{"id":1283,"date":"2009-12-08T15:23:11","date_gmt":"2009-12-08T20:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ramblindan.org\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2009-12-08T15:23:11","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T20:23:11","slug":"easily-heard-signals-1209","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/?p=1283","title":{"rendered":"Easily Heard Signals 12\/09"},"content":{"rendered":"ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder\n

Microwave:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The barely noticeable flutter of the fingers of one hand produced when the shy girl notices the equally shy but cute young boy with the big puppy eyes has been staring at her.<\/em><\/p>\n

As mentioned in my last column I have taken a new interest in microwaves. But not the kind I defined above. (Those were the days\u2026 oh,uh\u2026 never mind. I don\u2019t think it is quite the same these days!) Today I am thinking the RF kind of microwaves.<\/p>\n

There is an association in North Texas called the (what else),\u00a0North Texas Microwave Society (NTMS)<\/strong> that has been around for what I can determine, a long time. I just applied for membership if they will have me. (The check is in the mail, trust me.) There are a lot of familiar call signs I see in the leadership, KA5BOU, N5AC, WA5TKU, WA5JAT, WA5VJB and other microwave heavies like W5LUA and dozens of others I don\u2019t yet know. North Texas seems to be hot MW spot even though there are no mountains close by\u2026 must be the tall buildings.<\/p>\n

I have no idea how active this group is at the present time. I do know the microwaves are not something you do as a lone wolf. Most contacts are planned as operation is not same as spinning up and down a HF band listening for a CQ. From what I can determine there is a lot of VHF and UHF used to coordinate a microwave QSO.<\/p>\n

What has grabbed my interest is the modularity of the radio equipment and what appears to be the intense build it yourself attitude. No two systems look the same. I also like the fact that low power is used so efficiently. No Texas Kilowatts used to stomp the competition.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong here. I am no expert on this topic. I have nothing to start with other than my interest. I have zero equipment and zero experience other than radio club demonstrations and my military RADAR training from some 40 years ago. So I have been doing some homework. I find my interest is actually leaning toward building and experimenting with equipment.<\/p>\n

I ordered and received some Microwave publications available from the ARRL. I am looking for beginner information not the in depth technical journals published from conferences and that sort of activity. I have a CD, the\u00a0UHF\/Microwave Projects CD<\/span>. It includes volume 1 and 2 of the\u00a0UHV\/Microwave Projects Manual<\/span>.<\/p>\n

I also bought the International Microwave Handbook (2nd<\/sup> edition) edited by G8ATD, Andy Barter. I also have the\u00a0Microwave Projects<\/span> book from the same fellow.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if this is the best way or material to read but it is easy to get and I find the study as interesting as the doing. It must the techno-nerd part of my brain getting stimulated. If any readers have other publications to recommend, let me know.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t plan to set the world on fire. This just seems like a new region of ether space to explore. I will do it at my own pace and as time and finances allow. A hobby is defined as a leisure activity which is a bit of an oxymoron when you look at the extreme sports hobbies popular today. (I had to say that.) I don\u2019t need extreme anything these days. I will keep my leisure hobbies leisurely.<\/p>\n

I think my machine shop will provide me some unusual abilities to experiment with microwave design. A lot of the circuitry is critical to exact machined parts and stubs and wave guide feed horns and other strictly hardware design. My CNC machinery should let me become very accurate with dimensional and repeat parts.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned here or one of my blogs as I report the development of my interest. I would like to hear from the more pro amateurs in microwave and especially other newbies considering something different in their ham radio activities.<\/p>\n

Have a great holiday and Christmas season!<\/p>\n

Dan – W5EHS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microwave: The barely noticeable flutter of the fingers of one hand produced when the shy girl notices the equally shy but cute young boy with the big puppy eyes has been staring at her. As mentioned in my last column I have taken a new interest in microwaves. But not the kind I defined above. (Those were the days\u2026 oh,uh\u2026 never mind. I don\u2019t think it is quite the same these days!) Today I am...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[43,42],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amateur-radio","tag-amateur","tag-radio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ramblindan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}