Playing Radio for a Living

Since I'm working full-time on the new Shacktopus system, a sort of Microship-in-a-pack also known as Shack To Go, I'm going to start keeping a running commentary here. Eventually, when this all stabilizes, it will have a proper set of static html pages.

The past few weeks have seen the acquisition of a lot of new communications gear. Over the last 3 days, I've assembled the exquisite miniature Elecraft T1 antenna tuner kit, and just gave it a test today between the Yaesu FT-817 and the Cushcraft R-8 (still clamped to a cart at ground level). I didn't make any contacts during the awful geomagnetic conditions, but the tuner did its thing quite smartly... latching relays configuring an L-C filter network in response to band changes (via a direct interface to the radio) or in response to a pushbutton request. This thing is tiny, and also manages to tune during SSB voice peaks instead of requiring the traditional steady carrier.

When I first went outside to test today, I was horrified at the hash and birdies all across the spectrum... then remembered that I hadn't turned off the worst broadband noise generator I have seen since the days of diathermy machines: the Sony DRN-XM01 receiver for XM satellite radio. The music service I like, but that particular unit is loud in all respects: a fan that's worse than a typical tower PC, and RFI that completely trashes the HF spectrum anywhere within a hundred feet or so. But it was a gift that got me into XM out here in the RF hole of Camano Island, and is thus appreciated... though of course I'm now lusting after the little My-Fi even with all its strange modalities and UI quirks!

Speaking of cute bits of radio gizmology, another component in the new pack system is the Tenna Dipper. They're not currently shipping, but watch for the next round of kits if you're looking for a very cheap and effective little antenna analyzer. It's only $25, and reports the frequency via Morse code after you tune a bridge to null (as indicated by an LED going dark).

More soon; I'm going to crank this blog back up again, now that I'm actually working on the project and have things to say other than vague reports on what I'm thinking about. At the moment, we're trying to choose the embedded Linux platform, juggling trade-offs of power management, size, I/O, and cost. And in my next installment, I'll report on the suite of antennas...