What a busy year it has been! A change in my employment certainly hasn't let me ease up a bit and have more time to spare but it is a case of striking whilst the iron is hot. No holidays for me over this break, aside from the three public holidays but there will be time toward Easter when I take a big break.

2019 saw stability and reliability come back to Vintage Radio after quite a bit of turmoil with the connection to the old servers. Whilst we are still using the original forum software, developed so long ago, at least it is accessible and working. With the new job I scored in July, there's no telling when I will get around to finishing the new software (the part of the site that has the white background and all the static pages) but in order to speed things up, if I ever win some big money I will just pay a company to get it finished.

Between now and New Year I hope to have the Wanted and For Sale forum open for business. The updated coding is complete but I've had no spare time available to complete bug testing and any necessary fixes. Once this is done it'll be available again.

Without further delay, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all members and guests. Whilst I provide the site, the server and the administrative role, it is you that makes a site like this work. All the best for 2020 and hopefully a successful year with the collecting, restoring, repairing and everything else to do with this great hobby.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Thanks for the greetings Brad and likewise to yourself and family. Thanks for all the work done this year and others past.

No lack of bushfire smoke I think Christmas will be a rather subdued event this year.

Thanks to all the magnificent fire fighters out there.

No shortage of smoke here & there is a lot of blood on the hands on those who have stopped us burning the aboriginal way. One wonders if they have the brains to realise that its them (the actions of foolish man) not global warming that has caused this catastrophe.

Visibility here is barely at 14:30 600m at 14:00 the temp was just going through 42 degrees in the shade. "Ventusky" will show that on the inland side of the divide there is a Northerly airstream dragging smoke from NSW & QLD into Southern NSW & Northern Victoria. Having a chemically burnt respiratory system this crap is not helpful. So one can have empathy with the fire fighters that just got theirs burnt.

They may be in the position I am in and have permanent damage, so going near bushfires will now be a lifetime no no! Because of the lunacy of a few: Many are going to have a miserable Christmas.

Not the way it should be.

The trick today will be driving just about anywhere. The Great Western Highway, Hume Highway and Princes Highway are either already closed, awaiting the arrival of fire fronts and if the fires venture closer to Sydney then it may end up being a repeat of what we got 25 years ago when the national parks here went up.

I still maintain that if arsonists are tied up and horse-whipped in public that there would be a potent deterrent to most of those thinking of starting fires. These floggings should simply continue until the perpetrator can no longer support their own weight. Any government allowing this would get my vote.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Agree 100%. I'd still fine them with the cost of the operations, the costs to rebuild, and if anyone died, charge them with murder.

Also, it's possible the M1 around Gosford could be closed too. This would mean no exits from Sydney, when you take into account that the Old Hume Hwy, Wilson Drive, Kings Hwy, Putty Road and Bells Line of Road are already all closed. Not sure about Old Northern Rd, but it probably is closed too.

One can escape from Sydney and likely the only safe way will be by boat: The sea won't burn.

Here's the latest road closures:-

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/drivers-stuck-as-bushfires-close-numerous-roads-around-nsw/news-story/ccce6f243d0ff183750d8ee409cd1d56

Do note that there is a distinction between the Old Hume Highway and the M31 Hume Motorway. The latter is still open at this stage.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Now wasn't it the lunatic element that said Scomo caused the fires: So why are they demanding that he come back to cause more?

I can see the effect of climate change, its the heat frying what little there is of their brains: The fire intensity is wholly their man made stupidity. The blood is on their hands and there's another dead today in SA because of it.

For many the only Christmas crackling their going to get, is from their house burning.

Over 100 fires deliberately lit in NSW alone. I can't quite see the link between that and climate change?????

When I saw Sarah Hanson-Young and David Shoebridge leading a protest outside Kirribilli House the other day I felt like chucking up the last three meals I ate. The outrage industry seems to know no bounds. The beauty of Australia being a federation instead of a unitary state is that no level of government has overarching responsibility over everything. With that, I am quite comfortable with the fact that the PM took his family on a holiday. Since all emergency services are a state responsibility (and the NSW Premier is still in town overseeing the emergency response) everything is running as it should.

It seems that every time something goes wrong these days, either the PM is to blame or there are demands for a Royal Commission. Some people need to wake up to themselves.

I took a trip west this afternoon to have a looksee at three of the fires and managed to take some photos. I have a Canon 7D with, amongst other things, a 70-200mm L-series lens coupled to a 2X extender and this helps with taking some reasonable photos whilst staying out of the road of fire trucks.

The Great Western Highway is closed at Katoomba and this may go on for a while. On my return trip to Sydney I couldn't help noticing a fleet of highway patrol cars and fire trucks heading west - most likely to boost the response to the fire that has crossed Bells Line of Road and headed into the Grose Valley.

Whilst at the side of a local road in Wentworth Falls I spoke to a bloke who works at the nursery at Mt Boyce, just past Mt Victoria and he said that the dam the nursery has for watering their plants has been sucked dry by air cranes responding to the Grose Valley fire. It's a case of take what is needed. Anyone who owns a backyard pool in the area can probably expect it to be empty tomorrow morning.

Another worry is the fire near the Mt Piper Power Station. The power station itself should be fine as it is surrounded by a clearing but coal-fired power stations generally have at least three days' supply of coal on hand and if flying embers end up on these piles of coal it will start a fire that no-one can put out and that would put the power station at risk of damage or loss of output.

In order:-

1. Gospers Mountain Fire - Distance approx. 20km (yes, the flames are big!)
2. Gospers Mountain Fire - Distance approx. 20km.
3. Mount Solitary Fire - Distance approx. 4km.
4. Spot fire in front of the Ruined Castle - Distance approx. 1km.

The photos look a little grainy as I have filtered out all the red sunlight.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Yep! Lunatics lighting them, & lunatics preventing, us from using 50K+ years of practical experience that would reduce the damage to next to nothing. Meanwhile I spent Christmas & the summer, no holidays here whist sitting next to a powder keg.

Photos uploaded to Post 10.

With the nor-westerly wind today and tonight's southerly buster these fires and the one that closed the Hume Motorway at Narellan late this arvo are just being pushed closer to Sydney.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

Reminds me of 2003 here; I could stand on a lookout which is on part of the Warby Ranges and look toward the Victorian Alps & see a 70 degree arc of fire.

Marc

I spent yesterday at Hill Top. Around midday the emergency SMS arrived. Not long after, the power went out. I dressed up in the protective gear and went outside with my neighbour to watch for approaching flames. There was a lot of smoke and many helicopters carrying water. They did a good job because the flames never appeared. I suspect the outlying northern part of the village may have been damaged, but nothing's been heard as yet. At 4:15 the power came back on. At about 8 the Hume Motorway was opened, so I took the opportunity to come back home to Sydney. As I left my property I could see a red glow in the sky to the west.

I brought back most of the stuff that matters. (no old radios)

I love coming up with improbable conspiracy theories. Do you think these fires could have been started by agents of a country that is a known heavy polluter, a country which practices economic warfare with the belts and braces thingy, a country which so desperate to control us that they sue when one of their state-controlled companies loses a contract? Something to think about for a minute or two, I suppose.

QUOTE: "On the afternoon of October 26, an unseasonably warm Saturday following a run of hot days, the wind picked up over the Blue Mountains and lightning stabbed at the ranges. One bolt made ground near a disused airstrip at Gospers Mountain, a densely grown area of the Wollemi National Park, and prickled the kindling into life. It would become the epicentre of the biggest forest fire to have started from a single ignition point that Australia has ever known."

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/the-monster-a-short-history-of-australia-s-biggest-forest-fire-20191218-p53l4y.html