24th August 2014
Mount Stanley is another very easy Summit close to Beechworth in northeast Victoria, about an hour’s drive from home. I had activated this one once before but given an opportunity and a relatively benign weather forecast my lady and I decided we’d take a trip up there, check out the views and maybe make a few contacts.
Mt Stanley map
There are two ways you can access the Summit of Mt Stanley. Last time we activated it we went up from the south, which involves some very steep 4WD trails. As it had been raining the day before and overnight we decided to give that a miss this time, and took the easy road up from the village of Stanley. This is a well graded, gently sloping dirt road that would be easy going for a 2WD vehicle.
On arrival at the parking place near the Summit we were dismayed to note the looming black clouds and rain in the middle distance. We decided to wait a bit before setting up, just in case the weather came our way. Sure enough it did, and for ten minutes or so we huddled in the Hilux while a mixture of rain, hail and sleet hammered down. It soon passed and from our vantage point we couldn’t see any more coming, so we walked up to the highest point away from the radio tower and set up the gear.
This time I decided not to attempt to use the link dipole as it had almost let me down on the previous expedition and I hadn’t had time to repair it. Instead I set up the Barrett 940 using its wire antenna with a counterpoise lying on the ground. It’s not very efficient but it works.
VK2IB/3 with Barrett 940 on Mt Stanley
In 25 minutes of operating on 7MHz SSB I worked VK3PF, VK3CAT, VK5WG, VK3GRW, VK3WE, VK3FQSO, VK3ERW, VK3HRA/P, VK3AFW, VK3ARR, VK3DAC, VK1MA/2, VK5LY, VK3AV, VK3FPSR, VK5TN, VK3FOWL, VK1ATP, VK3EK, VK2CCJ, VK1DI, VK2AOH, VK2QR, VK3YSP, VK2GAZ and VK1RX.
My lady pointed out to me at this point that the black clouds were gathering again, so we quickly packed everything away and headed for home.
VK2IB Amateur Radio 