QRP by the Bay Day

Yesterday afternoon, I visited peter VK3YE and a group of like minded hams at a arp afternoon at a park near the beach in Chelsea south of Melbourne. My kids came along with the promise of a cool playground/park for them to explore, and it was a very cool park with a lighthouse and pirate…

10GHz EME VK3BQ – W5LUA Texas

Today at the EMDRC microwave day, rex, vk7mo had a 10GHz EME (earth-Moon-Earth) station setup to work Al, w5lua in Texas. Rex runs the 90cm dish and 50watts running the WSJT software and using a new mode JT4F. After Rex made his initial contact with Al, a lot of those who were part of the…

FT817 Dinkey Morse Key

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…

LOTW DXCC

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…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-002 Mt Donna Buang

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…

QRP portable. Yarra Bend park!

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.…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-022 Mt Cowley

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…