QRZ de VK2AAF

[VK4KL]

Happy it arrived quickly. Sometimes mail takes a week or so to/from here to anywhere.
That's the way the transverter arrived here about 12 months ago. Was going to do something about getting it on air but a Mutek TVVF 50a with 50w linear arrived a little after getting the one you got and I never did do anything about getting it on air.
Hope you have fun with it.

Adrian

[VK2AAF]

Thanks a million, Adrian.

So it happens, the last owner of my 735 used it primarily for transverters, so I got a homebrew multi-transverter selector box & cabling to suit the transverter you sent me.

I'm not sure the IC-735 has enough output from its 30 mV transverter connection to drive the Hamtronics 6m strip, but we'll sure find out! If not, I'll pad down the output from the PA & run it that way. Regardless, the last owner of the 735 is an expert in such things and surely will be able to advise me.

Thanks again!

73 de Brian

[VK/9V1CJ]

Thanks, Richard.

As I understand it, level 1 calls are assigned on 1st available basis.

I'm not sure how long I'll hold VK2AAF- I have my eye on a 2 letter call, since the reciprocal licence scheme means I get an Advanced ticket. 'Alpha alpha foxtrot' is a bit of a mouthful. Watching the available callsigns closely. If one I like happens to come available around the same time I have a spare $53, all bets are off.

73 de Brian

I was in the same boat
I gave up looking and decided a 3 letter would have to do. "Victor Kilo Four X-ray Charlie Juliet" wasn't that bad, though I still prefer "Nine Victor One Charlie Juliet"

[VK2AAF]

Cookies for VK4KL!



Here's hoping Aus Post are kind to them!

73 de Brian

[VK3AIF]

What sort of sadistic person would post a picture like this here. On a weight watchers forum I could understand but here

[VK2AAH]

The reason why some of us resemble the way we are... but give me Tim Tams... you Americans need to be educated better on Tim Tams... I've got 16 packs with me, doing my bit for US health!

Cheers


Richard

[VK2AAF]

What sort of sadistic person would post a picture like this here. On a weight watchers forum I could understand but here

I am pure evil. FEAR ME.

The reason why some of us resemble the way we are... but give me Tim Tams... you Americans need to be educated better on Tim Tams... I've got 16 packs with me, doing my bit for US health!

The secret of Tim Tams filtered out to the US yonks ago. They became popular enough through private onesy-twosy importation that they are now made in the US under licence by well-known biscuit slingers Pepperidge Farms.

Want some of my savage, evil biscuits? Tempt me with your unwanted kit!

73 de Brian

[VK2AAH]

Still a big secret in the US Brian, few people I've come across in the US have even heard of them. Most who have are addicted to them. Also you will find those packets branded Pepperidge Farm are made in Australia by Arnotts (both are owned by Campbells foods). I was meeting the owner of a Californian coffee company the other day & introduced them to her because we know how great they are with coffee... no I don't work for Arnotts but I'm happy for them to send me some free packs to act as roving ambassador!

For further info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Tam

Cheers

Richard
VK2AAH/W7.

[VK2AAF]

Thanks for that Richard. I'm sure a few yanks have yet to hear of Tim Tams. Mind, I'm not one of them, I have lived in Aus now for 17 years. Tim Tams were one of the first things brought to my attention in 1996.

73 de Brian

[VK3AIF]

I am reliably informed that it is delightful to bite off diagonal corners of tim tams and drink port through them using afore mentioned tim tam as a straw? While I have never engaged in this folly I have witnessed others practising the art, I had not seen the need to drink port in this manner

[VK1VMA]

I used to spend a lot of travel between Australia the USA in a previous job. Tim-Tams were like currency. A great way to earn favours and get people on-side

[VK4GHZ]

...Tim-Tams were like currency. A great way to earn favours and get people on-side

I'll keep that in mind if I get along to Dayton, one year!

[VK2AAF]

I am reliably informed that it is delightful to bite off diagonal corners of tim tams and drink port through them using afore mentioned tim tam as a straw? While I have never engaged in this folly I have witnessed others practising the art, I had not seen the need to drink port in this manner

I suppose if you like to drink port, there'd be little cause to despoil the drop with a TimTam. It does sound a bit of a folly!

I used to spend a lot of travel between Australia the USA in a previous job. Tim-Tams were like currency. A great way to earn favours and get people on-side

Too right. I still send a packet or two overseas from time to time in exchange for a kindness. In Australia, though, choc chip cookies are the go.

I'll keep that in mind if I get along to Dayton, one year!

A packet of Tim Tams at Dayton would make you very popular, indeed.

I've done the 'Ham Hajj' to Dayton many times- it's a stonesthrow from my former residence in Indianapolis. It's a monster- and even spanning 3 days, ~25,000 hams attending really tax Hara Arena to its limits. Not really practical to make it a 4 day event & there's not many other venues in Dayton bigger than Hara. If you ever want to go, book tix the previous year! Pretty sure Hamvention 2014 is already sold out!

73 de Brian

[VK4KL]

Chocolate chips cookies arrived, with thanks, but not in the condition they were sent. Looks like auspost used the package as a football .
Anyway I can vouch for the fact that they taste niiiiice.


Adrian

PS your cookies have had the seal of approval from the 3 ladies in my life, wife, daughter and granddaughter. wife wants to know what it would take to get the recipe?

[VK2AAF]

I'm so sorry, Adrian! I had hoped the bubble wrap and multiple "FRAGILE" labels would stop them being turned to crumbs.

I suspect the "FRAGILE" labels were an invitation to the rotten malcontented beggars.

*sigh*

Good that what's left of them tastes OK, though.

As regards the recipe, they're a straight rendition of the old standby Betty Crocker cookbook recipe with the addition of 1/2c of sultanas & about 1/4c of Queen brand maple syrup. I'll search up the recipe & transcribe it here in a bit.

73 de Brian

[VK3AIF]

Warning Brian,

If you put the secret recipe up here you will be loosing or at least substantially reducing your bargaining power

I had been searching through the junk box for some treasure that I might have been able to bribe you into sending me some chock chip cookies but now I think I'll hold off for a bit?

73

[VK2AAF]

Heh, I never reveal ALL of my kitchencraft secrets. There is a bit of trickery required to get uniform, crisp cookies- which most kitchen wizards will know, but I'll never tell.

Mind, in the case of Adrian's ill-fated batch, this secret technique probably was counterproductive...

73 de Brian

[VK3HJ]

I've baked Anzac bikkies a number of times. Easy recipe.
But, I never did figure out why sometimes they turned out crispy, and other times chewy! Equally nice either way.
Perhaps chewy Choc Chip bikkies would travel better?
I heard that the number attending Dayton this year was down on what was expected. Maybe the same space was taken up by fewer Larger Hams who have enjoyed Choc Chip Cookies a bit too much since last year?
Another common currency here for tradesman mates is beer. You can get a lot done for payment of a box of VB!
73,
Luke VK3HJ

[VK2AAF]

ANZAC bikkies are hard as bricks- they would travel well. As I understand it, the Diggers who got them in war zones often made a porridge out of them with milk. ANZAC bikkies get their legendary chewiness/hardness mainly from caramelising of the golden syrup & brown sugar in the recipe while baking. Baked properly, the temperature will exceed the 'hard crack' point of the sugars, as you intentionally do in boiled sweets so you get a rock-solid candification.

You can vary the crispness of a cookie (or biscuit if you prefer) by varying the temperature of the dough immediately before baking. Chilled dough tends to yield a crisp cookie; room temperature dough will yield a somewhat chewier cookie. Also, you can vary the ratio of flour to fat to get a stiffer cookie.

I've long maintained that baking is science for people who like to eat! Lots of curious things happen when sugars caramelise and protein chains lengthen as a result of exposure to heat.

Attendance figures at Dayton in recent years have been pretty steady, up a bit since 2008. But yeah, hams have a tendency toward the rotund- and American hams especially so. It's a rather sedentary hobby. I have observed that Australians in general tend to have better dietary habits and are less likely to be as obese as yanks- but we're losing our Aussie edge as time rolls on (pun intended).

It's true- a few 807s do make a good in-kind payment. Requires a bit of pre-planning in my case as I've not touched the stuff in about 15 years. I was smashed off a motorbike by a drink driver, which has left me a disabled pensioner. Aside from having no love lost on dipsomaniacs, I find that ethanol exacerbates the joint injuries I have to live with. Doesn't mean I won't deliver a few coldies in return for a kindness. And speaking of that- there's likely going to be a tower-raising do in coming months up here in the mountains!

73 de Brian