Digital Mode Setup for PowerSDR 1.x by WA5QPZ - Part II

Digital Modes for Flex Radio, Part 1

QEX: A Software Defined Radio for the Masses, Part 4

It has been a pleasure to receive feedback from so many QEX readers that they have been inspired to experiment with software-defined radios (SDRs) through this article series. SDRs truly offer opportunities to reinvigorate experimentation in the service and attract new blood from the ranks of future generations of computer-literate young people.1 It is encouraging to learn that many readers see the opportunity to return to a love of experimentation left behind because of the complexity of modern hardware. With SDRs, the opportunity again exists for the experimenter to achieve results that exceed the performance of existing commercial equipment.

Most respondents indicated an interest in gaining access to a complete SDR hardware solution on which they can experiment in software. Based on this feedback, I have decided to offer the SDR-1000 transceiver described in this article as a semi-assembled, three-board set. The SDR-1000 software will also be made available in open-source form along with support for the GNU Radio project on Linux.2 Table 1 outlines preliminary specifications for the SDR-1000 transceiver. I expect to have the hardware available by the time this article is in print.

More at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/030304qex020.pdf

Days of Future Passed - ARRL SKN 2009

Digital Mode Setup with VAC for PowerSDR 1.x by WA5QPZ - Part I

SolderSmoke 97

DSB 80 "Kickpanel" project:
Rig reform
Harder than SSB?
Do we need to match diodes?
Terminating balanced modulators
An antenna for my "spot" ("net") circuit, LED
Thinking of speech processing
Driver hotter than final
---------------
MEPT QRSS:
VK2ZAY crosses Oz on 470 micro-watts
Using 9H1LO's grabber engine as time machine
My beacon box: 10 and 30 in same enclosure
Knights QSY to lower bands (temporarily)
---------------
Theory:
Thanks for beta independence help
Why does feedback lower distortion?
W3JDR's Ne602 modeling
Grinding resistors for precision
Broken counter leads to learning logic

Get it at http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke97.mp3

Southgate ARC: New Zealand scraps ban on traditional lightbulbs

The standard low cost, low pollution incandescent light bulb had been banned in New Zealand but on Wednesday the NZ Goverment announced an end to the ban.

There have been concerns raised around the world about the high-energy costs involved in manufacturing so called "energy efficient" light bulbs along with the potential risks resulting from the use of the toxin Mercury in such bulbs.

The pollution of the Radio Frequency spectrum by so called "energy efficient" light bulbs, which deprives people of their radio programmes, has been raised in UK national newspapers. Traditional incandescent bulbs do not cause RF pollution.

More at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/december2008/nz_scraps_lightbulb_ban.htm

USS COD SS-224 W8COD Operating CW (Morse Code)

The audio level is very high on this video, so turn your computer audio level down before viewing the video.

USS COD SS-224 W8COD Operating Voice (SSB)

The audio level is very high on this video, so turn your computer audio level down before viewing the video.

TNT Transmitter Details

QEX: A Software-Defined Radio for the Masses, Part 3

Part 11 of this series provided a general description of digital signal processing (DSP) as used in software-defined radios (SDRs) and included an overview of a full-featured radio that uses a PC to perform all DSP and control functions. Part 2 described Visual Basic source code that implements a full-duplex quadrature interface to a PC sound card. As previously described, in-phase(I) and quadrature (Q) signals give the ability to modulate or demodulate virtually any type of signal.

The Tayloe Detector, described in Part 1, is a simple method of converting a modulated RF signal to baseband in quadrature, so that it can be presented to the left and right inputs of a stereo PC sound card for signal processing. The full-duplex DirectX8 interface, described in Part 2, accomplishes the input and output of the sampled quadrature signals. The sound-card interface provides an input buffer array, inBuffer(), and an output buffer array, outBuffer(), through which the DSP code receives the captured signal and then outputs the processed signal data.

More at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/021112qex027.pdf

uss_cod_radio_room.wmv

K9LA's Amateur Radio Propagation Web Site

General Propagation Articles

Where Do K and A Come From?

Day-to-Day Variability of the F2 Region

Noise

The Formation of the Ionosphere

Polarization

Disturbances to Propagation

A Look Inside the Auroral Zone

Propagation Planning for DXpeditions

Measuring the Ionosphere

Find them at http://www.google.com/search?q=hf+propagation+k9&btnG=Search&hl=en&sa=2

W3JK-Flex-Radio Remote Demo Part 2

QEX: A Software-Defined Radio for the Masses, Part 2

Part 1 gave a general description of digital signal processing (DSP) in software-defined radios (SDRs).1 It also provided an overview of a full-featured radio that uses a personal computer to perform all DSP functions. This article begins design implementation with a complete description of software that provides a full-duplex interface to a standard PC sound card.

To perform the magic of digital signal processing, we must be able to convert a signal from analog to digital and back to analog again. Most amateur experimenters already have this capability in their shacks and many have used it for slow-scan television or the new digital modes like PSK31.

More at http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/pdf/020910qex010.pdf

Direct conversion receiver - a demonstration

73s.org - HamBrief 7

More Mesa HamFest footage! AMSAT & American RedCross (AZ chapter)

Get it at http://blip.tv/file/1573433

K7AGE: What the HELL?

W3JK-Flex-Radio Remote Demo Part 1

K7AGE: Remote Radio Station Control

Wikipedia: Software-defined radio

A Software-Defined Radio (SDR) system is a radio communication system where components that have typically been implemented in hardware (i.e. mixers, filters, amplifiers, modulators/demodulators, detectors. etc.) are instead implemented using software on a personal computer or other embedded computing devices. While the concept of SDR is not new, the rapidly evolving capabilities of digital electronics are making practical many processes that were once only theoretically possible.

A basic SDR may consist of a computer (PC) equipped with a sound card, or other analog-to-digital converter, preceded by some form of RF front end. Significant amounts of signal processing are handed over to the general purpose processor, rather than done using special-purpose hardware. Such a design produces a radio that can receive and transmit a different form of radio protocol (sometimes referred to as a waveform) just by running different software.

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_radio

QEX: A Software-Defined Radio for the Masses, Part 1

Acertain convergence occurs when multiple technologies align in time to make possible those things that once were only dreamed. The explosive growth of the Internet starting in 1994 was one of those events. While the Internet had existed for many years in government and education prior to that, its popularity had never crossed over into the general populace because of its slow speed and arcane interface. The development of the Web browser, the rapidly accelerating power and availability of the PC, and the availability of inexpensive and increasingly speedy modems brought about the Internet convergence. Suddenly, it all came together so that the Internet and the worldwide Web joined the everyday lexicon of our society.

A similar convergence is occurring in radio communications through digital signal processing (DSP) software to perform most radio functions at performance levels previously considered unattainable. DSP has now been incorporated into much of amateur radio gear on the market to deliver improved noise-reduction and digital-filtering performance. More recently, there has been a lot of discussion about the emergence of so-called softwaredefined radios (SDRs).

A software-defined radio is characterized by its flexibility: Simply modifying or replacing software programs can completely change its functionality. This allows easy upgrade to new modes and improved performance without the need to replace hardware. An SDR can also be easily modified to accommodate the operating needs of individual applications. There is a distinct difference between a radio that internally uses software for some of its functions and a radio that can be completely redefined in the field through modification of software. The latter is a software-defined radio.

More at http://www.ece.jhu.edu/~cooper/SWRadio/Yblood1.pdf

Flex Radio: Basic Tuning Operations

W2ICE and Early Ham Transmitters

ARCI: Solar Activity and HF Propagation

The Sun–Earth Interconnect
Since the late 1800s, it was noted solar activity affected telegraphic lines, and ater, radio communications. However, there was no scientific proof for this link. from the 1920s onward, radio amateurs clearly correlated HF propagation and the MUF to the solar cycle. But again, there was no scientific proof. Astronomers and physicists knew there was a sun–earth connection, but without direct observational data, it remained an un proven scientific theory. The scientific proof did not come until quite recently – basically, the space age – when we got our first look at the sun from outside our protective atmosphere. In the 1970s, the Voyager spacecrafts were the first to confirm the existence of the solar wind. It was not until Skylab that increases in radiation and the solar wind were linked to solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CME) were first detected. The sun-earth interconnect finally became a scientific fact.

Since then, numerous satellites and ground based instruments monitor the sun and our geomagnetic field in realtime. Today, the radio amateur and QRPer has a wealth of solar information available via the internet that professional astronomers did not have a decade ago. This article, in part, describes how to interpret this internet data, and some of the terminology encountered in the daily reports and solar data from NOAA. Much of the solar physics in this article has been developed by astrophysicists in the past 15 years, and not yet available in other than scientific journals.

More at http://www.qrparci.org/mambo/pdf/FDIM81.pdf

Linux in the HAM Shack

Welcome to the first episode of Linux in the HAM Shack. In this episode, we give you a brief introduction to the podcast, explain who we are and what our backgrounds in Linux and Amateur Radio are. And we give a brief overview of what topics we’ll hope to cover in future episodes.

We sincerely hope you enjoy our opening episode and we look forward to hearing from you, the listener, about anything you’d like to say. We’ll be posting these episodes every two weeks on Tuesday morning. There’s a link to the RSS feed on the left hand navigation of our site, and you’ll be able to subscribe to our feed at iTunes, Feedburner and other popular feed management sites.

Anyway, enough rambling. On to the podcast.

73 de Russ and Richard

Find this and other episodes at http://blacksparrowmedia.com/lhs/

Psk31 And ham radio delux and Digital Master 780 On Vista

Southgate ARC: QRZ.com to change

Fred, AA7BQ, QRZ Founder, announced that QRZ.COM will be changing their database / web site.

He states, "Today we're pleased to make an initial announcement about a new version of our online callsign database that will soon replace our existing pages.

"Internally, we've been calling it QRZ 2.0, however, it will soon be known simply as QRZ as it becomes the system default. The new database includes a fresh new layout plus a number of new features and information details that were not previously available. In addition, the new callsign pages are customizable by the user to include colors, fonts, and multiple pictures. We've also included the GridFinder as a mainstream part of our data.

More at http://www.southgatearc.org/news/december2008/qrz_to_change.htm

eHam.net: CHU Canada to QSY on January 1

Canadian time/frequency standard station CHU -- a fixture for decades on 7335 kHz -- will change frequency to 7850 kHz at 0000 UTC on January 1, 2009. The move comes as a result of the International Telecommunication Union's decision in 2007 to expand the 40-meter ham band in Europe and Africa (Region I) to 7000-7200 kHz. It was previously 7000-7100 kHz, with -- as every 40-meter DXer knows -- international broadcasting allocated from 7100-7300 kHz.

As part of the 40-meter expansion, the international broadcast band was shifted to 7200-7350 kHz. As broadcasters began relocating, CHU on 7335 began experiencing significant interference. Thus, officials at Canada's National Research Council, which operates CHU, decided to move the time/frequency standard station's transmissions to 7850 kHz as of the beginning of 2009. The complete NRC announcement (English version) is online at http://inms-ienm.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/common_files/stories/chu/communique_e.pdf.

The CQ DX Marathon!

Starting January 1 of each year, the DX Marathon is the perfect answer for the DX-er who needs that extra incentive to get on the air every day! Simply work as many countries and CQ Zones as you can in each calendar year, regardless of the band or mode. Each country and zone counts only once, so you can concentrate on working new ones rather than working the same ones on multiple bands or modes.

More at http://www.dxmarathon.com/

The RadioShack Catalog Archive, 1939-Present

What is RadioShackCatalogs.com?

This website is dedicated to America's technology store... RadioShack.

For almost 65 years RadioShack has produced a catalog to rival no other electronics and technology company. Through the years, this catalog expanded to contain a mix of hi-fidelity stereos, amplifiers, radios, phonographs, speakers, televisions & antennas, CBs & communication equipment, computers, electronic components, electronic testing equipment, educational kits, toys, gadgets, batteries, electronic circuitry, and much more. Products from the RadioShack catalog were purchased by the everyday consumer, hobbyist, and professional.

More at http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/

W0VLZ - QRP Operating using a K1

Overlay Mapping

What is Overlay Mapping ?
A common problem with any map, whether stored in printed form or on computer, is that there is either too little or too much information displayed. The mapmaker chooses what to put on the map. The client often wants different information. Overlay Mapping keeps everyone happy, by providing flexibility in the way a map is displayed, whilst displaying every item of data to its best advantage.

Overlay Mapping Advantages
Overlay Map has a number of layers or overlays that can be turned on and off as required. Not only can you choose how much information you want on the screen at any one time, you can also choose which order the layers are displayed in. Overlay Mapping thus gives you exciting new possibilities never available in a fixed or printed map. By comparing information on different layers, you can make new discoveries and find data inter-relationships only possible before with expensive GIS packages.

More at http://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/index.html

DXCC through Contesting + LoTW

Even casual contesters can easily improve their DXCC counts by participating in a few international contests. CQ Magazine’s major “World Wide” contests provide a great opportunity to “work some new ones”, even when the propagation indices are terrible. (CQ WW CW for Morse Code enthusiasts and CQ WW SSB for those who prefer “phone”).

More at http://www.n0hr.com/hamradio_blog/2008/12/08/dxcc-through-contesting-lotw/

Contest Log Analysis: CQ WW CW

If you want some additional insight into your contesting efforts, I highly recommend SH5. Dmitriy, UA4WLI, hosts this program on his TR4W (TR for Windows) website. This little known, free, ham radio software utility will tell you things that your current contest logging software may not.

More at http://www.n0hr.com/hamradio_blog/2008/12/05/contest-log-analysis-cq-ww-cw/

SolderSmoke, December 8, 2008

Moj Music
Rome winter: Snowcapped mountains, Starlings
Billy’s Blog – Please visit!
“Make” redeems itself with LED video
80 DSB rig: LTSpice, Design, Diplexers, Decoupling
Properly terminating balanced modulators
The virtues of feedback
80 meter DSB QRP (in a contest)
Reading Recommendation: January 2009 “Air and Space”
Jupiter and Venus aligned
Saturn picture with (sorta) homebrew rig
Ben’s Balloon Beacon
Laurence KL1X in N. China – will set up QRSS grabber
MAILBAG
Roger K7RXV and Bob KD4EBM on SolderSmells
Jerry NR5A has WSPR-mania
Scott KD5NJR on “Soul of a New Machine”
Bob K7HBG “Real radios have knobs”

Get it at http://www.soldersmoke.com/soldersmoke96.mp3

73s.org - HamBrief 6

Hammaps

Here is a very nice ham radio map site. It has maps of WAC continents, DXCC entities, CQ zones, ITU zones, ITU Regions, Grid squares and much more. It's a good resource for contesters and wall paper collectors.

Getting started on amateur radio satellites

WHY SATELLITES? As a class-B licensee under the old rules, I did not have any HF privileges at all. Satellites offered a technical challenge and the possibility to work some serious DX using 2m and 70cm. My first trans-Atlantic contact was achieved on the now-defunct RS-10 using 10W to a small Yagi for the uplink, and a sloping dipole to receive the RS-10 downlink signal in the 10m band. It took several months to achieve this first trans-Atlantic QSO as I needed to build up my operating skills and make improvements to my receive set up. To minimise noise pickup from the house, the antenna went at the bottom of the garden and a homebrew RF pre-amp overcame the cable loss and boosted the signal. It was a great sense of achievement to send and receive signals to and from space and to make that contact via an orbiting satellite. I still get a buzz from communication via a spacecraft.

More at http://www.uk.amsat.org/images/PDF/Satellites_RadCom_mar07.pdf

Amateur Satellite Beginners Slides

Amateur Satelllite Beginners

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: amsat presentation)

ARRL Triple Play WAS Award

As of January 1, 2009, the ARRL will offer another award: The Triple Play Worked All States Award. This new, exciting award is available to all amateurs who confirm contacts with each of the 50 states using three modes for each state: CW, phone and RTTY/digital. All 150 contacts must be made on or after the starting date and must be confirmed via Logbook of the World (LoTW). All bands -- with the exception of 60 meters -- may be used in pursuit of the Triple Play Award.

More at http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/12/05/10490/

K7QO Lab

This document will demonstrate how I experiment and build radio equipment in a small room (which I call the lab) on the second floor of the hacienda. It is work in progress and will take some time to complete and edit and modify as I go along. Will have to decide just how much to write about. This is just about how I do things and nothing is sacred and nothing is set in concrete. Different hams do things differently. Please use safety precautions and remember that tools and lots of stuff we play with can be dangerous if you get careless or don’t think about what you’re doing.

More at http://www.k7qo.net/lab.pdf

VE7CC Cluster User Program

* Download Links at bottom of page.
*
* Full featured Telnet and TNC program for use with CC Cluster , AR Cluster , DX Spider , CLX, DxNet, or WinCluster Nodes.
* 32 Bit Windows Program that allows "point and click" setting of node parameters. Runs under Win95 and later versions of Windows.
* Has Telnet, DDE, and RS-232 outputs for logging and contest programs.
* Can insert States and Provinces into feed to contest programs to aid in multiplier determination.
* Separates data from the cluster. Dx spots, WWV, Announces, Mail, filtering etc all have their own tabs on the display.
* For Dx Spots, each band has its own color.
* Removes bad Dx Spots. (blank or duplicate)
* Can be set to reject dx spots by caller, dx call or by comments.
* Displays bearing and distance to Dx.
* As well as the usual data in a dx spot, the following data can also be shown. Spotter's node, Spotters country, Dx Country's regular prefix, Dx Country name, spotter and Dx stations CQ/ITU zones, grid squares, states/provinces.
* LOTW. Flags Dx calls with "+" before the callsign if the Dx Station uses LoTW.
* Full WWV data displayed on Dx Spot page.
* Hypertext links can be clicked.
* Auto reconnects and gets missed spots.
* QRZ.com page displayed by clicking on Dx or spotter callsign.
* "Talk" messages can be sent to multiple users at the same time. Allows a chat group using the "talk" command.
* For TNCs, receives spots in both connected and unconnected modes and broadcast UI Frames.
* Fix Spots
* Dx Alarms Can send you an email alert for needed countries.
* For Dx Spider Chat
* Saves Dx Spots to log file for later analysis or reloading to program.

W0SHL - DX Station

New Ham Radio Video Series

Chris Matthieu, N7ICE, has started a new video series at http://73s.org/ . He is already up to episode 5. He covers a wide variety of subjects and seems to be on the leading edge on many of them. Here are the subjects covered so far.

Episode 1: 73s.org presents HamBrief episode 1 - News and reviews - Apple iPhone/iTouch CallBook application and Yaesu VX-7R review (5/5 diamonds)

Episode 2: Chris Matthieu, N7ICE, reviews the Icom IC-91AD.

Episode 3: N7ICE reviews ultra compact dual-band radios from Alinco and Icom.

Episode 4: Chris Matthieu, N7ICE, practices flying his new remote control helicopter before working on ATV video equipment.

Episode 5: Chris Matthieu, N7ICE, provides updates on 73s.org QSO social graph, ADIF importing, APRS integration, and the new Ham Radio aggregator called HamFeed.com!