Pixie QRP 7Mhz CW Kit

The other week, talk on the australian ham radio Facebook wall turned to kit radios and the Pixie QRP Kit. A number of options were shown and talked about, after a search and comparison, I chose to purchase this Versions of the kit from This eBay seller. with free postage it was around $8. The…

Anderson PowerPole Boots

One of my local Ham radio club members sent me a link to these nifty PowerPole PVC Boots. Why? Because I can, they do make the power pole a bit neater. 50 boots for $15.99 delivered on eBay, i got mine in around a week from HERE. But I’m sure if you search Anderson PowerPole…

The $10 Component Tester

Earlier in the year one of the ham club members turned up with a component tester he had discovered on the internet and built up. The device measures essentially any component you connect on it and tells you what you have. From a simple resistor to a capacitor, diode or even a transistor. the specs…

FT817 Audio Speech Processor

  I blame Ben, VK2BEN for making me spend all my money, the other week, he shared with me a link to the below Speech Compressor designed to fit inside a Yaesu MH-31a8j microphone supplied with the FT817 radios. The ft817 has no built in speech compressor function, and this little PCB is designed to add…

FT-817ND Speaker Upgrade

*** An update. I have only had the time for one sota activation since fitting the new speaker, it worked very well, I had my headphones in my bag, but didn’t need to use them as this new speaker worked very well, worth the small investment to swap this over. I was looking at the…

Raspberry Pi

I was looking for some items on the element14 website when I noticed they had a new Raspeberry PI item listed. The version B board and an 8gb SD card with the OS installed as a bundle for $45. I had been looking for one when the price was acceptable, and this new package deal…

Solder burns and other shenanigans

I needed to convert 12v to 8.4v, so went for a drive to the local jaycar and purchased a simple voltage regulator kit. The kits is listed as simple,  and thats a good thing, I haven’t soldered in anger for a number of years, and was a bit (lot) rusty!. The kit simply regulates the…

What is a Hamfest – “A Formal Junk Swap?”

What is a Hamfest, for many it’s an opportunity to spend some time out of the shack, interacting with ham acquaintances while perusing gear from retailers and someone’s back shed? In recent years the larger dealers appear to have ditched the hamfests, why? Maybe it’s a lot of hassle for little return, maybe they feel…

Snap Circuits Electronics Kits

To ensure my two sons, Nathan who is 5 and Toby who is 3 get a balanced (brainwashed as Christine would say) education, I recently got them a basic electronics kit to help teach them some simple electronics principles. The kit I ended up is a Snap Circuits 300, the kit uses plastic tiles, each…