Summits on the Air
8 January 2023. In 2023 VK1 is celebrating 10 years of the amateur radio Summits on the Air (SOTA) awards program which for VK1 officially commenced on 1 February 2013. To help celebrate the 10 year milestone our esteemed local VK1 SOTA Manager, Wade VK1MIC sought and gained permission from the Australian Communications and Media…
Tuesday 13 October 2020 – I noticed the Australian Space Weather report MUF and T index were reporting ‘enhanced’ conditions while the K index was close to zero, excellent! I checked the local weather forecast, which with the exception of Thursday, indicated rain for the week. Thursday it is!! Plan: Thursday 15 October 2020, activate…
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…
15 watt QRP HF L-match for portable operations. Peter VK3YE published a QRP 7 MHz to 52 MHz (40m to 6m) L-network ATU project and circuit diagram in VK’s Amateur Radio magazine , Edition 5, May 2017. I have constructed the L-match ATU and added a 5th inductor L5 4uH for matching on 3.6 MHz…
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…
At this link I constructed a 2m lightweight telescopic dipole where the toroid choke is a T37-0 (Tan 0 mix, 50 to 350 Mhz). This version is using a T37-17 (Blue/Yellow 17 mix, 20 to 200 MHz). In addition to the change of balun core, I made the center insulator 5 mm (~1/4 inch) longer…
2m 146 MHz dipole antenna construction project At SOTA – Lightweight Portable 2m – 70cm Dipole Antenna I described the construction of a compact lightweight dipole antenna using commonly available parts, a perfect addition to the emergency 2m Go-box. In that article I used a small section of kitchen cutting board as the mounting block…
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…
2m Dipole Antenna Construction Project Lightweight portable QRP 2m & 70cm half wave dipole for SOTA or an emergency antenna for the 2m and 70cm Go-box. Parts: Section of nylon kitchen cutting board 50 x 30 mm x 7 mm (2 inch x 1 1/8 inch x 1/4 inch) 2 x 495 mm 6 section…
Get out of the Radio Shack and Live Life 