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Photo taken at: HSBC Building
Author: scruss
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knock yourselves out, guys …
I’m not quite sure why anyone would want to use the sort-of Arduino-compatible HamStack — billed as a microcontroller platform especially for amateur radio operators —in preference to developing amateur radio applications for Arduino, but chacun à son thingy. The PIC-based [I’d link to the PIC info page, but Microchip is giving me an internal server error] platform may have a few more IO pins than the stock Arduino, but:
- development tools are expensive
- there’s no cross-platform support
- no direct USB support, either.
Some folks may already have gone to the expense of a PIC-based toolchain, but for beginners, it could be prohibitive. Maybe better to develop and improve radio applications for Arduino.
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signals
Built a simple Function Generator with Frequency Counter over the last couple of nights. It’s pretty basic — 0-~500kHz, 0-12V, Sine or Triangular waves — but good enough for my test needs. The frequency counter is basically an Arduino repackaged to feed the attached LCD. The counter isn’t super accurate, but is within 1% of what my multimeter says.The kit has a fairly high voltage requirement for DC (>= 15V), but this was solved by a quick trip to Active Surplus. $11 bought me a 15V power supply (which delivers around 19V open circuit) and the right kind of barrel jack.
(Talking of neater meters, I didn’t know mine could support the Bluetooth Adaptor reviewed here. Dad’s old Avo couldn’t do that!)
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awk is not irksome
You could make a t-shirt design out of this, if you felt so inclined. I like the fact that it’s valid — if useless — Awk code. -
silly scope
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a
singleham in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a oscilloscope. At Hamvention, I bought slightly more of an oscilloscope than I needed, a Rigol DS1102E.After calibrating the probes, I cast around for something to measure. Aha! There lay an Atari Punk Console (previously) ready to show the world what its waveforms look like.
Surprsingly clean output here.
Ahh, the notorious APC “squelch-fart” noise. The poor little speaker hasn’t a chance of reproducing this, so it collapses into spasms.
A noisier high frequency signal from the APC.
The Rigol is pretty easy to use. These images were captured via its USB screen dump feature; no need for an oscilloscope camera here!
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Hamvention 2012
So I went to Hamvention for the first time. I knew it was a big deal when I tried to book a hotel a couple of weeks before, and everything within 25km was full. Even my dodgy distant motel was full of hams, and the Perkins next door couldn’t handle the breakfast rush.
Hamvention is huge. Radio amateurs from all over the world come to Dayton to meet, look at the shiny new stuff, buy things they can actually afford, and paw over the
junkvaluable items in the fleamarket. The fleamarket’s the size of a small European country.One obnoxious item I must get out the way is the amount of anti-government sloganeering on trucks, shirts and hats. I could do without that. For a hobby that wouldn’t exist without strong government regulation (and users sometimes go crying to government when someone doesn’t play by the rules), anti-government sentiment seems inane. Okay, that’s my rant over.
The fleamarket is basically where a lot of things that really should be snoozing away the millenia in a landfill come out every year to get aired. Sure, there’s some neat stuff in all those stalls, but you’d have to rummage and bargain. I was only there for a day and a half, and I’m trying to cut down on junk, so I was mostly in the fleamarket for the lulz. Here are some of the things I saw:
A real teletype
Tesla coils
Geiger counters, lots of ’em (all non-functioning)
n8prk‘s line launchers. Every few minutes he’d launch a marshmallow, which disappeared into the sky with a satisfying “Foomp!”
Duplex cavities and repeaters. The big tanks at the back are for the 10m band.
Too many antennas, sorry.
Real wartime enigma machines. I think the price sticker said $90,000.
Old apple tech.
Tiny UHF repeater cavities from Paladin RF (aka Honest Bob Morton of Maple Leaf Communications)
Nixies!
Good stuff, or junk?
WB4APR’s old school monocrystalline solar modules
WB4APR’s solar spinny thing
WB4APR’s charge socket on his Prius.
Bob WB4APR’s prius. Bob’s quite well known for creating APRS: Automatic Packet Reporting System.
WB4APR’s prius, from the rear.
A wire recorder. Julian Koster would be proud!
Old Ataris.
The Elecraft KX3 is the new hotness (if you wear a cap). I had to fight to even get a glance at this thing.
Various morse bugs. I ended up buying a Code Warrior Junior.
A very purple (and very expensive) Hilberling radio.
Begali testbed.
London, Gerry from the Unseen Bean’s helper. It is good coffee.
Tubes, or valves.
More valves, or tubes.
Petrol engine from a Maytag washing machine from pre-REA days.
Hams dream in Heathkit green.
You couldn’t afford a Hallicrafters then, and you probably still can’t.
Too big, and too many solar panels.
Civil defence radio, basically a 2m AM(?) HT. If anyone says that tubes are better than solid state, show them this.
An edison cylinder, playing “Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia”. It sounded good.
Yaesu green
More Enigma.
Russian data burst encoders. I remember a news piece on these around 1974; was there a spy bust in the UK then?
Two Nagras for Nesey. You might not be able to see the tiny one inside the big one’s case.
Too too many antennas — don’t be that guy.
A QRPme kit. I sat in on the QRP session. Interesting, but clutter-inducing. MUST SHUN!!!
QRPme kit 2
QRPme PIC kit
Too many APRS users. Seriously, 144.39 sounded like the frog chorus being sick all the time.
I only met one ham I’d worked; Joe (KJ8O) of the Feld Hell Club. I’ve only had my licence for a year, so not really a big surprise. Mad props to Russ of Linux in the Ham Shack for correctly guessing my accent, possibly a first.
I have to say that the event was extremely well organized. They’d teamed up with Dayton Transit to have buses from the free parking to the event. I didn’t have to wait once, though it was clear that most hams aren’t habitual bus riders. I enjoyed my time in the sorrowful midwest; I might go back every other year.
