SOTA Bobbara Mountain VK2/ST-044

After activating Mt Mundoonen VK2/ST-053, drove to Yass and had lunch. After lunch drove on the Hume Highway, turning off at Bowning, then drove along Red Hill Road to Burley Griffin Way. Followed this to the small town of Binalong. Just out of Binalong turned off onto Bobbara Rd and stopped near the access gate to the mountain.

Followed the access road for a while, then cut cross country to the top, joining up with the road again close to the summit. Air Services radar visible.

Walked around the Air Service complex to the trig. Took about a half hour to get to the top.

Set up the squid pole on the trig, running out the dipole legs to tie to large weedy plants...

Another view of the trig

Set up the radio shack at the base of the trig.

Got on 40 m. As per the morning lots of QSB on signals but most fairly strong on peaks. Worked chasers in VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK5. A Summit to Summit contact with Mal VK3MEL/P on VK3/VS-009.

Gave it away after a half hour and packed up as the wind had started to pick up. A total of 17 contacts.

View heading down looking towards Yass, Mt Bowning in the distance

SOTA Bobbara Mountain VK2/ST-044

My last activation of Bobbara Mountain was in December 2014. It was hot and plagued by flies...so figured a better time to activate was today with the cold and no flies...

As before drove out to Yass via the Barton Highway, taking the Hume Highway to Bowning, on to Binalong and Bobbara Mountain Road. Arrived at the gate with the enter at own risk warning.

Walked along the road towards the mountain.

When level with the big tree straight ahead followed a sheep track running up the mountain. Fairly steep climb up but saves a fair distance compared to walking along the road all the way.

Rejoined the road at the top of the ridge.

Walked around the radar complex to the trig. Last time it was too hot in the sun to operate here, this time it was cold in the wind...Don't let the bright sunshine fool you, it was probably around 10c, less with the wind chill...

Looking back to the East at the radar complex

Set up the squid pole on the trig. Hard to find places to attach the ends of the dipole, ended up just tying the ends to rocks. Looking South West

Looking to the North East

Set up the radio at the base of the trig, to try and get some shelter from the cold wind. Not that effective though.

Got on 40 m, to hear Julie VK3FOWL/P on VK3/VC-014 saying she was about to go clear. Quickly worked her for a S2S.

Spotted myself on the mobile and got a good pileup going. Strong signals from VK1, VK2, VK3 and VK5. Another S2S with Tony VK3CAT/P on VK3/VE-204.

After the chasers dried up on 40 m went to 6 m where Andrew VK2UH, Andrew VK1NAM and Al VK1RX advise would listen for me. When changing the dipole from the 20/40 m linked one to the 6/10 m dipole the rubber ball at the tip of the squid pole decided to work loose, crashing the whole antenna to the ground. The sistema container feed junction box got cracked up badly but still usable.

Hoisted the antenna back up. Called by Andrew VK2UH nearby in Yass, not getting much power out, he came back a weak S3 so something not quite right...No sign of Andrew VK1NAM or Al VK1RX, might have just heard them very weakly.

Took the antenna down again. Not seeing too much wrong, hoisted it back up, this time on 10 m. Seemed to load up better on 10m, able to work Andrew VK2UH a good S8 now. Still no contact with VK1NAM or VK1RX.

Tried 20 m briefly with no contacts apart from Andrew VK2UH again. He advised Andrew and Al still keen for a 6 m contact. Tried putting up the antenna again, this time orientated it around more to favour towards Canberra. It seemed to load up better this time, getting full output power. Just managed to work Andrew VK1NAM with a 41 signal, and Al VK1RX with a 51, Al was using a beam. A struggle for both of them to hear me though on my 5 w.

Around noon the cold wind was too much so packed up and headed home.

SOTA VK2/ST-044 Bobbara Mountain

Bobbara Mountain, VK2/ST-044 is located near the town of Binalong, to the North West of Yass. Had chased Andrew VK1NAM on it so thought I would check it out.

It is about a 100 km drive from my home in North Canberra. Drove on the Barton Highway to the Hume Highway, heading towards Gundagai. Turned off at Bowning, then on to Burley Griffin Way. Just after leaving the town of Binalong turned off onto Bobbara Road on the right. This is unsealed but fine for 2WD cars. View of Bobbara Mountain from the road. The access road can be seen winding up to the top.

The summit is on private property, however the sign on the gate indicated you can enter at your own risk. Access road to the communications towers.

Started walking along the road, however like Andrew decided could take a short cut up using animal tracks, most likely sheep as this is sheep country. Note that due to the animal dung there are lots of flies on this summit. I used repellent but they kept hovering around me all the time, annoying...At least they were not march flies, only little ones.

Joined back up to the road not far from the towers. Air navigation radar visible spinning away on top.

Walked around and past the tower enclosure to inspect the trig at the Northern end of the summit.

Bobbara Mountain trig. Not much shade...

Name plate on trig, "Bobbara"

Wandered around the Western side of the tower enclosure. Noticed the radar platform, being quite large, cast a good sized shadow, with an old tree stump nearby for squid pole support. Perfect! 

Nice cool operating spot in the shade on the tarp. Got set up by 10:30 local time and spotted myself okay.

Got on 40 m on 7.090, got a massive pileup of chasers after me...Good signals from VK1, VK2 and VK3, the VK5s lots of QSB and low down though. Despite some other activators also out at the time managed to miss most of them, only 1 S2S with David VK2CDS on VK2/HU-013. After UTC changeover Andrew VK1DA/2 came up on nearby Mt Mundoonen VK2/ST-053. Worked him on 40 m and also on the 2 m hand held on the whip, a good copy too on 20 m. Besides Andrew only one other contact on 20 m, Nev VK5WG with a good signal.

As starting to lose my shade with the sun getting higher gave it away at 11:30 local time

Heading back down the road. Mt Bowning, VK2/ST-042 visible, the large hump in the distance to the right of centre.

Heading back down the animal tracks short cut to the car.

Track log of walk. About 1.2 Km each way, with animal tracks short cut.

Track profile, about a 200 m climb.