Let's see if I can stir up some mud.

What is Science?

Video:

 Remember this antenna I was working on?

Well, I had no idea of how well it would perform or its
characteristics, well, now I do, here is a graph of
the SWR on it across the entire HF spectrum:

The SWR is high (sometimes EXCEEDINGLY high)
where I need it low, and low where I don't care.

It does this same form of pattern right up to
about 54 Mhz, then there is one last dip at around 60 Mhz,
from there up, it is high.

I have been using it with an antenna tuner, but, due to
the location on our deck, and the, sub-optimal
performance shown above, I'm not making a horrendous
number of contacts.

Add having to use low power and I am not overly impressed,
guess I need to change the design...

Oh well, onward and upward.

Update:

The connection between the VNA and the antenna
was jury-rigged in the image above, but, with a
proper SMA to PL259 adapter, the differences
aren't that great.

じゃまた

Well, I won a scope!

I just don't win stuff, so, I am chuffed.
This was actually a couple of years ago, but hey,
better posted later than never, right? 😁

 Well that was R*E*A*L fun...

NOT!

 So this will be a quick post, links mostly.

I decided to get a Beitian BN-880 GPS/Compass module
for experiments I have in mind.

So, I hooked it up to an Arduino Uno.
Here is the wiring diagram:

Note, the wiring colors are meaningless, as each
manufacturer supplies cables with different colored
leads. As you can see here, red is not power, and
black is not ground.

 The sketch I used to test the set-up came from the GPS library:

TinyGPS++

Click for Github page.

The sketch I demo in the video is the basic example.

 The video:

じゃまた

 If you want to see my projects in video format, visit my VLOG:

https://rumble.com/user/number6of1

 じゃまた

 I decided to take a breather from the SWR bridge and the swr sweeper to build this: it's my build of a "Duinovox" Basically an automated T/R switch for use with digital modes. The original design is by Kevin Loughin, KB9RLW. His blog is here: KB9RLW Blog.

Kevin's Youtube page is here: Duinovox KB9RLW.

Which is where I first saw it, not too long ago actually. The big difference between Kevin's unit, and the one I have built is that I designed a quick and dirty PCB in Kicad, then had it manufactured at OSH Park. (I hate point-to-point wiring) The board is not the prettiest I've ever designed, but it will do....

Here's my unit:

I also added an on-board regulated power supply, as I was going to keep my USB sound card external to the case I eventually put this into.

I will give a report a little later, plus, I will have a Rumble video up as well.

"Keep your stick on the ice, we're all pulling for you"

Red Green

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 My other project, an SWR scanner, is built and working, well, sort of. There's an issue where it gives pretty much the exact same reading no matter the antenna hooked up to it. A dummy load should give a nearly flat response across the band, but it doesn't, same thing with a 50 Ohm termination, it's giving some mighty odd readings, so stay tuned for more troubleshooting.

Video of breadboarding.

じゃまた