Blockie Bill's Tips
I am a typical city slicker who purchased a small block in the Fullerton
Hadley area. I had no idea of farming or what weeds were associated with
properties larger that 1/4 of an acre.
Listed below are some tips that maybe helpful to others who wish to spend some
time appreciating county life:
Spot Spraying Serrated Tussock
Setting Up Solar Power
Using a 12volt to 240volt Inverter
Plastic Water Pipes
Setting up Optus/Aurora TV
12 Volt Satellite Receiver & 12 Volt LCD TV
Fencing - Using "Gripples"
If you wish to make comments on the "tips" or add others, please
email to: robynbillk@yahoo.com.au
Disclaimer: I am not an electrician nor a chemical expert therefore this
information is advice only.
Spot Spraying Serrated Tussock
As with most people around the Hadley area, Serrated Tussock is a major
problem. The Upper Lachlan Shire Council arranges for aerial spraying and
it is quite reasonable in cost to spray this way. I think it was $101 per
HA in 2006. Contact Geoff Nicholson at the Council if you want to take
advantage of this method.
However, if you wish to spot spray you will need:
2 mls of Taskforce per litre of water
add enough red marker dye to show plants sprayed
(you would hate to spray more than once)
Using Taskforce it can take upto3 months to kill the plants and it
relies on rainfall
to wash the chemical into the roots of the plant.
If you forget where you have sprayed and wish to have a faster kill rate,
my tip is to add a "splash" of Roundup (glysophate 360
or 450), not the diluted
weed killer seen at Big W, etc.
This should work within 1-2 weeks. I have also found that you can
spray by this
method all year round not just the recommended months advised on the label.
As glysophate will kill most other plants you should have a spray
nozzle that
will not spread the chemicals beyond the desired tussock clumps.
Setting Up Solar Power
For those people whose accommodation is far from the nearest power pole and
the cost to install 240volt is excessive, here are my tips on installing solar
power for use with 12volt systems:
Basic Requirements:
Solar Panel
Regulator
Batteries for storage
Lights, pumps, etc
You can shop around for the best prices and technical advice, however I found
that Australia Wide Solar at Peakhurst
to be very good.
Solar Panels
These come in a range of physical sizes and most importantly, the watts of power
that they produce. For those who do not know, watts = amps x volts. For example,
a sixty watt panel will produce 5 amps for twelve volts ie 60w = 12v X 5a .
I currently have two 30 watt solar panels (providing 5amps of power), and
find that these are adequate in normal conditions. It must be remembered
that you do have a high charging rate when there is less sunlight during the
winter months. 30 watt panels are around $360 each, or 65watt are
around $680.
Regulators
Regulators are required to limit the solar panels from overcharging
batteries and is placed between the solar panel and the battery. These come
in sizes that suite the charging rate of the solar panels eg 10amps.
Wiring diagrams usually come with the regulator. It is up to you how much you wish to spend
but an 8amp regulator is around $70.
Batteries
The choice of batteries is up to your individual requirements. There are
normal car type batteries, or you can use deep cycle batteries.
Deep cycle batteries allow for a long range of slow charge and long discharge
conditions, whereas car batteries do like the high discharge rates and it is
claimed that deep cycle will have a longer life. I have had a dual battery system in my
4WD to run a 12volt frig and found that the deep cycle battery life was no
longer than normal car batteries. Car batteries these days come with a 2-3
year guarantee anyway.
I currently have two 160 amp hour car batteries at around $200 each. These usually last about
three years.
Lights, pumps, etc
I currently use
small compact fluorescent globes rated at 12watts (equivalent to 60watts). These are available at
solar suppliers however, I have found that the Nelson brand have an inbuilt
condenser (or such)
that stops interference with radios. This brand is available at (would you
believe it) Bunnings for around $30 each.
I have a
12volt pressure pump connected to our rainwater tanks. It has a flow of
14 litres per minute and can adequately run a shower. I am not sure
of the price but say around $200.
You can also attach a wind generator which are rated at 200watts or 16amps
and comes included with a heavier duty regulator and a 4.5M mast.
Again, they range in price but there is one at
Todae,. 83 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe, Sydney. The cost is $479.
Using a 12volt to 240volt Inverter
I suppose
this is part of having a solar powered system but it is going off on a tangent
so I made a separate heading. If you wish to run a TV or other small
electrical appliances you can use an inverter to bring 12volt power up to
240volt. It must be remembered that it does uses a great deal of power and
may flatten you batteries quite quickly. I have installed a 500 watt
inverter which is rated to 1000 watts on power surge. I find with this
type of inverter that I need to switch the TV off and on a couple of times for
it operate. I am not a TV expert but I understand that the start-up power
for a TV is high even though the rating maybe only 70-80 watts.
I purchased a low priced inverter from Strathfield Car Radios for around $150.
Solar shops have better quality items available if you wish to run computers,
etc.
Plastic Water Pipes
Where our place is located at Hadley, the outside winter temperature has
reached -8C. I originally installed copper pipes and soldered fittings.
These lasted till the first frost with negative temperatures. After many
times resoldering fittings and replacing split pipes I gave up.
I replaced the whole lot with
Yorkflex
fittings.
This graphic is a pipe joiner and is just a sample of the many fittings that are available. They are
easy to use as the plastic pipe is simply pushed by hand into the plastic/brass
fitting. The only tools needed are the pipe cutters, to stop the pipe
being squashed,
at around $20 and the disassembly clip at $1.50
.
This clip slides along the pipe and into the first bit of the fitting to
disconnect the pipe from the fitting.
I purchased the fittings and pipe at Tradelink, Taren Point in Sydney but they also
available at Goulburn Produce whose staff are most friendly.
Setting up Optus/Aurora TV
Optus/Aurora is a satellite TV system, Australia wide. It has several
ABC, SBS and commercial stations.
For some reason the Federal Government has licensing restrictions on the
operators Optus/Aurora and the TV stations. The receiver must be in the
licensing area. This border for this area is around Fullerton/Hadley,
therefore when requesting connection (see later notes on this), it is suggested
that you provide your address as Laggan or Crookwell postcode 2583.
As with most telecommunication equipment there are several components:
Satellite Dish
Satellite Finder (used once only)
Signal Receiver
Optus/Aurora Card
Satellite Dish
65cm
Dish with 11300MHz Lnbf kit. This should be mounted so
that you have a uninterrupted view to the sky in a northerly direction.
Satellite Finder
This
is used only once but it makes positioning the satellite dish a whole lot
easier. Connect the satellite finder to the dish and to your signal
receiver. Move the disk until the signal and audio tone move to a high
level.
Once the yellow signal has been seen on the TV, tighten all screws holding the
dish to make it a permanent position.
Remove the satellite finder and connect the dish directly to the signal
receiver.
Signal Receiver
This
connects the dish to the AT connection on your TV. Follow the instructions
on the install notes that come with the receiver. Your TV should be
displaying the signal receiver broadcast screen. Use the remote control to
access the menu item and go to "Installation", then "Automatic Channel search".
When the satellite finder is showing a high signal the blue signal bar should
change to yellow. You should now be able to search for TV stations, around
280.
Once all channels have been activated it is suggested that you delete the 250
odd that you cannot receive the picture eg Foxtel stations.
Optus/Aurora Card
This card is
required to authorise connection to the Optus/Aurora satellite and needs to be
inserted in the signal receiver.
Costs:
Dish $70
Satellite Finder $45
Satellite Receiver $130
Optus/Aurora Card $ 90
Total Price $345
All these items available form Hot Chip
Technology at Lidcombe
Once all connections and positioning of dish are OK, you must send an email
to:
sss@optus.com.au
They do have a phone number,
1300 301 680, but it
only has an answer phone attached and they ask for the same info.
Once authorised by Optus/Aurora you should be receiving 5 ABC and 4 SBS
channels. You can then email Imparja & 7 Central and request
connection. Email addresses are:
decoders@imparja.com.au
decoderregistrations@scbnetwork.com.au
To switch you on they will need:
your name
smartcard number
mailing address
exact location of decoder (suggest you use either Laggan or Crookwell in your
address as some localities are not within their license area.)
phone number
decoder type
For Imparja & 7 Central emails only -
confirmation that ABC and SBS are already being received.
12 Volt Satellite Receiver & 12 Volt LCD TV
As the property we have is to far from power, we run most items on 12 volt
using solar panels. We found that watching DVD's or satellite TV through
a12volt to 240volt inverter drained the batteries and in winter the solar panels
had trouble keeping the batteries charged. The other alternative was
starting the generator but this was annoying.
The answer to this problem:
Buy a 12volt TV & 12volt satellite receiver.
A number of small screen LCD TV's say around 48cm (19inch) actually run on
12volt (but for the normal city folk they include a 240volt to 12volt
transformer which we will not use). It is simply a matter of going to
Jaycar, Dick Smith's, etc and buy a 12 volt car cigarette lighter adaptor and
plug it into the TV. It works fine and they use about 60 watts, on 12volt
this is 5amps (the equivalent of running a small fluorescent light). As
cigarette lighter plugs get hot when the amps are higher so I installed a small
2 pin plug which woks well.
Next buy a 12volt satellite receiver. I found a Strong satellite receiver
model no 4654X suits the bill. On the Install menu go to Disk Settings
select the Optus C1 satellite, change the LNB type from universal to single, and
change the LNB freq to 11.300 and then go Auto Scan for the channels.
Again, for the city folk they have a transformer, but just buy another cigarette
lighter adaptor. They are rated at 36 watts which is 3amps.
As the card in the satellite receiver needs to be updated on a regular basis by
Optus/Aurora it is necessary to leave the receiver in standby mode at all times
ie plugged-in but not activated.
I found both items on www.ebay.com.au, I
had to bid for the TV and it was around $420 plus $35 delivery which included a
built in DVD player while the satellite receiver was able to be purchased for
around $135 plus $25 delivery (which is about what a 240volt item costs).
The TV could have been bought at a retail store, just look at the power
connection to verify it is 12volt with a transformer (most of the salespeople do
not know what you are talking about when you mention 12volt).
To use the Optus C1 satellite, the satellite receiver must be connected to
the disk and be powered on in standby mode. The reason for this is that
they transmit an update signal approximately every 17 hours to the satellite
receiver & card. If this is not received transmission will be blocked.
This is another reason why I purchased a 12volt satellite receiver. I
originally had a duplicate set-up at my non-blockie address and received the
updates and then took the card to the country each time we down. A bit
annoying when you forgot the card!
Fencing - Using "Gripples"
Have you
strained a wire fence and tied the wire off and have released the strainer only
to find the wire has gone limp. Apparently, it is an art with a lot of
practice to tie 2.5mm HT wire in a tight knot.
I was at the Laggan pub and I was speaking to Big Barry a local farmer about
fencing and he suggested that I use "gripples" to join the wire while straining
it. Thanks Barry it was the best thing since sliced bread.
I tie off the wire on the long end of the fence and allow a 300mm and cut the
wire, I then tie off on the short end and cut it with enough length to reach the
wire from the long end. I then strain the two lengths of wire, this causes
the knots to tighten, and when happy with the tension I then join the wire with
a gripple, it has arrows to show which way the wire goes in, and then just
release the wire strainer and the line is now tight.
Medium size Gripples (for 2.5mm wire) cost about $36 for a bag of 20.
If
later on and the strainer post moves or any other reason the wire looses its
tension, you can restrain with wire strainers or use a "gripple tool" (photo
above) to do the same job. The tool holds the gripple in place and the
moveable arm pulls the slack wire through the gripple to tighten. I think
the gripple tool is about $60.
Once again, thanks Barry, this advice saved us a great deal of time and effort.