KM1NDY
A Secret Little Adventure Ham Radio Blog
So much for playing radio this weekend. In the last half hour my 200mW Zachtek WSPR transmitter, cycling from 80M to 10M every 15 minutes or so, managed to be heard in 2 places… Both in Boston and presumably by ground wave. By comparison, here is a half hour block from a good propagation day: …
Doing a little hammy ham ham research during the solar eclipse at the Ole Farm-O-La…Welcome to the first Technical Bulletin of the KM1NDY – Secret Amateur Radio Journal.
Every now and then I decide it’s time to homebrew a receiver. You may remember my attempt back here. Or even way back here. They never work. So this even more complicated, 3 transistor, 2 diodes, and audio amplifier IC definitely did not work. Again. Well sort of. Technically it is actually a receiver. Just …
Stole the OM’s radio, grabbed the puppy, and went to make a qso or two for the CQWW SSB contest down on the seawall at Castle Island. That is the Elecraft KX2 with the AX1 antenna. I only managed a single contact…but it was to Slovenia. I think it counts. KM1NDY
The mark of an expert is knowing not simply what you know, but knowing what you don’t know. There are things in life I am truly an expert in. Electricity is decidedly not one of those things. For every new tidbit I learn, a door opens to reveal a seemingly infinite number of topics I …
(New follow-up post here!) How hard could it be to construct a little band pass filter, throw a signal through it, and see if it properly attenuates? A breadboard, a small handful of components, an online filter design tool. Fifteen minutes, tops? I was longing for the pleasurable jolt of satisfaction that one only gets …
Sending out a flurry of sinusoidal waves to those important people who share this lovely day with me! Love you guys!
Solidly in the back nine now…
Along my journey on understanding radio, electronics, and in particular, the magic of baluns, ununs, and other transformers, I came across this helpful video on how to analyze a 49:1 unun with a NanoVNA. I replicated it with the the “Alleyway Antenna” transformer. This one below…unfortunately I did not take a lot of pictures of …
Well it wasn’t the CQWW SSB, but it was another girls getaway nonetheless. Though this time, it was without my beloved sweet pup Nellie, who passed away last spring. Georgia, who does her very best to constantly remind me she’s not Nellie, and I gathered up our gear and headed off to the Salisbury Beach …