This whole 3D printer thing is very impressive, one of my local ham club members recently purchased his own device and he has been showing off creations. I continue to want one, but it seems the bank manager (wifey) does not agree they are a important ham radio shack tool! Ive been looking at whats…
I headed down the Mornington peninsular the other day with a job and managed to fit in a short activation on Arthurs Seat VK3/VC-031in the afternoon before heading home. The summit is very accessible, and I drove to the top, then grabbed my gear and walked down the Arthurs seat circuit walking track path, past…
The national library of Australia has a 45min interview with Max , you can listen to the interview on the NLA website using this link http://nla.gov.au/nla.oh-vn2239852 This week marks a very important milestone in global communications for Australia. No prizes for guessing that it was a major achievement of radio amateurs. The first direct two-way radio…
A couple of weeks ago, I was successful in achieving 1000 sota chaser points and became a Shack Sloth. The SOTA organisation in the UK makes available trophy for those who qualify, and I sent off and received this Shack Sloth Glass trophy in the mail yesterday! Now to get to more summits and get…
The other day, I had to head to Bendigo for work, so packed the SOTA gear in the car for a quick late afternoon activation on the way home. Mt Alexander VK3/VN-016 sits just south of Bendigo and has the local TV and FM transmitters sites on the top of it, also a tower form…
Sunday 19th was the Ballarat Ham radio clubs annual Hamfest!. I had walked past an item at the event last year and regretted it, so packed up the car and grabbed my big child Nathan, and we went for a daddy/son day out – road trip – Hamfest – Sota Activation!. Nathan had a busy…
Help!!!.. In the true spirit of this page, i installed a poorly built antenna on the weekend, and I don’t know why? I got the courage to cut my unicorn blood DX wire, and began the process of making a link dipole. Followed the guides form all the normal places, VK3ZPF and VK3PF and the Sotabeams Calculator among many. I built…
In my continued effort to achieve best BANG for BUCK sota signals, I’m looking at ways of improving the performance of the little FT817. I had toyed with a Hamshop.cz compressor however, in the field, reports of RF feedback and distortion occurred. I haven’t had time to understand why and try and improve the situation,…
I was cleaning up the other day and found my old Icom IC-706Mk2G radio. It had been in a box since semi retirement a while ago when I upgraded the radio in the car! It still gets used from time to time, camping and portable (non sota) and for vhf/uhf field days and contests, but…
From the Sota Australia Email list! “”1NAM and 1MBE, 2FAJG running QRP, 1DA, 5LA plus 3BQ These are a few of the SOTA Andrews”” With apologies to Rodgers, Hammerstein and all of Maria’s favourite things. **Stolen from Andrew, VK3ARR 🙂