WDØDXD

I ordered the Lazy Dog Engineering LD-1B SDR receiver on Tuesday and had it in the mailbox on Thursday.  Impressive delivery time I must say.  It came in a small box with a mini cd that included Winrad 1.6.1 and the control software for the LD-1B.

Construction is excellent.  It is in a black aluminum chassis and has an on/off button on the front and two led’s.  The back consists of a usb connector, three 3.5mm connectors and a power connector for a wall wart.

I got out my newer Lenovo Thinkpad that is running Windows 7 64bit and installed Winrad and the LD-1B control software with no problems.  Then I realized the new laptop had no discernible mic jack which is needed to feed the output from the LD-1B to the pc for processing by Winrad.  So I got out a USB dongle sound card that I had and plugged it in.  I turned on the LD-1B and Win7 recognized and configured it right up.  Off we go.

I used it that way for awhile.  It was ok and I started to familiarize myself with Winrad and the controls for the LD-1B.  I found that to bring up the LD-1B control panel you just hit the H key twice.  I played with it this way for a couple of hours, but began to realize that since I was using a really low end sound card, the image rejection wasn’t very good.

So I pulled out a Creative Labs E-MU 0202 USB sound card that I had purchased to work with another SDR I am building.  That’s when the fun began.  I have spent the last two days trying to get the 0202 working.

First the cd for the 0202 doesn’t include Win7 64 bit drivers.  After a search on the internet, I found some beta drivers for it and downloaded them.  Fine, they installed ok and I thought great, here we go.  I would just plug the audio cable from the other sound card in to the input on the back of the 0202.  Doesn’t work.

After many hours of searching the internet, I finally found information that says you can’t use the 3.5mm jack on the back of the 0202 for input, you only get one channel.  I searched a bit longer and finally found this link: http://www.genesisradio.com.au/G40/11assemblyG40.html that shows you how to make a cable for an 0202 that works for SDR.  After two trips to the local Radio Shack, I get the correct components and the cable is made.

I can now use the LD-1B at a sample rate of 192k with good rejection I believe.  I need to work with the sound card and Winrad more to get the feel of everything.  One thing I have learned is there is a learning curve to SDR.  It’s not the same as firing up the old Icom 746Pro and tunning the dial.  Not harder, just different.

Now I have one problem.  Again with the 0202.  I will go along just fine and then the audio coming from my headset will just stop.  I still see the images on the screen, just no audio out of the head set.  So I am not sure if that is a software issue, or a hardware problem with the 0202.

My first impression of the LD-1B is that it is a well built little unit.  It was pretty much plug and play.  The E-MU 0202, not so much.  So far for me, it has been finicky with documentation in short supply.

More later as I have more time to play with it.  But it does seem like the LD-1B is a good rig to get your feet wet in SDR!

I need to figure out how to plan my vacations around my Amateur Radio hobby.  This is a perfect example of Hams getting together to commemorate a historical event and doing it in a great vacation location.

The family loves to go to Branson, since there is something to do for everyone.  In fact we went twice last year.

Anyway this looks like a fun event.  Read More here….

Ok, maybe it should be called Stupid Ham Tricks.  Here is one thing that I have done that many of you have already thought of.  But I thought I would share it anyway.  You can call me slow, just don’t call me Shirley.

I created an alert for may own call sign.  Yes I know that is probably obvious to most of you, but I run two computers here, my work computer and my Ham computer.  There have been a few times when I have called CQ or answered a CQ and had to flip over to my other computer on the KVM switch I use and have gotten distracted.  Eventually I remember and switch back, but the party on the other side has had to wait or just given up on me.

So now when they respond, I hear my call sign announced in that oh so monotone male voice and it brings me back to reality.

If you are new to DM780 just click on tools->Alerts and add a new alert and enter your callsign in the text box.

If anyone else has some more Stupid DM780 Tricks to share let me know.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and its more than 160 Member-Societies that represent countries around the world will celebrate World Amateur Radio Day on April 18. The theme for this year’s celebration is Amateur Radio: The First Technology-Based Social Network.

Long before the Internet and smart phones, Amateur Radio operators have been talking, texting and sharing for decades. But unlike those commercial services, Amateur Radio continues to attract people world-wide by providing international communications for free. And because it does not need pre-established supporting infrastructure, these radio-savvy “amateurs” can reach out to friends in every corner of the world, as well as into space.

For more Info check this article on ARRL’s Website.

 

Finally ordered a Lazy Dog LD-1B SDR receiver today.  I have another SDR I am working on getting built, but in the meantime I bit the bullet and purchased this on pre-assembled off course.

I love building kits and projects, but sometimes it’s just fun to plug something in and have it work.  So we are going to start playing with this one.  I will write up a good review of it when I have a chance to test it.  This will give me a chance to compare WinRad and PowerSDR also.  So check back soon.

According to NASA/Marshall Solar Physics predictions sunspot cycle 24 will probably be the lowest maximum in nearly 200 years.

I got back into Amateur Radio at the right time didn’t I 🙂  I realize it isn’t all bad, I have made contacts as far away as South Africa and Japan the last couple of weeks.  So I don’t really have a right to complain.

Talking to some old timers, I have been told stories of operators tuning up a lawn chair and making contacts around the world on 10 meters.  Guess I will have to wait until the next cycle.

I was surprised to read tonight that Groklaw.net will cease publishing new articles on May 16th of this year.  What does this have to do with Amateur Radio.  A lot actually.

Groaklaw was formed by Pamela Jones when SCO filed a lawsuit against IBM for its contributions to Linux the Open Source operating system not copied from but functionally similar to Unix.

It was a full attack on Linux and the Open Source Community.  It took many twists and turns over the years and Groklaw was there to cover it all and accumulate evidence about the development of Linux and other matters that were important to the Open Source Community.  Well PJ has decided that Linux has won and her services will no longer be needed, so she will be closing shop on the anniversary of starting Groklaw.  I wish her well and hope to see her someday in her red dress.  (You have to check out really old posts on Groklaw to understand the red dress)  I learned an awful lot about the American Legal system by following her posts and also some things about the seedier side of American Business and the news media.

What does that have to do with Amateur Radio?  Well several things come to mind.  Many of the software innovations that we have in Ham Radio today run on Linux.  IRLP is just one of the major ones I can think of off the top of my head.  This blog is running on a Linux server.  Many of the major Amateur Radio sites run on Linux.  Your phone probably is running on Android which is derived from Linux.

Also the open source community is really an evolution of Amateur Radio isn’t it?  Before there was Collins, Heathkit etc.  There was a community of Hams working together to develop our hobby.  When major corporations go after communities like that, we need to stand up and defend them, just like we would defend our hobby.

Plenty of activity in the Ham Shack this weekend. Most of it not good. I am working on a project that I started back in January and had to put aside. I want to get it done for camping season, but I hit a road block. More on that later.

I was using my Icom 746Pro today. Looked away and turned back and noticed that HRD wasn’t connecting to the unit. Turned around and looked at it, and it was off. So was the power supply. It is an older Astron RM-50A. The fuse was blown. While researching what type of fuse it is (which I am still not sure of) it became pretty clear that the rectifier had probably blew and I needed to repair it. So I have a RM-30A that I will swap and put in it’s place for now. Then I will have a post on the repair of the RM-50A. Looks like I might do some upgrades on it in the process.

 

The only thing that did go right, I had little to do with. This weekend one of our association members climbed one of our towers and installed a new commercial Larsen antenna on a local repeater. The wind this weekend caused the work to span over two days, but it is up and running again. We moved it up about 30 feet higher, so we have a lot better range on it.

Here’s to hoping this doesn’t portend to how this week is going to go.

I was tooling around on the Android Marketplace awhile back and came a crossed the Echo Link app.  I installed it , but didn’t try it out, since I didn’t want to mess with faxing a copy of my license in and so forth.

Well I was going through my emails yesterday trying to weed my inbox down from over a thousand and found the Echo Link registration email.  I click on the embedded link and went to their site.  I couldn’t use the phone authentication since our private line is unlisted, but I noticed that you could use TQSL to authenticate.  So I downloaded their small utility and ran it.  put my cert password in and in literally seconds I was authenticated.

 

I haven’t made any contacts yet, but plan to in the next few days.  I still have to get over the idea of Amateur Radio without a radio, but we won’t re-hash that argument here.