Over the last weekend, the Moorabbin Ham radio club held their annual hamfest. I had just enough time to pop in for a quick look see. Overall, the event was similar to the ballarat hamfest I wore about last year. A mix of junk with the odd interesting item, some new gear from the usual suspects and the odd gem amongst the piles of 40+ year old gear! It was good to say hello to a couple of people i haven’t seen since the last hamfest!

I didn’t come away empty handed, Hiro, VK3EHG, who is an EMDRC club member had a small table and had some qrp / gear for sale. I was quick enough to score an Elecraft T1 Automatic HF-6M 20w Antenna Tuning Unit he had for sale for a reasonable price!..

Im a lazy black box ham (as you can tell from these pages) so the idea of a very light, very portable ATU in the back pocket for sota and camping antennas is appealing, yes, building a proper, decent, resonant antenna is still the aim!! I have the mystical DX wire and bits for baluns in preparation for building this SUPER antenna, but the idea of a (well priced) T1 to match to the FT817 was something I was keeping an eye out for!. With camping and a quick overnight stop, a bit of wire out the camper into a tree and this ATU will make life easy and quick!

It didn’t come with the cable that pairs it with a FT817nd, as Hiro has other elecraft radios, but that has been ordered from elecraft in the states, and ill update this when it arrives. This really makes me a lazy black box ham!