KM1NDY
A Secret Little Adventure Ham Radio Blog
As my ham radio journey takes me on a more formal study of electricity, my home laboratory grows. I remember purchasing the Tektronix 2465 a few years back on a suggestion of a friend, not having a clue what I was doing with it. I just knew that real electronics enthusiasts had an oscilloscope. Now …
From Top to Bottom: Not shown are my RigExpert VNAs, the NanoVNA, the Koolertron 60MHz function generator, the Tacklife 30V 5A variable DC power supply, and handheld digital multi- and LCR meters. On the bench is the Weller WE1010NA soldering station. Oh yeah, and my Elegoo 3D printer. I think its turning into a proper …
It was not all that long ago that I tried unsuccessfully once again to make an AM radio receiver from discreet components and an LM386 low voltage power amplifier. Well, apparently the fifth time is a charm…because THIS ONE WORKS!!! As you can see in the video and pics below, there are only really a …
This was a little rabbit hole. On some amateur radio forum somewhere someone mentioned the MFJ-802B RF Field Strength Meter. This piqued my interest because I had not realized that a field strength meter was a consumer accessible device. Turns out there are all sorts of RF meters and detectors available to purchase. Who knew? …
Scroll to the bottom if you are only interested in the FD checklist! Is Field Day worth it? This year, more than any other, it seems this question was popping up on ham radio forums across the internet. Other versions seem to be what is the relevance of FD in the day and age of …
For last year’s Field Day, I took a stab at networking a couple of computers together with an ethernet cable so that our N1MM+ logging software could be synced up. It was both surprisingly easy to do, but equally daunting due to the curious lack of reasonably digestible tutorials tackling the topic on the interwebs. …
With ARRL Field Day around the corner, it is the time of year where amateur radio operators far and wide wonder if they are going to be stuck having their QSOs wiped out every time their neighbor keys up the microphone. Interference between stations in a multi-transmitter field day operation can be the norm if …
And boy-oh-boy did we make a lot of noise! Running three generators, a cement mixer, and a tractor equipped with a scary-looking auger, we managed to dig…a hole! Congrats AA1F, on not only digging three feet into the ground, but on fixing your auger after it snapped a shear bolt when it wedged itself under …
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: …