Category Archives: Featured

This category is for featured articles that we want to include in the sidebars and other areas on our website.

Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 7 – Flex SDR Satellite Transceiver

A major part of our plans for Satellite Station 4.0 includes the ability to operate our home satellite station remotely over the Internet. We’ve been using our Flex-6700 Software Defined Radio as a Remote Operating Gateway on the HF Bands and 6m for some time now. Our latest project is to upgrade our Remote Operating GW to include SDR satellite transceiver capability on the 2m, 70cm, and 23cm bands…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 7 – Flex SDR Satellite Transceiver

Remote Gateway Rack with Satellite Additions

We’ve completed hardware upgrades and repackaging of our Remote Operating Gateway to allow it to be used for satellite operations. The article (link above) explains what was involved in upgrading our Flex-6700 SDR to include SDR Satellite Transceiver capability on the 2m, 70cm, and 23m bands. The project includes:

  • Addition of a 2m Amplifier, a 70cm Transverter, and a 23cm Upconverter to our Flex-6700 SDR
  • Provision for the addition of the 5GHz and 10 GHz satellite bands in the future
  • Local and remote monitoring of power output and SWR
  • Use of the Flex-6700 GPS Disciplined Oscillator for locking of frequencies on all bands
  • Enhanced remote power and station controls which provide station management via the Internet
  • Repackaging of the system in a rack mount enclosure that can be placed under our operating desk

The next stage of our SDR Satellite Transceiver project will be to add the software components needed to control the Flex-6700/SmartSDR combination to make satellite contacts.

Fred, AB1OC

Antennas, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Satellite Station 4.0 Part 6 – VHF and Satellite Tower Finishing Touches

We recently completed the finishing touches on our new VHF and Satellite Tower. The first step was to install a second set of entry conduits into our shack and a new ground block for our satellite antennas…

Source: Satellite Station 4.0 Part 6 – Tower Finishing Touches

Our Tower is finally complete! We’ve added an additional entry into our shack for coax and control cables and we’ve installed 7/8″ hardline coax cables to reduce losses in our 6m, 2m, 70cm, and 23 cm feedlines. You can see some photos and details of this part of our project via the link above.

We are working on upgrading our Flex-6700 SDR based Remote Gateway to include Satellite operation. Stay tuned for an article on this part of our project.

Fred, AB1OC

Education and Training, Featured, General, Newsletter

The Nashua Area Radio Society Story

Quite a few Nashua Area Radio Society members are headed for the Dayton Hamvention® this week. The theme of Hamvention 2019 is “Mentoring the Next Generation”.  We will be receiving some important recognition for our work to bring new Hams into the Amateur Radio Service, for our Amateur Radio related STEM learning programs in local schools, and for our many Ham Mentoring projects. We will be recognized as the Dayton Hamvention 2019 Club of the Year.  We will also be sharing The Nashua Area Radio Society Story as a forum presentation at Dayton.

NARS Story
The Nashua Area Radio Society Story (click to view)

We are also being recognized by the ARRL as a Spotlight Club for our Mentoring work. The ARRL has dedicated their “ARRL Spotlight on Radio Clubs and Mentoring” forum on Friday, May 17th at 11:50 am in Forum Room 3 to us so that we can share The Nashua Area Radio Society Story including ideas and programs that have worked well for us. You can view a copy of the presentation that we’ll be sharing by clicking on the image above. The presentation contains links to the embedded videos so you can enjoy those as well.

I want to express my deepest appreciation and thanks to all of the Nashua Area Radio Society members have contributed so much to our many projects, programs, and activities. Without all of you, we would not have been able to do what we have done to help others and to forward the Amateur Radio Service.

We hope that our readers who will be attending the Dayton Hamvention this year will join us for our Forum Presentation on Friday and will also stop by and see our display in the ARRL Booth at Dayton.

We’ll be sharing highlights from Dayton 2019 in our Forums as we go and Scott, NE1RD has time planned for us to share our Dayton experience at an upcoming meeting when we return.

Fred, AB1OC

Radio Amateurs Developing Skills Worldwide