Hi Goaties,
I am 68 yo male, vietnamese of origin and live in the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia
Last year, had a chance to know VK2GPL, he had successfully lured me back to SOTA, but we failed miserably to ascend the VK2-CT015 Mt Cloud Maker, last September.
My equipment is very simple, mostly home brew antenna and an ex paramilitary HF-90 radio with inexpensive Aldi’s power tool battery (keep only 18250 cells, got rid of plastic case and BMS)
My planning for 2020 is touring Switzerland with my bicycle, at the moment still fiddling with 2m APRS antenna, so far I have tried
Hi VK2IHL
Nice to meet you.
We have a lot of nice SOTA summits here in Switzerland!
Many of them can be Activated by foot or bike without problem.
Feel free to contact me if you have a question releated to HB.
For the tour planning i can recomend the “map.geo.admin.ch” in there can see a lot of details and also measure distance and hight difference.
Fantastic! That’s a real ham shack, not the tidy beautiful ones we often see in these days…
Welcome on board.You’ll find a great pack of nice people here.
I’ll be looking forward to QSO with you.
73,
Hi Sabrina,
Your link to the “Swiss Topo 1:25000” is above all my expectations, and more to discover from that powerful map site.
Thanks for your support in case I have to rely on someone in HB. Will establish a contact when my bicycle touring (with radio on board) plan is concreted and seeking for your advice.
Cheers and 73 from Pascal
Haha,
My old fashion “home brew” ham shack, down here we call it a chuck shed.
Love to do home build project and outdoor QSO, all was infested by the famous Wes Hayward W7ZOI.
Cheers with appreciation of your comment
VK2IHL Pascal
Good to read about your activities and to see your pictures.
If you haven’t already, I suggest you join OZSOTA on groups.io, this is the Australia-wide mailing list for SOTA. It contains all the info and comments about planned and past activations, much as this reflector does principally for the UK. There is a mailing list on yahoo groups called sota_vk2 but it sees very little traffic.
I’m in Yass and occasionally visit Sydney for various purposes. I hope we will meet some day at an event, perhaps, or a SOTA activation!
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
SOTA Association manager for VK2
Hello Martin,
Just had a look at your website, impressive.
Thanks for the “Mapy.cz” very handy, I had to refresh my old brain while trying to decipher the Y button on Mapy.cz site, turns out to be a 3 vectors in space.
Should rewatching tonight “No Country for Old Man”
Cheers from Pascal
Dear Andrew,
Nice to read your reply, will join the Oz SOTA Io.
So far had done only successfully 1summit and 1 failed, with Sam GPL.
Will lean on you to learn about SOTA, you have to feel pity, an old dog as I am to learn new trick.
Take care
Pascal
Age doesn’t matter, it’s all in the mind (and the feet). I suggest you make contact with other SOTA tragics in Sydney, such as Gerard VK2IO and Compton VK2HRX, Phil VK2JDL. There are others too! Getting a few simpler summits done will improve your station and your packing list (most of us take far too much stuff at first, it is difficult to know what is important, what’s optional and where to draw the line). Don’t aim to activate only the high points summits, though there are plenty of good candidates in the CT region. Highly recommend joint activations, it lets you chat with others and learn from them, and see how they setup their gear.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2UH
Dear David,
Your CW’s skill pushes me harder in daily training, only 6 months left to my HB adventure or going broke.
Regrettably why I did not used CW mode since I passed the 10wpm exam for my call sign?
Now using a French military Morse training, courtesy from F5IRO on YouTube, as a “Hortator” and “cadence metre “ to my bicycle training.
Hope will be a master of my legs and enough skill to do S2S in CW.
73 de VK2IHL, Pascal
Thanks Pascal, I was lucky in being taught CW by our Royal Navy. Although that was in in 1966 !! Just keep practicing!! I’ll keep an eye and and ear open for you on here.
@K6HP, Ken
You sound like my Elmer S.K. VK2JP in the last century when I took excuse to respond to his expectation to do CW 25wpm.
He was right, learning at higher speed is making lower speed enjoyable.
@LU1MAW
Your country is irresistible, when I have enough of CW training, this is the video I watch in tandem on my exercise bike.
Apple for Apple, to our eyes, my bike is the most scientific one.
It cost me:
Au $30 for the Muirwoods Marin MTB.
Au $85 for an STM32F746G disco to brew up an EU1KY’s AA, RF detector is homebrew, all done last month, due to my inability to lift boat anchors SA outdoor. Happy to be able to read Rx and Jx with relatively fast speed.
However, we should hold our horses, !para el carro!
N4RVE, his “scientific bike” BEHEMOTH is around 1.2 million USd.
