Category Archives: Newsletter

Nashua Area Radio Society Newsletter Articles. You can find an archive of our Newsletters on our website.

CW and QRP, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter, On The Air, Station Equipment

My SSB BitX-40 build from VU2ESE

Below is a photo of my BitX-40 kit from Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE in India with my very own custom designed case.  The kits are available from http://www.hfsigs.com/

The top cover shown is powder coated steel mesh.

BitX-40 Enclosure

The sheet metal housing was designed in a solid modeling software package called Onshape. This web based software is free to use if your designs are to be available to anyone who signs into an account.  This design is “in the cloud” and considered “open hardware”, available to anyone who would like to use it.  Below is a screen capture of my Linux desktop running Onshape within a web browser.

BitX-40 Enclosure CAD Design

With access to a CNC punch press and a 90-ton brake press, a coworker of mine helped out with a bit of “government work”!

I left out some of the detail in the housing to let others enjoy the use of a drill and allow for some creativity with a customized placement of components.

BitX-40 Enclosure with Board

Some of the wires are not needed but may be useful in future “hacks”. The image below shows some of the wires removed from the “Molex” connector.  A small sharp object can be used to push in on the barb to remove the contact for a future project.

BitX-40 Cables and Connectors

See http://bitxhacks.blogspot.com/

I used my sketch to drive the LCD screen and the SI5351 chip using the Adafruit library.  The checkered block moves left and right between the arrows to indicate when I am at or near the end of travel with the tuning potentiometer.

BitX-40 Frequency Stationary
Stationary

When I move the block all the way to the right with the potentiometer it turns into an arrow and automatically increases the frequency. To make it stop just turn the potentiometer to the left.

BitX-40 Frequency rising
Frequency rising

I like the ability to scan the band without having to turn a knob!

Below is an image showing 12v and 24v voltage regulators and electrical tape on the housing tabs.  12v is for the majority of the wiring and I used 24v for the IRF510 PA.  The black tape looks nice behind the black mesh cover.  while testing I measured about 4W RF output with 12v feeding the PA and 16W RF at 24v.

BitX-40 Enclosure

The bottom has extruded “feet” along with stick on feet to keep the rig from sliding.

BitX-40 Enclosure

I used an SO-239 connector for the antenna.  I saved the BNC connector from the kit for test gear.  The red terminal post is connected to 32v from a repurposed HP printer power supply.  The barrel jack is connected to 16v from the same supply.

For more information on the case, you may contact me through my QRZ page.

73,

Mike (AB1YK)

Activities, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Youth Activities

Our High Altitude Balloon Project Meets Its Funding Goal!

We met with teachers and kids in a STEM club at a second local school this afternoon. The teachers and kids are very excited about our project!

We are working on bringing an additional school on board.

STEM Learning Syllabus for HAB Project
STEM Learning Syllabus for HAB Project

We are also working with teachers in our partner schools to develop a syllabus that combines in-classroom lessons with hands-on learning to plan, build and launch our High-Altitude Balloon carrying Amateur Radio. Our team is also planning a tour of a local Amateur Radio station and other activities for the kids. We hope to reinforce the STEM learning aspects of our project this way. This should also spark further interest in Amateur Radio.

Funding For Our Project

We have met our initial funding goal for our project! Many thanks for the very generous donations from club members, member families and support from folks who found us via the internet. Stories about our project have been featured on qrz.com and eham.net and we have received support and well wishes from many HAMs via those sites.

We are hoping to raise more than our goal. If this happens, we will be able to invest in additional equipment. We will then also add some more science experiments to our balloon flight.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped us!!

Fred, AB1OC

Activities, Featured, Field Day, General, Newsletter

Field-Day Kick-off Meeting

I am really excited to be leading the field day effort for the Nashua Area Radio Club this year.  Since this is my first time, I will be relying on the club members to help me make this a success.

It is rapidly approaching, and with this in mind, I’ve scheduled an initial “kick-off” meeting for Sunday, March 5th at the Nashua Library in the Hunt Room from 1-3 PM.  I’d love to see all team leads from last year, as well as anyone interested in participating this year to please attend.  My intention is to identify a planning team at this meeting to start working through all the details.

The first item on the agenda will be to identify potential locations for this year.  With this in hand, we will create a site survey crew to evaluate the options and decide which site best fits our needs.  Ideally, the site will be centrally located to Nashua, and allow for public access.  In order to accommodate the towers, we will need a field between 600-1000 feet long North to South, and at least 120 feet wide.   A 1000-foot site would allow us to erect 3-towers.  It would also be ideal if there are restroom facilities, and potentially access to a kitchen / cafeteria.  This is especially important if there is inclement weather.

We also need to decide what type of station we should run this year, and what type of antennas are needed.  Last year, we erected a V-beam array for 40-meters which was very effective.  We may want to consider adding a second one.  Other questions remain open, such as should we have more digital operations, a VHF station, or perhaps an enhanced satellite setup?

We also need to determine what class and entry strategy we want to use this year.  In 2016, we operated as a 7-Alpha, as this seemed to be a sweet spot.

It takes a village to pull this event together, but as the old adage goes “many hands make light work”.   I hope to see you all on the 5th.

Dave, K1DLM

Hashtags: #ARRLFD #N1FD

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