On our travels back from Wanganui we decided to call in to Waipuna to collect another summit for the log. It was a good opportunity to have a break from the long drive. This site is used to transmit beacons on 50, 144, 432 and 1296 MHz as well as 3 FM broadcast stations and microwave linking. So RF wise it was pretty busy. Thankfully the track up was good for vehicle access and the weather was ok.Due to the low cloud layer the view of Ruapehu and Taranaki was limited to the bottom skirt. I’m sure on a clear day seeing these 2 volcanoes from here would be impressive.
Contacts were difficult in part due to conditions but also from local RF noise. 14 MHz netted a few VK contacts but after an hour I was getting desperate. 7 MHz was unfruitful as I suspect the skip distance was to great for ZL contacts. I made contact with Rob ZL2US in Hastings and we tried every band settling for 3.7 MHz in the end to make the magical fourth contact. This was impressive in the fact that my antenna only goes down to 7 MHz so the tuner was making up the extra length.
With 4 contacts in the log and over an hour calling it was time to pack up and head back on our way. But not before giving a local technician (and possible future ham) a hand repairing his antenna.
Details
Summit – ZL1/MW-110 – Waipuna
Height –748 m
Access – From Raetihi head west on Pipiriki Raetihi Road. Left into Waipuna ROad then right into the farm up to the summit.
Nominal time to summit – 20 minutes from Raetihi
Mobile and internet coverage from the summit – 3g coverage on Spark and Vodafone.
Summit Marker – Trigg.
Land Access Permission – Required – Trustee of the amateur beacons can grant this.