Like many in the amateur radio hobby, I have an interest in listening to my local airport air traffic and en route air traffic operating between Sydney – Canberra – Melbourne centres. I am fortunate that my QTH is located in a RF line-of-sight path to Canberra International Airport (13 km east) and an air…
Saturday 16 May 2019. I am joined by Andrew VK1DA for a joint activation of Booroomba Rocks VK1/AC-026 at 1382m ASL in Namadgi National Park. Starting from Booroomba Rocks car park, the ascent to the summit is 267 vertical metres over 2.4 km taking one hour. Andrew plans to qualify the summit using CW in…
Homebrew 2m/70cm duplexer for 23 and 13cm SOTA activations. Why buy one when you can make your own? All components are mounted on a single sided copper clad board. I will use my FT-817 at 1 watt to drive the 23 and 13cm transverters via the duplexer. The duplexer will permit instant band chages. SG-Lab…
Saturday 4 May 2019. Earlier today I activated Mount Tumorrama VK2/SW-027 followed by Billapaloola State Forest VK2/SW-034. I’ve been trying to activate Tumorrama Hill since 2014 where on previous attempts my efforts were thwarted by forestry logging operations in an adjacent pine forest. With two summits under my belt, I am making my way to…
Saturday 16 June 2018. The weather around Canberra is cold wet and windy as a deep low, 994 hPa passes over south-east Australia. Today’s top ambient temperature is 9 degrees C while the feels-like is a chilly 2 degrees C. Tomorrow’s forecast is for a chance of snow down to 800 m ASL. My QTH…
Saturday 4 August 2018. Radio amateurs in Australia’s capital city Canberra (VK1) are planning a simultaneous activations of VK1 and nearby VK2 SOTA summits, kicking off at 09:00 local (2300 UTC, 3 August 2018) for operations over 2.5 to 3 hours. This radio amateur event is known locally as the VK1 ‘Winter’ SOTA QSO Party,…
This morning I assembled a SOTABeams 4-Way 12 volt PowerPole connector box. This little beauty will form part of my SOTA kit. The SOTABeams kit includes all parts, plastic case and a lazer-cut front panel. Assembly time is approximately 30 minutes including time to make a mug of tea. Until now I have used a…
A homebrew 2m 144.2 MHz vertical 1/2 wave Coaxial Dipole antenna project for your home QTH, SOTA, portable field operations/WICEN exercises or the emergency 2m Go-box. Elsewhere in amateur radio circles this antenna is known as a 2m Flower Pot Antenna. Credits to VK2ZOI. Post updated 5 May 2019, scroll to the bottom for details.…
For the VK1 SOTA birthday event I activated Mt Stromlo VK1/AC-043 on 2m simplex 146.5 FM. Due to a previous commitment I hadn’t made any serious plans to activate multiple bands (HF and VHF), so I went with the option of a simple activation on 2m FM. I joined enthusiastic VK activators, Bill VK1FWBK at…
During 2016 I undertook a personal SOTA challenge to activate and qualify all SOTA peaks on 70 cm 432.200 MHz USB or 439.000 MHz FM. More on the results of my 70 cm challenge later. For 2017 during which the predicted sunspot activity will be very low, I am setting myself a reasonable personal challenge.…
