VK8MT - Amateur Radio projects and Other Stuff by an Introvert Communicator
I just noticed a Qantas flight coming in from London (VH-ZNI). On further investigation I found that it took an interesting route, it seemed to avoid Russian airspace for some reason!.
This diversion added significant time to an already very long flight, coming in at 17h 09m. The two previous QF2 flights were 16m 27m and 16h 08m respectively.
Over the last year or two the shack has increased in density. A radio has been added, I have also finished building my Rotator Controller and switched to a mini PC (reduced density). The photos below provide an indication of the current setup.
The following is just an update on Joel’s setup (as used on his NT to QLD trip).
An IC-705 was used for 30m, this was set to10w (Max) and connected to a mono-band whip. Modulation came from a Windows XP laptop running APRSIS32 with the U7ZHO sound modem.
A Yaesu FT-891 was used for 40m, set at 50w and connected to a separate mono-band whip on the car, this time using a raspberry pi, with Direwolf and Xastir.
An FTM-400, set to 10w and feeding a normal dual band vehicle whip, was used for the Satellite beaconing.
Given the minimal 10w on the 30m band (compared to the 50w on the 40m band), I would say that 30 metres is still the preferred band for this sort of activity (that is, if this band is available to you).
Joel obviously shares his affection between Icom and Yaesu, and also Windows and Linux! Good on you Joel!
