Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
70cm contest using a 2m big wheel
September 9th, 2015 | 
Author:  |
| Stations worked on 70cm tonight with 5W and a 2m big-wheel omni |
This evening was the September 70cm leg of the RSGB’s UKAC contest, so I decided to give it a go with my 2m big-wheel and 5W SSB. The match on 70cms was very good, but I had no idea how it would actually work. Well, the answer is “very well” as you can see by the stations worked. Best DX was 182km. To say I was pleased is an under-statement! I shall be able to use this antenna again in 70cm contests. I was also able to copy the new beacon NW of Leicester GB3LEU which was pretty good copy on 432.490MHz.
TX Factor Episode 9 is Ready to Watch
The popular UK TV show dedicated to amateur radio is back on the air with episode 9 featuring ham radio Essex-style!
We visit the south east of England to report on the work of Chelmsford ARS, Essex Repeater Group and Essex Ham.
And we’re giving away a CG-PK4 Pocket Memory Keyer in our free-to-enter draw.
Hope you enjoy the show!
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 76
Pi-Go 12v power adapter for Raspberry Pi
The Pi-Go connects to the GPIO header and supplies a solid 5V at up to 3A for the Pi and its connected peripherals.
Kickstarter
$50SAT falls silent
The $50SAT amateur radio spacecraft has ceased transmitting after nearly 20 months in space.
AMSAT UK
Labor Day weekend: a great time for pirate radio action
Monday, September 7, is Labor Day throughout most of North America; shortwave pirates love to operate on long holiday weekends.
The SWLing Post
New versions K1JT weak signal digital modes
Think of this mode as FSK441 slowed down to 315 baud; the bandwidth is therefore narrow enough to make the mode legal in the “CW and data” portion of the 10 meter band.
amateurradio.com
HI HI: LOL of the 19th century
LOL in the age of the telegraph.
The Conversation
Sound of a sinking ship
Listen to the Morse code interchange between a sinking cruise ship and fellow ships.
hamradio.me
Open letter to Ham Radio manufacturers
Once upon a time, companies like yours developed equipment for hams entering the hobby as Novice licensees.
KC4LMD
Liquid metal changes shape to tune antenna
Liquid at room temperature, these alloys have the useful property of oxidizing on contact with air and forming a skin.
Hack A Day
Solar storm of 1859
Telegraph systems all over Europe and North America failed, in some cases giving telegraph operators electric shocks. Telegraph pylons threw sparks. Some telegraph operators could continue to send and receive messages despite having disconnected their power supplies.
Wikipedia
Video
Video of ICOM IC-7300 in action
IZØKBA
Digital voice and SSB comparison
You can really notice the reduced audio bandwidth and ever present noise of SSB compared to FreeDV. This is just the start – we are gradually improving the low SNR robustness and speech quality of FreeDV.
Rowetel
and finally…
RTTY decoder for Commodore 64
Decodes RTTY audio to readable text on the screen of your Commodore 64.
ebay
The Spectrum Monitor — September, 2015
Stories you’ll find in our August, 2015 issue:
AFN: The Biggest Network You’ve Never Heard or Seen
By Richard Fisher KI6SN
Originally begun as Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) in 1942 and intended to provide news and entertainment from “back home” to US service personnel stationed in the war zones of World War II, the American Forces Network (AFN) now provides 12 music, news and sports audio services, seven TV services and a program guide to US bases globally. Over the years, AFN’s mission has evolved along with the technology used to deliver the programming. With headquarters in Riverside, California, Richard Fisher took a tour of AFN facilities that produce programming seen only by those in uniform and discovered close connection between AFN and Hollywood.
Ultra-light Radio: Doing more with Less
By Gary Donnelly KC8IQZ
Many shortwave listeners scoff at low-ticket, shirt-pocket sized, no-frills portable radios as inadequate at best for the job of DXing the AM and HF bands. But, a loyal group of adherents to Ultra-light Radios (ULR) are finding that these insignificant seeming radios deserve space in any listening post. Gary shows us the ins and outs of ULR DXing and how these diminutive receivers can deliver surprising results with and without modifications.
MultiPSK: A Digital Diamond in the Rough
By Robert Gulley AK3Q
There are many digital programs available for amateur and shortwave radio listeners, from individual modes to all-in-one packages, but with MultiPSK, Robert has found a real treasure. He calls this a “diamond in the rough” because, for many folks, the initial configuration and program screens seem, at best, awkward. We have become used to very glamorous graphical user interfaces, with ribbon bars and lots of bells and whistles. By comparison, MultiPSK seems rather barren but, Robert tells us, nothing could be further from the truth!
Outernet: Bringing Free, Global, One-way Internet Content to the World via FTA Satellite
By Kenneth Barbi
Calling itself “Humanity’s Public Library,” Outernet is an ambitious public service project designed to provide free access to information to those not served by extensive Internet infrastructure. To do so, Outernet founder, Syed Karim, has implemented a global data delivery system using existing Ku-band geosynchronous satellites. He says, the concept is a repurposing of existing computer and Free-to-Air (FTA) satellite technology—“a mix between modern day shortwave radio and BitTorrrent from space.”
Summer Radios and Some are Not
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
A few new digital-capable 2-meter/70-cm transceivers have made their debut this summer, but Cory finds that there is more than one way to get into digital voice on amateur radio, including a mash up of various low cost digital devices you might already have around the house. He also makes sense of the alphabet of digital voice modes: DMR, LMR, D-STAR, NXDN, NXREF, WIRES-X and the use of DV Dongles.
Scanning America By Dan Veenaman
Maine’s Statewide MSCommNet
Federal Wavelengths By Chris Parris
Navy Enterprise System in the Pacific Northwest
Utility Planet By Hugh Stegman NV6H
This isn’t your Father’s COTHEN
Digital HF: Intercept and Analyze By Mike Chace-Ortiz AB1TZ/G6DHU
Listening in to US Embassies and Consulates on HF Radio
HF Utility Logs By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman
Amateur Radio Insights By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
The Great Equalizer
Radio 101 By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
The $80 E-reader/Ham/SWL Decoder, that comes with a Free Camera
Radio Propagation By Tomas Hood NW7US
Let’s Talk about this Hot Sun
The World of Shortwave Listening By Jeff White, General Manager WRMI
Another One Bites the Dust: International Radio Serbia closes its doors for good, but is shortwave really doomed?
The Shortwave Listener By Fred Waterer
Radio Tirana, Radio Serbia Remembered
Amateur Radio Astronomy By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
Yet More Flight Opportunities
The Longwave Zone By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Comings and Goings
Adventures in Radio Restoration By Rich Post KB8TAD
A Classic Pair of Heath Hi-Fi Twins Part 2: The AA-151 Amp
The Broadcast Tower By Doug Smith W9WI
More on WOWO; New FMs and Coax
Antenna Connections By Dan Farber AC0LW
Stealthy Green Jolly Loop: At Last
The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription (12 issues, beginning with the January 2015 issue) is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.
Creating open-source ham radio hardware with Kickstarter
When I started my company last year, it was mainly set up as a design consulting outfit to pick up a few jobs on the side. At the end of 2014, it became much more when I decided to plunge full-time into my own work. At the time, one of my respected friends and colleagues, Don Powrie of DLP Design, said to me that the only way to make consistent money is to have a product line rather than rely on consulting work. I’ve been thinking of how to bring that to market ever since. I could certainly design some familiar products to me, but they would get lost in the plethora of similar items. I needed something unique.
I started out with a 5V @ 5A design. I drew the schematic and completed the PCB layout and started to check pricing and availability of the parts. Most everything was available at Digi-Key, and the Anderson Connectors from Mouser, but the total was getting close to where I wanted the selling price to be. For a $35 computer, I couldn’t justify a $70-$80 power board!! The DC-DC converter also had a very large ground pad for heat dissipation. I wanted this project to be able to be hand-soldered and started wondering about that large pad. That design got scrapped and I started looking for another buck converter. There were several TI and Linear products I considered, but they would have required a reflow oven – either with a center pad, as a BGA, or leadless formats. Then I found the Alpha & Omega AOZ1031AI. This is a 8-pin SOIC without any special pad. The only heat-dissipation suggestion was that pins 7 and 8 do not have any thermal relief, but connect fully to the surrounding plane. I selected larger commodity parts (0805) that could be seen without a microscope and created the layout, and all parts were in stock at either Digi-Key or Mouser Electronics. I got everything on order, and even managed to get a couple free PCBs from Pentalogix. I had attended a Pentalogix-sponsored Cadsoft Eagle webinar at Newark and the perk was a code for two boards. I just had to cover shipping.
I did other tests: Let it run for 8 hours (check), ramp voltage from 6 to 18V input (check). At 7V input, the Pi kept rebooting. At 8V, it was solid – well past the design spec. Same at 18V.
Next up was the load test. With 2A going direct to load resistors, I was still able to run the Pi with all four USB ports occupied. I even dipped the supply to 8V. The bench supply showed about 1.8A output. Based on an approximate 80% efficiency of DC-DC converter, I calculated I was drawing about 3.5A on the 5V side – a little past its limit, so backed off the load. I’ve been running this directly from my radio supply now for several days, and the Pi keeps chugging along.
I’m a believer in open-source hardware and software. This project will be published in the coming days, probably on GitHub. Eagle uses XML design files, so version control should work just fine. I still need to write the manual, but everything will be made available as soon as I get the proper README and LICENSE files in place. All of my work for this project is published under the Creative Commons Attribution and Share-Alike license. The hardware itself is published under the TAPR Open Hardware License.
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 75
Icom reveals first SDR, IC-7300
During the Tokyo Ham Fair 2015, Icom revealed their first Software Defined Radio (SDR) HF transceiver, the IC-7300, sporting HF+6m+4m coverage, 100W, touchscreen TFT display and an internal antenna tuner.
YO9IRF
(PDF) Pre-release information: IC-7300
Now, a serious spectrum scope is NOT a “privilege” of high-grade models.
Icom UK
Testing FreeDV mobile
One of my aims for using the SM1000 in the car was being able to really use it like a microphone. One cable, low clutter.
RF Head
Primary, Ion, and Polymer: a lithium battery primer
Lithium primary, lithium ion, lithium polymer… Want to know the differences between–and varied uses for–these diverse types of lithium batteries? You’re not alone.
The SWLing Post
FCC fines Smart City $750K for blocking Wi-Fi
Company used Wi-Fi monitoring system to block mobile hotspots at convention centers.
Southgate
Tracking Wi-Fi signals to passively see through walls
We used LabVIEW to design and iterate the advanced signal processing used to detect minute Doppler shifts in the acquired wireless signals to sense movement.
National Instruments
ARES supports 60,000 runners for Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta
Supporting the runners are some 5,000 volunteers, including more than 50 Amateur Radio operators.
ARRL
Mac client for Flex Radio
dogparkSDR is the first native Mac client for the Flex Radio Systems Signature series SDR radios.
Mac Ham Radio
How to
Speaker placement
Sound, after all, is our core business and we want to be able to enjoy the fascinating soundstage of incoming TX audio at its very best.
Delta Alfa
Guide to improving club websites
There’s a serious problem with the way Amateur Radio clubs present themselves online – Outdated, broken, poorly-designed and invisible websites do no favours for clubs, and more importantly, the hobby.
Essex Ham
Video
Inside the world of pirate radio
Pirate radio is still going strong despite the rise of internet radio.
BBC
IC7300, FT991 or wait for the FT817 replacement?
At the moment I am looking for a new rig, but I am prepared to wait some time. I have never been keen on running high power and 5-10W would serve me well. I like that the new IC7300 is SDR based, but I like that the FT991 includes 2m and 70cm.
At the moment I think I’ll just wait for the FT817 replacement. I hope this includes 4m, but it sounds like it uses the same IF as the FT991, so I guess 4m is unlikely. Ideally I think the IC7300s (10W version) would be a good bet, especially if this comes out with 4m too.
I dislike fans, so I assume the IC7300S and FT817 replacement will not have these? Lets hope ICOM market the IC7300S as a QRP radio in Europe. 10W pep is a decent power. Certainly enough power for most occasions.
UPDATE 0934z: It would not surprise me if the FT817 replacement stayed at 5W but they also had a companion booster amplifier, maybe 20-50W. As we will be on the way down in the solar cycle next year (2016) this may be a reasonable compromise. What would they do about the auto ATU? I guess any bolt-on amp would have to have its own. I still think Yaesu seriously misjudged the market for this rig and the timing. There are so many FT817s out there and people have been gagging for a replacement/enhanced version for years. Now Yaesu is playing catch-up rather than leading. As I said yesterday, this new radio will need some seriously good features if it is to sell as well as the FT817 has done. Oh, expect some very good deals on the FT817ND early next year. The dealers will want to clear shelves in readiness of the new one.
