Hi Mound HK-708 Refurbishment

I use CWCOM, a program that enables us to communicate using CW , or Morse, either from the keyboard, or from a "proper" morse key connected to a laptop or PC.  An excellent program that can be made to work with Linux OS as well as Windows OS. It enables those of like mindedness, to practice and preserve a very old, and original DIGITAL, method of communication, world wide, without the use of high powered transmitters and receivers... No antenna, ( aerial ) in the garden... and no Amateur Radio Licence is needed... All standards of user are welcome... Over a period of 18 months, I have made over 220 contacts, world wide.. some only briefly, but others have become "regular" and interesting contacts..I have already posted a video of me operating my Hi Mound HK-705 from my car, as a "mobile" operator... and recently a friend in Japan made contact with me, whilst he was travelling on the Bullet Train, doing 186MPH.... I have also made contact with a guy in the Bay of Biscay, on his Catamaran, whilst he travels to the mediterranean for his summer vacation.

One of my original contacts, Mike, who lives in Harrogate, Yorkshire,...  sent me his old Hi Mound HK-708 straight key, because he has arthiritis and cannot use it any more, he uses a paddle key.. On arrival, the key certainly needed some cleaning... so I just took it to bits, and gave it a good scrub with an old toothbrush, and some soapy water,...I repacked the bearing caps,  using Flora Margarine, and put it all back together....

 Looking very smart, then I started to get the setting of the tension spring and the gap, so that it was easy to use.... Unfortuately, the big knob on it, became very slippery, due to the way that I send morse....(  tapping on the knob, instead of actually holding it in the "correct manner". !..}   . I normally use the spark gap skirt, to transmit on, but the HK-708 did not have one... Doing some research, I found a supplier of plastic discs,

www.AcrylicCraft.co.uk

and I ordered 5 discs with a 3 mm centre hole...

after arrival, two days later, ( excellent service ).. I decided that I needed to "round off" the outer edge, so I put a 3mm brass bolt and nut in the centre hole, and ran up my battery powered drill, with it in the chuck, using a file, and some fine wet and dry paper, I had the required round edge all finished within about 5 minutes... You can see the rounded edge on the one fitted to the HK-708 in this pic...

When I came to fit the skirt, it was about the same size as the knob, and so it was difficult to use... I decided to swap the knob with another key, which knob was made from a wooden drawer knob from the local DIY shop !.. Because of the bend in the rocker arm of the HK-708. I needed to secure the skirt and knob, on top of a securing nut just under the skirt... which you can just see on the video... Resetting the tension spring and the gap, did not take very long, and you can now view the video of me sending a test transmission using the key..   It works very well, and will probably become my favourite to use key for a while....

Here is the video... I hope you can read morse ! ! ...( speed is about 22 words per minute )....

Panasonic FZ72 or FZ70 Bridge Camera & Zoom

The Panasonic Lumix FZ72 ( Europe) or FZ70 (USA), is a "bridge" camera, with a very wide angle lens and 60X optical zoom   at 16Mpx.... .(20 - 1200 in 35mm terms)... .. as with previous FZ models, it is possible to reduce the Mpx count, which increases the Optical Zoom.... There are 3 "personal" C settings available, so, at present, I have C1 at 16 Mpx, C2 at 10Mpx, and C3 at 7Mpx..... however, there are three more stages... 5 Mpx, 3Mpx and 0.3Mpx ( for email & Web photos)... I have a 8Gb SD card in my camera, so the last setting of 0.3Mpx would enable me to take 40,380 pics !!!!! ... YES ! Over 40 thousand pics on one card ! ! ! ... definitely enough for a days shoot ! ! ! ....

At 10Mpx the Optical Zoom is increased to 72X.... add on the Digital Zoom it goes up to 379X zooOOOM !...

At 7Mpx the  Optical Zoom is increased to 90X .... add on the Digital Zoom it goes up to 450X

Of course, the more digital zoom you use, the noisier the pics will be... but it is a lot of fun seeing just how far things can be photographed...

I have not tried the lower than 7Mpx settings...perhaps I should !...

Here are some pics to show what this camera can do, regarding ZOOOOOM !... They are not intended to be "definitive", not intended to be "quality"... just taken for the fun of using the zoom !..


NOTE..... CLICK once ON the PIC, and YOU will get a LARGER pic on screen !....

Here is a Zoom Movie of a blackbird in a tree, at the bottom of our garden.... about90 feet away..and about 25 feet up. ( the bare tree to the right of the fir tree in the bottom pics (same tree as the bluetit) )... ... considering the distance involved, the sound is remarkable for its clarity......

Click on the square bottom right for a full screen version.... turn your speakers or phones on  !.....

Next we have a "comparison shot"... to show  ( as the first ones on here do )... what this camera can see....
A Magpie was in the tree three neighbours houses away... first the "normal" view... then a 72 X optical view, and a crop of that.... The crop is to show how much detail has been recorded.... Whilst the crop is not good enough for printing, or competition, it does give a clear pic of the bird for identifying purposes....

Another use I have found for the ZOOOOOoom on this camera, is what I call, "Extreme Plane Spotting".... I have a program on my computer, that gives an Air Traffic Controllers radar type view of planes, coming into England, across the channel, and some of them over fly my house, or are within a few miles... so I estimate where the planes are,... get my camera ready and "go for it "... here are a couple of the better ones !.... These pics have been "adjusted" for Gamma and Contrast, and the text inserted by the use of   IRFANVIEW a free pic viewing software, ( see much earlier posts on this blog ).....

With these aircraft pics, it is worth noting, that 13,000 feet is about 2.5 statute ( uk ) miles... and 19,000 ft is about 3.6 statute ( uk  ) miles high...   The TAM flight, would also be about 3 miles distant, whilst the RyanAir flight would be about 5 miles distant.... the ARIK and Virgin flights were directly overhead.  Also remember that it is very difficult to zoom in and focus and track and keep re-focussing a plane doing 300 knots against a blue sky background.... the auto focus does work, but it keeps going into and out of focus at the slightest chance ! ! ...



And now for some "ordinary" bird pics.... the subject birds are all within 25 feet of the camera.... I am sitting down in a comfy chair, with a parosol shading me from the sun, and hand hold the camera to "point and shoot"...

Robin, On a mission to feed the chicks !

Looks as though he has had a busy time,.... and needs some feed himself ! ! ...

Starling, not going hungry today !

Starling, singing for his mates to come to supper !

Finally..... a Bluetit, in a tree at the bottom of our garden..... The captions explain what is going on !

Mini Morse Key - the smallest key you have ever seen?

I saw this key, on ebay, a couple of months ago... and thought it would be nice to have a brand new key in my collection... so far, I have only been able to afford cheap secondhand keys, so when I sold the old FRG 8800, I used the cash from that to finance this key.... it cost £30.68p and was advertised as "from China"... however, the package that arrived through my letter box, surprised me..... firstly because I never expected to get the key through the letter box,...( I expected a small packet to be collected )... and secondly, because the place it was posted from was Belgium ! ... When I opened the jiffy bag, I was again surprised at how small it was.... even smaller than my thumb !...

Anyway.. I took a few photographs of it, and then connected up with a spare lead and clipped it on to my Admiralty Pattern 7681, to connect it to CWCOM.

 I did some adjustments to the spring tension, ( a small nut at the back of the rocker arm).... and the gap.... adjusted by the black knob and the big brass washer as a "lock" device......... Did a short "off air test" .. then opened CWCOM.....  As luck would have it, Barry VK3HAP in Melbourne Australia, was on CWCOM, and he was the first QSO I had with the mini morse key...   He said that it sounded good.... and I must admit,... I thought so too !...

Here is a short video of me doing a test transmission.... click on the small square at the bottom right for a full screen experience... don`t forget to turn your speakers on... or put your phones on....

To make sure it stays in place... I used a blob of "blu-tack" underneath the key.... otherwise, it needs to be held down with the left hand.. ....

Problem Radio

This article has been re-named.... due to the fact that it has now been sold,.... the radio is no longer available. 


This FRG 8800 has problems... yet it does work !.  Here is a short video.....

Put your `phones on, or turn up your speakers...... the music you can hear faintly in the background is from a T.V across the room... ! 

The known problems are.... the push buttons on the top right corner for the clock are not in their correct positions... seem to have been misused . not sure if they work or not... never used them...

The channel selector switch runs from 1 - 4 then goes 1-4 again then 9 thru to 12. Again, never used the memory channels so not a problem for me.

It did have the "flashing dial" syndrome.... however, an attempt has been made to rectify this, by retuning one of the cans on the PLL board, and also the addition of a resistor and capacitor as the "official" mod by Yaesu... This has not been 100% successful.... and it still does flash intermittently... Recently I have been running a soak test on it... and the following is a record of behaviour.

Tuesday
19:30   switched on

23:59  switched off........... NO flashing... 100% solid for 4.5 hours

Wednesday
13:00 switched on
13:45  flashed for about 20 seconds..... then went stable again
1348   flashed for about 20 seconds..... then went stable again
14:00  flashing for about 1 minute ..... then went stable again
14:01  stable
16:00 swithced off    total 3 hours with only a short period of instability.... 2 hours stable.

Wednesday evening. ( same day ).
 19:30 switched on


23:30 switched off    total 4 hours stable.... ( total for the day 7.5 hours  with only a few minutes of instability)

Thursday
20:30  switched on
21:00 flashed for 20 seconds

23:30 switched off.

Stable ( apart from 20 seconds ) for 3 hours...

There does seem to be a volume problem, where it will suddenly reduce with a click, and then come back again with a click.... but this is not associated with the flashing display... it can happen any time....

The main Power Supply Unit has had a replacement electrolytic capacitor installed for testing purposes, but this did not make any difference to the flashing display..( the original was re-installed ). Also the two Power Transistors on the chassis near the PSU have been replaced....  Again, this has made no difference to the flashing display. ( the new ones remain in place ).

There is a switch on the rear for 12v. operation, however, this mod has not been installed, and does not work on 12v.

A copy CD of the manual will be included in the sale......

As this is being advertised as Faulty but Working... there will be NO RETURNS.. it is "sold as seen and described".

German Morse Key

When I joined the Royal Navy in 1960, I wanted to train as a Radio Operator, mainly because my dad had tried to teach me morse code, and also gave me an interest in radio as a hobby.  He had a German Morse key which he said was from a  German Tank in WW II, However, since owning this key, and doing some research, it turns out to be a BAUMUSTER T1 which was used by the Luftwaffe ( German Air Force)  ( Signal Troops ). .. ground stations, and mobile vehicle radio stations,.... When I passed out from training, he gave me the key, which I took with me on ships and shore establishments...... until... I loaned it to a "mate"  ( huh!).. who did not return it...

I missed that key quite a lot, and had many happy memories of using it, and so, I have been looking on Ebay to try and buy another.... Lucky Me !... I won an auction, and here it is....

It is exactly the same as the one I had, Except, my original had a metal plate on the base, that reached under the knob to give it stability....

There isn`t much to refurbish on this key.... the casing is Bakelite, and all I needed to do was to give it a spray of WD40, and use an old toothbrush to clean off the mess of 80 years.!.. Inside, it is relatively clean... just a little bit of rust, but not a big problem.... The parts are all steel, and remarkably clean of rust, however, I did use my rotary wire brush on the rocker arm, to brighten it up... then I sprayed the whole lot with some spray-on lacquer, to give it a nice "new" shine. The old wiring was cut off, as I needed to put a 3.5mm jack on the end, to connect to my USB/Serial connector and my Laptop, so I can use it on CWCOM, and talk to the world for free!...

A couple of points about the pics... There is a "date" mark, on the bottom  with " 8. 116  1934/36 " , and a "logo" .....  inside the top of the case, there is another date mark " 9. 140 1934." ( and the same logo). .. So I am assuming it is "of that age", making it 80 years old...

I don`t know what the other marks refer to...  so if anyone has any information, or ideas ? ? ?   please contact me and let me know.... I would like to know what the "logo" represents too... Also the Ta.P on the lid.... The other German on the lid, says " Remove the plug, before opening"... ( health and safety ! ! !)..

Here is the key... cleaned and ready for action..  I made a wooden base for it, which I will probably paint black, in the near future...

Here is a video of me telling part of the story..... There is no "crib" on here.....I will let you read the morse!!!

Just remember to click on the "full screen" icon, bottom right... and also have your speakers or phones on..!.

Sorry about the "light" on the video.... I could not get my desk lamp to light up the key properly, but you can see that it works well....  and it is a nice addition to my other four keys.....

From Left to Right....

German Key. Baumuster T1. (1934) ..
Hi Mound HK-705 (1970`s?)
Admiralty Pattern 7681 (1943) 
Ward & Goldstone, Pendleton, Manchester, England. (1905)
Rebuilt A.P. 7681
( my original key, rebuilt by a friend who made the base, as reward for lending him the key to sit his morse exam - he passed !) ...

BIG ZOOOOOOOM Bridge Camera. Panasonic FZ70/FZ72

This is a story of BIG ZOOOOooooOOOOOM ! or how I re-kindled my interest in photography as a hobby. First of all, I am not an expert, and all information is given as "just that"... information.. you use it any way you want to, at your own risk!.... My first digital camera was a very basic model... it had only got 3 x digital zoom... no optical zoom... it was small enough to put in my pocket and made taking pics "on the fly" quite exciting, knowing they would not cost me anything to develop and view, using the computer.. after a couple of years, I "moved on"... and got me a Fuji bridge camera with FIVE TIMES OPTICAL and 4 x digital zoom... what a leap !.. and most of my pics on my website http://www.nemosphotography.co.uk were taken with that camera, I was a happy "tog" for a couple more years.... ... until......  I started to get greedy !.. I wanted MORE ZOOOM ... So I decided that the next step would be the upgrade of the FUJI to 18X optical zoom... but... it failed to impress me, the pic quality was poor, the colours were not good. so... I returned it, and scanned the internet for a replacement... along came the Panasonic FZ28.. with 18 X zoom... and 4 x digital... GREAT... this camera "worked" right from the first shutter press !... then I managed to find a friend, who gave me a Sigma 1.4X teleconverter lens, and it "just happened" to fit the FZ28 by screwing onto the lens barrel....

In this blog, I have reviewed several "add-on" telephoto lenses, that screwed on to the FZ28, but none came close to the Sigma... by various devious methods, I managed to improve the FZ28 basic 18 X optical zoom to 30X optical zoom... ( add on the sigma 1.4 then drop the mpx count to 10mpx).. still had the 4 x digital, so potentially got 120 X zooooOOOM.. ( drop the mpx even more, increases this again)... Well, the FZ28, served me well, but because I took it everywhere with me, it used to get put on the floor of the car, behind my seat, and over a period of 5 years, it starts to get a bit tatty,... and because of that, I decided it was time for another upgrade.... considered 3 cameras, but again, the Panasonic Lumix came out on top... Very Wide Angle 20mm and VERY BIG ZOOM...60X... topped the other two... combine them with the LEICA LENS.. unbeatable...

...I went to a local camera shop, and had a quick "handle" to see how it felt, and also to price it... (December 2013) £369.00 not including a memory card... so decided I would wait until after Christmas/New Year, for the sales to drop the price... NAH!.. could not wait that long... looked on the net, and Jessops had the camera for £320..00  + a 25% discount on a memory card... BUT.. they also had a price match offer... did some research and eventually paid £110.00 less than the orginal retail price... + got 25% off an 8 Gb Sandisk card giving me about 1500 pics !. So got on the phone, and ordered it.  Almost exactly 24 hours later, the camera was delivered to my door !.. Have only taken about 200 pics with it, but I am seriously impressed with it...

The 60X would probably scare some people, thinking that they MUST have a tripod to use that zoom.... Oh No... the stabilization is brilliant... I am amazed that it is so good hand held... Oh, yes.... I dropped the mpx count from 16 to 10 and my Optical ZoooOOOOM is not 60 x but 72X.... When going to "max" on the zoom lever, it now shows 379X zOoooOOOOM. !.. yeah, it is "grainy" or "noisy" at that zoom level, but it is really for fun, that I go to that extreme... I don`t intend to print anything bigger than A4... in fact, I can`t remember the last time I printed any photographs that I had taken... !.. so having a "noisy" pic of a plane in flight, is just that.. a pic of a plane".. or a ship... far out at sea... great fun to take....

My old FZ28, was not renowned for being good in low light... however, this FZ72 seems to cope quite well... Was out visiting family, and as usual, had my camera with me.... 12yr old daughter was in front of her laptop, with the window shades drawn, ( against the afternoon sun)   and no other lighting in a fairly dark room... spur of the moment, decided to zoom in on her eye.... no special settings, just the same as if I was taking an outdoor pic on my C settings... Was amazed at the sharpness, and clarity of the pic. 

You can see ZOOOM pics on my Flickr photostream.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/32369450@N02/11622156264/in/photostream  use the little arrow on the right hand side to progress through the series to see the final ZOOOM pic.... The zoom on the eye is called "Eye Test".. and you can see the results of "Low Light"... no photoshop, no tripod, etc... here..  http://www.flickr.com/photos/32369450@N02/11731184874/in/photostream

Well, There you are... still got loads of things to find out about this new camera.. but so far, cannot fault it... !.