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…
I took my kids down to the local park this afternoon as an excuse to have a play with my new FT817nd and squid pole as a portable station. I acquired a transport case for the radio and bits (a bit bigger than needed, but this is the camping/holiday setup). And this holds everything (and…
I have always been interested in SOTA (summits of the air) and have been contemplating activating some mountains and becoming active with this “part” of ham radio, now that I have a portable radio and antenna setup that will allow sota to happen, i was keen for more info. Being a mac / iOS…
I have just acquired a second hand Yaesu FT817ND for portable operation, microwave radio driving and camping holidays and I also plan to start to participate in SOTA activations. More posts to come as I explore this nifty little radio and the Z-match ATU i acquired in the bundle, as well as some useful SOTA…
A cheap and cheerful way to mount wire antennas and verticals when portable is a cheap Squid Pole. These fibreglass poles are available in many sizes and styles from fishing stores all over the country. One example antenna using the squid pole as a base is this simple multi band vertical from VK7JJ. I plan to…
A very nifty range of FREE ham related apps is available on both android and iOS devices to help locate repeaters, Sota summits and to cat control some yaesu radios on the andriod version with a special adaptor. The software is produced by ZBM2 Software – Nicolas Pike M1HOG and a quick look at the website will…