Randomly searching around eBay as you do, i discovered a place in Melbourne selling Cheap 8m long squid poles. They advertise them as pickup only, and a search of the seller name found me the store, a fishing shop in Dandenong. On eBay, its 2 for $26.50 with pickup, curious about the quality of the…
In an effort to better understand the performance of my ft817 and the ZM-2 ATU, I’ve been exploring different random length wire antennas while camping. I read an article posted on a sota forum about random wire lengths and how to choose an efficient length, this article talks about the importance of choosing a length…
A nifty freeware bit of (windows) software for hams and other radio people is called “Radio Mobile”. This tool allows you to simulate and map predicted coverage of your location using terrain and clutter data and maps expected coverage into google maps. The windows version requires you to source the terrain and clutter data (easy…
A couple of years ago one of the Manly Warringah Radio Club members acquired some mystical unicorn DXwire from Germany. This created a heated debate that lasted for months on the merits of this expensive unicorn blood rainbow wire vs cheap and nasty copper from discount electrical suppliers R us. Well, i have just acquired some…
A cheap and cheerful way to mount wire antennas and verticals when portable is a cheap Squid Pole. These fibreglass poles are available in many sizes and styles from fishing stores all over the country. One example antenna using the squid pole as a base is this simple multi band vertical from VK7JJ. I plan to…
I enjoy getting out into the Australian outback, but i like to keep connected to the going’s on of the world via AM broadcast band radio when I’m travelling, listing to the morning news helps keep me connected. I recently upgraded my camper trailer AM Broadcast band radio to a very capable Sangean PR-D7 am/fm…
Just a quick post to help promote a company in Adelaide who I recently used for some parts that will go into an antenna project that I have underway. The company is run by Mark, VK5EME. I was after a T106-2 Toroid core. And found one on the mini kits website. I also took the…
A neat little toy, the Youkits HF antenna analyser, its handy to check the resonance of my antennas’ small, portable and quick!. my version goes from 1-60mhz, and have adjustable tuning control. you can read the manual at http://www.youkits.com/ its pretty simple, and has a built in Li-on battery. this is a version one model, the…