Found a high spot just a few kilometres north of Sofala, about 860 metres ASL, QF46ux, an all open hilltop, setup off the road, then noticed the wind was suddenly increasing, by time we were ready to make contest contacts, the wind became so strong it was knocking over equipment and trying to blow away out portable gazebo. Meanwhile, over on another mountain to the south west, Dave VK2JDS and Matt VK2DAG were now getting wet from a rain squall and had to pack up all their equipment.
This lead us to the decision of packing up and go look at other potential mountain tops for future contests and microwave field days. One spot was up on the Old Ilford Road, QF46vx, this road runs along a ridgeline, all well above 1,000 metres ASL, better than the location we stopped at on the Sofala Rd. We will keep this location in mind for future events. Another potential area was at Wattle Flat QF46uu. we travelled back to Bathurst, then headed east, detouring up through sunny Corner and Dark Corner looking for potential high locations. A really good spot is at a farm at corner of W.Mitchell rd and Dark Corner Rd. (QF46wp). This might worth stopping and asking if we could use their paddock.
After returning to highway, we passed Mt.Lambie, it was still shrouded in low cloud. We proceeded onto Lithgow, purchasing some dinner and heading up to Hassans Walls lookout to check this as a potential site. Aft this heading up the Chifley Rd, stopped at Dargan next to railway line, could hear 439.700 repeater from Nelson Bay, also the Somersby 6m, 2m & 70cm repeaters are all 60/9 signals even though it pouring rain and sitting in cloud. It poured rain all the way back to Sydney.
