Category Archives: Station Equipment

Articles about Radios, Amplifiers, Tuners and related Ham Station Equipment. Fixed, Portable and Mobile Station Equipment Articles are included.

CW and QRP, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter, Station Equipment

Project Night 2018

Every January Meeting we hold Project Night, where members bring in and share recent homebrew projects that they have built. This year’s Project Night was full of interesting projects built by our members.

Member Projects
Scott NE1RD Kits
Scott NE1RD Kits

Our Programs Chairperson, Scott, NE1RD led it off by showing us some kits he had built, including the K1EL PaddleStick Keyer that we will be building for the February Tech Night.

Bob KB1TEK - QRP Kits
Bob KB1TEK – QRP Kits

Bob, KB1TEK brought some QRP kits that he had built.

Dave K1DHP - VLF Detector
Dave K1DHP – VLF Detector

Dave, K1DHP showed us the VLF Detector that he built.

Hamilton, K1HMS – Antenna Switches

Hamilton, K1HMS brought Antenna Switches that he had built.

Dave K1DLM - Heakthkit
Dave K1DLM – Heakthkit

Dave, K1DLM showed us a Heathkit that he plans to build.

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Dennis, K1LGQ had another explosive presentation when he showed us a KX2 stand that he built.

Dennis shows plans for his KX2 Stand
Dennis hows plans for his KX2 Stand

 

Fred AB1OC - Low-Band Match
Fred AB1OC – Low-Band Match

Fred, AB1OC brought an 80m band matching system that he will install in order to make our 80m delta loop be resonant across the band.  He has programmed our MicroHam system to automatically have the box switch the matching system as we tune through the 80m band.  I’m looking forward to using this to get the last 20 80m contacts for my 5 Band DXCC!

Anita AB1QB - CW Pi
Anita AB1QB – CW Pi

I (AB1QB) demonstrated a Raspberry Pi project that I built over the holidays.  It is called a Morse Code Virtual Radio.  When you hook up a monitor and a straight key to the Raspberry Pi, it will decode what you key in.  This was a big hit with the kids who visited us for ARRL Kids Day.

Mike, AB1YK - Panadapter
Mike, AB1YK – Panadapter

Finally, Mike, AB1YK brought in a number of projects that he has done including a Panadapter and a CW Generator.

Overall it was great to see all of the projects that our members have been working on. The gallery above contains more pictures from Project Night.

Anita, AB1QB

CW and QRP, Featured, General, Homebrewing, Newsletter, Station Equipment

PaddleStick CW Keyer with Base Kit Build

January 9, 2018, Tech Night meeting will feature Steve Elliott, K1EL, the owner of www.hamcrafters.com and the designers of the many amazing kits Hamcrafters offers. Steve will discuss aspects of kit design and building, including the PaddleStick CW Keyer that will be built during our February 13 Tech Night.

You can order your kit online, or buy one directly from Mr. Elliott after his presentation. (Mr. Elliott will bring a limited number of kits for purchase.) The PS2B kit is $59 (cash). We will be looking for a rough count of those interested in purchasing this kit during the regular members meeting on January 2.

Don’t miss out on the fun. This is a great little kit, and you’ll have a great tool to practice CW or to get on the air. Shoo away those wintertime blues by heating up a little solder with friends. See you there!

Digital, Featured, General, Newsletter, Space, Station Equipment

Receiving SSTV From The ISS

We’ve recently upgraded our Portable Satellite Station 2.0 to add digital and packet capabilities. The upgrade was pretty simple – we added a SignaLink USB Soundcard and a Windows Laptop PC. Most of the software for Packet and Digital Amateur Radio communications is written for the Windows OS so using a separate laptop running Windows 10 was the simplest way to go.

Portable Satellite Station With Additions For Digital and Packet
Portable Satellite Station With Additions For Digital and Packet

Another benefit of the second laptop was added screen space to use when doing packet communications via satellites and the International Space Station (ISS).

Receiving SSTV From The ISS

SSTV Image From The ISS
SSTV Image From The ISS

We recently learned that the ISS was going to be again transmitting SSTV images worldwide. This provided a perfect opportunity to work with the digital additions in our satellite setup. We downloaded and installed MMSSTV on our Windows laptop and set the audio levels on the Windows PC and our SignaLink Sound card to properly receive SSTV signals. The MMSSTV application can decode several different SSTV formats including the PD120 format used by the ISS. The ISS transmits SSTV on a 2m FM voice channel. We configured MacDoppler to track the ISS and perform doppler correction on the 2m ISS 2m downlink and began to listen.

The video above was made during the reception of an SSTV image from the ISS during a pass over the United States. The video gives a good idea of what its like to receive SSTV from the space station.

More ISS SSTV Images…

Another SSTV Image From The ISS
Another SSTV Image From The ISS

We were able to receive several different images from the ISS during the period that it was transmitting SSTV worldwide.

A Third SSTV Image From The ISS
A Third SSTV Image From The ISS

It was pretty easy to capture the SSTV transmissions from the ISS with our Portable Satellite Station 2.0 setup. The signals were strong and I would imagine that the SSTV transmission could have also been received with a simple portable satellite setup with a hand-held yagi antenna.

We hope that the ISS will send SSTV images again in the near future. It was fun receiving them.

Fred, AB1OC

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