Federation Range (VK3/VN-029) ski day, 2018

Last year I cross country ski’d into Federation Range VK3/VN-029, 1490 meters above sea level, activated it for 8 points (+3 winter bonus points) and ski’d out again. This is possible because this summit is just off groomed cross country ski tracks at Lake Mountain, ninety minutes north east of Melbourne, a popular sight-seeing, tobogganing and cross country skiing spot. Time to do it again. After picking up skis at Marysville I took Royston Trail from the car park up the long incline, to Panorama, then Hut Trail to Boundary Hut, the remains of a hiking hut, long since burned out, only the stone walls standing to waist height. Distance out is about 4km.

Desklamp conversion to 12v DC 20w power supply

Picked up a halogen desk lamp from a street hard rubbish pile the other day. This particular desk lamp model has been a popular product for many years and appears to be still available. As I stood on what Melburnians strangely refer to as a ‘nature strip’, starting at someone else’s pile of junk, I faced a familiar dilemma– take it and do something with it, or walk away.

Arduino GPS Clock

A while back I prototyped a ublox GPS unit with an Arduino Nano on a breadboard. I wrote up some thoughts here. The ublox GPS unit streams messages on a serial line that contain a variety of time, date, location, altitude and speed fields. So one obvious application is to make these parts into a desk clock. The big advantage of a GPS clock is that it never has to be set. Just power it with 12v and you know the time is correct. Well at least until the next Carrington Event.

‘Building a Transceiver’, Eamon Skelton EI9GQ and Elaine Richards G4LFM (RSGB)

I first laid eyes on this book when Glenn VK3PE brought it to an Amateur Radio Victoria Homebrew Meeting a few months ago. Eamon Skelton EI9GQ writes the ‘Homebrew’ column in RSGB’s RadCom. I don’t see RadCom (my loss) so it was a pleasant surprise to skim the pages and see every aspect of building a relatively high quality transceiver getting a good, readable coverage, with full construction details.

Arduino GPS experiment for SOTA

How could a GPS unit integrated with a SOTA transceiver assist in activations? I’ve been turning that thought over for a while now after seeing David VK5KK’s GPS and Arduino based grid square locator (posted to the ‘VK Homebrew’ group on facebook).   The ready availability of cheap GPS units with a simple serial interface makes the option straight-forward.  As my homebrew rigs are using Arduino Nanos and si5351 breakout boards, the GPS is just another (serial) attachment.

Hard-to-find faults and other homebrew ‘Gumption traps’

I recently cut this small piece Veroboard to hold two vertically aligned miniature potentiometers on a receiver front panel. The three soldered tracks to the right allow connection of the audio signal to the volume control using shielded twin conductor cable. Very standard stuff, I’ve been wiring up audio amplifiers to volume controls like this for about four decades. But this one wouldn’t work. It has a fault — it’s there, in the picture above, right in front of your eyes… can you see it?

‘Summit Prowler IV’ — Homebrew 160m to 17m QRP SSB/CW transceiver for portable and SOTA use

‘Summit Prowler IV’ is a scratch-built six-band SSB and CW transceiver, designed for portable and SOTA activations. It is based on Leon VK2DOB’s MST3 (Minimal Sideband Transceiver, third version) from 2016, with alterations to support multiple bands, my Arduino-based digital VFO/controller and keyer, and a few extras to support portable operating. The transceiver is a conventional single-conversion superhet with 12MHz IF and an si5351 and Arduino Nano-based digital VFO. This project comes after having done more than 50 activations with my 2013 MST Mk I kit radio on 40m SSB. This rig has performed well on 40m SSB (and CW after I added it) and has launched my interest in SOTA activating, turning me into an occasional weekend ‘summit prowler‘.

Mt Hotham SOTA Weekend Feb 2-4 2018

VK3’s ARH, YY and PF on Mt Murray.

On the weekend of the 3rd and 4th Feb 2018 I joined about 18 others at Brian VK3MCD’s now annual VK Mt Hotham SOTA weekend, starting with a night on Mt Buffalo camping at Lake Catani the night before, and with some activations at Falls Creek on Friday. With the summits at Mt Buffalo (The Horn, The Hump) and Falls Creek (Mt Nelse, Mt Cope), then 2 days four wheel driving, I accumulated 124 activator points.  A productive long weekend!

Veroboard at radio frequencies

Charlie ZL2CTM has been pushing out a series of excellent videos on his YouTube channel that take you through the circuit design, making and testing of superhet SSB transceiver modules.  Yesterday my eyebrow involuntarily raised ever so slightly at his use of Veroboard as the substrate for his latest 8MHz crystal filter.  Veroboard? At radio frequencies?  Veroboard et les fréquences radio ne sont pas compatibles!

QRP By The Bay, Chelsea Beach, Melbourne, 25 Nov 2017

QRP By The Bay for November 2017 brought together many familiar and a few new faces and callsigns on an unseasonably hot 32 degree Celsius day. When Peter VK3YE wrapped himself up with radios and aerial parts including an ankle clasp that looked straight out of a Monty Python costume department a small crowd followed him over the dunes and down into the shallows. It was the best place to be on a hot afternoon, toes in the clear and cooling waters of Port Philip Bay.  Or should I say, VK3YE’s State-sized ground plane. The now sub surface mannacle paid off for its wearer.  Forty and 10m contacts rolled in while a few of us chatted at the edge.