The Kiwi DX group was, and now even more so is, an un-group. In the same way that some IT cliques have un-cons instead of conferences. The premise is that you have more of the social and less of the conference with a strong focus on community and learning. The Kiwi DX group was for the most part just a mailing list …

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I was out walking the dog, as you do, with my trusty Yaesu VX6 in hand this evening. I tried to raise some locals for a chin-wag on a couple of repeaters and got the silent treatment so went for plan ‘B’ and started scanning some local services channels. 17,748 km or so Google says After listening for a wee while to …

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The Icom IC-706 in all it’s versions is one of the best know amateur transceivers of the last 20 years. Originally released in 1995 with the last in the line being the IC-706MKIIg which last rolled off the production line in 2009. I managed to pick up a MKIIg a while ago in excellent condition which appeared to be …

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Has it really been two years? Early in June 2014 I posted about the Nineties wanting their website back and since that re-vamp I’ve only posted one other item to the blog. Talk about slack. So now I find myself in August 2016 and re-building the blog again. This time a shift to WordPress along with a cleaner visually …

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I picked up a 2nd hand Icom IC-706MKIIG to add to my eclectic collection of gear earlier in the week. The rig is excellent condition and aside from a loose wire on the molex power lead there were no visible problems which one of the best known Icom boxes of tricks there is. I re-crimped the power cable and plugged into …

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A tale of my slightly oblique involvement in transgender employment experiences. The recent news about the ruling in Europe around the concept of the ‘right to be forgotten’ got me to thinking it was time I did a bit of ego surfing earlier on tonight. For those not entirely familiar ego surfing is putting your own name …

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Before you read too much further this is a bit of a self-serving rant, bought on indirectly by the heartbleed bug published a couple of weeks ago. I’m a fan of cloud hosted virtual Linux servers for hosting and messing about of the geeky kind. The ability to spin up a box and play with it to your hearts content then …

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A bit of random DIY for a sunday and it involves hot glue, so it must be good. Being a fan of Anderson Power Pole connectors along with a chunk of the amateur radio fraternity I’ve chopped the fuses and other gubbins from the power leads on most of the equipment I own that uses 13.8V and simply terminated them with a …

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