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)

Effects of the Atmosphere on HF Communications

This is a nice little tutorial about the effects of the atmosphere on HF communications by the Naval Postgraduate School.

In this module you will learn hoe the lower frequency radio spectrum is affected by the environment. Particular emphasis is on HF transmissions and how knowledge about the sun and ionosphere will help you predict how and why HF transmissions vary with time of day, latitude, season and space weather. You should progress through the module in the order below. There are no online answers to the study questions, but you may contact the instructor if there is something you do not understand. Each page below will have navigation button at the bottom of the page that will allow you to return here (the index) or go to the previous or next page.

Get it at http://www.weather.nps.navy.mil/~psguest/EMEO_online/module3/module_3_index.html

Ham Radio Podclass

The ham radio class PodClass is hosted and taught by John Martin, KF8KK and Mike Dell, N7LMJ. John and Mike are both Amateur Extra class Ham Radio Licensees and have over (combined) 50 years in ham radio. This podcast will prepare you to take the Technician Class ham radio exam or your General Upgrade Exam at an FCC Volunteer exam session

More at http://www.hamradioclass.org/

Rufz - "Listening to Callsigns"

"Rufz" is the abbreviation of the German word "Rufzeichen-Hören", which means "Listening to Callsigns". RufzXP is an excellent training software for improving code speed and CW practice, particularly (ultra) high speed memory copying of true amateur radio calls. Focussing on improvement of CW proficiency, it is no contest simulator and does not provide for QRM. It provides additional tools for keeping track of training progress and comparing with other operators via International RufzXP Toplist

More at http://www.rufzxp.net/

Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur

If there was ever a users manual for amateur radio, this is it. Get it at http://www.rsgb.org/operating/procedures/Eth-operating-EN-RSGB-SITE-july1-2008.pdf

KB6NU: Principles of Semiconductor Devices

This online text book appears to be college level and over the heads of some of you, but you still may get something out of it.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter 1: Review of Modern Physics
Chapter 2: Semiconductor Fundamentals
Chapter 3: Metal-Semiconductor Junctions
Chapter 4: p-n Junctions
Chapter 5: Bipolar Transistors
Chapter 6: MOS Capacitors
Chapter 7: MOS Field-Effect-Transistors
Appendix

eHam.net: Learn CW Online!

Welcome to LCWO.net - Learn CW Online!

At LCWO you can learn Morse telegraphy (CW) online in your browser. You don't need to install a program on your computer, and you always have your personal settings available, from any computer on the globe with an internet connection. You can also easily track your progress by means of different statistical functions.

Sign up for a free account (or use username "test", password "test" to play around) and start learning or improving your CW today
Features

More at http://lcwo.net/

How to Call (and Answer) a CQ

If you're shy about getting on the air, this is a must read.

It seems impossible, but it's very true that most new hams don't know how to call CQ. And a lot don't know how to answer one, either!

We're all to blame for that. There just isn't as much “CQing” as there used to be, except during contests. One reason might be that we're mostly using transceivers with VFO control - as silly as that sounds. Here's the explanation: Back in the good old days (for me), we used mostly crystal controlled transmitters with separate, tunable receivers. The odds of having a crystal on exactly the same frequency as someone else who was on the band, and within range, at the same time was pretty slim. So, it was common to call CQ, then tune around, looking for answers.

Well, today, we needn't tune around looking for answers, any answers will be right there on the same frequency we're on. Experienced operators know it's easy to break into an ongoing QSO, if you know how and when it's appropriate to do so. I make a lot of my contacts like that: Just overhear an interesting conversation, wait for a pause, insert my callsign, and join the group. But many newbies, as well as some old-timers, are too shy to do this, or maybe just not very good at it. And it is frowned on by most to break into a conversation when you've absolutely nothing to add to it.

more at http://www.eham.net/articles/18195

Ham Academy

Ham Academy is a Computer Aided Instruction (CAI) based Javascript program that assists teaching the Amateur Radio theory using the VEC questions pools. Ham Academy uses on-line interactive sessions for reviewing the questions pools.

Students first register their name (which is used as a file name for storing session statistics). A session is begun by selecting the question pool and then the subset of pool questions to be used in the interactive session. The questions pools have been updated to the latest set from the ARRL web site.

During a session the selected questions are displayed and the student chooses from the four possible answers - A thru D. HA keeps statistics on the correct and missed questions. At the end of the session the student can repeat the session using only the missed questions. This selective repetition helps the student with weak areas in learning the material.

At any time during a session, the student can suspend it and exit from the program. Later, the session can be resumed and testing continued. The session statistics are stored in the browser "cookie" file for up to one year.

I'd like to make a special plea for feedback from anyone using the program. Your help is needed to find problems. And your ideas on how to improve HA would be appreciated. Please help out if you can.

Ham Academy can be run on line or it can be downloaded and run on your PC. Both can be found at http://www.ah0a.org/AH0A.html