Misc Bleating From VK4TJ

SOME NOTES ON THE EBAY SPECIAL CHINESE FLAGPOLE KIT I purchased a 7.1 mtr “Aussie Flag” version, the tallest I could find. On arrival, it appeared to be quite well constructed, consisting of 5 tapered aluminium sections of approximately 1.8 mtrs each. The sections “lock” in rather the same fashion as a painters (or pool) pole. Although I did not test it, I rather suspect you have no choice over how much of it you deploy - the “twist and lock” internal connectors probably only function with every section fully extended. The first mild surprise was that there is no continuity between sections – obviously, the unseen internal “twist and lock” mechanism is plastic and insulating. Luckily, I had quite a few worm gear clamps of the appropriate size, so I made up short jumper wires and clamped them around each of the pipe transitions. One could do the same thing with a drill and self-tapping screws, but I wanted, initially at least, to ensure the I did not damage the unseen “twi...

QRO From The Kitchen I truly thought I was alone in the somewhat bizarre hobby-within-a-hobby of repurposing E-waste until I tripped over AA1TJ’s (no relation) account of an 80 meter transmitter with the uber-clever moniker of “Das Derelicht”, made largely from the guts of a defunct fluorescent lamp. Dumpster diving for fun and profit requires a bit of a reversal in your way of thinking – first you acquire the rubbish, then you work out what you can build with it!   With literally megatons of E-waste bound for the landfill every year, it is our right, nay, our responsibility to divert a little of it for our own amusement. I’m really a QRP’er. Honest!   It’s a lonely life, here at the edge of the planet, made that much more lonely by the insidious proliferation of switch mode power supplies, which seriously impair most of my QSO partners ability to dig deep for the weak ones. I had a rant about this in a recent “K9YA Telegraph” article. ...

Much better resolution. Thanks, Jonathan.

Often seen at club meetings in the “Free to good home” heap, there seems to be an inexhaustible supply of HF mobile whips, generally out of the mines in South Australia or Northwest Queensland, similar to a Terlin “Outbacker”, but of, course, custom wound to commercial HF frequencies temptingly close to amateur allocations, but no cigar. You could, of course, break open the appropriate windings, and reduce the number of turns (assuming you want to go up, not down, in frequency), but that would almost certainly impair the the robustness and watertightness of the assembly. I was given, for free, a pair of these Terlin clones with a tap for 6846 kHz, close to our 40 mtr allocation, but, given the fairly high Q of most helically wound mobile whips, it may as well have been the opposite end of the spectrum. My test subject actually came in closer to 6750 kHz, probably because I had misplaced the original “wander wire”, and grabbed something off the bench that was clearly too lon...