Biography

About Me

G’day! I’m Rob Vile, operating out of Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. My primary callsign is ZL2BB, and I operate under ZL1POTA for portable field activations.

By trade, I work as a heat pump installer, giving me a solid hands-on background with electrical wiring, power routing, and custom hardware setups. That experience carries directly over into my amateur radio activities—from engineering custom off-grid power solutions to building rugged weather-proof node deployments.

When off the air, you’ll usually find me running my 3D printing setup (using heat- and UV-resistant ASA/PETG for field enclosures), managing frequency and node records over at blowonthepie.co.nz, or taking my 2005 Nissan Cube out along rugged tracks to scout new elevated repeater locations.
Operations & Focus Areas

Parks on the Air (POTA): Active hunter and activator across the North Island using portable wire setups, rapid deployments, and battery power.
ZL...ontheair: Active hunter and occasional activator and loving all the contacts I get out there in the wild.
MeshCore & Off-Grid Comms: Heavily involved in expanding decentralized 915MHz MeshCore (LoRa) networks across the region, including custom solar repeater deployment on high-elevation peaks.
HF & Digital Voice: Operating HF SSB/Digital along with active use of DMR and D-STAR networks.


QSL & Logging

Logs are routinely synced to QRZ Logbook, and POTA.

73, de Rob — ZL2BB / ZL1POTA
Loving the world and life! everyday is a journey be it good or bad.....it's all an experience....Peace to all! 0274 212 073

Equipment

Station Gear & Rig List
HF Rigs

Base / Shack: Yaesu FTdx10, Icom IC-706MKIIG
Portable / POTA: Icom IC-705, and the trusty G Banger...(Xiegu G90) Yaesu FT-891.

Yaesu FL2100B Amplifier (when it gets a bit tough for the cobweb)
VHF / UHF & Digital Mobile / Dual-Bander: Icom IC-2730, Icom IC-208H
Handhelds (DMR / D-STAR): Retevis RT3S, Quensheng handhelds
Antennas HF Field / Portable: Boomstick dipoles for most operations (cant bet a well tuned dipole).
Base Antennas: AWK Cobweb 6 Horizontal Bands are 14, 18, 21, 24, 28, 50 MHz and a Dipole for 40/30mtrs, Comet CHA-250D Vertical 3.5 – 57 MHz.
Meshcore Repeater approximately 190mtrs ASL High-gain 915MHz fiberglass collinears & dual-band verticals
Custom Engineering Custom BoomstickNZ 3D-printed mounting sleds for internal battery & module mounting inside weather-proof outdoor ASA enclosures.