3Y0J - Bouvet Island is on the air

Well they've landed, have setup camp, and are transmitting.....but sadly I can't hear a thing :-(

I'll need to try harder. Their website is www.3y0j.no and you can find the dxpedition being spotted on dxsummit.fi

New call sign - VK4ER

Well I was just about to start collecting some contacts for my advanced VK4ARA callsign (nothing in the logbook) when priorities changed and I am now the new holder of VK4ER. VK4ARA will be released back into the pool.

Previous holders of the VK4ER callsign have included Bob Lees, and Eric Reilly. Thank you gents.

Easy install in the Alfa Romeo 159

So I'm a glutton for punishment and bought myself another Alfa Romeo and not only that but after swearing to never buy another black car, I bought this black one, now black car #3.

As stated before the install for the Yaesu VX-7R is really easy using the ClicOn phone mount and RAM mount for a GPS 'button' which matches the Yaesu perfectly. Now to figure out how to attache a button to my iPhone so I can interchange the 2 as desired and only use one mount otherwise I'll have to get a second ClicOn mount which goes up on the dash....not my ideal mounting spot.

Here it is in the car, nice and simple.

I think it needs some more antennas on the back...............

Back studying again with the Radio and Electronics School

It's been a long time and after many false starts I'm hitting the books again to work towards my Standard licence.

I've purchased the new Radio Theory Handbook by Ron Bertrand VK2DQ. I chose the kindle version as it is easier to lug around and hopefully a bit easier to sneak some opportunistic study time during the day.

And I have also signed up for the Standard licence course run by the Radio and Electronics School. This is the second time I've had a crack at this course but chose the multimedia download in the hope of being able to sneak some time and watch it on my ipad.  Let's see if I can actually make it through this time and move up in class.

VK4RADIO now has a facebook page

I've added a VK4RADIO page to Facebook. This is just to cross-post the posts from the blog over to Faceplant I'll also add in some ham radio pages and links from facebook to go with it.

https://www.facebook.com/vk4radio

EFHWV

Thinking about the next antenna and I'm liking this end fed half wave vertical in the video below. I already have the squid pole (need to check the length) and just need the 9:1 transformer dooby and some wire...and some coax. Looks great for portable work or on the side of the car when stationary.

Special event station - Kesennuma earth quake

Just twiddling the dials and came across 8J7FUKKO special event station remembering the Kesennuma earth quake in Japan. A mouthful for us both to pass our call signs back and forth but a good contact.....and my first QSO video below:

Paying it forward

Thanks to Peter VK4BT I now have a Kenwood TS120V 10 watt HF rig to work on. It is in need of a tune and has an issue with no audio or power on transmit but looking forward to getting it going again and on the air. Cheers Peter!

Siberia? Nearly... nearly....kindof.

Barely made it into Siberia today - a lot of QSB on 28.480 but RK9UN - Oleg and I managed to swap callsigns all the same, and signal reports......I think. Let's see if he confirms the QSO in his QRZ log.......

Japan is open for business

Propagation on 10m was pretty good this evening and after trying for a while I managed to generate a contact on 28.480 with Masa - JE1SDO in Japan.

Great to talk to another ham in a different country and he very kindly gave me a 53 to 55 signal report. Masa was running 200Watts into a Yagi so I didn't feel too bad making the 6,631 kilometre return trip on my 10 watts and the 1/4 wave vertical. WooHoo!!!!!

Youtube inspiration

I've been spending a bit of time youtubing and thought I'd share 2 of my current favourites. There is of course the well-known GoatHiker (along with the goats Peanut and Rooster). Always enjoy seeing WG0AT - Steve operating mountain tops with his poor beasts of burden in tow:
http://www.youtube.com/user/goathiker

Next one is EC1CW - Diego. I stumbled across Diego's channel over Christmas and I think I've worked my way through just about all of his videos so far. Another mountain top operator Diego regularly activates a number of peaks for the SOTA program.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ec1cw

But of special interest to me is how Diego has contructed his Yaesu FT-897 based manpack. Definately something I'm looking to try in the future.

10m is closed

Having no luck on 10m, CQ calls are going out but no replies and I've missed a couple of skeds with VK4WDM due to my own stupidity around zulu time. 11m is still open with more activity and my Ch.35 radio check request got into Melbourne which is not too bad from Brisbane - 1700kms in fact. I did however get onto the 2M Mount Cotton repeater on 147.075 and had a good QSO with VK4IB - Frank.

Quick shot of lunch in the shack as it stands at the moment. I have the portable apart with the 10m back onto the shelf. I'll set it up in a manpack later on and do a bit of a better job this time but in the absence of a proper rig it's the one that gets me onto the Amateur HF bands.

Cherry Post

........2013 is here and I've picked up an old hobby - Radio. I started out in CB radio over 20 years ago and while I gave it away for a long time it is something that I've always liked. The excitement of talking to someone very far away using an age-old method of communications has always held a higher place for me than the telephone, mobile phone or internet. It really is a case of the journey not the destination.

A couple of years ago I sat and passed my amateur radio Foundation Certificate and received the VK4FLYN callsign. As always one thing led to another and after a spurt of enthusiasm I was focused on work and family. Still, with a young family I'd like to get back into the hobby, use my current certification and if possible upgrade to a standard or advanced licence. For me DX holds the most appeal although I'm not having much success so far. So settle back and let's see how far we can go in 2013 and if Amateur Radio is really all I remember it to be.