Category Archives: Education and Training

Education and Training information is for folks looking for help to earn or upgrade their license, learn about Amateur Radio, and get help with Ham Radio questions.

Activities, CW and QRP, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter, On The Air

2016 Summer Activities!

The Nashua Area Radio Club has a lot going on this summer!

Examples of CW Keys at Our First CW Training Class
Examples of CW Keys at Our First CW Training Class

First, our CW Training Classes have begun. We held our first class last Saturday at Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Nashua, NH.

CW Training Class Details
CW Training Class Details

These classes are being held on Saturday mornings and are open to all Club Members and it’s not too late to join. You can find more about the classes in our CW and QRP Forum and on our calendar here on our website.

Saint-Gaudens NHS
Saint-Gaudens NHS

We also completed the first of our planned NPOTA activations at Saint-Gaudens NHS recently. We had a lot of fun and made a bunch of contacts. You can read all about our activation here. We are planning a second activation at Saint-Gaudens NHS on August 7th. You can find more about it in Aron’s article on our Blog and on our Calendar.

2016 ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY Information
2016 ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY Information

Don’t forget the ARRL Rookie Roundup RTTY which is coming up on August 21st. Fred, AB1OC and I will again be hosting a multi-op entry in this contest. It’s open to all of our members who have earned their first Amateur Radio License in the last three years. We will be scheduling a training and practice session before the contest. We will announce the details in the Member’s Forum here on our website. You can read about our ARRL Rookie Roundup SSB entry here on our blog.

Nashua Area Radio Club Summer Picnic
Nashua Area Radio Club Summer Picnic

Finally, don’t forget our upcoming club picnic on Saturday, August 27th (the rain date is Sunday, August 28). This will a potluck picnic and social gathering for our club. Bring your whole family and meet the families and friends of our club members. Our picnic will be held at Greeley Park in Nashua, NH. You find directions and information about the park on our club calendar.

Please contact me at [email protected] for more information on any of our summer activities. We hope to see you at these events throughout the summer!

73,

Anita, AB1QB

Activities, Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter

Our First Extra License Class

1 Comment

We held our first Extra License Class the weekend of May 13-15, 2016.   This was a 3-day class due to the larger amount of material that the Extra License Exam draws from.

We had 15 students and every student passed the Exam at the end and received their Amateur Extra class license upgrade!

Wayne Wagner Teaching the Extra License Class
Wayne Wagner Teaching the Extra License Class

Congratulations to all the new Extras!

  • Bob Bell, KC1FAE
  • Bernie Biron, K1BFB
  • Dale Chayes, KB1ZKD
  • John D’Errico, N1ERF
  • Bob Fiero, K1WKG
  • Jamey Finchum, KC1ENX
  • Greg Fuller, KC1FFQ
  • Ron Gonzalez, K1LCS
  • Joe Gordon, KB1RLC
  • Niece Hayes, KA1ULN
  • Charlie Pentedemos, KC1EIQ
  • Brian Quick, W1XMM
  • Don Risley, KC1CRK
  • Brian Smigielski, AB1ZO
  • Bill Warrington, W1TWO

A special thank you to our great instructor and VE team – Wayne Wagner, AG1A, Aron Insinga, W1AKI, Anthony Rizzolo, KC1DXL, Dave Michaels, N1RF, Skip Youngberg, K1NKR, Wayne Grant, KB1HYL, and Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC.  Also, an extra special thanks to Merle Insinga, W1MSI, for managing all the logistics and meals on Friday and Saturday!!

Anita, AB1QB

Education and Training, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter

Rig Audio Interfacing and Low Cost PC Headsets

First I want to promote some excellent papers on rig interfacing and grounding produced by Jim Brown K9YC.  There is a wealth of information there, produced by a very talented and experienced engineer.

Now…on to the topic of interfacing PC headset to ham rigs…

Heil Headsets get a lot of support and advertising in the amateur community.  But they are expensive.  The W2SZ VHF/UHF contest group that I belong to uses mostly Heil headsets, so I have a lot of experience with them.  The problem is that a lot of them are broken.  We only use them two weekends a year for about 36 hours but they fail in a variety of ways.

I don’t own a Heil headset (I’m too cheap), but wanted a more reliable headset for my own use on the mountain.  In this case, reliable means I can bring several for a reasonable price.  So, this led to a series of experiments with PC headsets that are available for prices that range from about $13 to $50.

PC headsets and Heil headsets operate differently.  Heil headsets use a dynamic microphone and cannot tolerate any DC current through the microphone.  PC headsets require a DC bias voltage to operate their electret microphone.

The diagrams below (copied from a great presentation on rig interfacing by AudioSystemGroup)  shows the two ways a PC puts electret bias on the ring terminal of the 3.5 mm microphone jack.

Rig Audio Interface Schematic

All PC headsets have the ring terminal for bias…that is the key to this design.

Rig Audio Interface Schematic

The box below takes 8 volts from the ICOM microphone connector and uses it to power the PC headset.  The circuit has…

  • 3.5 mm (1/8th inch phone) jack for the microphone
  • 0.47 uFd series cap on the microphone, pass audio and block DC
  • 2.2K resistor to pass DC from the 8V pin to the ring terminal
  • 1/4 inch phone jack for rig keying
  • Cable and ICOM microphone plug

Rig Audio Interface Circuit

Rig Audio Interface Circuit

It was important to ensure the Heil headset doesn’t see any DC if plugged into the microphone jack of this adapter.  The design put bias on the ring terminal to feed the PC headset.  But, the Heil microphone connector does not have a ring terminal so it simply grounds the bias voltage… so, no bias gets to the Heil.   The dynamic microphone in the Heil couples audio through the series cap.

Here’s another design.  This one has two 3.5 mm connectors, one jack, one plug plus a battery.  The battery supplies power to the PC headset without the need for power from the transceiver.  This also supplies power to the ring terminal and block DC to the microphone on the tip terminal.  This took about 5 minutes, the components are under the tape.

Rig Audio Interface Circuit

One of our W2SZ members, Tom Price KC2PSC, designed of a PC board to implement this idea.

  • RJ-45 connector for rig microphone interface
  • Converts to 3.5 mm microphone and line out
  • Converts 1/4 inch phone for rig keying
  • Includes option for battery

Rig Audio Interface Circuit

There are a number of web sites that discuss the same thing

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide