News, Updates and Other Minutiae
September 2023 Long time between drinks, but not much happening on the tech front at the moment. Added another couple of rants to the rant page.
January 2023 Updated the AD9833 VFO code to use a 12F1840.
December 2022 Added rant about todays useless (internet) search engines.
November 2022 NEW Project An AD9833 Based Simple VFO. FT101ZD VFO project updated.
October 2022 A replacement internal DDS VFO for FT101Z/ZD rigs. Because the worlds postage system has gone totally bonkers and it is not possible to send a small pcb anywhere except at extreme cost, I am slowly making available the option to purchase pcb's from Pcbway. First up is the Simple DDS VFO 2017 project pcb. Others will be added over time. Noise Canceller kits available again- see Noise Canceller page.
Privacy Policy uploaded. GPDR and all that stuff In accordance with various bits of legislation around the world, either currently in force, about to come into force or proposed, you will now find that annoying "We use cookies" notice at the top of this website. The full Privacy Policy is available at the Privacy Policy link in the footer at the bottom of the page. (If you don't know what GPDR is, Google it. Real scary shit for ANYBODY with a web presence.)
Antenna's
Update 11 November 2012.
I have put up what most people would call, I guess, an end fed antenna. I prefer to call it a 22metre length of hook up wire at 5/6metres above ground level.
I have heard VK2's,3's,4's, 5's & 7's plus a ZL1 using it. WWV can be heard at 5MHz, 10MHz and 15MHz so it is working.
There are the constituant parts of a fan dipole sitting in a box waiting to be put up, but I need another support pole at the far end of the yard first.
Currently, there are no HF antenna's in the air, or for that matter, any others.
I am trying to decide between putting up just a long wire or a fan dipole for HF. Regardless, there will have to be another pole or other fixing point installed. There is a 12m tv antenna tower on the back corner of the house and, as part of the chook enclosure, I put up an ~6m pole on the back corner of the shed/shack. Between the two is not quite long enough for the dipole, so another pole will probably go in the far back corner of the yard.
Left: Probably a little hard to see, but the tower in front is mine and Right: the ~6m pole as part of the chook run. If I decide to put up a long wire, it will be necessary to use an antenna matching unit. One of my purchases (at a very good price) a while ago was an ex-hams junk box. In it was the remains of an antenna matching unit, missing one variable cap which was later found at the bottom of another box.
As you can see, there is a lot of cleaning to do before these can be put into service. Yes that is a roller inductor on the right. In the box was also a real valve/tube GDO. Don't know if it works yet. For VHF (2m), I have just completed a 3el Yagi, using materials kindly donated by a friend, in exchange for assembling an SDR receiver for him. It is made from 25mm aluminium square section and 10mm diameter tube for the elements. The day after completion, it was used handheld to receive Arrisat1 with one of those cheap Chinese handheld VHF units.
Left: These are the un-assembled parts of the 3el Yagi. Right: Also included, this 6/2/70 mobile whip(Comet SB-15).
Left: The assembled 3 element yagi and yes, the shadow is wonky because the element mounting is wonky (in my defense - I didn't drill the holes). Doesn't seem to affect the performance, but only proper testing would confirm it. Right: A close up of the gamma match, with weather proofing still to be done. The antenna design is by VK5JST, of "Antenna Analyser" fame, and can be found on his website - VK5JST web page
