Portable Expedition to QF47, QF48 and QF58
23/24 March
2001
This
expedition used the same equipment and vehicle as described in the posting of
15 August 2000 on the expedition to QF34, 35 and 46, namely the VK2TK
Landcruiser with IC706 & halo antenna, plus the VK2KU 70cm & 23cm
transceivers and various yagi antennas.
It all began
for 2TK at some unreasonable hour before 6am on 23/3 when the alarm went off.
There was a pitying "you must be stark raving mad" look from the XYL
before she vanished under the blankets, and away I went to collect 2KU from his
mountain eyrie. Coffee (real coffee not brown water made from powder) awaited
at the 2KU QTH, which effectively moved 2TK from his usual pre-10am basic
brainstem activity into what might have passed for a poor but useable facsimile
of humanoid behaviour.
Then off to
QF47 where our fearless navigator (2KU) had ostensibly found the perfect site
for claiming yet another gridsquare. 2TK still remains puzzled that a
"where are we?" inquiry yielded the airy response, "Haven't a
clue! This road isn't even on my map". All of this resulted in our modern
day Vasco Da Gama leading us unerringly to a large wasteland in the heart of
the Charbon Colliery surrounded on all sides by mine tailings, giant coal conveyors
and mine entrances. We had of course ignored the notices requiring us to obtain
management permission to enter the site. Perhaps 2KU wanted to try HF waveguide
experiments with the mine shafts.
Our antenna
encrusted conveyance was by now attracting some notice from the natives, so we
thought it prudent to move on. After a little more to-ing and fro-ing on roads
2KU firmly declared not to exist, the slight hint of a road was detected
heading upwards to the area we really wanted to access. All this demonstrated to
2TK that 2KU had now incontrovertibly shown that the Newton-Rapson successive
approximation algorithm was just as applicable to navigation as to more obvious
numerical problems. Not more than 300m up this non-road we encountered, you
guessed it, a gate. Unlike the August 2000 expedition this had no padlocks,
just a loose chain. Well.... they didn't need padlocks did they? The notice
simply said "Danger, mine subsidence area".
"Press
on" cried 2KU, which your by now dubious driver reluctantly agreed to do,
but not before warning 2KU that if we and the Landcruiser were suddenly lost
1000m down a mine shaft, 2TK would never speak to him again. The track brought
us up to a fairly generously treed ridge 900m high with a reasonable takeoff
east and north. We worked 2ZAB and 2DVZ, but failed to complete with Ross on
1296MHz. Too many trees we assumed.
From there
it was on to Mudgee. After a brief stop, we determined to find a hill with
takeoff to 2DVZ territory so that his 1296MHz contact could be completed. A long
and mysterious trek westward then ensued seeking high ground, most of it down
narrow dirt tracks that largely gave access to farms. "Where are we?"
2TK asked from time to time. "Haven't a clue" was the invariable
response (and he had maps and a GPS!!!), "but it goes UP, so keep
driving!". Eventually at the very end of this circuitous track, right at
the entrance to the last farm, and not too far from the top end of the
gridsquare, we found a good spot and duly completed on 1296MHz with 2DVZ.
Time was now
getting on, so we made for our overnight at Dunedoo. We'd have preferred
Coolah, but the NRMA guide gave no hint of accommodation (as it turned out it
had a fairly decent looking pub that offered a bed). There was a vast choice at
Dunedoo: the "Swan" 2-star motel or.... the "Swan" 2-star
motel. It was OK, but things got a bit tricky when we asked about places to
eat. "Three" said mine hostess, "the pub, the cafe, and the golf
club". "Yes but where would YOU recommend" pressed 2KU. A
reluctant mine hostess nominated the golf club. A reconnaisance of the town was
clearly indicated.
The pub was
the first port of call, not least because a cold ale seemed in order. This was
a time warp. Nothing, absolutely nothing, (including the patrons) had changed
since about 1922. There was a blackboard menu, and an uninvitingly tiny dining
area was dimly visible behind the bar and the cigarette haze. Its sole decor
was a faded notice enjoining patrons on pain of death to ensure that children
remained seated at all times. Another notice in the bar offered a chicken and
prawn night with country music at an undisclosed location. Not promising.
Inspection
of the cafe suggested that this too was probably not the gastronomic epicentre
of the known universe, even though it brashly declared that it served customers
late into the night with closure at 8pm.
On to the
golf club. External appearances suggested a building from the early 1960s
concrete block correctional institution school of architecture. But a certain
epicurean anxiety was by now setting in, and so we pressed on. It was vastly
better inside. Another cold ale was summoned (purely for quality assurance
purposes, you understand), and beyond the usual lurid collection of gaming
machines we found a very civil chinese restaurant. An FAQ meal aided by a flask
from the Corner of the Poet ensued (only doing our duty and showing loyalty to
local industry). Thus fuelled we retired to the Dunedoo Hilton to conduct a
collective, if not entirely respectful, reading of the latest copy of AR
magazine.
There's
nothing quite like the rattling roar of a cold 4 Litre diesel engine being
fired up at 6am to remove all risk of the other motel guests oversleeping.
Naturally they came out to a man (and woman) to thank us, shower us with gifts,
and wish our expedition well. Dawn broke on the way out to Coolah Tops;
fabulous country with wonderful sunrise colours and cloud formations. Up on the
range approaching the entrance to the National Park we encountered an array of
animals that would have made old McDonald envious (no, not you 2ZAB). There
were cattle and sheep of all descriptions, not a few of them loafing on the
track, 51299 kangaroos, 3 dead wombats, goats, the odd fox, and in the park
itself a wild boar.
The country
is open until the park entrance, and then becomes densely wooded (a bit like
2TK's brain). It (the road, not the brain, pay attention!) runs east-west along
the ridge top through QF48 and rises in QF58 to over 1300m (although the GPS
readings are a bit erratic on altitude with such a heavy canopy of trees). 2KU
was keen to get to a lookout well down the track. This involved driving over
one largish tree that had recently fallen across the road. Reaching our
objective was finally thwarted by a mega-sized tree across the road that was
clearly going to require a small army of forresters to remove. We also tried a
side road marked to Bald Mountain. This sounded like a promising high spot with
no trees. Wrong! It was down in a deep hollow and covered in trees; obviously
someone with a dark sense of humour. We back-tracked and after various
halo-to-Gordon tests on 144MHz and a brief encounter with 2DVZ, we set up
beside the main track in QF58bf. The 2m contact on the halo was easy, 70cm was
a bit of a struggle, and 23cm was non-existent, zilch, zippo; not even a hint
of a whistle. Other locations in QF58 along the ridge road were tried, but also
to no avail. The dense tree cover was our only explanation for the lack of
propagation.
We then set
sail back down the track for the QF58/48 border. It was at this point that 2TK
with his mind in cruise control was startled to hear a "wham!
thump!", and then see the entire top of the 2m halo hit the bonnet with
some force and spin off into the bushes. The pilot had failed to see a rogue
overhanging tree branch on an otherwise clear section of track. A rapid stop
ensued, and the remains of the unfortunate halo were retrieved. Luckily nothing
other than the wires to the delta match was actually broken. It was duly
repaired with duct tape and the delta match wires resoldered. Performance
seemed AOK.
Out of the
park and back into farming country we spied a small hilltop just off the road,
and so set out on a short cross-country drive carefully avoiding a generous
distribution of largish rocks. The view was amazing, and we had easy contacts
with Rej 2MP and Gordon 2ZAB on 2m, and a struggling contact on 70cm with
Gordon. We thought it hardly worthwhile trying 1296MHz. Gordon insisted, and to
our total amazement when called came back with a solid 57 signal. Various
esoteric theories of horizon diffraction effects and the like were mooted to
explain the anomaly with the 70cm signal.
By then it
was time to start heading back home. VK2KU got very silent at this point, and
retired into an intensive cartographic investigation. Clearly he wasn't giving
in easily over the failure to complete QF58 on 23cm. A scheme was duly hatched
to proceed down towards Cassilis and thence back up into the very bottom SW
corner of QF58. A minor, indeed very minor, road was discovered by 2KU that
seemed to go up a ridge in the requisite edge of QF58. Arrival there revealed
what was manifestly a private track going to a farm. But hey, it didn't say
"private" on any notice Your Honour, so we drove for kilometres up
this indifferent pathway, concluding at the end that cows can be even more
tiresomely stubborn than your average teenager. Moreover, they also clearly
share one characteristic with hams; a tendency to slaver profusely at the
unexpected sight of strange equipment (in this case our 4WD). Eventually 2KU
was satisfied that he had found a suitable hilltop, way off the track
naturally. More cross-country driving was followed by a quick 2m test and the
hasty erection of the 1296MHz antenna. By this time we had no doubts that we
were tresspassing and were not anxious to be invited to leave by an enraged
pastoralist brandishing his 12-gauge. The 2KU site choice worked very well with
an easy contact back to 2ZAB on 1296MHz, and with that we had completed our
expedition objectives. It had now started to rain, and after a quick pack-up we
set off back to the main road. This time as we came up a rise, over a cattle
grid and into one of the private farmyard building complexes, there was a man
staring in disbelief at the 4WD with halo antenna swinging on its fibreglass
pole like a pendulum on speed. We gave him a cheery wave suggesting that this
happened every day, gunned the engine and departed asap.
An
uneventful journey home followed, with the good feeling that everything planned
had been achieved (9 new grid squares on 3 bands for 2TK, and 4 new gridsquares
on 2 bands for 2KU), interrupted only by a quick stop in the Mudgee area to
acquire a case of red cordial. Our grateful thanks go to Gordon especially,
plus Ross, Rej and others who supplied us with contacts.
Why was 70cm
so marginal? Was it really a propagation anomaly as we had thought? 'Fraid not!
A later inspection of the 70cm antenna feeder cable (2TK's) revealed a dry
joint in one N-type connector. Occam's Razor still rules! As I said in the
expedition posting of last year, you just can't get good help these days.....
73 de John
VK2TK