Our latest Tech Night became a Tech Day this past weekend. We got together on Saturday afternoon to build another kit – the DSO138 Oscilloscope. We had a great turnout with over 15 kit builders and helpers present.
Finished DSO138 Scope Kit in case
Brian, AB1ZO choose this really cool kit for us to build. Here are some specifications for the finished DSO138 Oscilloscope kit:
Analog bandwidth: 0 – 200KHz
Sampling rate: 1Msps max
Sensitivity: 10mV/Div – 5V/Div
Sensitivity error: < 5%
Vertical resolution: 12-bit
Timebase: 10us/Div – 50s/Div
Record length: 1024 points
Built-in 1KHz/3.3V test signal
Waveform frozen (HOLD) function available
The kit came with all Surface Mount parts pre-installed.
The kit included a very nice case to finish off the project. This was a pretty big project to complete in a single afternoon but quite a few of our builders completed their kits and got them working!
The gallery below contains more pictures from our kit build. Everyone was very focused on the building process as we all wanted to get our kits to work in the time we had together.
Kit Builders 1
Kit Builders 1
Kit Builders 2
Kit Builders 2
Kit Builders 3
Kit Builders 3
Kit Builders 4
Kit Builders 4
Kit Builders 5
Kit Builders 5
Oscilloscope Kit Builders
Oscilloscope Kit Builders
Kit Builders 7
Kit Builders 7
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Kit Builders Builders 8
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Kit Builders Builders 9
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Kit Builders Builders 10
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Kit Builders Builders 11
Kit Builders Builders 12
Kit Builders Builders 12
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Kit Builders Builders 15
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Kit Builders Builders 17
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Kit Builders Builders 20
How Does That Case Go Together?
How Does That Case Go Together?
Finished Scope Kit 1
Finished Scope Kit 1
Finished Scope Kit 2
Finished Scope Kit 2
Finished Scope Kit 3
Finished Scope Kit 3
Scope Kit Parts 1
Scope Kit Parts 1
Scope Kit Parts 2
Scope Kit Parts 2
Some folks did not quite get their kits completed and are planning to finish them at home. The following are some links and videos to help.
Here are some videos which show the assembly of the kit and its enclosure and the operation of the completed scope. The first video shows the kit in operation.
I know that Brian is planning to do more kit builds throughout the year so be sure to keep an eye on our Tech Night page to see what is coming!
Our club has quite a few members who are interested in space communications. We decided to build a simple portable satellite station last year for our 2016 Field Day operation to learn about satellite communications and to create something new for folks to work with during 2016 Field Day.
Simple Portable Satellite Station
Our 1.0 Portable Satellite Station was a relatively simple setup built around an HT, an Elk 2m/70cm satellite antenna, and some gear to improve the receive performance and transmit power output of the HT. All of the gear was mounted on a board to make it easy to transport and it is powered by a LIPO rechargeable battery. The gear in our 1.0 station is made up of the following:
Our first contacts with our 1.0 station were made using the Elk Antenna hand-held. Later, we created a “plumber’s special” setup with a camera tripod to make pointing the antenna easier. Note the angle meter from a local hardware store which measures the elevation angle of the antenna.
AO-85 (Fox-1A) U/V Mode FM Cube Satellite
This setup worked great for making FM contacts through AO-85 (Fox-1A), a U/V mode FM EasySat. We used the 1.0 station on multiple occasions including Field Day 2016 and several of our club members used it to make their first satellite contacts. The Full-Duplex HT allowed us to hear our own signal coming back from the satellite which was an important tool to help with aiming the antenna properly. The ELK Dual-Band antenna is also a good choice because it uses a single feed point and a single polarization for both the 2m and 70cm bands.
1.0 Station Team Operating Approach
We used the team operating approach outlined above. This worked especially well for new folks who had not made a satellite contact before as it enabled each of the three team members involved in making the contact to focus on a specific part of the contact. We used orange plastic tent stakes to make AOS, Time of Closest Approach, and EOS to mark headings for each satellite pass. Small flashlights used at the stakes made them glow for night-time passes.
These goals have become the basis for building our Portable Satellite Station 2.0. More on the new station in Part 2 of this series. Other articles in the series include:
On Saturday, January 28th the Nashua Area Radio Club (Nashua ARC) will be hosting a special event for Interested kids, parents, and friends in the community about the joy of amateur radio at MakeIt Labs in Nashua from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. You may drop in at any time and stay as long as you like to participate! Among our activities, you can:
Get-On-The-Air Station (GOTA)
This is amateur radio at its best and what it’s known for! We invite you to get on the air and make a contact (we call them QSO’s — pronounced: cue-so) somewhere in the world! You might be able to make a new friend in Germany or even Japan! Making contacts sits at the heart of amateur radio and is an activity that brings people together. So don’t be shy, step up, and hit the push-to-talk button!
Satellite Station Display
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) began in 1969 to foster amateur radio participation in space research and communication. Currently, AMSAT groups help advance the state of the art in space science, space education, and space technology. Come learn about what components go into constructing a station capable of contacting a satellite and what antennas, and smart phone apps, operators use to keep a pulse on the satellite location.
Digital Amateur Television (DATV)
Not only are amateur radio operators granted privileges to transmit speech, but we also can send fast-scan data such as TV signals! Many operators have experimented with how to homebrew their own fast-scan TV stations, and our club president Fred (AB1OC) and our member Skip (K1NKR) have chosen to use construct a station which uses a Raspberry Pi (RPi) with an Arduino shield to sit at the heart of the transceiver. The RPi is the brains of the TV which runs Linux and among other things is responsible for sequencing, transmit/receive control, automatic VSWR monitoring, and a touch-screen controlling interface to configure and operate the system. Learn about what it takes to build and operate one of these stations. We may even be able to make a contact! More information can be found at https://stationproject.wordpress.com/category/amateur-television/.
Kit Building with Nashua ARC
The Nashua ARC holds kit-building nights were both inexperienced and experienced members homebrew in a relaxed, learning environment. In the past, we have built Pixie QRP (low-wattage) kits transmitting Morse Code on the 40m amateur band. But, on February 18 from 1 – 5 pm, First Church in Nashua, Nauss Hall, we will build the digital oscilloscope kit DSO138 (shown to left). This kit comes with a clear acrylic case to protect it, build instructions, and among its specs has a 1 Msps sampling rate, 12-bit accuracy, 200 kHz bandwidth (good for audio signals), capable of freezing the waveform display, and comes with a 1Hz / 3.3V test source. We invite you to join us and will bring some kits with us. More info can be found on our website at https://www.n1fd.org/2016/03/27/inexpensive-diy-digital-oscilloscope-kit/.
We hope you will join us for our event! Please bring friends, family, but most importantly we want you to have fun and enjoy this hobby with us!!
