Today I acquired...........

[Wedg1e]

I came back after a 20 year break and was surprised at what's now available in compact/discrete radios and aerials, mind you, some of the prices made my eyes water

When I was 'into it' in the early 1980s a Yaesu FT-1 (top of their range all-HF band multimode thing) was the price of a car - several cars, if you drove what I drove - but I found one on Ebay a while back for £150, supposedly in working order.

It seems ridiculous now, the lengths we went to, to throw a signal a few miles, when now everyone can have a video call with their gran in Australia using a device that fits in a shirt pocket. That said, there is an entire infrastructure supporting that capability which a 'ham' didn't have, of course.

There was one guy local to me who had stacked and bayed VHF and UHF Yagis on a tilt/rotate setup: his party piece was to bounce a call off the moon. There was a bit of a delay

It was always the technical side of ham radio that appealed to me, the microwave transmitter in a mustard tin; homebrew and kit transceivers (Wood and Douglas used to have a wide range before they diversified into 'professional' telecomms); amateur TV using an old Pye Lynx CCTV camera that would collapse a tripod, with UHF AM transmitter power so low it would barely get across the street; using a Commodore VIC-20 to control a rotator... fun times. It helped to get me enough electronics skills that I eventually escaped the dole queue and never went back.

 

[minimutly]

I sem to remember amateur radio magazine with a feature "the two Erns", who used to spend all their spare times with video cameras and dish aerial's transmitting TV pictures over tiny distances. I had an old Cossor valve receiver which could do AM on 80m, strung up an aerial out of my bedroom window. My late uncle, who was an 2ndWW veteran signaller, showed me how to tune a transistor radio so the IF "beat" alongside the Cossor so I could decipher a single side and transmission. Got me into the mod as an apprentice electronics technician (same year as Alen Millyard I believe).

 

[Craig-SM]

Don’t worry I’ve not got yellow fever but after getting the first Tstak case in the Screwfix Black Friday sales for the intention of storing the Fuji spray system in I realised that I needed another case for all the cups and accessories that came with it so bought another case. This was actually for their router so came stickered up and with a foam insert but was actually much cheaper than the empty case from the same supplier. Well now I have yet another for all the boxes of sanding discs etc that I have

 

[Farside]

If I had room for a rig, and enough garden for an aerial, I would give it a go.

It's gobsmackingly amazing what's crammed into a tiny box these days and how little space is really needed for a discreet aerial, if neighbours are a concern.

 

[Seadog]

I have a small garden in a ground floor flat so any aerial, realistically, would need to be contained within that footprint.
I could, perhaps, fix a mast to the workshop.

 

[Maker]

I thought I was done with film cameras but I could hardly leave this Autozoom 814 in the charity shop window for 25 quid.



I didn't realise until I was home that it costs about a hundred quid to get a roll of Super8 developed, maybe it's possible to do it at home but I imagine I'll end up just sticking it on eBay.

 

[RWD3M]

That's now a full licence so you can go on HF

Architect Architect...

(anyone else?)

 

[seriesonewelder]

More Yofidra, tested it out on 25mm Leylandii branches which it easily cut.

 

[Bullet2012]

More Yofidra, tested it out on 25mm Leylandii branches which it easily cut.
View attachment 523386

Was it someone on here that removed a digit with one of those things .

 

[MattF]

Was it someone on here that removed a digit with one of those things .

Yup. Can't recall whom though.

 

[cheb]

So who can point their finger at him?

 

[Kram]

More Yofidra, tested it out on 25mm Leylandii branches which it easily cut.
View attachment 523386

Great tool. Turn it off between cuts, any time you are moving around it should be off or your concentrating on cutting, then they are safe enough.

The switch is a magnetic hall sensor, so a magnet nearby can trigger it without physically pressing the trigger.

 

[6ply]

If you fancy using CW (Morse), see if you can reserve a callsign (you used to be able to) that 'flows off the key' easily.
A couple above would be a 'handful'... --/-----/-.../-/--- and --/-----/--/-..-/-.. (lots of sequential dashes are a pain)
One of my old cronies passed his Morse test (as you did back then) and waited a few weeks until the Class A register reached G0CNN (CNN being dah-di-dah-dit dah-it dah-dit) before he could get on the HF bands.
Something like JQY would be a recipe for RSI of the wrist

I don't think my brain is up to learning Morse and using it at a sensible speed. However, I'll bear your suggestion in mind. Thanks.

 

[Farside]

I don't think my brain is up to learning Morse and using it at a sensible speed. However, I'll bear your suggestion in mind. Thanks.

Beware the Morsies, they're always trying to recruit fresh victims to their particular misery cult.

 

[dobbslc]

Hopefully not but maybe a 'speeding' ticket at the disgustingly horrendous speed of 22mph on an almost empty road at 7.30 in the morning.

The country is **Language**ed if this is what the government have come to by persecuting the population like this in the name of greed.

 

[MattF]

Only worry about it if a letter/fine appears. No point whittling before then.

 

[Robotstar5]

Beware the Morsies, they're always trying to recruit fresh victims to their particular misery cult.

The only reason I learnt morse was to get my A ticket, never used the key on air afterwards.

 

[harveyp6]

There's a no right turn between 7.30 and 9.30am cash generating camera into our road, which MrsH has got caught by TWICE and fined 12O quid each, so bored with that she turned into the next turning instead, which has the same restriction, but now the fine's gone up to £160.
Merry Christmas. Not.......

 

[dobbslc]

They just invent crimes so they can fine people.

 

[harveyp6]

They just invent crimes so they can fine people.

Ain't that the truth!