Over the Christmas 2025 / New Year 2026 break, a group of MWRS members are on their annual Victoria High Country outing. First few days are held at the Native Dog Flat Campground, accessible by 2WD. During the stay, some participants venture on daily 4WD expeditions, or worst, climb mountains to tryout their rigs!
Apart from the wilderness and the camaraderie, the expedition provides perfect locations for a noise-free HF operations (you can hear in the background someone screaming: “turn off your inverter, and your LED lighting!”) and some grandiose locations for LOS (line of sight) 2m and 70cm operation.
The picture above shows Dom VK2JNA at the 1600m summit of Rams Horn, working Greg VK2XE back at the Native Dog Flat Campground. The two locations are just 3km apart line of sight, so a simple HT sufficed for the contact!
At the campground VK2TIJ, VK2OL, VK2XE, VK2EAH and VK2WA have set up HF portable, and are keeping in touch on the regular club chat and net and net frequencies. Word is that they even have a Starlink node with them this year…
An X1.1 flare at 0717Z on 29/12 wiped out 40m band propagation, so there was nothing to it but to find alternative activities… fortunately, it was about dinner time. Key elements of any good camping trip: Amateur Radio and a good BBQ!
On 30/12 the gang took a day trip to the famous wooden-deck MacKillops Bridge, stopping to check out Little River Gorge Lookout on the way. Both spectacular locations, with the Snowy River under MacKillops Bridge providing relief from the 35°C weather (back at the higher altitude campsite, the weather was a much more pleasant 26 degrees or less!).
On New Years Eve, most of the crew toured the Nunniong area and visited the Washington Winch. Geoff VK2WA hung back at camp, fiddling with his Mobile Mad Dog antenna and working out how to connect a 40-20-15-10m OCF antenna for stationary operation. Another round of BBQ dinner and fireside chat saw out 2024 in beautiful surroundings.
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