Seasons Greetings

 

*******Happy Xmas and a Better 2021 to you all.******

 

As you can all see Santa arrived earlier dropping me off a couple of books, so I am off for a read and a double Scotch..

 

 Best 73's G1KQH

 

 

Back Room Boys reunion

The backroom boys 1976-1978, were the lads who did the lighting, sound, and projection of films for the school plays, and performances. Working at the back of the school hall, in and outside of school time.

 Recently all four of us got together and went back to visit what was left of Aelfgar school, Rugeley, where we were educated in our senior years betweek 1974 and 1979.

 

Who is this scruffy lot? 

Dave, Phil, John and me.  

This was taken outside of the front entrance of the old original school building which is now a YMCA hostel and Doctors surgery.

All of us have a radio connnection. Myself and Dave became radio amateurs, Phil's Dad was a Radio Ham, John and I used to build crystal sets and regen radios in the school holidays.

This is what was left of the science block. At the time we visited it didn't have many days left before it was to be demolished.

The school hall and library had already gone and was rubble.

 

The new part of Aelfgar survived two major fires, gutting the hall and library on both occasions, in the period of when we were all educated there. But had been closed for several years before they decided it was of no further use and the land was to made available for housing.

 

Free QRP Book

 Minimalist QRP Book V5.3 from IZ3AYQ

It's a free download:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dw61-PQ-4JA9feh93H_KrldD4RpN1zZT/view

 

There should be enough ideas contained in it's 77 pages, for you all to get building something over Christmas..

Links & Kinks update

You can now Search the web when you are now viewing inside the Blog. I have added a Search engine widget to the top right hand corner.. SEARCH INTERNET

My friend Andy (G0FTD) accidentlly deleted his website recently, so he has now totally rewritten and organised a new one:

https://sites.google.com/view/andy-g0ftd/home 

Also ZL2CTM has a good technical Blog, well worth a mention and I will add that to My Blog List

http://zl2ctm.blogspot.com/

This should be used in conjunction with his excellent Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSNPW3_gzuMJcX_ErBZTv2g

 I will update the links at the side of the Blog panel ..

 

 

A decent protective case/stand for the IC-705

 

Quite a few different stands for the IC-705, have quickly reached the market from third party manufacturers.  

Some good, but some that look like they would fall over at the first blow of a wind. 

 

This one I spotted recently seems to tick all boxes from BD-7 MAPLE.

Said to be made of iron, of which I would class as steel with all around grilled protection? A front mounted SO239, two fold out sturdy feet, makes the radio look the part and fit for real purpose, either on the shack desk, or out in the field in action. Along with a protective transparent front cover makes it all look and feel a robust professional job.

 

Link here: BD-7-Maple

The return of...

 Yes I am sort of back at it, but the family problems have not gone away.

I am currently working on a signalling system for a local model railway club.

This is a quite a big arrow to my bow, as I am not quite sure what I am doing yet? A big learning curve is required to take it all in. I have to take out the old analogue system, that is operated by a creaking relay logic system, and move it over to a more advanced software/hardware driven system, with a RS485 data highway switching the signals.

 

 It should keep me my mind active for another couple of years, especially as all rally visits at weekend now have been cancelled due to Corona..

Why I signed with Google Adsense.

For years I had tried to get an Adsense account accepted on this blog but for some unknown reason it was rejected? I didn't understand the complicated email reply they sent back at the time, even others I showed  the email to were also puzzled? But I came to the conclusion, that in the blog's early days of it's birth, there wasn't enough content on here for them to entertain an Adsense account, so I never really bothered pushing again until now.


During last week I had some spare time available  (very rare at the moment) so I applied again,  this time I was accepted and the Adsense account was opened. Nothing different had changed on my part or had the blog been altered in anyway?


If folk don't understand what Adsense is, it is a system that places adverts around the blog's spare unused space. Down the sides, along the top or bottom, or sometimes within the content. It can either be setup manually, or auto. The latter is how I have set it up, because I have little spare time to mess around, adverts will be automatically placed in the areas it thinks best.
 
Yes I get paid a small amount in return, mainly if someone clicks on the advert and goes off and views it.

 I have tried to set it up that it will show advertising from things that will be of interest to you the person that comes here and that reads the blog. Although this cannot be guaranteed the adverts will be applicable to its content?
 
How will this help me?

I don't expect I will be riding around in a Ferrari! But it may help fund the purchase of small items, which may be of interest to the hobby which I will be able to test out and review in the future musings,  making the blog more exciting with content.

So it is a win win situation for us all, so can I please encourage you to pop into the blog on a regular basis and click the adverts of interest from time to time.

Thanks!