May DUR i did with my new mobile shack. GM Opel Zafira. Using one of the 2nd row backseats gives a good place to operate. I also did some tests with the only partly completed 10GHz station (TX with mixer output power only).
Author Archives: mario
DK7FC 136.8kHz longwave beacon
Just for luck i received the CW beacon of DK7FC from JN49IK on 136.8kHz this evening…
DK7FC longwave beacon received in JO61
Video:
reception of DK7FC 136.8kHz CW beacon
HiQSDR as VNA
Since today the HiQSDR or the original N2ADR frontend might be used as a vector network analyzer for the shortwave range.
Jim wrote a simple tool that displays amplitude and phase between TX port and RX port and can handle some calibration.
Currently it is quite simple and i do not have provisions to measure reflections yet, so i can just measure S21 at the moment.
But for the future it will be a nice feature to have the antenna analyzer built into the transceiver itself.
The picture below shows a simple ugly-style lowpass filter.
HiQSDR as VNA
3m EME mesh dish by DG0CN
Gert, DG0CN has send me a picture of the new 3m mesh dish design for EME usage he recently made.
It can be splitted into 6 parts for easy transport. Pretty giant antenna ;)
EDIT 2017/06/28: i got the information that Gert passed away weeks ago. His business will most probably not be continued. The webpage already has gone. RIP.
DRM TX with HiQSDR frontend
Yesterday i used my HiQSDR frontend for transmitting a shortwave radio signal in digital DRM standard.
I had to use the FPGA firmware version 1.2 which contains enhanced filters that allow modulation of signals with a bandwidth of up to 22kHz in IQ mode (+-11kHz around the tuning frequency).
Stefan, DL2STG, did a great job creating support for the HiQSDR within the Gnuradio project. After noticing a IQ swap the 64QAM DRM signal was decodable. See the constellation diagram below.
HiQSDR DRM TX constellation diagram 64QAM
HK0NA 160m Pileup
i also have a 10min 7kHz wide recording…
Unfortunately only a micro Antenna.
HK0NA 160m EU-Pileup
CQ WW 160m CW
currently ongoing… CQ WW 160m CW
And this picture was taken with a small unmatched indoor piece of wire.
CQ WW 160m CW
HiQSDR and HiQScope
Recently Jim, N2ADR released a new version of his FPGA code for the HiQSDR/N2ADR frontend. This brings improved TX filters that should now also support FM and DRM TX. Stefan, DL2STG ported his HiQScope extension to the new Verilog code. This made me want to give it a try. It is really impressive how this makes the HiQSDR a 60MHz Bandwidth spectrum analyzer with waterfall functionality. And it can run in parallel to the regular transceiver application.
The screenshots below show the unfiltered spectrum from a short mobile shortwave antenna. The big signals above 16MHz are images of the extreme strong FM radio stations that i have here. Below the shortwave radio bands can be seen.
HiQScope Waterfall view
HiQScope Spectrum view
Key mechanics
It´s nice to see and very robust.
Mechanic by I2RTF…
morse paddle key by I2RTF
HiQSDR TX
during weekend i took a screenshot of the TX signal quality of my HiQSDR PCB. As example i put the IMD spectrum for 10m here.
Looks quite nice, doesn´t it ? Its the DAC signal amplified by MMIC. I think it was around 6dBm output power.
HiQSDR_IMD_28MHz