Some sites and / or suppliers that our members have found useful. This is a work in progress. Please notify to committee atmark wavhfgroup.org.au if you have a recommendation for this section.
Metalworking
- Bondin All Metals, Jandakot offer a range of bespoke welding, cutting, bending, drilling, etc. Very good with aluminium. Probably not the cheapest but certainly have been able to demonstrate excellent workmanship.
Fasteners
- Stainless Fastener Supplies, Cockburn Central, offer an excellent range of well-priced stainless and other fasteners and accessories such as helicoils for thread repair. Good pricing even for small quantities. Recommended through Bondin All Metals.
- Searle Fasteners, Canning Vale is an Aladdin's Cave of fasteners. Well worth a visit. Thanks Tom VK6ZAF for the recommendation.
Metal
- Capral Aluminium, Canning Vale a friendly helpful source of just about any aluminium section. They cut long lengths free to fit legally onto sedan roof rack. Uncut lengths, e.g. 6m, can only legally be transported with suitable roof rack or utility fitted with pipe rack.
Electronic components
- Altronics have a good range of components. For RF connectors - SMA connectors especially - you may want to check with Jaycar. General membership recommendation. (Trade discount code available to members is well worthwhile, please ask.)
- Core Electronics, New South Wales provides a good range of things like Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, sensors, etc
- Jaycar provides a good range of components. Many overlap with Altronics but their RF connector selection is larger, including SMA types. Enclosures range, too, can be more extensive depending on the need.
Wire, cable and electrical components
- D & W Electrical, O'Connor, provides building wire for long wires, fan dipoles, etc as well as junction boxes and conduit suitable for antenna construction. We do not yet have an account with them but they generally give a good price in my experience (Denis VK6AKR) Also ask them for crimp-on lugs at a much better cost than from retail suppliers.
Antenna hardware
- Bunnings, especially for reticulation fittings such as tee pieces (barbed and screw-on), reticulation pipe, the 13mm diameter black 1M straight lengths, as well as the usual white pressure poipe and fittings. Our recently-constructed "Bunnings Yagi" featured a lot of materials from Bunnings including the tape measures that provided the elements. The 20 and 25mm white pressure pipe, end caps, etc form the radome for pogostick antennas.
Note: The information here is provided as a service to those of us in the Amateur Radio hobby. It is not necessarily complete nor guaranteed to be up to date. Use of any supplier's services or products is at the reader's risk. Negative comments about any supplier, if any, are made in good faith not to detract nor denigrate those entities. Caveat emptor.