VK3XJM 817iPad Interface Cable

I can’t recommend you buy this product, Not yet anyway. It’s not an issue with the device, the build quality or the actual product operation. I cannot recommend you buy the product because of the poor purchasing experience. I wondered before my recent camping trip and first real try of QRP portable (non sota) if…

3 weeks in the Snowy Mountains

Before Xmas we packed up the camper trailer and car and headed bush for a holiday/break. Our location of choice is the Thredbo Diggings campground in the kosciuszko national park. We left Melbourne and headed east, looking for a different path into the mountains, our new(isn) car, the Prado has really made it easy to explore different…

Sota Activation – VK2/SM-065 Box Ridge (times 2)

This xmas holidays period has seen quite a bit of Sota activity in VK1/VK2 and VK3 areas. Many people have made the effort to operate portable on all kinds of summits. The sota rules allow you to only claim one summit a calendar year for activator points, and each summit can only be claimed every…

Sota Activation – VK2/SM-007 Mt Perisher

We weren’t so sure about this summit, we had left the camp site and headed into Jindabyne for some supplies before heading up the Charlotte Pass road for our yearly photo at the sign and a look over the Snowy River Valley. I’d suggested this was another easy sota summit on the way, looking at my…

Sota Activation – VK2/SM-001 Mt Kosciuszko

As part of our family xmas holiday’s, we are camping in the Kosciuszko National Park, a family favourite xmas camping location, we stay in a bush camping spot on the Thredbo river just down from the ski resort town. We enjoy this part of the world visiting most xmas times. This year, having recently become…

Exploring random wire antennas!

In an effort to better understand the performance of my ft817 and the ZM-2 ATU, I’ve been exploring different random length wire antennas while camping. I read an article posted on a sota forum about random wire lengths and how to choose an efficient length, this article talks about the importance of choosing a length…

Icom IC-9100 ICF Programming File

I had a local Melbourne ham who is a member of my local Ham club EMDRC ask me today if I had the 9100 programming software CS-9100 as he was keen for a base line file as a starting point as the prospect of starting to program the icom IC9100 ICF file was a bit daunting,…

Radio Mobile Prediction Software

A nifty freeware bit of (windows) software for hams and other radio people is called “Radio Mobile”. This tool allows you to simulate and map predicted coverage of your location using terrain and clutter data and maps expected coverage into google maps. The windows version requires you to source the terrain and clutter data (easy…

Why I refuse to Re-Join the WIA!

**this is my personal opinion! it’s the internet, personal opinions are freely available on the internet! If you strongly disagree with my personal opinion, please send me $80 and pay for my new first years membership to show me the organisation has or is actually prepared to change 😀 The WIA is more than 100…