Pre-setup rendezvous at Wisemans Ferry

The 2023 Convict 100 mountain bike marathon is on at St Albans on 6 May, and CREST NSW is providing communications support. MWRS members Des VK2TGJ, Dom VK2JNA, Geoff VK2WA, Richard VK2SKY, and Scott VK2SMF, along with Brendan VK2YMI, Craig VK2BTQ, Dean VK2DAC, and John VK2JV went bush to set up the repeater masts ahead of the event.

The group met up at Wisemans Ferry north of Sydney, for breakfast and coffee, before splitting into three teams and crossing the river to proceed to the event’s temporary repeater sites.

Unlike many owners John VK2JV’s not afraid to let his 4WD get dirty…

One of the repeater sites would have been accessible by a short fire trail from the nearest road; unfortunately that road was washed out, so we had to take the long way around, over about 15km of fairly rough AWD-only fire trails.

Decision time: get to work or have another coffee first?

When you go out bush (even a short way) with John VK2JV, you soon discover how well prepared he gets. Before long, Cafe 2JV was in operation, complete with gazebo and decorative lights to enhance the dining experience when having coffee and bacon/egg rolls fresh from his portable BBQ!

“So remind me how this whole thing stays together?”
When putting up antennas, masts, and cabling, many hands make light work!

Fun side note: when everyone had returned to the start of the access trail, “somebody” couldn’t find the keys to get into his (non-AWD) vehicle, which had been left behind in the car park. Faced with the possibility of going back up the fire trail in the dark and searching in the bush, and/or spending big money on a replacement key, things were looking grim. Fortunately, Brendan VK2YMI located the keys near the car park. Now you know to pray to “St Brendan” when you misplace yours!

You can see some video from the day on the VK2MB-TV Members & Friends playlist.