Radio year in review (2025)

2025 was a very big year for me in amateur radio. I set myself a few goals - and am very happy sitting here at the end of the year writing this with all of them ticked off! Posting this for those interested and also as a bit of a log for me about where I got to this year. I still have so much to learn and try radio wise - which is part of why I’m enjoying it so much.

Parks on the Air or POTA has combined two of my favourite activities - getting outside and amateur radio. Think of it a little like Pokemon for amateur radio using National Parks, beaches, rivers, monuments etc. Essentially you need to setup your gear inside the boundary of whatever entity you are activating and make 10 contacts. The rules are explained in more detail here if you are interested. I think POTA has done an AMAZING job getting people more active in amateur radio, and has a very active following here in QLD/VK4. I had completed 2 activiations and a handful of hunter contacts (contacts from home to others in a park) in 2024. I set myself a goal midway in 2025 (not all goals are set in January) of aiming for one POTA activation a week. Sitting here at the end 2025 and I have only missed a handful of weeks since I set that goal. I’ve seen some awesome parks and beaches, have dialled in my setup to one small backpack (the ICOM IC-705 backpack) with extra bits if/as needed, and made 890 activator QSOs. This is a mix of HF and VHF/UHF, using phone, CW (more on this below) and digital (FT8). A few photos of various activations this year are below, sometimes from the back of the car, sometimes from a portable table and chair, and sometimes there is even a table with shelter:

As I mentioned in a post last year, I got my Foundation class licence in 2022 and then really got back into/going with Amateur radio in 2024. After being on air a lot more following that post, I realised I really wanted/needed a licence upgrade to get access to more bands (and the option of more power too) . The advice I got from most folk was to skip Standard and go straight to Advanced - so that’s what I did this year! I completed the Advanced study course from RES over 3 months and then sat my Advanced exam and the Regulations exam (which you need to do for Standard and Advanced licence classes). I learned SO MUCH from the RES course/book, that made a lot more sense to me having been on air a little bit more now. I can’t recommend that course and the book enough. I’ve made plenty of contacts on the new bands I have access to and used my IC-7300 at full power (100W) more than I thought I might.

I also blogged last year about how I had begun learning CW. I spent about 6 months in LICW classes, using my Morserino and other mobile apps so that I was doing some sort of CW practice daily. I got to a point where I was “OK” sending and copying individual characters and was learning the sounds of different words. LICW are pretty clear that you should get on air at this point “before you are ready” as it speeds up the learning process and helps you not get stuck. People can also develop key fright - a fear of getting on air with CW, just like mic fright - afraid of getting on air when they first get their licence. I definatly went through both of these. After using UHF/VHF nets and POTA to very much get over my mic fright and get more comfortable on air with voice, I knew I needed to do the same and get on air with CW before I thought I was ready. I should note that I did switch to an iambic paddle at this point before I got on air. While learning on a straight key did help, I intend to use a paddle long term so felt this was a good time to switch. POTA was the perfect vechile for getting on air as the QSO’s are pretty formulaic. So I made my self a POTA CW cheat sheet that we’ve now got on the BARC website, and hunted my first CW contact. This happened on the 13th of July 2025, to another HAM in VK4 on 40M. I was so nervous, but he slowed right down and repeated him self a few times. I made a few more hunter contacts on 40M in July, and then headed out for my first activation hoping to include some CW on the 27th of July 2025, and made my first CW contact from a park! It sounds funny but the rush from that first portable contact was like the first time I did a POTA activation last year. Again the other HAM slowed right down and was very happy to repeat things until I copied it all. Since July I now have just over 100 CW QSOs that are mostly POTA related. I have had a couple of non-POTA related QSOs and will aim for more of those moving forward as I get more comfortable with head copy and CW more generally.

I purchased some new radios last year for my QTH shack. I got an ICOM IC-7300 (mk I) and an ICOM IC-9700. The 7300 is using an EFHW, and I upgraded my Diamond X50-N to an Diamond X5000N this year to include 23CM to go with my Advanced licence and part of my interest getting into some of the microwave bands. My ICOM IC-705 is still my main POTA/portable rig and has been used on all of my activations. It continues to be a fantastic radio and has an upgraded splash screen as seen above. Post getting on air with CW this year I bought an Elecraft KH1 and intend to try to use it more for ultra-portable activations - including some more SOTA in 2026. It’s an amazing rig for its size. No excuses for not having a radio with me when out and about.

Given how much I was on air this year I spent quite a bit of time looking at different logging solutions and settled on HAMRS at home and Ham2K PoLo for all of my portable logging. If you do POTA/SOTA and haven’t checked out PoLo you are missing out. It is the single most modern and useful app I’ve used so far. I am also then pushing logs to QRZ, Logbook of the World (LOTW), eQSL and clublog.org.

And finally it was a huge year for the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club. You can read all about it and see some photos here.