Collaborate Disseminate
[Helge Fykse (LA6NCA)] has a type, as they say. At least as far as radios are concerned, he seems to prefer elegant designs that keep the BOM to the minimum …read more Continue reading Altoids Tin Spy Radio Goes Solid State
In retrocomputing circles, it’s often the case that the weirder and rarer the machine, the more likely it is to attract attention. And machines don’t get much weirder than the …read more Continue reading Clock Hack Gives DEC Rainbow a New Lease on Life
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: the best part about holding an amateur radio license is that it lets you build and use your own transmitting equipment. …read more Continue reading Retro and New Tech Combine in this Hybrid Ham Transmitter
The Si5351 is an extremely useful device, containing multiple clock generators with many versatile programming options that go well beyond its original purpose of providing a clock for digital circuitry. …read more Continue reading Finally, Tame The Si5351!
A radio receiver is always a fun project. [Jayakody2000lk] decided that his new superheterodyne design would use an Arduino and it looks like it came out very nicely. The system …read more Continue reading Arduino Becomes Superhet with a Little Help From Friends
Probably the most interesting facets of amateur radio in 2021 lie in the realm of digital modes. Using the limitless possibilities of software defined radios has freed digital radio communication …read more Continue reading The Simplest FT8 Transceiver You’ll Ever Build
We’re used to our computers being powerful enough in both peripheral and processing terms to be almost infinitely configurable under the control of software, but there was a time when that was not the case. The 8-bit generation of home computers were working towards the limits of their capability just …read more
Continue reading This Commodore 16 Is An NTSC One… No, Wait, It’s A PAL One!
Many of us have fond memories of our introduction to electronics through the “200-in-1” sets that Radio Shack once sold, or even the more recent “Snap Circuits”-style kits. Most of eventually us move beyond these kits to design our circuits; still, there’s something to be said for modular designs. This …read more
Continue reading EBay Modules And Custom PCBs Make A Plug And Play Ham Transceiver
[Charlie Morris] has been busy building a portable ham radio rig and documenting his progress in a series of videos. You can see the first one below. There’s four parts (more if you count things like part 4 and part 4a as two parts) so far and it is always interesting to see inside a build like this, where the choices and tradeoffs are explained.
The first part covers the Si5351 VFO and the associated display. There’s very little to the VFO other than off-the-shelf modules including an Arduino. You can also see the portable Morse code key which is …read more
Continue reading Portable Ham Radio Design Fosters Experiments
It used to be homebrew ham gear meant something simple. A couple of active devices that could send CW. Maybe a receiver with a VFO. But only the most advanced builders could tackle a wide range SSB transceiver. Today, that goal is still not trivial, but it is way easier due to specialty ICs, ready access to high-speed digital signal processing, and advances in software-defined radio techniques. [Charlie Morris] decided to build an SSB rig that incorporated these technologies and he shared the whole process from design to operation in a series of nine videos. You can see the first …read more