Source of Aluminium Lined Plastic Water Pipe?

Morning Joe,

What fun - in these days of globalisation it's odd to run into trouble finding a commonplace item like pipe. For some reason that particular type hasn't caught on in the UK. Plug-in plastic plumbing, no problem, but not if you insist on an Aluminium barrier. The main use of aluminium here seems to be underfloor heating and brownfield protection, both a little expensive.

I would never have guessed that a site 40m away from the sea would be a poor HF location. But, like here, the main problem is noisy neighbours!

Interested to read why you abandoned your transmit loop. They're not miracle workers and I'd much prefer a wire antenna if possible. A friend tried a magnetic loop with much the same results as you. He had most success receiving on the loop while transmitting with a low dipole. But he soon got fed up having to turn the loop to get the best signal to noise ratio for each and every contact!

For broadband receive up to four untuned loops can be connected to this LZ1AQ broadband amplifier making an active antenna. (other makes available). A description of how it works with various loop configurations in this pdf. It has some chance of solving my receive noise problem by only reacting to the magnetic part of the wave, by being well-balanced, and because I might be able to null out the worst local noise. As you know there's a great deal of untrustworthy antenna lore about. I hope this approach will work for me, but don't be too surprised if I report failure in a week or two!

One reason I bought the KiwiSDR is that it displays on a web browser and can be accessed over the internet. As the other home-owners in my family have better locations than me, it might be possible to operate with a remote receiver. Not quite sure how I shall persuade them to fill their gardens with poles and wire...

Thanks for the offer of a vacuum capacitor - that's extremely generous! Can I hold fire on that until I decide to build a transmit loop? I wouldn't want to sit on a hard-to-get component like that unless I was definitely going to make good use of it!

A tower is the best technical solution to my problem. Apart from the cost, it would require planning permission, be a centrally placed hard to miss eyesore, and I'm nervous about owning anything that might fall on a public road or into someone else's property. Moving house seems a bit extreme - I'm not that keen on amateur radio!

Apologies to anyone bored by our drift off topic - it's related to 'Interests other than Model Engineering'.

Dave

Dave - Seems you have a solution, but I would like to make one comment which may be relevant to other searches for material.

I frequently order materials from other countries to be sent to me. These cover a whole range of things, from electronics, to metals, books, even wood. When I first came to live here, I felt cut off from my usual suppliers (at that time, in Germany and and the UK), but after a bit of research, and a few telephone calls, I found out that it is frequently much cheaper to import stuff.

The UK in particular has horrendous postal and transit charges, and I have lost more stuff through the UK post than I would care to mention (worst was an expensive, insured laptop sent via Parcel Farce. I was told to wait one year to see if it turned up, then maybe I would be able to claim the insurance - in the event, I sued for my money and got it, plus interest).

I order electronics parts, and tools from Germany on almost a weekly basis, and always receive them within a week, and the cost is always acceptable, even when delivery is by courier - sometimes it is even free. In contrast, I have often cancelled orders to the UK, because the postal charges have far exceeded the cost of the item.

Many 'continental' companies have excellent stocks and services, and their websites can usually be read in English - two German companies spring to mind - Conrad and Reichelt. Both supply electronics components, and Conrad also supplies a wide range of materials for almost all modelling fields, and both deliver worldwide. Both these companies even have English speakers on their helplines - and I note that Maplin has gone bust - I wonder why?

Dave, as long as you are having some fun with the stuff, then the journey matters not..

No problem on the vacuum-cap. It has been in the cupboard so long, I am sure another year or 10 won't matter...

I also have a smallish plot, so a tower is difficult, and although folk here don't seem to care what eyesore's appear in their view, I do! Also, coke bottles rust here, so a tower would have to be made from gold - even aluminium does not survive long - I had my inverted V's on a 50mm OD, 5mm wall Aluminium tube, and one day while hosing down the windborne sea grime and grit from the pipe, I thought I saw daylight through it - It was so - the inside was almost filled with a white powdery mush, and had reduced the wall to paper thin in places, with holes all over! Now I have a 'disused' municipal tapered fibreglass street lamp pole a support.

Good DXing..

Joe

I’m inclined to agree, seeing that the OP has bought a coil after i offered to send him some for free ........Oh well, i tried !

Further to ANOther's post, I've bought stuff from Germany delivered to UK for significantly less than I could have bought it in UK. I had to change the plug, but no great deal. Arrived in only a few days.

I'll steer well clear of the great Brexit debate.