mcHF clones from China
So much has happened in the time since I last posted – I have moved house (and workshop), changed employers, etc, etc, and not been in a position to do much SOTA work, but thats ok –…
Read More »A Slightly Toasted Icom AH4 Antenna Tuner
I purchased a slightly toasted AH4 tuner, which had clearly been overloaded during the tune cycle. The power attenuator had been thoroughly cooked. I spent a couple of afternoons removing the burnt area of the PCB using a…
Read More »A GPS based Shack Clock
I recently finished a small Arduino based clock that uses an inexpensive GP module coupled with a 2 line LCD display. I used the template from my QCX case as the basis for the design of the enclosure….
Read More »SOTA Winter Bonuses!
I just received an awesome email from the SOTA Manager here in the ACT. “The VK1 SOTA 3 point winter bonus period commences at 00:00h UTC 15 June, that’s 10:00 am Friday 15 June 2018 and concludes at 23:59h UTC on 14…
Read More »WSPR in the park at lunchtime
Inspired by Wade (VK1MIC) and Andrew’s (VK1AD) blog posts, I have decided to revive my old VK1ZDJ blog here and start posting what I hope are interesting articles. At the very worst, it allows me an environment where…
Read More »An Enclosure for the QRP Labs QCX 5W CW Transceiver
I have recently obtained a neat little radio from the clever folk at QRP Labs – the QCX-40. https://qrp-labs.com/qcx.html It is a single board CW transceiver, designed to operate on a single band from 80m through to 17m…
Read More »My First SOTA Activation – Tuggeranong Hill VK1/AC-038
Having attended the AGM for the local Canberra Region Amateur Radio Club, I discovered that a group of SOTA enthusiasts were planning on activating a number of hills in the Canberra region on 01Mar2018 at 0800UTC. This seemed…
Read More »An interesting portable NVIS antenna
I have been researching NVIS antennas and have encountered a few interesting military versions. The AS-2259 is one example which uses a 3m mast and set of two offset fed dipoles (7.56 m and 11.22 m) The dipoles…
Read More »SOTA Equipment
I’m relatively new to the whole SOTA hobby, so I am still learning as I go. My main portable gear is based on the following; FT817 – A beautiful 5W radio for HF, 15, 144 and 430 Mhz…
Read More »A Universal RFID key
RFID projects have been pretty prominent recently, ranging from projects here in Instructables, to our local Silicon Chip magazine in Australia publishing a RFID door lock project in their November issue. Even I recently purchased a RFID door…
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