Back to the workbench for a bit, to build a sandflag that’s also an antenna.
This one was somewhat popular, and went on to be used on our Canning trip.
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A sand flag is yet another sticky-up thing on your vehicle, but unlike the rest of those things on our vehicle, this one’s not an antenna. But could it be? How hard can it be? Just wrap some wire around it and adjust on the NanoVNA? We give it a go and find out.
Some were confused at the use of the Royal Merchant Navy flag, forgetting that it originally had a meaning unrelated to conspiracy theories.
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Point Nepean’s quite a historical place. It’s the site of two major shipping-related disasters, it was where the first British shots of World War I and World War II were fired, and it was where we “lost” a prime minister.
We explore its use as a former quarantine station, then head down to the tip to take a look at its’ military history.
Final Cut Pro, mTracker 3D, mCallouts, OmniGraffle
Subscribers when released
262
Trivia/Background:
First video to take place entirely on a bike.
This one actually proved to be quite popular - it’s an interesting spot.
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You’ve all seen a poster of the solar system - showing the Sun and all eight planets (nine if it’s when Pluto was still considered a planet!). But you can’t make this poster properly to scale, or else the planets would mostly be too small to see. They truly are tiny compared to how far they are from the sun - and to get the full sense of scale we’d have to make a very large model indeed.
Which, in 2008, happened along the Bay Trail, that runs along the foreshore of Melbourne - here’s what it’s like from the Sun to Pluto.
Bonus fact for those still reading:
In the description for the planet Mercury, I mentioned the metal Mercury. This liquid metal was previously known as Quicksilver or Hydrargyrum (which you’ll know from its chemical symbol Hg). The name we use in modern English, “Mercury” does in fact come from the name of the planet - as it was decided to be preferable to “Quicksilver” for the name of the element.
How did the planet get this name though? The definitions actually come from alchemy, which can charitably be described as an ancient and somewhat less evidence based attempt at chemistry. The seven metals known to antiquity were assigned to the seven planets of the solar system - the Sun was gold, the Moon silver, Mercury was mercury, Venus was copper, Mars was iron, Jupiter was tin and Saturn was lead.
There’s two things you’ll note here - firstly, the definition of “planet” was a little different back then - including the Sun and the Moon. Secondly Mercury is of course the odd one out in that the name stuck, but had the rest of them stuck, your roll of 63/37 lead/tin solder would be referred to as Saturn/Jupiter solder, or one of the modern RoHS equivalent being Jupiter/Moon/Venus…
Another mountain, another video, this one having some interesting history. Shame it was so cloudy.
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In this video, we head out to climb Mt Torbreck, a 1516m high mountain 150km north-east of Melbourne near the Cathedral Ranges. Many years ago, it was gazetted to become an alpine resort but for whatever reason, no company ever applied to lease it and unlike others such as Mt Baw Baw, Lake Mountain or Falls Creek, one was never built here.
It’s not for lack of mountain either, it’s 34m higher than Lake Mountain, and just over 250m higher than Mt Donna Buang - which gives many people some fun in the snow for free.
All it ever got was a picnic table, and it was removed from the gazetted list, to later be designated a Scenic and Natural Features Reserve - not quite a state park, and not a national park either.
Then we go and visit the Avro Anson memorial - the site of a plane crash during World War II, the path to which was since lost to the forest, but comparatively recently cleared and reopened.
After that we check out Snobs Creek Falls on the way out - an unassuming staircase from the road but a very spectacular waterfall when you head down to it.
Many OmniGraffle diagrams, and “borrowed” images in this one, for want of any real footage.
This one was a lot more work than I thought it would be.
The interesting thing is that the trip on which this is partially filmed now has videos in seasons 4, 5 and 6.
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Big Lizzie - in Mildura, she’s “the big tractor” but she’s so much more than that. Not a mere fibreglass replica created for a roadside attraction, she was an actual working tractor… kind-of. She was one of a kind in many ways, including her wheels which featured a very unique technology to better cover sandy terrain almost completely unique to her. I cover her story, what she was used for and her technical specifications.
Like the Dreadnought Wheel, the Nernst Lamp (
https://youtu.be/rxo-Rw6ppc0 ) was another promising technology, providing a better alternative to existing filament designs light bulbs. It used a ceramic filament instead, which doesn’t burn out at high temperatures when exposed to oxygen. It was promising, but soon forgotten as tungsten filament light bulbs in a glass enclosure filled with inert gas provided greater efficiency, similar to how the caterpillar track replaced the dreadnought wheel.
The first bit of this video was filmed long before the second, but we didn’t use the device until a bit later.
Ordering the Bunnings Rack-It shelving was a total farce, with several stores being completely uninterested in selling it to me, and I wasn’t even able to successfully order it until I signed up as a trade customer and spoke to a trade manager personally…
I arbitrarily declared this was Season 6, making Season 5 a bit shorter than 3 or 2, but it seemed logical.
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I make an adaptor to power my GoPro off a spare battery pack for my bike light, allowing you to have a helmet cam with 15 hours of battery life, compared to the stock 40 minutes. Then while XSS and I build our new workbench and storage (Bunnings Rack-It shelving), I leave it recording to see how long it’ll last.
00:00 Intro
00:30 Building the GoPro Battery Pack
01:27 Timelapse Setup
01:35 Workbench Build
05:28 Outro
The last video in the set, filmed after we got back from the Murray Sunset trip.
Partially filmed at Brighton Beach, where 200 series LandCruisers are a common sight - although typically a lot less modified than ours.
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Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In the eighth and final instalment of this series, I cover what we decided to do about roof racks and why we finally decided to do it. In the end we selected the Rhino Rack Pioneer platform, but how does it go together? Following this, I cover the ever-present issue of overloading roof racks - how much weight can you put up there and does all of our stuff exceed it?
00:00 Intro
00:24 Why the sudden need?
00:50 What did we get?
01:05 So, weight limits, you say?
02:39 How much does all this weigh?
05:03 Positioning is annoying…
05:57 RTS540 Tracks
06:54 Outro
Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In the seventh instalment of the series, we cover the rear fitout - Kings drawers with added L-Track by us, OCAM fridge slide with Engel MT-45FP Combi Fridge/Freezer (and should you bother splitting it?), Expedition 134 containers and how to tie them down (our DIY solution to a lack of double-J hook cambuckle straps), tools, spare parts, emergency supplies and all the spare parts we keep. Plus, how large is the Zempire Slatpac Large table anyway? We’ve had it backordered since we came back from QLD - almost a year now, and it’s finally here!
00:00 Intro
00:03 Drawers from “you know who” but with a difference - L-track
00:24 Fridge Slide - just a simple tilt slide
01:25 Engel MT-45FP Combi - but do we use the Combi?
02:04 Expedition 134 boxes
03:13 Building better tie-down straps
03:45 Other stuff in the back
04:20 Water Storage
04:32 Left Drawer - tent pegs, first aid kit, tools, Haynes manual, emergency food, repair kit, parts tray
06:25 Right Drawer - already covered
06:31 Tailgate - a few more tools
07:12 Up Next / Outro
This was the one everyone was interested in, it seems. But given the audience of this channel, it’s understandable why.
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Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In the sixth instalment of the series, we talk about all the radio gear, and what all the antennas are for, covering the Icom 7100 HF/VHF/UHF radio, Codan 9323 HF radio, Uniden UH5060 UHF CB, then cover antennas - Diamond NR770HSP 2/70, Diamond HF30CL, RFI Mopole, Codan 9350, why mounting one became a little trickier than when it was originally made, and the three whips we have for it, the RFI CD7194 4G antenna, Mikrotik RBM11G with Sierra Wireless MC7430, how you power all of this without standby drain, and how you make the vehicle quieter in the HF band so that you can hear incoming radio signals over the vehicle’s radio noise.
00:00 Intro
00:08 Icom 7100 Amateur HF/UHF/VHF
00:37 Codan 9323 and Commercial HF Radio Networks
01:34 HF APRS - position tracking over the radio
02:31 Uniden UH5060 UHF CB and how to hide it in the dash
03:18 Rolling Cactus of Antennas - NR770HSP 2/70
03:36 HF30CL 30m HF
04:20 RFI CD-51-68-50 UHF CB
05:26 Codan 9350 autotuner and why mounting it is so hard
06:21 Codan 9350 whips and how it works internally
08:25 RFI CD7194 4G (with Band 28) antenna and 4G modem setup
09:27 Taoglas GSA.8827.A.101111 On-Glass 4G antenna
09:40 Icom 7100 base unit and how to connect it to the Codan 9350 antenna
10:22 Codan 9323 base unit
10:40 GPS receiver, Raspberry Pi 4, DigiRig, and a bunch of RTL-SDRs
11:54 Down the back - Mikrotik HaP ac for WiFi from the 4G modem
12:47 How to wire up 4G modem and Raspberry Pi for auto-shutdown to save battery
14:11 HF noise reduction and how to do it
16:33 Up Next / Outro
The fifth instalment, with a few interesting things…
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Full Series Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3k_zbyfFeEdLOsk_c6juJsdDqvMGZgP7
In the fifth instalment in this series, I cover the Ultragauge, how to have a USB charged drill and impact driver (Milwaukee M12), all of the 5v charging sockets, RAM mounts, reversing cameras, and the best $2 we ever spent (replacing interior light bulbs with LED).
00:00 Intro
00:02 Ultragauge MX 1.4
01:47 USB Charging cables
02:14 How to charge drill batteries off USB - M12 Compact Charger and Power Source
03:03 Dashcam
03:17 Drivers side USB
03:34 Amazon Echo Dot as Bluetooth receiver
04:42 RAM Mounts for phone holders and radio heads
06:51 Reversing Camera
07:58 Fire Extinguisher
08:19 Best $2 ever spent
08:34 Up Next / Outro
