Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Table Gadget
Well...with a little luck...by dinner time tomorrow my table will be on wheels. The Table Gadget works...just crank the car jack and easily lift the end of the table say 1/2"...remove the current support cabinet...roll in the new support that is on wheels (that will be next series of pictures) and crank down The Gadget.
Go to the other end of the table...repeat the process...and there you have it! A table that I can roll out away from the wall and work on the back of the rigs.
The exciting moments will be when I remove the existing metal cases that support the ends and roll in the new supports. Just need to NOT knock over The Gadget just at that moment!
I'll keep you posted!
Monday, December 8, 2008
The Sun Shows Signs of Life
Nov. 7, 2008: After two-plus years of few sunspots, even fewer solar flares, and a generally eerie calm, the sun is finally showing signs of life.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
VoIP HF Bridge
This is a pictorial representation of a recently tested Skype-based amateur radio HF VoIP bridge station. Working with well developed and tested component elements: Skype and a radio computer interface were linked to provide a HF VoIP bridge--somewhat similar to Echolink. Recent tests found that given sufficient Internet bandwidth, and a relatively robust computer to serve as the conference hub, Skype can provide exceptional audio between all participating stations.
In the most recent trials, the HF tranceiver was set for VOX operation thus allowing conference participants to easily key the transceiver. This easy access does require some discipline to minimize doubling on the part of conference and on-air participants.
On-air participants reported excellent audio quality and no objectionable latency. Obviously the readability of the on-air signal will depend on the power of the HF bridge station and propagation conditions between on-air participants and the HF bridge station.
A special thanks to WA5MLF and W4BXI for many suggestions and encouragement.
June 18, 2010
ARRL just released their first Remote Operating for Amateur Radio. I was impressed by their first figure! See below.
Friday, August 22, 2008
HF via Echolink
Echolink out-bound (TX-Ctrl) is also set to COM4 as shown below.
And lastly, Echolink must be told where to find the in-bound (Rcv) and out-bound (TX) audio. In this case, the sound card as shown below.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Grounding Project
Monday, June 9, 2008
Alabama QSO Party
I used the N1MM logging program. After a bumpy start, Mickey Mouse worked great. With all the testing, I did not confirm that I could enter state abbreviations. Some how I managed to break this feature. After almost an hour all was working.
Of the many nice features, the ability to record and manage voice keying was very handy. While I setup wav files for several different transmissions, the one I really used was the CQ call. Just hit the F1 key and the station called CQ. All I had to do was log the contacts!
The dual monitors allowed me to watch many of N1MM's windows. The paper in front of the keyboard includes a conversion for county names to 3 or 4 character abbreviations; two-character USPS abbreviations; and a copy of the rules!
73,
W4UOA
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Alabama QSO Party
Alabama QSO Party starts at 11:00AM CST, Saturday, June 7th. I've never been a contester but am going to give it a try this year. I'm going to use the logging program N1MM with digital voice. I've recorded all the messages and setup the layout. More on the results after the weekend! Click on the picture of a larger image.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Omni VII HF+6m Transceiver
OMNI-VII is the first truly Net-Ready ham transceiver. No PC required at the rig to operate remote! Locate your OMNI-VII anywhere you have wideband Internet access. Simply connect its built-in Ethernet port to your router with our exclusive One Plug connection. Delivers live receive AND transmit operation from anywhere else in the world from another wideband Internet access!
Click on the picture for a hi-res image.
Friday, May 16, 2008
K4ZGB -- Tom Hardison
I hope Tom will forgive me but I didn't tell him I was coming and wouldn't let him "clean up" the shack. We all like a working shack anyway Tom! What you see is what we all want...an open horse shoe with easy access to every piece of equipment including the back! No, I'm not jealous! Right!
Take a close look at this one. You know it's not feed line...you guessed it...some serious antenna control. Don't get in a hurry. We'll get there! Look at the attention to detail. You can tell Tom knows how to do it right.
Count the feed lines on this next one. Now you begin to get a better understanding of what is to come!
Ok...so there is something BIG outside. For a hint on just how big, let's take a look at one of the anchors!
So, where does it begin?
Wow, the rotor is on the wrong end!! Well, you've seen it in the magazines, here it is on the ground...and in the air! This great tower will NOT fit on one computer screen so...click on the image and scroll up and down, count the stacks and the number of bands you think this tower can work!
One more for today. How would you like to have an 80m vertical that does not need to be electrically lengthened and has an SWR of 1.3 across the band! Well...this is what the base would like.
And from a distance!
Thanks for a great visit Tom! All the pictures can seen on PicasaWeb.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Intermodulation Distortion and IP3
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Station Back Together
UHF/VHF rig and rotor control are now in place. TRX-Manager, shown on the right-hand screen, provides rig control for the FT-1000MP Mark V, an Internet web cluster pane, logbook, and rotor control. The VL-1000 linear, above the Mark V, provides antenna switch between a 80/40 meter dipole and a 3-element yagi. The Palstar tuner is used primarily for 60 meters when the dipole is used with a Marconi adapter.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Software Defined Radio (SDR)
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Intermodulation Distortion and IP3
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Carl Sagan Remembered
Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer and astrochemist and a highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics, and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI).
He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which has been seen by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries, making it the most widely watched PBS program in history.[1] A book to accompany the program was also published. He also wrote the novel Contact, the basis for the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film of the same name starring Jodie Foster. During his lifetime, Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, humanism, and the scientific method. (Wikipedia)
Please take a moment to enjoy one of his master works, "The Pale Blue Dot".
Carl Sagan's "Cosmic Calendar" was first shown on his PBS series "Comos" a most amazing program.
The theme song from "Comos" follows the "Cosmic Calendar".
Play the following clip to hear all of the theme song to "Comos".
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Software Defined Radios
With special thanks to WA5MLF for calling these to my attention, let me suggest for those of you interested in learning more, check out the four-part series by Gerald Youngblood, AC5OG. They were published in the Jul/Aug 2002 edition of QEX.
SDR Part 1 - SDR Part 2 - SDR Part 3 - SDR Part 4
WA5MLF has also pointed out a very good general discussion of software defined radio on Wikipedia.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Dual Monitor Display Close-up
This is a screen shot of the dual-monitors showing TRX-Manager and DXAtlas. Click on the picture for a hi-res image. TRX-Manager provides rig control for the FT-1000 Mark V; logbook; web cluster; rotor control; and quick access to memory channels. The left monitor can be shared with DXAtlas grayline, Chatroom, e-mail, etc.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Dual Monitors
I think I'm going to really like the new dual-monitors. They are at just the right height and provide a lot of space for a variety of applications. Cable management still leaves a little to be desired. That will come in time! Hi!
Click on the picture for a hi-res image.