Biography

G'day!
VK2IO is an amateur radio station 25km NW of the city of Sydney, NSW, Australia. Locator is QF56LG.
First licenced in 1976 as a Novice (now called Standard licence), I progressed to the Advanced licence in the following year and held the callsign VK2DAA. During a two year stint in England I held the callsign G0ODA and ran the GB7DAA packet BBS from 1990 to 1992. In 1999, to reflect my interest in digital modes, I switched to my current callsign, IO being a common abbreviation for Input/Output in connection with digital data streams. In 2014, my G0ODA callsign was reacquired.
In 2021 the contest callsign VK2R was acquired.

For the latest information on my recent activities check out my blog.
​My home station logbook is online here. Portable station log here.

VK2IO currently runs the following services:

EchoLink node 2509 (offline)
HF APRS IGate
HF packet BBS/node/digipeater
VHF packet BBS/node/digipeater
EchoLink node (currently offline)

Node 2509 is a duplex node connected to a scanner running on 2m FM. It scans all the repeaters and some simplex channels. The scanner halts while there is a signal on the channel and continues after a 5 second break. The node transmits whenever audio is present. To prevent lockups, only home stations can connect to the node, not repeaters. You can transmit to the node if you want, but the audio wont go anywhere. There is no transmitter connected. Please feel free to connect to the node as long as you want - some hams stay connected for hours "reading the mail". Note that QRM can occasionally be experienced from co-located systems - especially 2m packet. The coverage includes all 2m repeaters in Sydney, Gosford, Wyong, Blue Mountains and Wollongong.

HF APRS IGate

The APRS IGate operates on 40m (formerly also 30m and 20m) using the BPQ software under the VK2IO-4 callsign. The 300 baud FSK AX.25 packets are demodulated using the excellent UZ7HO soundmodem software. Multiple close-spaced modems are used on both 40m ports to provide frequency agility of +/- 60 Hz. The dial frequencies for standard 1600/1800 Hz tones are:

7048.6 kHz LSB
7047.17 kHz LSB (BBS)
7045 kHz USB (ARDOP)
7045 kHz USB (VARA)
7046.5 kHz USB (WINMOR)
10147.6 kHz USB (offline)
10148 kHz USB (offline)
14103 kHz LSB (offline)
14105 kHz LSB (offline)
The IGate sometimes operates in PSK63 mode using APRS Messenger software under the callsign VK2IO-63 and sends beacons regularly. It also receives in other modes such as PSK250 and MFSK16. Recent activity can be seen here.
The centre frequency is:

7047.3 kHz (USB)
HF packet BBS/node/digipeater

An AX.25 packet system running under MS Windows is available on the HF frequencies above. Preferred frequency to avoid APRS traffic is: 7047.17. The applications and callsigns used are:

VK2IO-0: BPQ packet mailbox
VK2IO-1: BPQ NET/ROM node and digipeater. The NET/ROM alias is SYDNEY.
VK2IO-11 BPQ chat node.
Telnet access to the BBS is available through telnet://gerard.id.au:6300
Web access to the node is available through http://gerard.id.au:6302 - please request an account
AX/IP access to the node is available on udp://gerard.id.au:10093
VHF packet BBS/node/digipeater

An AX.25 packet system is available at 1200 bps AFSK on the following frequencies:

147.575 MHz FM
145.175 MHz FM (RX only APRS IGate)
The applications available are:

VK2IO-0: BPQ packet BBS carrying all bulletins and linked to the BBS network
VK2IO-1: BPQ NET/ROM node and digipeater. The NET/ROM alias is SYDNEY and BBS alias is IOBBS.
VK2IO-11: BPQ chat node
Message headers are broadcast on 147.575 MHz via the VK2AMW-7 digipeater
BBS hierarchical address is VK2IO.#SYD.NSW.AUS.OC
Please feel free to utilise these facilities and keep packet radio alive!

SOTA

In Nov 2013 I started in Summits On The Air and am now addicted to chasing and also do some activating. In 2014 I started a blog mainly to document my SOTA activities, but also for the projects I'm working on. Check out the blog here.
On 16/1/2017 I qualified as a SOTA Mountain Goat with 1000 activator points. On 8/3/2015 I became a SOTA Super Sloth with 10000 chaser points.

WWFF

In 2014 I became interested in the World Wide Flora and Fauna program and now activate parks as often as I can. In October 2017 I became the WWFF VK2 Coordinator handling logs and awards for my home state of NSW. Details here.
On 5/10/2021 I received a certificate as the first to activate 500 VKFF parks in Australia.

And...

I have made some amateur radio-related videos and they can be seen on my GerardVK2IO YouTube channel.
Society memberships include: Wireless Institute of Australia, Amateur Radio NSW, RSGB and ARRL.
Main interests: packet radio, APRS, digital modes, HF operation, SOTA, WWFF, mobiling, antennas, foxhunting and local contests.
Main modes: SSB, CW, FT8, VARA, FSK300 packet, FSK1200 packet, SSTV, PSK31, FM.
CW affiliations: CWOPS #2362 SKCC #22390 FISTS #20048
Facebook group moderation for VKFF, SOTA & ALL ACTIVATIONS and member of many other groups

See you on the air (or on the screen).

Cheers!
Gerard

PS: See QRZ.com for this biography with hyperlinks

Worked DXCCs:

Equipment

Mostly operate portable with my KX2 and KX3 with ZS6BKW antenna