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…
Sometimes, the magic band is just that, Magic. I was at home on my lunch break, and VKLogger suggested conditions were good, so i connected the OCF dipole and changed to 50MHz, to discover and work ZL2WHO – Mark in Palmerston on the north island, as well as into Vk5/7/4 and 2.. Not bad for…
A couple of years ago one of the Manly Warringah Radio Club members acquired some mystical unicorn DXwire from Germany. This created a heated debate that lasted for months on the merits of this expensive unicorn blood rainbow wire vs cheap and nasty copper from discount electrical suppliers R us. Well, i have just acquired some…
Yesterday afternoon, I visited peter VK3YE and a group of like minded hams at a arp afternoon at a park near the beach in Chelsea south of Melbourne. My kids came along with the promise of a cool playground/park for them to explore, and it was a very cool park with a lighthouse and pirate…
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. This was my second summit for the day, having worked Mt Bunninyong earlier in the afternoon. After my previous hill…
I managed to grab a couple of hours yesterday afternoon for a drive to Mt Dandenong VC-025 and then a simple activation. My first summit activation. (Thanks wifey) I met Andy VK1NAM who had just packed up and was about to head home, Andy has been in Melbourne for the last week and has activated many…
I took my kids down to the local park this afternoon as an excuse to have a play with my new FT817nd and squid pole as a portable station. I acquired a transport case for the radio and bits (a bit bigger than needed, but this is the camping/holiday setup). And this holds everything (and…
A cheap and cheerful way to mount wire antennas and verticals when portable is a cheap Squid Pole. These fibreglass poles are available in many sizes and styles from fishing stores all over the country. One example antenna using the squid pole as a base is this simple multi band vertical from VK7JJ. I plan to…