SOTA Activation Wereboldera

After activating Mt Burngoogee in the morning, stopping for lunch at Tarcutta, continued driving down the Hume Highway. Turned off onto the Snowy Mountains Highway to Tumut.

Wereboldera rises above Tumut and can be accessed by driving through the town. I approached turning off the Snowy Mountains Highway onto Currawong Rd, then Boondaroo Rd, although you could also take Boondaroo Rd directly off the Highway.

After leaving Tumut town the road becomes unsealed, then enters Wereboldera State Conservation Area.

After this the road climbs steeply, very steeply... Although the road is not that rough I would recommend a AWD/4WD of some sort just because of the steepness. My Nissan Xtrail coped okay. Close to the top stopped where it was safe to pull off and walked. A suitable place to park would be at the top junction with Stoney Creek Trail and Trig Trail.

After about 800 m walk reached the top, a trig with Communications towers.

Wereboldera Trig

Wereboldera Trig nameplate

Strapped the squid pole to the trig and set up the 20/40 m linked dipole, using the fence as a support for one leg and a rock for the other.

 View from near the compound.

Shack at the base of the trig.

Got on 40 m and worked the usual pileup of chasers, including Paul VK5PAS in Grass Tree Conservation Park, see his blog entry at http://vk5pas.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/grass-tree-conservation-park/

Also a S2S contact with Nick VK3ANL/p on VK3/VS-003.

Switched to 20 m, and while tuning about looking for a spot to operate heard this CQ SOTA signal, from Herbert OE9HRV on OE/VB-397! Managed a S2S although I was quite weak, he was running a lot more power than my 5W. Called CQ myself and got John VK6NU, Mike VK6MB and Don G0RQL.

Light was starting to fade and didn't fancy a drive down the steep road in the dark so packed up. 26 contacts.

Track log of drive/walk