วีดีโอ

Thanks Stephen. Yes Rick is quite an inspiration. He’s been very encouraging and has a very distinctive presence on the air. It would take a major effort to try to even get close to the amount of activations that he does. He must really have his setup dialled in.

Thanks - I think that is part of the appeal. You never quite know how you are going to get on. I’ve had times where I’ve definitely thought “This will be easy” only to find that I got no contacts at all and others where I’ve really expected it to be a struggle and it’s ended up being one of the better activations. There are so many variables!

Thanks Nigel - It’s been good to see you out activating as well. I’ll sure that we’ll talk again soon. All the best for 2025!

Thanks Barry - all the best for the new year as well. I’m working on planning some new locations for 2025. It’s a great way to see the country 😂

Thanks - It’s a great location. Access along that road is a bit limited at the moment due to logging activities but in the weekends we are generally allowed access. It’s worth the trip if you are ever in the area. Some time we will have to go and do Lake Chalice which is along the same road but a little bit more of a walk.

It did seem odd but was just a looped recording. I see that ARRL mentioned something similar relating to this frequency but I was surprised to hear it down here in NZ so clearly: www.arrl.org/news/russian-ukrainian-radio-war-continues

Well I hope you have more success next time. I did wonder about the viability of using the trees at the top but decided that the mast was a bit more of a known quantity. The picnic table was a real bonus and thankfully is out of the road of the MTB riders who were a little surprised to see me.

Thanks Nigel - yeah it was good to take George out for the activation. It would have been a lot harder to get there without his help as well. Hopefully we’ll hear him on the air again soon.

Thanks - it was a good day to be there. I had intended to go there for a while and finally all our dates lined up.

Thanks Glenn, its still a very popular area although recently its been harder to access with the forestry activity there at the moment. It’s a beautiful part of the country and we got there on a perfect day.

😂 I’m sure you’ll survive!

Yes usually - for this activation I think that I had 3 operators from the North Island. It’s pretty normal to get some. I suppose most of the time I’m relatively central as I’m based in Marlborough so the lower North Island is pretty close but I often get contact from Auckland or Napier.

Yes it wasn’t the easiest day Steve. As you can tell there is quite a delay between when my activations occur and when they eventually make their way to TH-cam. I think that it’s useful to show that things don’t always end up going completely to plan. There are plenty of videos of people having dream POTA activations and we both know that’s not the real truth! 😂

Thanks Glenn - there are certainly plenty of excuses that I can make for not going out and doing something but I’m usually pleased when I’ve made the effort. I’m pleased that you are happy with the G90. Mine has been very good - certainly for SSB, (maybe it’s different for CW but that’s still a mode that I need a lot of practice with). There is a lot to like about the G90 although it’s not without its quirks 😂. Certainly the weather at the moment is pretty good for getting out although even in winter it’s pretty reasonable here.

Thanks Nigel. I’m pleased that you enjoyed it. I didn’t realise until the following weekend that I had cracked the bottom section of the mast when it fell over during this activation - nothing that some tape couldn’t fix! 😀

Most of my activations are around 7.085MHz - certainly they are all in the 40m band which is where I need to operate in order to get NZ chasers in the morning. If I go to a higher band I’m more likely to get Australia but as they are 2 hours behind me they possibly aren’t operating yet. Europe or USA could be a bit of a challenge unless I wait until later in the day. Like everything, it’s all a bit of a compromise.

@zl2neb thanks, it's tough being at the world's bottom.lol. Is there much activity in the 2mtr 70cm bands here in NZed?? I'm looking to get into HAM radio but not sure what bands to start out on.. cheers

Yeah it’s not always easy being down here and also in a completely different time zone (although we are in the future). Activity on 2m and 70cm is very dependent on the region. I know that there is quite a bit of activity in Christchurch on these bands (mainly on the repeaters) and also Nelson has an increased amount of traffic going on as well. Over here in Marlborough it’s pretty quiet so I wouldn’t personally try to activate anything here on those bands (well not if I wanted to be successful). Other places you may find that you can get quite a bit of activity. If you are wanting to get your license then there are some initial band restrictions for the first 3 months. Basically you are limited to 80m (which is a bit of a challenge with antennas) and anything above 10m (10m is absolutely humming at the moment and this is where I would be if I was interested in HF and wanting to make some contacts into Australia etc.). What part of the country and you in?

Thanks for the heads up. It’s a special order item here in Blenheim and it’s hard to tell from the photos what sort of physical size it is but it looks like it would be ideal for a portable operation. I’ve just received a battery that’s closer to the other end of the scale - it’s a 30Ah LiFePO4. Not a bad size and the weight is ok. I was looking for something that would let me drive the 891 at higher power. This should do the trick but we’ll see how it works out. My guess is that it would drive the G90 for a month! setlenergy.co.nz/products/12v-30ah-battery-lithium-battery-lifepo4

Yeah - I should have expected it to be busy as its a popular walking area but its been several years since I’ve been up there and I was probably a bit unprepared for just how many people there were there on a Sunday morning.

No problem.

No problem. The reference number for this summit is here: ontheair.nz/assets/ZL3_TM-272? The ontheair website has all of the SOTA numbers which you can find by selecting the summit from the map. This is also where I get the park numbers for POTA activations.

Thanks Ian - yeah I didn’t expect there to be quite so much traffic up there on a Sunday morning. I guess I should have known better. You are right I could have applied more power and this time I had a radio that actually could have done that 😂. I was a bit unsure on the current draw that the 6Ah battery would sustain but I’m guessing that even 50W would have helped. I have been looking at getting a larger battery for some of the more accessible sites or when I’m planning on being there a while.

Thanks, I can imagine that would be a better configuration. This one isn’t mine so I thought that I’d test it in the configuration that it was supplied. Have you had good experiences with it?

@zl2neb have on 20m works great. Going to try 40m on next Pota

Hi Nigel, Yeah it was busier than I initially thought it was going to be. Those radials became a bit of a trip hazard! Like you, I would normally try and choose somewhere quieter. When are you planning on operating in Queenstown? I’ll listen out for you. I’m also interested to hear how the mag loop works for you. I’ve built a few but nothing that could be considered portable. Are you using the one that was marketed with the 705?

@@zl2neb I have a CHA F-LOOP 3.0 can do 80m-6m portable version using LMR400, works great and I can use it inside motel rooms :) sent you my email address so hope to catch you on the air soon

Thanks - It’s a very nice location and quite a short walk if you are ever in the area. The antenna actually isn’t mine - it belongs to ZL1GA. It’s quite nicely made and certainly packs down to a good size. It is however very small so I’m not sure how effective it really is. Certainly this activation was a bit mixed but there seemed to be some odd band conditions over a couple of weekends around this time.

That’s a fair point. I suppose we normally only discuss locations if the contact is also another activator. By now I know where many of the main chasers are - the joy of having such a small community but there are certainly others where I have no clear idea, especially as callsigns don’t always correlate with locations anymore. I might try adding location to my next set of activations but you won’t get to see those until after January now.

Yes that’s a great tip - Normally that’s what I would do before leaving the house. I’m not sure quite what went wrong this time 😂

Yes its a very popular location for walkers and mountain biking. It’s very close to the town and easy to get to.

😂 I think that there are several places in NZ that would also fall into that category.

Yes it’s essentially the same with only a few additional or slightly different rules. We have others here as well like Huts on the Air, Beaches on the Air and even Volcanoes on the Air although I’m unsure how widespread these are in other countries.

@zl2neb there are a few lakes in my area in Alabama USA, I'm gonna engage in lota and make it popular like pota.

Yes the view is pretty impressive and it doesn’t really take that long to get there. It wasn’t that windy when I started and Nelson isn’t really known for wind but I guess it was springtime so I guess it’s to be expected.

Thanks Nigel - it was certainly a very nice weekend.

@@zl2neb Hi Nick, what camera etc are you using to make your videos ?

It’s a DJI Osmo Action 4. As you can tell, I’m just using a single camera and I’m only using the built in microphone. You can get external microphones for it but what you are getting is entirely from the camera itself. When it’s windy I do crank up the volume on the radio a bit.

It’s a great location. I’d certainly be keen to go there again. It would be better in the middle of summer or winter when it should be a bit calmer. Yes there are definitely some familiar voices - one of the side effects of having such a small amateur radio community!

Hi - hows things going?

@@zl2neb Nick are you based in Nelson spotted your magnetic loop on your video been making loops but very hard to get a good match

No - I’m based in Blenheim so not that far away. I have 2 transmitting loops that you may have seen. One is the octagonal one that you may have noticed in the background of some of the videos. The other is larger which I put up from time to time and is in the video where I try to join the hf net one evening on 80m using the loop. Let’s just say that all of the construction (especially the one I use on 80m) is “very basic”! There is also a receive loop that is more recent and which uses an amplifier from minikits.com.au. It’s been very good and made an impressive difference on reducing local noise. When you talk about getting a good match are you having problems getting an acceptable SWR? I’ve certainly had to experiment a bit to come up with a solution that works here.

I’ve heard about faraday cloth - I must try and see if I can get some from somewhere. Is it significantly better than the normal radials?

@ About the same as radials but faster/easier to deploy

Oh congratulations! I hope that you have a great experience with it. Mine has been very good. I've taken it a lot of places and so far it's been really reliable. Let me know how you find it.

That's a great question. In NZ it's almost exclusively the 40m band. There are a couple of reasons for this. The majority of NZ activators that I'm aware of operate in the morning as they don't want to be in the parks in the evening. Because NZ morning is usually pretty late at night for the rest of the world we are pretty dependent on NZ chasers. If we swap to 20m or some other higher band then we pretty much lose all the NZ chasers and are then dependent on other countries to make the contacts. If I'm also using lower power then that's going to be a struggle. I have made contacts on 10m but that's only been Australia. In the summer it would be possible to operate in the evening depending on how remote the park is but we do have a few unique challenges with this. Plus our amateur radio operator numbers are also pretty small unlike the US or Europe where I've had a completely different experience. The small number of NZ operators is also why we tend to use SSB and not CW as the number of CW operators is even smaller here! What bands do you generally find people using for POTA?

Thanks - I'm pleased that it was useful. I know that I could take a larger battery than the 6 or 7 Ah ones that I use but I don't really need it with the G90 plus I'd rather be under the limit by a reasonable amount to avoid any issues. The battery that I took this time I've also taken to Europe with no problems. Are you planning some activations here?

Welcome to the club! I hope that you really enjoy using it. It does have some quirks but its been very reliable for me and once you get used to it I think that you will find it fun to use.

Thanks - I think that Rick ZL3RIK is an institution! He’s great and always gives great encouragement.

I can imagine that the dipole configuration would work better for me here. Have you ever run a comparison in terms of trying to establish the radiation pattern differences between the vertical and the dipole configuration? That would be something interesting to try and establish.

Thanks! They are a pretty impressive tree - I imagine that the ones in America are even more so!

Well anything is better than nothing so hopefully over time you can get a better idea on what you want to do and what equipment you might want to invest in. There is certainly plenty of options so we are definitely spoiled for choice. Good luck on your journey!

Well I hope you have a great time. Are you taking your radio with you?

@@zl2neb yep ic-705 may do a Pota :)

Yes it was a good weekend. I’m not sure that everyone was quite so keen on me spending time on the activations but it did at least give them the opportunity to visit the shops without me being there lol.

That’s a pretty good effort. Have you used it much on 40m at all? The G90 band sweep is very useful although I’ve been taking the VNA with me for the tuning as it doesn’t take up that much room.

Yes you definitely can do a double activation (which is actually what I did the following day). I was quite unsure what might be possible in Queenstown with limited gear but this one at least worked out ok. It would be interesting to see if there is a location which allows you to do a park, summit and lake at the same time. I’ve found a local one that allows you to do a park and 3 beacons I think so I’m planning on doing that sometime soon.

Yes it certainly wasn’t the warmest. It’s been a very long time since I’ve been there and it was interesting to see what has changed and what has remained the same.

Nick when you home

I’m at the Tour of Southland at the moment so I’ll be heading back on the 10th Nov. My next activation is likely to be the 16th or 17th Nov.

looking at buying a unit same as you have want to know more about them see yoou when you get back Cheers Barry

Sure - no problem. Give me a call next week and we can sort something out.