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Ham Radio SOTA Activations

SOTA GW/SW-011 – Sugar Loaf

The summit of Sugar Loaf is reached with a moderate walk from the carpark. It’s good to keep in mind that the ascent gets continually steeper as you go up, until you reach the flat top! Wear proper hiking boots. It’s worth noting that this summit is within the Brecon Beacons National Park and therefore […]

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Ham Radio SOTA Activations

SOTA GW/MW-025 – The Begwns

This was my second Summits On The Air (SOTA) amateur radio activation. The summit is reached with a very short walk from the single-track road below. At the top is an enclosed area that’s ideal for protection from the wind. There is even a stone bench arrangement. Activation Date: 2024-10-05 Summit Reference: GW/MW-025 Summit Locator: […]

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Ham Radio Software

SOTAtoADIF v1.0.0 Release

SOTAtoADIF is now considered stable and has passed the minimum viable product state. v1.0.0 is released 🎉! The README should now provide enough information so as to be easily usable, there is also a wiki for guidance on use with LoTW. For you Windows users, there is a pre-bundled exe binary included in the release […]

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Ham Radio Software

Introducing SOTAtoADIF

SOTAtoADIF v1.0.0-alpha1 Today marks the first pre-release of SOTAtoADIF 🎉. The basic functionality is working however there may be bugs and the documentation is yet to be completed. Please use with caution. Background SOTAtoADIF is a software project to provide a tool for converting SOTA database CSV log files into ADIF. The project is written […]

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Ham Radio SOTA Activations

SOTA G/CE-001 – Cleeve Hill

This was my first Summits On The Air (SOTA) amateur radio activation. Despite Cleeve Hill having a carpark very close to the summit, I decided to enjoy the walk up from the nearby village of Prestbury (ample street parking is available). The hill is pretty steep on the way up; it had been raining the […]

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Tools

Damm Algorithm Check Digit Tool

This page is meant as a very basic tool to aid users of the Damm check digit algorithm. I created this for my own uses but hope that it may be helpful for someone else too! This tool uses only client-side javascript which can be reviewed by looking at the page source. Calculate Damm Check […]

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Electronics Ham Radio Homebrew Projects

Simple Morse Practice Oscillator

As a first dabble into amateur radio projects, I decided to build a Morse code practice oscillator. I searched around for a suitable schematic that my scrap-bin could supply all the parts for. In the end I settled on a simple 555 based circuit from the ARRL, found here. The circuit produces a square wave […]

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Electronics

Improving Awful Audio Attenuators

Several well known audio/electronics distributors sell inline XLR audio attenuators. Typical values sold are -10 and -20dB. I had a need for -30dB so took one apart to change the internal resistors. The theory of operation is that since balanced audio has two equivalent signals of opposite phase, a resistor tying hot and cold together […]

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Electronics Projects

LANC Video Camera Control

This research was undertaken as the final year honours project of a Computer Science BSc. Abstract Due to cumbersome existing solutions, this project aimed to develop a remote video camera control system that imposes minimal hardware overhead to the user. Extensive market research and stakeholder interaction led to the design and realisation of an integrated […]