks mark
07:01z VK4NWH 28MHz SSB thanks
07:11z VK2AET 28MHz SSB thanks
07:19z VK1NS 14MHz SSB thanks nic
07:28z VK3HY 50MHz SSB thanks Gavin
07:33z VK3MEG 50MHz SSB thanks Steve
07:38z VK3BY 50MHz SSB thanks David
07:43z VK3WE 50MHz SSB thanks ret
07:47z VK2YW 7MHz SSB thanks John
07:50z VK2IO 7MHz SSB thanks gerrard
08:15z VK3FLSS 433MHz FM thanks
08:17z VK3MAW 433MHz FM thanks

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