Toyota Denso 14ACX CCAB08LP0730T4 smart key! Flat battery

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…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-031 Arthurs Seat 2015

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…

Fixing a Radio Noisy Prado 150 Diesel

The trouble with operating from a car is, modern cars with electronic systems can be RF noisy! The diesel D4D engine in my Prado 150 series is no exception. With many sources of noise on the HF bands. From throttle noise to electronic injector noise, and base car background noise. Operating on some parts of…

Codan 9350’s are not indestructible

When Chrisitne got her new truck (4wd) I was keen to install some HF radio gear into it, i realised a codan 9350 auto tune antenna would be a nice addition, I had previously used a terlin tapped whip, and while this was a good performer, it was a pain to change bands when mobile!…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-018 Mt Bunninyong

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…

ZBM2 Ham iOS and Android Apps

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…

Codan Land Mobile Radio

I’ve been planning a trip to the Kimberley for a while now, and part of this process has been setting up the car. Satellite phones are now common, and many people have moved to this technology for remote area contact, but many still use the good old RFDS/HF radio phone network. I was lucky enough…

HoldMyPhone No Drill Mounts

We recently got a new car, and with this came the old issue of “where to mount radios” One of the forums i read, pointed me to this neat and nifty “no holes” holder system from HoldmyPhone The system uses brackets specifically designed to click on vents and dashes for a range of cars without…

Quick Mount IC706 Head

Modern cars are fantastic, but not always conducive to mounting radios. Its easy to take to them with a screwdriver, but modern plastic and resale value really takes a whack!, to solve this with my old car and my icom 706 head unit, I looked wider and came up with the below. Taking a screwdriver…