PF2012

Happy New Year and many DX contacts in 2012!

Starting New 24GHz Project!

I am going to assemble new 24GHz transverter and a small 24GHz beacon. Here are the parts that I have collected so far:

THALES transverter unit

ELCOM Synthesizer (upper-side L.O. injection)

Rear view of the synthesizer

Frequency Multiplier (x2), 1mW out

Microsource Synthesizer

(driven by YIG)

Identical synthesizer outside of its case

(this one will control the 24GHz beacon)

Small PA for the 24GHz beacon



New Paddle

Finally found good iambic paddle, suitable for microwave operations from portable locations

Sad News - OK1WPN SK

Very sad news. One of my HAM elmers, Petr OK1WPN, passed away on Thanksgiving Day 11/24/2011.

   http://www.ok1kvk.cz/upload/ok1wpn/OK1WPN_parte.pdf

Petr was excellent designer. He published several "home brew" transceiver designs and many, many technical articles. It would be difficult to find a HAM with OK callsign who didn't know his work. Rest In Piece!

Finally 24GHz QSO !

My first 24GHz 2-way QSO with John WB9PNU happened on Saturday 10/22/2011 at 9:36am local in EM48tm:

AF4JF

WB9PNU

I have written some more info on SLAMS web site. You can also find some more pictures from the event there.

First 24GHz Success !!

We have tested my new "24GHz-xverter-to-be" in WB9PNU's lab. John's spectrum analyzer definitely shows a need of a waveguide filter, but otherwise didn't reveal anything bad. Output power on 24GHz seems to be comparable with John's xverter (John uses harmonic mixer x4 from 6GHz and 144MHz IF, I am using different mixer x2 from 11.88GHz and 432MHz IF).

Important is, that we have heard each other today! I have to make a little change on my receiving preamp, but we are generally ready for first field test on Saturday 10/22 during SPRINT Microwave contest.

Both stations on the test bench

(IF radios are FT-817 on both sides):

My station detail:

Let's hope for first QSO this coming Saturday!

Not too many news ...

Well, I am quite busy with my job duties. I only managed a few ham-radio related accomplishments since my last posting here. I also bought fantastic paddle on eBay .. it's a HiMound Iambic Keyer:

Yes, it came with the base .. looks funny, but feels good! I bought this paddle for outdoor use on hilltops during our microwave events and intended to fasten it directly to the tripod, but probably will keep the base attached to the paddle now.

I am almost done with my first 24GHz transverter - just a harmonic mixer using ELCOM synthesizer (posted here earlier). Following pictures document it:

This one shows how simple it is - 12GHz coming in from the left, through the SMD capacitor, to the BAT15 antiparallel diodes and out the box on the 24GHz side. Well, there also is the IF signal of 432MHz coming in through the trace from the bottom. This works both ways, transmit and receive. PCB artwork was designed by DB6NT. Parts were magnified a little, real size is approx. 1/10" for the diodes and little smaller for the SMD capacitor. Smaller board is the new PIC controller for the synthesizer.



This is top wiew of the transverter box .. the 12/24GHz trace is on the bottom side at the right, below the empty space in the enclosure above.

All pieces are assembled, time to put everything together. That will take me a day or two, so I anticipate my very first 24GHz QSO to be made very soon, probably next week!



ARRL Microwave Contest 2011 1/2

First portion of the ARRL 10GHz+ microwave contest was a success. We have had 5 stations with 10GHz dishes here in St. Louis plus one visiting close to our area. Plenty of QSOs were made!

Picture shows (left-to-right) dishes of:

  AF4JF, K0PFX, N5MU and WA0CNS

On other hilltops working us were:

   WB9PNU with KO0Z and W9SZ

ARRL Microwave Contest 2011 1/2

Next  big contest is 2011 ARRL 10GHz+ Contest (1/2) .

This is a long contest, third full weekend of August. Begins 6:00 am local on Saturday, ends 12:00 Midnight local on Sunday (August 20-21, 2011). Operations may take place for 24 hours total.

All authorized microwave bands from 10 GHz up through Light.

SLAMS will meet at local DENNY's restaurant on Dorsett Rd. (just off I-270) on Saturday at 6:00 am for quick breakfast and continue to EM48sq (big parking lot at YMCA on McKelvey Rd.). Some of us will stay there, some will move around the area later during the day.

2011 ARRL JUNE VHF QSO PARTY

I have just participated on a VHF contest:

      2011 ARRL June VHF QSO Party

Nice .. the only problem was that my recent medication affects my vocal chords, so that I kept loosing my voice after every 3rd QSO or so. What a nightmare in a contest with 50MHz band wide open! Good thing that I am actually a CW operator, so I was able to make some nice QSOs and even got myself some new DXCC entities, such as CO (Cuba) on 6m!

I have used my old FT-847 (50W) and antennas as shown on this picture (yes, that includes the 50-144-432 vertical):

      AF4JF VHF antennas

Submitted a log with 1053 points. Better than nothing ;)

New PIC Microchip For My Projects

I have used various PIC microchips in the past and I have always run into limitations, such as "not enough memory", "no UART", "not enough ports for analog inputs" etc. etc.

My future projects will be based on 16F877 (serial) or 18F4550 (USB) chips. I have spent some time with 16F877 and finally managed to display some text on attached LCD display in 4-bit mode. Look at the red board on the picture - although LCD is already connected, there are still many more pins left for other use!

Not Much Activity These Days

I am a little too busy with my job, not much time left for hobby these days. However, I still collect morse keys and I keep thinking about my new 24GHz transverter.

Newest addition to my morsekey collection:

  
Progress made on my 24GHz transverter - managed to program this ELCOM synthesizer to generate nice clean signal on 11.88GHz .. that, multiplied x2 and mixed with 432MHz, should get me there:

Microwave SPRINT Contest

Well, another contest is behind us. SPRINT Microwave was just a short one. In addition to that, conditions were as poor as Hepburn propagation charts were black. One CW QSO from EM48 to EM49. My 3rd grid for the YMCA location in EM48sq, good!

I have tested my new Netbook for weak signal detection. It worked well, actually displayed a signal (-17dB) below threshold of audibility. Used WSJT waterfall, planning on WinRad soon.

Attached screenshot shows our local FSK beacon on 10 368.9 MHz. Signal is way over S9, which is why the traces are doubled on the screen (see week copies to the right).

Morsekey Collection

This is the latest addition to my modest collection. Actually, I like this one so much that I connected it to my HF station!

Some more pictures of my collection are here.

SPRINT contests - Spring 2011

First SPRINT contest of this season takes place tomorrow, Monday Apr. 11, 2011 from 7 to 11 pm local time.

Some info here.

I am going to participate after coming from work, hope to make some QSOs. I currently have 2x12 el. Yagi and bare FT-847. I am NOT going to use Internet or phone during the contest, so don't try to call.

73!

Next SLAMS Meeting

Once again is our SLAMS group going to meet for breakfast at Panera Bread restaurant at 8:30am on Sunday April 10. We are going to discuss our plans for the upcoming contest season, for SPRINT contest starts just ahead, on following Monday 04/11.

We have several contests to attend, which makes scheduling of our meetings a little difficult. Next SLAMS meeting after this one will therefore take place on Sunday 05/08, just one day after Microwave section of the SPRINT contest. That's actually very important event and I am looking forward for it; we have had lots of fun and made many 10GHz contacts between us, as reported here or here. Will see how it goes this time. I intend to submit my log from this ROVER operation this time.

My contest plans, schedule and locations, phone number etc. will always be published here on this blog.

EME History

I just stumbled over two nice articles about history of EME:

• PART 1 
• PART 2 

Entering 2011 contesting season with 10GHz equipment

I am ready to participate on microwave contests and various ham radio activities in 2011 using 10GHz DEMI transverter with 2W of output power and offset dish antenna:

The "microwave" section of my web site contains more pictures:

     http://af4jf.com/10GHZ.aspx

First Post

Hi

This is my first try. I intend to inform here about my progress and progress of a group of my friends, the SLAMS (Saint Louis Area Microwave Society) in building and using amateur radio (ham) devices for radio communications on microwave bands.