SOTA first activation VK2/MN-176

After arriving at Coffs Harbour studied the map for SOTA peaks that looked easy to do. Noticed one VK2/MN-176 that looked like it was almost on Sherwood Road, so gave this a try. This had never been activated before so a good one to bag :)

Drove North of Coffs Harbour on the Pacific Highway, turned off to the town of Woolgoolga. At the roundabout in the centre of town turned left into Woolgoolga Creek Road. This becomes Gentle Annie Road then Sherwood Road. See Oztopo map for details.

Sherwood Road runs through Sherwood Nature Reserve

Followed Sherwood Road for a while. Note while not really 4WD, it does have some bad erosion gullies and you need to take it carefully in places. Plum Pudding turnoff, stayed on Sherwood Road

The road climbed steadily until dropping down again. The summit was quite close to the road on the left, perhaps 50m in the scrub. There was an old logging track with a log across preventing driving in, headed off the road here.

The activation zone was quite large so could set up anywhere convenient. Chose an old tree stump to mount the squid pole on, and strung out the dipole along the old logging track.

Shack on the tarp near the stump. Note the old cable around the stump, was used by loggers in the past.

Got on 40m. Most of the chasers now VK2s and VK4DD, no VK3s. According to Paul VK2KTT in Coffs Harbour this is usual, must miss hearing a lot of activations from VK3 this far North.

A S2S with Andrew VK1MBE/2 on VK2/ST-009 Mt Palerang. A spot from Peter VK3PF asking me to try 30m. Set up the 30m dipole and worked him with an S3 signal. 30m seems to suit this distance better.

Tried 20m, worked VK7LTD Tony and VK5EE Tom. 11 contacts all up. Headed back to Coffs Harbour for lunch.