SOTA Boyne Mountain VK2/SC-050

With a few days off work headed down to Ulladulla on the NSW South Coast, to activate some SOTA peaks and parks. This area was badly impacted by the bushfires last summer, and found the track to Durras Mountain VK2/SC-051 closed. Continued on to Boyne Mountain, VK2/SC-050.

Turned off the Princes Hwy onto Monkey Mountain Rd. Boyne Mountain visible

It looked like the fires may have missed the summit, but I was wrong... Lots of burnt trees. Turned off onto Old Coach Rd and then parked near the road up to the summit. Junction

For comparison the junction in 2015 when I last activated it. Lush and green...

Continued up the road to the summit.

Reached the summit, communication towers. Seemed to have survived the fire well.

Just behind the towers Boyne Trig. Apart from the plastic support for the top disk melting a little survived okay

Name plate, Boyne

From experience knew operating near the towers was bad, lots of QRM... so moved back down the road and set up the dipole, along the road. Not much traffic comes up here.

Looking back down the road

FT857D, on 7.090 Mhz

Conditions on 40 m were poor today. First worked John, VK4TJ, normally a good 59 a weak 51... Then

VK7AW, VK3KTT, VK3MEG, VK5HAA, VK3ACT, VK5HS, VK3DQ, VK3PI, VK3PF, VK3VDX, VK4KC

I tried 80 m at one point to work some of the locals, but despite the Sydney slow morse beacon on 3.7 Mhz being strong no callers.

Final contact VK2YYO who was a strong signal, he was at Bawley Point though only about 10 km away.

Packed up and headed to Ulladulla for the evening.

SOTA Mt Boyne VK2/SC-050

After activating Mount Kembla drove back to Wollongong and headed back to Canberra via the South Coast. As a warm day, around 30 c, considered what I could activate on the way home and decided to revisit Mt Boyne, VK2/SC-050, as I knew it would be shady and cool.

Turned off the Princes Highway South of Ulladulla onto Monkey Mountain Road, then Old Coach Road. Parked at the intersection of Old Coach Road and the summit track.

The track up was steep and had some large puddles, so must have had some rain recently

After about a Km reached the towers on top

As the trig was out in the hot sun I decided to operate in the shade of the trees, off to the right side of the road just before the towers. Used a tree stump for the squid pole support

Looking back down the road

SOTA shack on a nearby log. Nice and cool in the shade of the trees.

Got on 40 m, worked 3 of the usual chasers. Bit of a struggle as a lot of nearby storm activity generating static crashes

Tried 20 m. Worked Rob VK2MT on ground wave from nearby Batemans Bay, where he was camping for the holidays. We tried a contact on the Knights Hill 2 m repeater, this was a good signal on the hand held. He told me that the Batemans Bay 2 m repeater used to be on this site, but due to high council site fees was moved to Knights Hill. The folded dipoles for the repeater were still mounted on the tower nearby, I could see them...We were joined by VK2BGL Steve from Jamberoo.

Returned to 40 m where Rob and Steve were both strong signals. Went on to work 5 more chasers. As getting late in the day and still had a long drive home packed up and headed back down.

Track log of walk

SOTA Activation Boyne Mountain, VK2/SC-050

After activating Mogood Lookout continued along Clyde Ridge Rd. This crosses the Clyde River, then turned off onto Carrisbrook Rd, Brooman Rd, turned right into Monkey Mountain Road.

A short distance past this junction was Old Coach Road. I actually initially missed this as it looked like just the entrance to a property...

Old Coach Road was narrow but not too rough, not requiring 4WD. Quite a pretty road with Tree Ferns

Got to the turnoff to the summit. Looked like more of a 4WD track. Parked and started walking.

Fairly steep with a few puddles

About a Km to the summit, took about 10 minutes or so. Reached the top, several communications towers, probably TV and mobile for the Ulladulla area.

Just behind the towers was Boyne Trig. This one still had the disk head...

Boyne Trig

Set up the squid pole on the trig. This posed a bit awkward due to its shape, eventually got the dipoles up...A noisy position with air conditioning noises from the nearby radio rooms.

Looking West

Set up the radio at the base of the trig. In full sunlight, so used my pack to protect the radio.

Got on 40m. Fairly quiet at this time of day, about 2pm. Worked a few chasers, made a S2S with Marshall. VK3MRG on VK3/VE-134 Mt Terrible Spur. After 12 contacts was well cooked so packed up.

Heading back down Old Coach Road

Drove down Monkey Mountain Road, this joins the Princes Hwy, then headed back to Batemans Bay and the Kings Hwy to Canberra. Track log of the drive.