First up today, Harry demonstrated his latest iteration of fox detector. – a compact dual dipole configuration with deviation indicator – a fascinating design that makes a simple directional loop look, well, simple. Mark, ZL1MRT, has migrated his data over Morse project to 40M and set up a ferrite tuned center loaded short dipole or FTCLSD [ just because I like acronyms ], with great results. Currently the ferrite slug is manually adjusted for tune – a servo drive was discussed; watch this space! Along with a good turnout of regulars, we had a visit today from Terry ZL1HOG. Terry was keen to see how the club is operating and we will no doubt be seeing / hearing more from him when he takes up his new responsibilities as Northern Councilor, NZART.
Harry produced his MK1 DMR development; no not a digital radio – a Drain Muck Remover. In the form of a pole mounted horizontal scoop. It proved very effective and made comparatively easy work of clearing leaf matter from the drain sump.
Another visitor today was Ramon Robertson – an artist who was part of a group that worked on an art project about the Musick Point Radio Building. Ramon presented a “drawing” from the project to the group. The work is inspired by colours and textures from the building and awaits us finding a place to display it.
Rob, ZL4ROB, brought along a dazzling array of RF power indicators – hoping to determine which was the most accurate. After a number of tests, it appeared they were all working adequately and given that they were indicative devices and not supposed to be laboratory standards, attention moved on to Rob’s box of lightbulbs – his Ameritron Linear. The problem is low output at 28 MHz. After discussing the high potential (extremely bad pun) for degraded tubes being the possible cause, it was noticed that there appeared to be excessive interaction between plate tuning and grid current ( on 28MHz ). This led to speculation of some instability at the higher frequencies. With a few directions to follow, Rob packed it away for further investigation.
Graham and Martyn fitted refurbished lamp cages to the exterior lamps on the east and west decks, and remove the cages from the two north lamps for rework. And needless to say , we still had time for a coffee or two. Another enjoyable day at the Point!