6m Antenna Upgrade Part 3 – microHam Antenna Control System

The next step in our project is to configure our microHam station management system to support the new antennas and other components in our 6m antenna project. Each radio in our station (we have five that are 6m capable) has a microHam Station Master Deluxe antenna controller that is used to select and control all … Continue reading

An 80m Broadband Matching System

We installed a 75m loop for SSB operation on our tower when we built it. The loop is full size and is diamond shaped so that our lower SteppIR DB36 yagi can rotate inside of it. The loop is fed at the bottom corner about 20 ft up from the ground. It works great for … Continue reading

Plans for 2017 Station Upgrades – Radio, Shared Amplifier, and Remote Op Enhancements

We have several station upgrades planned for this fall. Our planned upgrades include the following: Enhancing our FlexRadio 6700-based Remote Operating Setup to include additional remote control client options, better networking via the Internet, and better integration with our microHAM system – you can read about this completed project here. Upgrading the second radio in Anita’s … Continue reading

A Portable Satellite Station Part 2 – 2.0 Station Goals and Antenna System

We came upon the M2 Antenna Systems booth while walking around the exhibit halls at Dayton last year. M2 had one of their LEO Pack satellite antenna systems on display there. This got us thinking about building a new, more capable version of our portable satellite station. The LEO Pack is a relatively lightweight circularly … Continue reading

Fall Antenna Projects – A New Low-Band Receive Antenna System

Anita and I like to take advantage of the mild fall weather to do antenna projects at our QTH. We have completed two such projects this fall – the installation of a Two-Element Phased Receive System and a rebuild of the control cable interconnect system at the base of our tower. Our first project was the … Continue reading

A Portable Satellite Station Part 4 – 2.0 Station First Contacts!

With our new 2.0 Satellite station built, tested, and packed; we were ready to try it in a portable environment. Fortunately, the Nashua Area Radio Club had a Technician License class coming up and we thought that the new station test would be a great way for our students to learn about Amateur Radio Satellites. Final … Continue reading

Software Defined Radio/Remote Operating Gateway Part 1 – System Design And Hardware Installation

Flex-6700 Software Defined Radio And Remote Operating Gateway We’ve been planning to add a remote operating capability to our station for some time now. We also did some previous work with a FlexRadio Software Defined Radio (SDR) in our station, and we felt that an SDR would be a good platform to build a remote operating project … Continue reading

Software Defined Radio/Remote Operating Gateway Part 3 – On The Air Remote!

Remote Operating Setup In Our Home Office In the previous articles in this series, we explained how we integrated a FlexRadio-6700 Software Defined Radio (SDR) into our station and how we used it as a platform to build the Remote Operating Gateway for our station. The project has turned out to be somewhat involved so we will … Continue reading

Software Defined Radio/Remote Operating Gateway Part 2 – Client/Server Setup And Software

Remote Operating Gateway Client/Server Architecture The next step in our Software Defined Radio/Remote Operating Project was to build a Remote Operating Gateway System in our shack and set up Client PCs to operate our station remotely. In a previous article, we explained how we integrated a FlexRadio 6700 Software Defined Radio (SDR) into our station to … Continue reading

An Introduction To The DXLab Suite

I recently had the opportunity to do a presentation introducing the DXLab Software Suite for several local radio clubs. The idea was to provide a fairly comprehensive introduction to DXLab and to show how it can be used to make Amateur Radio operations, QSL’ing, and Award Management easier and more enjoyable. There are several good … Continue reading