Brazing a Terminal to Stainless Steel Wire
As part of my HF gear, I would like to make some significantly more robust antennas. Most of my work has been done with heavy duty wire, but I would like to make antennas that I don’t have…
Read More »A New Antenna for 40M/20M
(or how I made a nice balun that should last a while) Inspired by an email I saw recently advertising the Chameleon 40/20 antenna (https://chameleonantenna.com/shop-here/ols/products/cha-4020-fd), as well as a review I saw on the HamRadioConcepts Youtube Channel by…
Read More »SOTA Activation Mt Stromlo VK1/AC-043
I am at the stage of life where I get to have Wednesdays off on a reliable basis – It is a wonderful privilege and an opportunity to do much pottering around the house. Last night (Tuesday) there…
Read More »The South Australian Wireless Institute Journals 1959 – 1977
I recently saw a request from a fellow amateur operator in South Australia looking for somebody to take a box full of South Australian Wireless Institute Journals he had archived from between 1959 and 1977. I decided that…
Read More »Blowing up a Yaesu FT-891
Some posts should never need to be written. Here is one of them. I spent the weekend installing my FT-891 into the car – Radio under the passengers front seat, control head onto the dash, and new FC-40…
Read More »Yaesu FC30 Tuner Protocol
Or how I (almost) interfaced an Yaesu FT-891 radio to an Icom tuner. I recently decided to replace my Icom IC708G in the car, as it had a weird ALC fault on transmit. It is afterall, a radio…
Read More »Modern radios get shredded.
Or why we can’t have nice things…. I have always had a soft spot for military hardware – from an era when I was much younger where I got to work on beautifully constructed electronics that was designed…
Read More »Repairing a Yaesu FC757-AT Auto Tuner
I recently picked up a FC757-AT tuner to compliment my FT757Gx. I got it for an absolute steal, and it turns out that it was because it was faulty 🙂 (You have to love estate sales on eBay)….
Read More »Using the FCC to your advantage in identifying radio gear
Often I will find myself needing information about electronics where there is apparently no service information available on the web. This is where FCC processes become extremely handy. Let me introduce to you the FCC approvals database. Lets…
Read More »What is a Monochromator
On the local amateur radio reflector recently there was an interesting discussion about a Monochromator which was being sold at the local auction place. I spent a bit of time working as a Technical Officer in the Chemistry…
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