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It doesn’t seem like like six years ago when I shifted from MODX to Wordpress but some spare time over the holiday season and a bit of soul searching means time for a change. I’ve dropped almost all of the IT / Web / Dev content and only kept the stuff that was relevant or valuable to me personally. I’ve shifted to a …
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Technically not really SOTA, because that would require a summit, but testing an Antenna I built for the purpose at least 18 months ago. SOTA, Summits on the air is a slightly crazy pursuit within the larger sphere of amateur radio involving lugging radio gear, including batteries and antennas, up a mountain or random …
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The Kiwi DX group was, and now even more so is, an un-group. In the same way that some IT cliques have un-cons instead of conferences. The premise is that you have more of the social and less of the conference with a strong focus on community and learning. The Kiwi DX group was for the most part just a mailing list …
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I was out walking the dog, as you do, with my trusty Yaesu VX6 in hand this evening. I tried to raise some locals for a chin-wag on a couple of repeaters and got the silent treatment so went for plan ‘B’ and started scanning some local services channels. 17,748 km or so Google says After listening for a wee while to …
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Once again a contest proves that propagation prediction tools are naff. I decided to spin the dial on 17m this evening before sneaking to bed and spoke to Eric, SM1ALH in Sweden for a few minutes but it was pretty rough, although 17m this late at night is always a bit of a crap shoot. Conditions have been poor the last …
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The Icom IC-706 in all it’s versions is one of the best know amateur transceivers of the last 20 years. Originally released in 1995 with the last in the line being the IC-706MKIIg which last rolled off the production line in 2009. I managed to pick up a MKIIg a while ago in excellent condition which appeared to be …
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I picked up a 2nd hand Icom IC-706MKIIG to add to my eclectic collection of gear earlier in the week. The rig is excellent condition and aside from a loose wire on the molex power lead there were no visible problems which one of the best known Icom boxes of tricks there is. I re-crimped the power cable and plugged into …
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A bit of random DIY for a sunday and it involves hot glue, so it must be good. Being a fan of Anderson Power Pole connectors along with a chunk of the amateur radio fraternity I’ve chopped the fuses and other gubbins from the power leads on most of the equipment I own that uses 13.8V and simply terminated them with a …
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