VE7WNK.ca » Uncategorized

A gift from VE7FET

ve7wnk — Tue, 18 Mar 2014 19:54:26 +0000

Lee showed up with a toy for me to play with. There is not much to share or say about this other than it worked like a charm and is a great learning tool.

In the video I look at NOAA weather radio on 162.550…

RTL SDR, Ham It UP!, and more

ve7wnk — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 09:24:03 +0000

A quick video I put together at BCIT of me messing with my new “Ham It UP!” upconverter for HF signals.

BCWARN Update at VE7BFC

ve7wnk — Sun, 02 Feb 2014 08:00:36 +0000

The BCIT ARC is back on BCWARN with a new 5.8ghz data link. This new radio replaces the previous VINE radio which operated at 2.4ghz.

BCWARN is a network of EOC (Emergency Operations Centers) and radio clubs which support emergency communications. The BCWARN network is based on high-elevation sites which act as hub-nodes for the network. These nodes are often multi-homed with other sites, forming a partial-mesh or ring topology. The current network map shows a ring between UBC (main internet gateway and server host), SFU (busiest RF site), and Mount Seymour (Highest elevation location), as well as a ring between SFU, UBC, and a high rise in Burnaby known as “The Boot”. These multiple rings allow for sites to fail without sever impact to other sites in the network.

BCIT is a single homed site as SFU is the only site which BCIT can see reliably. A path to Mount Seymour is not possible due to tree cover, even though the mountain is prominent to the north.

Check out the installation photos, and a time-lapse below:

A special thanks goes out to Jeremy (VA7NSA) and Ian (VE7HHS) who did the tower work. Ground support was provided by Duncan (VE7NEO) and Patrick (VE7SDI) while I “supervised” the stationary camera.

Cheers, VE7WNK

3710 Audio tests from BCIT

ve7wnk — Mon, 13 Jan 2014 03:43:14 +0000

Recordings from the BCIT ARC. Many hams were chatting on 3710kc about their audio quality after a station ended up with some RF (maybe) on their signal.

The following is audio captured at 44100hz mono on BCIT’s IC7600 with filters set to 3.6kHz. I have opted NOT to encode this to MP3 as it will ruin the fidelity, so it’s in 16PCM audio.

Link 1: 3710_1908PDT.wav (61MB)

Link 2: 3710_1937PDT.wav (107MB)

Note: There is white space (silence) in the audio, that is due to me transmitting and I have the monitor circuit disabled. Thanks to the BCIT ARC (VE7BFC).

Here is the LIVE audio (well, about 15seconds behind).

Cheers,

– VE7WNK

VE7WNK Remote from a meeting room

ve7wnk — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 18:34:24 +0000

Bored in a meeting? Stuck waiting on people to show up? Yup! I dialed into my remote HF setup and listened to some DX on 10meters this morning from a meeting room.

VE7WNK Remote HF

A simple microwave path test

ve7wnk — Tue, 15 Oct 2013 06:17:38 +0000

I visited BCIT (The British Columbia Institute of Technology) ARC location today to test a microwave data shot on 5.8 GHz. Until recently we had a 2.4 GHz VINE link between the BCIT ARC station and the BCWARN hub-site on the roof of the WAC Bennett library at Simon Fraser University, however the VINE at the SFU side started producing noise on the VE7RBY repeater. Instead of tracking the noise source down to a specific stage of the VINE radio, we opted to swap it out for a newer, higher capacity, and much cheaper Ubiquity radio.

Thanks for checking it out. Hopefully before long I can put up more videos of this going up on the tower.

73 – Bob, VE7WNK

Update – Ground Plane antenna

ve7wnk — Mon, 02 Sep 2013 19:35:23 +0000

I added a 20 meter element to the vertical by simply extending the element and adding tuned radials. I needed to shorten it multiple times, and the final length was probably closer to 15ft than 16+ like the calculations called for.

Here are some videos from my test with the two configurations of this antenna.

20:

10:

Radio Console Logic Controller

ve7wnk — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 08:23:56 +0000

How do you key the next track, show that you are on air, mute the studio monitors, answer the phone and show when it is ringing? Easy… With this:

It is a work in progress…

Unlicenced use of the two meter band

ve7wnk — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:26:42 +0000

Here is the audio from my call with Dave Cameron, VE7LTD, regarding unlicensed use of the two meter band by paragliders.

We were discussing a bulletin released by RAC discussing this matter. http://rac.ca/en/news/bulletins/2012/49/ Dave was working up at a repeater site in Penticton BC which was just a few kilometers from a launch site being used for the Canadian Paragliding National Championships 2012. The issue started when Dave heard the traffic and noticed that there was no identification happening. Dave was not too concerned until he did a little research and found that on the organizer’s rule book for the event they had required that all pilots use a frequency in the ham bands.

8. Communication
8.1 Safety frequency is 146.415 MHz. All pilots must have radios equipped to receive and transmit on this frequency.
8.2 All pilots must submit cellphone numbers during registration.
A cell phone is required so that the organizers can ensure communication with a pilot in case of failure to report at the end the day’s task.
8.3 For pilots using SPOTS, contact information will be given out during registration.

RAC has engaged IC who reminded the group of the requirement to hold proper certifications and the group agreed to do their best to comply. The organizers did mention that it was particularly difficult to police this as they have no idea who is and who is not a licensed operator. Dave did go through the list of names and found that of the Canadian participants, at least 40% of their names were found in the RAC callsign database.

Field Day 2012

ve7wnk — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 08:14:19 +0000

The VE7SCC, VE7BAR, and VE7NWC clubs got together again at Blue Mountain Park in Coquitlam for the 2012 Field Day!

See this video of me operating…

Photos here:http://wenko.ca/pub/fd2012/