Biography

Licensed in the '80s, operated for several years, then took about 20 years break from the hobby. Resumed activity in 2011 after watching a YouTube video showing someone operating portable in HF.

I started exploring D-Star in 2013, mostly working through a licensed low-power access point that I kept at home. I also ran and maintained a cloud based reflector (the old XRF-type reflector running on a CentOS-based VPS). My interest in networked ham-radio faded around 2016 when I reached the conclusion that ham-radio networking has more to do with telephone networking than amateur radio.

These days (2020) I am having fun in HF, using SSB and data modes. Olivia MFSK is my favourite data mode however I am keen to use other MFSK modes, PSK31 and MT63. My strong interest in Olivia stems from its capabilities and resilience in poor propagation conditions. In 2019 and 2020, close to the depth of solar minimum, I managed several prolonged QSOs with VK stations on 20m and 40m, as well as and two quick exchanges with ZL stations on 40m. This trend continued over the winter 2020-2021, with Olivia allowing regular contacts with Australia and New Zealand on some occasions. Another Olivia highlight is that users tend to appreciate long chats, which is great from my perspective howerver this admittedly tends to push QSOs well into the night... use Olivia at your own risk, it's enjoyable and addictive!

My antennas tend to be large wire loops and wire verticals; the available TX power is 100W however I normally use no more than 40W when I operate in 100% duty-cycle digital modes (e.g. Olivia).

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Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Transceivers:
Icom IC-7100
Icom IC-7300
Icom IC-E92D
Icom ID-51E
Yaesu FT-2D
Motorola GM-350 (UHF)
Baofeng UV-5R

Antennae:
Wire vertical matched by external automatic matching unit and many, but not enough, radials
Horizontal loop (about 115 metres of wire, great for 60m, 30m, 15m)

Looking at building a EFHW vertical phased array for the 20m


Data Interfaces:
Tigertronic SignaLink USB (never use it)
DVRPTR V1 (it must be in the junk box somewhere)
MMDVM (on a shelf)
Raspberry Pi 4 >> this is what I use most of the time to control the radio.


Antenna Matching Units:
LDG Z11 Pro II
LDG AT-600 Pro II
CG-3000 (currently used for the vertical wire described above)
A few handmade baluns and ununs

Other than that, one antenna analyser and some other clutter that helps me putting a signal out there in HF.