Had a couple of days without clouds, and got to have a bit of a play editing up some more photos. The Triffid Nebula is around 4100 light years from earth and rather small at only 25 light years across. Not enough data for these, but I did use the flats/darks/bias frames, getting to understand…
We have been slowly collecting the bits and pieces needed to allow us to take astrophotography images from the backyard over the last couple of months and last night, the weather, school holidays and enough equipment finally aligned, and Nathan and I were able to undertake our first ever deep sky astro photography attempt collecting…
Recently we got a new telescope and fancy GOTO electronic mount. A SkyWatcher EQ6R. The mount has a 2pin GX12 power connector on it, and I was looking for a source of the connector to make a second home made cable. You can buy extra cables form the telescope shops, but at $40+ for a…
I recently upgraded the shack radios to a pair of newer Icom’s, Both a 7300 and a 9700. (The IC9100 has become a backup) The 9700 has become the primary VHF/UHF contest radio here, and with this, I ordered the reference locking board and GPS module form Leo Bodnar with this, I also got the…
3d Printer / 817 / SOTA
3D Printing an Anderson Powerpole Plug for the FT817
Over 25 years of poorly built and installed antennas, i have finally achieved #DXCC with 100 confirmed countries on Ham Radio. In the last couple of months with Covid19 Lockdown in Australia, i repaired my poorly built HF wire antenna and have started playing FT8 when time permits. This mode divides opinion, is it real…
The trusty SARK-110 was dragged out to check an antenna the other day, and as usual, a cross check of the website to verify and update the firmware Released in March 2020. V0.10.19(b) is the latest, and this was installed with ease on the sark. If you still have/use a SARK110, upgrade our firmware!
I wrote a post in august 2017 lamenting the power output woes of my IC9100 radio, problems with the Blade fuses getting VERY warm and causing voltage drop. I thought I had solved he issue with cleaning the fuse contacts and replacing the fuses with new ones to ensure the contacts were good. Time moved…
Haven’t turned a radio on for many months. Think the hobby has hit a dead end. Maybe its just me. back later, riding my bike.
Over the past couple of months, I had noticed some strange power output issues with my IC9100. I don’t use the radio a great deal, but at times, i would see the output power indicator drop over time, or fail to reach peak power, most noticeable on 70 cm FM, but also on HF. I…
Ive been pre-occupied with other things and not gotten around to updating the firmware on my Sark110 for a long time (>12 months at least). I seem have missed V0.9.xx completely still being on V.0.8.7.xx. But i just found a few seconds of “free time” and went about installing the latest firmware upgrade, this V0.10.xx…
Earlier in the year, Icom released the IC-7300, an SDR based Ham Radio, it was the first of the big three commercial ham radio manufactures to provide an all in one desktop SDR based device. This caused a bit of a stir in the worldwide ham community, A lot of people were keen enough in…
Over the weekend in VK3, we had a local hamfest. On one of the tables, i found a cheap and cheerful Icom FL-223 narrow (1.9kHz) SSB filter for the early 2000’s generation icom radios. I have a IC-706Mk2G that was used in a car for a while but is now relegated to a contest/portable 100w…
i happened to come across a second hand Icom IC-2820H Deathstar radio recently at a very good price and purchased it for the shack/one of the cars. BUT… it was missing the GPS antenna to allow DPRS (aprs for Dstar) and other positioning functions this radio offers. The GPS unit is supplied with the UT-123 Dstar…
Easter saw us in Horsham in western Victoria visiting christens parents, and this gave us the chance to activate some summits and explore the Grampians at the same time, as well as Mt Arapilies, a summit i have activated a number of times previously. First up, easter Monday we headed west to Mt Arapilies. VK3/VW-022.…
