The Era of Soundcard Radio

First step - WSPR

A new step - JS8Call - 19/5/20

DXCC and WAS at last?  FT8?

One good Mesh deserves another

What good is ... in a room?


AREDN -

Village Telco

Small Enterprise Campus Network

Wildernets

Back on WSPR, looking towards FT-8 and beyond!

WSPR on 40 has gotten way busy.   I don't hear so much (noise) but
apparently the new antenna (MFJ 40-10 End Fed) is working well even at
its low'ish location.

WSJT-X (for WSPR) has improved.  It's now possible to operate on
multiple bands without the program crashing..   It's nicely organized
so it's possible to work the different bands at different times.  I.E.
10 meters during the day, 30 during greyline and 40 at night. It's not
learning-smart to figure out what bands are open when all by itself
but that will come.

Attached is the list of stations that heard me from one 2 minute
transmission with low power.  Note the BD7MQB call near the end.
That's the first time I remember hearing China - on 40 no less.
10,405 km with an extremely weak -29 signal.

I plan to invest a small ATU in FT8 today - looking towards JS8 (short
messages) and FSQchat in the near future.

Bill, WA7NWP

>>>





2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040098 -29 0 CN87wq 5 KK6PR CN94ik 367 170

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -11 0 CN87wq 5 NN6RF CM87uw 1084 181

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040105 -24 0 CN87wq 5 KD6RF EM22 2834 117

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -24 0 CN87wq 5 K7GXB DM34sn 1666 148

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040068 -8 0 CN87wq 5 SWL-CM98DNCM98dn 1015 178

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040096 -27 0 CN87wq 5 WA5DJJ DM62ph2147 137

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -8 0 CN87wq 5 N6GN/K2 DN70jo1558 114

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040132 -20 0 CN87wq 5 W0AY DN26xo 623 98

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040098 -22 0 CN87wq 5 W6SFH CM88pl 1025 183

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040100 -6 0 CN87wq 5 W6EXT CM87wi 1149 180

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -14 0 CN87wq 5 AI6VN/KH6BL10rx 4274 238

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040101 -24 0 CN87wq 5 JA5NVN PM74ec8170 303

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 +9 0 CN87wq 5 KA7OEI-1DN31uo 1029 127

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040105 +2 0 CN87wq 5 VE6EGN DO23 815 35

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040100 -19 0 CN87wq 5 NI0L DM79mo 1642 117

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -12 0 CN87wq 5 W3SMK CM87xq 1112 180

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -25 0 CN87wq 5 N6GN/K DN70ll1577 114

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -8 0 CN87wq 5 N6KOG CM97gs 1104 177

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040098 -27 0 CN87wq 5 K9AN EN50wc 2826 95

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040098 -27 0 CN87wq 5 AC7IJ CN87vu 20 341

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040099 -10 0 CN87wq 5 KB6C DM04re 1531 167

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040074 -7 0 CN87wq 5 KJ6MKI CM88oi 1039 183

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040101 -19 0 CN87wq 5 W6ZTM DM04 1491 169

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040097 -29 0 CN87wq 5 BD7MQB OL72an10405 310

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040098 -11 0 CN87wq 5 NO1D DM34tn 1669 147

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040092 +6 0 CN87wq 5 KI7SYP DN13 612 138

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040100 -22 0 CN87wq 5 N5SD EM27ph 2508 107

2018-12-21 17:04 WA7NWP 7.040096 -14 0 CN87wq 5 W7REK DM42lk 1936 147

Save Your Life!!!

From a recent Facebook post of mine:

FWIW - IM!HO (In My NOT Humble Opinion) :

• - Everybody, for various reasons, should have their Internet modem and primary home WIFI running on a battery charged with a solar panel.
• Those that are Hams should have at least an HT ready to go. It should be programmed with the local simplex and repeater channels. It should be capable of being charged by the WIFI battery above or standard mobile systems.
• Those that are Hams should have a battery backed APRS (tactical communications) system running.
• Those that aren't Hams - should become Hams. The education is priceless. What you learn may save your life.

Community Announcement Server

I've been all over the place the last month - details to follow....  One common issue in any area or community is - what's happening here and where is it?

APRS would handily do that - but that means a computer is required in addition to the radio.  Maybe someday will have the Android-RF white (grey) box phones - but we don't yet.

So - what not automate community announcements on one frequency.  147.000 comes to mind.   Every repeater, club or DX'er could announce that's up.  With an organized timing scheme it could be totally ad-hock.  Also easy to add an "announcement server" with a rPI0 and Bf VOX radio.  It could have text-to-speech announcements uploaded or do a simple analog audio capture and rebroadcast.

My first announcement "It's good to be home"

73
Bill, WA7NWP

Design of homebuilt TTL PC

Peter F.  I always think about your work ! 😍Is it full in TTL logic ? How is the simulator going ? I dream with that and with relay computers. As I told you my first computer was a 4 bit ttl I made at 12-13 years. With that 74181Alu, I still have my TTL collection from that time(not LS, "real heavyweight TTL" they are terrible power hungry!) . Regrettably the minicomputer with 4x4 rows of leds...was scrapped.

Bill V. My project was similar to yours. I used three 74181's and a chip, I forget which, that tied them together. It was all TTL, mostly open collector as that was easier to wire-or together. I made it 12 bits as that was enough for addressing the 2102 memory chips and giving me lots of options for instructions. Four of the 12 bits in the instruction register went right to the 74181s so I had access to all commands.

I'm sorry now I scrapped the original slit-and-wrap circuit boards but I still have all the TTL IC's somewhere.

I hope to wire-wrap a replica of the original and eventually build a new and improved version with better TTL - like HCT or maybe CMOS.

The emulator is advancing a little every day. It's a wonderful mental exercise working with the emulator and thinking of the tradeoffs between actual hard coded in TTL instructions and other new and enhanced instructions in software. The software is so easy but it won't eventually run in the upcoming computer.

Fwd: Posting to blog from email

Second try - perhaps I didn't save the configuration fast enough earlier.


Yet another way to make all the tools work together. This is a step.
A small step. A small step in what is hopefully the right direction.

Stay tuned...