Today I finished my 4 month stint at ARM Ltd. During my time I haven’t done much with the website, but I have been working on my implementation of a fully KISS compliant Arduino TNC as well as using DSD 1.7 to decode digital modulation such as D-STAR and DMR (and others) using my FunCube and RTL-SDR receivers.
Category Archives: Ham Radio
CQWW SSB 2014
I’ve been doing CQWW as a somewhat casual attempt to work some DX for the past few years, but this year I took it to the next level to organise an event with my local radio club.
There is a full analysis of the log for the weekend, including the KML files from which the following were taken. Where information is not available for a given callsign, the pin has been inserted into the centre of each country with an asterisk or question mark to indicate.
For the rest of the log analysis, please click 2014 CQWW SSB
New Icom ID5100
Today I purchased an Icom ID-5100 and fitted inside the car. I have been eating up the miles driving back and forth to Cambridge on my industrial secondment.
18 MHz Yagi
This weekend we reconfigured our 14 MHz homebrew Yagi to operate on 18 MHz instead. This was for a local club’s August Work The World Weekend.
14 MHz Yagi at Alymers Farm
This weekend we took the 14 MHz home-brew beam out for LEFARS annual field day at Alymers Farm. Conditions were not so great, but we managed to work some nice DX including VK6, plenty of North America and Canada, and several more rare locations.
VHF Preamps
Ordered a 144 MHz Anglian Transverter from Sam, G4DDK, as well as a DEM L144LNACK-2N low noise preamp for 144 MHz. I am very short of time of late, but it is my intention to experiment with some EME operation this summer and winter, so I figured I had better start buying.
Friedrichshafen 2014
From 28 June to 2 July 2014, a few of us where about and about in Europe! I drove to the Ham Radio Friedrichshafen International Exhibition for the second time, this time leaving a few days each side to recover from the long drive. In the first spare day we drove into Italy, stopping in Liechtenstein (to say we had been). Going, we drove over the Alps and returned back via the tunnels through the Alps (as it was dark). Utterly amazing drive! As evidence, I offer the pictures below!
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144 MHz 1.25 kW Amplifier
Over the weekend I worked on my 1.25 kW solid state PA based on F1JRD’s design from Dubus using a MRFE6VP61K25H. I bought a complete kit at the Friedrichshafen Hamfest 2012 from F1JRD and F5CYS and built it up late 2013 but due to problems, I never had more than around 40W output. This weekend, with a new set of capacitors from ATC I rebuilt the output matching and fired it up once again. With my 1kW/50V power-supply I can get around 600W output, which his more than enough. This is still a work in progress, but things are moving forward with the project.
CQWW SSB 2013
This map shows some of the stations worked during CQWW SSB Contest, 26-27 October 2013. Operations using M0STO’s tri-band 4-ele Yagi and 300W from the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker (GB0SNB) operating as G3XBF.
We set out with the aim to work as many DXCC entries as we could within the 24 hours we were able to operate. Operations started at 16:40 UTC on the Saturday an finished at 15:10 UTC on the Sunday; operating most of the night. 54 DXCC entries worked.
The location details are from QRZ.com, where possible.
Click the map once for image details, and again for high resolution image.
Photos
Here are a few pictures from the 2013 CQWW contest, taken by Peter Allen, G0IAP.
Queen’s Jubilee Ham Radio Station MQ1GEO
This is just a quick snapshot of the station I used for MQ1GEO. The radio is an Icom IC-7400 with a Heathkit SB-200 linear amplifier and 1KW ATU.
