Eugene

Field Day 2015

Field Day this year was a little different this year since we were road tripping to Orlando.

On Saturday, we ventured out to the Orlando EOC to check out the Field Day operation there. They had a pretty impressive set up going with a big air conditioned tent and 10 transmitters running. We got there kind of late in the afternoon, and they were nice enough to set up a 10m GOTA station for us to get on the air with, but the band was kind of dead by then. We were able to give my sister, brother-in-law and nieces a good introduction to what Field Day and amateur radio is about though.

Sunday we hit the road back to Charleston after watching the SpaceX launch. Fired up the radio and started tuning around on 20m for the last few hours of Field Day. Got 3 contacts in the log which was good enough for me.

This was also our first Field Day together. Maybe next time we’ll do it again when one of us doesn’t have to drive.

More cards from the buro

Received my second batch of QSL cards via the buro today. 6 cards total from Hungary, Russia, Slovenia, Mexico, Germany and Brazil. Most were from contacts from about a year ago, but a couple of them were for 2013 QSOs.

Always exciting to receive QSL cards in the mail 🙂

An RF probe

I camee across N5ESE‘s site and started browsing around some of his projects. He’s got quite the list of them. In his Gizmos section is an RF probe which looked pretty easy to build.

I had a set of those springyy hook-y grab-y DMM leads that were broken, so I cut off the spring-y hook-y grab-y part to use for the DMM side.

On the work bench was a perfectly sized piece of PCB from when I was experimenting with cutting and scoring PCB. From the RXTX build, I just happened to have some extra 0.01 μF SMD capacitors which were perfect for the job. A 1N34A diode and 4.7MΩ resistor finished off the parts.

I used a small hacksaw to score the PCB and divide it into three sections, cut out a notch for the diode and cut the head off a brass nail to serve as the probe. Soldering everything in place was pretty easy.

Soldered on the leads and a ground wire with alligator clip and put everything into a shrink wrap tube.

RF probe covered with heat shrink tubing

The full probe, with all the leads ready for some RF to measure. I still need to find a decent enclosure to shield the probe with.

Review: ARRL Satellite Handbook

The book is split into two parts. The first part covers some history of amateur radio satellites, software and terminology, and some of the gear you’ll need.

The second part consists of several QST articles describing simple antenna and rotor controller projects that can be used for satellite contacts.

Two appendices let the reader get down and dirty with the math and physics of satellite orbits and the various components and subsystems that go into satellites.

There’s a good discussion of Keplerian orbital elements (“Keps”), which are essential to figuring out where and when to look for a particular satellite. Fortunately you don’t need to use them yourself, software takes care of all of that. Unfortunately the discussion about Keps is made a little bit confusing by using three completely different sets of numbers in the tables showing different Keps formats and the text describing each of the elements.

One of the projects is titled “Work OSCAR 40 with cardboard box antennas!”, a great example of how you don’t need fancy expensive gear to hear satellites.

I think I’d call The ARRL Satellite Handbook more of a primer than a handbook, which implies something more comprehensive. Still, it does a pretty good job of covering what you need to know to start working the “birds”.

4 stars out of 5.

Review: Radio Science for the Radio Amateur

Radio Science for the Radio Amateur is one of the more recent ARRL publications that I added to the bookshelf.

At a couple hundred pages or so (it follows the ARRL’s annoying chapter-page numbering rather than using regular page numbers), the book is pretty light reading and should be pretty easy to get through in one or two reading sessions.

The concept behind the book has a lot of potential, but this attempt doesn’t go deep enough into anything to be all that useful. I’m left with the feeling of “Oh, that’s pretty neat” but then end up grasping at air because of the lack of substance.

One significant flaw in the book is the lack of references and other resources that readers can go to for more information. For example, the circuit simulation chapter mentions SPICE and tells you it can be used to simulate circuits, but that’s it. You’re left to go find additional information on your own. A list of resources (books, websites, etc) at the end of each chapter would be immensely useful for such an introductory level book.

2 stars out of 5.