I knew a chicken farmer out there who used to run some lights in his chicken shed from energy picked up off the wire fence. All it took was an OA210 diode! Used to flicker a bit tho....!

G'Day Marcc, been sided tracked doing other things, and never got to reply to you about the Stainless steel tape, work has been full on the last five months, the company made record profit for three months in a row, go figure that, and all the companies I deal with are in a similar situation, bit strange when the media says it's all doom and gloom, I was hoping they would keep the shut down going longer, fuel prices were down, the roads were safe to drive on and the reduction in fuel usage getting around.
The first week they reduced the restrictions, there was 5 accidents on the roads I travel on, the first day, and they all seem to be in such hurry to get anywhere, most can't seem to be able to read the speed signs or simply don't care.

But your comment regarding the stainless steel tape electric fence wire is true, it would be an exercise in futility, trying to solder to it, but there is stainless steel clamps and bolts, an eyelet placed over the bolt, makes a great connection and short wire from that eyelet to another on the bolt on the box for the matching transformer, the antenna has been up for a while, because it's light, it survives the crazy westerly winds we get here on the mountain ridge and has gone through a few storms, although they are very rare lately, been in drought for over 3 years, we received a good amount of rain for a week around February and the dam was half full, has been dry for 3 years, and a month later all the westerly winds have dried every thing out again, and no follow up rains, although the forecast released this week is looking good, with average and above average rainfall forecast for the rest of the year and into next year, hopefully we get the rain this weekend, they have predicted, feeding 25+ wallabies at night to supplement their food, as there is mostly dirt and dust, and very little grass. go to work in Brisbane and every thing is green, the other blokes in the workshop are complaining about mowing their grass.
I haven't seen a reduction in performance of the antenna, and the antenna analysler is showing a similar return loss as it was when it was installed, so the connections, must still be fine. This was made for the 80 meter amateur band and covers the 80 meter through to the 10 meter band and does have a sweet spot around 600 kHz. When I get a chance, there will be a few more going up in different directions, may even try phasing them. they just work so well....

It's good to get the antennas up, but the sad fact is, the programming leaves a lot to be desired, and most of it is not too great for vintage radios, maybe for some 1970's stuff, and even that is hard to find.
Brisbane radio 4BH, went to an infotainment talk station a few years back, and is now back to a late 70's - 80's -90's format, with around 80% music, which is a change, but the song rotation is not very random, so it's the same almost every day, give or take a few hours.

Fluke,
How's the TVs coming along?
Yeah Am is dead in the bag now, But so is free to Air TV ,use to be great once with movies at mid day and right through the night,
Didn't know how good we had it really!
Mind you it's great not to see Ray Martin anymore with his pearly whites! Charming all the old bags.

Pete

One does not solder the fencing wire either its terminals & line taps. There is provision to ground it during lightning as it will act as an umbrella.

City people are strange people when it comes to lawn: Mow it, then water & fertilise it causing it to grow like hell & need cutting next weekend

Yep have the grounding on the antenna feed lines and the tower, fine on the water & fertiliser, in the city, hopefully we don't get excessive rain fall again, after the last drought,10 years or so back, we had 3 floods through the area....

Hey Pete, yep radio programming is not the best any more. TV, Gem still has some movies on, a lot of old stuff from the 50's and 60's.

I find youtube has a lot of stuff, for both music and interesting programming, I like the 50's and 60's sci fi, and there is heaps of it online.

any one know much about Ferris 1950's TV's

My best earth at the previous abode was the bore casing; 120 ft into water. Tonight this ones getting tested, Neon started flashing with the storm 10 miles away. Naturally with the damaged lungs playing up since March, with the thunderstorm, their at it again.

Its now deciding how hard it will rain on a rubbish fire I lit early in the day, to encourage it to put it out for spite.

That is one brilliant earthing method. We are on iron stone/sandstone, so not the best, just the usual 2 meter earth rods.
we were supposed to get storms tonight, but it seems, bom have not been too good at the predictions, it was supposed to rain on thursday and friday, but we got nothing, supposed to be 15 to 30 mm tomorrow, but with the predictions so far, I won't hold my breath.
I seen the storms on the radar going through Horsham and heading towards melbourne.

Fluke,.
Ferris, quite rare and collectable.
The only ones I have seen were gold?
Good looking sets , wouldn't mind one myself,They had American type styling to them with their 50s modern living Atomic look.
That's actually our down fall a bit ,most of our TV sets were very plain looking TV sets.
Often with boring old 40s styling in chunky square walnut cabinets that looked like sewing machines. We Weren't very Adventurous with our styling back than that's for sure. A couple of sets tried ,but nothing along the lines of George Jetson, like they had overseas.
You look at the TV sets from overseas from the 50s and 60s they are just mind blowing in terms of looks and design...not to mention technology ,They had colour sets donkey's years before us .

Pete

There was a Ferris in a shop in Newtown about 2 years ago I wanted, but he wanted 500 hundred for it , it was then sent over to Mitchell road to be sold when the shop closed down.That would of been the last Set I saw.

I was buying a few things from a deceased estate, I was one of the amateur radio operators from a club I was involved with since a kid, The bloke started worked for the music masters company as an apprentice and was a technician with them, his brother was clearing out the house, there was stuff every where, most of it was donated to the local radio club, and I got a lot of stuff, that would have been thrown out, there was three TV's that I was going to collect, but with all the restrictions, we were expecting a call, to come and collect. I Get a call from Matt in Stanthorpe, He is a big collector of TV's and he was asking me about the Ferris, he purchased it for $150 off of market place, he was was asking if I knew anything about it, as there is no info on the net, it has two wires loose and he is not sure where they come from. The cabinet is in great condition, but missing the plastic around the controls, I am not sure if the chassis is original or weather it was a home made chassis, the bloke used to build TV's and radios.
There was a 2 meter long wooden crate with radio chassis in it, I think they were NOS Music Masters chassis, but the light wasn't the good under the house, I am sure that they were dumped, after along with a lot of other stuff, what a pain...i am happy with what I manged to save...

Ian would know more about that model, keep an eye on this post ,he will find it

It's sad when things are getting throw out as mostly it's 60 years old!
If the mask is missing? They are a odd one as it works more like a piece of trim around the edge of the cabinet I think
I guess it has not got the long legs either?
They had very long legs.
Pete

Has the Legs, Matt, said the cabinet came up so well after a clean and polish, like knew.
finally starting to rain here, have been watching it move South east past Toowoomba, for a few hours.

I have schematics for that Ferris if you need.

One version was very similar to the RTV&H TV.

Fluke,.
Told you he would find the post,
Yeah the weather is changing here I was up in mountains today and yackandandah ,there is shop there with lots of Very old electronic test equipment. Frequently tester and lots of Other test gear ,but I don't know what it is.
Probably an arm and leg too.
Pete

If that's the one I think it is the collector I fix stuff for has acquired some of that stuff there. If you take photo of it then it can probably be identified (eventually).

Down near the bridge there is / was a former PMG linesman who was the last time I was there, building a telephone exchange. Should be surely finished by now. Its quite a while since I had reason to go to Yak.

Marcc,
Yes probably the same fella, But you know the town is set up for Melbourne boomers on a day trip and I just call in for a look and a bit of fun . ..
I went there to Test a camera up in the mountains,Rather than just test it at home.
I go up in Alpine area every chance I get . Good part of the world all up that way.

Pete