Long weekend weather was looking great, so thought that this might be the last chance to easily activate one of the higher SOTA peaks. Talbot Peak, VK3-VT010 is on the Alpine Walking Track and worth 10 points.
Kevin, VK3KAB had originally planned to go, but was caught up with work. After a post on the Aus SOTA group, Peter, VK3ZPF said he would come along.
We left Narre North at 8am and arrived at the Mt. Erica car park just before 10am. Apart from being a little chilly the sun was out. The walk to Talbot Peak goes past Mushroom Rocks and Mt. Erica. The walk is about 5km each way with an altitude gain of about 430 metres. At the 1200 metre level there was patchy snow which slowly became thicker as we progressed, with some slippery ice patches.
Snowy Track
It is pretty easy to walk past Talbot Peak, as the trig point is about 100 metres off the track on the left and there was no clear path to it.
Icy Shrubs
Peter set up his linked dipole on 12 metres and I set up the end fed half wave on 40m. We were on air just before 12 noon. As soon as the rig was turned on, I heard Ron, VK3AFW call from Mt Burr in SA, so called back while tuning the antenna. Shortly after VK1NAM and VK1RX called from Nursery Hill in ACT. A dogpile then ensued, and after 20 contacts, I changed over to 12 metres and Peter changed over to 40 metres.
Trig Point – obscured by trees
On 12 metres, I didn’t make too many contacts, although one was ZL2FT and the other VK3GHZ. The antenna was an experimental end fed half wave vertical on the squid pole, but it wasn’t matching too well.
Later on, using Peter’s radio, we worked Ian, VK1DI on Huon Hill, Wayne, VK3WAM on D’Alton Peaks and Darren, VK3FDJT on Mt. Alexander.
A guy that was “peak bagging” came over to visit and had a look at our setups and was quite interested. After lunch, the antennas came down and we headed back to the car.
Operating Location with summit bagging guy
Peter in the distance with antenna
Remains of a hut – just chimney
Mt Erica
Sign at the car park
VK3YY 
Hi Glenn and Peter great to read about your activation in the snow, as Al and I were working you from Nursery Hill VK1/AC-022. Cheers Andrew
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