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SEC1223 Power Supply Repair
While using my SEC1223 Power supply to resurrect my Drake TR7 PA It suddenly started producing less output and tripping Amplifier alarms. To check the PSU wasnt current limiting I swapped to mydel 30A...
View ArticleLocking the Adalm Pluto to an external reference (Part 3; Software challenges)
Having got the hardware finished it was time to convince th Pluto that it had a 50MHz NOT 40 MHz reference. This was easier said than done! It took 6 hours of internet research and trials before a...
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Another 47 and 76GHz DATV Expedition to IO91GI
Noel, G8GTZ had let me know that on June 3rd he was going portable on 47 and 76GHz to Combe Gibbet, to allow G1EHF to try out his 47GHz QRP system to work G4LDR/P and G8ACE/P (who I hadnt worked ) on...
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IARU TV CONTEST 2021
Originally I ws not going to bother with this years contest, but after Noel said he was going to Dunkerry beacon there was a chance to set a few distance records if I went to Cleeve common, so i...
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47&76 GHz outing to Notgrove IO91BV
Originally I had booked the afternoon of Friday 25th June off work to go and watch a worcester T20 cricket game, but my ticket was cancelled due to covid restrictions. The question was what to do with...
View ArticleUpgrading my Portsdown 4 to become a PortsLang 4
Inspired by a post by G8GKQ about new features available in the latest Portdown software release I decided it was time to upgrade my Portsdown 4 to enable it to be used as a Langstone on Narrowband...
View ArticlePortsLang 4 Hardware Updates
Having used the PortsLang 4 for a while I decided it needed 3 main improvements:-1. The mouse for tuning works ok but is a bit clumsy and occasionally misses pulsesFitting am Arduino Pro micro board...
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Pisch 432MHz amplifier module
When I visited Frederichshavn in 2018 I purchased some small Pisch dual BLF861 device 28V 432 MHz amplifier modules which had been used in TV trasnsmitters. I also got a larger two stage module with...
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CQWW RTTY 2021
For a change this year Roger and I decided to try the MS section from MW2I. Having read the rules that MS doesnt really mean MS we set up the second K3S as the mult station. It didnt go quite to plan...
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47and 76 GHz from Blorenge after the CQWW RTTY contest
As I was off work for the week after the CQWW RTTY contest and was passing the Blorenge on the way back I wanted to try some more 47/76GHz TV. Noel G8GTZ was persuaded to come west to be the...
View ArticleObtaining Accurate frequency spots from the RSP1a and skimmer server
As my Anan-10 is often used as an HF multiband panadaptor (to see which bands are open) rather than a skimmer I needed to deploy another SDR as a cw skimmer. I had a spare RSP1a so decided to try...
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47 GHz and 76 GHz DATV outing
Having failed to work 76km on 76GHz from the Blorenge G8GTZ and I decided to try some shorter pathsThe first one was from Hackpen hill IO91CL to IO91GI Combe Gibet. I had never been to Hackpen, but I...
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47 and 76 GHz man portable on the Malverns
As G8GTZ and G8GKQ were going to the Midlamds Convention at Eaton Manor, it seemed the ideal opportunity to try to extend the 76 GHz record distance record. They would go to Titterstone Clee amd i...
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Portable on Rosedale Moor IO94MJ
Before returning south I wanted to try another path with Rob M0DTS/P The slightly obstructed path was 115km between IO85XF20 Winters Gibbett and IO94MJ97 (Rosedale moor) Two way QSOs were had on all...
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IARU contest 2022 Day 2 Wharram le street IO94PB
On the second day of the contest both Rob and I moved locations. I went to Wharram le street IO94PB88 and rob went to Sutton Bank IO94JF55 a path length of 38km2 way qsos were had on all bands 432MHz...
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IARU contest 2022 Day 1 Garrowby IO93XO
After the boredom of last years IARU TV contest I decided to do something different in 2022. Being on a walking holiday in Ravenscar the week after the contest I decided to try some paths up there...
View ArticleDATV-Easy
Having listened to the presentation by PA3FBX during the BATC Convention 2022 Part 2 about the F1EJP DATV-Easy 2.08 software, I thought I would give it a try.The installation procedure is well...
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IARU TV Contest 2023 Day 1
This year I decided to go somewhere closer to home. Titterstone Clee seemed a good choice but the usual spot would be a bad choice as the path North was blocked and G8GTZ was threatening to be QRV on...
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IARU TV Contest 2024 Day 1
Noel G8GTZ decided he would be starting the contest at Dunkery beacon IO81FD so the obvious place to start the contest was Cleeve Common IO81XW, at the roadside position which always completes the...
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IARU TV Contest 2024 Day 2
An early start was made from Membury services after coffee and pastries. I then drove to Combe Gibbet, IO91GI61 from where I could see Gareth G4XAT/P on top of Walbury. He was worked on 5GHz, 10GHz...
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A visit to Dunkery Beacon IO81FD
Having booked a 7 night walking holiday at the HF Holidays location at Selworthy, Devon I realised it was just down the road from the famous Dunkery beacon IO81FD which I had worked many times from...
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Low cost skimmer
Occasionally intersting projects do get shown on the BATC QO100 net which runs on Thursday evenings.One such occasion was when GI4DOH mentioned he was using a cheap A to D board in front of a...
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Low cost SDR update (2): Encapsulation
The next task was to put the receiver in a box. As I wanted to make the receiver powered by 12V I needed room for a DC to DC converter and possibly some external filtering (to get rid of 198kHz...
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Low Cost SDR update (3): Multimode skimming
Having got all this data from the Receiver it obviously needed skimming. My current desktop, a 5th generation I5 would not have the power so I sarted to look around. I consulted GI4DOH what he used but...
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Low cost SDR update (4) One is not enough!
Having been impressed by the receiver I could not resist building another one, especially at the price! My supplier of the A/D board had a spare board and as G4BVY also wanted to build one a receiver...
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