Tim, K7XC, sends a notice about Coordinated Listening Events (CLE) and Non Directional Beacons (NDB): Its Time For Another LF Coordinated Listening Event IE: “CLE” on the “NDB” frequencies below the AM Band. (Non Directional Beacons), “CLE174” As introduced to the group last month, this is the same kind of event… BUT… WITH VASTLY BETTER […]
Got my BaoFeng UV-5R 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band DTMF CTCSS DCS FM Ham Two Way Radio (Amazon Affiliate link). Nifty. Since the jacks for the auxiliary ports were not in the middle of the well, plugs for the USB port or speaker/mic would not seat properly. I found this out from a search for why Chirp […]
Cell phones can be had as a ‘free’ incentive for buying $20 of airtime. Why hasn’t cheap RF invaded amateur radio? It is getting there. The BaoFeng UV-5R 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band DTMF CTCSS DCS FM Ham Two Way Radio is an example. $31.50 shipped from Amazon including a battery charger for the lithium battery. You […]
About what happened to the VK5JST Aerial Analyzer Picaxe software at K1CD (PicAxe basic code at the link): The idea was to learn about how the analyzer works, what the Picaxe can do and how it works, and to improve the code as a learning tool for radio amateurs trying to put that test answer […]
One of the tempting features to add to VK5JST’s Aerial Analyzer is an auto-off function. This would shut down the device if the battery got run down or if there were no adjustments made for, say, 10 minutes. This would be fairly simple to do in the software. The problem is with the hardware. It […]
The VK5JST Aerial Analyser is an excellent kit project to add to the antenna building support collection. This device runs a bit under $150 for a kit of parts. W5BIG has an article in November 2006 QST, An Antenna Impedance Meter for the High Frequency Band (W5BIG site link) that describes another approach. It is […]
Southgate provides a Video of Codec2 presentation. It is a presentation (40+ minutes) by David Rowe, VK5DGR at the linux.conf.au in Ballarat, January 16-20 2013. “Codec2 is an open source low bit rate speech codec designed for communications quality speech at around 2400 bit/s. Applications include low bandwidth HF/VHF digital radio and VOIP trunking. Codec […]
The FCC now requires careful consideration of exposure to electromagnetic fields by radio amateurs. The cell phone radiation fears come and go. Harriet Hall has a rundown on the Nonsense about the Health Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation citing Helke Ferrie and “dirty electricity.” “I could go on to deconstruct every paragraph of Ferrie’s article, but […]
There are a number of programs out there for the VK5JST aerial analyser. One problem is that I don’t know which one was the pre-load so I take a risk in fiddling with the code. The PICAXE doesn’t have a code backup feature so if I load it with test software, how do I know […]
Things have changed since the Knight Kit Grid Dip Oscillator days. The Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society offers the parts for VK5JST’s Aerial Analyser at about half the price of getting one from MFJ or elsewhere. It is a ‘collection of parts’ and not a kit! The circuit board is nice but not silk screened […]