Here’s a quick one for all you Windows 7 and Vista users.
I found this while browsing the windows gadget gallery a few days ago and started playing around with it. It is truly a very neat and useful gadget. My new laptop has plenty of resources, so it’s easy to keep it on the desktop 24/7.
From the Windows gallery:
A simple gadget to give you QRZ search and N0NBH propagation data in a gadget. For Ham Radio and Amateur Radio or Shortwave Listeners
If you’d like to download and give it a shot, here’s the link:
During the middle of last year, the Northern California Contest Club (NCCC) started a really neat online service with free webinars, geared towards contesting (but as with many such clubs, there’s something to learn for all hams).
Some topics so far:
“How to set up a Microham keyer”, Ira (K2RD
“Homebrewing a micro based (SO2R) station controller”, Jack (KF6T)
“N1MM: How To Configure And Operate”, John (K6MM)
“WriteLog: How To Configure And Operate”, Mark (K6UFO)
Man, sometimes a topic starts going through your head, you do a little research and then start going all over the place. This is one of them – antenna analyzers. I’m a huge fan of them and run antenna clinics for our local club. This tool is one quick way to get a snapshot of your antennas performance in a jiffy.
For those that have seen the MFJ analyzers, they basically consist of a low power transmitter and various circuitry to do the math and display the antenna or feedline information on an LCD screen.
Oztales strikes again with a very well done video. The descriptions should give hams without an engineering background a very strong understanding of what is going on behind this “mystery box”.
While I’m “down under” let me show you a really neat analyzer kit that can be had for a fraction of the cost of the larger analyzers like the MFJ. If you’re willing to burn a little solder, you can make a very sweet analyzer (I’m thinking of getting this kit as well, seems a good companion piece to my AADE LCR Meter). As of this writing, the kit mentioned here costs $150.00 AUD for DX orders – which is a bargain!
As you can see, it has many things in common with the higher priced analyzers as far as layout and such. Just keep in mind, from what I’ve seen in the picture and on their site, this is an HF only analyzer and does not have six meters – strictly 10 and up.
The kit is available from the South Coast Amateur Radio Club and on their website at:
Across the pond, someone built one of these kits and you can get a really good idea of what is inside the kit. This video is what is now making me consider purchasing this kit:
BYRONLOCAL’s Youtube channel has a few other videos that may be part of the kit (components) but I haven’t watch them yet, so check his channel if you want more information.
While I’m “down under” let me show you a really neat analyzer kit that can be had for a fraction of the cost of the larger analyzers like the MFJ. If you’re willing to burn a little solder, you can make a very sweet analyzer (I’m thinking of getting this kit as well, seems a good companion piece to my AADE LCR Meter). As of this writing, the kit mentioned here costs $150.00 AUD for DX orders – which is a bargain!
Oztales has scratched the surface of what you can do with an analyzer. If you practice your google-fu, you’ll find lots of other great uses/mods for analyzers to expand their capability.
Don, AA5AU has a great “Getting started with RTTY” page complete with full tutorials to get you started.
If you have ever wanted to give this digital mode a try, you have no excuse not to anymore. Don has written a full tutorial on RTTY using MMTTY software. The screen shot to the right is from MMTTY.
But, what is RTTY? From Don’s site:
RTTY is Baudot code (see http://chem.ch.huji.ac.il/~eugeniik/history/baudot.html for excellent information on Mr. Baudot and his code). More specifically, on the Amateur HF bands, it’s 5 bit baudot meaning that every character consists of five bits, either mark or space (in actuality Baudot is 8 bits because a start bit and two stop bits are added for synchronization see http://www.aa5au.com/gettingstarted/rtty_diddles_technical.htm). In general, a baud rate of 45.45 baud is used on HF. 45.45 baud is the equivalent of 60 wpm. Even though 45.45 is standard, you will occasionally come across a RTTY signal at a different speed. Ed, P5/4L4FN, preferred to run 50 baud rate (66 wpm) when he was active on RTTY from North Korea. 75 baud (100 wpm) can also be used on the Amateur HF bands.
The nice thing about RTTY is you don’t need a whizbang station with everything including a linear to have loads of fun. In fact, in the few times I’ve dabbled with RTTY, low power (50 watts) worked better for me. You can learn more about why on the tutorial.
The page has detailed instructions on installing MMTTY and making your first contacts with RTTY. Pages are printable for offline reading (in PDF) as well. Page topics include:
Phil Karn, KA9Q has been busy as of late! He has received permission to duplicate and make freely available many useful journals for those in the amateur radio community.
These journals go back some 4 decades and are loaded with useful information.
Here’s a quick one for all you Windows 7 and Vista users.
During the middle of last year, the Northern California Contest Club (NCCC) started a really neat online service with free webinars, geared towards contesting (but as with many such clubs, there’s something to learn for all hams).
Don, AA5AU has a great “Getting started with RTTY” page complete with full tutorials to get you started.
