SOTA Middle Brother

After activating North Brother mountain and staying overnight at Laurieton headed South on the Pacific Highway to activate Middle Brother summit. The summit is accessed via Middle Brother National Park.

An update from Gerard VK2IO. The summit is NOT located in Middle Brother National Park, it is in a square section outside the park. So if you want to activate the park as well you will need to activate the summit, move out of the square and activate the park.

It is accessed via TV Road. Unsealed and a little steep in places but okay for 2WD cars.

Parked out of the activation zone and walked up the road to the summit, a cluster of TV transmission towers

Trig point at the summit all locked up...

Dropped back down the road and found a small sapling to support the squid pole. Used a roadside marker post for one leg of the dipole support and a tree branch for the other.

Shack on the tarp just off the road. A little shade.

Got on 40 m. Lots of noise from the nearby towers...Probably should have set up a little further down the road. Anyway made 4 weak noisy contacts with VK3FPSR, VK3EK, VK2WTY and VK3WE.

Tried 20 m, one contact with VK5WG.

My most useful band on the trip, 30 m, yielded 4 more contacts, VK3AFW, VK2JDL, VK2CCJ and VK3YAR with good signals.

Packed up and headed back down to the Pacific Highway, heading South.

As I drove past had a look at the last SOTA peak in the 3 Brother mountains, South Brother. Looked hard, thick vegetation, rocky cliffs, no road access and possibly on private land...gave it a miss.