AmateurRadio.com

This evening I listened for G6ALB on 70cm. Andrew is 3km from me. We both have V2000 vertical co-linear antennas. He was using a very low cost SAW locked TX module, which produced as much FM as AM when modulated with an electret mic. The biggest problem was Andrew’s low power and low level of modulation.  He needs more mic gain, more TX power (10dB more?) and some pre-emphasis on the audio. TX power today was very low milliwatts. From 433.925MHz up to at least 433.990MHz a lot of squeaks and whistles could be heard, presumably from more local ISM devices. I was receiving G6ALB using an FT817 at about RS41 on FM and weaker on AM. This very initial test produced results that were expected. To use a super-regen module on RX (the intention is a very simple AM voice transceiver) will require G6ALB to be considerably stronger than on these first tests.

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

I was excited to see the Raspberry Pi 2 announced today

One is on the way. It will be interesting to see how it works out – particularly for some of the more heavy duty apps I have tried in the past such as FLDigi.

A new version of the OS compiled for the new processor is required and can be downloaded here

More news when it arrives!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I was excited to see the Raspberry Pi 2 announced today

One is on the way. It will be interesting to see how it works out – particularly for some of the more heavy duty apps I have tried in the past such as FLDigi.

A new version of the OS compiled for the new processor is required and can be downloaded here

More news when it arrives!

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

As most know today is Superbowl Sunday and most if not all are watching the game and for sure the half time show. I wanted to include ham radio in my Superbowl Sunday, so I was able to have radio to my left and the football game straight on in front of me. I made three contacts all State side North Carolina, Michigan and Missouri. I did have another op deep in the noise floor trying to contact me after one on my contacts ended. After several tries it just was not going to happen so we both moved on. The bands I stayed with were 20m and 30m I am not sure what the condition were like on the bands but I was being heard in the U.S. according to the reverse beacon network.  No huge distances were made this evening but I was able to get a good morse code workout.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

There’s two ways I learn best – studying other people’s mistakes, or making my own mistakes. Today I was the subject of the mistake. My Astron power supply has two meters on the front…one for voltage and one for amperage. I noticed a few weeks ago that the ammeter was reading way too high. I rechecked the voltage, and all was fine. My loads hadn’t changed, and my other ammeter wasn’t showing anything amiss. I cracked open the case and found the simple pot to adjust. Since I needed to put a load on the supply to set the ammeter I left the AC plugged in. Just as I was connecting up the load, I dropped a lead. Well crud, that wasn’t a nice snap or crackle. I blew the AC fuse, which was quickly replaced. I went on with the procedure, buttoned everything back up, and went to check out the radios. Unfortunately it wasn’t just a fuse that gave up its magic smoke. My Elecraft KX3 refused to power on. Sitting back a few minutes and thinking through what had happened, I realized I had just exposed my beloved radio to 120V across its DC input. I opened up the KX3 but didn’t see anything obvious that I was up to servicing – but I did sniff the board and caught a whiff of magic smoke. A few google searches, a visit to the yahoo group, and the KX3 is packed in a box readied for a trip back to Elecraft. Another mistake, another learning opportunity. And did you know that magic smoke comes from $100 bills? It must, because that’s what it costs when I have to have other people put it back in my radios.

Michael Brown, KG9DW, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Illinois, USA. Contact him at [email protected].