Month: May 2008

Hustler 6-BTV is now Vertical

Posted on by

Hustler 6-BTVWith thanks to James MØBOV & Peter M3PHP my Hustler 6-BTV is now vertical as it should be, and not horizontal as it has been recently.

James helped with assembing the antenna earlier in the year, but due to a few problems was not put up then.

Peter stayed over Friday & Saturday and helped clearing the garden, pointing the antenna skyward & guying it as well

When the antenna cable was connected, we fired up the Icom IC-737 and 10m was bustling with activity.

Within a short space of time we had worked Germany, Switzerland, Scotland and Italy all on 28MHz SSB.

On Sunday and Monday the antenna also survived terrible weather that had brought down trees, and caused other problems on railways, etc.

To see some photos go to my gallery at:- gallery.m0tzo.co.uk/may2008/

Also in regards to 2m & 70cms, Peter and myself sorted the Ecoflex 15 cable so that I no longer needed the 1m patch lead to reach the radio. Someone has already mentioned I am getting out to them a lot better than normal.

Ways to avoid debt

Posted on by

As I come to the end of over 7 years of paying back money on debts, I thought I would make a list of ways to avoid problems as a reminder for me and maybe others who read this.

  • Do Not use Credit Cards
    • Possibly get a pre-pay one
  • Do Not get Personal Loans without a goal
    • Buying a Car for example fine, but just to have money or to clear debt no.
  • Do Not have an overdraft
    • Especially, do not live in your overdraft
  • Do Not use check cashing services
    • The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) could be near 1,500% mark (not a typo)
  • Start a saving account, maybe an ISA
  • Pay for things with Cash
    • This is also a way to avoid problems with possible credit card fraud

I may add more items to this in the future, and please feel free to add your tips.

I want to avoid future debt.

Thanks for the Shoutout Dom

Posted on by

Was just shown the following video.

Amateur Radio, the Internet and the Future

Playing with the new WebSDR service this week http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ got me thinking about the future of amateur radio, and how far we should take linking the hobby to the internet.
This is kind of long, and sort of serious, but do let me know what you think.

(Disclaimer: All comments are personal opinions only. Particularly where I talk about award schemes, this is not a reflection of Islands on the Air or RSGB policy)

  • Also if you also check it out from 6:15 or there abouts Hamtests.co.uk is given a mention. Thanks Dom M0BLF.