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posted by janrinok on Friday September 20 2019, @09:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the CQ-CQ-CQ dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Ham radio, especially the HF bands, can be intimidating for aspiring operators, many being put off by the cost of equipment. The transceiver itself is only part of the equation and proper test and measurement equipment can easily add hundreds of dollars to the bill. However, such equipment goes a long way to ease the frustrations of setting up a usable station. Fortunately [Ashhar Farhan, VU2ESE] has been at it again, and recently released the Antuino, an affordable, hackable test instrument for ham radio and general lab for use.

As you can probably guess from the name, it is primarily intended for testing antennas, and uses an Arduino Nano as a controller. It has quite a list of measurement functions including SWR, field strength, cable loss, RF cable velocity, modulation, and frequency response plotting. It also provides a signal source for testing. Its frequency range includes the HF and VHF bands, and it can even work in the UHF bands (435Mhz) if you are willing to sacrifice some sensitivity. The software is open source and available with the schematics on Github.

Most of the active ham radio operators today are of the grey haired, retired variety. If the hobby is to stand any chance of outliving them, it needs to find a way to be attractive to the younger generations who grew up with the internet. The availability of affordable and hackable equipment can go long way to making this happen, and [Ashhar Farhan] has been one of the biggest contributors in this regard. His $129 μBITX HF SSB/CW transceiver kit is by far the best value for money general coverage HF radio available.

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Saturday September 21 2019, @08:17AM (1 child)

    by jmichaelhudsondotnet (8122) on Saturday September 21 2019, @08:17AM (#896761) Journal

    this system is not failing.

    how long do you think until we have a full spectrum frequency/amplitude scanner like this for home use?

    If someone wants their home scanned to see if a cell tower on the roof is idk affecting their sleep or giving them a headache, does anyone know what devices are used? How many different devices would you need to scan a reasonably full spectrum?

    (not asking because I have this problem, but because I could one day have this problem if reckless people install trouble in my city)

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by Rupert Pupnick on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:12PM

    by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Saturday September 21 2019, @06:12PM (#896865) Journal

    You’re basically describing a spectrum analyzer with an antenna connected to the RF input port.

    With advances in DSP made possible in cheap, dense CMOS, you can buy one that weighs less than 2 pounds for under $5000 https://www.tek.com/spectrum-analyzer/rsa306 [tek.com]. This doesn’t include the laptop you connect to the other port, AC power, antenna with (preferably) 50 ohm feedpoint of your choosing. After that you’re good to go.