A journal of hobbies
We noticed our broccoli plants had started to show signs of being chewed. We thought it was possums because large leaves had completely disappeared. We moved a portable shade house over the plants and expected that to solve the problem. By this time a lot of the leaves had already been eaten. Three days later,... Continue Reading →
I've had an interest in detecting lightning for many years. I remember reading an article about Benjamin Franklins lightning experiments back in the 80's or early 90's. I thought the article was in an issue of Electronics Australia, but I have not been able to locate it. Ben Franklin is fairly well known for flying... Continue Reading →
Choosing an Anemometer I've been considering what to use for an anemometer for my weather station. I was thinking of making my own, but a significant downside would be calibrating it. I checked what was available on AliExpress. Many are plastic and I don't want a plastic one and I don't want to have to... Continue Reading →
Whenever someone pointed out to a work colleague that there was an easier way to do what he was attempting, he’d look confused and then reply, “Well, anyone can do it the easy way.” I seem to find myself avoiding the usual easier way with projects, just to try do it differently. That's how I... Continue Reading →
I've been working on building a weather station over the last few months and while I haven't completed all the sensors, I have a few done including recently a rain gauge. The receiver is based around the "Random Nerd Tutorials ESP-NOW Web Server Sensor Dashboard" in which the data is displayed on a web page.... Continue Reading →
Possums have been a regular part of our lives. Many years ago, when we first moved into this house, possums had already made themselves home in the garage and in the ceiling cavity. There wasn't a door in the opening that goes under the floor and possums had managed to go through the opening and... Continue Reading →
I've wanted to build a weather station for a long time, probably for at least 30 years. Droughts are common here, and we rely on rain for all our household water. Our house is also quite exposed to strong winds. At one point a neighbour a couple of kilometers away had their roof blown off... Continue Reading →
Around 1976 a friend and I became very interested in CB radio. The craze had not long taken off in Australia and it was still illegal to use them at that time. Dick Smith Electronics and later Tandy’s sold CB radios, antennas and accessories. Despite being illegal to use them, that didn’t stop a lot... Continue Reading →
Ever since I started tinkering with Arduinos I’ve wanted to build a shortwave receiver using a Si5351 oscillator to tune the frequency. When I saw and built the Soldersmoke Direct Conversion receiver I immediately saw a chance to give it a try. While I've dabbled a lot with Arduinos, I have never used the Si5351.... Continue Reading →
While I don't have an Amateur Radio license, I do find radio interesting. I often listen to the Soldersmoke podcast and look at their blog. I became interested in the Direct Conversion Radio they had designed. The radio covers the 40-meter or 7-MHz amateur radio frequency band. It is fairly simple and deliberately uses discrete... Continue Reading →
Garry's blog 