Category Archives: Equipment Disassembly

Wednesday Nights

Here are a few photos of some Wednesday night meetings’ technical goings-on. Not the same night, but several nights at the start of 2023.

We had a “magnetic loop” antenna night when several members brought their various magnetic loop antennas to look at. Bob GM4CID tested them for frequency and efficiency using a MiniVNA analyser.

Also Colin MM1APS was looking inside a Kenwood TK-705 mobile set to fault find problems with it.

Opening up a vintage Cambridge Pye shortwave radio.

Colin brought in an old valve tester to test some vacuum tubes for another piece of equipment.

Colin fixing a member’s Icom IC-756 Pro-II radio. Spot the destroyed component he’s trying to replace.

Mike MM3NTX brought in his Icom IC-706 radio to be frequency-calibrated because he was told it was “very slightly off” when he bought it second-hand. Colin brought in his frequency standard (receiving the 60kHz MSF signal from Anthorn) to calibrate the club’s frequency counter, and then in-turn used that to adjust the Icom. The radio was 400Hz out at about 145MHz, adjusted to within about 5Hz of frequency which is pretty good.

John GM7MUN brought in his old 486 PC running MS-DOS as it had the hardware and software to program his Philips FM 1000 mobile sets. Bob helped him with the programming.

Club night – Colin’s 2m Cubical Quad Antenna

Colin brought in his homemade 4-element cubical quad antenna for the 2m band (144-146MHz) to test and adjust. Luckily the main hall was available so we could set everything up all spaced out and far away from human bodies to get better readings on SWR and sensitivity.

Everyone needs a nanoVNA for testing antennas!

He is now working on a similar antenna for operating on the 4m band (70-70.5MHz).

Old Murphy Naval HF Receiver

Old Murphy receiver given to a member by the widow of a local Professor of Electrical Engineering, who wasn’t a licensed radio amateur but according to his wife spent hours on this sitting listening at night.

Just don’t touch the metal bits…
Yes that is the earth wire plugged into the power gang. Probably should be pointed out that this was under constant supervision and everyone in the room has awareness of electrical safety and knows not to touch bare live electrical components.