Besides motorcycles, and a few other things, I really enjoy ham radio. I have since I was about 12 years old, though there was a multi-decade break due to family life and work. Now that I’m back for a few years, I do operate from home but, even more, enjoy battery powered activity in the great outdoors. Whether camping, four-wheeling or motorcycling, I like bringing a radio, or two, sitting back with a cold one and reaching out on the airwaves to chat with interesting people and see how far my signal will take me.
After last year’s successful Moto DX Safari in which I went with friends ham radio camping with an Icom IC-7200 on a Honda Gold Wing, I decided to reprise the idea this year. Only this time I rode a 2016 Harley–Davidson CVO Road Glide Ultra to Temecula, Calif., to try out Icom America’s brand new IC-7300 rig with all the trimmings. The Ultra was a great choice, with its cavernous top case and panniers, to store gear, super-comfortable cockpit and its smooth and powerful ride that simply ate up the 150-mile, mostly freeway, ride to my destination.
The weather was warm and the skies sunny when I cruised into town and found the Doffo Winery, owned and operated by my friends Marcelo Doffo and his son Damian, a true family run winery. The various wines are delicious and, as important, the friendly atmosphere is a pleasure.
Doffo Winery Italian Motorcycles
Doffo Barrel Room
When in Southern California I highly recommend a visit. If you’re a motorcycle aficionado, I recommend you come to see the 100, or more, mostly vintage Italian bikes that litter the property with the best of all in the Barrel Room. Impressive is not a strong enough adjective. I will be following up this review with a travel story I’ll probably call “Harley meets Ducati at Doffo” and tell more about the sweet Ultra and the amazing Doffo Winery.
Even more importantly, for amateurs, Marcelo was once a ham and is radio friendly. Upon arrival, and after a glass of wine and some conversation, Marcelo pointed to the hill on the south end of the property. On it I found a few stone picnic tables covered by a permanent canvas fly.
The sun was out and a breeze was blowing the warm air through the tent-like structure and the far-off vistas were delightful to behold. This was truly a perfect spot in which to set up, hang out and operate the new equipment I was so excited about. Of course, I had been using the new radio for a couple of weeks before this date in order to acclimate myself to it….. READ MORE
SuitSat loses its innocence in a new video short sci-fi thriller Decommissioned. “Inspired by true events,” the video short resurrects the 2006 spacesuit/satellite that transmitted messages on 2 meters as it circled Earth. The original Suit... Read more
Last News
![FCC Warns Amateur Radio Operators To Not Commit Crimes [ VIDEO]](https://qrznow.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/FCC-seal-2020_5-90x60.jpg)
Testing My Mini 64:1 Half-Wave End-Fed Antenna Transformer. Read more
This is the third in a series of videos following my efforts to track down a source of local QRM / Radio Interference. Following the build of a successful direction finding loop, in this video I build an RF sniffer probe and track down the source of QRM and finally eliminate it! The sniffer is […] Read more
!){kind=link}
“We are bringing in 2021 with Tuesdays with Tim, K3LR and Jeff,KB8ZWT discussing HF antennas. Did you recently upgrade from tech to general? Than you wont want to be this weeks episode!” Read more
This MFJ-4713 HF 4-Position Remote Antenna Switch lets you switch between four antennas remotely. Covers 1.8 to 30 MHz. Run one coax from the indoor switch box to your outdoor control box on your mast or tower or where ever your antennas are located. Then just hook up a coax patch cable from the indoor […] Read more
We are pleased to announce the release of a new portable Antenna system from Comet Japan covering 1.8 to 50 MHz – ideal for the new Icom IC-705 and other portable transceivers The Comet HFJ-350M (Toy Box version) comes complete with a plastic carrying case for convenient transport. The antenna is in 4 parts with […] Read more
