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awsh.org

aprs

I first got into radio when I found out about the RTL-SDR dongle. I am an IT guy by trade and have always been interested in programming and hacking, so when I saw that I can get a $10 dongle, hook it up to my computer and pick up rf signals from garage door openers, wireless remotes, and even airplanes, I started reading all I could. The first thing I did with the dongle was set it to receive ADS-B signals from planes.

homebrew linear power supply

I recently came into possession of a pile of old uninterruptible power supplies that were headed to the trash and I decided to crack one open. Seeing the big transformer gave me the idea to make my own power supply. Currently, my only bench power supply is an old switching ATX power supply that I have added some binding posts to. I’d like an adjustable supply and I know I should probably just buy one, if only for the constant voltage and constant current capabilities, but I figured this would make a nice weekend project.

new dipole

Following my antenna analyzer project, I figured I’d put up a better antenna now that I have some rough way to measure resonance. At first, I was looking to make a 40m/20m multiband dipole. Using some spare rg-6 coax and some 14 gauge stranded AC line, I measured out my wire and constructed the dipole. This is what I ended up with. A waterproof box with the 40m line on top, the 20m line below it, and the rg-6 entering from the bottom.

project updates

I keep adding more and more to the list of projects I want to complete. I have so many things that I want to build or experiment with, but I just don’t have the time. I finally finished up the soft rock receiver that I built ages ago. I mounted it in an altoids tin with a bnc connector and a power jack. I started playing around with digital modes. I’ve used various sdr receivers including the soft rock and I’ve also hooked up my modified forty9er and successfully decoded cw and jt65 using fldigi and wsjtx.

dell xps 13 (9343) combo jack

I’ve been wanting to play around with echolink via qtel, but have been having trouble with the combo jack on my xps 13. When I would plug in a headset, it would see the headphones, but would never see that a mic was available. I think it is a problem with the sound card initialized in I2S mode. According to the Arch wiki, the kernel can be recompiled with the option CONFIG_ACPI_REV_OVERRIDE_POSSIBLE=y and it will force on HDA mode.

forty9er kit with dds vfo

In the March 2016 edition of QST, there was a project that added an arduino/ad9850 vfo to a cheap ebay forty9er kit. In a happy accident, I had ordered one of these kits several weeks ago before I found out about this mod. The next day, after I found the project, my kit arrived. In a first for me, I also had everything I needed for the build on hand so I was able to get started right away.