A couple of years ago one of the Manly Warringah Radio Club members acquired some mystical unicorn DXwire from Germany. This created a heated debate that lasted for months on the merits of this expensive unicorn blood rainbow wire vs cheap and nasty copper from discount electrical suppliers R us. Well, i have just acquired some…
At the November coffee shop meeting for the EMDRC radio club, Marshall, VK3MRG and myself presented on sota, and how to activate sota easily in metro Melbourne The night was aimed at people interested in being an activator but unsure where to start, where the summits were and how simple an activation can be. Marshall…
I discovered a critical flaw in the FT817 almost the first time I used it (a flaw for me anyway) the box is great, but has no built in ability to raise the display/control at a nice angle easily, it works a treat vertically, resting on the heat sink extension on the bottom of the…
My morse code skills suck. REALLY REALLY Suck!!. I passed my morse exams in the mid – late 1990’s and then only just. I did enough to qualify for the exam. And have never actually had a morse QSO on ham radio. I do use morse today. I use it to decode beacons and ID…
Today was a public holiday in Melbourne for a horse race that stops a nation, the Melbourne Cup. I couldn’t care less about glue pots, so the family headed out for a picnic lunch and a drive into the local hills. It was a lovely day in Melbourne, mid 20’s and sunny blue skies. We headed…
My work took me down near Lorne yesterday, a long day actually, so I choose to use my lunch break for a very quick activation on Mt Cowley. This summit over looks bass straight behind the great ocean road, and is a nice drive into the hills behind Lorne and up past Erskine Falls. (where…
Having day release (thanks wifey) to attend the Ballarat hamfest saw me spend some time activating two more local mountains. Both Mt Warrenheip VK3/VC-019 and Mt Bunninyong VK3/VC-018 are ~10km form Ballarat and are the remains of old volcanoes. This was my second summit for the day, having worked Mt Bunninyong earlier in the afternoon. After my previous hill…
Having day release (thanks wifey) to attend the ballarat hamfest saw me spend some time activating two more local mountains. Both Mt Warrenheip VK3/VC-019 and Mt Bunninyong VK3/VC-018 are ~10km form Ballarat and are the remains of old volcanoes. I left the hamfest around 11am and made my way to the mountain top, Ive been up this…
Now that I have my SOTA radio and portable antenna setup working. Portable power options were the next item on my list. The 817nd has internal rechargable batteries, and can use AA batteries also, i have 2 battery trays for AA rechargeable batteries and the internal Ni-Mh pack, but for extended 5w operation portable, an…
I managed to grab a couple of hours yesterday afternoon for a drive to Mt Dandenong VC-025 and then a simple activation. My first summit activation. (Thanks wifey) I met Andy VK1NAM who had just packed up and was about to head home, Andy has been in Melbourne for the last week and has activated many…