The Coolest Guy on 17 Meters

In our last podcast I mentioned that I had a very interesting contact on 17 meters with Raul Midon AE3RM.  This morning Raul's song "Tembererana" popped up on my Pandora feed.  The song is great, but is was the album cover that attracted my attention. 

Raul has an amazing personal history.  Born in Argentina, he and his twin brother have been blind since birth.  They have both obviously triumphed -- his brother is a NASA engineer.  

You can watch OM Raul sing about technology in his TED Talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/raul_midon_plays_all_the_answers_and_tembererana?language=en

Here is his Wikipedia page.  Check out the info about his home studio and his technology company:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raul_Mid%C3%B3n

From the Wiki:
Midón's album State of Mind was released on May 10, 2005. The album features a guest performance with Stevie Wonder, one of his idols, another one with Jason Mraz, and a song written in tribute to Donny Hathaway entitled "Sittin' In The Middle." Midón is an avid amateur radio enthusiast,^[2] and in this song he also incorporates his call sign (KB5ZOT) by using Morse code.

Here is his QRZ page:  http://www.qrz.com/db/KB5ZOT
In it he writes:  "He has been an amateur radio enthusiast since Mrs. Redmond introduced he and his brother to the hobby back when they both attended the New Mexico School for the Visually Handicapped."  Good work Mrs. Redmond!

Here is Raul's antenna in Maryland.  Maybe he was thinking of this when he designed the album cover!

    

The Advancement Of The Radio Art and The Enhancement of International Goodwill

U.S. Code of Federal Regulations

 

PART 97—AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE

Subpart A—General Provisions

§97.1   Basis and purpose.

The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:
(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.

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On a recent podcast I mentioned that I like the phrase "the radio art."  I also mentioned that I heard some objections to this term.  A couple of guys wrote in on this --see below. 
I found out that the phrase features prominently in Part 97 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations.  This is the document that establishes ham radio in the U.S.  (see above)
I really like the last line of the first section of Part 97: e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.  Yea!  That's us!  The International Brotherhood of Electronic Wizards! 

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Bill:

Was listening to episode 180 and heard you mention that some people had taken exception to using the label “Art” for radio electronics.  You should refer them to the Webster’s definition of art,

 

art. noun \ˈärt\ : something that is created with imagination and skill and that is beautiful or that expresses important ideas or feelings. 

 

Often the patent office, much older than radio, will invalidate a patent application based on “prior art”.

 

Keep up the great podcast!  As soon as I finish a couple of other projects, I’m going to try to build Pete’s LBS design.  First, I have got to get a mobile rig installed in my new truck, commuting without it is just too boring.

 

72,

Don

WD4ON

 

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Bill:

I was listening to episode #180 on the on the way into my office this morning and wanted to send you a quick note on the phrase "radio arts." Another example of why "art" is indeed the proper term is that the United States Patent Office (USPTO) classifies patents into, you guessed it "Art Units": http://www.uspto.gov/patents-application-process/patent-search/understanding-patent-classifications/patent-classification .

For example, Art Unit 2621, Class 178 - Telegraphy (http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/uspc178/defs178.htm) which is related to Class 455 Telecommunications (http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/classification/uspc455/defs455.htm)

and many many more as you can well imagine.

Going even further, the basis for our patent system is in Article One, Section 8, Clause 8 of the US Constitution:

"To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;"

Which in turn was the basis for the first patent statute, The Patent Act of 1790: http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/claw/patact1790.htm

Keep up the good work in furthering the radio arts!

73,

Tim

KA9EAK

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AK2B's Beautiful Si5351 Receiver -- Just Listen and Watch!

Tom Hall does amazing things with solder and electrons in the heart of New York City.  I give him extra credit for doing this on the island of Manhattan because 1) that's where I'm from and 2) EVERYTHING is more difficult there.

I may have presented this video before.  If I didn't, I should have.  And if I did, well, here it is again (I guess my NYC attitude is showing here).  

Look at the ease with which Tom switches bands.  Fantastic!  But even more important, LISTEN to the quality of the reception.  Listen as Tom tunes in on strong CW and SSB signals.  Do you hear any signs of the dreaded phase noise that is supposed to plague the Si5351 chip?  I do not.  I think this receiver sounds great.

I don't know why the Si5351 got such a bad rep for noise.  Could it be that some people were testing it with boards other than the Adafruit or NT7S products that we have been using?  Could it have been that in the tests the boards weren't completely installed?  (It is important to have the VFO and BFO signal lines properly shielded.)  Could it be that in the tests they were using physically adjacent clock outputs from the board?  (We use CLK0 and CLK2, skipping CLK1 to avoid the "bleedover" problem that was noted by early users.) 

SatNOGS: 3D Printed Az-El Rotators! Ray-Gun PVC Helical Antennas! Arduinos! Dongle Receivers!

Wow, this project is very appealing. Finally, a 3D printer project that seems truly useful.  They are using one of the Dongle receivers we've been playing with, and, of course, Arduinos.  You could really geek-out with this stuff.   Check out the hardware side of this effort here:
https://satnogs.org/documentation/hardware/

Another Free Kindle Book

As a result of Elisa's suggestion, more than 1300 people downloaded the free Kindle version of "SolderSmoke - Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics."   I hope they liked it.  If you did enjoy the book, please spread the word about it  (you can use the e-mail button below to forward this post to friends and relatives), and please put a review on the Amazon Kindle page. 

In the course of following up on Elisa's idea, I discovered that Amazon Kindle has a program that will allow me to make my more recent book available for free (for a limited period).  

So the Kindle version of "Us and Them -- An American Family spends Ten Years WITH FOREIGNERS"  will be available for free from October 3 through October 7.   Please send me feedback,  please let your friends and relatives know about the book (again the e-mail button below is good for that), and please post reviews on the Amazon page. 

You can find the Kindle book here.  It will be free from October 3 through October 7, 2015 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L8DR4RK?*Version*=1&*entries*=0



  

Old Spark (But Thankfully Not Forever)

For the last couple of weeks I have been plagued by noise on the HF bands.  In spite of being in a very built-up area of Northern Virginia,  I usually have low noise levels.  But for the last couple of weeks I've had intermittent but frequent arcing noise.  It sounded like classic power line arcing. 

My 17 meter Moxon antenna provided a clue as to where it was coming from:  As I spun the antenna around, the noise was always a lot stronger to the North-North West.

On Wednesday morning on the way to work I noticed that the fire department and the power utility were working frantically on a pole about a mile from our house.  It had obviously been on fire -- it was still smoking when we went past.

When I got home I was pleasantly surprised to find the arcing noise gone.  It took me a few minutes to make the connection -- yes, the smoking power pole was to my North-North West. 

OBVIOUSLY THE RADIO GODS CAME TO MY ASSISTANCE!

This was a good demonstration of the fine front-to-back characteristic of the Moxon antenna.  And a reminder of what radio signals sounded like in the days of spark. 

The 9CS transmitter (from http://www.ontheshortwaves.com/EarlyAmateur.html)

  

Bryan KV4ZS's "Let's Build Something" Direct Conversion Receiver

Bryan: 

 

I think it sounds great!  There is nothing really wrong with it -- that is what 40 meters sounds like!   Sure there is static.  And those whistles you hear near the top of the band are the carriers from shortwave broadcast stations.  You might have a little hum, but that should disappear once you get it all packaged in a metal box.   Congratulations Bryan!  You have done something that very few hams have done:  You have built a receiver. 73  Bill N2CQR

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Hi Bryan,

 

First let me congratulate you. That is one fine build and you may actually have absolutely nothing wrong!!!!!! I really must applaud your “squares”. They look like they were made on a CNC machine. Bravo!!!

 

You are operating the LBS without an RF amplifier and as such you are trying to make up the gain in the audio amp. I would say that the results you are hearing are very consistent with the DCR without an RF amp. Get the RF amps stage working and then run your test –you will find with the RF amp that at the gain setting you have for the video will be room filling. It actually sounds pretty good. You might also try connecting a 1 NF across the audio trimmer pot as that will cut down on the “hiss’ sound.

 

Concentrate on the RF amp stage and then re-run your test –you will see the difference.

 

Great build – very nice job.

 

73’s

Pete N6QW

 

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Very nice!

 

Sounds pretty good to me in terms of noise – that’s what a direct conversion receiver sounds like (they tend to be very wide in terms of reception – static is normal... Welcome the world without noise reduction and DSP!!).  DCR’s – because they are not run through a narrow IF filter – allow a very broad range of signals to get to the audio stage. So, for example, if you tune that around during a CW contest, you’ll hear a LOT of signals at the same time – versus only one or two at a time, once you have this run through the 4.9152 crystal filter. That’s the nature of the beast.

 

The 1nf across the audio trimmer definitely will help with reducing the hiss, although I must say my Kenwood receivers all have a similar amount of hiss and I prefer my radios with more, not less, noise (it lets me know what the band conditions are like...). I have noticed on my builds, however, that if you have a very, very high pitch WHINE on the other hand, that tends to be a bad solder joint or bad capacitor somewhere – probably on a capacitor – introducing an offset into your RF someplace it shouldn’t. What that looks like on an oscilloscope is the audio signal will have a large DC offset versus ground – almost always a bad solder joint on a capacitor—or a bad/broken capacitor--somewhere in the audio amplifier. That’s the same problem you get when you try to record audio sometimes from an external source (TV, radio, CD player) on your computer – DC voltage offset on the audio line. Kind of like what you might have heard on a stereo if you ever tried to switch to a channel where the input was hanging open.

 

Ben

KK6FUT