First Opera reception

Well, thanks to my buddy Eldon WA0UWH, I have been drug kicking and screaming into the world of Opera QRSS and the Propeller processor.

Stealing judiciously from the work of others, I have put together a beacon using the propeller processor and have Opera v1.1.0 beta up and running.  This morning I heard myself first (imagine that...) and then N7VVX down in Utah.  So, it seems another diversion is born...  Thanks Eldon...  :|

Before I can really put the propeller on the air, I will need to build a low pass filter for it as the output is a square wave.  The reception of my own call (KO7M) is without any antenna on the propeller board.  My idea for my low pass filter board is to have a set of switchable (via software) low pass filters on a single board that should be useful for this and my Arduino WSPR beacon.

Az-El mount

Found an interesting Az-El / Pan-Tilt mount today at http://www.flir.com/mcs/products/ptu-d300/rf/Documentation/index.cfm.  Quite the nice little unit.  I suspect they are quite proud ($$$) of it but have not been able to find any pricing information online.

LCD Performance and UI decisions in the beacon project

The beacon project is back on the front burner.  Frankly, one of the reasons that it has been stalled so long is because of the lousy UI performance.  The rotary encoder triggers an interrupt so I never lose control turns.  However, the display updates are very laggy and the amount of lag varies considerably.  I *HATE* laggy UIs and until now have not looked into why.  Frankly the I2C LiquidCrystal library was apparently a hasty adaptation of the original LCD library without regard to performance.  It was taking more than a dozen I2C commands for a single character to be updated, let alone the additional ones for cursor positioning and the like.  Bogus.  All bits are written simultaneously now and the lagginess is completely gone.  Sweet!  Many thanks to Kevin who pointed out the great work by falconfour in a comment to one of my previous posts.  Nice to be back on track and re-energized to complete this project.

I spent a lot of time talking to my pal Eldon about UI decisions.  I will be making some changes to the value setting library for alpha-numeric fields to see if the new paradigm works a little cleaner for non-numeric fields.

Another concept that we kicked around was the effect of TX percent on multi-band operation for WSPR.  Since WSPR frequencies have been cleanly defined for all bands, I am considering having TX percent of 100% mean the beacon will cycle through all bands on each two minute window.  A setup UI would be created to allow enable/disable of each of the bands.  See my previous post for a list of bands supported by this beacon (all up to and including 6 metres).  So, if you truely wanted to send 100% of the time on one band, you would have to disable all other bands as well as setting TX percent to 100%.  Otherwise, the beacon would sequence through the list of enabled bands every two minute window.  I am interested in feedback on this idea.  I think it makes sense to enable this multi-band mode only on TX percent = 100% as otherwise, i would have to completely rethink the meaning of TX percent when multiple bands are enabled.

Also regarding multi-band operation, I plan to make some concession for external low-pass filter selection based on the currently selected band or frequency.  Interested in feedback on what this might look like.  Some ideas:

1. Provide the frequency to an external function that takes care of the magic itself and leave the details up to the implementer.
2. Provide an enable bit (or a counter that is decoded by external hardware) that can be used trigger external relays to select an appropriate low pass filter which is set by one of the following:
• The function described in #1 above as implemented by someone else.
• Providing a set of configurable cutoff frequencies for the various external low-pass filters and automatically selecting one as appropriate based on frequency.
• Define one filter per WSPR band and select based on frequency.  This is simple, but may be somewhat inappropriate as for example it makes little sense to have separate low pass filters for both 12 and 10 metres where one would suffice.

I have decided to replace my current rotary encoder with a different one from BI Technologies.  The Model EN11 rotary encoder is a nice, inexpensive (even in single unit quantities from Mouser) item that adds a push button and detents.  My current encoder had no detents and frankly, I prefer having them.  If desired, it can be ordered with or without the switch or the detents.  I will be using the switch to change the tuning rate rather than a separate push button.  See the datasheet here.  Thanks to Eldon for providing a sample of this encoder to me to try out with the beacon project.

Eldon and I also revisited the whole topic of what frequency to display on the LCD when in WSPR mode.  Most folks that use the great software by Joe Taylor are used to setting the rig display (on 30 metres for example) to 10.138700 MHz and generating tones in the 1400-1600 hz range to feed into your SSB transmitter.  The actual transmit frequency can be set by double clicking in the "waterfall" display or by typing it in to the "Tx:" frequency edit box.  One idea kicked around was to only display the WSPR band (30 metres, 20 metres, etc) and an offset from the start of the WSPR band.  The offset is only 200 hertz total.  This sort of makes sense to me, but I have an uneasyness when I don't know precisely what frequency I am transmitting on.  Joe Taylor's software shows the exact transmit frequency.  For example, if you clicked in the middle of the 30 metre band, it will show 14.140200 in the "Tx:" frequency box.  What is not clear to me is precisely what that frequency means since WSPR signals are composed of four separate tone frequencies that are separated by 1.4648 Hz.  In the absence of clarity from Joe's documentation, I have chosen to define the transmit frequency like this:

Each symbol is 1.4648 Hz apart and the displayed transmit frequency is mid-way between symbols 1 and 2.  Band edge operations need to take this into account if you wish to stay within the defined WSPR frequency range with the entire 6 Hz spectrum occupied by the complete WSPR signal.  Anyone have further thoughts or comments on this?

Anyway, it is nice to be back on track and making progress on my beacon again.

I am confused...

So, I have a transformer that has two primary windings that can be typically be hooked up in parallel for 115 VAC operation or in series for 230 VAC operation as well as a couple of identical secondary windings.  It looks something like this:

Let's take the scenario where we hook up only one primary to the mains.  My thinking is that I can treat the second primary winding as another "secondary" and should see the mains voltage on this winding and it would therefore act like an isolation transformer as well as a step down transformer for the secondary voltages.

Where I am confused is the following scenario.  Let's say we hook the mains to 1 and 2 above and use 3 and 4 as the input voltage to a full wave bridge rectifier, filter and regulator for my B+ supply.  The B+ only needs about 100 ma current capability.

So, what if the transformer is rated at 50 VA and we are drawing sufficient current from the combined secondaries to equal 48 VA including the current drawn from the second primary winding.  This is obviously less than the 50 VA rating of the transformer.  But, in this case does the manufacturer expect that the primaries will be always wired in parallel and actually used as primaries?  Do I risk drawing too much current through the single primary wired to the mains in this scenario?  Anyone have any ideas?  Is it likely that each winding can handle the maximum rated VA?

If I understand this correctly, if the transformer is rated at 50VA, then each winding must handle the equivalent current (voltages chosed to make the math easy):

50VA
------ = .5 A primary current total or .25 A each winding
100V

50VA
------ = 2 A secondary current total or 1 A each winding.
25V

So, if I have this correct, I risk over-heating the single primary hooked to mains if I am running at close to the rated VA of the transformer unless the manufacturer over-engineered the windings wire size.  It seems I should limit the total secondary current to 1/2 the VA rating of the transformer if only a single primary is hooked to mains.

Thoughts?  Am I thinking about this correctly?

APRS rig back in the car

More years ago than I care to remember I picked up a Kenwood D700 rig.  Since I have recently pulled the HF rig and D-Star rig out of the car, I decided to put the Kenwood rig in for a while.  Scrounging around I found a nice 5 hz GPS that has RS-232 (DB-9) output and made up an adapter cable from DB-9 to 2.5mm stereo plug to connect the GPS to the rig.  It all seems to be working and http://aprs.fi is reporting my spots.


One downside of the D700 is that while it is a dual band rig, once you turn on APRS you pretty much lose the 2 metre side of the rig for communications.  That's ok, since there are so many 23 cm repeaters in the area.

New speaker for the SW-3

I managed to find a nice little period (sort-of) speaker for the SW-3 receiver on eBay.  It is a nice little "tombstone" style cabinet with about an 8 inch speaker and impedance matching transformer.  Presents a nice high impedance to the receiver and the pin connectors exactly match the connectors on the SW-3, so it plugs right in.

The cabinet is cast metal (likely "pot metal" (zinc)) and is quite brittle, though the exterior condition is quite good for something as old as this is.  However, as is the case sometimes with eBay purchases, it was unfortunately damaged in shipment and one of the corners was broken off.  The seller did right by me and refunded 1/2 of what I paid for it and so I kept it.  Fortunately, the damage is on the back and relatively easy to hide from view.


The speaker works admirably with the SW-3 and I enjoyed imagining what it was like in 1930 to be listening to this little rig whilst running off batteries.  There was a lot of activity on 40 metres as this was a contest weekend, so there was able listening material along with the 49 metre broadcast band.


Last evening, I changed out the frequency-determining coils in the SW-3 and tuned around the 80-75 metre band finally settling on 3885 khz where a group of AM enthusiasts was parked holding a round-table discussion on everything under the sun for hours on end.


Pretty fun.

SW-3 is on the air!

So, today I finally sat down to see if the SW-3 is actually functional.  The first order of business is to come up with 2.5 volts at 4 amps for powering the valve/tube filaments.  I found a Triad transformer that provides 2.5 volts at 6 amps.  I decided to try just using AC on the filaments even though it is likely to introduce some hum into the receiver.  For now, I just lashed up the filament supply with a power cord and fuse.

For now, I am just clip leading the filament transformer to the power cord on the receiver.  Sure as shooting, the valves/tubes all lit up as they should.  The AC voltage drops to about 2.25 volts and is drawing just short of 4 amps.  How did these guys ever run these puppies on batteries?  Must have gone thru them like no tomorrow.

So, with all the valves/tubes lit up, it is time to deal with the audio output.  Looking  at the bottom of the receiver, I see that the B+ goes directly to one side of the audio output and the other goes to the plate of the audio amplifier.  Bloody lovely...  135 volts across the headset...  Looking at the valve/tube data sheet it looks like the output impedance will be on the order of 20K ohms.  Obviously this 1930 receiver expects a magnetic, high impedance headset.  One of my Bogen audio transformers to the rescue.  I wired up one of them to the audio output and put a 3.5mm audio jack on the secondary to allow using a powered computer speaker.

Now for the B+ supply.  I am using my Heathkit lab supply to provide 135 volts regulated.  For now, just clip leading it in place.

So, I cranked up the high voltage supply a little at a time.  I didn't want to have any 80 year old capacitors explode if I could help it.  After an hour or so, I had the B+ up to 135 volts and no magic smoke was released into the atmosphere.

So, with everything up to temperature and up to voltage, I started trying to figure out how to tune this little gem.

The main tuning dial is very smooth with no backlash and very little yellowing of the plastics and dial card.  Amazingly, the main dial also has the ability to change the turning rate from about 18 to 1 to about 4 to 1.  Those guys at National did a nice job on this rig back in 1930.  The dial left of the main dial is the antenna coupling.  It operates very smoothly to peak the signal without introducing any frequency change.  The horizontal dial below the main dial is an RF gain control.  The regeneration control is the one to the right of the main tuning dial.

As is the case with most regens, they can be very sensitive.  While it is tempting to turn the RF gain all the way up and crank the regen control all the way up, it is counter productive and counter intuitive.  In this case, you want to peak the antenna coupling for maximum noise and then advance the regen only as far as necessary to obtain a rushing sound in the speaker.  This indicates the regenerative detector has started oscillating.  Strong signals will overload the receiver and really complicate trying to tune things in, so back off the RF gain nearly all the way and only turn it up sufficiently to be able to hear the signal you wish to hear.  With the antenna coupler peaked, you now back off the regen until just before it starts oscillating if you want to tune an AM station or just after it starts oscillating if you want to tune a CW or SSB signal.  This is the point of maximum sensitivity.  Back off the RF gain until the signal is clear and free of distortion.  I don't seem to have any AC hum issues, even though the filaments are running on AC.  Sweet!

So, tuning around the band, it appears that the tuning coil I have covers about 5 to 9 Mhz.  I was able to hear WWV at the bottom of the dial, a couple of numbers stations, an upper sideband (USB) weather station (National Weather Service - Miami FL), CW and LSB signals on 40 metres, CBCS in Vancouver BC, etc.  Nice little receiver!  Next, I need to package up the power supply bits and audio output transformer into a tidy external package.

Bogen T725 transformer

I have found a little gem of a transformer for my radio projects: The Bogen T725 audio transformer.  I basically gives you the ability to match 8 ohm loads to a high(er) impedance source from about 150 ohms to about 40k ohms.  Specs below courtesy of makearadio.com where you can find lots of ideas on how to use these devices.  http://makearadio.com/misc-stuff/t-725.php

I was able to locate a number of these little dudes online (amazon.com) and picked them up for future projects.  In the table below, all values in the primary are relative to the black tap (blk).

     Color      Resistance     Inductance       XL @ 300 hz      Rounded Value
   White  (WH)  1424.3 ohms      24     H       45.239k  ohms      40k    ohms 
   Gray   (GRY)  886.4 ohms      12.04  H       22.694k  ohms      20k    ohms
   Violet (VIO)  516.5 ohms       6.06  H       11.423k  ohms      10k    ohms   
   Blue   (BLU)  260.1 ohms       3.04  H        5.730k  ohms       5k    ohms  
   Green  (GRN)   81.8 ohms       1.565 H        2.950k  ohms       2.5k  ohms    
   Yellow (YEL)   56   ohms         787 mH       1.483k  ohms       1.2k  ohms
   Orange (OR)    38.2 ohms         398 mH         750.2 ohms         600 ohms
   Red    (RED)   26   ohms         197 mH         371.3 ohms         300 ohms
   Brown  (BRN)   18.2 ohms          98 mH         184.7 ohms         150 ohms

   Pink to Pink    0.5 ohms        5.23 mH          9.86 ohms           8 ohms 

I plan to use one of these to get the B+ voltage from my National SW-3 off of the headphones and to provide an impedance match to a more typical 8 ohm speaker or headphone.

I also found a nice transformer P-T31 at Antique Electronic Supply that does 5k to 8 ohm impedance.  These were about twice the price and no taps on the primary.

Playing around with APRS tonight

I picked up my old TNC2 packet controller and dusted it off today.  After finding an old Hayes modem cable I was able to wire this dude up to my laptop.  About a million years ago, I registered a version of UIView32 which is a nice little APRS mapping package.

Of course there were no maps of the Western Washington area available for the software, but there is a nice feature where you can drag/drop a map bitmap onto the software and then define the lat/lon details for either the upper/left, lower/right corners of the map or by clicking on two points on the map and defining the lat/lon for those points.  I took a screen shot of a google map and defined two points.  Not totally precise, but close enough for giggles.  Here is a peek of the map after it has had a little while to listen on 144.39 Mhz to the APRS traffic.

I have an old Alinco dual-band rig that I inherited from my dad (W7QJC) R.I.P. that I might press into service for packet radio playing around.  Gotta get the transmit portion working next.  Just need to set some jumpers to match the microphone wiring and plug it in.

ArisSat1 heard this morning

This morning I had some fun with my Arrow antenna and an old Yaesu 2 metre hand-held transceiver.  I generally track a hand-ful of Ham Radio satellites, one of which was recently launched from the International Space Station (ISS).

This morning about 10:20 Pacific Time, we had a nearly overhead pass of the satellite giving me about 10 minutes of time to to track the bird and listen to its beacons.

At the appropriate hour (and minute) I was the image of tin-foil-hat-geekdom standing out in my yard with a pair of headphones on listening to a handheld radio whilst pointing a very strange contraption (the Arrow Antenna) skyward.  I live on some acreage, so I don't have neighbors withing spitting distance, but nevertheless, it was a bit of a "moment" for me wondering if anyone watching would think the old man has taken leave of his senses...

But, the sights being whatever they were, I was having fun...  I had a great copy on the bird, but didn't happen to plan ahead sufficiently to enable me to record the pass.  Even with the tall trees around, I had no problem copying the pass and sent off for my reception report giving two of the (english) passwords copied during the pass as proof of reception.

If you have not tried to copy ArisSat1 yet, it is very easy even with a handheld receiver and a modest vertical antenna.

The next round for me will be to try and catch some of the telemetry.  I will have to look at the satellite status page to see if the transponder is still functional, but a contact or two over the bird would be fun.