Sota Activation – VK3/VT-060 Mt Oberon 2015

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…

Shack Sloth Trophy

A couple of weeks ago, I was successful in achieving 1000 sota chaser points and became a Shack Sloth. The SOTA organisation in the UK makes available trophy for those who qualify, and I sent off and received this Shack Sloth Glass trophy in the mail yesterday! Now to get to more summits and get…

EARCHI End-Fed 40-6 build.

Back when I started Sota, i was looking for a quick and easy antenna for portable use, along the way other items have been built and obtained that have made this project not as critical. The project is a simple 9:1 Unun that creates a match for a random bit of wire, it still needs…

A new Ham in the Family.

Earlier today, my wife Christine successfully completed her Foundation license course and has become (when the paper work arrives, its been submitted) VK3FCEK! Well done Christine, now you too can operate when we go on those SOTA trips! ***its arrived. 3 weeks for the wia to process their paperwork and 4 days for the acma. The…

Sota Activation – VK3/VC-032 (Handbrake Turn Hill)

Named in honour of Andrew VK3ARR and his handbrake turns and Scandinavian flicks**. This is now known as handbrake turn hill. ** Andrew didn’t actually undertake such monouvers, just longed for a BDA Ford escort sideways. The EMDRC club field day site is around 5km from this previously unnamed summit, and with me being so…

First time for everything!! Even Morse!

I often joke I’ve programmed the morse keyer memory on my radio to ask “do you have a microphone” but… Yesterday afternoon I was sitting in the sun playing around with the ft817 and with my Dinkey morse key and got brave enough to put out some calls. *initially without much luck. But I videoed…

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…