Pete's
Personal Home Page
Mail me at:
- Link to Sandton
Amateur Radio Club
- Link to South African Radio
League web site. Visit this site for everything
you need to know about amateur radio in South Africa, including licences for visitors; the
full southern Africa callbook online; clubs and societies; repeaters, and much, much more!
- Click here for pictures of my antenna mast
- Here is a short page which summarises
current solar conditions. Very useful!
- The Ham's Ten Commandments, from Bob Tayler, ZS6CO
(Silent Key)
Working Conditions
Here is a photo of yours truly at my operating
position. Equipment from L to R consists of: Computer for logging, Etc.; Great
Circle map (hidden by round head!); Icom IC-745 HF transceiver with power supply, Yaesu
FT-225RD all-mode 2m transceiver; with sundry other kit above. Also very important
are the books and atlas above, to find strange new countries! All the antenna cables come
in on the right hand wall, together with a single power supply source direct from the main
distribution board. All equipment is earthed to a copper bar running underneath the desk
along the wall, using an outside earth rather than the supply mains earth. We have a lot
of lightning in this region in summer, and protection is very important.
Specific Ham Radio Interests
- DXing
- Contests
- Building equipment
- SSTV
Additional aids during contests
- Microphone: Astatic D-104 on original chrome stand. Very
good audio; excellent for making oneself heard in the pile-ups!
- Headphones: Sennheiser HD 265
- Foot switch: to allow hands-free operation
- Logging program: Swisslog logging program from HB9BJS
- I do not use any spotting services during contests.
Current antennas
- For 10-15-20m: A Telex hy-gain(c) TH3JR-S 3 element tribander, with
maximum forward gain 8 dBi, mounted on a telescoping mast.
This can operate at any height between 11,5 m and 15 m.
- For 40m: An inverted Vee strung from the top on the mast.
- For 80m: A G5RV dipole, with centre point strung from the top of the
mast; arms slanting down to a tree and an aluminium pole.
Current Projects
Repairing 1 kW solid state amplifier.
Building a patch box to
interconnect multiple transceivers, tape recorder, computer sound card, etc.
Awards, working towards:
DXCC: Have reached about
120 countries confirmed.
All Africa Award: Have made sufficient contacts;
Now, how to get all those QSL cards?
Other Interests
