KIX-OnlineLinks to amateur (ham) radio goodies on the web

I recently won a scanner at a scholarship fundraising auction at my local club.  I never meant to use it to monitor law enforcement or EMS channels.  I really wanted it simply for weather and my local repeaters (and an APRS receiver).

I didn’t, however, have a manual.  It’s about ten years old, but a decent Uniden desktop scanner, nonetheless.

Enter a couple of decent resources to help us out (I’m not a scanner enthusiast, so these sites were helpful to me!).

The first is the “Scanner Owner’s Manuals and Scanner Service Manuals compiled by Anthony W. Haukap” website.  There really is a great deal of resources from Uniden, Radio Shack, Motorola….. you name it.  Very helpful site indeed:

http://myweb.accessus.net/~090/bearcatting.html

This next site I’ve used before to program aviation frequencies in my amateur gear (my son thinks it’s neat to listen to the planes when we watch them in the observation area at my local airport).

RadioReference.com – http://www.radioreference.com/

RadioReference has a ton of resources on scanners, local frequencies, databases, member forums, Wiki’s – you name it.  They have both free member and pay member services.  Very useful site indeed.

If you have any other scanner resources, post below.

How often have you had a hard time remembering what size to drill a hole for a particular piece of hardware?  When I’m working on QRP, I’m often needing to tap an enclosure and have gone nuts looking for information not in my tap and die set.

Here is a handy reference on Wikipedia that does imperial and metric measurements:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_and_tap_size_chart

Lincoln Machine has a PDF chart for easy printing here:
http://www.lincolnmachine.com/tap%20drill%20chart.pdf

I was working on a project awhile back and really needed some Toroid information (just type toroid in the search box and a few results will pop up).  I just found a few more I will indeed keep for future reference.

There is some info on the UnitMath website on various information on mathematical formulas used to calculate inductance, including:

Coaxial cable
Round Parallel Wires
Round Wire over a Ground Plane
Straight Round Wire
Air Core Coil ( Multi-Layered )
Air Core Coil ( Single-Layered )
Toroid with a Square Cross Section

Check out more at: http://unitmath.com/um/p/Examples/PulsedPower/Inductance/Inductance.html#toroidSquare

Over at 66Pacific, I found an online calculator that can do some of the math for you.  In addition to that, they also have the following calculators:

Wire Gauge & Diameter
Magnetic Loop Antennas
Capacitance (Capacitor Design)
Capacitive Reactance (Xc)
Inductive Reactance (XL)

All of these can be found at: http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/toroid_calc.aspx

If you know of any other good ones, comment below.

Every now and then, a club does something neat.  The Royal Signals Amateur Radio Society (RSARS) is an interesting club.  Their membership consists of:

Membership of The Royal Signals Amateur Radio Society (RSARS) is open to anyone interested in amateur radio and who has completed service with the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom or certain other countries or is currently serving.

But, for the rest of us, they do have some neat PDF’s of some good antenna projects and useful accessories, including:

THE 40m 4-SQUARE ANTENNA – EA5AVL
A STUDY OF LOUIS VARNEY’S G5RV ANTENNA
CONVERTING THE G5RV for 80m operation
Air Cored 1 : 1 HF BALUN
Antenna Relay Switch – EA5AVL
5-BAND HF VERTICAL – EA5AVL
20m ELEVATED VERTICAL – G8ODE
20m half-wave END FED ANTENNA – Stub matched
20m helically wound MOBILE ANTENNA – EA5AVL
40m quarter-wave VERTICAL END FED ANTENNA – G8ODE
40m EH RECEIVE ANTENNA – G8ODE
160-80-40m END FED ANTENNA – GØCSK
160m ELEVATED FIBREGLASS VERTICAL ANTENNA – G3SZU
160m TOP BAND END FED ANTENNA – G3YEU
160m TOP BAND INVERTED “L” ANTENNA – G8ODE
AIR CORED 1-1 HF BALUN – G8ODE
ALTAI SWR-2T METER CONVERSION
BREMI ANTENNA MATCHER for HF QRP USE
CHOKE-BALUN DESIGNS – G8ODE
80-10m DOUBLET ANTENNA – G3RWF
G5RV MULTI-BAND ANTENNA – U-shaped INSTALLATION – G8ODE
HALF-SIZE G5RV CONVERSION FOR 80m – G8ODE
HALF-SIZE G5RV for a SMALL SPACE – G8ODE
80-10m MULTI-BAND ANTENNA – G8OFZ
REMOTELY OPERATED HF ANTENNA SWITCHES
SAFARI INVERTED “V” ANTENNA – G3RWF
SAFARI ROACH POLE ANTENNA – G3RWF
VERSATILE HF BALUN 1-1 and 4-1 – G8ODE
W3DZZ MULTI-BAND ANTENNA
40m and SHORT 80m ANTENNA
ZETAGI SWR MOD
G3EFYs EMPIRICAL ASYMMETRICAL ANTENNA
160m-6m HF ANTENNA TUNER – G3WME
HF ANTENNA MATCHER – G3WME
HF LOOP ANTENNA TUNER – G3WME
QRP HF ANTENNA MATCH – G3WME
LIMITED SPACE ANTENNA – G7FEK

The clubs direct URL is:

http://www.rsars.org.uk/DEFAULT.HTM

A direct link to the projects downloads are:

http://www.rsars.org.uk/ELIBRARY/docsants.htm

I made a post awhile back about Tektronix and loads of information available on their site with regard to their (sweet!) line of O-scopes.  It was nice to see a company furnish plenty of generic information that is useful for the hobbyist or student.

This time around, it’s Analog Devices (http://www.analog.com).

When I’m hosting a buildathon or teaching a class, there’s always simple projects being built by attendees.  Some manufacturers make really good product data sheets, some don’t (as I recently found out using simple LM386 and similar clones).

Analog Devices not only has loads of great product data sheets and information on their website, they push the envelope one step further.  They publish a newsletter that is available on their website.

Analog Dialogue is the newsletter:

http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/index.html

This month alone has a great article for the homebrewer/QRP’er called “Driving PIN Diodes: The Op-Amp Alternative“.  I didn’t look to see if the newsletter is downloadable or not (I hit the site, and start reading an article and then I get sidetracked.  Not that any of my fellow QRP’ers would ever know anything about that!).

They push the envelope one step further with Webinars!!!

http://www.analog.com/library/analogdialogue/webinars_tutorials.html

I haven’t had a chance to watch some yet (I had to register, and haven’t had the chance yet) but I have plenty on my viewing list.

Here’s a sample:

• Introduction to Op Amps — This presentation is an introductory discussion of operational amplifiers (op amps) and is intended for users that are new to or unfamiliar with analog design or concepts.

• Quadrature and DC Correction for Direct Conversion Receivers –This webcast discusses the various wireless communication architectures with a focus on homodyne receiver challenges such as: DC offset, quadrature errors and even order distortions.

• Amplifier Noise Principles for the Practical Engineer — This presentation will focus on practical noise tips for the board designer, rather than theoretical aspects often covered in academic texts.

• Introduction to Differential Amplifiers and Design Tools — The differential amplifier function provides precision signal conditioning in many high-performance system applications, such as medical instrumentation and portable test equipment. But how do you apply these devices to insure that your signal chain meets performance expectations? This on-demand technical webinar covers the basics of differential amplifiers, their common applications, and explores several design examples.

• Differential Circuit Design Techniques for Communication Applications — One of the major challenges in communications system design is the successful capturing of signals with adequate fidelity. This webinar explores the advantages of differential design techniques for today’s high performance communication systems.

I’ve used a lot of their product in the past, this only makes me want to continue knowing how much they back up their products with loads of information on how to use them!

If you know of any other companies products that we use on a regular basis that is very good at educating their customers on how to use their product, please share and post below!