Biography

G'day,

I've been licensed since the end of 2015 but have only just started getting into HF (late 2018).

Regarding HF, the joys of apartment living originally meant that to get on the air, I first had to get to a park. The radio I'm using is a Yaesu FT-450D with a couple of 8400mAh LiFePO batteries. Each one can get me about 3-4 hours of medium usage.

So far I'm really enjoying HF though I still need to get over a little microphone anxiety but that'll just take time I suppose.

Equipment

My home station:

I've just bought myself a new radio, a Yaesu FT-8900R (to access repeaters on the Northern and Western sides of Sydney, Australia). This is connected directly to a 5/8 wave 2m vertical on the balcony.

My Yaesu FT-450D is plugged into a YT-1200 Antenna Tuner (which allows me to tune up on 80m), an SX-200 HF+VHF Power/SWR Meter, and then out to a homemade 9:1 unun and ~25m random wire up into a tall tree outside off the apartment's balcony. This set up has finally given me the ability to get on the HF bands from the comfort of my study!


My Park Station:

My antenna set-up for when I'm out in a park is a home-made 1:1 balun and 40m Inverted-V dipole configuration. I was originally using some simple copper speaker wire from Jaycar for the 40m dipole but have recently changed to 14awg wire which is much easier to work with (I just wish I could find a decent local supplier for it instead of ordering from the US). I've also made up a 10m long length of RG58 coax to keep in my backpack for the portable operation.

I've have also just finished building up a 10/15/20/40m linked dipole on weekends/after work and I've been testing it over the last few weeks - not that I can legally use 20m just yet but I've heard reports of 10m opening up and down the Australian East Coast so I'm keen to try and work that band. 15m was added just because I'm licensed to use the band and it wasn't too hard to include it in the linked dipole configuration.


My Mobile Station:

The mobile set up in the car is utilises a Yaesu FT-90R. It was my first Amateur radio after a Baofeng UV5R and it's serving me very well with a Diamond dual-band antenna mounted on the bonnet. The separation kit is definitely recommended for a neat and tidy look - radio in the boot, headunit in a hideaway within the centre of the dashboard.


My Portable Station:

On a recent trip to the US, I picked up a Yaesu FT-60R to replace my Baofeng UV5R/GT3-TP radios for portable operations. This radio has got to be the easiest radio to use with every feature just one button away. I've only had it a short while but I'm loving it. I've replaced the stock antenna with a simple Nagoya NA-771.

Anyway, thanks for visiting my page. Hopefully you've come here as a result of an on-air contact!

73s!