Broulee Island Nature Reserve VKFF-2546

For a bit of a break from Canberra winter headed down to Batemans Bay on the South Coast. South of Batemans Bay is Broulee Island, near the town of Broulee. I had activated Broulee Island Nature Reserve before and made 28 contacts, so returned to finish the 44 needed for WWFF.

Parked at the car park for the walk to the island and made the short walk across the sand bar 

This is the short walk to the island. It was a proper island in the past, but the sand bar connecting it to the mainland has built up so much its vegetated, so an easy walk on what really is a peninsula.

Crossed over to the Northern side of the island and headed for the Northern most point

Just off the beach found a suitable stump for the squid pole and set up the 40 m dipole

Operating spot, map from Openstreetmap

Checked the SWR with the Rig Expert stick antenna analyzer, very good 1.04 at 7.168 Mhz.

Got on 40 m. Started by working VK2IO/p Gerard in VKFF-3109 Wells Crossing Flora Reserve

Then spotted myself on 7.150 and worked several park hunters

VK3PF, VK2KMI, VK5MAZ, VK3SQ, VK4SMA, VK5FANA, VK2MET, VK1AD, VK7AN, VK3BBB, VK2CCP

Worked a couple more parks that had spotted on Parksnpeaks, 

VK3DAC/p Fred in VKFF-0333 Mornington Peninsula National Park

VK3AWA/p Daryl in VKFF-0758 Holey Plains State Park

I tried going to 20 m and calling for a while, no takers there, so returned to 40 m.

Worked some more hunters

VK3ECG, VK7ME, VK5HS, VK3MTT, VK5CZ, VK3PF/m, VK2VW, VK2HFI, VK4KC, VK4MAD, VK4DOG

As more than enough to get 44 now packed up. I decided to continue walking around to see the South side of the island, not that great, mainly rocks. If you want to activate the Northern side of the island is best for sandy beaches and vegetation.