These blog posts are collected into Categories, which may make navigating topics easier!

Radio Power in the Field - Follow on

Previously, I wrote about building a battery for my portable radio operations. This project has been a long and agonising one. Batteries are really difficult, and I spent a good chunk of June, July and August thinking about them. The Winning Design As I discussed in that last blog post, the architecture I settled upon was: I’ve learned quite a lot, made a large number of wrong assumptions and joined a lot of dots in my head as this has gone on. …

Posted on

SOTA Trip Reports: July 12, August 01, 02 2020

Here’re my first sota trip reports. I made some mistakes and have lots to learn still, but they were great days out and I’m dead keen to do more. Most importantly, I’ve got better at radio in general - I’m much more comfortable on a microphone, I understand the flow and format of an HF contact far better. It’s very different from the datamodes I’ve been doing for years! One thing that I’ve noticed, and it probably deserves mentioning, is that the SOTA web infrastructure is some of the best I’ve seen in ham radio. …

Posted on

Splat for UHF radio station coverage modelling

I’ve been talking to Iain, MM0ROR a bit on the radio. After I persuaded him to build a 70cm version of the 1/4 wave vertical antenna I built earlier this year, I helped him test it on the radio tonight from my new /m setup. Initially I drove to the picturesque Aberdeen Beach, then the less pretty 57North Hacklab, and finally I took the long road to the very lovely Balmedie Beach, and for the bulk of the drive nattered away to Iain about nonsense and radios. …

Posted on

Debian as a Ham Radio Station Laptop

This post is part of [tj]’s blog more in June challenge. You should join us and take part - just make 4 posts in June! As part of the general move to do more radio / do radio in a field, I’ve been doing radio in a field instead of preparing for it. This laptop was first set up and somewhat extensively tested at home, and then used in the field to prove it worked. …

Posted on

HF Portable Setup V1

This post is part of [tj]’s blog more in June challenge. You should join us and take part - just make 4 posts in June! As part of the general move to do more radio / do radio in a field, I’ve been doing radio in a field instead of preparing for it. Here’s a breakdown of the portable station, and what I’ve been doing with it. Radio My Radio is a Yaesu FT-891. …

Posted on