Companion 40aH Battery station

For WWFF park activations I have mainly been using a 4.2 aH Lifepo4 battery, which does the job but does limit what power I can use and the length of the activation.

I spotted a 40aH Lifepo4 Battery station made by Companion for camping and picked one up from a local camping store.

Unboxed and powered on, found the capacity was at 75%

Plugged in the 240v charger, charging up. Display showed 97 minutes to reach full charge.

What I like is the choices for power input and output. As well as mains it has leads to charge off a cigarette lighter in the car, also can charge directly off a solar panel.

The outputs include large Anderson Power poles. I have these on all my radios so just a matter of plugging them in. A little bit heavy and bulky for anything but small distance to walk SOTA summits, but ideal for park activations where the car is not far away. Should be able to run higher power and for longer :)

New 2m/70cm Radio Yaesu FTM-300D

After many years of using an Icom IC-2000 for 2m FM in the shack, decided to upgrade and got a Yaesu FTM-300D. This is a 2m/70cm dual band, dual receive radio, with some extras such as APRS.

I set mine up with one band set to the local 2m repeater, VK1RGI Mt Ginini. The other band set to the National APRS frequency 145.175.

 Here is the old setup, Icom IC-2000 with 2m FM only.

It works quite well, just not used much, very quiet on the local 2m repeaters. Even scanning all the repeaters hardly anyone on... Used it a bit working SOTA activators on 146.500 FM, otherwise would sit idle in the shack for hours each day...

So got the Yaesu FTM-300D. This gives me some more repeaters to work on 70cm. The main activity now on 2m seems to be APRS. Monitoring the APRS frequency shows a lot of activity. The Station List display shows APRS packet activity.

Clicking on each entry gives good details on what and where the station is, speed and altitude, direction and for some weather stations temperature and other data.

I set it up to beacon my station call a few times an hour, shows up on the APRS website aprs.fi okay as a Yellow/Green roof house...

Most of the packets I hear come from VK1RGI-1, the Mt Ginini digipeater. Not surprising given its excellent coverage of the region, it acts as a relay for APRS traffic over a vast area. I also get copied by VK1RBM-1, Black mountain, which is only 6 Km away and very strong.

Some park and SOTA operators run APRS when driving and activating sites, so handy to keep track of them.

Still have lots more to learn about APRS, anyway something else to look at when HF is quiet.  

Comet GP-15 tuned for 6 m band

After trying out my new Rigexpert Stick 230 on my Comet GP-15 vertical, found the SWR on 6 m not too good...resonant just above 54 Mhz out of band.

Had a look at the antenna. There is a tuning stub on one of the 3 radials that you can slide a rod in and out. I had it in most of the way, tried sliding out as far as it would go.

The analyzer readout now looked a lot better 😀

Resonant around 50.9 Mhz. Good enough for using on the SSB call frequency 50.110 and the FT8 frequency 50.313.

Plugged in the IC7300. SWR plot around 50.313 Mhz

Under 1.5 to 1 SWR. Turned on the inbuilt tuner, this tuned it up nicely.

So good to use on 6m. As the middle of winter will have to wait to test it out.

Rigexpert Stick 230 Antenna Analyzer

As long as I have been an amateur I have measured and tuned antennas using SWR meters. Decided to get with the times and get an antenna analyzer 😀

I went for the Rigexpert stick 230. It covers HF, 6m and 2m, not that much interested in higher bands. Plus what I liked most is its size and portablity, as I intend to use it out in the field for SOTA and parks, want something can throw in the backpack and not weigh much. Turning it on presented with a main menu, really clear, using epaper like display such as a kindle reader to be able to read outdoors.

The Multe menu is about the most useful, scans all the ham bands and finds the ones that your antenna  will work... Plugged it into my Comet GP15 vertical, which is for 6m, 2m and 70cm. As does not cover 70cm found 6m and 2m. 6m

As you can see its resonant at 54.167 Mhz with SWR of 1.11. Out of the 6m band... Also can see a chart

To be honest I've never used the Comet GP15 on 6m. From comments online its really meant for 6m FM repeaters on the top end of the band, there are none nearby me anyway... I find my 40 m dipole does a better job! 

Next band found 2m. Pretty good here, resonant at 145.53 Mhz at 1.23 SWR

Chart for 2m. Covers the whole 144 to 148 Mhz band nicely. The antenna works well on 2m 😀

Installed Antscope2 software on my shack laptop and plugged in the supplied USB cable. Able to scan the antenna using selected frequencies. 6 m again showing out of band resonance above 54 Mhz

2 m scan, fairly flat across the whole band.

New LifePO4 battery for portable use

For portable WWFF/SOTA I have been powering my FT-857D with a Zippy Flightmax 4200 mAh LifePO4 battery which works well. I also had a Zippy Flightmax 8400 mAh battery, but this had died, refusing to hold a charge for long and getting 'fat', swelling up, a sure sign of cell failure. So looked for a replacement and got a Drypower 7.5 Ah LifePO4 battery from Battery World.

It weighs about 1 Kg, so fairly similar to my Zippy 8400 mAh battery. It comes with spade lugs, so soldered on the leads from the old 8400 mAh battery with Anderson Powerpoles and covered them up with electrical tape. For charging used my Turnigy Accucell charger, using Life charge set to 14.4 v and 5 A, about what my charger can deliver. Note it does not have sensor wires, so I'm assuming cell balancing is handled internally, along with overcharging protection, as my charger dropped down the amps approaching capacity. Interesting to see how it performs in the field.

New Radio Icom IC-7300

My shack radio, a Kenwood TS-480SAT recently developed a fault in the transmitted audio, becoming distorted with RF. Rather than wait for it to be repaired decided time for an upgrade, and got a new Icom IC-7300.

I think these must be very popular as the dealer had run out of stock, and had to wait a few weeks for a shipment from Japan to arrive...

First impressions good, the receiver audio is superb and it seems quite sensitive, plus there is a band scope, something I've never had on a radio before. As can see whats around me can pick up calls I would otherwise miss out, found this useful on 10m where there is a lot of band to cover,,,

Eventually got it set up on WSPR and JT65 modes, where it works quite well. I know more about the menus now... Make sure you select USB-D if you are operating digital modes! Made contacts into Japan and VK4 on 10m, and into the USA on 40m. Lots of fun. Using a Toshiba laptop for decoding.

Some minor faults, there is only one connector, my TS-480 had 2 which would auto select between the dipole and 10m yagi. Need to get an antenna switch. Also find the up/down band buttons a bit close to the tuning knob, tending to knock it, getting around this by using the up/down buttons on the microphone.

A very nice radio thats fun to operate.

SOTA Squid pole temporary repair

After cracking one of the sections of my 7 m squid pole on my last SOTA activation Mt Gillamatong, pulled it apart at home to have a look. One of the sections had a piece cracked off at the base, jamming the sliding action.

Will really need to replace it, however have the SOTA VK1 multiple activation of Mt Coree tomorrow, so needed to get something working for this. Pulled off the cracked piece and used duct tape to cover the hole.

The cracked piece underneath. I can now slide all the sections out to the full 7 m height, just need to watch out I don't pull out the broken piece too far...

SOTA LifePO4 battery

As mentioned on my last 2 activations my 4.2 aH SLA battery has had it, despite a full charge the night before lucky to get a half hour of activating out of it...

So purchased a Zippy 4200 30C series LifePO4 battery. Old SLA and new battery

I decided to go with LifePO4 as supposedly safer than LIPO batteries, plus they have a better lifetime charge/discharge cycle, and will maintain a constant output.

The weight is a bit heavier than LIPO, but at 550 g instead of the 1.3 Kg SLA I'm not complaining!

Voltage out is around 13-14 v so the FT817 is happy. Also got a "Watts Up" meter to monitor the voltage. Shows the FT817 draws around 0.36 A just on receive!...On full 5W out draws around 1.95 A, so should get a few hours on a charge.

Got a Turnigy 8150 charger to balance charge it, took around an hour to bring up to full charge, each of the full cells to 3.6 V, for 14.4 V charge.

Found I can just fit the battery, meter, radio and log book in my Kathmandu case, neat.

SOTA linked dipole

After my last activation where I accidentally left behind the 40 m dipole wires, decided to change to a linked dipole. That way guaranteed to have all bands in my pack :)

These a quite commonly used now in SOTA activations. Fairly easy to make. Got a small cheap ruler from an office supply store, cut it in half for 2 and drilled some holes for the wires. Threaded the wires for 20 and 40 m antennas through and soldered on alligator clips.

  

Now to operate on 40 m leave the clips in place, for 20 m drop the squid pole and unclip.

Initial testing on the squid pole in the driveway show SWR not too bad on both bands, both a bit long, so will need to adjust. Then try out in the field.

SOTA Dipole winders

When I started doing SOTA activations, I purchased a couple of spools of wire for the dipole legs and used the spools to store the wire and support cord on. After 40 SOTA activations throwing the spools among scrub and rocks they were looking a bit worse for wear...

Bits of both spools were busted, with the wire threatening to unravel...So needed to make up some new SOTA dipole wire winders.

At a local hobby store saw a lightweight wooden clipboard. A bit of work with the hacksaw cut this to an appropriate size and cut notches at each end to stop the wire unraveling. Here is the result.

One leg of the 40m dipole on the new wooden winder. I had cut each winder to a size that would fit into my Kathmandu camera bag, so now able to carry logbook, FT817 and wire winders all in the one bag, neat.

I still have the coax, occy straps and dipole termination box to carry in another bag, but should fit neater into the pack.

SOTA FT817 Case

At the presentation of SOTA at the Goulburn and Southern Highlands club recently noticed Andrew, VK1DA using a Kathmandu camera case to protect his FT817 within his pack. As my FT817 has been simply bundled in a plastic bag thought I would get one too to protect it better.

FT817, power cable and microphone in the case.

I even purchased a 2nd Kathmandu camera case, to carry all my coax. battery and bungy cords!

Galaxy Note 8 Tablet and Rucksack Radio Tool

Recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy Note 8, I find my mobile phone a bit hard reading for long periods and wanted something for general quick web browsing around the home and while away. My eyesight is not getting any better...

As per my phone I installed Rucksack Radio Tool, for keeping an eye on SOTA :) Looks good on a big screen.

For those unfamiliar with this program it announces in a female voice SOTA peak activations with the association name, frequency and mode. It came in handy today, working VK3WAM Wayne on 4 summits, VK3IL David on VK3/VE-023 Mt Tabletop and Paul VK5PAS on VK5/NE-050 Stokes Hill.

It can be downloaded from http://www.dl1dlf.de/rucksack_radio_tool The page is in German but not hard to work out the download link, or use Googe Translate. You can also use it to self spot from a summit if you have mobile internet coverage.

New SOTA Day pack

The day pack I use for SOTA activations was purchased many years ago for the purpose of bushwalking day walks, and really wasn't designed for it. It is a Berghaus Cubic 30, 30 litres capacity.

The 7m squid pole sits in a drink container pocket, unfortunately it has only one so have to put my drink container inside, awkward to get out and takes up extra room. Also only being 30 litres capacity find it bulging once I load up with radio, antennas, food, clothing etc. Plus the squid pole is a loose fit meaning it flops about and catches on branches...

So went looking in the local walking/camping stores for a better one. Most seem to have flimsy mesh drink pockets and too small or too large. Finally found a suitable pack, a Katmandu Katun 40.

The drink pockets are big and deep, tough fabric that is molded into the pack. Plus a couple of compression straps keeps the squid pole nice and secure. And there are 2 pockets so the drinks container fits on the other side :)

Being 40 litres there is more room for all the junk I carry, I'll probably fill it up with something...Still have to carry it all though :(