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!
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…
Easter saw us in Horsham in western Victoria visiting christens parents, and this gave us the chance to activate some summits and explore the Grampians at the same time, as well as Mt Arapilies, a summit i have activated a number of times previously. First up, easter Monday we headed west to Mt Arapilies. VK3/VW-022.…
Because too much radio is never enough, having finished at midday a decent effort for the Summer VHF/UHF Field day as a home station, and because I’m trying to loose some weight and an afternoon mountain climb seemed like a good idea at the time. Sunday afternoon was warm, and we didn’t have anything else…
We didn’t go away for the Xmas break this year to Thredbo as we normally do and that meant a much quieter SOTA period for us. I had suggested to Christine we do something for the new years day change over, but my kids weren’t as excited. We didn’t even see in the previous nights…
It has been an eternity since I have activated a sota summit. 2015 proved to be extremely busy for me with work and a lot of interstate travel, this made my weekends family time and limited my ability to head for the hills. However, this weekend just past saw us have some time, and a…
A couple of months ago, the SOTABeams Facebook page Posted a link to a new item they had just finished making. A simple pair of lightweight dipole traps for portable use to help with running multiple bands and the band changing efforts. I had built a link dipole last year and this works well, but if the…
We are visiting Chrsitines parents for easter, they live in horsham in western Victoria, i was able to sneak out for a couple of hours to play and make a Sota Activation. I asked the family if they wanted to come, but they all voted to stay home. Mt Arapiles is around 30km west of…
Australia Day offers the opportunity to use a special callsign, Australian hams are allowed to use the prefix AX instead of VK on a handful of days throughout the year. I had to be in and around Melbourne this Australia day weekend with work commitments but had tentatively talked the family into a trip to…
Work took me into country north eastern Victoria. A long day of tasks and driving, a 700km loop! I packed my sota backpack into the car just in case i had time to drop past a summit and undertake an activation. I actually ended up on two summits. I had to visit an air services…