Tower bolt cage completed 

Wednesday, April 13, 2016 9:04:00 PM

With many thanks to the father-in-law the bolt cage for the tower has been completed.  The cage is for a 2 stage tilt-over tower.

Next step is to complete the tower refurbishment with a set of brand new 5:1 brake winches and wire rope.  Once this is complete there is a bit of welding and repainting with some cold gal paint.

Here are a few photos of the completed bolt cage

 

And the yagi is back down again 

Wednesday, January 6, 2016 11:29:00 AM

How time flies -  We are moving in five days.  The decommissioning of VK3GYH at the current QTH is in progress ready for the relocation.  Last night the HF yagi and dipoles were taken down, cleaned up and packed ready for the move.  All the radio equipment will be boxed over the next day or so along with the remaining antennas, feeder cables, mounting brackets and so on.

That means no radio, apart from when mobile, for a little while....

Hopefully it will be worth it.  We are moving to a much larger plot of land, with a lot lower house density in the surrounding neighbourhood.  Ultimately this should help in three ways:

  1. I am hoping that the noise levels on HF shall be less.  The noise levels at the current QTH are pretty bad almost 24/7.
  2. Much more space.  I am intending to install two towers (my old tower from the UK and a recently acquired 'Nally' tower).  With the amount of space I can also position the towers away from the house to hopefully reduce pickup of noise from the house.
  3. Lots of tall trees.  Plenty of options for slinging wire antennas up nice and high - well away from the house.

Fingers crossed.

 

 

 

 

Since when did suggested price suddenly become a firm price? 

Tuesday, August 25, 2015 6:52:00 PM

I'm on the lookout for a couple of antenna mounts to fit some antennas to my four wheel drive.  So, I thought that it would be a good idea to place a wanted advertisement on a popular Australia site that caters for amateurs, http://www.vkclassifieds.com.au/.

The first responder, a VK2 was an absolute delight to deal with.  Within a couple of hours a deal was done and the first mount was sorted out, payment made and such.  

The second response came from a VK5 who had a used version of the other mount I am seeking.  He had suggested a price of $30 including shipping.  In reply, I noted to him that I had purchased the other mount, as new-old stock (NOS) and asked would he be willing to match the price of that deal, at $26 including postage.  In my books, this seemed a reasonable proposition - the VK5's mount was used (but supposedly in good condition) compared against a NOS item.  I'm certainly not expecting it to be sold for $1, but his price was a little high considering it was used.

In response to my offer the VK5 informed me that it was his "policy" to state a price and to stick by it.  Err, hang on a moment - your "policy"?  I don't remember you stating this when you sent through your original email.   Furthermore you used the word "suggested".  In my books that means "a starting point", a figure at which to begin negotiation.  What you may consider a fair price is, maybe, just maybe not fair to me.  Hence we negotiate!

Now, to be fair, if the original email had included this policy or stated "$30 firm", then so be it. But I am sorry - I didn't receive a copy of your "policy" with your initial offer and you stated "a suggested price of $30".

I've had a reasonable run with dealing with people on VKClassifieds as well as some other similar sites in the UK.  In fact, pretty much most people I have dealt with have ended in a successful transaction.  Shame about this one...

 

 

 

And the Yagi is back up again 

Monday, July 6, 2015 8:02:00 PM

Over the last two weekends I have managed to get my HyGain TH3-JRS yagi back up in the air.  


It has been packed away since prior to moving from the UK to Australia.  Very little maintenance required, just one PL-259 soldering job and some minor work on the antenna itself.  Pretty much tuned up exactly as it was in the UK when reassembled, lucky that I marked everything clearly prior to taking it all apart.

Installation wise, it has been mounted onto a 5.5 metre aluminium scaffold pole.  All said and done, including stub mast and rotator the yagi is about 6 metres in the air.  Not ideal of course, but 6 metres and operational is better than 0 metres and packed away in the box.

I will put some pictures up shortly.

New version of Ham Call Lookup 

Friday, January 16, 2015 11:27:00 AM

Version 1.9.0 of Ham Call Lookup has been released into the Windows Phone marketplace.

This release contains a couple of UI tweaks and now retrieves Solar data from a new source.

Further details here: http://mickp.net/ham-call-lookup.aspx

Ham radio mobile installation 

Sunday, July 20, 2014 10:14:00 PM

Writing up a new article on installation of antenna and radio in my Subaru Liberty (known as a Subaru Legacy elsewhere in the world).

This is a multi-part article as I put each part into the vehicle.

Please visit http://mickp.net/1mobile-installation.aspx

Part two is here: http://mickp.net/mobile-installation-2.aspx

HUKDAGENT - Version 1.4 

Saturday, December 14, 2013 1:58:00 AM

Just a note to advise that I released version 1.4 of HukdAgent into the Windows phone marketplace a little while back.

This was mainly a 'under-the-hood' improvements release.

I've added a separate Windows Phone 8 version to the Marketplace as of Version 1.4

HukdAgent - version 1.3 

Friday, July 27, 2012 7:36:00 PM

Just putting the final touches on the latest version of HukdAgent version 1.3.

I will be publishing into the Windows Phone Marketplace over the next few days.

New/Updated features include:

  1. Additional, secondary live tile for 'NEW' deal items
  2. Live tiles, within the application that highlight featured items.
    • Recent, Daily and weekly Hottest deals
    • Recent hot 'NEW' deals
  3. Re-vamped settings page, with new settings and extra control of the application.
  4. Ability to navigate backwards when browsing deals from the in-application web browser.

Improvements

  1. Improved the background agent synchronisation.
  2. Fixed a couple of minor applications issues.

 

 

First Windows Phone 7 application in the Marketplace 

Thursday, March 1, 2012 8:17:00 AM

HotUkDealsAgent is completed and released into the Windows Phone 7 MarketPlace for UK/Ireland.

 

Detailed description
Hot deals, free stuff and other shopping information posted on the HotUkDeals website delivered directly onto your Windows Phone 7 device. HukdAgent is a simple, easy-to-use application that presents the latest deals in a familiar Metro style layout. Deals are downloaded to your phone and stored localally for offline perusal. Application live tile automatically updated with the latest hot deals. The application agent can be activated to synchronise deals in the background. Ability to filter, sort and search items downloaded from the HotUkDeals website.

 

Application image

 

Download it free from the Marketplace now - Marketplace link

Welcome back 

Monday, April 4, 2011 4:03:00 AM

It has taken a while, but finally www.mickp.net has returned.

After deciding to change website hosts, I also concluded it was easiest to simple reset the entire website and start again.

So, here we are again.  Stay tuned as more content is added.  Fingers crossed I'll be a bit more active on here now.

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