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…
I haven’t ever really played serious DX HF, Ive used it to chat around Australia while exploring the country and for the occasional chat overseas while driving, but thats not a serious effort. In recent weeks (and with the CQ WWDX Contest) it spurred some interest in me, that my small bit of random wire…
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…
We spent the day out in the city as a family today. This morning I dropped off the rest of the family at the museum while I headed over to the maker faire called eurisko Melbourne. I was away and didn’t attend last years event (ran at Swinburne uni) but heard great things about it.…
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…
The kids were going crazy at home. So I volunteered to take them to the local park for a play. And packed the FT817ND along for the ride. This weekend is the CQWW SSB contest so I hoped active bands would nab me some portable contacts. I set up the squid pole and radio. And gave…
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…
What is a Hamfest, for many it’s an opportunity to spend some time out of the shack, interacting with ham acquaintances while perusing gear from retailers and someone’s back shed? In recent years the larger dealers appear to have ditched the hamfests, why? Maybe it’s a lot of hassle for little return, maybe they feel…
Standardisation of power supply connectors is something I have recently been undertaking throughout the shack, car and my camper trailer. There is nothing worse than not having the right connector, having to make up some form of connector instead of just having that box work, and with the camper trailer, dealing with fiddly and flakey…