AmateurRadio.com

If you’re like me and have been wanting to receive signals from ARISSat-1, it is pretty easy. Here’s is a simple way that you can do it in the field, with just something to record audio and a receiver that can hear the satellite on 145.950MHz.

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Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

It’s the big news of the week for Amateur Radio. ARISSat-1 will be deployed today from the International Space Station thanks to 2 Russian Cosmonauts. The satellite will have 4 Slow Scan TV cameras as well as a CW and BPSK beacon. According to what I have read you’ll be able to pick it up with just a simple hand held and a quarter wave whip antenna. I plan on testing that statement out myself.It’ll also have on board, a cross-band linear transponder for SSB/CW work. A little something for everyone. I’m thinking the SSTV is going to be what I am shooting for. AMSAT-NA has a special page setup with more information on how to receive signals from the satellite. Below is the live feed from NASA-TV. The Sat is being deployed at 14:00 UTC.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

So I recently posted on Twitter that the formulas for the Extra class exam was kind of making me feel stupid because it’s been so long since I did any kind of serious math. I got a couple replies saying I didn’t need a calculator for the Extra Class test. Well, since they pull from a group of questions where all the questions and answers are known, yeah.That’s just raw memorization and reciting the answer on command. That’s not what I want to do. I want to understand the theory and use it in a practical purpose in my own projects. If someone else wants to pass the test to say “Yeah, I have an Extra Class”, then feel free. I believe that knowing this theory and being able to use it in a practical sense make someone a m0re rounded Ham and able to tackle new problems and take on more complex projects.

Now Yes, there are times when you just need a shortcut for the math. It makes it easier. So here are 2 videos that kind of show you what I mean. These make it a little easier for me to grasp the math behind the theory. If you’re studying like me, good luck!

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

For no apparent reason, I woke up this morning, took a shower and ate my oatmeal for breakfast. Sat down a started looking through the emails I got over night and it struck me. Why don’t I look up videos on YouTube of the Munsters. Then I remembered that Herman Munster was a Ham!So I started my search knowing full well that I may never find a clip of what I was looking for. I wanted to share the entire episode, but part 1 was missing. So I would like to share this with you. Herman Munster, W6XLR-4, super Ham Radio operator.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

So I guess this video is as viral as you can get in the Ham Radio Community. But the name of the video lives up to what you see in it. I guess you could almost say it’s something you would see on HamSexy. But everyone has their own way. So here it is. The video that has been making it’s way around Twitter. Some questions I have about this video is, how does he know which mic to use, and how does he keep track of conversations? And what’s up with the business cards on the dash? And with all those speakers, does he get surround sound now if he tunes all the radios to the same frequency? Just askin’.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday here on AmiZed Studios.

You have to learn electronics by building circuits.  However, it can be very intimidating to get started and once you have some familiarity you may need further guidance, especially in the art of circuit design.  Last week I watched three excellent tutorial videos which show there are some who are putting excellent material on the Web to help others further their learning of electronics.  Here are the three.

First video covers some basic, but necessary understanding of multimeters and their use.  Essential knowledge for beginners.  This is by Colin Cunningham of Makezine.com and part of his ongoing electronics  video posts at Make magazine’s website.

The next one steps it up quite a lot in detail but it is Dave Jones of the EEVblog showing how a component can be selected  by a designer for a circuit, in this case for a DC-DC booster.  It a long video, but shows how to use online catalogues, conduct parametric searches as well as the essential examination of component datasheets.  Well worth watching carefully.

FInally, what looks like a new video podcast series from component supplier Element 14 and Jeri Ellsworth.  In this video Jeri designs a circuit for some music playing installation art, that is triggered by motion detected by a PIR.  This is a great tutorial video and I look forward to seeing more of these. The link to the video is here.

The latest good news seems to be that today it was announced that Jeri is joining Element14′s “Ask an Expert” panel.

Tokyo Hackerspace has recently released these videos of a tour of Akihabara in Tokyo and they have done a viral tour of some of the major hacker blogs like Make and Hackaday.  If you have not already seen them then they are worth the time watching as Akiba of Freaklabs gives a great tour of this part of Tokyo which is brimming with stores that sell tools, electronic components and everything else for the hobbyist, maker, hacker and engineer.

The full collection of 24 videos are on the Tokyo Hackerspace website.  The video recording was made in HD so if you have a good bandwidth connection try the 1080 HD version on full screen. Here are a couple of the videos that I found particularly interesting.  First an amateur radio store called ‘Rocket Radio’

This next video shows a collection of indoor stalls that sell a wide variety of hobbyist items.  The location reminded me of a British indoor market, but instead of clothes and food here you can buy radios and enclosures. A collection of ‘candy stores’ for hobbyists.

I had heard of Akihabara but was stunned watching these videos how many stores there are.  I am sure it is unique in the density of electronics and construction retailers.  I would be interested to hear from anyone if they know of a collection of electronic component stores similar to this elsewhere, particularly in North America.  No doubt there were smaller collections of shops like this after World War II when the surplus gear hit the high street.  I know in London, UK, Tottenham Court Road had a concentration of such stores and I remember my father taking the family there when we visited London in the 70′s when I was a kid.  I believe that Shudehill in Manchester, UK, also had electronic component stores around that time  (again I recall a visit with my father) but they had all gone except for a TV and Radio store in the 80′s when I was a student there.

Thanks to Akira of FreakLabs, Patrick of Work in Progress and Tokyo Hackerspace for bringing us these videos.