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).