SOTA Activation Mt Palerang VK2/ST-009

As part of the VK2 SOTA activity day I chose to activate a nearby summit, VK/ST-009 as I have walked up it before and know what to expect.

Mt Palerang is a lopsided mountain peak visible on the road to Braidwood on the Kings Highway, if fact the council for the Braidwood area is called Palerang Council and have a symbol of the mountain as their logo.

I drove out to Forbes Creek as per my activation of South Black Range and instead of turning off onto the North Black Range fire trail, kept going on the Mulloon Fire trail. This is not too bad for driving on, there is a ford over the Mulloon Creek which can flood, no problem crossing today.

The road eventually comes to a 4 way intersection which is where I parked.

Mulloon Road continues on to Braidwood. On the left is Gourock Range Trail

Palerang Trail is on the right. Walked down this road

About 50m along this road was a foot track on the right, heading up the ridge, took this track.

The track climbs steeply up the side of Mt Palerang.

About half way up the track runs out, however the way up is obvious, walk up the rocky ridge line.

After around 45 minutes, having climbed 250m over about a Km, reached the rocky summit trig.

Climbed on top, could possibly have used the trig pole for a support, however there was not much room on the other side for a dipole leg, and the wind was howling...

Looking South to Mt Lowden, VK2/ST-002 where Andrews VK1DA/1NAM were operating.

I went a bit to the North of the trig and used a stump for supporting the squid pole, finding a spot at the base out of the howling wind. Ran 1 leg of the dipole to a tree branch.

The other leg attached to the top of the trig.

The squid pole flopped about in the wind a bit but stayed up.

Got on 40m. Started with a S2S with Jack, VK2AXL on VK2/MN-056. Then the usual pileup of chasers...Some more S2S with VK1DA/1NAM on nearby Mt Lowden, Al VK1RX/2 on nearby Mt Budawang, VK1FB on VK1/AC-002 Mt Gingera, who I also worked on 2m FM, John VK2YW on VK2/RI-031, Wheel Of Fortune. Made a few contacts back into Canberra on the 2m Hand Held.

Worked 23 chasers before UTC changeover. Another 21 more contacts after UTC, however the band appeared to die with at first weak signals then none at all...gave it away around 11:30am and packed up.

On the way home stopped at a picnic area near the Mulloon Creek Ford for lunch, nice spot.

Track log of walk.