With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings

AmQRP’s  “NUE-PSK Digital Modem“ which I have written about before, is again in the press.

This time it is in the ARRL Magazines QST and QEX

PDF copies of the Articles are at:

http://www.amqrp.org/kits/nue-psk31/doc/NUE-PSK_(QST_March_2008).pdf
http://www.amqrp.org/kits/nue-psk31/doc/NUE-PSK_(QEX_Mar-Apr_2008).pdf

Check out the articles!

I am eagerly awaiting the unit I’d ordered to arrive!

73

Steve

When faced with the decisions on what antennas to install I had a number of things to weigh up:

The recommendations I was soliciting from other Amateurs led to a wonderful short list of possible antennas, but simple availability first led me to consider the Tennadyne Log Periodic Antenna .

One of our club retired members had become infirm and wanted someone to buy & take down his antenna & tower. This fellow has a past history of Elmering me in his profession when I was just out of high school, and I made him an offer & worked the deal out of respect for him. I figured I could help him out and either use or trade the tower & antenna for part of what I wanted.

In the deal I ended up with his year old Tennadyne T-8.

The short list of antennas I had was huge. I had been offered a very large Mosley 96x but found that it would swing off my property due to tower location.

With this antenna & that antenna being set aside as too expensive, too big, too long of a wait or for concerns over performance, the research on the Tennadyne T-8 lead to my determination to put it up and see how it works!

Wanting to have a directional 2m/440cm antenna, I purchased a Tennadyne T-28 (Original Model) which is a 6m to 1.3gHz Log Periodic, and stacked it 11 ft above the T-8.

Here is the installation (before cables were installed):

To date I’ve worked 98% of the time with the T-8. I’ve found it’s performance to be much better than I had imagined. Side and back singal rejection is impressive, allowing my listening to focus in the direction the antenna is pointed.

The measured Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) is 1:1.25 or better across the T-8’s advertised range of 20m to 10m.

Received signal reports have been excellent, with how many dB over 5-9 usually the only number that changes by the QSO!!

Listening is exceptional in the direction of the antenna’s focus, though of course it is not Omni Directional in listening. In some situations the T-8 may be well suited to being paired with a “listening antenna”.

The little bit of experimentation I’ve done with the T-28 has shown great promise for this smaller log periodic, and I am looking forward to putting it to the test down the log.

It goes without saying that I would highly recommend the T-8. Simple, cost effective, Mil-Spec style build, and great performance make it an antenna worth looking at!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Apple has released a clever ad about the Timemachine feature of OS-X 10.5 Leopard.

(Click on the picture for the movie)

(Click on the picture for the movie)

I’ve written before about Timemachine, and again it is simply a fantastic integration of backup technology into a graphical user interface and software suite.

Going Back in Time - “Time Machine” on the Macbook

First Use of TimeMachine - This Rules!

73

Steve
K9ZW

One of the downsides of doing portable Digital Modes is dragging the computer with you. Personally I have had poor luck with bringing laptops to the field for digital work - a Dell Laptop on one occasion decided the outside cold would finish off its battery and didn’t work, the Macbook had a physically self-destructed hard drive within hours of arriving on an Island and an older Windows machine decided that its USB ports which worked wonderfully at home were not recognized once in the field.

AmQRP.org has announced what looks to be an elegant solution, the “NUE-PSK Digital Modem“

click on picture for larger version

From their website:

NUE-PSK Digital Modem

—–

The AmQRP group is running a special until December 31st which will save a person some money while giving the group the funds to cash flow the project. I’ve just put my order in, paying by Paypal to make sure I made the deadline.

Check out their website for more information - they have flyers and video for download. http://www.amqrp.org/kits/nue-psk31/

73

Steve
K9ZW

Developed onver a 15 year period by Nick Fedoseev UT2UZ and later with Denis Nechitailov UU9JDR, MixW is a Digital Mode, CAT, Rotor Control, Logging, Digital Contesting program with a world wide following.

I’ve been using MixW for several years and have added to the basic MixW several additional modes, macros and Icons.  It also exchanges data with the N4PY CAT software package I run.

Modes supported:

• SSB
• CW
• AM
• BPSK/BPSK63
• QPSK
• FSK31
• RTTY any speed any shift
• Packet (VHF) & (UHF)
• Pactor RX
• AMTOR RX & FEC TX
• MFSK/Graphics Color/BW
• Olivia
• Contestia
• RTTYM
• Throb
• MT63
• Hellschreiber
• FAX
• SSTV
• Normal Logging
• Contest Logging
• CD/ROM Callbook

Links:

MixW Main Website

MixW USA Dealer’s Website (via Jim Jaff WA2VOS)

MixW Reviews at eHam

MixW Yahoo Group

I’ve had the pleasure of working Nick UT2UZ while using his software! (I’ve also worked Jim WA2VOS the USA dealer as well!)

A great package!  Check it out!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Carl N4PY finally became someone I had met, rather than someone who’s software I use, at Dayton 2007.

His N4PY CAT (Computer Assisted Transceiver) Program is a coveted addition to the K9ZW shack.  I control either a TenTec Jupiter or Pegasus with it, finding the improvement from TenTec’s basic program phenomenal. 

From the N4PY Website: 

This is the N4PY Pegasus Control Program. It will control
a Pegasus, Jupiter, Omni VII, RX-320, RX-330, RX-331, RX-340, RX-350,
Argonaut V, Elecraft K2, Kenwood TS-850, TS-950, TS-570, TS-870, TS-480, or TS-2000 as a primary radio.

Additionally, it will allow an RX-320, RX-350, second pegasus, second Jupiter, or second Elecraft K2 to be used as a sub-receiver to the primary radio with the sub-receiver following VFO B. And with the Omni VII as the primary radio, you can have the RX-320, Pegasus, Jupiter, or RX-340 as the sub-receiver.

This allows for full dual receive capabilty for DXer’s. The software also allows the seemless use of transverters for the VHF/UHF bands with the display showing the transverter frequency.

Full configurability directly from the program is available. Additionally, there is a save/restore feature for the internal memories of the Jupiter, RX-350, and Argonaut V.

You can also run the Jupiter, Omni VII, or Argonaut V in Front Panel control mode and have the program monitor the operation of the these radios. 

This allows the software to export a pegasus file interface to any
logging program that can work with a pegasus.

The end result is you can now have full logging control of the Jupiter, Argonaut V, or Omni VII while they are in front panel control.

Links are:

N4PY Website

N4PY Reviews at eHam

N4PY Yahoo Group

Carl N4PY also produces a TenTec Orion I & II version, an Icom version that supports the IC-756PRO, IC-756PROII, IC-756PROIII, IC-706MKIIG, IC-746, IC-746PRO, IC-703, IC-775, IC-756, IC-718, IC-781, IC-7000, and IC-7800 radios.

Highly recommended!

Tell Carl N4PY I sent you!

73

Steve
K9ZW