Cheap New Ham

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Arduino I/Q Audio Frequency DDS


I have a long-term dream to design a single-signal direct-conversion receiver using a microcontroller for the audio processing. In trying to figure out how I—a relative newbie to digital and RF design—could design a transceiver, I figured that I needed some basic test gear and a way to gain experience with microcontroller programming. My first attempt was to turn an eBay AD9850 module into a VFO using an Arduino Nano as the controller and various displays and buttons and encoders for the interface. I may document that one eventually, but that’s a project that’s been done a million times before.

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Inbound Homebrewing


I’ve always been interested in homebrewing equipment as one of the best ways to be productive as a cheap ham. Generally, the components for a simple transceiver are less expensive than buying such a transceiver or even buying a kit that is already made for you. There are lots of great resources out there for homebrewing, but I’ll just mention two.

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Blog Reboot


I haven’t been posting on this blog because the setup that I had been using to generate the HTML files had bit-rotted. Originally, the blog was built in the Python-based static site generator Nikola but the theme setup that I had created did not survive a migration to another computer. In addition, I was having trouble uploading the generated site to the web host at qsl.net.

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On the Air on 40 meters


Tonight it all came together, a wire antenna made from salvaged hookup wire and coax, a 30 year old transceiver and a homebrewed antenna switch and dummy load. I made my first contact on the high frequency (HF) bands tonight. It was on 40 meters around 7.228 MHz with Harry KW5HP in Little Rock, AR. We had your standard chit-chat about location, signal strength and weather and then signed off. I made sure to tell him that he was my first QSO and he was kind about it.

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HF for misers


Getting on the air has to be the ultimate goal for any new ham radio operator, like myself. With the advent of inexpensive dual-band handheld transceivers for VHF and UHF, it is easy to get on the two meter and 70 centimeter ham bands. The lower frequency ham bands, known collectively as high frequency (HF) are a different story. So far, cheap Chinese radios have not appeared for these frequency ranges, and basic radios sell for $500-$700 new. For many people who are just getting into ham radio, this is cost prohibitive. Or maybe someone with experience on VHF/UHF just doesn’t want to spend that much to try something new.

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