The following is a picture of everything I am taking with me to portable operations: The gear consists of the following: Yaesu FT-817 with the following modifications 3D printed Power Pole connector 3D printed VFO knob 3D printed side rails 3D printed protection cover Inrad 2000 Hz 455 kHz SSB 8-pole Collins filter TCXO DIY 6600mAh 4s LiPo battery power cable modified mic with built in voice keyer (BX-184) self made 1/4 wave vertical antenna for 20m wrapped around a 3D printed winder and a 3D printed mast tip 7m Spiderbeam mini mast tension belt ear phones pen and logbook coax cable A picture of everything packed and ready to go (banana for scale): Read more...

Yesterday I was able to succesfully activate POTA park “Taunus Nature Park” on the Feldberg near Frankfurt. The following was my gear during the portable operation: Yaesu FT-817 DIY 6600mAh 4s LiPo battery modified mic with built in voice keyer (BX-184) self made 1/4 wave vertical antenna for 20m 7m Spiderbeam mini mast Due to the weather conditions, I only operated for one hour in total but I’ve made 22 SSB contacts on 20m from which four were DX and one was a park 2 park to Iceland. Read more...

I wrote a Vim syntax plugin for writing Fast Log Entry compatible log files in Vim. This allows me to write extensive logs with a lightweight Linux laptop on the console in Vim while operating portable without the need of a Fast Log Entry install but still with the very helpful syntax highlighting. This plugin does not convert the log into ADIF files. The idea is to copy/paste the log later on into FLE and to the convertion there. Read more...

I’ve used one single mail address for over a decade until it was involved in some breaches and thereupon has been sold to spammers. This address has been rendered unusable for me because I was drowning in spam since then. I’ve then decided to start over with a custom domain, unique mail addresses per website/account and to update all my online accounts to the new addresses. In fact, I am now using 200+ mail addresses. Read more...

I’ve created a multi mode digital voice network which allows its users to communicate with each other via various different digital voice modes. These include at the moment DMR, YSF, Peanut, Echolink and AllStarLink. From the FediHams page on this website: “This project combines different digital voice technologies with the aim of creating a virtual space for voice communication between like-minded people. In the end, it should not matter which technologies individual participants use. Read more...

I have inherited the following collection of battery packs, which were already at least 5 years old at this time: Two battery packs should now be built from them: One as power supply for my Yaesu FT-817 during portable operation and another bigger one from the remaining cells. For this I took all packs apart, charged each cell and then measured their capacity: I also needed do order a spot welder kit for this. Read more...

I just released DXPager, a script that sends DAPNET messages to your pager if a DX station whose entity you have not worked/confirmed before has been spotted. In other words: The script checks your LotW QSL log, observes the DX cluster and pages you as soon as a new one appears. A “(L)” is added to the message if the DX station is a LotW user. Additionally, you can define a watch list of DX call signs for which you’d also liek to be notified. Read more...

Last weekend I was able to succesfully activate Waldheide Recreation Park DA-0221 as part of the Parks on the Air (POTA) program. POTA is a ham radio competition aimed at setting up ham radio stations in parks open to the public and going on the air from there. You can find more information about the program here. This was my first POTA activation and also the first time this specific park has been activated. Read more...

I have compiled a list of QRP transceivers that are suitable for portable use. It can be downloaded via the following links: qrp_trx.pdf. qrp_trx.ods. If you have any corrections, additions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me.

I just released a first version of ColorSpot, a command line DX cluster client written in Python. It adds the following benefits to the default telnet stream: displays the DX station’s country displays the DX station’s continent displays if the DX station uses LotW downloads your LotW QSL file and marks all lines with countries that need to be confirmed (optional) displays lines in different colors depending on the continent or band (user configurable) Code You can find the code and some more information here. Read more...