Today (Saturday 16/1/21), with the easing of COVID-19 cross border travel restrictions, I was able to travel to Heywood for a meeting with the Portland club President, Peter VK3HEW, and Secretary David VK3DJC at Mount Eckersley, to meet with the new property owners, Casey and Bonnie Taylor.
A very friendly and accommodating meeting followed, with all the terms and conditions for site access verbally agreed to. A formal lease document is now being drafted for all parties to sign off in a week or two. Site preparation will commence as soon as the lease document is signed.
Following the meeting, we all adjourned to the summit of Mount Eckersley, where the precise location of the repeater compound was pegged out. An area of 17m x 6m adjacent to the geo-survey trig marker (the highest point of the hill) was agreed to, which will soon be fenced off to keep the cattle away from our proposed facility.
The new land owners were very supportive of our project and are keen to have it fully operational as soon as possible.
Peter VK5BE
