AmateurRadio.com

Martin, G3USF, has been busy collating the outstanding short form 6 and 10 reports and they are available in the usual place. Just a quick reminder that these short form reports are a way for Martin to give more current information based on the reports from Costas, SV1DH, which come in first. The ‘final’ edition of the report will be uploaded once all the remaining data has been collated and formed into the report.

I hope you enjoy them and find them useful. Let me know if you have any problems or comments.

The long awaited but ultimately unwanted GMR radio

As my day job starts to include more long term projects & project management I was particularly intrigued by an article in arstechnica.com. The article is, “How to blow $6 billion on a tech project“, although the title may be more inflammatory than technically accurate.

The article covers the 15 year development of an advanced & unified military radio communications system that suffered from multiple issues including scope-creep & a rapidly changing underlying technology.

If you are involved with a group that is working to develop a product or service you’ll really get something from this article. If you interested in radio systems, military or otherwise, you’ll find this interesting as well.

Its hard to image the frustration people suffer when contributing to a project that is mismanaged unless you have been there yourself. I hate to think of the wasted effort that resulted when people found out How to blow $6 billion on a tech project

Whilst I was scanning the 6m band during my white noise listening experience (or UKSMG 50Mhz Summer Es contest) I started a little googling and came across a tool that I hadn’t used before. From the website description it calls itself a ‘DX cluster (DXC is its name by those in the know) telnet client which attempts to resolve propagation modes from spots and also attempts to calculate sporadic e possibilities purely based on incoming data from the cluster’

It uses a great circle map and a the ON4KST telnet client as well all from the comfort of a single simple desktop. A little screenshot is below for reference based on my settings and a bit of ‘personalisation’

The software seems to be developed for those with an interest in 2m really but works well for 6m as well as I found out to my surprise on Friday evening when I was hit by a wall of QSO’s from all round me. Live MUF showed a whole range of spots almost like a cloud on the screen moving from the south east of the great circle map up to just below me on the south coast where the yellow patches in some cases had turned red.

Whilst I am increasingly sceptical of propagation prediction tools I think as this is based on actual data it has saved me quite a bit of time and heartache having this running in the shack telling me if I am likely to be lucky enough to be involved in any QSO’s.

If this is your thing and you’ve already come across it then this won’t be news to you, but if like me you’re gun is more like a 99p water pistol (And I’m talking about it in a radio sense before we get carried away) then give it a try. As far as I can tell there is no installation as such it just runs an executable file and so could be used portable from a USB drive if you desire. There is also a web based version for those who might like to take a look when away from the shack. Have a look here (ps the site seems to be down at the moment but hopefully not for long).

If you fancy designing yourself a PCB for a project then you’ve got quite a few choices. For a long time Eagle has been the standard. It offers just about everything that the novice and expert needs to create a professional looking board that blurs the lines between hobby and business. It has been acquired by AutoDesk, the people behind the hugely impressive Inventor 3D CAD package. Loved by clankies like me.

But what about open source software? Well KiCAD is the ‘other’ standard, with a slightly different workflow it still roughly follows what must be normal. That is, design a schematic and then tackle laying out the PCB.

I’ve not designed anything in Eagle for a long time and so have largely forgotten how to do it. So, thought that now I’ve switched almost entirely to Linux that I’d give KiCAD a go. Download through your favourite method and take my advice, download and print off the ‘Getting Started’ pdf.

The plan was to copy an existing layout first and see if I could make the PCB. I can report that I have achieved what I set out what to do. So, without boring you to death about the in’s and out’s of the software, here’s what I learnt….

1. KiCAD has moved on. A lot – It is a simple and quick way to produce a hobby project. I understand as well that a big update is on the way.
2. Workflow is different to Eagle – Schematic – Netlist – PCB rather that Schematic – PCB. This additional step is actually beneficial as it lets you make sure that the component can be sized separately from determining its functionality.
3. AutoDesk still has a fantastic set of suite of applications and no doubt it will produce a superb link between electrical and mechanical that will be hard to beat. Commercially this will be hard to beat. The hobbyist will reap the benefits in time.
4. KiCAD is fundamentally fit for purpose and definitely is not second best. What is clear is that the two suites follow different paths. There are a bunch of other pieces of software that fit the bill but most hobbyists have heard of both of these.
5. RTM – Did I say Read The Manual? I’m going to say it again, read up. This isn’t a 5 minute investment and planning will pay off.
6. If you’re keen on open source software then crack on. No need look elsewhere.

I’m going to continue with this project and no doubt learn new stuff. Today I learnt that importing .dxf files for the creation of PCB shapes is simple. A really quick way of getting the Altoids tin shaped PCB I need.

Martin, G3USF has produced a few short for reports which hopefully clear up some of the backlog. They are kept in the usual place, here. The plan for future reports which are taking a while to compile is to produce the short forms as soon as possible and then to fill in the report as data comes in. There is always a little gaps between the issue date and the actual date but this is growing a little. Hopefully this will help to close that gap.

Please feel free to browse and hopefully you’ll enjoy what Martin, G3USF produces.

I’ve always wanted to operate my radio on Solar Power. This was a fun to do project. I can’t wait to bring it to a Field Day Event.

I bought the aluminum from Metals Depot in Kentucky. (link attached)  They have lots of aluminum shapes and parts to choose from. The parts arrived via UPS. It nice to have a good source like this for ham radio projects.http://www.metalsdepot.com/

HQRP is a good company to buy solar panel parts and controlers from. The QRP part of their name is just coincidental to this being a QRP project.  http://hqrp.com/

de AA1IK

Ernest Gregoire

72

I never really thought I would be saying this but I have entered, or rather plan to, enter a contest. Sports radio as it is sometimes called always seems like a bear garden on HF with just about every station barking out ‘CQ Contest’ to claim a few more points. To me it doesn’t sound like a sport unless you’re keen on drowning out the competition.

I have mostly avoided contests as to me it has the perception of something where ‘He who has the largest bank account wins’ and the is little room for tiddlers. So to challenge this perception I shall be entering into something that I think / hope will be a bit more relaxed. The UKSMG Summer Es contest might be the highlight of the 50Mhz calendar but for I shall be operating at the most for 6 hours. The likelihood it will be around 3 hours at best as a tiddler station.

I will be operating at best 100W from my IC7000 into my homebrew 50Mhz vertical which so far has escaped the operation in anger mode it needs. Part of the reason for this is to see if I actually enjoy it. The other part is to do something different.

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for 6m but have no idea why as my QTH precludes much in the way of ‘proper’ antennas and so far I have only made a few contacts on the magic band. Most of these contacts were a few years ago when I could put a beam up in the garden for a few weeks. This needs to change in my opinion and this weekend is the best opportunity for me for a while.

So if you happen to be on the magic band, listen out for the tiddler that is my station (operating as GM7KSE as it happens). The contest starts on the 2nd June at 1300Z