I shouldn’t have even turned it on until I read the manual through at least once because I thought it was broke when I first powered it up. The meter swung all the way to the right and I had no audio. I turned it off, checked a few things and turned it back on,  same thing! I wasn’t sure what was wrong so I went to the manual. They had a nice list of dial settings for initial receive and transmit. After reviewing the list I had one of those “duh!” moments. The RF gain was all the way DOWN, instead of up. A rookie mistake I know, we all have those at some point. I turned it back on with the RF gain up and there was the beautiful sound of a slightly off SSB signal. The WAWWA WAWAA WAA voice was quickly tuned in to a very legible SSB conversation. Off I went to fire up the SDR receiver to see what frequency they were on and could see that the dial was off by 32Khz or so and I had to calibrate both main and sub dials. I also noticed right away the TS-520 was receiving much better than the SDR but they were on two different antennas so I thought it was the antenna that made the difference.

I soon figured out how the 25Khz cal signal worked,  I also  figured out how to tune the rig for transmit. Since I didn’t have a microphone for the the rig I  built an audio breakout box for the High impedance MIC I had on hand and the PTT switch. After a few attempts at tuning and listening for a station to contact on 20M I heard ZW7MGY, a special event station in remembrance of the radio operators of the Titanic. I jumped in and gave my call. He picked out another stronger station, when he finished that QSO I called again. This time he clearly called back my entire callsign, I was like YES! That was Brazil station over 4200 miles away. That old rig still had it! I tuned in 40M and started calling CQ more confident that the rig was working and pickup up an Arkansas station, K5RPD. I was impressed. All I really did was calibrate some dials, set the RF Bias and followed the directions  and I was on the air.

Lessons Learned

1. Don’t be afraid to try other types of radio gear, just read the manual first.
2. Old equipment is still a great way to enjoy the hobby. Even with all the fancy screens, filters, buttons, computer interfaces, and software it is still just about getting on the air, making new contacts and enjoying yourself.
3. Go out to tailgates, Hamfests and other gatherings, you never know who you are going to meet and what equipment you will come across.

Final remarks

The TS-520 is a great transceiver with a sensitive receiver, I tuned in a station listened for a few minutes switched the antenna to the SDR and compared signals and the TS-520 was by far more sensitive to weak signals. It seemed to beat my IC-756 but only by a small margin. Those were subjective comparisons without any “real” measurements but I trust my ear. The tuning process was quite simple when you break it down. There were several resources on the web that I used to help me understand how to accomplish it without hurting the rig. It is a classic rig and I can see why so many people hold it in high regard, it is a venerable piece of equipment that I am proud to now own. It sure makes my Ham shack look more authentic!

Resources

• Guides, manuals and more! @ KG6HAF
• Repair service, parts and good info @ K4EAA

• Tuning Video

My "New" Kenwood TS-520

AGWPE is a very well written TNC program. It can be used to control TNC’s or be used as a soundcard TNC. I used it with my PK-232 and it worked flawlessly. In my quest to trim down my APRS stations with less equipment I favored the soundcard TNC. That way all I needed was a radio, the audio interface with cables and a laptop. The basic version worked well but it did not seem as sensitive as as dedicated TNC. I spent hours tweaking the settings only to have marginal results. I thought about paying for the Pro version but elected not too because I would have to buy a copy for each machine that would result in over $200 in software alone. Although it may have been worth it I wanted to see if any other alternatives existed. I have been trying out APRS over the International Space Station on frequency 145.825 Mhz FM and I found that I could hear a lot of clear packets that weren’t being decoded.  So the quest for better mapping and decoding began.

Much to my surprise someone made a AGWPE drop in replacement. It can be used with any APRS program that supports the AGWPE interface. The only thing that it lacks is the hardware TNC support. Which was fine by me I was just looking for a Soundcard TNC anyways.

Now for the replacement software:

Previous                             Replacement

UI-View32                          APRSISCE/32

AGWPE                             UZ7HO Software TNC

APRSISCE/32 is a very feature rich program for such a small size. The developer is always improving and adding new features such as a graphical PATH display to name just one. The mapping feature uses Open Street Map which is almost as good as Google Maps. You can prefetch maps and disable tile purging for portable ops to see maps without internet connectivity. You can easily send and recieve messages and APRS e-mail. The software author  (Lynn Deffenbaugh – KJ4ERJ) is actively involved in monitoring APRS and APRSIS and is always finding ways to improve on his previous work as well as offering suggestions on how to improve the APRS network overall. For the software download, wiki and documentation please visit the  APRSISCE/32 Wiki Page. It has everything you need to get started. Don’t forget to check out the video at the Wiki  for setting up the ports. It will really help when setting it up for the first time. So far I am very happy with my replacement choice and even had a few QSO’s (of the APRS kind) via the ISS (International Space Station). My hat is off to Lynn and all the contributors!

The UZ7HO soundcard TNC does a fantastic job of decoding packets. It was decoding packets that I would normally see AGWPE ignore. The display was impressive, complete with a waterfall and a time/date stamped packet with the transmitted and received flag. It even has  calibration fields that you can fill in after running the Sound Card calibration utility. UZ7HO has a user guide in PDF format that is a must read. Although the program was designed to be intuitive, if you don’t read the guide you will miss out out some of the features available. Please don’t skip the sound card calibration, it helped improve the decoding of the packets.

This is such a great low cost solution for APRS and Packet radio, I don’t know why I didn’t go check them out sooner!

If you have any other suggestions for APRS/Packet software please leave a comment or drop me a note with the Contact Me link.

APRSISCE32  and UZ7HO SoundCard TNC User Interfaces

If this does not alter your perspective on your existence in the Universe nothing will.Thought it was well worth sharing…

The video was streamed live over the internet Sunday, Feburary 12, 2012.

• ARRL Press release
• W1AW Operating Schedule
• W1AW Wiki Article
• Video Page

arrl_videotour_feb2012_hd from Awecast on Vimeo.

Note: An excellent resource for satellite info  - DK3WN SatBlog

Audio Recording:  PW-Sat_N4JTC_Audio_21-Feb-2012-2207_Pass

SpectraVUE Image

Space welcomes eight new Amateur satellites, several offer beacons, 1200 baud FSK, BPSK, AFSK  as well as transponder operations. Of particular interest is the PW-Sat that will be configured as a transponder after the drag experiments are completed. It will be configured as a 435 Mhz FM to 145 Mhz DSB transponder. The is reminiscent of the AO-16 satellite.

From the Oscar  UK  and AMSAT UK Websites:

The first Vega, flight VV01, lifted off at 1000 UT from the ESA Spaceport at Kourou in the Caribbean carrying eight student built amateur radio satellites and the LARES Laser Relativity Satellite into orbit.

 

Downlink,CW frequency of MaSat-1 and UNICubeSAT were changed.
They are MaSat1: 437.345MHz, UNICubeSAT: 437.305MHz as follows.
The initial TLEs will be opened to public after launch.

Satellite     Uplink      Downlink    Beacon      Mode
----------    -------     --------    -------     -------------------
Xatcobeo         .        437.365     145.940     1200bps FFSK,SSR
e-st@r           .        437.445     437.445     1200bps AFSK
Goliat           .        437.485     437.485     1200bps AFSK
Robusta          .        437.325     437.325     1200bps FM
MaSat-1          .        437.345     437.345     625/1250bps GFSK,CW
PW-Sat1       435.020     145.900     145.900     1200bps BPSK,FM
UNICubeSAT       .        437.305     437.305     9600bps FSK
ALMASat-1        .        437.465    2407.850     1200bps FSK
----------    -------     --------   --------     -------------------

• Celestrak – Last 30 days’ launches  TLE  (the sats are listed as 2012-006C thru 2012-006J)
• AMSAT Site
• AMSAT UK Site  and Student pages for the individual cubesats
• Poland’s First satellite launched – PW-Sat   and the Official PW-Sat website

Launch Video

‘Onboard Rocket Cam – Satellite release occurs at the 4:20 mark’   – Has been removed ;  Sorry Video has been marked Private after I posted.

Substitute video: Narrated Launch with telemetry and graphics.

This will be interesting to watch as it travels half way around the world.

**14 Feb 2012 Update**

Andy, W5ACM stated the most likely cause for the loss of reporting was due to frozen batteries or electronics. He has posted pictures and videos of the BLT-28 launch on his site.

Pictures from Launch Day

Videos from launch Day by K9TEX

Frequencies

USA = 144.390 MHz FM
mid-Atlantic = 145.825 MHz (International Space Station packet digipeater frequency)
Europe = 144.800 MHz FM

Links – will be adding more as I find them

• South Texas Balloon Launch Team Page for BLT-28
• APRS.fi Tracking Page and APRS.fi  Balloon Telemetry Page – cool!
• DB0ANF APRS Tracking Page
• FindU Tracking page
• JFindU – Stations Near Balloon and last I-Gate used
• JFindU – Packets heard in the last hour – Newest at bottom of Page
• ISS APRS Page - Shows all APRS objects that were relayed by the International Space Station
• SouthGate Amateur Radio News
• ARRL News Release

Tracking Map

Whenever I “Googled” SoftRock  the top links were pointing to Tony Parks, KB9YIG site: http://www.kb9yig.com/ and  WB5RVZ,  http://www.wb5rvz.com/sdr/.   Ok, I thought I will check out these kits and see if I can afford one. What was shocking to see was how inexpensive the kits are. Only one problem, every kit said to “Come Back Soon”. Just on a whim I decided to email the admin, which of course turned out to be Tony himself. I wanted to see when some kits would come available.  He just happened to have some SoftRock Lite II Combined Receiver Kits available.  I just couldn’t wait to get my first SDR!

It arrived shortly after the order and I began feverishly putting the receiver together. Between Tony’s kit and WB5RVZ’s build notes it was a quick build even with the surface mount components. I downloaded the  SDR-Radio software that I stumbled on during my SDR research and fired it up.  All I could say was WOW, it was amazing to see all the signals spread across the waterfall and I could just change the mode and click on one and it started demodulating the signal. Even more surprising was that I built it right the first time!  CW, SSB, PSK31 RTTY all of it was right there for the taking. I was hooked!

Visions of an all mode, all band HF receiver danced around in my head, so back to Tony’s site. He had a SoftRock  RX Ensemble II available so I snatched that up as soon as I could. You will notice that these kits are in VERY high demand and you may have to be patient.   Again, the SoftRock  SDR was amazing! I could hop around bands and instantly see how the conditions were on each band. The SDR-Radio software has many, many digital  modes for decoding including CW and the most popular PSK31. It is something that needs to been seen to be appreciated.

Like all hobbies one of anything is just not enough.  Tony was beginning to be my one stop shop for SDR’s. I stopped looking anywhere else because of price. This time I was seeking a SoftRock RXTX for transmitting. No such luck, no kits available. Like many Hams, on to eBay!

I found a SoftRock RXTX 6.1 for sale as a “tech special”, meaning it doesn’t work but you are welcome to buy it and try to fix it or use it for parts.  I ended up winning the bid for about what the kit cost originally. After receiving the kit I bought a RS enclosure, switches, audio jacks, etc.  Much drilling and dremelling and a few nights later it was all packaged in a little aluminum enclosure. Of course I knew it wasn’t going to work but it was much easier to work with initially connected up correctly. To my dismay and no surprise it was dead, nothing, not a peep. It powered up and the PTT circuit worked but no audio (or I/Q signals rather). I worked on it for as long as my patience could afford before I shelved it and moved onto something else.

I thought it would be a complete loss but I decided to tackle it one more time. This time I took a more methodical approach and went component by component to cross-check them with the schematic and  bill of materials. I checked all the solder joints and toroids. I found several mistakes that the previous builder made including some components that were missing from the PCB. Thankfully the eBay seller included the original parts bag so it was a matter finding the right one and soldering it in. I also had to remove some band specific components that were soldered in by mistake. I hooked it up to the computer and watched the waterfall. Finally success at last! Since the enclosure was basically done from my initial attempt it was essentially a completed rig.

I asked a fellow local Ham, Marv, KK4DKT if he would test listen for me to make sure I was getting out and with a little tweaking he was hearing me 100%. Fantastic! After that confirmation from Marv, I went onto calling CQ using PSK31. N4UED was the first to pick me up. He was over 600 miles away.  That was truly exciting to see what 1 watt could do. Since that first QSO on the SoftRock I have made over 20 contacts with the furthest being the Republic of Panama at over 1500 miles. All with 1 WATT (or less)!  Very impressive indeed, if you were thinking of getting into SDR, do it, you won’t regret it!

Ok, after that long winded exhortation of my SDR experience and why you should have one, onto the technical stuff.

Software:

SDR-Radio Console (Great receive software!)

Rocky (for RX and TX of CW and PSK31)

HDSDR (for RX and TX of AM, FM, CW, SSB)

Update Feb 08, 2012:  Added SDR-Radio  I/Q wav files for your testing (also works with HDSDR but without time and freq markers):

Recorded for 5 minutes at 96Khz bandwidth

• 40 meter test file – Center frequency 7.060 Mhz- example of CW, PSK31 and JT65
•  I/Q Analysis result screenshot
  

• 40 meter test file – Center frequency 7.170 Mhz – example of SSB, AM
• I/Q Analysis result screenshot

Hardware:

Important:  You MUST have a sound card capable of left and right channel split on the stereo input. In other words true stereo line in.

Note: The SoftRock isn’t the only game in town for SDR , there are many other options available but they come with a bigger $$$ tag. Just google it.

• SoftRock SDR Kits – Also suggest you join the SoftRock Yahoo group
• Turtle Beach Santa Cruz Sound Card (oldie but goody) – 48Khz
• Creative Labs USB Sound Blaster X-fi 5.1  – 96 Khz
• Delta-44 – Recommended for all serious SDR work
• Antenna used: 40m Ground Plane and an Inverted-V (The IN-V worked the best)

Technical documentations:

• ARRL documentation/presentations
•  Fists of Fourier Series

Abbreviations:

• CW -Continuous Wave
• HF- High Frequency 3Mhz-30Mhz
• PSK31 – Phase Shift Keying 31.25 Hz wide
• PTT -Push to Talk
• QSO – Communicate with
• SDR -Software Defined Radio
• WOW – In awe, Amazing!

Pictures

Greg prepared the RMS rocket motor, put in fresh batteries, packed the chute and put it on the launching rail. The proposed time to launch was at 1700 UTC. Everything was on schedule until the operational check of the beacon. With Greg’s portable Hamstick dipole raised and listening on the beacon frequency of 14.060 Mhz just a steady tone was heard. I assisted him in posting to www.qrpspots.com to notify of the five minute delay in launch time to troubleshoot the beacon problem. Greg quickly went out to the launch pad and fixed the issue. Beacon was loud and clear.

Ready to launch. 5..4..3..2..1 … We have lift off! Great launch! Listening carefully.. No Beacon.

Uh, Houston, we have a problem. Post flight recovery revealed that the forces acting on the rocket ripped the beacon from the antenna and parachute part of the tube. The beacon transmitter free fell to earth while the other parts of the rocket came down nice and slow by parachute. Thankfully Greg found all the pieces with the help of his Grandson. Despite the failure it was a great launch and a great day. I am sure Greg will go back to the drawing board to make the beacon fly another day… Enjoy the video. 73

Visit www.N4KGL.info for more information.

Bob Heil K9EID who is famous for his excellent microphones is the show organizer and primary host.  He also has a famous co-host which is Gordon West WB6NOA. He is known for his educational material that makes it a breeze to become a Ham.

Ham Nation #16′s main topic is ARISSat-1. Please take a look or listen to find out more about this little Sat that could from this week’s special guest Steve Bible, N7HPR. Enjoy!

TWiT Show Page