Lake Rotokauri LOTA Activation It was a cracker spring day to get out and around so I figured I’d check out Lake Rotokauri. The lake is north west Hamilton, and has a couple of tracks that go along its shore. I wanted to make things a bit more interesting so I took along my radio kit. The lake was on my list of LOTA (Lakes on the Air) to activate (the list can be found here )....
Lakes Around Hamilton for Portable Radio Activities Portable Radio Awards Hamilton city sits within the Waikato Basin, which doesn’t have many large hills in it. This is a bit of an issue for someone who wants to participate in radio award schemes. SOTA (Summits on the Air ) is a popular award scheme for activating hills. POTA (Parks on the Air ) is another scheme for activating large parks, but there aren’t many that are close to Hamilton....
Mt Taupiri SOTA Activation - 4th March Context The summit of Mt Taupiri has a splendid view of the Middle Waikato Basin (including Hamilton) and the lower Waikato Plains. It’s possible to see Mt Ruapehu on a clear winter’s day, but unfortunately for me I chose a summer’s day early March. I had read about ZL2AJ’s activation from 2017 and his descriptions still ring true 6 years later. Access to Summit There are two tracks to the summit....
Learning Morse Your First 77 Words Morse code is a tricky thing to get into. In order to use it, you need to be able to hear and send groups of letters. On top of this, it’s important to use special abbreviations and words that are common to the people that would often use Morse code. So several skills need to be worked on before you can even start having a conversation....