FT817 Kranker Knob

Everyone kept saying “knob, knob, knob” about my ft817, i didn’t know what they meant, so I googled “817 knob” and discovered the Kranker Knob from the W4RT shop. This store has all kinds of ways for me to spend my money on the FT817! I ordered a knob, just on $30 with postage and exchange…

FT817 Dinkey Morse Key

My morse code skills suck. REALLY REALLY Suck!!. I passed my morse exams in the mid – late 1990’s and then only just. I did enough to qualify for the exam. And have never actually had a morse QSO on ham radio. I do use morse today. I use it to decode beacons and ID…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-022 Mt Cowley

My work took me down near Lorne yesterday, a long day actually, so I choose to use my lunch break for a very quick activation on Mt Cowley. This summit over looks bass straight behind the great ocean road, and is a nice drive into the hills behind Lorne and up past Erskine Falls. (where…

CHIRP and the FT817ND

An easy way to program and manage this new 817nd is with some simple computer control software (and with the intention of having it work with VKCL logging into the future if need be, I lashed out and spent $11 on ebay and purchased a USB to CT-62 yaesu CAT control interface cable. The cable…

Portable QRP in the park

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…

FT817ND – My New QRP Rig.

I have just acquired a second hand Yaesu FT817ND for portable operation, microwave radio driving and camping holidays and I also plan to start to participate in SOTA activations. More posts to come as I explore this nifty little radio and the Z-match ATU i acquired in the bundle, as well as some useful SOTA…

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…