Here’s a drone tour of Don VE6JY’s megastation located just a little northeast of Edmonton, Alberta in Canada. Drool while watching the video below in full screen and High Definition – it’s worth it!
Henry VK2ZHE adds:
The VE6JY antenna farm is quite something! Note the JLG 126 foot working height lift platform for working on the antennas. It doesn’t quite reach the top of the 150 foot towers though! Pretty nifty drone flying to shoot the video.
Thank you to VK2ZTM and VK2EJH for the link.
Here’s 2 exciting pieces of hardware worth watching for the project minded amongst us (and that would be all of us Amateurs, right?) – both are open source and both promise to let us do amazing things for a very little cost.
The HamShield project was launched on Kickstarter on June 30th 2015 and raised $117,000 of their $25,000 goal! From their Kickstarter webpage, here’s a brief overview of what their hardware will do:
HamShield lets your Arduino talk to far away people and things using powerful amateur radio bands! Best of all, the hardware and software is open source!
With the power of Arduino, you can use the HamShield to build and invent amazing things in minutes! Here are some examples, right out of our sketch toolbox:
The HamShield supports a wide range of VHF and UHF frequencies, covering 3 amateur bands. This includes the 1.25 meter or “220” band (220 MHz to 225 MHz), which is notoriously hard to find equipment for! It also can transmit on MARS bands.
The HamShield supports both voice and packet radio modes. You could even invent your own digital modes with enough skill. It is compact, lightweight, and works great with any Arduino or Arduino compatible that supports Uno-style shields.
With the HamShield, you no longer need a dedicated radio or piece of equipment for each type of operating mode. There is also no need for complicated radio interface cables. The radio is now under your complete control!
Practically no experience is needed to use the HamShield. Unlike other complicated, software defined radio boards, the transceiver core is a proven, commercial grade radio transceiver. There are a growing number of ready-to-use Arduino sketches we are actively developing. They are all ready to be uploaded to your Arduino!
Read more about the device here, including its full specs and more videos on how to use the device.
Jonathan Naylor G4KLX needs no introduction to many people thanks to his fantastic and ever popular software packages for running Analog and Digital repeater systems and hotspots.
Jonathan’s latest project began in December 2015 and aims to create an open source modem that will (initially) support D-STAR, System Fusion, DMR and P25 via the Arduino Due.
Whilst the project doesn’t include an integrated transceiver like the HamShield, the fact that it will (presumably) be natively supported by Jonathan’s software makes this project very enticing to the repeater and hotspot communities who would currently be using single mode devices such as the DV-RPTR.
At the time of writing Jonathan is working on getting the various supported modes functioning with the hardware. Technical information on the modem and project progress is available on the MMDVM blog here, and Jonathan tweets updates regularly here.
It’s an exciting time to be an Amateur!
Following on from the previous story of the World’s first Radar site being preserved, here’s an interesting 2014 BBC telemovie featuring Eddie Izzard as Robert Watson Watt, the father of Radar:
Synopsis:
It is the mid-1930s and the storm clouds of WWII are forming in Germany. This film charts the work of Robert Watson Watt, the pioneer of Radar, and his hand-picked team of eccentric yet brilliant meteorologists as they struggle to turn the concept of Radar into a workable reality. Hamstrung by a tiny budget, seemingly insurmountable technical problems and even a spy in the camp, Watson Watt also has to deal with marital problems as he chases his dream. By 1939, Watson Watt and his team have developed the world’s first Radar system along the south east coast of England – a system that, in 1940, will prove pivotal in winning the Battle of Britain.
Trailer:
The BBC Two programme webpage is here.
6.8 / 10 – IMDb
2.5 / 5 – The UK Telegraph
67% – Rotten Tomatoes
Add 20% onto those scores if you have an interest in radio/radar and another 20% if you have an interest in the Battle of Britain. 🙂
Paul VK2ICQ writes:
Not 100% radio related, but following on from a post about intruders on our bands here’s an interesting Cold War historical documentary that features the amazing DUGA Over the Horizon Radar System that terrorised the shortwave bands with its 10MW+ sharp, repetitive tapping noise at 10 Hz – hence the “Russian Woodpecker” name.
Synopsis: Fedor Alexandrovich is a radioactive man. He was four years old in 1986, when he was exposed to the toxic effects of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and forced to leave his home. Now 33, he is an artist in Ukraine, with radioactive strontium in his bones and a singular obsession with Chernobyl, and with the giant, mysterious steel pyramid now rotting away 2 miles from the disaster site: a hulking Cold War weapon known as the Duga and nicknamed the “Russian Woodpecker” for the constant clicking radio frequencies that it emits. Alexandrovich returns to the ghost towns in the radioactive Exclusion Zone to try to find answers – and to decide whether to risk his life by revealing them, amid growing clouds of Ukraine’s emerging revolution and war.
Trailer:
Links to watch it (paid) at the film’s website. 95% at Rotten Tomatoes. 74% at MetaCritic.
The below article appears in December 2015’s CQ Amateur Radio Magazine. The text is reproduced on our website with the permission of the author, Cory Sickles WA3UVV, to whom we extend our thanks.
Stuart VK2FSTU adds:
I’ve heard many a time people demonising contesting, but I shared this article for one reason, I cannot ask that people who hate contesting like it, but read this and take in what contesting has done for Amateur Radio, it benefits us all.
On any given weekend, it seems you’ll find one, two, three, or more contests going on several HF bands. Add to that the probability of some DXpedition that’s creating a “dog-pile” of stations trying to work them and get a card – but not just one – one for each mode on each band (collect ’em all!) in a competition to show who has the most RF they can direct at their target.
For the contester or DXer, this is pure heaven. It’s the raison d’etre of ham radio. For the non-con- tester, this can seem overwhelming and nothing more than a cacophony of noise and sometimes abhorrent behaviour. Even the CW sub bands – normally a relaxing domain of rhythmic tones – become a quasi-randomised dysfunction of slightly off-frequency signals that defy decryption. Factor in a RTTY contest – with the tendency of some to encroach deeply into the land of CW and QRP – and you have the makings of a discouraging concoction of activity.
Admittedly, I fall into the category of the non-contester. I own nothing that can produce more than 120 Watts PEP on HF. I typically use wire antennas and only have one Yagi. Further, I enjoy QRP and most of my QSOs fall into that category. It is rare that I operate CW with more than 20 watts. “Big Gun?” Ha! I don’t even think I’d qualify as a “little pistol.” Does contesting have a “toy slingshot” category?
When 20 meters is full of contesting activities, I typically retreat to the comfort of 30 or 17 meters – depending on propagation and my mood – where I can find a more desirable signal-to-noise ratio. Once there, I can usually find some like-minded souls with whom to have a longer and more interesting conversation than the typical “drive by” of call sign and signal report exchanges.
My primary interests in amateur radio are building, experimenting, and meeting new people – combined with a “less is more” philosophy. This seems to be a far cry from the more popular big tower, max power, on all hours – focus of hard core contesters and DXers.
Sure, I’m painting with the proverbial “broad brush” here, but I’ve seen enough in 40+ years as a ham to know something of which I speak. Further, these are the complaints of many non-contesters. But as much as I dislike the effect of contesting on my activities, I don’t hate contesters. Rather, I respect and even appreciate them.
If that sounds somewhat schizophrenic, allow me to explain. While some of us may not enjoy what contesting does to our bands, we all benefit from what contesters have done for ham radio.
Many of the improvements that benefit us all – be it highly accurate digital VFOs, increased transmitter efficiencies, lower noise receivers with even more sensitive front ends and greatly enhanced filtering – were driven by contesters. Improved speech processing, software defined radios, memory keyers, solid-state finals, and amplifiers were all embraced first by contesters. Their competitive nature made them early adopters of microcomputers in the shack as they continue to push the envelope of technology. Whatever new thing, idea, or technique they can use to gain an edge over others, they welcome and customise to make their own.
Contesters also drive the economics of amateur radio. Casual rag chewers are not the ones purchasing TS-990S, FTDX5000 and IC-7850 transceivers. Sometimes the technological merits of top end rigs take a back seat to manufacturing theology, but the money is being invested (not merely spent) into equipment, support items, and more. I’m not going to go out and erect a tower for a few dipoles, but some contesters will do just that building an array of beams or directional rhombics, as their needs and budgets permit.
Long ago, I observed that there are “casual users” and “power users” when it comes to computers. Casual users say, “I have a computer and use it for word processing, spreadsheets, and to surf the web.” Power users say something like “I have a system with a video wall, an octal-processor array over-clocked to 11.7 GHz with 12 GB of dual-ported cache, 256 GB of RAM and a 500TB Raid 5 disk array. I’m a Microsoft beta tester and use Word and Excel. My Internet connection supports redundant, real-time Über-pipeline connectivity.” Power users invest their dollars to obtain the latest tech and make the best use of it.
Hard core DXers and contesters are the power users of amateur radio. They don’t simply tell you they have a rig and antenna, they can run down the list by heart – a list that probably includes brands and terms you’ve never heard of. Just nod your head and smile. Much of what they have today will be available in a more-affordable version in just a few years. By then, they will have moved onto other cutting-edge things.
So, when you hear the sound of a contest or see someone buying another amplifier to outfit the fourth position in their contest station, just smile and know the state of ham radio is well – moving forward and being funded nicely.