Work took me into country north eastern Victoria. A long day of tasks and driving, a 700km loop!

I packed my sota backpack into the car just in case i had time to drop past a summit and undertake an activation.

I actually ended up on two summits. I had to visit an air services Australia tower above the town of Myrhee. Mt Believue VK3/VE-217. This is on private land, in a winery, I had contemplated activating this summit, and was readying myself for this activity, the summit didn’t present an easy activation, and while i was visiting this tower, didn’t have a specific permission for the private land beyond the tower, and since i was their representing my organisation, visiting this site, didn’t feel it was appropriate. So canceled the alert and continued on my way.

Looking at my options and travel plans, left not many easy access summits, but i realised i could most likely make it to the Paps VK3/VE-204, my company has a tower on the top of this hill, and i could do some other things while on the summit. SO i headed that way and arrived around 4:45pm.

The notes for access talked about a rough track, not really 2wd suitable, but a 4wd would have no issues. I agree this is a rough track, with Spoon drains and large humps along it. Some large rocks in places and also very steep in places. I made it slowly up and parked near the comms compounds, grabbed the gear and walked back down the access road to get out of the activation zone, then back up the hill, pass the towers and up the last steep bit to the trig marker.

I continued along the top a short way to a shady spot and used a dead tree stump to connect up the squid pole. This stump was pretty rotten and wobbled a bit, but it seemed to be OK!. i walked out the dipole legs, and came back to the middle point when the stump gave way and fell over! Whoops.

A quick rejig of the pole to an adjacent tree (which put the pole at a funny angle and reduced the dipole height) but i was up and going around 5:15pm local time.

A quick Activation, just over 10 mins, including an SMS to Christine my wife VK3FCEK and got her up on the air and we were also able to work.

Thanks to all the chasers I worked.

Date:16/Jan/2015 Summit:VK3/VE-204 (The Paps) Call Used:VK3BQ/P Points: 4 Bonus: 0