FT-817ND Anderson PowerPole 3D Printed Plug

3D Printing an Anderson Powerpole Plug for the FT817

DXCC / HF / Operating

#DXCC

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…

General / HF / Portable

SARK110 firmware V0.10.19(b)

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!

HF / Icom

Fixing ICOM HF IC-9100 Low Power Output Problems once and for all!

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…

Rant

Dead Hobby

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.

ICOM IC-9100 Low Power Output Problems

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…

Sark-110 V0.10.xx Firmware update

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…

VK3BQ*™ Cliptastic-Tenna Review.

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…

Installing a FL-223 in an IC706Mk2G

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…

Icom IC-2820H Replacement GPS Antenna

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 SOTA Activations VK3/VW-020 & VW-022

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.…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-030 Flinders Peak

Because too much radio is never enough, having finished at midday a decent effort for the Summer VHF/UHF Field day as a home station, and because I’m trying to loose some weight and an afternoon mountain climb seemed like a good idea at the time. Sunday afternoon was warm, and we didn’t have anything else…

New Years 2016 Sota Activation VK3/VC-007 Mt Macedon

We didn’t go away for the Xmas break this year to Thredbo as we normally do and that meant a much quieter SOTA period for us. I had suggested to Christine we do something for the new years day change over, but my kids weren’t as excited. We didn’t even see in the previous nights…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-002 Mt Donna Buang 2015

It has been an eternity since I have activated a sota summit. 2015 proved to be extremely busy for me with work and a lot of interstate travel, this made my weekends family time and limited my ability to head for the hills. However, this weekend just past saw us have some time, and a…

Pixie QRP 7Mhz CW Kit

The other week, talk on the australian ham radio Facebook wall turned to kit radios and the Pixie QRP Kit. A number of options were shown and talked about, after a search and comparison, I chose to purchase this Versions of the kit from This eBay seller. with free postage it was around $8. The…