A CW & WSPR Beacon

Well,

I've been fiddling some more with STM32 and have created a DDS based CW & WSPR beacon for 6M.

You can find the details of the project here:

The WSPR code is stolen from Anthony F4GOH, his code and other bits and bobs are on GitHub here:

https://github.com/f4goh/wspr

To counter any drift in the DDS, I've modified my AD9850 board to use an external signal for the clock and configured my Leo Bodnar GPS referenced oscilator to give me 10MHz from output 1 and 125MHz from output 2, thus:

The 125MHz is now used to drive the DDS. I'd be delighted to receive reports from the beacon, the CW signal is on 50.030 and every multiple of 10 mins it sends a 2 min WSPR transmission on 50.293 + 30Hz.

Here's the WSPR beacon RX from G0ORC:

No drift - not even a wobble! Excellent.

Fun, dont you think?

Top Band (Again)

Well,

A while ago we had some work done in our garden, this resulted in the removal of a 'purglar'; now, this was all fine except it was supporting my top band antenna I made back here.

I've got round to making a replacement for the antenna today, nothing original - it's an end fed sloping, inductively loaded wire.

There's 54 feet of wire, 20 turns on a bit of tumble dryer vent pipe, then 5 feet to the feed point plus an earth rod (well two actually) on the sreen of the coax. Here's the inductor:

and this is the earth arrangement:

Now, I am planning to add several long counterpoise wires, but I haven't done so yet. I connected the antenna to my analyser thingamabob:

or if you prefer return loss:

I've been listening on the WSPR frequency tonight:

It will be a very inefficient antenna and also it has a very narrow bandwidth (like all inductively loaded antennas), but it's clearly hearing signals.

Here's a map after an overnight run:

I also took down the main 4M and 6M antenna today for maintenance, I've put somthing I had at the back of the shed in it's place temporarily, I've also put the 13cm antenna I had lying on my bench in the air:

Here's our two doing what Spaniels do on a beautiful frosty morning earlier today:

Good, egh?

Windom Test - Shhhhh

Well,

Following the build of the Windom Antenna, I wanted to see if it was functioning, my primary band of interest was 80M. I left the TS-590 WSPRing on 80M last night and here is the result:

Looks like it works.

Local conditions.

WSPRing again - Shhhhhh

Well,

Before I headed off to the work QTH yesterday, I left one of the radios in WSPR on 20M. Here's what I found when I got home:

Now, none of these can be considered QSOs but it sure gives a good impression of the propagation through the day and the station capability.

I'm more than impressed.

Good, egh?

WSPRing on 80M - Shhhhh

Well,

You may recall the new antenna that I made back here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/80m-into-43-feet-that-doesnt-go.html

So to try and get some idea of the performance I left my TS-590 WSPRing on 80M last night. Here is what I find this morning:

And here closer view without the VK station:

So, focusing on that VK contact I had a look in the WSPR database and this is what I find:

So that doesn't even look like the appropriate times for a greyline propagation contact; interesting.

Here is the actual heard/hearing list for last night:

Whilst a great deal of the work is being done in software, it certainly suggests that the antenna is both radiating well and also hearing well.

What do you reckon? Good, egh?

Over the Pond (Again)

Well,

I left my TS-590 running WSPR last night on Top Band, here are the results as a map:

So the crazy antenna that I made back here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/top-band-what-happens-there-then.html

Is still working fine.

I'm wondering if I could convert the antenna for the even lower bands by changing the inductor - the answer is, of course, that I can. However, the efficiency of the antenna will be further reduced as the frequency decreases. I think I need to understand the maths behind the efficiency calculations before I do anything too hasty.

Here's the new Ham Cat helping out yesterday. I have a full week off work so have some plans for some insanity in the shack... watch this space.

Interesting, egh?

Can we do it with Less - Part II

Well,

Following my musings last time about how far not much RF can travel, I took another look at the site of W3PM here:

http://www.knology.net/~gmarcus/

This is where I found the inspiration for my WSPR beacon back here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/back-to-real-homebrewing.html

So I took a look at the latest software for the project - noting that my callsign appears in the credits! - then just reprogrammed my project with the latest code after changing the appropriate bits like callsign and locator et cetera.

I then calibrated the output for an accurate 100mW - I also calculated the loss in the coax between the output and the antenna - I make that about 1dB.

So, I have 100mW or 20bBm out of the box, 1dB loss in the coax = 19dBm or about 80mW into the antenna.

Remembering that propagation conditions are quite poor at the moment, here are the results of an overnight run:

Simply stunning, egh?

Can we do it with less?

Well,

My 30M QRSS Arduino based beacon is still on the air; and I am receiving reports via e-mail from time to time. The most recent was from Andre, DL8WX; he is in JO30WE 716.75 km (445.390 miles), bearing 112.3 degrees from me and said "I found ur beacon last night with a strong signal on 10140.02 kHz for the first time!". The beacon project build is here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/qrssing-again.html

Last night, I left my FT-DX-3000 WSPRing on 40M using the dipole I made here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/well-further-to-my-musings-last-time.html

and here's the result:

Before I left it alone I measured the power out exactly using my Arduino based power meter from here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-power-is-with-me.html

and the list of stations heard/hearing looks like this:

So, you have to wonder, if this is achievable with 40dbM (10dBW or 10 watts), what could we achieve with far less power?

Given that the most recent 50mW QRSS beacon project is Arduino based, I could write some software to generate WSPR using that, I would need a GPS to give me an accurate time source, there's also exactly that in a (not quite finished) project from here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/more-wspring-and-qrssing.html

or even this Hans Summers project from here will do it exactly as I describe above (GPS and WSPR):

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/qrssing-again.html

So, time to fiddle!

As a slight aside, I'm going to Malta for a week soon and I have 9H3JM for use there; as my FT-450 is in Doha I have bought myself an FT-817 to take with me. This radio is capable of outputting much lower power levels than the other radios I have here, so perhaps the easiest option for some really low power WSPR is to use that?

Lets see.

Is this what I was waiting for?

Well,

I'm still in A71 land, but I have been checking my WSPR beacon that I left running on 4M from time to time. I mentioned about it here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/movements-are-afoot-its-all-go-you-know.html

But here's what I found this time:

So my 20 watts on 4M has made it all the way to PA0O - clearly there has been some propagation while I am away (typical).

Good, egh?

Movements are afoot.... It's all go you know...

Well,

Been fiddling with antennas a bit whilst home this time, I've moved the 4M antenna from the side of the house and put it on top of the HF antenna on the main tower.

Here's a picture from "Antenna Cam" at dawn this morning:

and here's one from just a bit later on:

You should be able to see that the 4M beam is now sat happily on the top of the tower. Inspired by the site of Brian, G0MJI:

http://www.qsl.net/g0mji/

I've set up a WSPR beacon on 4M.... time will tell but it sounds like a lonely kind of activity to me....

I've also been fiddling with Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD), my internet router, the FT-5000 and various other bits and bobs to try and see if I can control (and operate) the Yaesu FT-5000 radio remotely (read from A71 land).

So, HRD runs on the shack PC, this communicates with the radio over the conventional Yaesu CAT interface. As is well documented the modern radios allow control of just about everything via this interface.

Now, you then set HRD running in remote mode and then run the client application on the remote PC (in my case this is a laptop). With a bit of fiddling and a port open on the router I can now control the FT-5000 remotely, this is what HRD looks like on the client PC:

So this will be something interesting I can fiddle with next time I am away from home. I've also set up a remote desktop access to my shack PC so in theory, I should be able to connect and run RTTY via logger as if I was sat here.... shouldn't I?

You might remember an episode of "extreme soldering" from quite a while ago:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/its-done-well-extreme-soldering-is.html

Well, I've been fiddling with this SDR again, It's really quite good fun, here's a screen grab from the Software, my waterfall is a little too intense, but you get the idea:

Fun, egh?

60M Test - Seems OK to me!

Well,

Following the modification to the FT-DX-3000 to give the ful 60M allocation in the UKhere:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/your-going-to-what.html

I left the radio WSPRing on the 5MHz band last night.

Seems OK to me:

What do you recon, good egh?
 

Grey What? Ah, Grey Line!

Well,

Still spending most of my time in A7 land, not yet with license for the region but am still hopeful. Travelling back tomorrow, so will be checking progress during the week.

Propagation in general is a topic that I claim to know very little about and understand even less about, however, I do very much understand the theory and concept of grey-line propagation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminator_(solar)

From time to time, you see or hear something that arguably cant be anything other than the effects of grey-line propagation. Here's an example from 30M the other evening...

This happened, of course, just as the UK was entering night and Australia was entering day.... the grey line on the earth was connecting the two areas of the globe. You can see that through more normal propagation methods, my signals were reaching into Europe and not much further.

Interesting, hugh?

It's a busy place 30M!

Well,

Been fiddling with wire antennas again over the weekend. Decided to make a good old-fashioned dipole for 30M.

Here is the dullest photograph ever:

But you can, at least, see that when I say an old-fashioned dipole, I really do mean two bits of wire with coax in the middle.

Now, over the last 24 hours I have left one of the radios WSPRing on 30M, here is the general map of the time period:

looks like a very busy place 30M WSPR!

And here is the map showing just people I am hearing or people who are hearing me (or both!):

So, it very much looks like my two bits of wire are working well! Now, looking in detail at the unique contacts involving my callsign, we find this:

Now, the two contacts to VK land (Australia), seem to be between 7 and 8 AM and also 7 and 8 PM; now that just about during the transition between day and night (or vice versa) so I just wonder if there is some grey line influence here?

What do you recon?

Fun though, egh?

Well, This Top Band Twig, Does it Work?

So, Top Band... This piece of wire strung across the garden will never work will it? There's even an inductor in there that's basically connected to air at one end....

Well, I left the TS-590 WSPRing on Top Band last night:

So it certainly seems to be working rather well!

I'm delighted!
 

4m (70MHz) and Counting....

Following on from the mods I undertook on my FT-847 here:
http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ft-847-that-i-have-here-includes-70mhz.html

I've bought and put up a 4M beam. I've not got it so it can be rotated, nor is it very high off the ground, but it's pointing to the SE and ready for those Es!

So, the house looks like this from the side:

So here you can see a 6M, 2M and now a 4M beam, a vertical for 2M, 70cm and 6M plus the centre of the Windom. The main HF antenna is on the back of the house.

My next project will be a 4M pre-amp for the FT-847 which I have already bought as a kit:

This kit is from Keith, G4FUF, he seems to be the font of all knowledge on the FT-847 and converting it for 4M. I'll post more about this when I make the kit and install it in the radio.

I've also started to think about WSPR on 4M and have just built a 60MHz local oscillator which I could use to mix with a 10MHz signal to get onto 70MHz. All just thoughts at the moment:

Cats not been helping much, as usual:

All good fun though, egh?

It's been ages.....

Work, work and more work. That's all there is to it at the moment; finaly, however, I now have some time to:

1. Catch up with my Blog;
2. Play some Radio!

The WSPR and QRSS beacon I was begining to develop here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/back-to-real-homebrewing.html

is finaly complete!

The output amplifier that I was fiddling with ended up as an Analogue Devices AD8008, which I ended up mounting on a kind of break out board that I had:

You can see how this helps with the "ugly" construction and the use of SMD devices. I can't remember where I got this break out type board from, but it certainly came in useful here!

Many, many moons ago I built myself an QRP ATU, and now I have it permanently hooked up between this beacon and a cheap vertical HF antenna I have slung up against the side of the house. So the setup looks like this:

The WSPR and QRSS beacon is written in C for Arduino:

www.arduino.cc

and I've made quite a few changes to the source code which can be found here in anyone is interested:

http://www.qsl.net/g0mgx/files/Mega_DDS_60_v2_1_G0MGX_eeprom.ino

I've got this hooked up to a GPS module which is sitting in the window of the shack, this is providing the timing data to the WSPR and QRSS beacon. Currently I've got it running on 30M and will be doing some checks for reports in the near future. It's utputting a stagering 20mW!!!!

I've also started (well nearly finided) re-writting the code for my recent DDS project in Arduino; I was never quite happy with the way that ended up, so using my new found C skills I have written (from scratch) the DDS control software.

The original project is here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/dds-running-well.html

The functionality is the same as before, it's just that it works better and I have a much better understanding of how it works.

The source code for this is here:

http://www.qsl.net/g0mgx/files/G0MGX_DDS_FINAL.ino

I can claim some originality in this one!

Here's the inside of the replacement DDS, you can see that it's now Arduino based:

Please excuse the clothes pegs; they are just holding bits in place whilst the glue dries. I'll post again about this piece of work once completed. It's kind of soak testing right now as there is a calibration routine included to adjust the DDS for any misalignment in the frequency output due to clock inaccuracies.

All good though, egh?

More WSPRing and QRSSing

Well,

After my last ramblings here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/back-to-real-homebrewing.html

I've been doing some travelling with work, so progress is not so good. However, I have entered into a dialogue with a number of folk over my observation that the amplitude of the DSS reduces as the frequency increases. Some suggestions to overcome this mainly include AGC type circuitry or utilising pin 12 of the AD9851 to feedback a voltage to set the output amplitude based on a sample of the output (recursion see recursion). The most interesting feedback that I got, however, was not that the amplitude was dropping with an increase in frequency, but that my scope wasn't reading the signals correctly. The theory being that as the frequency increases my scope sensitivity drops off....

I ended up plotting this graph:

This is implying that my scope starts to take a dive, accuracy wise, after about 1MHz, this is the blue line with the y-axis indicating how many dB my scope is "deaf" by. The yellow line is the same signal but through the on-board low pass filter from the DDS module. This seems to imply that the LPF is rather badly designed also. If this theory is correct I need to subtract my scope deafness from the drop in signal out of the LPF. If at this stage we remember that 6dB is half voltage, this is not insignificant!

All rather confusing? My scope is a 100MHz rated fluke which I thought was supposed to be a good quality instrument. So, is this behaviour typical or is my scope a pile of dingos kidneys? I wonder...

I've made a bit of progress boxing the WSPR and QRSS beacon project:

So far, I have tried a number of output amplifiers, the first based on the circuit in my original QRSS beacon, from back in December 2010:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/qrss-beacon.html

This gives me a nice clean 4v P-to-P voltage out, but I wanted more than that, so either I add another stage or do something else.

I have also tried an output amp based on the Analogue Devices AD8008, this works OK also. I'm off on my travels again tomorrow, so I'll pick this up again when I get back.

All good fun though, egh?

Back to real homebrewing!

You may recall my discovery back here:

http://g0mgx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/well-this-looks-just-great.html

So, Ive managed to make some progress. I've modified the software from W3PM from here:

http://www.knology.net/~gmarcus/

and have managed to get the GPS module working and also the DDS drive routines....

The code is written in C for the Arduino; and it's now interfaced to a four-line LCD, the AD9851 DDS module and the GPS receiver. The GPS module isn't in the picture as it's hanging out the window so it has visibility to the sky.

I've started to box the project, and have also built an RF amp to get me a staggering 100mW out...

Progress has been quite good today, I need to think about how I can get the RF levels the same on each band because as the frequency increases, so the amplitude out of the DDS and hence out of the RF amplifier decreases. I'm really not sure how to tackle that one, so I may have to ask for some help here.

Yesterday myself and Vince G0ORC went over to the "Dambusters Rally":

http://www.qsl.net/gb4tcm/dambusters.html

The rally was really good, albeit a bit small, but there was loads of really good radio junk to rummage about in. I picked up all sorts of stuff including this meter which I am rather proud of:

I've cleaned it up, mounted it on some wood, and stuck it in the corner of the shack with some amps flowing through it...

The next step will be to put some lighting inside...

Looks god though, agree?