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amateur radio - wa6ydq

I got into amateur radio because I like to build radios.

I have been making small, portable radios since I got my license in 1978. I call this line the Runaway series. My idea was to have a small, portable and usable radio that I could take with me anywhere I wanted to go. Below are some of the ones I made. Clicking on the images will bring up a larger picture.

Above is the Runaway 1. This was my first solid-state transmitter built in 1978. It covered the 80M and 40M novice bands, was crystal controlled, and put out about 2 watts. I worked 38 states, and several countries with this. My receiver at the time was a Heathkit HR-10.

Above is the Runaway 3. This is a 40M VFO controlled CW transceiver. It has a a frequency counter using a PIC chip and several discreet components, a keyer, notch and bandpass filters, and a 40W PA. It's the prettiest radio I ever made.

Here is a view of the front.

Above is the Runaway 4 40M CW transceiver. I had some ideas about a stable oscillator, simple receiver and TR switching I wanted to try out. I made several contacts with this. It is small (as seen by the 9V battery next to the radio) and puts out about 4 watts.

Above is the Runaway 5 40M CW transceiver. This is a DDS/PIC microprocessor controlled transceiver. It tunes 7.000 to 7.150 MHz in 10Hz steps. It's small, does not drift, puts out 1/2 watt, and has a two digit LED display with a decimal point to show 7.100 to 7.150. Normally the display shows the last 2 digits of the frequency in 1kc steps.

This is the circuit board detail. The two empty sockets on the right hold a NE-612, LM741, TL082 and LM386 audio amp. The DDS chip is the small IC upper left. The computer is the 18pin dip on the left. The two white things on bottom left are 7 segment displays for frequency. To save power, the displays go dark 3 seconds after tuning is complete.

The Runaway 6 (above) is a smaller, DDS controlled (ADC9850) CW transceiver that puts out 2 watts on 40M and 20M. It is currently the one of the more advanced, trail-friendly transceivers I have made. It weighs 8 ounces and is tuned with the paddles (in RX mode). In TX mode, the paddles activate the built-in keyer. It has RIT, and a lot of other features. It uses a PIC 16F827 processor. This is the first radio to use surface mount components, which meant that I designed a PC board for it. The center LED's are the frequency display from the center freq.

Here is a portable tuner/SWR meter I use on the trail. It handle 10 watts, and uses a LED for the SWR indicator. It's the same size as Runaway 6 and 9.
At minimum swr, the LED is almost not lit. It is very sensitive. There are also switches on back for Hi-Z/Lo-Z antennas.

Here is RA-6 and the Tuner together. The two make a nice, small package. The 9V battery gives an indication of the size of the pair.

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Between 30KHz and 300KHz is the radio band known as VLF (Very Low Frequency). The wavelengths in this frequency range are so long that they can, with a lot of power and a good antenna, travel around the world. Submarines use these frequencies for communications using slow-speed data transmission. WWVB, a time signal (listen here) is at 60 KHz. If you have an atomic clock, this is what it listens to for syncronization. Some European broadcast stations use frequencies around 200 KHz to 350 KHz. They can sometimes be heard on the east coast of the US. The Long Wave Club of America has a web site here with more information on VLF.

There are also many marine navigation beacons in this range. Alan Gail has a Beacon guide in .pdf format. It is very good. A zipped copy is here (3 MB). His web site is here. In the US, there is an experimenters band from 160 KHz to 190 KHz (1750 Meters). Maximum power to the antenna allowed is 1 watt, and the antenna cannot be longer than 50 feet including feedline. There is a simular band at 136 KHz for the British.

Below 10 KHz (audio frequency range using RF) can be heard Natural Radio. Some of the first listeners here were soldiers in World War 1 listening to their amplifiers trying to hear the enemies telephone communications. What they heard was a rising or falling tone. They also heard short pinging sounds. These were later found to be naturally occuring radio sources caused by lightning travelling around the world between the ground and the ionosphere, the Aurora and the Earths magnetic field. These sounds are known as sferics and whistlers.

There is (as of May 2005) a receiver sponsored by NASA that lets you listen to these sounds on-line. Click here for their site.

Several years ago I built a receiver to listen to these sounds. Steven McGreevy designed it, and has devoted much of the last several years pursuing this hobby. You can go to his web site here.  Here is a short .wav file of a whistler. Here is another.

If you would like to make a receiver for yourself (it's easy - you could build it in a night if you have any electronic building experience) here is a .pdf file describing it. Here is McGreevy's web site describing this receiver (BBB-4) in more detail.

Here is a picture showing my receiver. This radio has a short (3 foot/1M) antenna. This is necessary to prevent overload of the receiver. It acts as capacitive coupling to the E-field (Electric field as opposed to M field, or Magnetic field). If you are near power lines, under or above-ground, you will hear a large 60 Hz hum. You will also hear your footsteps as you are walking. McGreevy had success by going out into the desert to listen. I usually drive to a deserted farm away from power lines to hear.

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I set up my first (attempted) EME station on two meters in 1995. Back then I used 4 short-boom yagis giving me about 17 dBd gain, but with a beamwidth of about 30 degrees. I could hear sun noise well, but could only hear the stronger stations (W5UN et al). I had an 18dB gain .75db noise figure pre-amp at the antenna feeds. I used an Icom IC-251A transceiver, a 100W amp and 7/8 Andrews Heliax (hardline). The setup worked OK for terrestrial use. I could work from Oregon to San Diego from CM98. This is the antenna setup.

About this time, I met Rich Starrets, KA6NBC. He worked 2M EME and made antennas and amplifiers at his shop. I bought a 2M amp (8877/2.5KW out, one of his first production units) from Rich and changed my antennas. I turned the four antennas into two 36 foot long boom, 5 wavelength antennas. Using software called Yagimax, I made the antennas perform as well as I could. While I still had about 17dBd gain on the two antennas, my beamwidth was now about 18 degrees. This reduced the noise and increased directivity/gain. My terrestrial operating was very good! With 5 watts to the antennas, I could peg S-meters at 30 miles. Now I could make EME contacts. I could sometimes just hear my own echos (on a good day).

Then I moved. I went from having a half-acre back yard to .15 acre. I couldn't even put up one of the yagis. But since the antennas were destroyed a few months after the move, it didn't really matter too much. Two years later, I'm just now putting up a small (7 element) 2M x-polar yagi I used to use for satellites. Best would be a 4 long-boom yagis (Cushcraft 17B2 or M2 2M5WL). I'll move again, someday...

Since I first started a few years ago, there have been new developments in DSP software. One new program is JT44 and another is JT65. (WJST Home Page). Both are good for pulling signals out of the noise floor and have been optimized for EME and weak signal work on VHF. There have been reports of people using a five-element yagi with a few hundred watts working other, better equipped stations on EME. It seems that with about 1500W ERP, EME was possible.  So there is hope. I'll update this page if I make it work.

Need an amp for 432? 100W in, 1500W out. pdf file of a 432 amp
Some construction details here.

Here is a reprint of the W6PO original 8877 2M Amplifier.

Real-Time EME Reflector - see what's currently going on.

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VHF/UHF Calling Frequencies

6M

50.110 - DX (No American Stations)
50.125 - SSB
50.200 - SSB Alt
52.525 - Old FM Calling Freq.
50.300 - New FM Calling Freq.
50.400 - AM Calling Freq.

2M

144.200 - SSB Calling - no Rag chewing
144.100 - CW Calling
144.240 - PNWVHFS New - Western US Net Sun 8 AM/ Thurs. 8 PM Local
144.250 - Western States Net Sun/Thurs. 8 PM Local
144.275 - 144.300 - Beacons

1 1/4M

222.100 - SSB/CW and Weak Signal
223.500 - National FM Simplex

70CM

432.100 - SSB/CW Calling

23CM

1296.100 - SSB/CW Calling
1294.500 - National FM Simplex

13CM

2304.100 - SSB/CW Calling
2304.300 - 2304.400 - Beacons

9CM

3456.3 - 3456.4 - Beacons

5CM

5760.3 - 5760.4 - Beacons

3CM

10,3640 - Calling
10,368.3 - 10,368.4 - Beacons