In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Topics we discuss in this episode include:
batteries
ICQ Podcast Episode 361 – High Power Battery Box
For Episode #361, I joined Martin Butler (M1MRB), Edmund Spicer M0MNG, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Ruth Willet KM4LAO to discuss the following:
Radio France International Splatter “Untenable”. You wouldn’t think that a major broadcaster would be guilty of putting out a bad signal, but apparently Radio France International is living up to its acronym (RFI) and splattering into the ham band.
Amazon Experimenting with Amateur Radio?. In this segment, we talk about a recent experiment by Amazon engineers, using Amazon hardware and software over an AREDN network, who simulated an emergency communications scenario.
UK Foundation Exam Practical Assessments. One big difference between the U.S. Tech license and the U.K. Foundation license is that up to now, the U.K. required license to do something practical like build a kit or tune an antenna. They issued a waiver for licenses issued during the Covid crisis, but apparently, they’re now eliminating the requirement altogether. It’s kind of a shame, but understandable.
Amateur Radio Volunteers Assist in Major US Cycling Event. This public service event is notable because it takes place over a 203-mile course, starting in Logan, Utah and ending in Jackson Hole, Wyoming,
Exercise Blue Ham. This exercise is the U.K. version of our Armed Forces Day Communications Test. Exercise Blue Ham, however, takes place only on the 60-meter band, which, of course, is shared by the Amateur Radio Service and the military.
The feature for this episode is High Power Battery Box. Martin, M1MRB describes how he built a high-power battery box his portable operations. This new box allows him to operate 100 W when operating portable.
DIY: cell phone battery replacement, $6 desk mic, 3D-printed weather stations
DIY cell phone battery replacement
Last Saturday, when I got home and took my cell phone—a moto g6—out of my briefcase, I noticed that the back glass had come loose. It had been in a hot car, and I thought that the heat had loosened the adhesive holding the back glass onto the phone. A closer inspection, though, showed that the battery had swollen, and that’s what was forcing the back glass off.
I called a couple of places to see if they could replace the battery, but neither had the battery in stock, and one wanted $50 for the repair, while the other wanted $100! Neither of those options appealed to me, so I searched for “moto g6 battery replacement.” One the things that popped up was this video:
It took me a little over a half hour to remove 17 small screws, pry out the battery (this was the hardest part of the whole operation), and screw it all back together again. I didn’t even have to apply any new adhesive to the back glass. There was enough remaining to hold everything together.
$6 desk mic
I found this article in today’s email from Nuts and Volts. Using a $1 LED desk lamp from Dollar Tree (shown at right) for the base, the author shows how he was able to keep the cost to under six dollars.
He notes, “No one will ever mistake my $6 desk mic for a $5,000 Neumann microphone or even a $500 Heil. However, I believe it complements the MicroBITX transceiver case I crafted from printed circuit board material, and it gets ‘good’ on-the-air reports.”
3D-Printed Weather Stations Could Enable More Science for Less Money
Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory tested an inexpensive three-dimensionally (3D)-printed weather station, comparing its accuracy to a commercial-grade counterpart over eight months. University of Oklahoma scientists printed more than 100 station components from durable plastic, using guidance and open source plans from the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s 3D-Printed Automatic Weather Station Initiative. These parts were combined with low-cost sensors. Despite signs of equipment degradation and failure about five months into the experiment, the 3D-printed station’s temperature, pressure, rain, ultraviolet, and relative humidity measurements were comparable with those from a commercial station in the Oklahoma Mesonet network. Said Argonne’s Adam Theisen, “I didn’t expect that this station would perform nearly as well as it did. Even though components started to degrade, the results show that these kinds of weather stations could be viable for shorter campaigns.”
Trade magazine articles: Measuring cell capacity, assess coax shielding quality, how bi-metallic strips work
Here are a few more articles from the electronics trade magazines that I thought you would find interesting….Dan
Measuring Cell Capacity
Quickly assess relative coax-cable-shielding quality
One of the maxims of amateur radio is that you should use quality coax, and one of the ways to tell if you quality coax is that it provides good quality shielding. The problem is how to determine shielding quality. Well, this article outlines a test method for doing just that. It may be more than what most amateur radio operators can do, but it’s interesting information for those that are interested.
How do bi-metallic strips work?
Joining two strips of dissimilar metals mechanically joined either by rivets or by being fused together along their length forms a structure that responds to changes of temperature by bending in a preferred direction. This article explores this phenomenon in a little more depth, so that if you’re using a bi-metallic strip in one of your designs, you understand what’s going on.
Amateur radio videos: New ham tours the ARRL, how to increase alkaline battery capacity
A new ham tours the ARRL
Tony, KD8RTT, tours ARRL HQ and gets to operate W1AW.
EEVblog #865 – How To Increase Alkaline Battery Capacity
Another amusing video from Davey Jones, proprietor of the EEVBlog
Operating Notes: log notes, dumb DXers, HT charging
The other day I worked Bruce, WB8FMA. When I typed his callsign into the N3FJP logging program, the program reported that I had worked Bruce on December 30, 2007, nearly seven years ago. I mentioned this to Bruce, and he looked me up in his paper log.
Apparently, Bruce keeps detailed notes, because not only did he find the contact, he asked me about several things that we talked about that day, including a funeral that I had attended the day before.
That was rather sad, because the funeral was for a fellow ham, who, was one of my Elmerees. I told Bruce that I indeed remembered attending that funeral because the fellow who died was a ham and was one of my Elmerees. He died from injuries sustained from falling down the stairs leading to his basement while taking down a basket of laundry. I think about him nearly every time I take a basket of laundry downstairs myself.
The point here is that I appreciated that Bruce took good notes on our QSO of nearly seven years ago. While I try to take notes, I don’t do nearly as good a job as Bruce did, but maybe I should. The notes would help me remember the contacts and the people I have had contacts with. Not only that, it might help a fellow ham remember something poignant as well.
Dumb DXers
A couple of nights ago, there was a big pileup on 30m. After tuning around a bit, I found that the guy being piled on was 4O7CC, a station in Montenegro. Now, Montenegro is a fine country, but it’s not that rare, so I was wondering why the big pileup. I Tweeted this, and a minute later, a couple of guys responded that the pileup was the result of someone mis-spotting 4O7CC as FT4TA, the DXpedition to Tromelin Island. Apparently, lots of hams jumped into the pileup without actually copying FT4TA. How dumb is that?
HT charging
Talking about dumb, I just did something dumb myself. Yesterday, as I headed for WA2HOM, our amateur radio station at the Hands-On Museum, I grabbed my Baofeng HT. When I tried to turn it on, I found that it was already on. I had forgotten to turn it off the day before, and now the batteries were dead.
No problem, I thought, I’ll just grab the Wouxoun HT. Well, I hadn’t used that for at least two weeks, and when I went to turn that on, I discovered that the batteries were dead in it, too.
Now, it’s not a big deal that I had to go to the museum without an HT, but what if there had been some kind of emergency? The point here is that it’s probably a good idea to keep the handhelds charged, whether you use them or not. If you don’t, when you really do want to use them, you’ll find that the batteries are dead.