Heathkit returns!

Heathkit, the fabled electronics kits company, is going back into that business after a two-decade hiatus. - LINK

Last earthquakes worldwide for the last 48 hours

LINK see the Last Earthquakes Worldwide for the last 48 hours.

Antennas in Your Clothes? New Design Could Pave the Way

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110822111742.htm

ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2011) — The next generation of communications systems could be built with a sewing machine. To make communications devices more reliable, Ohio State University researchers are finding ways to incorporate radio antennas directly into clothing, using plastic film and metallic thread.

a Retroencabulator for your Ham Shack

Scientific Enrichment YouTube Video for the week – Swarmanoid Robots

The Swarmanoid swarm consists of three discrete types of robots:  Foot-Bots can grab onto other robots and move horizontally. Hand-Bots have manipulators and a sweet magnetic grappling hook that lets them move vertically. And Eye-Bots can fly, perch on ceilings, and direct the movements of the Hand-Bots and Foot-Bots with their cameras.

We've been watching these swarm-bot modules evolve since 2009, and the following video (which won an award for best video at the 2011 Artificial Intelligence Conference last week) is the first that we've seen showing all of the bots seamlessly and autonomously cooperating to execute a task:

QRP & a NAP - Baby Carriage Portable

This weekend, the sun finally poked out so baby Isabella and I were out for a walk. As babies do, she took a nap (we were at a noisy ball field, so a long walk around the back end of park was a lot quieter for both of us.) Also on the back of the All Terrain Baby Carriage was my FT-817 and a MFJ-1899T with a counterpoise.

The MFJ-1899T, is is a fascinating mini-antenna for on-the-spot HF'ing. It is made by Waters and Stanton of the UK and imported to the US by MFJ Enterprises, I got mine at HRO.

This multiband rig is similar to a miniature Outbacker, with band taps along its lower helical winding section, a jumper lead for selecting bands (wander wand), and a top mounted pull-up whip. The base is fitted with a BNC connector to mate with the FT-817’s front socket.

The MFJ-1899T “Walkabout” antenna covers 80 through 2 meters in a single “break apart and carry anywhere” package. Fully extended, it measures 63 inches in height. Retracted and separated, the helical base section is 12 inches long and the pull-up whip is 7 inches long. Adding a BNC-to-PL-259 plus a right angle PL-259 adapter and connecting it to the stronger SO-239 socket of the FT-817 relieves strain. That same idea also works for adapting the MFJ “Walkabout” to other transceivers (FT-857). But dial it down the output below the antenna’s limit of 25 watts.

It is the counterpoise, that is the key to making this little antenna perform. -- The instruction sheet suggests it need not be 1/4 wave long. In fact, the info sheet suggests using the formula 180/F(in MHz) = Length (in feet) of the counterpoise. I use a 16ft section for 40m & 20m and seems to work well enough, I used stainless steel cable covered in Teflon available at HOME DEPOT.

Isabella, slept for a little over an hour and half. When she awoke, we walked back to where the rest of the family was enjoying the ball games. She was rested and I was very happy to have worked a few stations on 20m QRP.


NOTE: I also listened for k4ESA on 10m, but did not hear anybody local, just lots and lots of South American stations calling, 10m is working well in the afternoon.

New Amateur Radio Digital Mode - ROS

ROS is a brand-new Amateur Radio digital spread spectrum mode with the first HF contact taking place this week. -- The first contact with ROS took place on February 18, 2010, at 20:56 UTC from Vitoria in Spain to the University of Twente in the Netherlands covering a distance of 1265 Km on 7.065 MHz.

Although it's only 4 days since the first HF contact with the new Amateur Radio data mode ROS, it's proving popular with plenty of activity on 14.101 MHz.

ROS is a digital spread spectrum mode but with a narrow total occupied bandwidth of about 2.2 kHz (similar to SSB Voice). The software has two Symbol Rates: 16 and 1 baud (the latter aimed at weak signals down to incredible -35 dbs of S/N) and can automatically synchronize any Symbol Rate.

Initial reports in Europe (See Caution Below for US based HAMs) talk of it being able to copy signals so weak that they don't show up on the Waterfall and there are early indications that it is several dB better than Olivia. However, HF with its Fading, Doppler, Multi-Path and Interference is a hazardous environment for digital signals and only time will tell how well it performs against the other modes.

 ... see my previous report on very robust signals -- http://ki4sgu.blogspot.com/2009/11/signal-to-noise-ratio-rainbows-in-dark.html -- (as you recall, WSPR will currently do -29db)


The HF frequencies currently used for ROS are USB 3.600, 7.053, 14.101, 28.300 MHz

To use ROS you just need your HF radio, a PC and a basic PC sound card interface, similar to PSK31 or WSPR.

The software for ROS is free and you can download it along with the User Guide and Introduction to ROS Spread Spectrum at http://rosmodem.wordpress.com/

A Word of Caution -- Here in the United States there the FCC specifies which modes Amateurs can use and where on the bands. Some USA Amateurs are concerned that FCC regulations appears to prohibit the use of Spread Spectrum below 420 MHz and ROS is a Spread Spectrum mode. It is a very narrow Spread Spectrum same as voice, but the devil is in the details. -- To be fair to the FCC they did try back in 1977 to change from a mode based band plan to one based on bandwidth. At the time the ARRL opposed the change and was successful in defeating it, as a result the development of digital modes was crippled for decades to follow.  In recent years the ARRL has been trying to get the FCC to re-introduce band planning by bandwidth and hopefully they will be successful.

So for now, this ham is in ROS/SWL only.

Re: Some of this information came to me via the south gate club.