Snoopy come home...

Well.. decided to try out the BeagleBoard-XM finally.  You know what?  Once you realize that a 5V 1A supply isn't going to cut it no matter what the beagleboard.org instructions say and you move up to a 3A (15W) supply.. then you are fine..  Otherwise it's fun watching the device reboot itself endlessly!

Note the Meanwell supply that I use with the Trimble Thunderbolt GPS Disciplined Oscillator.  It's rated at 3A at 5V (15W) which is what you want to run with the BB-xM.  I hear you can use 2A supplies.. but 3A is guaranteed to run everything.  1A will not work.  No matter what you read.

Here is a picture of the BB-xm running the TI (arowboat) image of Android Froyo 2.2 .. It's cool.

The graphics on the flat panel (big) monitor there is a 3D demo that TI put on the image.  It ain't too bad.. it does show what the device is capable of.  The Android distro though thinks it's on a phone screen so the resolution is a bit limited.

I'm a little disappointed that video tends to crash the thing under the Android native apps.  A sure bet is to try to watch a YouTube video.. Ironic isn't it?  After about 15 seconds it crashes the system fairly hard.

So even though I'd still like to learn how to write an "Android app" I'm thinking that I may be looking for a different Linux distro for Ham Radio and/or SDR use.  (Maybe Angstrom.  Ubuntu is reported to be sick with the Beagle-xM unless you do a kernel patch...)

Interestingly enough a certain ARRL Midwest Division Convention probably will have a class on the BeagleBoard XM on August 5th (Friday)... at the Clarion Hotel in CR.  look at http://convention2011.cvarc.rf.org for details...  We hope to push this as a ham SDR embedded platform-- it has a lot of potential for little financial outlay.

Tomorrow is the ND and OK QSO parties.. I need both confirmed for WAS (and ND on eQSL for eWAS)... so I need to get to bed and work at least five stations from each state this weekend.

I worked OK last weekend but I suspect I'll need to turn a card around to get confirmed from that station.  I'm cheap, I try to avoid spending the $0.10 for the envelope, $0.40 for postage and $0.20 for the card or thereabouts.  I'll save that for DX.  So ND and OK stations.. use LOTW and eQSL.. please?!?

QTU

I have been really active on the air this weekend..  I decided to try to fill holes in my WAS (and DXCC) paperwork.. I decided 25 years I'd do that.  I got the eQSL DX "25" award too.. I figured "why not"?

It's been harder than DXCC on LoTW is (so far)... so "so much" for the "ultra secure" LoTW being the "harder" system.  There are times the ARRL really irks me off (tho I support them greatly).  LoTW is so obtuse that 25% of the DX stations that WOULD participate on it say "hell with it!"  eQSL is "not legitimate" to many.  I look at is as a different award, like CQ awards are.

I did work a 3905 Century Club net, a whole bunch of DX and the Wisconsin and Idaho QSO parties this weekend.  I hope with 10+ Idaho and 100+ Wisconsin that those will get confirmed in eQSL.cc and LoTW.
It is rare that I do 100+ contacts on a non-field day or DX contest weekend.. but I did.  I'll pay for it.  The XYL is already mad at me.

"QTU" is the problem though this weekend... Something is hosed on the shack PC (I'm hoping a dead battery on the Real Time Clock on the motherboard) of the old PC.  Last night I just thought it was Daylight time and the fact that the HRD logbook (but not DM780 oddly enough) has issues with Daylight time transitions.   I probably blew some DX by having the stupid computer changing time on hour boundaries randomly.  I'll replace the CMOS battery and hope it fixes...otherwise it'll have to be replaced.  I've never seen a computer change time by itself.. but it's doing it every hour now.. I don't quite get it.

I also bought on a whim and took delivery of $213 of telescoping Aluminum ordered from DX Engineering.  I'm going to replace my 40m half square (on which I worked South Africa on last night) with a hopefully better performing phased array of two (maybe eventually four) elevated radial verticals on 40m.  If it works I'm thinking I'll need to do a 66 foot vertical too with a pulley on it so I can use it for 80m and 160m.  I'm starting to like the low bands.  In the winter I can do beverages so that should work next fall/winter.

Need to have the ground thaw for a week or two first...

I've not forgotten about the SDR Cube and the AMP projects.. I just wanted to so some spring stuff and operate.. if I never operate what is the point of all of this?

I'm really tired.

TTFN.

Still ticking

This is a time of year for me that tends to get chaotic.. so the ham projects naturally slow down.

I'm also been too lazy to take pictures in the last few weeks too.

Lets see.. I started building up a PIC32MX795 .. but am short the 8 MHz crystal I will need to bring it up for USB use which.. well I might as well.  I did get the boards from Hong Kong to prototype the 0.5mm "PF" center PICs and I've built two up.  I actually, for the first time in a long time damaged one of the boards and PIC trying to fix the damaged pin.  So one of those two are missing Pin 74.. which for my use I do not think will matter.

The boards I used for PIC32 prototyping are about $2 on e-bay and are by "ETT-Team" in Thailand.  They are decent for the price but are a bit heat sensitive.  The one I damaged was one I tried to reflow skillet solder.. I think I overheated the board and that plus having a slightly bent pin on the device that I didn't notice from the sample pack had me do a dreaded bent and shorted pin.  I should have done better with it but I did it in a hurry.

The second one I just hand soldered down and it's perfect.  So.. on those 0.5mm PICs I think I will hand solder.  The 0.4mm leads, even though are smaller.. seems to be of a "tougher" material and actually to me are easier to solder.  If I finish this and then lay out a board, I'm going to go with the PT 0.4mm package.  I had no issues reflow soldering the 0.4mm PT's,,,

I worked the first 9 hours of the ARRL SSB DX contest from the club station at work, under my callsign. I got to use the Alpha 87A and I can see why people pay the bux for those amps.  I was just looking for DX for DXCC (and Alaska for WAS) so I was only "hunting and pecking".  Still on 20m (for about 1 hour), 40m and 80m I worked 86 contacts and 59 different countries (including AK & HI).  Not bad.. was fun too.  I wanted to get back on 20m the next day, but our local NWS spotter training was on Saturday and I had to do or I would have lost the credentials.  I bet I could have done 25 more countries the next day.

I want to get back and finish the amplifier.. I suppose I ought to.

I also have a BeagleBoard-xm coming still and I'll use that as a distraction on my other projects too.  There is interest in using that as a basis for a self-contained (including Latency) SDR within the W0CXX club.  We will see if we have time to take that on also.

I also found a deal on a HD Radio to play with..$19.99.. so far, I can see why it's a dead end technology.  In Cedar Rapids, only one commercial FM station (KZIA) has HD (hybrid digital, not "high-def" by the way).. and supposedly two AM's do 1450 KMRY and 600 WMT.   I got the HD signal to lock on KMRY for about a second and it sound surprisingly good.. but it's not usable.  I'm only about 20 mi away from the transmitters too!  600 WMT is very strong here, and I'm wondering if they turned off the HD signal?  On FM, KZIA's HD subchannel 2, a classic rock station, is very good.  The non-commercial stations, three, are all very good though.. there are additional subchannels that have NPR programming on them.. and in one case the NWS weather radio-- that sounds better than over the FM weather radio.

I was hoping to try DXing digital AM.. I like in the country and have put up beverages in the past, and EWE's Flags, K9AY loops are no issue either.  But I doubt if the signal levels I'm feeding the radio with on 600 and 1450 aren't cutting it for HD AM.. neither will a DXed station from a Beverage.

So I'd say when I replace my failing factory head unit in my car I'll spend the extra $15 difference just to get the WX radio off of KCCK...well that and the very good HD2 channel of KZIA.

But when the difference was $100-$200?  Who'd ever buy that?  It's one of these technologies that could have been very good if it wasn't implemented in such a "half-fast" way.

Anyway.. that's all I've been doing lately for "fun stuff"...  When I make progress on any of my open projects, I'll let you know...