Space Shuttle Over U.S. on Approach to Landing

This is an early Monday morning event. Lots of SolderSmoke fans within visual range of this flight path. (Somebody please alert Jerry, NR5A!) Spaceweather.com reports:

"Landing is scheduled for 8:48 am EDT, and it takes the shuttle about 35 minutes to traverse the path shown above. Observers in the northwestern USA will see the shuttle shortly after 5 am PDT blazing like a meteoritic fireball through the dawn sky. As Discovery makes its way east, it will enter daylight and fade into the bright blue background. If you can't see the shuttle, however, you might be able to hear it. The shuttle produces a sonic double-boom that reaches the ground about a minute and a half after passing overhead."

Please let us know if you see or hear it.

Colin's Power Meter

Hi Bill,

Thought you would be interested in the attached pics, one shows a power meter that a colleague made for me. I had mentioned to my colleague about the W7ZOI power meter after listening to SolderSmoke at work. A couple of days later I was presented with a power meter constructed from scrap parts! We work for a company that repairs cell 'phone base station equipment and the power meter was made from some scrap VSWR monitor circuits. My favourite part of the device is the heatsink fins on the 30dB attenuator along the top, which can be taken out of circuit by removing the SMA link. To use the meter, the 8V regulator is powered up and if any RF is present at the RF in, a voltage, which can be read by an external Volt meter, is output via the multiway connector. I use a ribbon cable, which has three connections used, DC (+&-) and meter test point. A graph plotting RF in against Volts out can then be used to determine measured RF.

The second pic shows a QSL card for a 17m CW contact I received for my contact with Ronny SM4RRF. I was using a low dipole and 500mW from an FT817! This was my 2nd ever CW contact.

73 and keep up the good work at SolderSmoke.

Colin M0CGH

Moonbounce Day!

Rafael in Mexico sent me some very interesting info about World Moonbounce Day. Today!

From: "MM"
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 3:06 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] Arecibo on 432 MHz Moon Bounce

> Hi all:
> Here is a EME event you cant miss.
> Dust off your CW key, its time for Satellite, QRP EME.
>
> The 1,000 foot dish has 60 dBi on 432 mc and 400 watts.
> That comes out to be approximately 243,902,443 Million Watts ERP.
>
> enjoy
>
> wf1f
> www.marexgm.org
>
> (thanks to KB1MGI for passing on this data)
>
>
> Arecibo on 432 MHz Moon Bounce
>
> The Arecibo Observatory Amateur Radio Club will be putting the
> 1000-foot radio telescope on the air for 432 MHz EME from April 16-18.
>
> It can be heard with a small hand-held yagi pointed at the moon
>
> The scheduled times of operation are:
>
> April 16: 1645 - 1930 UTC
>
> April 17: 1740 - 2020 UTC
>
> April 18: 1840 - 2125 UTC
>
> Callsign: KP4AO
>
> Tx Frequency: 432.045 MHz
>
> Rx Frequency: 432.050 to 432.060+
>
> Tx power: 400 W
>
> Antenna gain: 60 dBi
>
> System noise temp: 120 K (cold sky)
>
> System noise temp: 330 K (when pointed at moon)
>
> KP4AO can be heard with a small hand-held yagi pointed at the moon and a
> good receiver. A 15 dBi antenna and 100 W will be enough to work us on
> CW.
>
> Operators at KP4AO will do their best to work as many stations as
> possible. Each session will start with a brief announcement and CQ in
> SSB. SSB QSOs may continue for 30 minutes to an hour, if the QSO rate
> remains high.
>
> The mode will be shifted to CW as soon as it is judged that higher QSO
> rates would result.
>
> We will listen for calls at frequencies 5-15 kHz higher than our own,
> and even higher if QRM warrants. Callers who s-p-r-e-a-d o-u-t are more
> likely to be copied.
>
> If you've already worked us in any mode, please do not call again --
> give others a chance.
>
> If we call "CQ QRP", we will listen for stations running 100 W or less
> to a single yagi. Please do not answer such a CQ if you are running more
> power or have a larger antenna.
>
> On April 18, if we reach a condition where most calling stations have
> been worked, and we judge that operating in the digital mode JT65B would
> produce a higher QSO rate, we will switch to JT65B.
>
> Note that any of these planned operating strategies may be changed as
> circumstances dictate.
>
> We are extremely fortunate to have been granted access to the world's
> largest radio telescope for this amateur radio good-will event. We look
> forward to working as many stations as possible in the alloted time!
>
> >From QRZ.COM

Homebrew Hero: Ed Roberts (RIP)

The Maker blog has a really great 20 minute podcast interview with Forrest Mims. He talks about his recently deceased friend Ed Roberts, founder of MITS and creator of the Altair 8800. The interview is really great. You guys will like it. Look for the little audio bar just underneath the article on this page:
http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/04/remembering_ed_roberts_the_father_o.html

Receiver Success! Combining Computers and Homebrew Radio

Well, it turns out that yesterday was a GREAT day for a new receiver. When I got home from work 30 meters was open. I fired up the new receiver and the FLDIGI program. Immediately I started to see and decode PSK-31 signals. I quickly switched over to the WSPR program and right away I could see the little two minute WSPR sigs. Here is what my screen looked like:

The program also began to automatically upload reports to WSPR HQ. Here is the report I found on the WSPR web site this morning:

I know all this WSPR and digi stuff often seems to be very computer-centric, and very "appliance radio," but I think this little project shows how we can have the best of both worlds: This rig combines a laptop computer and some pretty sophisticated software with a VERY simple, discrete component, homebrew direct-conversion receiver.

OK. So you see that I left a lot of space on the PC board. That's where the DSB transmitter (for WSPR and possibly PSK-31) will go.

BTW: You can keep an eye on my reception reports by going to the Database section of the WSPRnet site and plugging my call (I0/N2CQR) into the "reporting station" block. I'll leave the receiver on today.

A Bad Day for a New Receiver

Here is the latest picture of my version of the W3PM WSPR receiver. You can see the Ugly Weekender AF amp in the upper left. No front end of any kind yet -- the sig goes right from the antenna jack into the RF pin on the SBL-3 diode ring mixer.
Turns out that this morning was a bad time to test a new receiver. Spaceweather.com reports that a big coronal mass ejection hit earth today, causing havoc in the ionosphere. I'll try it again later today.

G0UPL's Ingenious QRSS Circuit

Just look at that circuit! That's a complete QRSS beacon transmitter, including a multivibrator (the two transistors on the left) to generate a recognizable pattern on the grabber screens. This diagram appears in SPRAT 134. Hans Summers ran this rig with just a couple of volts from his homebrew bleach-based battery system back in 2008. I plan on putting a version of this rig into the solar powered lawn lamp I showed you two posts ago (scroll down).

In other news, I finished building the Ugly Weekender AF amp this morning, and it passed the smoke test. My WSPR system went toes up this morning, so today I am QRSSing on 30 meters. I'm running my usual upside down FSK. Please let me know if you see me.