tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34610022274628230072024-12-18T19:24:32.120-08:00Ham Radio And Other StuffWS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-74454209716455146732013-06-08T15:34:00.000-07:002016-06-22T12:45:49.286-07:00

I wanted to do something different for ARRL Field Day this year.  So, I came up with two different ideas on what I could do that we would be interesting at our Field Day.   I have been playing a bit with both a Raspberry Pi and Arduino's lately so I started thinking what kind of things I could do with those devices. Periodically Send SSTV images from a webcam over our VHF repeater.

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-36608545178500133742012-11-21T12:12:00.003-08:002012-11-21T12:34:44.896-08:00

Well, I have officially joined the 43ft vertical club.  The ubiquitous 43ft these days seems to be turning into the vertical antenna equipment of the G5RV. Having a couple of days off, I finally got a chance to do the full install of this antenna, just in time for winter. First I had to run a new coax line of RG-213 out to the back corner of the yard from the shack. &

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-87525902931140300192012-03-16T20:34:00.002-07:002014-06-17T07:36:02.981-07:00

This is something I have been planning for a while, and finally got around to doing.  I setup a weather station at home. The weather station itself is made by "Fine Offset" http://www.foshk.com/, and sold and marketed by several different brands, including Ambient, Zepher, WeatherWise, Tycon Power, dr Tech and others. The specific one I purchased is sold as the "Zepher PWS-1000TD-TZ"

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-40481885269701154992012-03-10T08:48:00.006-08:002012-03-16T20:40:41.568-07:00

March 2012 ARTS Ham Club Meeting Presentation - Cheap And Easy To Build Antennas I did the program for this past months W4CN ARTS Club meeting on "Cheap and Easy to Build Antennas".   I wanted to share how fun and interesting building your own antennas can be compared to buying pre-built antennas.  Hopefully, it will encourage others to try to do some on their own. Here is a copy of

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-88738980429009433092012-01-24T17:17:00.000-08:002012-01-24T17:36:39.455-08:00

I thought I would take time to share my HF antenna experiences since I am very happy with the antenna I have up now.  I built an 80m OCF/Off Center Fed antenna and have found it to be one of the best mufti-band antennas you can use.  Most people are familiar with G5RVs and I think many new hams are steered in that direction as the solution for the best antenna to use for 

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-64582918125771548572012-01-09T16:50:00.000-08:002012-01-24T17:44:46.583-08:00

Well, since I spent the time cleaning up, I figured I would take a picture of the ole shack.  So here is what it looks like when its clean and I don't have a project all spread out in progress. It's nothing elaborate, just a couple of folding tables really. But I am finally comfortable with the layout of having one work space for radio work on one side and having a project building area

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-75944619688376123722011-12-12T15:26:00.000-08:002011-12-12T15:26:04.992-08:00

I got this present in our local radio clubs annual White Elephant Gift Exchange.  I think its great!  From what I can tell based on the markings, is a 200W power triode that was used in many WW2 radios, and is from about 1943-1945 or so.  I am already thinking of a few ham related craft or woodworking projects to use it in.

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-34986138220044768872011-12-01T15:19:00.000-08:002011-12-12T15:23:22.410-08:00

Meet my new soldering iron.   Soon to be used for the SMT(surface mount parts) on a new SDR kit build.

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-12012064934570645102011-09-17T09:53:00.000-07:002012-10-10T07:54:24.003-07:00

I completed building my 440mhz preamp.  The main reason I built this was to use for AMSAT reception of the amateur radio satellite downlink signals. The hardest part with working the satellites is acquiring of the downlink signal from the satellite.  That is much harder than the satellite hearing you. Using a small pre-amp can make a huge difference in being able to

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-67408201252251879592011-09-11T07:12:00.001-07:002011-09-11T07:13:04.819-07:00

Some of the states I thought would be hard were easy, and some of the ones I thought would be easy turned out to be more difficult.  Just the way it goes I guess.  Now its onto 5-band WAS, and I think the ARRL Triple-Play(WAS CW+Digital+SSB) is one I would really like to get.  

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-51523163372865116602011-08-29T22:05:00.000-07:002011-08-29T22:06:52.532-07:00

Some guys take things just a little too far.  I took this photo at Dayton.  Just one of the many sights to see that you can only get at the Dayton Hamvention.  

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-90040071442183989432011-08-24T07:07:00.000-07:002011-08-29T22:07:51.525-07:00

Was able to hear ARRISAT-1 this evening with my 2m ladder line J-pole vertical up about 50ft in a tree.  You can hear the audio fairly well, except for the static crashes and noise in and out. I will have to pull the ARROW antenna out and try to get a SSTV image soon.   You can hear some of the SSTV transmissions in between the voice segments. Here is the audio recording I made of

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-27540323134839132062011-08-22T08:06:00.000-07:002011-09-25T16:57:04.766-07:00

Well, I finally decided to repair the CW jack on my FT-450. Based on some discussion on the ft450 owners yahoo group mailing list, this is not a totally uncommon problem.  Apparently, Yaesu used some poor quality 3.5mm jacks on this radio, and they are extremely sensitive to the quality of the cable plugged into them. The issue is that the contacts inside the jacks get easily

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-1250862057463696062011-07-29T22:00:00.000-07:002011-08-29T22:08:58.786-07:00

I wanted to take a few minutes to document the construction of the grounding system for my station which I did a few years ago.   This is an often confusing item for newer hams and maybe this will give some ideas that can be used or expanded on by someone else. The basic design consists of a weather sealed single point box, that all the EMP/lightning arrestors are installed into, and all

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-28097109288579200022011-07-18T16:49:00.000-07:002011-09-25T16:56:45.839-07:00

Got this in the mail.  Totally surprised me.  I only contest to pad the DXCC entries in my logbook.  I do however always submit my contest logs to help the other teams get credit for my contacts.  I also feel less guilty sending them QSL Cards from the contest contacts that way as well. But, I am never actually keeping track of or really caring what my 'score' is in the

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-44913969215432708362011-07-04T07:54:00.000-07:002013-04-16T19:51:35.430-07:00

EDIT (9/2/2011): Here is a copy of the SDR Presentation I did for my local ham club and used this FT-450+Softrock setup as a live demo.  I have been playing with a Softrock SDR Ensemble II HF Receiver for a while and then I read about a european ham, who modded his FT-450 to work with his SDR (a Mercury SDR, not a Softrock), so I thought I might follow in his footsteps

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-68536813928590305852011-04-01T21:10:00.000-07:002011-04-15T11:12:22.391-07:00

One of the things I have been working on is learning Morse code(CW). Since I have my iPhone with me at all times it has great potential to be a useful training tool. And with that in mind I have been evaluating all the various iPhone apps out there which are geared towards helping someone learn Morse code. There are a few promising apps available and I will be writing about them

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-78182140937267162302010-06-01T13:42:00.000-07:002010-06-01T13:45:49.362-07:00

One of the easiest ways to remote control a ham radio and perform remote operation is to use a screen sharing program to remotely control the radio and work digial modes. While remote operation of other modes such as SSB and CW are a little more involved, it is quite simple to work PSK31, RTTY or any other digial mode remotely just by using desktop sharing. There are several different apps to

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3461002227462823007.post-80149367067860614592010-05-21T17:46:00.000-07:002011-08-29T22:11:19.185-07:00

Ok, I am finally breaking down and creating a blog.  Why?  Well, honestly I never thought I would ever want to do this before.  But, my recent experiences in exploring my new hobby of Ham Radio have really proven that the sharing of information and knowledge to and from others was invaluable.  There just are not all that many 'official' sources for Ham Radio

WS4Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15965993024629114069noreply@blogger.com0