More MA6B shenanigans

 Well,

Back in the midst of time, I installed an MAA6B from Cushcraft - well, MFJ as they were. Sandly now defunct.

It's been a bit "out of bonk" recently with some SWR swings and I assumed I'd got a feeder issue.

I brought the antennas down and replaced the feeder from the antenna back to the shack - no change.

I then thought it might be the "junction box" in the centre of the antenna which is just that - there's no balun. The box seems to have deteriorated in the sunshine, but electrically it looked ok. Not that then, I dont think.

I found the SWR on 10M (28MHz) was the worst, and eventually I ended up taking the traps off the elements one by one and testing them with the spectrum analyser.

I found one of the CT1 traps to have only one "dip" rather than the expected two - so I think this is the route of my problems. Luckily I have some spare parts so I've just swapped it for a new one.

I'll take it to bits soon and see if I can find out whats actually broken.

Here are the SWR curves after I finished, mainly for the record:

I'll post more if I take the trap to bits - I mught just chuck it in the bin.

TinyGS - A Satellite Groundstation using LoRa (no, not Laura)

 Well,

Unless you have been asleep for a few years, you will undoubtedly have seen people using low cost LoRa (long Range) wireless modules based on the ESP32 MCU for off-grid comms using MeshTastic.

Here's another really neat use of these boards, this time, the 433MHz variety:

These modules are available on Amazon and other retailers in the far east for about 3 bob and a conker. 

TinyGS is a really neat project that allows you to instal some software on these boards, hook up an antennamabob and then receive packets of data from passing satellites. You can then view the data you have received and research the various sats that you have received data from. It's really quite interesting.

My module with the software installed, is currently suspended by a USB cable and a bit of coax in front of a SWR meter:

The range of the RX is impressive:

If you take a recent example of a received packet:

You can then look up the satellite in question:

and read all about its purpose:

The spacecraft is designed to measure the level of electromagnetic radiation in the frequency range of 0.1-18 GHz to create territorial maps of the distribution of these levels as part of long-term analysis and study of statistical measurement results. Remote sensing of the Earth in the optical range, obtaining photographs of the earth's surface with a resolution of ~5 m/pix.

Due to the ability to link the received data to geographic coordinates, the information that the payload module will provide can be used to create maps of the distribution of the level of electromagnetic radiation from the Earth's surface.

So, how about that then?