Insert obligatory “It’s been too long since I’ve posted!” apology, and “I’ll be sure to post more often” empty promise here. Now that that’s out of the way… If you just want to listen to the HHI recordings, skip to “Without further ado…” at the bottom of this post. What happened to SOAR? I just realized I haven’t posted here… Read More »OHIS/HHI Test Recordings
Recent events (around November 2022; I won’t cover it here, look it up yourself please) have a lot of people leaving Twitter and looking for an alternative. I (Mark and Halibut Electronics) have chosen Mastodon and the Fediverse as our new Social Media Platform of choice. This means I will no longer be posting on Twitter. If you’re interested in… Read More »Mastodon and Fediverse
I’ve been an EE to one degree or another for 30-ish years now. And one thing I never understood was when a decibel was 10*log_10(x) and when it was 20*log_10(x). My EE books describe it as 20*, but common use has always been 10*. A brief refresher Skip this part if you already know how to use decibels. A decibel… Read More »TIL: Decibels, Power, and Root Power
I worked Patrick, WD9EWK on his SOAR, using my SOAR, through the ISS! It was a bit sketchy, lots of stations calling and not responding, but we both heard each other and got our grid squares! We’re calling it a QSO! This is the first SOAR to SOAR contact. Hopefully to be followed by many more to come. I also… Read More »First SOAR to SOAR QSO!
I realize this is probably not what you want to read from the person who designing hardware specifically for the purpose of operating satellites, but I just made my first two Satellite QSOs during the 23:40UTC ISS pass over the South West US today! My first ever satellite QSO, with WA6ARA DM15: You can hear me get a little flustered… Read More »My First Satellite QSO!
Since I started selling the Common Mode Current Choke Test Rig I’ve had several people ask me this question, and it’s a good one. tl,dr: I recommend the “NanoVNA V2 Plus4” from NanoRFE https://nanorfe.com/nanovna-v2.html If you don’t care about my reasons and just want to throw money at something you’re not likely to regret, get the original from the people… Read More »Which NanoVNA Should I Get?
(I blame Alun for the cheesy Queso joke.) The first successful satellite QSOs made with SOAR prototype hardware happened this morning on the ~17:30 UTC pass of AO-91 over South Western US. Patrick Stoddard WD9EWK worked W7JSD in southern Arizona, N6UTC in Long Beach, California, and XE2BHL in Tijuana. I haven’t implemented pass audio recording in SOAR yet (it will… Read More »WE HAVE QUESO– err, i mean QSO!
I’ve had several questions about what additional hardware you’ll need to provide for SOAR. One of those “additional hardware you’ll need to provide” is a headset. Lots of people have very strong opinions on headsets, and that’s ok. There are a lot of good options available, and they all optimize for different variables. One headset may be better for your… Read More »SOAR Headset Connector
(Originally posted to Twitter.) AO-7 (or AMSAT OSCAR 7), an amateur radio satellite we can still (again?) use today, was launched in 1974. I saw this magazine with an article on that launch at a local ham fest and had to buy it. I got it for half price! 😉 AO-7 has an interesting history, covered in detail in its… Read More »AO-7 Appreciation
I got a question today that I realized I haven’t answered well/publicly enough: “What is the CMCC Test Rig? What problem does it solve? How would I use it?” — Mailing list subscriber. Asked in DM so I’ll keep it anonymous. Those weren’t the exact words, but that’s basically what they were asking. The Short Answer: The CMCC Test Rig… Read More »What is the Common Mode Current Choke Test Rig?