AmateurRadio.com

My family sure was nice to me on my birthday this past Wednesday! One of the gifts I received was something I’ve wanted, but I couldn’t bring myself to cough up the cash for it: the 2012 edition of The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications, graciously given to me by my daughter. Since the most recent copy on my shelves was several decades old, I was glad to get my hands on it.

I can see why this is a required textbook for the classes my friend Scott has been taking. He is a Signalman with BNSF Railway and periodically travels to Kansas City for training (no pun intended). The ARRL Handbook is a great resource for more than just ham radio operators. It is well-written and comprehensive — so comprehensive that I felt like an ignoramus as I paged through it on my birthday! I may have my Amateur Extra Class, but now I see more clearly than ever how little I really know.

But don’t let that scare you away from this book, Technicians. There’s still plenty in this book that you will find accessible, and anyhow we’re never going to learn if we don’t push ourselves.

One thing that isn’t covered in this book is the topic of operating procedures. But I can see why this topic has been relegated to a book of its own. The ARRL Handbook is quite a hefty tome as it is.

As with most of the ARRL library, you’ll find this book cheaper over at Amazon.

Todd Mitchell, NØIP, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Minnesota, USA. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Yesterday I wrote that I was shelving the Propeller beacon project after discovering that the frequency stability is unacceptabe. Eldon WA0UMH persuaded me to try some tests to identify the cause of the drift. My conclusion is that it is a combination of factors.

The major factor causing the drift is the power supply voltage. Whilst developing the beacon using just the Gadget Gangster board I was powering it with a 6V supply – the minimum needed. After adding a PA I needed to increase the supply voltage to 9V. The drift is greater with 9V, regardless of whether the PA is actually connected.

Looking down on the Propeller board

 If you look down at the Gadget Gangster Propeller USB board there are two SMT chips to the left of the Propeller and its clock crystal which appear to be voltage regulators. There is a 5V regulator a few millimetres to the left of the 10MHz crystal and a 3.3V regulator below it. The greater the supply voltage, the more heat the 5V regulator has to dissipate. Plugging the LCD UI board on top of the Propeller board traps in more of that heat making the drift even worse. This is not the first time I have discovered that voltage regulators and crystal oscillators don’t go well together.

Whilst it is useful to know what is causing the drift, my discovery has not indicated an easy solution. Either I use a temperature compensated 10MHz crystal oscillator as suggested by one of my readers, or I use the Prop to control an outboard and more stable synthesized oscillator. The first option looks the easiest, but the TCXO is not an inexpensive component.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

For many who follow this blog, you’ve known me for about as long as I’ve been licensed (almost 5 years).  Unfortunately, during a large portion of this time I’ve been talking about the work I’ve been doing on my new ham shack, home office and man cave.   If memory serves me, I began framing the unfinished portion of the basement in 2008. 

I worked pretty much every weekend (and some evenings) and managed to get the 2×4 framing done in about 4-6 weeks.  Then a few more weeks I had all the electrical, network, coax for CATV and telephone all done.  I also had to do some plumbing work to move the washing machine hot/cold lines and drain down a foot or two.  Then I stopped working on the project.

Weeks turned into months and months turned into a few years.  Some of these delays were trying to decide what sort of wall material to use (sheetrock or paneling).  The decision was made on sheetrock but then we kicked around whether we would do this ourselves or have it done.  Finally we came to the conclusion we would continue with our plans of doing all the work ourselves. 

So just after the new year I began working on the project once again.  I had a few more items to do before I was ready for the sheetrock.  All these final items where checked off the checklist and last weekend we placed an order for the drywall material.  The drywall was delivered today.

Many of you have asked for photos along the way and well I finally snapped a few showing the stud walls.  The picture below is one corner of the main room that will make up my ham shack, home office and man cave.  The room is 16 feet by 16 feet.  (I’m actually finishing out a much larger area than just the ham shack/office area) This corner will be my main operating position.  The wall to the right is 8 feet and the wall to the left is 16 feet.  I will install cabinets above and some below with countertop for the desk surface. 

I’ve been working in a corner type setup for the past several years and actually prefer it. To my right will be my Yaesu FT-950 for SSB operation and to the left will be my Yaesu FT-897 which is setup for digital modes.  My LCD computer screen will be positioned in the middle.

The picture below shows the above mentioned 16’ wall (this wall to my left).  Again this will have some cabinets above and some above with work surface to the end. 

I’ve tried to think of everything I would need not only today but in the future.  Again this space will serve both as my ham shack and my home office.   I also plan to have a nice TV and surround sound setup for when watching those action movies and sporting events.   So I’ve pulled extra coax for CATV as well as extra network cables. 

I plan to start hanging the drywall tomorrow (Saturday) after I move it down into the basement area.  My rough goals are to have the drywall done by the end of March and perhaps painting done by end of April.  We’ll see…

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

I have decided to shelve the Propeller Beacon project. Actually the project made the decision for itself. Bored with receiving spots for my 250mW WSPR signal on 30m I decided to try 20m where there are almost as many monitors. But after a handful of spots there was nothing. After a while I decided something must be wrong.

I checked that the beacon was still transmitting at the right times and it was. So I switched on the K3, ran the WSPR software and the reason for the lack of spots became clear. My signal was drifting the best part of 10Hz in each two minute cycle!

When I first ran the beacon on the bare Propeller board I had found the signal to be pretty stable after only a few minutes warm-up. After adding the LCD board – which plugs on top of the Propeller board – I noticed that my 30m transmissions were being quite consistently reported with -3Hz drift. The RF amplifier board with its heatsink is separate from the Propeller board and nowhere near its crystal oscillator. I hypothesized that the LCD board is trapping some heat in, enough to make the master clock oscillator drift.

The drift is probably a multiplication factor of the clock frequency so the higher in frequency you go, the worse the drift. Whatever the explanation, the Propeller + LCD combination is not usable as a WSPR beacon as it is.

It seems to me that there are two possible solutions. One would be to make my own Propeller processor board with a temperature controlled crystal clock. The other would be to use the Prop to control a Si570 synthesizer or something like that. Unfortunately I don’t think either of those solutions are within my capabilities just at the moment. So I’m afraid the beacon project will be going on the shelf.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

Unbelievable.....there is a review out on Eham regarding the Elecraft KX3. I was doing a Google search of the KX3 last evening to see what was new. I came across a link to Eham Matt Zilmer, W6NIA posted a great field tester review of the up and coming KX3. Now please correct me if I am wrong but how many of the "other" ham radio manufactures field test their rigs with hams who are not employees?? Ok I get it if you have read my blog I am just an Elecract fanatic... guilty.....but do post a comment if you can come up with a ham gear manufacture who field test rigs with fellow hams or were emails are answered sometimes within the hour or that day....I'm getting side tracked.....Matt gives a technical overview of the rig then moves onto his opinion and finally the nuts and bolts of operating the rig and bragging of his contacts. If you are a follower of my blog then you may have read my post KX3....need or want....there I decided to stick with my Elecraft K2 rig and not spend the bucks on the KX3. But as time goes on and as the rigs get the hands of the eagerly awaiting hams its going to be hard to resist one!







Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

There was a discussion on Google+ the other day about how a particular handheld transceiver has an SMA connector, instead of the venerable BNC connector. I noted that many of the newer HTs are going with SMA, presumably because of the smaller size. In fact, I started thinking about it…I didn’t think you can buy an HT anymore with a BNC.

I took at look at some of the ham radio dealer websites to see if I was right. These radios all have SMA connectors: Alinco DJ-175T, DJ-C7T, DJ-G7T, DJ-G29T, DJ-V17T, DJ-V57T; ICOM IC-80AD, IC-92AD, IC-T70A, ID-31A: Kenwood TH-D72A, TH-F6A, TH-K20A; Yaesu FT-60R, FT-250R, FT-270R, VX-3R, VX-6R, VX-7R, VX-8R. The Wouxun radios are SMA but with a male connector on the radio (opposite gender compared to the other manufacturers…a topic for another day.)

But I did find three ICOM models that have BNC connectors: IC-V80, IC-V82, IC-U82.

The trend line is clear…the BNC is on the way out for amateur radio handheld transceivers.

Do I care?

Well, yes, I do.

I have a collection of extended length antennas that are much more efficient than the standard dummy load rubber duck. These are great for portable operation, mountaintopping, etc. I have not found very many of these antennas available with SMA connectors. Even if they were available, I am not sure I’d want to attach them to an SMA connector on an HT. For example, a 1/2-wave 2-Meter antenna is about 38 inches long — I am skeptical that an SMA provides enough mechanical strength to support it. Even with a BNC, I have always been very careful to not put too much strain on the connector.

We will have to see where this leads but it seems that the BNC will fade away for amateur use. Most mobile and base rigs use PL-259 and/or N connectors so HTs have been the main application for a BNC.

Goodbye, BNC, I am going to miss you.

73, Bob K0NR

Update on Feb 24: I’ve had several people suggest to me “just use a BNC-to-SMA adapter.” This certainly takes care of making a good electrical connection but mechanically they are generally weak.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The time has come when I can’t put off learning Morse code any longer, With an interest in vintage amateur radio and the impending restoration of a Heathkit AT-1 I’m going to need to use CW sooner or later.

So I have been checking out resources for learning Morse code and stumbled across two that really intrigue me.

The first is LCWO.net, a web browser based Morse code learning tool that is usable on any internet connected computer. It is available free of charge and there is no software to install. LCWO.net keeps track of where you are in your lessons and where you need to concentrate your effort. The Koch method is the primary tool available but they also offer code group practice, callsign and plain text training modes along with a service to convert text to Morse MP3s for download and use offline.

Once you are on the way to CW proficiency and want to communicate with others you can always fire up a rig and get on the air … What if you don’t have a rig or need a confidence boost before ‘going live’?

Well, you could always send Morsemail using the Morsemail client from http://brasspounder.com:8873/.

Morsemail is, “A simple text format that encodes mark and space times to make it possible to send Morse coded messages via email” but a recently added feature allows for QSOs using a internet repeater hosted on brasspounder.com. You can use a mouse or actual key wired to the mouse or joystick buttons to send CW which can be emailed or sent through the repeater live.

Now I just have to carve out the time to sit down and use these resources!

Owen Morgan, KF5CZO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Texas, USA. Contact him at [email protected].