AmateurRadio.com

See http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/minima.html

This is the latest project from Ashaar Farhan. Component cost is said to be less than $100. This is based around a Si570 sythesiser and a programmed Arduino micro-controller IC. It looks a simple to duplicate rig covering up to 30MHz. It is the successor to the BITX rig I think. The IF is 20MHz. If you only want 0-15MHz or 15-30MHz (i.e. not both) the rig get even simpler.

As it stands it produces 1W pep but it is easy to add a further PA. 

Although a kit of parts is available, I am not aware of a full kit with enclosure and a PCB being available as is the case with the BitX from Hendricks Kits.

Buying crystals for specific frequencies is now getting very expensive. There may be a newer alternative.

See https://aa7ee.wordpress.com/2015/01/12/a-crowdfunded-si5351-breakout-board-from-jason-nt7s/ .

This synthesised solution allows any frequency from 8kHz to 160MHz to be generated.

Being a ham for 50 years could mean as little as remembering to renew a never-used license every 10 years (5 years in the early days), or as much as sitting at the top of the DX Honor Roll, being ARRL President, or winning DX contests with a huge multi-multi station.

Most of us who make it to 50 will be somewhere in between. A modest station, a few HT’s, maybe being a club officer for a few years. There’s a good chance that ham radio helped our career, and a fair chance that it established that career. We’ve had a lot of contacts, made some friends, and had fun. Our interest may have waxed and waned here and there. Maybe we specialized in one mode or activity, and maybe that shifted over the years. We may share the hobby with family, or we may be the odd duck. There’s a lot of room for variety.

I made it to 50 last Sunday, January 11. I count the time from my first log book entry as a Novice: January 11, 1965, on 40 meter cw as WN9NSO. I lost (misplaced, not “FCC-lost”) my original Novice license long ago, but I kept the logs. Those first few contacts were pretty rough. I don’t remember them specifically, but the logs bring back an image of a very nervous 15-year-old, trying to put all the practice to the test, and falling well short of perfection. But I got better.

I could write more about it, but these days I make TV shows about ham radio, so of course, on Sunday, I pushed record and talked about it. I had a guest – Rich Casey N5CSU – but I knew Rich as WA9LRI, and actually WN9LRI, the first time I talked to him. We followed each other thru ham interests in the Chicago area in the 60’s and 70’s, but were pretty much out of touch until a year or three ago. Rich posted some stuff on the ARRL PR Committee mailing list about the interest he’s had in ham radio on social media. We swapped email about doing a show on that, but it never hit the top of the list. Then, as I was preparing for my “Big 50” show, I was looking over those old logs. Up near the top was WN9LRI.

I figured I’d stone two birds with one show, and we’d talk nostalgia for maybe a half hour, then switch to social media. I’m not anti-Facebook, Twitter and the others (though I did spend some time being trendy about considering them a big waste of time). I have accounts on some of them, mostly to let people know when a new show has been uploaded to YouTube. But I don’t navigate them very well, and figured we could all stand to learn a little more about how to get something useful out of them.

The first hour passed, and we were still deep in history. So much for bookending this show with the old and the new. Rich was itching to see the Dallas/Green Bay playoff game, which started early in the second hour of our Skype chat (Rich moved to Dallas back in ’78, so he’s a Texan now…). I took pity on him (and you, the audience) at the end of the second hour, and stopped the music, with a promise to come back soon for another show on the social stuff.

The show’s been on-line for a few days now, and I’ve gotten some kind comments from viewers who’ve enjoyed our talk. Even if you really like it, you don’t have to watch it all at once. That’s what the pause button is for.

I made my first QSOs of the year this past weekend. Haven’t been on air since late last year, mainly due to the sun not cooperating when I spent a few minutes in the shack. But – true to my suffix – Any Bloody Thing goes, so I did some medium wave listening instead. Still good to be back on air and conditions were not too bad so VK5CZ on 10 meters was my first contact of the year. Ian had a wonderful signal and we had a pleasant conversation, so cheers to him.

And as an SKCC member I tried to gather some points during the WES and contact some K3Y stations. Andy E50A and Jerry DW3GKT are in my log for Saturday and Lyn VK4EI on Sunday. Rather a successful weekend.

I don’t think I will top the 614 QSOs I made in 2014, anyway. Late last year we found a house with a garden, in a location that we liked, and thanks to the excellent negotiation skills of the realtor our bid was accepted. The only downside: it is a very old house and noy vert well maintained. It needs a lot of work (and money) before we can move in there, but we already had architects, contractors and designers to look at what can and has to be done. Precious radio time has to be spend on getting things in order. But with our own house there are also possibilities for better antennas and so sacrificing some radio time now is going to be rewarded. At night in bed I already dream of stacked monoband yagi antennas on 40 meter masts in our garden. The reality will be a bit different, though, but more about that later. 73

Special event, “K3Y,” the Straight Key Century Club’s annual January celebration, commemorates the Straight Key Century Club’s founding in 2006 following the American Radio Relay League’s “Straight Key Night” (SKN). A small group of participants wanted to extend the fun of SKN throughout the year. The Straight Key Century Club (SKCC) is the result.

For the first three years, the club’s founders used the special event callsigns of K1Y, K2A, and K3Y as the celebration’s special-event calls. But, someone cleverly noticed that a ‘3’ is nothing more than a backwards, curvaceous ‘E’. This “KEY” event has operated under the special event callsign of ‘K3Y’, ever since.

The on-air party is open to members and non-members alike. It runs from 0000 UTC Jan. 2 through 2359 UTC Jan. 31. It’s a great time to introduce others to the joys of hand-crafted Morse code using straight keys, bugs, and side swipers.

In this video, you can “sit in” with NW7US, the control operator of the regional activation of special event station, “K3Y/0”, during one of the many shifts during January (2015).

+ The SKCC website is at http://skccgroup.com

+ The K3Y special event page is http://www.skccgroup.com/k3y/index.php

+ The NW7US website is at http://NW7US.us

+ Some more CW/Morse code resources can be found at http://cw.hfradio.org

See http://www.gqrp.com/

Many times before I have said that SPRAT is the last magazine I would give up if I had to. GQRP Club membership is very reasonable indeed and I highly commend it to you. They now sell a DVD which has the first 160 copies of SPRAT on it.   If you join the club, the DVD is very inexpensive plus you get the next 4 SPRATs with the subscription. SPRAT is always filled with good stuff and always plenty of projects to build.

Go on, join!