One Tree Hill VK1/AC-035 876 metres ASL
On 26 October 2013 the ACT government announced section 3 of the Centenary Trail included a trail corridor to the summit of One Tree Hill. The trail approximately 5 km runs along the eastern face from Hall to the north-east end of the One Tree Hill ridge line. From the ridge line the summit track is a switch-back heading south-west to the peak.
Prior to the opening of Centenary Trail access to the summit was via private land and required extensive negotiations with the property owner to gain access to a vehicle track from Hall village terminating close to the summit peak. Previous SOTA activators were Al VK1RX and Andrew VK1DA along with Ian VK1DI both skillfully negotiating with the farmer to gain access.
With public access now available along a strict access corridor, it’s time to activate the SOTA qualifying peak. I plan to activate the peak at 07:30 UTC (18:30) local tomorrow 7 November 2013. Forecast top temperature is 31 degrees Celsius.
I will open the activation on 14.340 MHz USB operating a Yaesu FT857D at 30 watts with two 4S 5Ah LiPo batteries. The antenna is a 20/40m link dipole. If required I can run the 857D at 75 watts for short periods while monitoring the 12 amp voltage regulator heat sink.
Operating time will be 1 hour, sunset is at 08:55 UTC (19:55) local. See SOTAWatch2 for details
One Tree Hill trail
Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life 
Hi Andrew, Had a listen out for you this morning 0735z in good old Scotland. Never actually heard you but knew there was someone on the frequency – could have been someone totally different. Could hear a few ops tuning up and a brief bit of CW all on 14.310.
But alas I had to give up and head to work, apart from that I ended up with a German on 14.313 and then a few minutes later another popped up on 14.307 so that was that.
Only got a 20m dipole about 3m above ground at home QTH but the sky’s the limit up in them thar hills.
Hope you had a good day and you never know – one of these days.
73 Neil 2M0NCM
Hi Neil
Thanks for taking the time to write, you are the first blogger from Scotland to post a reply. I had local VK long-haul success on 20m making contact with 2 chasers in VK6, that’s about 3100 km to my west, greater than most of the DX covered in the EU. So whilst not strictly DX the long haul distance achievement is very satisfying. The top end of 20m was busy at my end, I could hear the German and other EU stations, it was difficult to find a clear frequency.
On 40m 7.090 MHz the big guns in Italy were 5-9+ on the summit. I had to move to 7.115 MHz for a clear 5 KHz.
I will try again on 20m with more activations after work or on a Saturday into the early evening. Agree would be great to make the SOTA DX one of these days.
Best wishes Neil.
Andrew, VK1NAM