SOTA SV/MC-033

On Sunday April 3rd my friend Paul, SV2HRT and I activated our first SOTA summit, SV/MC-033, Katsika at 643 m / 2110 ft. ASL We started from what looked like an easily accessible summit close by to start to get a feel for what we should expect on harder summits, as we do plan on continuing to activate more summits The access road was in a terrible state so we hiked about 1km to the peak. On this summit there is a radio tower (GSM mobile?) which must have been experiencing a power cut as the generator was on.

Paul at the survey post, radio tower is just behind him

Although we brought along my Budipole antenna, we used a wire dipole antenna cut for 20m in an inverted V configuration. The RXTX used was my recently built SDR-Cube. At the time I thought the Cube was putting out 1W, but I later figured out that I made a miscalculation and the real output power was 250mW. 7 contacts where made on 20m CW unfortunately we did not manage to get the required 4 contacts with Paul's callsign SV2HRT. The time was getting late in the afternoon and it was windy and cold! We where not adequately prepared - A lesson for the next outing!

Paul, SV2HRT operating the SDR-Cube

Peter, SV0XAW at the summit survey column

As it turned out everything we used in this activation was homebrew, rxtx, antenna, key. There is something very satisfying when operating with all your homebrew gear, especially in the field on the top of a mountain.

We will try to activate SV/MC-057 on Sunday 17th April. See you from the summit.

Bitx20 Completed main board and PA Board

I have completed the main board of the Bitx20 ver.3 from India. Tested it on the bench in receive and It works great. There was very little troubleshooting. By following Leonard's KC0WOX build instructions it went together smoothly and each section was tested as it was completed.

I listened to 20m QSO's for several days on it as I built up the PA board. Now I need to test it (PA) and get this rig on the air.

My first post - Welcome to AI4PP Blog

Hi there all,

Starting a blog to document my Amateur radio activities, mainly homebrew construction, and QRP projects. I will also publish various stories of how I got started in this radio hobby (from the age of around 12 or 13)
My main website www.ai4pp.com is currently not being updated as I would like.... need to tackle that project soon for the more static content.
In the mean time this blogging seems to be an easy way to add content that may be of interest to friends, family and beyond.

I am currently doing a major Shack "Fall cleaning". While houses typically have their "Spring cleaning" it seems to me that shacks go through this process every fall. At least this seems to be the case here with me. So, Fall cleaning... in preparation for a winter in front of the workbench with all kinds of homebrew radio projects.

There is no shortage of Projects on the list for this winter season! Here are a few that I am busy with.



Plywood Tower
Over late summer I conceptualized a tower construction method using plywood. It is made from two sheets of plywood, epoxy glue, and hours and hours of patient cutting gluing clamping... I spent the later part of summer and September building it. I have almost completed it but my (paying) work and the rainy season caught up with me and it is now stored away in the back yard, waiting for better weather so I can complete and install it. Total height of the tower is about 5 meters, the base of the tower will be on the roof which is about 12m above ground. That will put the Spiderbeam yagi that will go on it at around 17m or 56 feet above ground. The house itself is at an altitude of 550 meters above sea level. Hoping for some good DX.
Till the tower crowns the house I got the Hy-Gain AV-640 back up after making a small repair to it. The picture is from when I started building it in summer.

Bitx20
I ordered a Bitx20 Version3 from Sunil in India. A Great price on the kit and it arrived in a few weeks from order. The kit was wrapped up in a cloth with sewn corners, and wax seals! This is typical of Indian packages (according to my postmaster at least). Impressive and unique packaging.
I have so far inventoried the kit, and now that my attic shack is cleaned out will start on this project soon. I am going slow taking the time to build and test one section at a time in order to try and better understand the circuits. Once I get this kit on the air, I will start on a build from scratch rig (from a published schematic). But more on that later.