Our fourth build project is something I was really excited to get into, and ended up spending an inordinate amount of time on. A transmatch, antenna tuner or ATU: Antenna Tuning Unit. I will try to be consistent in using transmatch. Part of the reason for choosing a transmatch is that it ties in directly […]
CARDPUTER ADV + QMX for FT8 on the go
I have been searching for a reliable FT8-portable option for over a year. Purists will ask why, and my answer is that I am still CW illiterate, and there are just some times I am on a summit and it takes me over an hour of calling CQ to get my 4 contacts (SOTA). FT8 […]
Traps: An experimental SOTA vertical triband.
Traps are a divisive topic, with many hams saying they are inefficient, even though many commercial multi-band antennas use them. Whether they are inefficient or not, with portable operating there are many kinds of ways to measure efficiency: Radiated power (or how much power is lost in the antenna)Footprint (or how much space you need […]
All Portable Discussion Zone build #2
For our second build-along project, we decided to go for a Stockton bridge SWR meter, again a G-QRP project from the 2023 buildathon. The SWR bridge is pretty simple: RF goes in and out through a couple of connectors on a nice bit of wire that passes through a binocular core. This core has a […]
Rebuilding a Mosley triband yagi.
A while back I acquired most of a Mosley MP-33 triband which had been modified to be taken on a DXpedition 20ish years ago. The parts I got were the director, reflector and boom, so my task was to build a driven element. My approach was to try and replicate the original design as accurately […]
Adding SOTA summits to your Garmin.
I have been active with Summits On The Air for a year and a half, and had been navigating exclusively with Guru Maps until very recently. Guru is an exceptional app, been using it for 10 years: even its free version allows you to have offline vector maps with routable topography. The paid version is […]
Xiegu G90: digital and CAT control.
My uBitx v6 has been my main FT8 rig for over a year, thanks to the (discontinued) Funtronics sound card which gives me full CAT control and sound in/out with a single USB port. This is a huge advantage with Windows, since the OS tends to change audio settings erratically on my machines, both of […]
Xiegu G90 weight loss: Preparing 20w for SOTA activations
I bought a used Xiegu G90 in 2023 as a portable rig to take on SOTA (Summits On The Air) activations, and to use as a travel rig. The G90 is a compact unit, about the size of an airport-best-seller novel which covers all modes from 160m to 10m at 20w output: it is SDR […]