Month: December 2013

Australia’s NBN debacle limps on under a new government and new CEO

In an attempt to fix up a government orchestrated flawed regulatory and market environment that saw the dominant carrier digging its heels in to regain the right to install infrastructure that it was not required to share with competitors (ie, to allow it to reestablish a monopoly), the Labour government called for tenders from organisations to provide a National Broadband Network on its terms.

No contracts were awarded, government decided the way forward was for it to own the access network, at least for the interim, and so return to the situation that existed prior to the partial privatisation of Telstra in 1997.

Continue reading Australia’s NBN debacle limps on under a new government and new CEO

Last update: 16th February, 2014, 8:06 PM

IC-7000 current consumption

This article describes measurement of an Icom IC-7000 current consumption during SSB telephony transmission.

The capture is of an IC7000 running 100W PEP with compression off. I have read copy as loudly and consistently as I could with barely a breath, so it is an overestimate of current consumption. There was small ALC deflection, but not so much as to effectively provide compression. Compression will draw higher current, depending on the level of compression. Note too, that like many Icom radios, the IC7000 draws a relatively high current key down with no audio (4.5A here).

IC7000 current consumption
IC7000 current consumption

Continue reading IC-7000 current consumption

Last update: 10th February, 2018, 6:57 PM

owenduffy.net rework

With the closure of VK1OD.net as a consequence of an enforced change of call sign, a monument to the growing emphasis on train spotting in ham radio, owenduffy.net is being reorganised.

It will essentially be a blog site with a mainly electronics focus, but less ham radio focussed than was vk1od.net.

Articles will be shorter, and expose less proof / derivation / evidence to better meet the needs of modern people who I am told just don’t have time for all that stuff.

Some meatier topics will appear as a series of bite size articles to better fit the concentration span of modern readers.

Nevertheless, there will be some citations, but I will keep them to a minimum.

Excuse the large extent of self citation. It is not done for self promotion, but to acknowledge that some material is based on earlier work, some of which may be offline… and to remind me of where to look if I need to follow-up comments on the article.

Last update: 10th December, 2014, 3:38 PM