Category Archives: Projects

PCM Kestrel HF Transceiver Part 2

Posted on May 25, 2023 by vk3yy

In the previous post, the Kestrel had a two line LCD display on the lower area of the speaker grille. One of the nice things about this transceiver is the sound, and this was compromised by the LCD display obscuring … Continue reading →

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PD Powerbank for SOTA Radios

Posted on May 27, 2021 by vk3yy

This post describes how the newish Power Delivery (PD) mode mobile powerbanks can be used to power a SOTA transceiver as well as keeping your other hiking devices charged. The PD protocol enables fast charging of mobile devices from a … Continue reading →

Posted in Hiking, Projects, radio communications, SOTA | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

3D Printed Accessories for the FT-817

Posted on October 24, 2020 by vk3yy

A few radio accessories printed out recently for the ‘817 transceiver (from Thingyverse, see links): DC plug adaptor using an XT60 connector.  I have been using these connectors for a while now, they are small and capable of a lot … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, radio communications, SOTA | Tagged | 6 Comments

USX or uSDX QRP HF Transceiver

Posted on July 12, 2020 by vk3yy

This build is based on the interesting design by Guido, PE1NNZ.  The transceiver originally used the very successful QCX as an initial platform, but it now has it’s own life and there are several scratch builds using dedicated PCBs on … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, radio communications, SOTA | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

LoRa GPS Tracker

Posted on October 27, 2019 by vk3yy

LoRa is a newish Internet Of Things communications technology.  It promises long range (LoRa), transmits a small amount of power and is designed for sensors that may need to operate from batteries for very long periods of time.  The air … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, radio communications | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

144 MHz for the KX2 Transceiver

Posted on February 7, 2019 by vk3yy

Many times I have thought it would be nice to have 2 metres on the KX2, I do miss it from the FT817 days. This bare board transverter was on Ebay from a Ukraine seller, the feedback was very good … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, radio communications, SOTA | 3 Comments

Handles for the IC-7200 Transceiver

Posted on September 29, 2018 by vk3yy

Grab handles are a good idea for the IC-7200  for when the radio is taken out portable.  The problem is that they cost something like $120 as an accessory!  This is about 10% of the cost of the radio itself. … Continue reading →

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Lightweight 2m Yagi for SOTA

Posted on May 5, 2018 by vk3yy

With HF conditions poor at the moment,  2 metres with a bit of antenna gain is a good backup or main setup for SOTA. I wanted to make this antenna very lightweight and easy to carry in the pack without … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, radio communications, SOTA | Tagged | 9 Comments

MFSK16 APRS Tracker

Posted on April 2, 2018 by vk3yy

Over the past couple of weeks I have been running this  MFSK16 APRS HF tracker in the car as a breadboard on 40m. I tossed up on whether to make a leaded or surface mount PCB, but ended up with … Continue reading →

Posted in Projects, radio communications, SOTA | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Weak Signal Mode APRS

Posted on March 21, 2018 by vk3yy

Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with APRS Messenger, a great PC based application that uses weak signal modes for Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS). Traditional HF APRS uses 300 baud packet data for APRS messaging which isn’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Hiking, Projects, radio communications | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments