Wow–the Elecraft KX3 has some serious ears! Most impressive, Elecraft!
Category Archives: News
Curiosity making tracks…with morse code?
Today, I watched a fascinating eleven-minute NASA animation depicting key events of NASA’s newest Mars rover, Curiosity, in action.
As I watched, I noticed something very peculiar about the tires–right around mark 5:15, one can see a pattern imprinted on them. At first I thought nothing of it, assuming NASA scientists had pondered the perfect pattern for traction and also shedding any trapped rocks or debris.
But–as my curiosity was piqued– a little research on the rover tires revealed this article from TyrePress.com: “Curiosity’s tyres ‘tagging’ Mars” in which the pattern is explained:
Yesterday the Mars Curiosity rover successfully went into action on the surface of the red planet, and the vehicle’s tyre tracks have gained a measure of notoriety. It turns out that Curiosity is ‘tagging’ the surface of Mars as it drives about.
A series of notches included in the track tyre tread is not just a pretty pattern – the notches are in fact Morse Code and spell out the letters ‘JPL’, short for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Curiosity is now busy leaving the laboratory’s initials all over Mars[;] however [this] is not just wanton interplanetary vandalism – the dots and dashes are part of the rover’s visual odometry system, used to estimate changes in position over time.
Brilliant! Not to mention, practical…NASA has just put morse code on the Mars surface!
Perhaps it proves that it’ll be very difficult to do away with morse code. At least, until NASA sends a sweeper or Zen garden raker-rover to Mars.
2012 Fort Tuthill QRP Conference July 26-28
(Source: John Stevens, K5JS, via QRP-L)
It’s time once again to join the Arizona ScQRPions at the annual Fort Tuthill QRP Conference in mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona!! Spend the weekend camping with us at a cool 7500′ playing radio and listening to our outstanding speakers present topics on using Microchip micro-controllers, troubleshooting, Software Defined Radios, and
batteries.Thursday afternoon, July 26, is for the early bird campers to arrive and get set up. Stake out your territory at our reserved campground site. Water is available, but no electricity. There are fire rings / grills for your outdoor cooking and no known fire restrictions inside
the campground at this time. Daytime temperatures should range from mid-70s to low 80s during the day and 50’s at night. Brief (usually) mountain thunderstorms with gusty winds are possible at all times especially during the afternoons.Campground activities Friday, July 27, could include such things as easy expeditions to local SOTA peaks, operating, trading, renewing old friendships and making new ones, experimenting with antennas, and many other activities. There are plenty of tall Ponderosa pines for those wire antennas. Friday evening is our traditional group supper at one of the local restaurants.
Saturday, July 28, is our day for the technical forums at a nearby facility. We’ll adjourn about 3pm and head back to the campgrounds for our Saturday afternoon picnic. We have a covered ramada that will accomodate 70 easily. Water and electricity is available. You might want to bring a chair and/or table just in case as we don’t have quite the number of picnic tables as we’ve had in the past.
No tickets to buy. Prizes. No tickets to buy. All are welcome.
Bring your own entree for the picnic and we’ll do the rest! Look for many more details on our website at http://www.azscqrpions.com which is being updated. Watch for updates at the website or from @azqrp at Twitter. Send me your cell phone number if you want text updates.
Select Ft Tuthill 2012 in the menu.
Pass the word and we hope to see you there!!
73 john k5js
John answers a few questions about the Ten-Tec Model 539 Argonaut VI
John Henry, Software Engineer for Ten-Tec, wrote the following message in response to Argonaut VI comments and questions on the Model 539 group:
To help answer a few questions.
The electronics ARE based on the 599, [Ten-Tec Eagle] not exactly the same, but VERY similar.
Filters…. The 539 will have three filter slots for hardware receive filters. They will not be the same ones used in the 599, height limitation, but they will be designed in house and will match the characteristics / performance traits of the 599 closely. One will be filled with the default SSB filter, and the two others are for either CW or for AM if you so desire. Or two CW filters, up to you as a ham to see what you need and to fill them, or not. The filter slot module is based on the TX/RX board from the 599, it is not an option as some competitors are selling now. One less option to have to buy over the stock price. Then, of course, the same DSP bandwidth options controllable from 100Hz to the size of the largest hardware filter installed.
The CPU is the same CPU we use in the 599, so we are using almost the same code set as the 599, meaning we aren’t re-inventing the wheel, just massaging it to handle the different buttons/encoders/pot/voltage levels/10w vs 100w/etc. This also means that the command protocol interface is already done, same as the Eagle, well, almost. We have added a few things to the 539 so that you can define certain buttons to do what you want them to do. On the four buttons, their function is selected by the “tumbler” as I call it. the “tumbler” is a three position switch on front of the 539, that by it’s position identifies what the four buttons do. It is currently denoted with “T” for top, “M” for mid, and “B” for bottom. This may change, as we get closer to production though. So, don’t bank on it being TMB.
The DSP board is the same as we use in the 599, with “slightly” modified software due to the differences in gains and other “realities of hardware” differences.
Since it is the same CPU and the same DSP board/code base, you will have almost all of the features / functions that the Eagle already has. And, since it is based on the Eagle, the maturity is already proven. And, as a benefit, as items are resolved in either the 599 or 539, it is a quick fix for the other rig. Reuse, something we are trying to stress highly on this and future rigs. Why re-invent wheels when they run so smoothly. Of course, improve them over time as technologies get better, as we have time, as we find new parts/better parts, etc.
Why no 60 and 12?
Performance.
That’s basically it. We had a certain size in mind, and yes, we could have fit 160 through 6, however, you would have had receiver performance of a much inferior rig. One that we felt would not live up to TenTec standards. When queried, about 160, 60, and 12, MANY inputs went into the current state of the 539. 160 was added because of the amount of customer inputs, and unfortunately, 60 and 12 cannot be added due to size restrictions. Adding 60 and 12 would have meant redesigning the pre-selector with smaller parts that would have made the rig equal to most other QRP rigs in receiver performance.
If that was the wrong decision, then the market will definitely tell us via sales, but from the comments on “when it is ready, I’m ordering a 539 and a 418” “I never use 60 in QRP” “etc.” at Dayton and via hundreds of emails and conversations, etc., we feel we do have a winner on our hand with the feature set it will be built with. The market will tell of course.There are a lot of rigs out there to choose from, and we do hope you give the 539 a chance to see if it meets your needs.
The Kenwood TS-990S: Some preliminary specs and features
At Dayton, I had a chance to ask Kenwood reps about the TS-990S. They did have a few details, but many (such as price) are still rather vague. I made notes on these:
- This rig will weigh in at 57 or so pounds. This is probably due to the fact that it has an internal power supply.
- The main receiver is completely down-conversion.
- The sub receiver is the TS-590’s receiver. They even told me that if you read the TS-590S spec, it will be identical to that of the TS-990S sub receiver. As with the TS-590, the TS-990S sub receiver is mainly down-conversion.
- It has three, 32Bit DSP processors
- It has five roofing filters at: 300Hz, 500Hz, 2.7 6kHz and 15kHz which run at 8MHz. The sub-receiver runs at 11MHz.
- Connections include:
- Optical In/Out
- DVI
- and “Multiple” USB connections
- The TS-990S will be 200 Watts
- Shipping: They expect to ship in November 2012
- Price: Between $5-10K US, but will not exceed $10K US. Two different Kenwood reps told me that Kenwood understands that there aren’t many hams in this economy who could spend in excess of $10K.
These specs were rattled off as if they’d been said a thousand times (and I bet they had by the time I got around to the booth).
Not a lot to go one, but I can vouch that these features and specifications came directly from Kenwood.
Video: Tuning the Ten-Tec Argonaut VI
As Ten-Tec was setting up at the Dayton Hamvention last Thursday, I was able to meet with their engineer (John Henry) briefly and had a little time to play with the new Model 539 Argonaut VI. As I tuned around the CW side of the 20 meter band, I recorded a short video. I’m sharing this with you here, but must ask your forgiveness for its quality and glitches; I want to make it clear that this material was recorded on my Android phone in some haste.
Moreover, this video does not do justice to the Argo VI’s audio, which is exceptional. In fact, I can’t tell a difference between its audio and that of the Ten-Tec Eagle, both of which have very low noise floors and simply gorgeous audio fidelity.
Now, just a small taste of what this receiver can do…
Photos of the Kenwood TS-990
The display model of the Kenwood TS-990 is covered under plexiglass in Hara Arena. Here are a few photos I took this morning. Note that they’ve covered the back panel of the radio with black cloth.
Photos of the Yaesu FT DX 3000
Here are a few first photos of the Yaesu FT DX 3000 at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention. I’ve also taken shots of the product sheet below. Better images will follow. Tagged: Yaesu
Flex Radio: a few photos of the new Flex 6000 product line
Yaesu FT DX 3000
A poster of Yaesu’s new FT DX 3000 HF/50 MHz 100 Watt transceiver. More to come from the Dayton Hamvention.