Since building a 6m coaxial dipole in January 2016 and later a 2m coaxial dipole in February 2018, I have often thought how a monoband half-wave vertical coaxial dipole would perform on 28 MHz. Summer is here in the southern hemisphere, therefore now is an excellent time to construct a 10m half-wave coaxial dipole for…
I am constructing a lightweight 40/30/20/17/15m trap style inverted V dipole antenna for SOTA purposes. Can you use an antenna analyser to check the resonant frequency of a HF trap? Yes you can, here is a practical solution. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate how you can use a modern antenna analyser to…
Homebrew HF EFHW antenna for low power SOTA, Parks and field day events. Using a 19.8 metre length of wire mounted as an inverted V, a non-resonant 6.8 metre counterpoise, this antenna is resonant in the 40/20/15/10m bands. At 19.8 metres long, the VSWR is less than 1.5:1 in the voice segments. If your primary…
At First use of a ZS6BKW antenna 1 February 2018, I mounted the ZS6BKW antenna on a 10 metre (32.8 feet) telescopic pole. For SOTA purposes the ZS6BKW antenna (enhanced G5RV) is quite versatile allowing operation on 80m through to 6m with the exception of 30 and 15m. With all the benefits invested this antenna,…
Friday 1 February 2019 – Today is the 6th anniversary of SOTA in VK1 and to celebrate the occasion four VK1 SOTA activators are heading for the hills; Bill VK1MCW, Tony VK1VIC, Dermy VK1FDHA and myself. My plan is to activate Mount McDonald 17 km west of Canberra GPO. Elsewhere in VK3 a contingent of…
In recent months 7 MHz NVIS propagation has taken a fall off the propagation-cliff to be replaced by its 5 MHz and 3.5 MHz siblings. As the sun’s natural 11-year solar cycle moves closer to a solar minimum, radio amateurs are experiencing a change in the MUF. Since January this year the NVIS frequency…
Sunday 7 August 2016, planned SOTA activation of Castle Hill, 942 metres ASL, 2 points on private property. Maidenhead Grid Locator QF44MM Possible Summit to Summit contacts: 34 and far too many to detail here. Today VK1 is holding the 2016 VK1 SOTA Winter QSO Party where Australian (VK) and New Zealand (ZL) SOTA…
What can a SOTA fanatic do with a broken plastic coat hanger? Good question you ask! During a recent visit to Melbourne I broke the hook section of a plastic coat hanger, which at the time I cursed as I didn’t have a spare. For some bizarre reason I threw the broken coat hanger in…
Mount McDonald VK1/AC-048 789 metrs ASL, Cotter Dam Catchment Sunday 29 March 2015. I have two homebrew SOTA multi-band link dipoles, my spare lightweight antenna has a 6m link. Yesterday I modified my primary antenna to include a 6m link with a center frequency of 51.150 MHz. I tested the antenna on 52.2 MHz using…
QRP Multi-band HF EFHW antenna for SOTA Post updated 29 September 2017. I have inserted two additional links for coverage on 17m and 30m. I have changed the counterpoise wire from 1.5 metres to 6.8 metres long. My take on a QRP HF EFHW inverted V antenna designed for use on five amateur radio bands…
Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life 