Monthly Archives: April 2019

Joe Taylor’s upcoming FT-4 and the value of bit shaping

Posted on April 24, 2019 by robert

I was watching a video of Joe Taylor giving a presentation at the Fair Lawn Amateur Radio Club (Thanks, Bob W1YRC, for that reference).  Joe started giving some details of his upcoming FT-4 protocol (starts at 15:35 mark).  FT-4 might … Continue reading →

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April 2019 FMT Results: Green Bar!

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Bob Beatty

Well the results are in, with 112 people submitting measurements, 74 of 112 (including me) made the Green Band (< 1 Hz error).  Five of those had errors less than 0.1 Hz error. My results were 0.26 Hz high on … Continue reading →

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Siglent SDG 2042X Stability Test

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Bob Beatty

I want to replace my dead HP 3335A with a new Siglent SDG 2042X.  After all, the latter is 40 years newer, 20 pounds lighter, and maybe 1/8 the volume.  It is also silent as a church mouse (the HP’s … Continue reading →

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Elecraft K3s DDS/PLL Induced Drift

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Bob Beatty

I wasn’t very clear when I was posting about my pre-FMT calibration.  But I did describe that the K3s was not a particularly effective rig to use for a FMT.  This is because of how the digital synthesizer was implemented.  … Continue reading →

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So Long OLD Friend!

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Bob Beatty

And just like that, my 1980 vintage HP 3335A Synthesizer died this afternoon when I turned it on to get a better graph of my K3s PLL frequency hunting.  Dreaded “Unlocked” indicator and crazy display.  I have another that I’ve … Continue reading →

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Preliminary Results for April 2019 FMT

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Bob Beatty

I was able to participate in the FMT last night (around 10 PM local time).  This was a pretty big deal for me, because I haven’t been in the basement that late at night since I was in the hospital … Continue reading →

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Rig Instability and Calibrating for FMT

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Bob Beatty

Back in the day, a superhet receiver, employed several mixer stages, requiring various oscillators, and a sometimes sketchy VFO (Anybody remember the Swan 753 — lovingly referred to as the Seven Drifty Three?).  That made for a real challenge when … Continue reading →

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Getting Ready for April 12 FMT

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Bob Beatty

The next Frequency Measuring Test (FMT) is scheduled for 0200 UTC on April 12.  For us East-coasters, that would be 10 PM EDT on THURSDAY. I’ve just powered up my gear so it will be sitting in a stable for … Continue reading →

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DMR 2 YSF Crossover

Posted on April 5, 2019 by robert

Having now gotten my DJ-MD5 working well on DMR, I figured it was time to up the stakes and see if I could use the DMR2YSF bridge feature.  Sure enough it works, although not fully yet.  It appears that the … Continue reading →

Posted in DJ-MD5, DMR, YSF, ZumSpot | 5 Comments

160-meter WAS Certificate Received

Posted on April 5, 2019 by robert

Just a few days ago I used LotW to apply for my 160-meter WAS certificate.  I received it today (fast service, thanks ARRL!) I was surprised to see a fairly low number (1667).  Hard to believe that 160-meter WAS is … Continue reading →

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