South west summits – Volcano land tour

Hi all,

I’m quite a bit late in posting this, but hope to gradually catch up on my SOTA activations.

Mt Elephant VK3/VS-047

Mt Elephant is an extinct volcano near Derrinallum. It was the first stop of the day. At time of activation, the summit is generally open on Sundays, but activations on other days are possible through prior arrangement. This can be done at Urquhart Motors service station, phone (03) 5597 6570. It has a web site: here.

Mt Elephant welcome sign

I headed up first thing. It was a bit chancy because I was told that they might be spraying weeds that day, and access would be closed. I was given the all clear, and headed up quite early. The car park is at the base of the hill, and it is mostly climbing on vehicle tracks up to the summit.

Looking east from Mt Elephant summit

I used the KX1 using a “random wire” with a 7 meter squid pole at the summit trig point. Progress was a little slow, but I got 4 contacts in before someone approached with the news that spraying was going to proceed that day and I needed to get off the mountain!

Mt Leura VK3/VS-050

Next stop, Mt Leura. This is located to the south east of Camperdown. You can drive to the summit on a sealed road. I headed down about 30m and then up (noting that it has been since clarified that this is not required for a SOTA activation), and set up at the summit. Again, I was on the “random wire” with the KX1. The random wire is generally very happy on 20 and 30. 40 tunes generally well enough these days, sometimes a little temperamental. I find it sometimes helps using a walking pole to get the wire off the ground near the rig. The height of the squid pole – 7m vs 4.7m does not seem to make much difference.

Operating at Mt Leura

Most of my contacts are on 40m, at 7.032 CW, but it is nice to pick up an occasional 20 or 30 contact, which I did at this summit.

Mt Rouse VK3/VS-048

Third summit of the day, Mt Rouse. Keeping with the extinct volcanoes, this nice little summit is just to the south of Penshurst. There is a car park a short distance down some stairs from the summit. Again, access is via a sealed road. The summit itself has a viewing area looking north to the Grampians, with this view:

Penshurts and the southern Grampians from Mt Rouse

Operation again was on 40/30/20 using the KX1 with the “random” wire. I spent about 40 min on summit operating, about 20 min on 40m, then 10 min on each of 30 and 20.

Mt Napier VK3/VS-046

Final volcano of the day was Mt Napier. Access to this summit is from the north west Murroa Ln, then Coles Track heading south. There is a car park for the Mt Napier track a little over 1km to the north west of the summit. The track is passable in a 2wd with a little care. The track up to the summit is well formed and an enjoyable climb. Good views from the top, and enjoyed the volcano craters up there.

Mt Napier craters

Later in the day meant that I had a bit more action on 30 and 20 than on the previous three summits. It was getting windy and there were a few rain clouds around, so I did not stay too long. Called it quits, headed to Dunkeld for some fish and chips and to position myself for action in the Grampians on the next day.

Operating at Mt Napier

The station setup shown above has the active element taken off the ground using a hiking pole. Find it helps sometimes with tuning 40m on the KX1.

Thanks for reading, Wayne VK3WAM