Two Park Sunday… VK5LA

On Sunday the 27th, I decided to head out early and spend the day activating 2 parks for the WWFF program.
The 1st park was Hogwash Bend Conservation Park VKFF-0892. This park is located on the River Murray, near the town of Cadell, in the Riverland region of S.A. It is approximately 75 Km from my home and I arrived at around 9:00am.

 

 

I travelled along the western boundary, it was well signposted but all the access gates were either locked or fenced off. I ended up walking in to the park after parking my car at the end of Hogwash Rd, near the entrance to the walking track. The red dot shows my operating position

 

The Wikipedia page has a good description of the park and the reasons for its existence https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwash_Bend_Conservation_Park

The park is adjacent to the popular “Hogwash” camp ground that is a Mecca for skiers and day trippers. The place is also packed at Easter and most long weekends. (when the water is churned to foam by so many boats)

I set up my station just inside the park boundary, a few metres from the information bay in a clearing to the right of the walking track. You can just see my table set up on the right of the picture.

 

The weather loomed ominous, with threatening clouds, but any rain around either held of or missed me.

For the antenna, I set up the End Fed Half Wave I have been experimenting with. This antenna is approximately 40 metres long making it a 1/2 wave on 80M, 1 wave on 40M and 2 waves on 20m.

 

To match it I used a 3:24 turns ratio autotransformer to match the very high impedance of the end fed ~3000 ohms to 50 ohms our rigs like to see. I had the transformer at the base of the Squid pole and the 40m length of wire vertical for around 7M and the rest tied of to a distant tree above head height. at around 40M long its a large antenna.

A quick check showed the VSWR on 80, 40, 20 and 10 M to be below 1.5:1 on all bands. no tuner needed! This was a very pleasing result as I meant I wouldn’t have to touch the antenna to change bands.

On switching on the radio I tuned the 80m band and was pleased that the WIA Broadcast relay, via John, VK5NX (in beautiful uptown Surrey Downs) was coming through very nicely. It had actually been many years since I had called in on 80M. The radio was also seeing a very low VSWR at 80M, 1:1.2 with out the tuner engaged.

 

Come callback time John’s signal was S9 as were the other callers. Rob VK5TRM from Loxton was the strongest Riverlander with a terrific 59+15dB signal, all others were very strong as well. My signal was heard very well by all parties.

I then commenced my activation and spent the next 2 1/2 hours getting my 44+ contacts to qualify the park. I was able to swap between 80 and 40M effortlessly, very convenient!
I did pull the EFHW down with about 15 contacts to go and put up the Linked dipole to check if it was any better. I wasn’t seeing/hearing any stark improvement, in fact I reckon signals on 40 were about the same, but without the convenience of instant band changes I couldn’t tell on 80 or 20M.

 

The next step is to have both the Link dipole and the EFHW set up together so I can do a direct comparison with a switch, which I will do soon on another activation.

I managed 49 QSO’s across 80 and 40M, covering VK1,2,3,4 and 5.

I packed up after 50 contacts and headed to the town of Morgan, for a bite to eat before heading to the next park. I ended up at the historic Terminus Hotel for lunch, one of the two classic old Aussie pubs in Morgan.

 

I decided on a stone grilled rump from this classic county Pub. The meal was great and the super friendly publican was a good laugh!

After lunch it was of to park number 2, The Morgan Conservation Park, VKFF-0911.
This park is located south and east of the big bend in the river at Morgan, details here…https://www.environment.sa.gov.au/parks/find-a-park/Browse_by_region/Murray_River/morgan-conservation-park

After leaving the hotel and crossing the Ferry I turned hard left, which puts you in the park. I drove past the Park sign and followed the road down past the many shacks that dot the river, hoping to find a nice clear section with some river frontage to set up the antenna. Unfortunately the track tuned to sand and I didn’t want to risk getting my Falcon bogged, so I found a clear area of the old Cadel Rd in which to set up for the remainder of the afternoon. The red dot indicated my operating position.

 

 

At this location, I set up out the back of the car and used a tree stump to attach the squidpole. I used a different autotransformer, this one having a 2:14 turns ratio, and using an FT140-43 mix core material, rather than the unknown core from the original
Autotransformer (AT) I wound that was salvaged from a commercial broadband HF antenna. The only difference in the actual antenna deployment was instead of having the AT at ground level I attached it at around 1 metre off the ground. I felt that the antenna seemed to work slightly better in this configuration. Further research confirmed my thoughts, others have confirmed there are less ground losses when the feed point is elevated,. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was soon underway, activating 80/40/20 throughout the course of the afternoon, 20M did seem a little flat, but I did hear a VK6 Station calling CQ. I was chuffed to give Jason, VK6YTS a 55 report on a fairly flat band. He also reported he wasn’t hearing much, and gave me a 52.

 

I felt that the antenna seemed to work slightly better in this configuration, rather than with the Autotransformer/feedpoint at ground level. Further research confirmed my thoughts, others have confirmed there are less ground losses when the feed point is elevated,. 

Again, the convenience of not having to touch the antenna to change bands was a very handy thing, and made operating just that bit better.

I will have to conduct more experiments with the Autotransformers and EFHW wire, hopefully the next park will also be close to one of our lovely old country Hotels that do our state proud, even better if it’s lunchtime!