Saturday, 4th January, 2025

Can’t believe the holidays are effectively over. Just this weekend then back to the school/work routine.

I said I wanted to get rid of things everyday, well yesterday was rubbish from eldest’s room. I’m not counting rubbish/recycling all the time as I seem to constantly have to empty the house bins. Although I have noticed that the black, for landfill, bin can last around 5 days before emptying, which is good. The recycling is never ending though. I just hope it all actually gets recycled, although perhaps it goes to the incinerator and at least some energy gets generated from it. Well, the eldest’s room needs a good sort out and clean out, and my wife did that. I was then left with removing the unwanted.

I’ve returned to thinking about selling my big radio. I think if and when I want a home station, I want it to be remote, so I can use it wherever - even from my phone at work. Although the antenna situation is always a pain. However, I’m not sure I’m going to use the radio. That part of the garage is prime for tidying. There are a couple of items that need investigating and probably selling as well.

The local radio club got an email saying a member had passed away. I didn’t think he was that old, and seemed one of the more active (physically) members, although I don’t know the situation. Anyway, this Thursday will be the first “junk sale” of the month and all his equipment has been donated. He has a few VHF radios and accessories that I would like. They are all mode and it would be good to take them up a hill to do some 2m SSB. Of course, I already have a radio that can do 2m SSB…and no doubt much better, being a modern rig, so why do I need it? I think one would be nice…? Normally I can’t go to the club meeting as it clashes with kids swim training, but relatives will be staying so I could go. I would like the 25W amp he has, although depends if it’s massive or not. A guy who was here in December that I met at the foot of a hill, was using a 25W amp and made a 2m SSB contact into Devon around 400 mile away!

It’s funny that before writing this I was considering seeing if I could win both the 2m radios, but now I’m wondering if I need any? They’d fetch a high price on ebay, and really if no-one in the club really wants it, or they get stupid offers like £20, then they should sell them on ebay, or at least the ham radio marketplaces online. Of course, I’d like to buy it for £20. His profile page lists a lot of radios he has. The older “boat anchours” as also appealing from a historical perspective. The good thing with his, is that he refurbished them himself and you know they’re in very good working order - with new capacitors and electrical sound.

The Kenwood TR-751E, does 25W out on all modes. That would be ideal, although it weighs 2.2 kg. That and the FT-290 would be the only ones I’d want. But maybe I just need the 25 W amp, and perhaps I should look for a modern one online….should such a thing exist…

I then remembered I was looking at a FT-857d. Which does 50W on 2m, 100W on HF, and does all modes and is also 2.1kg. This seems like a better option than an ancient radio that weighs the same/more. Just doesn’t have that retro look 😅

I realised that my post URL scheme doesn’t like two entries on the same day. Which only matters when I write “an article”, so for now I’m going to manually define the page URL. Probably better as that way I can make it fit.