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