New member here, hoping to add some value! I am returning to amateur radio after a very long period of inactivity, and have been looking for some reading material to jump-start coming up to speed on more recent technology topics. I have discovered a new book which may be of interest to Nashua ARC members. This is actually a revised 4th edition (published 2017) of a book that has been around for some time. Title: Communications Receivers: Principles and Design. This is an engineering textbook, so it is quite technical but strikes a balance between theory and practice. A bit pricey, but it is a virtual goldmine of information, and includes hundreds of references and suggestions for further reading. At 600+ pages, it is not something most will read and understand in a few evenings. Greatly expanded coverage of SDR technology alone is worth the price, IMHO. I highly recommend this book for those who wish to gain an in-depth understanding of the topics covered. This book might be suitable as the basis for a series of Tech Night sessions.
I wanted to share some information about our tracking our High Altitude Balloon as it flies. Our balloon will carry’s a GPS receiver and a 2m APRS Transmitter.
HAB Flight Platform
The on board APRS transmitter will operate on the Amateur Radio standard terrestrial APRS frequency of 144.390 MHz and will transmit our HAB’s position, heading, speed, altitude and other telemetry data every minute during the HAB’s flight. The transmitter is battery-powered and generates a 250 mW signal into a dipole antenna suspended from the HAB’s flight platform. The HAB will use N1FD-11 as its call sign.
Based upon online HAB flight prediction calculators that we have been using, we expect the HAB’s flight to last a little less than 2 1/2 hours. The HAB should reach an altitude of over 102,000 ft before the balloon bursts and the parachute on the flight platform brings it back to the ground at a safe speed. The above prediction will likely change as we get closer to an actual launch but most predictions have our HAB traveling approximately 100 km between its takeoff point and landing.
HAB APRS Packet Information
Aprs.fi will also store and display a copy of all of the APRS AX.25 packets transmitted by the HAB during its flight. Of particular interest to the STEM element of the flight will be the Balloon’s data on atmospheric temperature and pressure conditions at different altitudes.
All you need to track our HAB during its flight is Internet access and a web browser. Just click on one of the aprs.fi links here to see the HAB’s current location and altitude. If you have an APRS ground station, you may also be able to receive our HAB’s telemetry directly during the flight.
We need cloud cover which is less than 50% and ground wind speeds below 15 mph to launch our HAB. Will will post a final launch date and plans in the Youth Forum on our website. Our next possible launch window is on Saturday, June 3rd. We are all pulling for good weather so that we can launch!
Fred, AB1OC and I recently returned from the Dayton Hamvention, which was held at the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, OH for the first time this year. Here is a summary of our visit.
Dr. Tamitha Skov teaching us about Space Weather
We always arrive 1 day before the Hamvention to attend Contest University. We get to listen to professors who are experts in contesting, propagation and other aspects of Ham radio and always learn something new. The presentation that stands out in my mind was on Space Weather by Dr. Tamitha Skov, who is a regular on Ham Nation and has a web site Space Weather Woman.
On Friday it was time to visit the first day of Hamvention. We spent most of our time visiting the vendors. The new venue had 5 buildings with vendor booths and 2 more buildings for Forums. It took us most of Friday and some of Saturday to visit all of them. Here are some of the highlights.
Icom 7610
Icom has a new SDR transceiver coming out later this year, the IC-7610. We got to see it in person at their booth. The display was impressive. If the performance is as good as the IC-7300, this will be a great transceiver.
Elecraft KPA-1500 Amp
The Elecraft booth was very busy – we got to see their upcoming 1500 W amplifier, the KPA1500, which will cover 6m – 160m.. this one is going on the wishlist.
Flex Radio’s new Transceiver with knobs
Next, we visited the Flex Radio booth and spent some time playing with the Maestro, which will have at Field Day for the GOTA station. Their newest radios, including the Flex 6600 have buttons and knobs and a display.
Kenwood TH-D74 HT
At Kenwood’s booth, we got to look at their newest HT, the TH-D74, a tri-bander which does APRS, D-Star and has a great looking color display.
Begali Keys Booth
We then visited the Begali booth where we got a chance to try out a large variety of Begali Keys.
This year’s new Toy
At the Begali booth, Fred picked out his Hamvention toy for this year – the Sculpture Mono key.
Burns, W2BFJ at the AMSAT booth
We made several visits to the AMSAT booth and saw Burns, W2BFJ, one of our newest club members. We also talked to their educational lead about ARISS opportunities to contact astronauts on the space stations and learned the details about how cube sats are built and launched. We also picked up a copy of their latest satellite book, which is one of the best books on the topic we have read.
Tom Gallagher
We also visited the ARRL booth where we received a warm welcome from Tom Gallagher, NY2RF, ARRL CEO, who spoke at our club meeting last year. He is very interested in our HAB project.
After the Hamvention closed for the day, we attended many of the dinners and activities at the Crowne Plaza with the contesting community. At the Top Band dinner, we saw a very interesting presentation from Nodir, EY8MM, about his home country, Tajikistan and his plans for 160m operations during the Bouvet Island DXpedition coming up in 2018.
Overall we had a great time at the Hamvention and are looking forward to attending in 2018.
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