AmateurRadio.com

A couple of years ago I attempted to upgrade my rig to a more ‘vase’ station type. I really like my IC7000 and have thoroughly enjoyed using it but I have also enjoyed operating from larger rigs more. There’s less need to get a PC up and running and to use that to drive the menu’s. The reason why I didn’t get a new rig last time is because a more pressing need was there, we needed a new car.

Well now I get to think about it all over again. I’ve got a figure of around £1500 in my head and thought that the TS590 might do me well. Other options would be a second hand K3 but they are rarer than hens teeth and likely to be more money and an ideal would be a new Hermes SDR, but then again that would be more like £2000+.

I found this decision quite difficult before but the issue doesn’t seem to want to go away in a hurry. New or second hand I’m not really bothered. I just want the best I can for the money. HF & 6m are a must. 2m would be great and 70cm’s as well so i can do some satellite work but I’ll happily drop the VHF for a better HF rig. The TS590 does seem like the best choice so far.

The new edition of Radcom arrived a little while ago and I had a chance to have a read through it yesterday and there was a review for the new Kenwood super rig. It certainly looked an impressive site, but what struck me the most was not the features it had but the sheer cost of the thing. It tips the scales at over £6k. The cost of my last car!

Radcom also features a section every now and again about how they are trying to attract new members and potential people into ham radio. Can I give them a little hint, start working on cheaper rigs. The evidence was even strong as I went through the pages and it showed individuals, who know doubt deservedly, won trophies and prizes for all manner of things. There wasn’t a single one in the 16-24 bracket, in fact I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a soul under 45 in there.

Can I make a suggestion?

Can we please take a look at providing cheaper gear that doesn’t need building, say a £100 rig that will get people on air. If we can produce a funcube dongle for a little more than that which seems like an amazing piece of kit, why can’t we produce a rig that is universal, cheap, useful and worth having rather than producing for the wealthy ‘person of a certain age’. That way we may be able to see talent in the younger age bracket collecting trophies.

If you’re looking for a volunteer to project manage it then just ask. If you’re looking for a technical whizzkid then you’d better look elsewhere

Well its happening again. The computer which started out life nice and zippy like a gazelle in the morning sunshine, joyfully springing across the warm savannah has me wondering what I’ve done to inherit its predictable slow down. More time now is spent watching a little blue circle than is good for anyone

If I were a real cynic I’d think that these things are made to self destruct slow enough for you not to really notice but fast enough for you to buy a new one every few years to keep the silicon industry happy. Still, its a good time to buy a new machine as there’s a sale on…..That’s it no more sarcasm, I promise, honest.

Guess what?  Its sunny and there’s Es to be had about. After several months of not really touching the radio at home because of the various commitments I made to a certain cycle sportive I took a week off work and decided to catch up on the family and my hobby. After a nice long weekend away with the kids in Centre Parcs (If you don’t have kids then it’ll be hell on earth, otherwise I can recommend it, especially the security at Sherwood after our friends bike was pinched. The Muppet got nicked at the gate and is now at her majesty’s pleasure)

Back to radio though…A few quick fire contacts on 6m soon had me back in the swing although an attempt at FSK was a step too far today. Still nice to work a few stations and to see the sun out. The Powabeam is doing the business on a Moonraker mast. Not an ideal set up but useful.

112 miles. 10,000ft of climbing on roads up to 30% gradient in the wind and rain of a very ‘normal’ West Cumbria. Fred Whitton Challenge. All 6 passes in the lakes in a day. Radio is a whole load less tiring, even when its not going well. Looking forward to getting back on the air

These may not be a surprise to you but the popular electrical CAD package, Eagle, has add ons plugins, scripts or whatever they are technically called. Most of these would probably be really useful if I ever knew what I was doing but one stands out. Its called Eagle-up.

Eagle-up takes the PCB as you’ve laid it out and puts it into the equally popular 3D CAD programme Google Sketch up. The plugin allows you to see the PCB in 3 dimensions and allows you to add components from the extensive library or draw out your own. The end result is a potential a photo realistic rendering of what you have just designed. I’m using it to place the various parts on so I can design a case to fit the MSFduino. I want to laser cut an acrylic case and Sketchup let’s you export to an svg  file by, you’ve guessed it, a plugin.

A bit of useful information to share if that’s your kind of thing.

When you use software regularly, thing become natural. Especially when you can find errors in your work and they need correcting. Over the past few evenings I have spent several hours trying to correct inconsistencies between the schematic and board on my first PCB project, the MSFduino.

There’s nothing fancy about the MSFduino. Its what I’ve started calling my shack clock project. Its a cut down version of the popular Arduino uno and a 60khz receiver with an LCD to display the date and time.

I got so frustrated in the end I started all over again. That made life an awful lot easier. So easy in fact that I wrapped up the Gerber files in a nice zipped package and sent them off to be prototyped. Seeing as this was my first attempt I have agonised a bit about getting it right but in the end I just had to press the send button.

Here’s hoping