CCARC 29 April 2023 Show and Tell
The last Saturday of the month is the CCARC’s regular Show and Tell event and April’s event was a great success.
Bob showed us hand cranked Meggers for insulation testing and a low ohms model for earth quality testing. He also showed us an azimuth and elevation antenna rotator and controller that he had reconditioned following a lightning strike. Working well now.
Steve had a very interesting display of 35mm photographic slides that used to belong to a relative. There were many scenes of Asia in the 1960s They were all housed in wooden boxes and a rack which was a work of art.
Next up was Col with a collection of vintage cameras and lenses. Col regaled us with some stories of these cameras when at university and later when travelling. Col also showed us one of his early radios.
Graham brought along some video related projects. First was the fusion of an old VCR CRT eyepiece and a composite video camera from EBAY. Selfies in black and white on a 19mm screen.
His next project was showing a camera module rescued from an old laptop, supplied with 3.3volts, USB pins identified and wired up. It now has come full circle and can be hooked up to a PC. Col suggested that with the addition of a lens it could function as a microscope, so we tried out one from his vintage camera kit and it worked! The third item was the repair of a Jaycar linear power supply. A schematic from the Web didn’t quite match the item so Graham showed how he had reverse engineered it and got it working. His last item was a home-made 2.4GHZ biquad antenna.
Glenn showed us his Bonsai collection. Extremely interesting and something unexpected. He filled us in on the origins of Bonsai and the various styles. Next was a “guess the Bonsai’s age” competition. The Port Jackson Fig was 35 years old Ginko tree 19 years and the conifer 4 years. Great care has been shown to these remarkable plants.
Glenn went on to show us an immaculate line-up of Yaseau FTDX-401 Vintage transceiver equipment. The pieces were :- FTDX-401 transceiver, FV-401 VFO, SP-401 speaker and FL-2100 Linear amplifier. Glenn told us about the use, history and prices new and current for this gear.
Sam showed us a Discone antenna he had constructed from aluminium tube and sheet. A lot of work went into it’s construction and it sparked much interest.
David then presented us with a display of one of the very first commercial LEDs – the MV10B by Monsanto. The case and leads were gold plated metal resembling a transistor with a clear lens on the top. It gave a very nice red beam. David had managed to track down an original full-page advertisement of this LED to complete the retro component display.
Thank you to all those who presented and attended our monthly show and tell.
Graham VK2GRA
