Author Archive
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 226
December 15th, 2018 | 
Author: 
Breaking Changes: WSJT-X 2.0 now available
FT8 and MSK144 protocols have been enhanced in a way that is not backward compatible with older versions of the program.
ARRL
Fox-1Cliff anomaly
Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 will not be commissioned as our fourth Fox-1 amateur radio satellite.
AMSAT
Excel based GridMaster grid map tool [USA]
a popular way for amateur radio satellite operators to keep track of grid squares they have worked/confirmed.
KE4AL
Reflecting the Geminides on 6m
With the passing Geminides meteor shower I thought it would be an interesting experience to monitor the MSK144 frequency.
PE4BAS
25 meter dish as a SatNOGS station
This week the Dwingelooradio Observatory tested their 25 meter dish as a SatNOGS station.
SatNOGS
Testing budget friendly Solar Power options
A 100w foldable solar panel for less than $200? I’m in.
W5KV
NASA On the Air
2018 is a big year for NASA anniversaries and we’d like for you to help us celebrate.
NASA On the Air
Video
JS8Call Basics
In this video we take a look at the basics of using the JS8Call software.
KM4ACK
Raspberry Pi NOAA Satellite Receiver
A specialized QFH antenna and a briefcase form-factor satellite receiver.
element14
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 225
Skywarn Recognition Day is today
During the SKYWARN™ Special Event operators will visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the world.
National Weather Service
Amazon AWS Ground Station
Ingest and Process Data from Orbiting Satellites.
Amazon Web Services
Peanut: Talk to DSTAR reflectors via Android
On the Peanut you can talk with Hams around the world via an Android device or network radio.
PA7LIM
VHF Tropo Opening
After 3 hours I’d worked 10 DXCC on 2m.
Adventures in Ham Radio
Designing and Testing a PCB Wideband Spiral Antenna
A Vivaldi antenna is wideband and directional and the design works well for frequencies above 800 MHz, but becomes too physically large to handle for lower frequencies like 400 MHz.
RTL SDR
Restoring A Rusting Old Tower
I’ve discovered that some ‘free’ ham gear is like being given a free dog… you have to be aware of the hidden costs.
VE7SAR
My SOTA Battery Journey
I started out using a small sealed lead acid (SLA) battery. These use well-established battery technology that has stood the test of time.
K0NR
Video
SDR Basics: RTL-SDR + Android
How to Use an RTL-SDR Dongle on an Android Phone.
YouTube
Inside a Sony CRT factory
YouTube
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 224
Ham Radio HAT for Raspberry Pi
Board provides audio support, GPS for clock accuracy, 12v input, and 2 radio interfaces.
NW Digital Radio
Canadian National Parks On The Air
Welcome to the Canadian version of working Parks and Historic Sites managed by Parks Canada.
Radio Amateurs of Canada
Happy 5th Birthday FUNcube-1
Five years ago, on November 21, 2013, FUNcube-1 launched into space. Soon, we hope to welcome ESEO (FUNcube-4) and JY1SAT (FUNcube-6) into space. A remarkable achievement by the radio amateur volunteers of AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL.
AMSAT UK
Amateur TV plays communication role in California fire emergency
ATV cameras offered views of some of the state’s fires, including the Briggs Fire in Santa Paula, and the Peak Fire in Simi Valley.
ARRL
Tips for the budding QRP DXer
Know when to cast your net. And that’s what this post is all about. This coming weekend will be a VERY good time to cast your net.
W2LJ
When an N connector isn’t
This is an N connector… or is it?
hamradio.me
A Triplexer… What is that?
Three Transmitters, One Antenna or Vice-Versa.
The Communicator
First geostationary satellite with Amateur Radio transponders successfully deployed
SpaceX have successfully launched and deployed the Es’hail-2 satellite which is now in geostationary orbit.
rtl-sdr.com
Video
JS8Call overview
Official JS8Call Channel
SharkRF OpenSPOT 2 review
Here is SharkRF’s new digital Hotspot, the OpenSPOT2. This device now includes WiFi and covers many digital modes such as, DMR, D-STAR, Yaesu Fusion C4FM.
Laboenligne.ca
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 223
FT8 – Tipping Point for Ham Radio?
What will kill amateur radio is if we we cease to innovate, become old and grumpy, and no longer bring new blood into the hobby.
K5SDR
JS8Call QSO Party
Whether you like a quick exchange or a long rag-chew, this event is for you.
JS8Call
Ham fined $25,000 for operating unlicensed FM station
Following up on February 2015 complaints regarding pirate radio operations in Paterson, FCC agents spotted a signal on 90.9 MHz that “appeared to be an unauthorized radio station.”
ARRL
Pass Recorder
Pass Recorder will sit in the background waiting for a satellite pass to be above 0 degrees and record the audio to a wav file. (Windows Only)
2M0QSL
Build a 433MHz radio chat device
Add a cheap 433MHz radio to your Raspberry Pi to send wireless messages without WiFi and operate remote-control main sockets.
The MagPi
Early Amateur Radio In The Canadian Arctic
In the 1930s people working in Canada’s Arctic often brought their amateur radio skills and equipment north with them so that they could relieve the isolation by contacting other radio operators around the world.
VE7SAR
New amateur satellite forum aims to help newcomers
This is a forum where everyone can report on experiences and knowledge from operating satellites and thereby help other newly interested radio amateurs to become active and a member of our satellite community.
AMSAT UK
History of white LEDs
Infrared, red, and even green LEDs were “easy,” but blue LEDs require a much larger bandgap, and therefore required more exotic materials.
Hack A Day
Video
ISS SSTV Passes Oct 28, 2018
Here are many International Space Station Slow Scan TV photos that I captured on October 28 & 29.
K7AGE
Review of Geochron 4K World Clock
For 50 years, Geochron made a classic, mechanical clock showing the time across the world as well as areas of light and dark. Well, they’ve now gone electronic with the new Geochron 4K.
David Casler
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 222
ISS SSTV this weekend
Twelve images will be downlinked, but this time with six featuring the SCaN educational activities while the other six images will commemorate major NASA anniversaries.
AMSAT
VP6D Ducie Island seeing too many dupes
They’re seeing “far too many dupes” as they work their way through the pileups.
ARRL
ISS voice active, SSTV from satellite
NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor KG5TMT, who is currently on the International Space Station, was active on 145.800 MHz FM making contacts on Saturday, October 20.
AMSAT UK
W5KV’s 2018 Ham Holiday Gift Guide
It’s never too early to start planning gifts for the holidays.
W5KV
Download of DSLWP-B Moon and Earth pictures continues
It was expected that the Earth would be visible in the image, and this was indeed the case.
Daniel Estévez
Global JS8Call Network
I can even have a chit-chat by relaying my messages through stations I can hear, to a station I can’t. JS8Call is not a mode, it’s a system.
OH8STN
Every Amateur Radio Satellite Frequency List
JE9PEL
Knots…
From securing loads to securing antennas, a knowledge of some basic knots is very valuable.
VE7SAR
Video
Meet the Amateur Astronomer who found a lost NASA satellite
Amateur astronomer Scott Tilley made international headlines when he rediscovered NASA’s IMAGE satellite 13 years after it mysteriously disappeared.
Freethink
Monitoring airplane communications
Information and examples how to monitor communications between airplanes and ground using RTL SDR, SDRPlay, SDRConsole and other equipment.
N1SPY
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 220
October 7-13: Fire Prevention Week Amateur Radio Special Event
Fire Prevention Week special event stations N0F, N1F, N2F, N3F, N4F, N5F, N6F, N7F, N8F, and N9F will be QRV October 7-13. Plus the wildcard stations: KF2IRE and VE3FIRE.
Siemens Fire Safety USA Amateur Radio Club
An interview with Howard Michel, WB2ITX, the new ARRL CEO
I think that you’ll find this to be a great interview. Howard has won me over, and I hope that he’ll win you over, too.
K6BNU
ARRL, FCC Discussing Uncertified Imported VHF/UHF Transceivers
The Advisory broadly prohibits the ‘use’ of such radios, but our view is that there is no such prohibition relative to licensed Amateur Radio use.
ARRL
A new antenna using single atoms
We may be on the verge of so-called “atomic radio,” thanks to the development of a new type of antenna capable of receiving signals across a much wider range of frequencies (more than four octaves) that is highly resistant to electromagnetic interference.
Ars Technica
Hustler 6BTV Installation Update
While this is a great antenna, it requires a substantial amount of work installed in a ‘ground-mount’ configuration.
W5KV
About Microphones
A primer on mics for Ham Radio.
VE7SAR
Connecting an RTL-SDR Panadapter to a uBITX
uBITX is a fully analogue radio, but it can be combined with an RTL-SDR to create a panadapter display.
RTL-SDR.com
Video
How Solar Cells Work
Today I want to cover solar cells and solar power systems – partly because renewable energy is such a huge pursuit in our community.
SparkFun
Receive Beautiful Images of the Earth Directly From Space | GOES-16
While it’s a bit harder to receive data from GOES the extra effort is absolutely worth it.
The Thought Emporium
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Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 219
Beta version WSJT-X 2.0 boasts major changes
Support for standard ARRL Field Day exchanges, such as 6A SNJ and “significantly better sensitivity” (about 1 dB) for the WSPR decoder.
ARRL
Fundraising campaign for critical ISS radio infrastructure upgrade
AMSAT and ARISS are currently supporting a FundRazr campaign to raise $150,000 for critical radio infrastructure upgrade on ISS to enable students to talk to astronauts in space via amateur radio.
AMSAT
SOTA and Mental Health – how it’s helping
SOTA, Amateur Radio, and how it is helping me fight depression and anxiety.
Wadeabout
A Step by Step Tutorial to Receiving GOES-16 Images
A step-by-step guide to setting up a GOES weather satellite receiver with an RTL-SDR dongle, Raspberry Pi and the goestools software.
RTL-SDR
Getting on HF: The Fiddle Factor
The Fiddle Factor is the interaction of multiple barriers to getting on HF.
K0NR
Where a choke chokes
Common mode current suspicions. Various tests of the venerable N9TAX dual band ladder line J antenna suggest the coax becomes rf hot at UHF. It was time to quantify this behavior in the lab.
Magnum Experimentum
Run a Raspberry Pi Program on Boot
Our newest (sorta-Python-related) tutorial shows you a few ways to run a script whenever a Raspberry Pi boots up.
SparkFun
Yellowstone Parks On The Air Adventure and Lessons Learned
Cell service is very, very limited in the park. Data service is non existent if you use AT&T like I did. Therefore there was no way for me to self spot on the cluster.
K0PIR
About Microphones
A primer on mics for Ham Radio
VE7SAR
Tesla Opens with Precomputed Key Fob Attack
This hack precomputes a ton of data, looks for a collision in the dataset, and opens the door. Here’s how it works.
Hack A Day
