@Raspberry_Pi launches their new #PicoBoard featuring their own #silicon. What that means and more >>> dky.bz/3c1KC2P
NEW EEVblog Video! EEVblog #1367 – 5 Types of Oscilloscope Passive Probes COMPARED youtu.be/rzo4Ntxqu1E
Replying to @K5PO @_M0JJF and 4 others
Have you guys seen GM3SEK noise video, well worth a watch youtu.be/LSL1h6MJbaI
MagPi features amateur radio projectsApparently, the editors of MagPi have gotten a lot of requests to cover ham radio applications in the magazine. The article “Using Ham Radio with Raspberry Pi” shows you how to get started and links to eight projects including WSPR, APRS, and a digital radio hotspot.
This was in the news last October, but a transcript of Ms. Ohr’s testimony was released just this week. Apparently, she just wanted to join the local CERT team:
Asked why a woman in her 50’s would get a ham radio license, Ohr said the reason for her interest in amateur radio was spurred by a desire to support local volunteer emergency communications.
“I took a citizens emergency – community emergency response team training,” Ohr said in a closed door interview conducted in October of 2018, saying it had been sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security ‘and the local fire department.’
“And so I took the Ham radio class,” Ohr testified. “I passed the test,” as she is licensed as KM4UDZ.
For my recent Arduino class, I bought a couple of inexpensive, Chinese-made, Arduino starter kits off Amazon. They included an Arduino Uno clone, a breadboard board, some components, and some jumper wires.
Overall, they were a pretty good deal for less than $18. Unfortunately, the breadboard was kind of poor quality. One of the students had a real time getting one of the experiements to work, and after quite a bit of troubleshooting, we determined that the jumper wires were just not making good contact with the breadboard.
After the class, I wrote up a review on Amazon:
” Lacks sensors, breadboard quality poorI just bought a couple of these for a class I was teaching. These were very inexpensive, but I was kind disappointed. First of all, the quality of the breadboard seeemed to be very poor. One of the students had problems getting his experiments to work because the components and wires didn’t make good connections. Also, I would have liked to have a temperature sensor and maybe a motor, so we could have done those experiments in class. I’ll be buying a more complete kit next time and maybe trying a different vendor as well.”.
Yesterday, I got the following email from the vendor:
Thank you for taking time to leave your review and letting us know the problem. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this situation has caused you to this point. We’ve already designed a new breadboard which is much better then before. Would you like to have a try?
Please don’t feel unhappy, we will try our best to help you solve all of your problems.Looking forward to your kind reply. Please give us a chance to make things right for you.Panda
Elegoo Support Team
I am going to give them a chance to make it right. I’ve replied, asking them to send one of their new breadboards. I’ll try it out and let you know.
I got this by way of EE Journal:
Impedance mismatches in a radio-frequency (RF) electrical transmission line cause power loss and reflected energy. Voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) is a way to measure transmission line imperfections. This tutorial defines VSWR and explains how it is calculated. Finally, an antenna VSWR monitoring system is shown.
Here’s a collection of random links that I’ve come across recently that should be of interest to amateur radio operators.
Beginning C for Arduino, Second Edition. Jack Purdum, W8TEE, the author of this book, is a retired university professor and the one of the drivers behind a number of Arduino-controlled ham radio projects, including the K2ZIA antenna analyzer that was the subject of an article in the November 2017 QST. I haven’t read this book, but I have heard W8TEE speak at Dayton, and if the book is anything like his talk, this would be a book worth buying.
Evolution of the Data Sheet: The Path to PDF. Back in the day, electronics engineers used to have shelves of integrated circuit data books. When you needed some information about a part, you had to find the right data book, and if you didn’t have the right one, you had to go bug colleagues to see if they had it. Nowadays, electronics engineers have it easy. We just Google a part number and find the data sheet online.
One of the links in this article is to another article titled, “How to Read Data Sheets: Introduction.” This article is also worth a read. It breaks down a typical data sheet and explains how to find the part information you need.
Network Radios – a route into Amateur Radio? This blog post, by CT1EIZ, opines that network radio systems, or VOIP networks, such as HamSphere or Zello (a new one for me), are a way to get more people into amateur radio. I have my doubts that it’s going to attract a lot of new hams, but maybe.
@EDNcom
Home reflow sees the light buff.ly/2uiMufv A great way to assemble SMT PCBs.
Jeena Lee @theJeenaLee
Found one of the coolest vending machines in psu!!
Here’s a selection of articles from electronic design magazine that I think will be of interest to ham radio operators:
How to get big sounds from small speakers. In recent years, a new generation of “smart amplifiers,” incorporating new driver topologies and digital-signal-processing (DSP) technology allow designers to make big improvements in both the quality and volume of sound from speakers, particularly from the very small and cheap units used in many portable devices. Perhaps hams could do something with this technology to improve the audio in our radios….Dan
PIC a way to online development.Microchip’s MPLAB Xpress brings cloud-based PIC microcontroller development tools to developers.
The future of AM radio. Lou Frenzel writes, “AM is worth saving; it is a valuable local community resource. AM radio serves a public safety purpose for emergency conditions. It provides valuable services to ethnic and religious populations, as well as high school sports coverage. And still does a great job of news, weather, and traffic coverage. Talk shows are also popular. In short, analog still lives.” What do you think?
Top 10 Single-Board Computers. When you’re in need of a single board computer, a vast selection is available, making it tough to pick an ecosystem. We’ll cover the top ten most current single board computers to help you choose the right platform for your next project.
Oscilloscope Measurement Webcasts from Keysight. There are links to a ton of webinars here, including Tips and Techniques for Making the Best Oscilloscope Measurements and
Best of 2015: Create Custom Capes Fast and Easy. Geppetto is a web-based designer and build-to-order system. It supports third-party platforms like the popular BeagleBone, as well as standalone microcontrollers.
