VK3/VW-007 – Near Boroka Lookout

by vk3arr

By the time we’d finished with Mt William and made our way over to Boroka Lookout (about an hour from Mt William), the rain had set in. We sat for a bit in the car eating lunch hoping for a clearing, and as soon as the weather seemed to settle, we jumped out and grabbed the gear.

Boroka Lookout summit is behind the car park, with a large rock pile. We did a bit of bush bashing to get to a spot well within the activation zone. We had taken the vertical instead of the dipole, and set it up quickly. We found a shelter under an overhanging rock, and tried to tune up on 40m, but couldn’t.

We then tried on 20m after shortening the counterpoise to discover the ATU had a loose connection (it’s been through several baggage handling jurisdictions), and with some Macguyver work got it to tune up on 20m. We compensated for poor efficiency with more power, and worked a number of stations to qualify the summit for us both – I worked 5 on 20m, and Leighton worked 4.

Me in front of the shack, after we’d packed up.

It was cosy, even if the shelter was illusory

Warren ZL2AJ was on ZL1/BP-237, but we were unable to hear him, nor he us. This was a pity, as it would have been nice to work Warren outside of email. There will be other activations, of course.

After pulling the pin as the rain picked up, we headed down to the Lookout proper, which had stunning views, albeit not quite what we’d anticipated. All up, two summits, 10 points in total, and Leighton introduced to SOTA. Expect to see him out and about a bit in VK2 on the rare occasions he has free time!

Simply stunning. And the view is pretty good too.

Leighton admires the view

Boroka Lookout, straight down

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