More Sweet Tweets

July 5, 2009 by Leave a Comment

Here are some more links to interesting Web pages I found by Twittering:

  • N3OX’s Remote Tuner Control. N3OX has added some servo motors and controls to a manual antenna tuner so that he can move it closer to the antenna, but still control it from inside the shack. Very inexpensive solution.
  • Band Plans for 900 MHz and Above. KB9MWR feels that the future of ham radio is above 900 MHz. I don’t know that I totally agree, but I do think we need to start thinking more about those bands. Give this a read.
  • Morse Code vs. Text Messaging. Chas Sprague, who’s not a ham, ruminates on how Morse Code could make text messaging more efficient. I wholeheartedly agree! Someone get this man his ham ticket.
  • Ham Logging as a Service. There’s been a lot of twittering about this KE9V blog post. I like the idea myself, and if I had more time, I might even take a crack at it. Anyone want to collaborate?
  • Planning a Digital ATV Station. After pondering a digital ATV station for the museum, I opted to go analog. If I’d seen this article first, I might have opted to stick it out and go digital.
Filed Under: antennas, Computers, CW, Digital Modes, Software, VHF/FM/Repeaters Tagged With: , , ,

Free EM Simulator Available As Download

June 4, 2009 by Leave a Comment

From Microwaves&RF:

By Jack Browne

Sonnet Lite Release 12 from Sonnet Software is now available for free download. The no-charge three-dimensional (3D) planar electromagnetic (EM) simulator is an excellent training and learning tool for those new to the analysis capabilities of EM simulation software. It is a fully functional software program based on the company’s full-featured Sonnet Professional Suite of EM analysis and simulation software tools. Sonnet Lite can be used as a stand-alone program or within the Advanced Design System (ADS) environment from Agilent Technologies or the Microwave Office environment from Applied Wave Research (AWR).

According to Shawn Carpenter, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing and Sales for Sonnet, “We’re proud to provide a leading-edge ‘virtual prototyping’ tool for the student and experimenter in high-frequency planar circuits, packages, and antennas. Sonnet maintains our commitment to students and learners through free access to top-notch high-frequency electromagnetic software.” The planar EM software is ideal for performing transmission-line or discontinuity analysis and is available for free download from the Sonnet Software web site.

Unfortunately, it won’t run on my Mac.

Filed Under: Electronics Theory, Software Tagged With:

Hot Amateur Programs…..To Go!

May 26, 2009 by 2 Comments

WD6CNF has a number of cool-looking programs on his website – hotamateurprograms.com. Most of them are Vista-compatible, and they are all available for free, including:

  • CW Decoder
  • Audio Spectrum Analyzer
  • Audio Generator/Audio Spectrum Analyze
  • Digital Voice Keyer
  • Simple Windows Packet Controller
  • DSP Audio Filter
  • Instrument Tuner
  • Dual Channel Oscilloscope
  • Dual Function Generator

I plan to download and try out the CW decoder at the museum. It would be nice to have a program that will display what’s being sent and received while I am working CW there.

If any of you do download and try out some of these programs, please comment below.

Filed Under: Software Tagged With:

Dog Park Offers Free Software

March 18, 2009 by 1 Comment

Dog Park Software is now offering two packages free of charge:

The catch is that they’re unsupported.

MacMemoriesManager doesn’t support my IC-746PRO, so I haven’t tried it. I haven’t downloaded the iSpectrum Audio Analyzer yet, either, but it looks like it could be a nice addition to my shack if it will work on my G4 MacBook.

Filed Under: Software

ShackBox

February 12, 2009 by 3 Comments

ShackBox is an all-in-one CD for amateur radio operators. Shackbox claims to include programs that will allow you to:

  • control rigs and scanners,
  • design antennas,
  • design PCBs,
  • etc., etc. etc.

The feature that attracted my attention is that it will run on Macs. Unfortunately, it only runs on the newer Intel Macs, and I only have an old G4 in the shack.

Filed Under: Software

New Year’s Resolutions

January 3, 2009 by 1 Comment

I know it’s pretty dopey to do New Year’s resolutions, but I’m going to do it anyway. Maybe if I list them, I’ll actually get some of them done this year.

  • Build more. High on my list of things to build is “A Simple Regen for Beginners.” I even have the PC board already. I’d also like to try some of the receivers described by George, G3RJV, at the two Four Days in May that I’ve attended.
  • Put up that 80m loop antenna. I’ve been saying that I”m going to do this for a couple of years now.
  • Get on 900 MHz. I’m throwing in an easy one. I’ve already sent off the check to get a 900 MHz radio so that I can get on the repeater here in Ann Arbor. Over and above just getting on, though, I want to explore some digital communications possibilities.
  • Work on some Mac software projects. It shouldn’t be too hard to come up with some simple ham radio software that will run on the Mac.
Filed Under: antennas, Building/Homebrew, Software, VHF/FM/Repeaters

Mac Logging Programs

July 23, 2008 by Leave a Comment

Last October, I purchased a used, iBook G4 Mac laptop and promptly started looking for logging programs. I found one that was kind of expensive (MacLoggerDX); one that was free, but didn’t want to work so well (RUMLog); and one that worked OK and cost somewhere in between the first two (Aether).

I ended up purchasing Aether, but was never very happy with it. For one thing, it took forever to do any kind of sort or look up previous QSOs. Another pain was that it carried over none of the information from the previous contact, so you had to enter all of the information from scratch, even if you didn’t change frequencies or bands. It also had an odd way of doing notes about a contact, and I was disappointed to find out that it didn’t import the notes from the ADIF file I created from the N3FJP logging program I used previously. Since I had paid for it, though, I was reluctant to just dump it.

Well, a couple of weeks ago, I’d had enough and decided to start searching again. Since RUMLog was still free, I decided to give the new version (v 3.0, March 15, 2008) a go. I’m happy to report that this version likes my computer a lot better, and I like using it a lot!

One of the coolest things is that it did import the notes from my N3FJP ADIF file properly. So, now, when I type in a callsign, the program searches the database, finds all the previous contacts I’ve had with that station, and then displays them in spreadsheet style WITH the notes. If I’ve taken notes about a previous conversation, I can pick up right where I left off. Very cool.

It also has a very nice way of showing you what countries you’ve worked, on what bands you’ve worked them, and whether or not you’ve QSLed that country or not. Not only that, it shows what type of QSL you have, either a paper QSL or a Logbook of the World (LOTW) QSL. To get it to show LOTW QSLs, you have to somehow feed it information that you download from LOTW. I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

According to RUMLog, I have 142 countries worked, but only 69 confirmed. After getting this report, I pawed through my QSL file and found cards from 18 countries that weren’t QSLed via LOTW, so I’m still 13 short for DXCC.  I guess I’m going to have to generate some more paper to get that certificate.

Filed Under: DX, Software

Free Spectrogram Program, Web-Based Radio

April 20, 2008 by 2 Comments

Here are a couple of items from mailing lists I am on.

Free Spectrogram Program
Ken, K3IU writes to the Elecraft mailing list:

For those interested, Spectrogram is again available as Freeware. Richard’s website, says:

Version 16 is being made available as freeware to replace the older freeware versions of the software relied upon by the majority of Spectrogram users. The download at left is a self-extracting setup program that will install Spectrogram on a single computer.

Web-Based Radio in Europe
Steve, G4GXL writes to the qrp-l.org mailing list:

This really deserves a bit of publicity !

A web-based SDR (software defined receiver) located in The Netherlands but controlled simultaneously by multiple listeners worldwide is now available. Listen in realtime to parts of the 40 and 80m bands as heard in Europe.

Definitely the coolest thing I’ve seen on the web for some time !

Go listen at – http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

Filed Under: Building/Homebrew, Software

Mac Programming – Do I Really Want to Do This?

March 2, 2008 by 5 Comments

Since there’s such a dearth of amateur radio programs for the Mac, I’ve been thinking of doing some of my own. So, I started searching the web for some online resources. I’ve come up with the following:

One thing is clear to me. I’m going to have to either upgrade this Mac to OSX 10.5 or buy one of the new Macs. I’m leaning towards buying a new one. :)

I asked on the Ham-Mac mailing list, and they suggested the following resources:

Filed Under: Software

Send QSLs More Easily, Define Your Own Contest Log

April 4, 2007 by 3 Comments

Here are two items from Jim K8ELR:

  • Global QSL. Global QSL claims to print and send, presumably via QSL bureaus, 100 color QSL cards for $9.90. The unique thing about this service is that it’s a print-on-demand kind of thing. You upload an ADIF file

    • with the QSOs that you want to confirm, and Global QSL takes care of the rest. Pretty cool if it really works.

  • All in One Logger. This is yet another Windows logger. What I like about this program, though, is that you can define your own contests. As much as I like using the N3FJP software, having to download a new program every time I want to work a contest is a drag.
Filed Under: QSLs, Software
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»