I recently picked up a SOTABeams BandHopper II and a Tactical Mini. My plan is to use these for some SOTA activations, however I didn’t want the first time I put the mast up to be on top of a mountain. Therefore, we set out to activate a park that doesn’t get a lot of …
I’ve had the Yaesu FT-857D for just over 12 months now and so I figured it’s time to share what I like and dislike about this radio. Ultimately, it doesn’t fit into my rotation and so you won’t see it on the DisasterCommsNet Instagram very often, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it. In …
I’ve had Jubilee Tower on my list to activate for a little while; It’s a great spot for a little radio work – in fact I’ve had a couple of contacts us there already, before I knew it was a POTA location. So this Saturday after we finished our errands in town we decided to …
I picked up an MC-750 one year ago and it quickly became a primary antenna for me. For those not immediately familiar with it, it’s an SO-239 base which connects to a 5.6m telescopic whip and offers 40m to 6m out of the box, and with the addition of another coil you can add 80m …
We planned a hike today around Gisburn Forest, which is within the Forest of Bowland and therefore a POTA park. We set off dressed lightly, and for a change I wasn’t carrying a radio. We did a loop of about 6km and discussed heading back to the car and grabbing radios and then doing the …
I’ve had the ICOM IC-705 for about 12 months now, so I think that’s enough time to give a good review of the radio, what I like and dislike – and why I keep using it when I have other radios that will, on paper, out perform it. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that I like …
Whilst idly checking the POTA Map, I spotted a park which had never been activated. I was a little surprised since it’s in the middle of a town and very easily accessible – with plenty of parking and plenty of space. Whilst there is parking within the park boundary, so it would be possible to …
It’s pretty rare for me to have a “failed” activation, but a recent trip to Scotland led to just that – so I figured I’d share a story of a successful summit but not a successful activation. Any other day of the year this would likely have been an easy activation – but we were …
I recently had an issue with my FZ-M1 and the clock drifting pretty quickly. No doubt the problem is likely something like a low CMOS battery and I’ll get around to fixing that if it becomes a real problem in the future – that said, a quick way to get passed the problem for now, …
I’ve been carrying the ICOM ID-50 for a couple of weeks now, including completing a SOTA activation with just this handheld: Longridge Fell, G/SP-014. So far, I’m very happy with this little handheld. I’ve seen a number of people online saying that the ID-50 is a waste of time, given that the ID-52 and ID-52 …
