Tag Archives: Adafruit

Such a ham

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It seems that I often look for ways to procrastinate from preparing for classes, and this semester is no different. Well, it is different in the sense that to delay my writing exams, I took an exam. Yesterday, I passed the the examination for the amateur radio technician class license.

Soon, I’ll be able to start transmitting in a few amateur bands (one has to wait until a call sign is designated by the FCC and that information is published in their database. Meanwhile, I am keeping myself busy with building a radio. There are plenty of instructions on the web, and the biggest challenge has been poring through all of the available designs and identifying a build that works for me.

For my first build, I want a technician class device that can do both voice (SSB) and Morse code (CW). That means I will need to focus on the 10 meter band, since that is the only set of frequencies where technicians can transmit both SSB and CW. It’s not used nearly as much as the 20 and 40 meter bands used by general class operators, in part due to the limited long-distance (DX) communications possible. That may change, though, with solar cycle 25. Solar activity interacts with Earth’s atmosphere such that HF frequencies (between 3 and 30 MHz) tend to propagate farther. With sunspot activity expected until about 2030, it seems to be a great time to advocate for DIY 10 meter band radios.

I’m a long way from building a complete device (or even really talking about it), but I’ll share a teaser.

Technically, it works … barely.

That’s an Adafruit M4 Express in concert with a Si5351 frequency generator, SA612 mixer, a class D amplifier and a rotary encoder for tuning. Once I connected it to an antenna, I was able to dial into an amateur frequency in the 40-m band (note – anyone can build and use a receiver, the license is required only for transmitting) and hear a ham in nearby Rochester. Pretty exciting for me given that there’s no filter or amplifier on the antenna, which in this case was just a long coax cable.

And so it begins! I’m sure the rest of the semester will be filled with last minute lecture preps and piles of ungraded lab reports on my desk. I’ll gripe about them with anyone who wants to listen in on 10 meters.

First project with Adafruit.IO

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For a while now, I’ve been interested in exploring Internet-of-Things (IoT) sensors with the hopes of developing some type of platform that can be used for remote chemical education. I’ve also been making a lot of purchases at Adafruit because the pandemic, the state of our country, and the pile of grading on my desk have left me feeling depressed and in need of some comfort making.

This project is far from complete, but I know that I’ll get swamped with end-of-semester craziness and need to have some documentation of what I’ve done to date. Ideally, I’d put it into my maker logbook, but the piles on my desk (both ungraded papers AND unfinished electronics projects) have made it all but impossible to find that notebook. Thankfully, the keyboard is clear of debris.

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