Links:

24 Nov 09    

Many web sites include long lists of links to other web sites.  These are often extremely useful and entertaining.   We won't try to follow suit here, but we urge you to build up your own list of "Favorites" or "Bookmarks."    Here are some links that I have found especially useful or interesting.   Some may not be as familiar as the normal ones.

http://www.eevblog.com/  

This is a site aimed predominantly at the electronic engineering community.   However, the building and experimenting segment of the amateur radio clan should also enjoy watching the presenter, Dave Jones as he does his thing.    The blog is done in Australia, but the world has become so small that all of his efforts apply equally here in the US, or in Europe.   Dave appears to be what we would call a "hardware-software" engineer.  At least that's the term we used back when I was working in industry.    He is equally at home with the digital things of modern equipment and with the analog tools needed to interface with the "real world."    

Dave addresses a number of topics.   Many discussions are tutorial in nature.   One good one in this series had to do with battery charging.   I was especially interested in NiMH AA cells at the time.    Dave also does quite a few reviews of products that are of interest to EEs.    He has devoted several weekly episodes to the Rigol DS1052E digital oscilloscope.    I was so enthused at the price/performance on this product that I bought one for my own lab.   (Hey, I can't afford a Tek box these days.)

Perhaps the best part of Dave's blog is the style.    He is extremely enthusiastic, and this emanates from the videos.   So for one that will be both entertaining and informative, please check it out.     11Nov09    

http://www.soldersmoke.com/     This is a web site that provides audio "podcasts," which are MP3 files that you can download and then listen to with a computer, iPod, or similar player.  Early editions of Soldersmoke were in the form of an on-the-air contact between the two principal players in the effort, Bill, M0HBR, in the center of London, and Mike Caughan, KL7R, in Juneau, Alaska.   
These efforts, which started in 2003 or a bit thereafter, came to a tragic end in January of 2007 when Mike died in a car crash.   Bill has continued with the podcast, which has now grown to over a hundred episodes and a book.    It is not really accurate to say that the subject matter of Soldersmoke is grass roots amateur radio.   Rather, it is amateur radio dealing with casual experimenting where rigs are built and put on the air.   At this writing, the voice of soldersmoke has moved on from London to Rome and uses the call I0/N2CQR.   Download an episode and take a listen.    24Nov9.  

http://www.highfrequencyelectronics.com     This is the web address for a new magazine dealing with RF Design issues.   Go to the January 2004 issue and you will find a paper by Rick Campbell, KK7B.   This paper discusses the mixer circuits that we have used in some commercial applications.   The example schematic diagram in that paper is for the integrated circuit shown on the front cover of EMRFD.
          Coincidentally, we should all applaud the magazine High Frequency Electronics for their unusual viewpoint.    They publish all of their articles on line, so those of us us no longer directly affiliated with part of the industry can still read them.   This is a great boon to the experimenting amateur as well as professional folks working in an industry segment outside the RF mainstream.

http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cotton/SA1.html    This is the page of Jim Cotton who was one of the early builders of our spectrum analyzer.   He has photographed each module as it went together and has assembled an excellent web site to help the builders.   This is a "must see" one for the analyzer builders.

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzevz222/
This is the site of Mike, KC8OAN, who built one of our spectrum analyzers.   He has done a super job of documenting his work on the web.  (Update, 14May08)

http://www.qrp.pops.net/ This is a site generated by Todd, VE7BPO.    Todd has done a lot of experiments in building simple equipment, all in an easy to duplicate breadboard format, and has then described that work on his web page.   This is a good read, for it not only communicates some good experimental ideas, but a wonderful spirit of curiosity.         20 Aug 04

http://www.proaxis.com/~boblark/dsp10.htm  Bob Larkin, W7PUA, has created some wonderful designs, both in the DSP arena where we now talk of the "software defined radio," or SDR, and in the area of microwave circuits and propagation.   This web site concentrates on the DSP-10, a 144 MHz all mode transceiver ideal as an IF for journeys off to the higher bands, including the microwaves.   

http://www.shelbrook.com/~ve7ca/     Here is another site from Western Canada, this one from Markus, VE7CA.   Note that this url has changed from the original one we posted.  Markus has built his own high end transceiver as well as a lot of test equipment, and describes much of it on his web site.  The transceiver was the subject of the major paper in the March 2006 QST.    It is interesting to note that this article appeared in the same issue as the product review on the latest offering from Yaesu.   Both transceivers were measured in the ARRL lab and both were about the same in performance, but I doubt that Markus has $US 10,000 invested in his box.   In fairness to Yaesu (?), the rig that Markus built does not use a synthesizer and is not general coverage on receive.  There is a profound message here should anyone care to listen!  Markus also hikes a bit with his gear, taking both HF and VHF homebrew gear into the field. (April 11, 2006)   

http://www.cebik.com/radio.html  L.B. Cebik is well known to readers of the amateur radio journals for his insightful treatment of antenna topics.   Sadly, LB died in April of 2008.   His web site is being maintained and the url given here still works today. (23Oct09)  However, to see the articles, it will be necessary to sign up for a password to get into the site.    I'm pleased that we can still read much of the information that LB created.    (23Oct09)  

http://www.qsl.net/aa3sj/HOME.html     Ed Kessler, AA3SJ,  has built numerous portable and home rigs for the HF bands and describes them on his web site.   His more recent efforts include SMT bread boarding methods.   A recent addition to Ed's site is info on a 6 Meter transceiver he has built.   Ed is also a hiker who takes his gear to the hilltops.      (17Sept06  )

http://www.ka7exm.net/     This url has changed from the original one we posted.  Roger, KA7EXM, uses this site to present his efforts in experimenting with dsp, mountain top vhf and uhf gear, and embedded software applications.    Roger is also walking into the backcountry with his radio gear and shows just a few photos on the site.    Congratulations to Rog for the 2006 DeMaw award for Technical Excellence for his PIC Power Meter papers in QEX/QST.  17Sept06   

http://www.scottyspectrumanalyzer.com/
    This url has changed from the original one we posted.  Here's a site belonging to Scotty Sprowls, a non-ham, who has built a high end spectrum analyzer that can be built by the experimenter.  There are a number of interesting ideas here that may be useful to the experimenter.   Among others, he presents methods that will let a computer act as the display for a simple analyzer.   5Sept04  (23Oct09)  

http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/
    This url has changed from the original one we posted.   This site was created by Joe, K1JT, and shows how cutting edge software can be used to expand the horizons of a VHF station.   The games we play are indeed changing.   Included in the latest is the info needed to get started with WSPR.  (23Oct09)    

http://www.eznec.com/index.shtml    This is the site of Roy Lewallen, W7EL, who wrote and distributes the widely acclaimed EZNEC software program used for antenna analysis.     Version 4.0 is now available.   20Aug04.

BITX20.  This relates to the site of Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE, an engineer in India.     His transceiver, the BITX20,  is a classic, one of the simplest SSB transceivers that I've seen.   Check out his web site, http://www.phonestack.com/farhan/bitx.html
.    Try the Yahoo group devoted to it, found at  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BITX20/       7 Oct 06.     

http://www.n2pk.com/
    This url has changed from the original one we posted.   This site is the effort of Paul, N2PK.   Paul has developed a DDS based, very high performance VECTOR network analyzer.   When we emphasize VECTOR, it is done to state that the instrument generates both the magnitude and angle of gain and reflection parameters for a two port network such as an antenna, amplifier or filter.  His analyzer functions in the .05 to 60 MHz spectrum, and can be extended to VHF and UHF.   Full construction details are presented in this site.   I'm sorry that I was not able to persuade Paul to publish his work in an archived, peer reviewed journal, but this is the nature of our times.    Paul has added some more information to his site, and there is now a Yahoo Group devoted to the N2PK VNA.    I now have one of these VNAs in my lab and it's a wonderful tool.    (23Oct09)

http://f6feo.homebuilder.free.fr/   Michel Van Der Biest, F6FEO, authored this wonderful site.   The main features are descriptions, in French, of two experimental SSB transceivers that he has designed and built.    The single band designs for 7 and 14 MHz, although simple, show care in both design and implementation.    The reader should also examine the construction methods.    These transceivers are truly breadboards in that they seem to be built on a wood base, but with a metal front panel.   The circuitry itself resides on a collection of small circuit boards interconnected with small coaxial cable.   27Feb05      

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EMRFD/     There is now a Yahoo Group for EMRFD.   The group offers a chance for folks to kick ideas around that relate to the material in the book.    28Sept06