- Adoption of the minutes
- Motion 2015-03-03-01 by Eric VE3EB to adopt the minutes of the February 3rd and January 6th general meeting minutes, seconded by Kerry VA3KTS. Motion carried.
- Harvey Bell Award: Call for nominations – Chris VE3NRT
- At the January, 1971 meeting of the York North Radio Club, the membership established an award in memory of the late Harvey Bell, VE3AFK, of Aurora. It was the wish of the members that this award be presented annually to a member in good standing with this club, in recognition of substantial achievement involving Amateur Radio, particularly in connection with the York North Radio Club.
- Please send your nominations including why you think the member is deserving of the award to Chris VA3DXZ.
- At the January, 1971 meeting of the York North Radio Club, the membership established an award in memory of the late Harvey Bell, VE3AFK, of Aurora. It was the wish of the members that this award be presented annually to a member in good standing with this club, in recognition of substantial achievement involving Amateur Radio, particularly in connection with the York North Radio Club.
- Treasurer’s Report – John VA3JI
- The treasurer's report is available to members upon request to the club secretary.
- Motion 2015-03-03-02 by John VA3JI to accept the treasurer’s report seconded by Glen VA3AU. Motion carried.
- The treasurer's report is available to members upon request to the club secretary.
- Club Insurance – John VA3JI
- The club presently has a general liability policy and a liability policy on the communications trailer, which provides coverage while the trailer is being towed.
- The club has not purchased a directors and officers liability policy, property insurance covering club owned equipment, or a liability policy on the tower trailer similar to the communications trailer.
- Directors and Officers Liability Policy:
- In the January 21st board of directors meeting, the board discussed the need for a directors and officers liability policy. It was highlighted that the responsibilities of individuals serving on a non-profit board of directors are similar to those of directors of for-profit companies. However, non-profit organizations have limited resources to indemnify directors and officers or respond to expensive litigation, settlements or damage awards. Where no indemnification or only partial indemnification is available, the personal assets of directors and officers are at risk, as well as those of the entity itself. Directors’ and officers’ liability coverage is a critical component of the overall insurance protection package that no non-profit organization should forego, particularly if it wants to attract and retain qualified and motivated directors and officers and the discussion ended in a motion to bring the quote for this insurance to the club for further discussion.
- Motion 2015-01-21-02 was carried on January 21st, to allocate $601.00 for the purchase of directors’ and officers’ [liability] insurance, subject to approval by the club.
- The directors’ and officers’ insurance would be in addition to the liability policy currently in place on the communications trailer, and the club's general liability policy.
- John VA3JI reported that per the quotation received by the board, the annual cost of the policy would be $601.00 +8% Provincial Sales Tax for $1M in liability coverage for the period from April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016
- Motion 2015-03-03-03 by John VE3POJ to allocate $650.00 for the purchase of the directors and officers liability policy, seconded by Charlie VE3SYK.
- Chris VE3NRT advised that insurance is a growing expense for the club and that the club will need to look at how to increase revenues.
- Motion carried.
- In the January 21st board of directors meeting, the board discussed the need for a directors and officers liability policy. It was highlighted that the responsibilities of individuals serving on a non-profit board of directors are similar to those of directors of for-profit companies. However, non-profit organizations have limited resources to indemnify directors and officers or respond to expensive litigation, settlements or damage awards. Where no indemnification or only partial indemnification is available, the personal assets of directors and officers are at risk, as well as those of the entity itself. Directors’ and officers’ liability coverage is a critical component of the overall insurance protection package that no non-profit organization should forego, particularly if it wants to attract and retain qualified and motivated directors and officers and the discussion ended in a motion to bring the quote for this insurance to the club for further discussion.
- Property Insurance
- John VA3JI advised that the club owns approximately $50,000.00 in property that is not insured. The approximate cost to add insurance coverage for this property to our current general liability policy is $270.00 for the period from April 1st 2015 to the expiry of the general liability policy on Oct 15th 2015
- Motion 2015-03-03-04 by John VA3JI that the club allocate $270.00 to purchase insurance coverage for club property for the period from April 1st 2015 to the expiry of the general liability policy on Oct 15th 2015, seconded by Rick VA3VO.
- The question of whether or not this would provide replacement coverage was raised as was a question concerning the value of the deductible.
- Motion 2015-03-03-05 by Barry VA3LLT to table Motion 2015-03-03-04 at the next general meeting, seconded by Charlie VE3SYK. Motion carried
- John VA3JI advised that the club owns approximately $50,000.00 in property that is not insured. The approximate cost to add insurance coverage for this property to our current general liability policy is $270.00 for the period from April 1st 2015 to the expiry of the general liability policy on Oct 15th 2015
- The club presently has a general liability policy and a liability policy on the communications trailer, which provides coverage while the trailer is being towed.
- Repeaters – Steve VE3UT
- VE3YRC-UHF
- In the YRARC repeater design, VE3YRC-UHF is an important hub for linking VE3YRC-VHF and VE3YRA to provide region wide coverage.
- Unfortunately VE3YRC-UHF repeater controller is out of service and presently at Steve’s home for repair. The repeater controller is an RC85 which is obsolete and malfunctioning
- Steve has investigated the cost to send the RC85 unit for repair and determined that the club would be better served by the purchase of an S-COM 7330 (same controller in use at VE3YRA and VE3YRC-VHF). By doing so the club would be able to standardize hardware and software configurations across repeaters allowing greater flexibility for field repair or re-deployment in an emergency.
- The cost of the repeater controller purchased new is $499.99 USD plus taxes and shipping.
- Steve VE3UT has agreed to donate funds to cover any costs above $600.00 thereby capping the cost to the club at $600.00 Canadian. Steve VE3UT suggested that anyone willing to donate should approach David VA3DCY
- Motion 2015-03-03-06 by Glen VA3AU to allocate up to $600.00 towards the purchase of the S-COM 7330, seconded by Charlie VE3SYK.
- Eric VE3EB commented that the club was very fortunate to receive over $39,000.00 from Ontario’s Trillium program and felt that by purchasing the new controller, the club would gain more benefit out of these relatively new club assets, as well as benefit from the plug and play aspect of standardizing hardware across repeaters.
- Motion carried.
- In the YRARC repeater design, VE3YRC-UHF is an important hub for linking VE3YRC-VHF and VE3YRA to provide region wide coverage.
- 6m Repeater
- Steve VE3UT reported that a 6m repeater has been donated to the club. Steve VE3UT is looking for help in transporting the cans to Bob VE3WY who has volunteered to tune them
- Steve VE3UT will be calling for a work party when the weather is better to install the repeater.
- Steve VE3UT reported that a 6m repeater has been donated to the club. Steve VE3UT is looking for help in transporting the cans to Bob VE3WY who has volunteered to tune them
- VE3YRK – Chris VE3NRT
- Chris VE3NRT reported on the status of the transition to Freestar. The following items have been completed:
- The Icom standard software and all its add-ons have been shut down.
- Users & radios have been re-registered on VE3LSR
- New software, ircDDB and g2_link software have been installed and are working properly.
- D-APRS reporting is working. The link from the status page to aprs.fi now works properly for the first time.
- https://www.dstargateway.org/ security restored.
- Still outstanding
- The registrations on LSR are in some disarray. We are waiting for the US Trust administrators to fix the problem (and waiting and waiting). This may result in difficulty when trying to use “REF” type reflectors.
- DV-Dongles cannot connect to VE3YRK. A workaround is available (Dvtool is a closed-source product by AA4RC)
- The registrations on LSR are in some disarray. We are waiting for the US Trust administrators to fix the problem (and waiting and waiting). This may result in difficulty when trying to use “REF” type reflectors.
- Chris VE3NRT reported on the status of the transition to Freestar. The following items have been completed:
- VE3YRC-UHF
- Public Service – Eric VE3EB provided a copy of the article appearing in the Newmarket snapd covering our Winter Field Day (Attachment #2)
- EMCOMM – Don VE3IXJ
- The REOC drill at the York Region Headquarters building went well and the EMCOMM team was able to test the range of VE3PO (Don VE3IXJ’s portable low power repeater). VE3PO worked beyond expectation
- The REOC drill at the York Region Headquarters building went well and the EMCOMM team was able to test the range of VE3PO (Don VE3IXJ’s portable low power repeater). VE3PO worked beyond expectation
- Summer Field Day – Steve VE3UT
- The event is held on the 4th weekend in June.
- Steve VE3UT has seen lots of interest expressed by club members.
- To assist in the funding of the event and to help plan for food, Steve will be presenting a proposal to the board to sell food tickets at this summer’s event.
- The event is held on the 4th weekend in June.
- Bob VE3WY presented an analysis of dipole antenna performance
- Meeting adjourned at 21:37
Showing posts with label RAC Winter Contest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RAC Winter Contest. Show all posts
Sunday, 29 March 2015
Minutes - YRARC General Meeting March 3, 2015
Meeting held at the Sharon Temperance Hall. The meeting was called to order at 19:31. Chaired by Chris VE3NRT with 31 members and 1 guest in attendance
Tuesday, 17 February 2015
Minutes - YRARC Board of Directors, January 20th, 2015
Meeting held in the Newmarket Community Centre. Called to order at 19:10. Chaired by Chris VE3NRT. Board members attending; Chris VE3NRT, Rob VE3RQB, Chris VA3DXZ, Eric VE3EB, Barry VA3LLT, Steve VE3UT, Geoff VA3GS. Board members absent; David VA3DCY, John VA3JI. Guests attending; Russell VA3WTR, Doug VE3ATP
- Adoption of Dec 16/14 board meeting minutes
- Motion 2015-01-21-01 by Chris VA3DXZ to adopt Dec 16/14 minutes as published in the splatter blog at http://yrarc-splatter.blogspot.ca/, seconded by Geoff VA3GS. Motion carried.
- Governance
- Insurance
- Report from Chris VE3NRT concerning PARC insurance discussion
- Chris VE3NRT attended the Peel Amateur Radio Club meeting noting that they had planned to discuss insurance coverage
- PARC subscribes to RAC insurance, but 2015 RAC insurance is not yet finalized
- It was noted during the meeting that the GTA areas group has requested a copy of the RAC insurance policy from RAC but nothing has been received as yet
- PARC will be involved in supporting the 2016 Canada 55+ Games to be hosted by the City of Brampton
- PARC and the Mississauga Amateur Radio Club are working together on MESH and have successfully tested a 10km path
- Chris VE3NRT attended the Peel Amateur Radio Club meeting noting that they had planned to discuss insurance coverage
- Directors and officers insurance
- A quote was received by John VA3JI for directors and officers Insurance and was forwarded to the board via email ahead of the meeting
- Motion 2015-01-21-02 by Geoff VA3GS to allocate $601.00 for the purchase of directors and officers insurance, subject to approval by the club, seconded by Rob VE3RQB.
- Chris VE3NRT clarified that the directors and officers Insurance would be in addition to the liability policy currently in place on the communications trailer, and the club's general liability policy.
- Motion carried
- A quote was received by John VA3JI for directors and officers Insurance and was forwarded to the board via email ahead of the meeting
- Property insurance
- John VA3JI had reported via email prior to the board meeting that he had received a quote for loss and theft coverage of the clubs key assets (valued at $60,000.00). The quote amounts to $1,063.00 and it includes the existing liability coverage in addition to the new loss and theft coverage.
- Further discussion was deferred to next board meeting
- John VA3JI had reported via email prior to the board meeting that he had received a quote for loss and theft coverage of the clubs key assets (valued at $60,000.00). The quote amounts to $1,063.00 and it includes the existing liability coverage in addition to the new loss and theft coverage.
- Report from Chris VE3NRT concerning PARC insurance discussion
- Property Rob VE3RQB
- Russell VA3WTR will send a copy of the parking agreement (letter of understanding) to the board members. The agreement has not been executed. It is with the office of the Chief, York Paramedics Services for review and signature. Once signed it will be sent to the board for review and signature.
- Russell VA3WTR reported that Terry VE3ODM is working on a proposal and operating budget for the acquisition of a retired ambulance which would be donated to YRARC by the region. The proposal is to be reviewed and approved by the board prior to any commitments being extended to York region or the regional municipalities.
- Motion 2015-01-21-03 by Rob VE3RQB that Doug VE3ATP be added to the list of persons approved to tow club trailers, seconded by Geoff VA3GS. Motion carried.
- Russell VA3WTR requested that the list of persons approved to tow club trailers be added to the towing policy. Chris VA3DXZ agreed to update the policy and distribute to the board.
- The policy will reflect the following list of persons approved to tow club trailers
- Rob VE3RQB
- Steve VE3EZ
- Steve VE3UT
- Chris VA3DXZ
- Doug VE3ATP
- Rob VE3RQB
- Motion 2015-01-21-04 was carried to temporarily rescind motion 2014-07-15-04 ” That the tower trailer not be towed or deployed until further notice” to allow it to be re-located to York EMS site and then subsequently deployed in support of Winter Field Day, then transported back to the York EMS site for storage.
- The tower trailer now has a lock box installed. Russell VA3WTR and Steve VE3UT have the combination.
- Barry VA3LLT reported that he was at the communications trailers today to start the generator, test the heater, and perform a radio check.
- Russell VA3WTR will send a copy of the parking agreement (letter of understanding) to the board members. The agreement has not been executed. It is with the office of the Chief, York Paramedics Services for review and signature. Once signed it will be sent to the board for review and signature.
- Repeaters
- VE3YRK: Chris VE3NRT reported that the VE3YRK gateway has malfunctioned. There are reports that people are unable to get the C module linking but that B module is working. Also the registration web page is malfunctioning. The existing gateway is using 10 year old software which is no longer supported, and prevents us from installing the latest patches in the operating system. Chris VE3NRT has proposed that we migrate away from the US Trust Registration system and just run the g2_link software which is part of the free*star system . There will be limited impact to users and there is no cost to change.
- Motion 2015-01-21-05 by Steve VE3UT that the club move VE3YRK to the free*star system, seconded by Eric VE3EB. Motion carried.
- Chris VE3NRT will advise the club at the next general meeting and communicate updates via the Yahoo group.
- VE3YRK: Chris VE3NRT reported that the VE3YRK gateway has malfunctioned. There are reports that people are unable to get the C module linking but that B module is working. Also the registration web page is malfunctioning. The existing gateway is using 10 year old software which is no longer supported, and prevents us from installing the latest patches in the operating system. Chris VE3NRT has proposed that we migrate away from the US Trust Registration system and just run the g2_link software which is part of the free*star system . There will be limited impact to users and there is no cost to change.
- VE3YRC: Steve VE3UT reported that VE3YRC has been reprogrammed with the updated custom audio library. Steve VE3UT and Bruce VE3BV are working to resolve an issue which results in a long tail occasionally coming in on port 2.
- VE3YRA: Steve VE3UT reported that VE3YRA is operating with improved coverage to the north. The link radio project to VE3YRC is still in progress.
- Steve VE3UT asked the board if separate calls should be used for VE3YRC VHF and UHF. This will be investigated by board members.
- Winter Field Day – Steve VE3UT
- Russell VA3WTR has sent invitations to 30-40 emergency management personnel for a walk through at 1pm. 5-10 people have responded.
- Steve VE3UT has notified SNAP as well.
- Russell VA3WTR has sent invitations to 30-40 emergency management personnel for a walk through at 1pm. 5-10 people have responded.
- Insurance
- Membership Geoff VA3GS
- Geoff has secured the following presenters for the upcoming general meetings
- February – Don VE3IXJ will present inexpensive handhelds
- March – Bob VE3WY will present on antennas
- April – Ontario contest club
- May – Dr. Paul Delaney
- February – Don VE3IXJ will present inexpensive handhelds
- Chris VE3NRT has done work on the web site
- Geoff VA3GS is looking into holding a basic class in April
- Geoff has secured the following presenters for the upcoming general meetings
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Notes from the Shack - January
Elecraft makes a fine panadapter for my transceiver. Everyone I know who owns one tells me how helpful it is. One day I'll surely plunk down the $1K or more ($700 US as a kit plus shipping and HST, plus another $270 for the hi-res display option not including the additional monitor) to get one, but I thought in the meantime I'd try out the $21 Softrock Lite II IF kit. (Either way you need the KXV3A option on the K3 transceiver to be able to get at the 8.215MHz IF output).
Both setups work by analyzing the IF output of the transceiver and displaying a portion of the band. The P3 displays up to a 192KHz-wide segment of the band centred on the tuned frequency. The Softrock will do the same with a 192KHz audio interface, but mine is only 96KHz so that's all I get. Elecraft says that a wider slice is going to be available with a future firmware upgrade but that was more than 16 months ago. Mind you, there's a little device called a RTL 2832u which is wideband VHF/UHF SDR receiver that costs around $20 and doesn't require a sound card. It doesn't tune the HF bands so it's been used along with an upconverter (or with a radio that has its IF on the VHF frequencies) to provide a 2MHz wide display. Maybe the P3 may have to wait a little longer.
Building the Softrock took about 10 hours, not including a case for which I still need parts. I'm a relatively slow builder I suppose but it worked first time. There are only two relatively simple toroid transformers to wire up, which compared to the Softrock RX-TX I built a year ago was trivial. There are a bunch of surface mount parts - 10 tiny capacitors and 3 integrated circuits. These were installed with a regular fine-tipped temperature controlled soldering iron with very thin solder. It is fairly simple to do. Just apply a tiny bit of solder to one of the pads and then tack the part onto the PC board on that pad with the iron. Then run around and solder the rest of the pins (quickly!) one at a time. I had to redo a pin here and there after inspection and/or power-on tests.
Once built, there are 3 connections to make. It requires the same ~12v power as the rig, a (well-shielded) connection to the rig's IF output, and a stereo connection to the audio interface. Stereo is an absolute requirement for software defined radio to provide image rejection around the Softrock's local oscillator (LO) frequency. The LO is tuned 23KHz below the K3's IF so that it doesn't feed back into the transceiver. The kit comes with no connectors or box, so right now that's patched together and those parts are on order.
Once the Softrock's audio is getting into your computer, you need software to interpret it. There are tons of options, like PowerSDR (a free version of the Flex Radio software), Rocky, etc., but right now my favourite from my RX-TX operating days is HDSDR, although I might revisit the others to see how well they work with this setup. All of these programs are free downloads. Installation and setup of HDRSDR is relatively easy. It needs to be told about the audio interface, and there is a special setup screen for the receiver front-end. That is where all the main adjustments take place.
The Softrock's oscillator is not going to be exactly 23KHz from the K3's IF frequency. Mine was just under 1300Hz off. Furthermore, there are different offsets for each mode, so CW is different from SSB and AM. The exact numbers were determined by experiment, lining up the sound of the signal with the display. Once this alignment is done, you can identify signals visually on the program's waterfall display, tune them in with a single mouse click, and then use the mouse wheel or direct frequency entry to fine-tune the signal either by ear or with the waterfall display. This is excellent for zero beating a CW station quickly to an accuracy of a few hertz.
Because both the IF and the Softrock frequencies are fixed, HDSDR tunes by changing the transceiver's frequency. How is this done? Well the easy way to run the rig control portion of Ham Radio Deluxe. HDSDR can control the frequency and mode of HRD. It also supports a free library called Omni-Rig which I haven't tried (yet). So tuning the radio becomes a point and click operation on the programs waterfall display.
The tuned frequency appears around 23KHz to the left of the centre on the display for reasons mentioned earlier. So on my setup I see about 1/4 of the display below the radio frequency and 3/4 above it. With a 48KHz (vs. my 96Khz) audio interface it would on the extreme left of the display, which I'd find very annoying. Even with the 96KHz audio it is still a bit frustrating that there's not more displayed below the tuned frequency.
On December 28th I used it for the RAC Canada Winter Contest on SSB. It was very effective. Instead of just scanning across the band with the tuning knob I could QSY directly to any signal, judging strength by the intensity of the display. Often I could see who was calling CQ by the regular timing of signals on the waterfall. Fine tuning can be done either with the mouse or the tuning knob. The other thing that works well is using it to find a free spot to call CQ.
99% of my operation has been using the audio from the radio and HDSDR as a tuning aid, but HDSDR can also be used to demodulate the signals, which can then be listened to directly or fed into some type of digital program. I didn't find this necessary but for something like Digital Radio Mondiale where the bandwidth required exceeds the capability of the transceiver it would work fine. I used it a bit for the alignment of frequency offsets in the various modes and you can really notice the delay going through the computer.
There are some quirks that take some getting used to. The biggest was the effect of changing the filter settings on the K3. On CW for instance the filter centre frequency is 600Hz. Changing this shifts the entire waterfall on HDSDR by the same amount, as the K3 actually changes its local oscillator frequency rather than moving the filter frequency, which makes sense because it uses fixed-frequency crystal filters. So I've found that it is best just not to change the centre frequency of the filters.
One thing that is going to drive me crazy is the radio control. Don't get me wrong it works great, but the big challenge is getting all my favourite software to work with it. As long as I can go through Ham Radio Deluxe or Omni-Rig everything is fine, but not everything works with HRD or Omni-Rig. In particular, I wanted to try the N1MM logger because the HRD logger just doesn't cut it for my style of operating. The N1MM logger wants to control the transceiver directly but it doesn't share. Some hams are using LP-Bridge to allow multiple controllers for the K3 which looks promising but it has prohibitive licence terms (even though it is free) and several additional layers of complexity. It also crashed my computer when I tried it with Ham Radio Deluxe.
This little project has cost me about $40 so far ($15 was for a cable at the local music store) and I will need to invest another $15 or so in putting it in a case. Naturally it would have cost more if I'd needed to buy a sound card to go with it. For that small investment this is definitely a keeper, but it won't be long before I try the RTL 2832u with an upconverter.
73,
Chris VE3NRT.
Both setups work by analyzing the IF output of the transceiver and displaying a portion of the band. The P3 displays up to a 192KHz-wide segment of the band centred on the tuned frequency. The Softrock will do the same with a 192KHz audio interface, but mine is only 96KHz so that's all I get. Elecraft says that a wider slice is going to be available with a future firmware upgrade but that was more than 16 months ago. Mind you, there's a little device called a RTL 2832u which is wideband VHF/UHF SDR receiver that costs around $20 and doesn't require a sound card. It doesn't tune the HF bands so it's been used along with an upconverter (or with a radio that has its IF on the VHF frequencies) to provide a 2MHz wide display. Maybe the P3 may have to wait a little longer.
Construction and Setup
Building the Softrock took about 10 hours, not including a case for which I still need parts. I'm a relatively slow builder I suppose but it worked first time. There are only two relatively simple toroid transformers to wire up, which compared to the Softrock RX-TX I built a year ago was trivial. There are a bunch of surface mount parts - 10 tiny capacitors and 3 integrated circuits. These were installed with a regular fine-tipped temperature controlled soldering iron with very thin solder. It is fairly simple to do. Just apply a tiny bit of solder to one of the pads and then tack the part onto the PC board on that pad with the iron. Then run around and solder the rest of the pins (quickly!) one at a time. I had to redo a pin here and there after inspection and/or power-on tests.
Once built, there are 3 connections to make. It requires the same ~12v power as the rig, a (well-shielded) connection to the rig's IF output, and a stereo connection to the audio interface. Stereo is an absolute requirement for software defined radio to provide image rejection around the Softrock's local oscillator (LO) frequency. The LO is tuned 23KHz below the K3's IF so that it doesn't feed back into the transceiver. The kit comes with no connectors or box, so right now that's patched together and those parts are on order.
Software Setup
Once the Softrock's audio is getting into your computer, you need software to interpret it. There are tons of options, like PowerSDR (a free version of the Flex Radio software), Rocky, etc., but right now my favourite from my RX-TX operating days is HDSDR, although I might revisit the others to see how well they work with this setup. All of these programs are free downloads. Installation and setup of HDRSDR is relatively easy. It needs to be told about the audio interface, and there is a special setup screen for the receiver front-end. That is where all the main adjustments take place.
The Softrock's oscillator is not going to be exactly 23KHz from the K3's IF frequency. Mine was just under 1300Hz off. Furthermore, there are different offsets for each mode, so CW is different from SSB and AM. The exact numbers were determined by experiment, lining up the sound of the signal with the display. Once this alignment is done, you can identify signals visually on the program's waterfall display, tune them in with a single mouse click, and then use the mouse wheel or direct frequency entry to fine-tune the signal either by ear or with the waterfall display. This is excellent for zero beating a CW station quickly to an accuracy of a few hertz.
Because both the IF and the Softrock frequencies are fixed, HDSDR tunes by changing the transceiver's frequency. How is this done? Well the easy way to run the rig control portion of Ham Radio Deluxe. HDSDR can control the frequency and mode of HRD. It also supports a free library called Omni-Rig which I haven't tried (yet). So tuning the radio becomes a point and click operation on the programs waterfall display.
Operation
The tuned frequency appears around 23KHz to the left of the centre on the display for reasons mentioned earlier. So on my setup I see about 1/4 of the display below the radio frequency and 3/4 above it. With a 48KHz (vs. my 96Khz) audio interface it would on the extreme left of the display, which I'd find very annoying. Even with the 96KHz audio it is still a bit frustrating that there's not more displayed below the tuned frequency.
On December 28th I used it for the RAC Canada Winter Contest on SSB. It was very effective. Instead of just scanning across the band with the tuning knob I could QSY directly to any signal, judging strength by the intensity of the display. Often I could see who was calling CQ by the regular timing of signals on the waterfall. Fine tuning can be done either with the mouse or the tuning knob. The other thing that works well is using it to find a free spot to call CQ.
99% of my operation has been using the audio from the radio and HDSDR as a tuning aid, but HDSDR can also be used to demodulate the signals, which can then be listened to directly or fed into some type of digital program. I didn't find this necessary but for something like Digital Radio Mondiale where the bandwidth required exceeds the capability of the transceiver it would work fine. I used it a bit for the alignment of frequency offsets in the various modes and you can really notice the delay going through the computer.
Snags
There are some quirks that take some getting used to. The biggest was the effect of changing the filter settings on the K3. On CW for instance the filter centre frequency is 600Hz. Changing this shifts the entire waterfall on HDSDR by the same amount, as the K3 actually changes its local oscillator frequency rather than moving the filter frequency, which makes sense because it uses fixed-frequency crystal filters. So I've found that it is best just not to change the centre frequency of the filters.
One thing that is going to drive me crazy is the radio control. Don't get me wrong it works great, but the big challenge is getting all my favourite software to work with it. As long as I can go through Ham Radio Deluxe or Omni-Rig everything is fine, but not everything works with HRD or Omni-Rig. In particular, I wanted to try the N1MM logger because the HRD logger just doesn't cut it for my style of operating. The N1MM logger wants to control the transceiver directly but it doesn't share. Some hams are using LP-Bridge to allow multiple controllers for the K3 which looks promising but it has prohibitive licence terms (even though it is free) and several additional layers of complexity. It also crashed my computer when I tried it with Ham Radio Deluxe.
In summary
This little project has cost me about $40 so far ($15 was for a cable at the local music store) and I will need to invest another $15 or so in putting it in a case. Naturally it would have cost more if I'd needed to buy a sound card to go with it. For that small investment this is definitely a keeper, but it won't be long before I try the RTL 2832u with an upconverter.
73,
Chris VE3NRT.
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