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…
A couple of months ago, the SOTABeams Facebook page Posted a link to a new item they had just finished making. A simple pair of lightweight dipole traps for portable use to help with running multiple bands and the band changing efforts. I had built a link dipole last year and this works well, but if the…
One of my local Ham radio club members sent me a link to these nifty PowerPole PVC Boots. Why? Because I can, they do make the power pole a bit neater. 50 boots for $15.99 delivered on eBay, i got mine in around a week from HERE. But I’m sure if you search Anderson PowerPole…
We are visiting Chrsitines parents for easter, they live in horsham in western Victoria, i was able to sneak out for a couple of hours to play and make a Sota Activation. I asked the family if they wanted to come, but they all voted to stay home. Mt Arapiles is around 30km west of…
Icom has Released a new firmware update for the IC9100 radio. IC-9100 Firmware Rev. E3 is now downloadable form the Icom Japan website. It is a stand alone .exe file that will install the E3 firmware update. IC9100 E3 Firmware link The new firmware corrects one item on the radio The firmware update modifies the IC-9100’s…
The other week, a friend of mine Rob VK2GOM shared a photo of a 1:1 current balun he had built to try and reduce some local noise issues he had at his home. His device had improved his experience. He chose 17 turns and the FT240-43 core based on info from this website Have a read of…
Its not all radios here at VK3BQ.com the other week in Melbourne, the Avalon Airshow 2015 was held. I took my Big child Nathan and my father along for a day watching the planes. Some photos I took on the day (i prefer the modern/fast jets, thus what I mostly photographed) The rest at https://www.flickr.com/photos/asphotos/sets/72157650682556437
Last weekend, we took our annual family short holiday pilgrimage to Tidal River camp ground in Wilsons Promontory. Each year, we head to this lovely spot for a couple of days away to celebrate Nathan’s birthday. This year he was 7.. I always con the family into a quick Sota activation as part of…
Not ham radio related, but.. radio related. My(Christine’s) car a Toyota Prado wouldn’t open the other day with the beepy thing! Try as I did, it wouldn’t open!.Stand on one leg, point at the sky, walk around and around and around the car pushing the open button like a ninja, nothing. Finally, after lots of…
Australia Day offers the opportunity to use a special callsign, Australian hams are allowed to use the prefix AX instead of VK on a handful of days throughout the year. I had to be in and around Melbourne this Australia day weekend with work commitments but had tentatively talked the family into a trip to…