I paid a most enjoyable visit to OM Barrie, ZS6AJY and his XYL, yesterday afternoon. Barrie is an avid and highly active radio ham, having received his licence 60 ago. I cannot even start to imagine the depth of knowledge Barrie has when it comes to radio!
Barrie showed me around his well appointed shack and antenna farm. Naturally being a CW man (in fact at one time he was a professional telegrapher) he has Ten Tec vintage gear. Until recently he also operated a full station of home brewed equipment.
He also uses an old time bug and a South African post office key. I sent a few characters with this old key and immediately fell in love with it. Barrie has a collection of fine keys including a McElroy bug.
His main antenna consists of an Inverted Vee 40m, and 80m loaded antenna, plus a fan dipole for 20m and 15m. I was also interested in the installed field strength meter near the antennas.
Barrie was, until recently, a keen home brewer. He still has a number of rigs in his possession including DC Receivers, Transmitters and Control circuits plus an excellent range of homebrewed test equipment. He truly embodies the spirit of QRP home brew and what ham radio is all about. Barrie kindly passed on a number of valuable parts and books to me during my visit. These will help me greatly in my own home brew projects. Many thanks Barrie and I look forward to many more FB CW QSO's with ZS6AJY.
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| ZS6AJY OM Barrie |
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| ZS6AJY's Ten Tec vintage Station |
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