Author: radioartisan

2012

~ radioartisan ~ 1 Comment

What would a blog be without the traditional year-in-review-and-here-are-my-New-Year’s-resolutions post?  For a general overview of amateur radio in 2011, Jeff, KE9V, has a rather excellent summary over at KE9V.net worth reading.  From a personal standpoint, it was a year that I spent less time on the air and more time tinkering with stuff.

Much of my activity was centered around the Arduino CW Keyer.  I’m especially proud of the Winkey emulation mode which enables interfacing to many logging and contest programs and the PS2 Keyboard code.  It’s been really satisfying to hear from folks, especially DX, who are using the code in their shacks.

Another project was the Yaesu Rotator Controller Emulator which interfaces most any rotator (not just Yaesus) to a computer for control via a terminal session or logging/contest program.  It’s cool to be running Ham Radio Deluxe and just point-and-click to where you want to go and have the beam rotate automagically.  Yea, I’m amused by simple things.

One of my 2011 resolutions was to do Summits On the Air or SOTA in a big way.  I ended up doing only three SOTAxpeditions, but I’m finding outdoor operation much more interesting than sitting in a shack trying to bang out cookie-cutter QSOs.

I tried Weak Signal Propagation Reporter or WSPR.  It’s an interesting novelty, but I’m not sure it will hold my interest for long.

My blogging suffered a bit.  Quality over quantity has always been my goal and my post drafts folder continues to be littered with unfinished posts, half-baked ideas, and posts that never saw the light of day because I felt they were too controversial or critical for the intended tone of this blog.

My summary of 2011 wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging the influence of G4ILO on my daily thought.  Julian’s announcement of a statistically-incurable brain tumor was a shock to all of us here in the amateur radio blogosphere, myself included.  His writings in both his amateur radio blog and One Foot In The Grave have helped me remember what is really important in life and how valuable our time is.  Now that I’m in my forties I’m realizing I need to start figuring out how to better spend my finite time here and do rather than just dream.  Julian, I wish you the best for you and Olga in 2012, and know that your insights have helped this radio artisan.

So what’s on the roadmap for 2012?

Many more SOTA expeditions and outdoor operating in general.  I’ve been talking for years about doing a spring Appalachian Trail overnight expedition.  Time to just get some friends together and do it.

VHF Contest Mountaintopping.  This goes along with the outdoor operation theme.  Just do it.

Arduino CW Keyer.  I may add more features in 2012, like LCD display support and CW decoding, but I’m probably going to focus my efforts on facilitating community efforts to build complete units.  Oscar, DJ0MY, who has been helpful in suggesting and testing keyer functionality has recently been working on an “open source” design PC board and an enclosure.  Perhaps kitting would be the next logical step.

Build an Az-El satellite antenna array using cheap homebrew yagis and a homebrew Frankenstein rotator setup with my Arduino rotator interface.  That should make the neighbors wonder what I’m doing.

Develop the RadioCubeCache idea further and see where that goes.

Build an Arduino-based automatic antenna tuner.  This one has been on my list for awhile.  Like the keyer I think I can build something as good as commercial offerings and offer it to the community.

Try JT6M, JT65, and all the JT modes.  I think this is going to be the bulk of my home on-the-air time in the new year.

Anyway, thanks for reading and have a Happy New Year!

Idea

~ radioartisan ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been reading about the AMSAT Fox Project, an initiative to deploy small next-generation “cubesats”. The website includes several PowerPoint presentations on the design, testing, and engineering of these birds. A lot of work goes into building a satellite, and the number of considerations is just mind-boggling, with concerns about heat, materials, radiation, and resiliency to failures to name a few. This really is “rocket science.”

I’ve been thinking about a more down-to-Earth project for guys like me who aren’t rocket scientists but are intrigued with little devices like these. I’m not sure what to call this yet (perhaps “CubeCache” or “RadioCache”?), but the idea combines geocaching, fox hunting, beacons, microcontrollers, and a touch of repeaters all in one bundle. Imagine if you could build a tiny device similar to a cubesat and place it somewhere stealthy and have it act like a multi-purpose beacon, a simplex repeater, a fox transmitter, and a data gathering on-the-air geocache. The little box would have a small self-contained battery and be equipped with solar cells for charging them. A microcontroller would control all functions of the unit. During low battery times, the microcontroller would put the unit in power-saving sleep mode, turning off all modules. The unit would have a transmitter and receiver, and a second receiver for telecommand functions to comply with FCC rules.

The unit would have several modes. It would announce itself like a beacon periodically. It would act as a “radio geocache” and would receive digital callsign messages and acknowledge them, storing them in memory for later retrieval. The unit could also act like a real geocache, but with a twist. Users could activate fox mode and radio direction find their way to the unit.

Building such a unit would present some technical challenges. The first would be stuffing everything into a small, weatherproof package that can withstand the elements. Much like geocaches, the unit would have to be stealthy both in construction and placement to avoid being found by “muggles”, the geocaching term for people who are not geocachers.  Power management is another challenge, with the need to keep track of battery capacity and make the best use of power. With an experimental project like this, it’s likely the microcontroller software would be changing quite frequently to improve performance and add new features, so a remote over-the-air firmware uploader and bootloader would be helpful.

I’m sure some will ask what the point would be of building such a contraption. Much like a lot of what we do in amateur radio, there often isn’t much of a point other than to experiment, learn, and have some fun. I may explore this idea further in 2012 and build a very simple prototype, place it in my backyard and see where this project goes.  If anyone is interested in helping develop this idea, please let me know.

Imagine…

~ radioartisan ~ 2 Comments

…if every radio amateur in the world had a QSO today…

…a sunny island beach, a vertical stuck in the sand, a little rig, and 10 meters is open…

…what a radio wave sees bouncing around the globe…

(Post your ‘imagine’ thoughts in the comments below…)

Things I Wish I Knew When I Was a Young Radio Artisan

~ radioartisan ~ 12 Comments

(This is an updated repost from my previous blog, The K3NG Report.  Occasionally I will repost notable articles that are of a timeless nature.  Reduce, reuse, recycle as they say.)

With antennas, it’s not about the feet and inches (or meters), think in terms of wavelength.

Don’t worry about the orientation of a dipole when it’s less than a half wavelength above ground.

In multi-multi contesting and big gun DXing it’s often more a battle of bank accounts than operator skill.

You’re going to go through several phases in your radio artisan career.  Don’t spend too much money until you’re sure you like the phase you’re in.

Don’t gauge your success by the number of awards you have on the wall.

Your money is better spent initially in antennas than amplifiers.  When you have the best antenna your budget and lot will accommodate, then go for an amplifier.

There are good CBers and bad CBers.  More amateurs than you think got started on CB.

Don’t be nervous.

There are jackasses in amateur radio.  You cannot identify them by license class, age, years licensed, call area, operating mode, education, or income.

When the bands are open any goofy antenna will make contacts.  People will think this makes a goofy little antenna a good antenna.  Not so.

The perception of amateur radio that the general public holds is much different from the perception within amateur radio.  We’re in a strange, esoteric and sometimes archaic hobby that most of the world doesn’t understand.  Welcome to our secret society.

It’s not that extra one or two dB that makes the difference, it’s the first 50 dB that really matters.

Girls actually dig letters written in Morse code while you’re dating.

Save your money and buy a crank up or tilt-down tower.

Six meters.

You can operate anywhere you live, no matter what the restrictions.  About any piece of metal can be loaded up with a tuner.

You buy an HF quad only once.

Low SWR doesn’t mean it’s a good antenna.  Dummy loads have a low SWR.

Don’t get your start on 2 meter repeaters.

It’s not difficult to become a proficient operator.  It’s listening and learning that people often find difficult.  You need to listen to what others who are successful do.

Ladder line.

Homebrew it, even if you’re not some master electronics designer.  When building equipment, don’t worry about not being a EE or building the perfect circuit.  Don’t bother making printed circuit boards, you can build just about anything you want Manhattan style.  Experiment.  You will learn more from your building failures than your successes.

Don’t fall in love with one brand of radio. 

Don’t limit yourself to one mode.

Join a club.  Do what is fun and what you want to do in the club.  As soon as others tell you what you should be doing, it’s time to leave.  When being involved in a club feels more like a chore, get out.  If the club is on life support and you can’t revive it in three years, pull the plug.  Move on.  Don’t look back.

QRP isn’t difficult.  It requires persistence and patience….and knowing when to go QRO or when to QSY.

Life’s too short to argue with enlighten people who say life is too short for QRP.

If you are in a club you don’t like and you want to leave that club to create a new or rival club, list on a piece of paper why you don’t like that club.  This list is why you shouldn’t start a new club.

Don’t do CW because you want to impress others.

Get an ARRL life membership (or whatever your national amateur radio organization is) as soon as you can afford it.  Don’t worry, you will get angry at ARRL at some point, but you’ll save money on the magazine subscription.  (And ARRL is about the only reason amateur radio is still around in the US.)

It’s never what you don’t know that bites you, it’s what you don’t know you don’t know that gets you into trouble.

Walk away when you need to.

In amateur radio do what you like, like what you do.

You’re in a great hobby for life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

~ radioartisan ~ 1 Comment

First, the obligatory “my apologies for the lack of posts recently” statement.  The usual excuses apply: work, family, sleep, more work, and my forty-something mind and body just doesn’t seem to have the get-up-and-go like it used to sometimes.  But I digress.  While I have the floor here, let me take a moment to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving!

On the topic of radio, Oscar, DJ0MY, has created a professional quality keyer using the Arduino Nano module and my open source keyer code.  Here’s a video of Oscar’s creation:

Oscar has been a big help in suggesting and testing features of the keyer code.  He’s encouraged me to go out on a limb and code features I probably otherwise wouldn’t have, making the code what it is today.  Oscar says that he will be creating a webpage detailing his work, probably around Christmastime.

I haven’t been on the air much recently, but I did build and start testing a beta release of the OpenQRP OQtransceiver1 rig.

The rig and the OpenQRP project is the brainchild of Steve, K1EL, the creator of the venerable Winkey.  The OQtransceiver1 is a monoband CW 40m unit, featuring NE602s in a superhet design with a narrow CW crystal filter in the receive chain.  The radio control is Arduino / ATMega328 based and the firmware is open source.  The OQ1 features a CW keyer, frequency counter, RIT, memory keying, two line backlit LCD display, and a CW decoder. Output power is slightly more than 5 watts.  The PC board and case is very professional looking and well designed.  I’m hoping to contribute to the OpenQRP project with firmware code updates and new features in the coming months.  I think the OpenQRP project is a nice concept that will likely produce some neat and innovative gear in the coming years, and provide another outlet for learning in this great hobby of ours.

Broadband “Weekend at Bernie’s” Continues at FCC

~ radioartisan ~ 1 Comment

The FCC has released a second Report and Order, affirming its rules for Broadband Over Powerline (BPL).  The document is available here.  It’s quite a lengthy mind-numbing read, but skimming through it, it appears the FCC has rejected changes to its previous findings over the past several years.  Undoubtedly ARRL will have much reporting and analysis over the next few days.  

After eight years of trying to take hold, Internet access BPL has for all intents and purposes become a dead technology, not even being mentioned in recent FCC broadband reports.  The BPL industry has been attempting to make inroads into so-called Smart Grid technology which will upgrade and automate electrical distribution networks.  I haven’t been following this industry closely, but last I had looked they didn’t appear to be having much success.  However the love affair with BPL at the FCC, and the OET in particular, lives on.

What’s Ahead for Arduino

~ radioartisan ~ 6 Comments

The Arduino project announced some news at MakerFaire 2011.  Here’s a video of a talk from Massimo Banzi:

In a nutshell, they are working on a new release of Arduino called “1.0” or the “1.0 Core” which is going to break some things, but also set the stage for a more consistent and stable platform going forward.  There are new hardware revisions for the Uno and Mega boards.  The most notable change with these boards is the addition of several pins to support a two wire interface (I2C) bus which will enable much easier and standardized interfacing to shields.  There is also a new Arduino that has an Ethernet interface built in, rather than having to use a separate Ethernet shield.  (Shields are optional boards you can stack on Arduinos for additional capabilities.)  I’m very interested in this board as it also has an SD slot for memory storage.  I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a logger module for the keyer project.  Why?  Because I can and it’s never been done :-)

The project is also releasing a WiFi shield which opens up a lot of possibilities.  Another dream geek project I’ve had has been to place Arduinos in various places throughout the house and the yard for doing various things like reporting the temperature or sensing intruders.  The Arduinos could network via WiFi and report to each other or back to the mothership.

All and all it’s an exciting time in Arduino land.  If you haven’t tried using one of these little boards, you’re missing out on some fun.  The applications in amateur radio are endless and with the power and functionality steadily increasing, I expect in a few years we’ll be doing things like DSP or perhaps have a rig-on-a-shield.

The Value of Time

~ radioartisan ~ 2 Comments

Last month, Ernest, AA1IK, wrote about a frustration that we’ve all experienced, an operator on the other end who needlessly sends unnecessary information.  In the particular QSO Ernest described, the other op totally botched a QSO in bad QSB (fading) conditions by repeating his callsign numerous times but sending their call only once or twice.  The barely-uttered callsign was consumed by QSB on each return, propagation closed, game over.

Most radio amateurs understand the value of getting the most signal out and being able to pick signals out of the mud on receive, going to great lengths to improve antenna systems and buying great rigs with good receivers and linear amplifiers to get more signal.  However, it seems many don’t understand basic information transmission and the value of time, or perhaps better stated, the value of airtime.

I see this quite a bit during Field Day.  Operators in search-and-pounce mode will say or send the callsign of the station they’re calling, despite there being only one station on frequency calling CQ.  Stations calling CQ when getting a weak caller will spend forty seconds telling the station they didn’t get their full callsign and list the several possibilities they thought it was.

The practice is even more annoying in emcomm.  Ever hear a station take 120 seconds to tell a SkyWarn net control that it’s raining at their house but otherwise there’s nothing reportable happening?

The amount of information that can be conveyed is a function of the rate of communication (baud rate/wpm), the noise on the channel (signal-to-noise ratio), and the time available to communicate.  Talk faster or send CW at a faster rate and you can send more information in a given amount of time.  If the signal to noise ratio is low, you may need to send or talk slower (perhaps using more phonetics) and you’ll need more time to communicate the same amount of information.  Sending redundant information not needed for “error correction” or information already known by the receiver is a waste of communication channel time.  Those familiar with digital communications will recognize the parallels between digital protocols and algorithms and what I’m describing above.

Phone operators and really any radio amateurs who want to understand efficient radio communication should listen to their local 911 dispatch frequencies.  Airtime is very valuable, and wasting it can result in lost property and lives.  You’ll hear exchanges like this after a page goes out and a unit is responding:

Fire company unit: “County 901.”

County Control: “County.”

Fire company unit: “901 responding.”

County Control: “901 responding, 123 Main Street, dwelling fire.”

Fire company unit: “In route”

County Control: “Nineteen twenty-three”

In this exchange the unit informed county they were responding, they got the information on the call, and county confirmed the whole exchange with the time at the end.  Granted, public safety communications are usually on clear channels with little noise, but can you imagine some of the exchanges we hear on amateur radio in a public safety environment?

CW operators tend to be more efficient by default as the CW mode naturally encourages a level of terseness that’s not intuitive in phone operation.  But some CW operators in weak signal and contest situations have room for improvement, needing to avoid needless callsign repeating, “URs” and “QSLs”.

This lack of understanding by many in amateur radio of the value of airtime and how to use it efficiently is one of my ongoing pet peeves.  To some extent I can understand in this day and age why a radio amateur may not be well versed in complex electronic theory, but communicating efficiently is basic and it doesn’t take much to learn how to do it, people just need to apply some logic, listen, and learn.

Amateur Radio Operators Respond To Island Disaster

~ radioartisan ~ 1 Comment

This week amateur radio came through again, responding to the tsunami disaster at Wasabi Island.  Wasibi Island is a little-known island in the south Pacific inhabited by about 300 people which suffered a devastating category nine tsunami two weeks ago.  Wasabi Island is also a rare DXCC entity, having been in the top 15 most wanted DXCC entities list for nearly two decades.

The Pileup DX Society reacted quickly to the disaster.  Bob Peters, president of the esteemed society, assembled a crew within days of the disaster.  “After hearing about the disaster we called up our top donors and within hours we had a team assembled.”  The Wasabi team was luckily able to quickly book commercial flights into Chile and charter a cargo ship in Santiago.  They landed on the beach on Wasabi Island three days later.  Within hours they were on the air with many amateurs in North America and Europe working the phone and CW stations on 20 meters, bagging the rare DX country.

“The island is devastated” informed team leader Tom Biznosky over a satellite phone call.  “There’s no power on the island and no clean drinking water.  Luckily we brought generators, and plenty of fuel and water, so we can easily operate the stations for the next two weeks.  Sleeping conditions on the island have been awful, so we’ve been shuttling operators to the ship where they can get showers and sleep in air conditioning.”

The disaster conditions have made things difficult for the team.  “The island has been flattened, so it has been very difficult to find any trees to string up dipoles on the lower bands.  On top of that, one of our 12 linear amplifiers which were donated stopped working.  The 10 meter phone station has been running barefoot.” said Biznosky.  “But despite the setbacks, out team remains in good spirits.”

Amateurs are asked to stay clear of the Wasabi island frequencies as all stations are operating split.  Amateurs should go between 5 and 50 kilohertz above the Wasabi Island transmit frequencies when making their calls.  Look for Wasabi on all bands, on CW, phone, PSK and RTTY.  QSL direct to the QSL manager shown on the Pileup DX Society website (click on Wasabi Island disaster).  Donations to support the operation may also be made on the website.