Last night I spoke about Digital Photography at the Manly Warringah Radio Society , a club for ham radio operators. I decided to structure the talk in such a way that it drew parallels between digital photography and ham radio.

First I compare a digital camera to a ham radio station based on a software defined radio (SDR). Just like we use radio antennas to collect ravio waves, a camera lens collects light waves. Both digital cameras and SDRs contain an analogue-to-digital converter to convert waves into a digital signal. They also have digital processors to convert the received signals into a form perceivable by human ears and eyes

When I was studying Japanese at TAFE, our teacher Masa-sensei taught us a silly song to remember how to produce the 〜て form of a verb, given its 〜ます stem or its dictionary form.

He told us that he designed the song to be sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is coming to town” so that every year at Christmas time we would hear the tune and be reminded of how to make 〜て form.

One of the common complaints about the Sony A7 series of cameras is that they do not have a flip-around screen that allows you to frame the shot when you are taking a selfie. I managed to put together a solution for this out of some parts I had laying around.

It consists of:

• Sony A7 series camera- Hotshoe adaptor with 1/4” screw
• Smartphone holder which accepts 1/4” screw
• Joby Gorillapod with Arca-Swiss mount to accept the plate on bottom of the camera (I use a Peak Design dual plate to make the camera compatible with both Arca
• Swiss and Manfrotto RC2 mounts)
• [optional] micro-USB shutter release cable (otherwise just use the self-timer on the camera)
• Smartphone with Sony Imaging Edge app installed and paired to the camera

In this way, the camera can be placed on the Joby gorillapod which acts as a “selfie stick”, and the remote view on the Sony Imaging Edge app on the smartphone allows you to frame the shot and you can tap it to release the shutter.

I just recently acquired the new Sony A7R4 mirrorless full frame camera, and have been working through the focusing systems on this camera. One of the questions that comes up is whether or not to use back button focus.

As you can see, it has an “AF ON” button on the back that would be perfect for this. All you need to do is to go into the menu and set the “AF w/ Shutter” option to “OFF”. This prevents the shutter button from activating auto focus, and instead you can activate the auto focus via the “AF-ON” button on the back. I assigned the “Focus Mode” to the C3 button on the back, and set the focus mode to “AF-C” (continuous autofocus). So, how did this work out?

I have been building an Elecraft K2 kit radio , and I completed construction this Easter weekend.

When I ordered the kit, I didn’t order the internal ATU or the 100W amplifier option, as I already have an Elecraft KXPA100 amplifier with KXAT100 ATU . However, this amplifier is designed to work with the KX3 radio, and so to get it to work with the K2, I would need to build up a keying circuit.

At my local radio club, one of the members likes to hop on the 80 metre band with his morse code key. We were discussing what might be some good topics for upcoming lectures, and he mentioned that he was curious about beverage antennas.

I didn’t know anthing about this topic, so I thought it would be great to go away, do some research and learn about them so I could deliver a lecture. It seems indeed that beverage antennas are a great option for receiving signals on the low bands, but they do require a huge amount of space, and are less well suited at a transmissing antenna.