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Ocean
Hill is located to
the East of
Eneabba on the high ground that runs North South.
There are no trees on top of Ocean Hill and there are radio towers at the site because Ocean Hill offers excellent repeater coverage, particularly North along the Brand Highway towards Dongara. This site was tested by WARG using a modified IC22a in conjunction with the testing done from Cataby where VK6REE was installed. Have a look at Cataby site testing. Short
video of Ocean Hill site testing about 1982
 Looking North raising temporary mast  Ocean Hill looking South West
The
video frame grabs above shows Jill VK6YL and Andrew VK6ACP about to
bury
the modified IC22a in Andrews left hand. The radio was placed in a
plastic bag, and along with a car battery buried at the base of the
portable mast. The IC22a was not a repeater but on receiving a signal
transmitted for one minute, and this signal could be used to test out
the site coverage.
 Ocean Hill near Eneabba where the IC22a was buried for site testing Note
in the photograph above the
coastal plain. Looking
West the Brand Highway is about 10 kilometres.
It is the logical next place to put a voice repeater, to fill in the Brand Highway. There would be continuous repeater coverage from Perth to Geraldton, if Ocean Hill had an amateur voice repeater.  Mobile
coverage from Ocean Hill
This site provided the most interesting mobile coverage, particularly to the North. There are few trees along the Brand Highway, North from Ocean Hill and the usual flutter we are all familiar with when mobile was not there at all. Traveling at 110 km the S meter stayed steady and just gradually reduced in signal strength as we traveled North all the way to North of Dongara. South the coverage was reasonable to just North of Badgingarra, but there were patchy spots along this part of the Brand Highway due to the up down nature of the Highway. This site has great potential and should be looked at again. |