Posts Tagged ‘481thz’
Optical communications over the horizon
I have been too unwell to do this recently, but not long before my brain bleed (Sept 2013) I was amazed at optical communications over the horizon, non line of sight (NLOS) using clear air scattering.
The inspiration for all my optical experiments came from Stuart Wisher G8CYW who did a great series in RadCom a few years ago.
Testing optics |
My home made transmitter only consumed about 0.7W from a red LED bought on the internet. My homemade RX and TX used homemade optics based around cheap drain pipes and cheap magnifying glasses. The whole RX and TX were simple and low cost. Only simple test gear was needed too. It is a bit like microwaves, but easier to build and test.
There was no sign at all of the TX beam in the sky. All alignment used dead reckoning with some panning at the RX end to find the TX.
Using free PC software and QRSS3 helped as bandwidths as low as 0.37Hz were possible.
When fitter I want to try infra-red LEDs instead.
See https://sites.google.com/site/g3xbmqrp3/optical/481thz-nlos.
Optical testing – too easy?
Before dark, I tried TXing from one side of the house to the other reflecting my 481THz optical beacon off the windmill. Even by ear in 600 ohm phones the signal was very clear and very easy to find. This was only about 100m path length, but I wanted to check the gear still worked as it is a long time since I used it. Not sure what to try next as I still feel very wobbly on my feet and tire easily. At least I know my homebrew optical gear all works still.
Next field test – optical?
After my very disappointing results on VLF earth-mode yesterday – I must get to the bottom of why results were quite so bad – I think my next test will be at the other end of the spectrum. We have a windmill very close so I may try bouncing optical signals off this to test my optical gear is working still. It is a long time since I have done any optical experiments.This will not be too far initially, more a test of the gear before venturing any distance.