#DXCC

Over 25 years of poorly built and installed antennas, i have finally achieved #DXCC with 100 confirmed countries on Ham Radio. In the last couple of months with Covid19 Lockdown in Australia, i repaired my poorly built HF wire antenna and have started playing FT8 when time permits. This mode divides opinion, is it real…

SARK110 firmware V0.10.19(b)

The trusty SARK-110 was dragged out to check an antenna the other day, and as usual, a cross check of the website to verify and update the firmware Released in March 2020. V0.10.19(b) is the latest, and this was installed with ease on the sark. If you still have/use a SARK110, upgrade our firmware!

Dead Hobby

Haven’t turned a radio on for many months. Think the hobby has hit a dead end. Maybe its just me. back later, riding my bike.

ICOM IC-9100 Low Power Output Problems

Over the past couple of months, I had noticed some strange power output issues with my IC9100. I don’t use the radio a great deal, but at times, i would see the output power indicator drop over time, or fail to reach peak power, most noticeable on 70 cm FM, but also on HF. I…

Sark-110 V0.10.xx Firmware update

Ive been pre-occupied with other things and not gotten around to updating the firmware on my Sark110 for a long time (>12 months at least). I seem have missed V0.9.xx completely still being on V.0.8.7.xx. But i just found a few seconds of “free time” and went about installing the latest firmware upgrade, this V0.10.xx…

VK3BQ*™ Cliptastic-Tenna Review.

Earlier in the year, Icom released the IC-7300, an SDR based Ham Radio, it was the first of the big three commercial ham radio manufactures to provide an all in one desktop SDR based device. This caused a bit of a stir in the worldwide ham community, A lot of people were keen enough in…

Installing a FL-223 in an IC706Mk2G

Over the weekend in VK3, we had a local hamfest. On one of the tables, i found a cheap and cheerful Icom FL-223 narrow (1.9kHz) SSB filter for the early 2000’s generation icom radios. I have a IC-706Mk2G that was used in a car for a while but is now relegated to a contest/portable 100w…