60 m band

As a result of a request from VERON ("Vereniging voor Experimenteel Radio Onderzoek Nederland") to "Agentschap Telecom", in the Netherlands there is a chance that part of the 60 m band (5250 - 5450 kHz) comes available for experiments in the near future. This band, located between 40 and 80 m, is very interesting to do (QRP) experiments.
Although the operating frequency is below 10 MHz, the common voice mode used in the 5 MHz band is USB.

In advance of the release of the bandsegment I thought about a 5 MHz transverter. When using a 21 MHz transceiver, with a 16 MHz local oscillator, a transverter could look similar to the design shown below.

70 cm WebSDR

Since begin this month a UHF 70cm WebSDR has been activated.
The 70 cm antenna of the Software Defined Radio has been located in the
centre of the Netherlands, the Gerbrandytoren.
The frequency range of the receiver is 430.000 - 432.000 MHz
The URL to access the receiver via the internet is:

http://websdr.pi1utr.ampr.org:8901/

Source:
http://www.hamnieuws.nl/70cm-websdr-voor-nederlandse-repeaters/#more-6502

Hybrid TV PCI Card

If you want to watch life TV on your PC you might install a DVB-T USB stick these days.
A couple of years ago, when those USB sticks were not available, there were computercards that did the job.
Last week at kingsday we went to a fleemarket and found an unused Hybrid TV tuner card from Zolid (manufacture date 2009).
In the box, apart from card and software, an antenna, remote control and IR-eye had been included.
This morning I installed the card in an old Pentium IV pc that runs with Windows XP.
After installation of hard- and software (driver and "Total Media") I now can watch "free-to-air" transmissions of DVB-T stations (NPO1, NPO2, NPO2 and a local station) and listen to some radiostations. Decoding of "Teletext" signals works fine.
Besides the reception of DVB-T transmissions there is an option to watch analogue signals. Although the max receive frequency is 864 MHz, this option might be interesting for further experiments. 

Components used on the TV card:
-TDA18271 (tuner)
-TDA10048 (demodulator)
-TDA8290 (analog IF demodulator)
-SAA7131E (A/V decoder/pci interface)


http://www.datasheetarchive.com/dl/Datasheet-082/DASF0045845.pdf

                                                  Zolid TV card

Zolid TV tuner card

                                                      TV card installed in PC (aft card)

                                                   "Total Media"  up and running

DIY LF oscilloscope

One of the most interesting Do It Yourself kits I saw recently is digital oscilloscope with a 2.4 inch color TFT display. The scope can show signals up to a frequency of around 200 kHz.
The price is amazing: 21 euroos...

All the ins and outs can be found via this link.

http://www.banggood.com/DIY-Digital-Oscilloscope-Kit-Electronic-Learning-Kit-p-969762.html

Another interesting gadget to identify your unspecified components:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121309248191?_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Holy Land contest

Today I made some QSO's with Israelian stations participating in the Holy Land Contest 2015.
Conditions on 10 meter were ok since in 20 minutes I worked following stations:
4Z67TL, 4Z5LA, 4Z5WC, 4X4JU and 4Z1UF.
I used 20 Watts in USB around 28.500 MHz

http://www.iarc.org/iarc/#HolylandContest

More Moore

Today I ran into an interesting visualization of Moores Law;
the amount of integrated transistors versus time.
Each 2 years the amount of transistors doubles. From the 4 bit 4004 processor from 1972 to the most sophisticated processor nowadays (Xeon, 15 core). 
50 years ago Gordon Moore was right:

This week I drove along an old railway station that is not used anymore as station. I could not resist making a nice picture.

Station Vogelenzang-Bennebroek - along railway line Leiden CS-Haarlem - was built in 1880 and used as railwaystation until 1944. 

BC-696 transmitter

This week, at the radio club, a green radio, BC-696 was shown. This transmitter has been revised by Mans, PA2HGJ. He designed a Power Supply Unit for the valve transmitter so now it can be fed with 230 VAC mains.
The BC-696 had been used in Worldwar II in bomber aircraft like the B-17.
The transmitter originally uses 28 VDC power and was operated in CW or AM voice mode. It has two 1625 tubes in the Power Amplifier and is capable of delivering 50 Watts RF in the 80 m band ( unit operates from 3 - 4 MHz).

                               Frontview BC-696 CW/AM transmitter 

                                                Top view opened BC-696

Bottom view 

Side view

PSU, designed by PA2HGJ

Confirmation 4m contact with Slovenia

Summer 2012 had some good moments for VHF sporadic E communication. I made an SSB 70 MHz contact with Joze, S51ZO June 10, 2012. This week I received the paper QSL:

The website of Joze:  http://www.qsl.net/s51zo
Joze used a six elements antenna while I used an indoor dipole (!)

Slovenia has areas with a beautiful scenery

ATV transmitter in "QRP Nieuwsbrief"

Today I received the newsletter "QRP Nieuwsbrief"  and saw that my article about the QRP ATV 13 cm transmitter was published on pages 12-15. I hope that my article inspires people to build this small transmitter. 
In this blog I posted a couple of entries about my ATV endeavours with this device.

The " QRP Nieuwsbrief" is the newsletter from the Benelux QRP club. 

http://www.beneluxqrpclub.nl/

Confirmation 28 MHz contact with Greenland

Greenland is an enormous autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans.
With a population of less than 60,000, it is the least densely populated country in the world.
In 2011 I had a digimode (PSK63) radiocontact with Jan, OX3DB on 28.120 MHz and he sent me this eQSL:

Because there are so few radio operators in Greenland this is an eQSL to be treasured.
Up till now I made two other radiocontacts with Greenland (OX3XR and XP3A).