New additions. 2 Hermes Lite 2 running SparkSDR and Thetis. At the back is a uBlox GPS for clock.

Moving QTH

I am preparing to move QTH and all operations will be closing down for now. Will be back as soon as I am settled in my new QTH. Thank you.

Update Jan 3 2021:  Happy New Year! I am back now, in new QTH and a different setup. Will update site. Thank you.

Signal One CX-7A transceiver

Got myself a non working Signal One CX-7A transceiver and with some work managed to get the receiver functioning now. Working on the transmit now, more to come ......

Signal One CX-7A

Magnetic loop antenna

I have been trying out a number of magnetic loop antennas recently and came up with this for use with my Braun T1000 receiver. Both the loop and the coupling loop are made from scrap heliax cabling and the tuning capacitor is from a broken down tube receiver. Now to look for a suitable variable capacitor so that it can be used for QRP transmit as well. More to come .....

CAT cable for Yaesu FT1000D & FT857D (& FT990)

I had a need to control either the FT1000D or FT857D for WSPR/WJST and here is what I came up with, simple and cheap. All my laptops and desktop computers do not have any serial port, only USB's. I have a couple of USB to TTL Serial Converters using the  CP2102 chipset on hand purchased on eBay for about $2.00 shipped and I used one of them for this.

CAT cable

USB to TTL Serial Converter

The above photo shows the cable for the FT1000D which uses a 6 pin DIN connector. Another similar cable was made up using an 8 pin mini DIN connector for the FT857D. Now I can also operate WSPR with frequency hopping using my FT1000D and Ft857D! 

USB to serial converter                                Transceiver CAT connector

                                                                       FT1000(D)      FT857D

RXD                                                               2                      4                                                             

TXD                                                               3                      5 

Gnd                                                                1                      2

If it does not work for the FT1000D install a pull down resistor of 1K5 between pin 2 and ground (pin 1). Yaesu radios including the FT-990, FT-1000D with TTL CAT ports use an 

emitter follower with a high impedance as driver on the serial out line.  With the USB to TTL CP2102 converter, the emitter follower does not provide enough load to pull the input of the
buffer/converter low (< 0.5 volt) in the off state. Yaesu added a 1K5 resistor from pin 2 to
ground in later production of the FT-990, FT-1000D and other radios using a similar circuit. This interface should work on the the FT990 as well.

The USB to TTL CP2102 serial converters are available on eBay or from:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SY-Hot-Selling-USB-2-0-to-TTL-UART-6PIN-Module-Serial-Converter-CP2102-STC-PRGMR-/271424128315?

Install relevant drivers for the OS you are using from:
https://www.silabs.com/products/mcu/Pages/USBtoUARTBridgeVCPDrivers.aspx

More to come ....

Mac Pro and IBM T221 3840x2400 4K 22" monitor

New addition to the shack Apple Mac Pro and IBM T221 monitor. Managed to get the T221 monitor for 3840 x 2400 display with the Lenovo T510. Still working on the Mac Pro, more to come ........

Apple Mac Pro

IBM T221 3840x2400 4K 22" monitor

3840 x 2400 resolution!

Braun T1000 receiver

Braun T1000

Braun T1000

Introduced in 1962 at the Berlin Radio Fair, this has become an iconic Dieter Rams / Braun design and part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was just recently that I was lucky to acquire this excellent condition T1000 AM, FM, LW, short-wave radio with internal PSU TN 1000 AC adaptor.
Braun T1000, designer Dieter Rams - Cold War Modern from Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.
http://vimeo.com/1874819

Front view (cover down)

Front view (cover up)

More information:
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/08/a-peek-inside-the-mind-of-dieter-rams/

Updates:
Dec 22 2015

Raspberry Pi GPS NTP Server

Raspberry Pi NTP server (lower)

NTP time server for local networked computers.
Raspberry Pi model B (bottom RPi in photo. Top RPi is a web server under construction.)
u-blox NEO-6M GPS module with internal antenna (need to be moved outdoor next)

Updates:
Dec 7, 2014
Changed over to  a Trimble GPS antenna, P/N 28367-00. This did not happen as I was using it for my Ultimate 3 MEPT.
May 16, 2015
Updated photo.

20m QRSS MEPT

Newly installed, running QRSS3 on 20m or 30m and occasionally with WSPR on 20m.

Ultimate3 v3.05 transmitter
u-blox Neo-7M GPS with internal antenna
Superantenna MP-1 (modified with longer whip) on balcony

Ultimate 3 / u-blox Neo-7M GPS

Upgraded U3 with relay switched LPF board

Superantenna MP-1 (modified)

Argo capture of test    

Spectrum Lab capture of test

Reports welcome, thank you.

Updates:
Nov 10, 2014
Ultimate3 firmware updated to v3.06. Working well as expected during tests.

Jun 19, 2015
Added relay switched LPF board and a hear sink to the PA transistor to  U3. Now QRSS on 30m with a new LPF..  

WSPR Station

View of R7

Another view of R7

Latest setup

Previous setup

WSPR station

Softrock RXTX Ensemble (40/30/20m) / Creative SB1090
LDG AT-100ProII autotuner/ Cushcraft R7 vertical @ ground level

WSPR 2.21_r2286 (frequency hopping)/ Meinberg ntp-4.2.6p5/ Windows 7 on a Lenovo T510 laptop

See http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map

Updates:
Nov 9, 2014
Reconfigured to use WSPR-IQ (WSPR 2.21_r2286).  Frequency hopping during tests, txrx on 20m & 30m and rx on 40m.

Nov 24, 2014
Reconfigured time sync to LAN NTP server just installed..

Jun 12, 2015
Replaced Creative SB1009 with a < $2.00 generic USB sound dongle (purchased through eBay), working nicely at 48 kHz sampling..

Sept 5, 2015
Updated Windows 7 to Windows 10.

SDR Radio Server



Old setup

Comet DS15

Softrock RX Ensemble II/ vertical wire loop antenna/ SB1090 X Fi soundcard
R820T dongle/ Comet DS15 discone antenna (25 to 1500 MHz)

SDR Server version 2.3 1990/ rtl_tcp/ Meinberg ntp-4.2.6p5/ Windows 7 on a Sony Vaio laptop
Username: guest Password: guest

See http://v2.sdrspace.com/
Comments/reports welcome to va7li@shaw.ca.

Updates:
Nov 24, 2014
Reconfigured time sync to LAN NTP server just installed..

May 3, 2015
R820T2 dongle ordered to replace the present R820T as soon as it arrives.

May 26, 2015
Added SB1090 soundcard and updated photo.

June 3, 2015
R820T2 dongle arrived and installed!

July 16, 2015
Service stopped as Sony Vaio acting up! Moving service to a Lenovo ThinkCentre. Service will resume shortly.

July 17, 2015
SDR server back in service, everything the same but now running on a Lenovo Thinkcentre M58p.

July 21, 2015
Installed BOINC and processing SETI@home v7 to maximize computer usage.

Sept 5, 2015
Updated Windows 7 to Windows 10.