Let it Snow, Snow, Snow!

Well,

Interesting view from AntennaCam this morning:

Local conditions.

3cm Again

Well,

You may recall my adventures back here on 10 GHz.

Well, today I have decided to resurrect the project and see what happens if I put a dish up on the new mast.

So I got myself a waterproof enclosure, and re-housed the gubbins:

I also have a new mesh dish with a 1M diameter:

Theory says about 37dB or so gain.

I have to pop to the Middle East for a few days, but will get this up in the air when I return.

Here's my very lovely Luna Cat at home in the shack:

Good, egh?

New Mastamabob

Well,

Following several repairs to my mast, I eventually decided to get something stronger and more suitable to the load I have on the top.

My old mast was somewhat like Triggers Broom from Only Fools and Horses; Trigger claims that he's had his road sweeper's broom for 20 years. But then he adds that the broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles.

So a new mast was ordered from MM0CUG.

This is all galvanised steel box construction and is much sturdier than the previous. Gary (MM0CUG) made something bespoke for my location to cater for the house apex with a higher tilt point and longer wall brackets. He even drove down from Scotland with the mast on his van and fitted it for me.

So here you can see the motorised electric winch that is used for tilting the mast over and lifting it back to the vertical:

The mast has been concreted in at the base, but is also wall mounted with four very substantial anchor points to the bracket:

And yes, it telescopes too!

Local conditions.

QRP Labs QCX Transciever

Well,

I've been having lots of fun building the QRP Labs QXC QRP transceiver, I've had my first proper bash at a video detailing the construction:

Its a fantastic bit of kit!

CAT Control with Logger32

Well,

I've been asked a few questions recently about how I auto configure my radios for various tasks using comments over CAT control.

I created a quick video to illustrate this below:

Good, egh?

The Art of Logic

Well,

Some of you might remember my musings with the Red Pitaya back here; this was in the realms of SDR. I wanted to get myself a simple logic analyser and initially looked to that device to help.

However, I came across this little chap from Hobby Components:

and purchased one from Amazon at about 12 GBP. I also bought some cheap and cheerful logic probe/clip thingamabobs.

To test this thing I have installed some software called PulseView and setup a 4017 to do its thing on a breadboard:

So, here is the output on the screen:

and by anyone's reckoning, that's pretty damn impressive!

This will be a very handy addition to the workbench.

FeelTech 6600 - Issues List

Well,

Following on from my musings last time about this FeelTech Signal Generator I purchased from Amazon, I've created a video to demonstrate some of the issues I have been seeing.

There are quite a few of the issues captured in the video, but other ADDITIONAL issues I have seen but couldn't reproduce during the video are:

1. DC offset on Channel 1 (video demonstrates this issue on Channel 2 only)
2. Channel 1 and Channel 2 incorrectly out of phase 
3. Both Channel 1 and Channel 2 failing to start (reproduced by both channels set to 10MHz and 0.5V then soft power cycle)

The issues documented in the video include:

1. Channel 2 fails to start on soft power cycle
2. Channel 1 and 2 amplitude issues
3. Issues around 0.5V amplitude
4. DC offset on Channel 2 (even during soft power off)

The firmware in my version is 3.2 which I understand to be the latest at the time of writing.

My conclusion? It's a piece of junk.

I'd be interested to learn if anyone else can reproduce these issues as it might be that this is some firmware but also I suspect crappy Chinese relays may be part of the problem.

My lovely Florrie Cat takes all credit for the production of the above video:

Local conditions.