Ham Radio All Portable Discussion Zone
Aug 9, 2026 · 59 min · 13 segments
Paul VK3HN has been building homebrew radio gear since the late 1970s and activating SOTA summits in the Australian bush since around 2015 — and he'll tell you the two pursuits feed off each other…
And some of, and they were, you know, they were a bit clunkier and a bit folksier.
And so I did defer the evil moment of embracing microcontrollers and digital clock generators such as the famous SI5351.
But it wasn't so hard for me because, as I said, for 20-plus years I worked as a professional software engineer, so the C programming was natural.
And it wasn't too hard to get the microcontrollers doing what I wanted to do either.
And I do understand that if you haven't worked in electronics or in computing, or if you haven't naturally learned and used programming languages, it's a bit of a big step.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it looks like it was came out great.
I like I like these displays.
They're good.
Especially the one the nine that that was a nice small one.
And it's got a it's got a looks like an S meter on there.
So you really and so does the other one here at the eight.
That's that's a pretty cool stuff.
And some of, and they were, you know, they were a bit clunkier and a bit folksier.
And so I did defer the evil moment of embracing microcontrollers and digital clock generators such as the famous SI5351.
But it wasn't so hard for me because, as I said, for 20-plus years I worked as a professional software engineer, so the C programming was natural.
And it wasn't too hard to get the microcontrollers doing what I wanted to do either.
And I do understand that if you haven't worked in electronics or in computing, or if you haven't naturally learned and used programming languages, it's a bit of a big step.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, it looks like it was came out great.
I like I like these displays.
They're good.
Especially the one the nine that that was a nice small one.
And it's got a it's got a looks like an S meter on there.
So you really and so does the other one here at the eight.
That's that's a pretty cool stuff.
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