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July 29th, 2024. Impacts of Technology

Sure, there are the extraordinary fun moments in our hobby, fleeting as they may be, when you are making contacts with a Glue Stick PTO Direct Conversion Receiver and a one transistor Michigan Mighty Mite. That thrill is enhanced by the fact that you are using a station rig totally homebrewed by you!


But such a rig may soon be used less and less given the spare nature of the equipment itself. Issues like frequency limitations of the Glue Stick PTO say operating at 28 MHz or 100 milli-watts is marginal when band conditions just plain suck are a huge damper! But you argue with the statement that the actual hardware has such a small footprint (like two small wooden boards) and is a complete ham station. 

Time to look at the Technology Impacts of Software Defined Radios where the hardware becomes small, and the software drives the performance -- it will work at 28MHz.

My Hermes Lite 2.0 is small and so is a Raspberry Pi4 -- and together even smaller when the Hermes Lite 2.0 is 100 feet away from the RPi4.

My 100-foot chunk of Cat 6 cable (less than $10 from Lauren Sanchez's boyfriend, Bezos) arrived yesterday, and I did just that -- put one hundred feet of separation between the two units. It works!



RPi4



Mini Keyboard



17-inch Monitor


At the operating position is a 17-inch monitor, a keyboard and mouse, the RPi4 and a headset/mic. About 100-feet away (by cabling) is the Hermes Lite 2.0 and a 100-watt Solid State Amp. This is all a result of recent technology advancements.

I often say that in 1959 a 100-watt transmitter was two racks of equipment with one rack being just the power supplies. The Heathkit DX 100 was a huge step up as the 100 watts was in a single box -- still hefty by today's standards. My 100 watts on all bands and all modes weighs maybe 15-20 pounds including the Samlex switching power supply.

But the real impact of the tests from yesterday is that I can have the RPI4/Monitor, keyboard/mouse and headset/mic be located anywhere in my home and be on the air. A 100-foot tether gives a wide option. This also addresses the summer heat and winter cold issues with a garage shack. If I want the Big Boy Signal on the air, I can even have the SB200 in line and still remotely controlled by the RPI4.

For some SDR will never happen as you really can't see or touch much of the hardware like you can with the Glue Stick PTO. For others an absolute understanding of the why of every resistor or cap is crucial which is not possible with the FPGA in the SDR. Still others (me) think of technology like LEGO blocks to be fitted and assembled is more of the challenge. SDR does require more out of the box thinking and often plowing some new fields. But that is why our hobby is such a large tent -- contests, operating, antennas and even homebrew.

TYGNYB -- The political dynamic is rapidly changing and tuning in to the events of the next 100 days will certainly take away from radio time.

73's
Pete N6QW

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