AmateurRadio.com

Do you see those numbers on the display? Cool, isn’t it? That means I’m smart. Very smart. Bright and clever too. I admit I’m not too good looking, but I do have something of a genius in me. Come on guys, give me a round of applause. I did it! Finally fixed my Kenwood TS-440S. I feel like a million…..whatever currency is worth something nowadays. So, how did this sharp and brainy fellow do it? Simple: follow the 8 Volts.

After I rebuild VFO#5 last week I measured 8 Volts where I should measure 5. This bugged me for a week: where did those 8 Volts come from? So on Sunday morning I fed the family, kissed them good-bye and locked the door of my shack. With schematics, PCB layout and a DVM in hand I started out on my journey following the 8 Volts. It was a difficult track with many resistors on its path, a conductor or two and inductors to counter them. And then I arrived at a three-way junction called FET. Junction FET is known for regulating those obstinate Volts. But what do you know? Junction FET was tired beyond repair and those 8 Volts were going all three ways, where they clearly shouldn’t be. Now those of you who have travelled similar paths before (or should I just call you “old geezers”) know that you should handle junction FET with care. But until now I got away with rough-handling them. Not this time, so I quickly made amends and put in another junction with loads of TLC and some solder. And my journey ended there and then.

My thanks goes out to my family, the Yahoo TS-440S group, Mr. Liu for the components and to you, my dear readers, for putting up with me. SEE YOU ON AIR!!!

P.S. Your turn. I think I deserve at least 10 comments telling me how great I am, don’t you think?

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

Note: a longer and more technically detailed version of this is at my other 'blog, which I've decided not to syndicate.

Why was I up to 3 AM last night, making me miss the Iowa QSO party today? I received a care package via “Royal Mail” on Friday from the British Amateur Television Club. It is something that was designed almost the same way (actually more clever in many respects) that I had been thinking of doing for close to 10 years.

The DigiLite is based on the “Poor Man’s DATV” by F4DAY. The project has been updated for modern computers by using a 2 channel FTDI USB serial port chip (which is the “why didn’t I think of it?” part of the design) and a closed-source (unfortunately) DSPic33 and Windows PC software to capture data from a “e-bay special” several year old Hauppage PVR-150, 250, 350 (and probably PVR-USB2) analog capture card from e-bay. (What is special about them for this project is an Conexant MPEG-2 encoder hardware chip and they are cheap!)

The BATC’s solution of using an inexpensive PIC and the FTDI serial interface is a maybe slightly kludgy but awfully clever solution of inexpensively and simply pumping data to the QPSK modulator chip. Although there are some disadvantages to this simple interface, it is an awesome start!

The modulation used is DVB-S, which is the older digital standard used by most of the world for satellite transmissions.

I’ve been playing with LEGAL Free-To-Air satellite for many years. The majority of what is left unencrypted on C-band and Ku-band FSS satellite is receivable on an inexpensive set type box and/or PC receiver card. These receivers take in 950-2150 MHz signals as an IF (with a converter and/or a LNA in front of the IF) in Amateur use.

The main disadvantage to DVB-S for ham radio is that the modulation is pretty weak when it comes to handling multipath. Existing Yagi beams other directional antennas will mitigate this greatly in Amateur Use. See the other ‘blog for details.

THE great advantage to DVB-S for ham use– in my opinion– is that the bandwidth and data rates, even the video and audio coding the the MPEG-2 Transport streams are pretty much completely up to the link user. DVB-T in Europe and ATSC in the US is only setup for 6/8 MHz channels and IMHO there is no reason for hams to use this much bandwidth in 2011 for ATV. Neither are a good choice for low bandwidths as we NEED to have in amateur television.

Experiments by the BATC and others show that the digital signal is much more usable and stable than equivalent bandwidth analog ATV and it just gets better with reduced bit rates.

Ho, Hum? ATV? who cares? Well.. see.. it’s not really just that, is it? Data such as DVB-IP can be used for data instead. There are $20 e-bay DVB-S cards capable of receiving data as a native computer network interface via this protocol. Maybe we can restart a packet radio network up again?

So this is the start of an interesting project for me that I’ve wanted to do forever. Hopefully it will turn out well and can be revolutionary.

Fred Spinner, WØFMS, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Iowa, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Getting started

Well as most have heard Apple came out with their new iPhone last week. I was looking forward to the new iPhone 5 and disappointed when it was revealed as the 4S. Seems funny to me Apple let the iPhone 5 rumor build when in fact they planned the 4S.  It was just released here in Canada this week, there were folk lined up hours before electronic stores opened awaiting their new iPhone. As for Julie and I we bailed on the iPhone frenzy and picked up some months ago the iPhone 4. Our iPhone 3S's had seen better days and it was time to upgrade. So that brings me back to the new iOS 5 that Apple released last week. I checked it out and it will work on our iPads and iPhone 4 as well. There is improved features for text messaging, I would no longer have to dock to iTunes to get updates, improved camera,  a storage area called iCloud, some minor changes in the email and calender...these are but some of
the new things with iOS 5. Off I went to iTunes to get the update all went smooth....so I thought. I then restarted my iPhone and ALL my purchased app's were GONE.....all music......GONE and email......GONE!!!!!

All better....thanks Apple care

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

With the help of PC4T’s tutorial I made this graphic in excel. The blue line represents my signal at Casey TI2/NA7U and the green line represents Casey’s signal at my QTH. The strange thing is that I did not receive Casey after around 01:52 UTC. But of course it could be he only listened after that time. Peak on 30m was around 02:50 UTC after that you see propagation is going up and down slowly sloping downwards. Sunset greyline at Costa Rica is at 23:20 UTC if I’m not mistaking. You see a small rise of my signal being received by Casey at that time. Casey’s signal peaked also at that time, but is difficult to see as the graphic is 3D. So I quickly made another graphic showing this. Besides WSPR on 30m I did some 10m too for 2 days, I’ve been heard in 23 DXCC now and even logged a all time new one Kazakhstan bringing me at 64 DXCC on WSPR all band. 

Bas, PE4BAS, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Groningen, Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].

I’m afraid we still don’t have the antenna up, but things are looking good to get it done next week. I have lots of stuff to post regarding this project, but that will have to wait until I have more time. In the meantime, here is my son’s account of what we did on Tuesday of this week:

Helping Dad Build His Antenna, Day 2
by Antonio Mitchell, Thursday, October 13, 2011

On Tuesday we began our official work. Dad bought his parts that were on his shopping list and also a titanium drill bit. We kept getting a step closer to finishing our project with each thing we did. It felt good to be getting the project done.

When Dad came home from his shopping trip we began to get ready to go onto the roof. The bolts for [one of] the tripod’s feet were put on, and also the ladder was brought out. We had a bucket which Dad tied some knots to. The bucket was to put things in that would help us put up the tripods. In the bucket were bolts, drill, level, roofing compound, and tape measures. My dad hauled up the first tripod using a rope. Then after that came the bucket.

Once everything was on the roof we set the tripods on each end of the house. We started with the smaller tripod. I made sure it was level and Dad drilled the holes.Once the holes were drilled we spread roofing compound. I helped put the tripod back, while Dad screwed the bolts in. We did the same for the other tripod as well.

After the tripods were on the roof we finished working on the mast. The titanium bit really worked well. It took us till supper-time to finish the tripod and the mast. My dad’s back wasn’t doing well so we did not get to put the mast on the roof. Hopefully soon.

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

According to a report from the ARRL, the number of Amateur Radio operators in the U.S. has grown over the past 12 years. From 677,000 in 1999 to a new all time high of 700,000 operators in 2011 according to ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. 

“At the end of September, I saw that the number of hams in the US was high,” she said. “When I started comparing that number with other years, I found that it was an all-time high.” Over the past 40 years, the number of Hams has been growing. In December, 1971 there were 285,000 Ham Radio operators, and the numbers increased dramatically. After another decade, in 1981, 443,000 Hams in the US. That’s a little under a 50% increase. And as the decades rolled on, the number of Hams grew still.

In the report, Somma went on to say,

“When looking at the three current license classes — Technician, General and Amateur Extra — these numbers are impressive,” Somma explained. “The number of Technicians peaked in March 2011 at 342,572, while in September 2011, we saw both Generals and Extras peak at 159,861 and 125,661, respectively. As new Technicians earn their Amateur Radio licenses, and current Technician licensees move on to General and Generals upgrade to Extra, this can cause up-and-down fluctuations for these totals.”

The question then turns to how many of these licensed Hams are still active. In a recent ARRL survey of members, more than 80% of the respondents are active. That’s still an impressive number. Somma continued to say these high numbers mean that hams are upgrading and renewing in larger numbers and staying interested in hobby. “As technology changes and advances, it is especially vital to keep up or be at the forefront,” Somma said. “I believe that Amateur Radio has done just that! The measurable results are our indisputable license numbers. It amazes me after all these years how important and relevant Amateur Radio remains. I am proud to be one of the 700,221 licensees and to see this historic and important milestone.”

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, Albany’s #1 Rock Station website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday on AmiZed Studios and hosts a podcast called The Kim & Rich Show with his fiance’ Kim Dunne.

 

Rich Gattie, KB2MOB, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve picked up a couple of Mirage “brick” amplifiers over the past few years.   I’ve also rewired the DC cable on each and every one.  Here’s the latest.  AWG 10 to AWG 16 transition?  Seriously?  I know it technically doesn’t matter too much for a short run, but these amplifiers suck down a lot of current and I just don’t see cutting corners on that.  Maybe I’m a purist…

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].