Amateur Television (ATV), Antennas, Audio & Video, Es'Hail

Offset satellite dish for QO-100 Es’hail-2 project

April 4, 2020 No Comments

In February 2020 my 1.5 metre prime satellite dish was destroyed by strong winds from storm Dennis. The dish was ripped from it’s mount overnight and I found it at the end of my garden bent and dented. Beyond repair I had no choice but to scrap it.

After a few weeks of searching I purchased a secondhand 1.5 metre x 1.7 metre offset dish.

This blog post contains pictures of the dish as it arrived. Soon I will be making modifications as part of my QO-100 Es’hail-2 project.

Click the continue button to see more.

Audio & Video, EMC / RFI / Noise Reduction

MAKE A MAINS FILTER FOR EMC & NOISE REDUCTION

March 23, 2020 25 Comments

This article shows how I have made a mains filter that is extremely effective in reducing and in some cases eliminating completely EMC from the electricity supplying my shack.

Amateur Television (ATV), Audio & Video, Es'Hail, Workshop

MiniTiouner V2 Construction Project

March 22, 2020 5 Comments

MiniTiouner hardware was designed by Jean-Pierre F6DZP and is a DVB-S/S2 USB receiver that works with MiniTioune software. It covers 143MHz to 2450MHz and was designed for use by Amateur Television (ATV) operators.

Like other amateur radio operators I want to use the MiniTiouner and software to receive transmissions from the Es’hail 2 QO-100 geostationary satellite.

I built my MiniTiouner (phase 1) in January 2019 but due to work commitments have just got round to using it.

Click on the continue button to see more.

Amateur Television (ATV), Audio & Video, Es'Hail, Workshop

OLED Display for Minitiouner V2

March 21, 2020 No Comments

It’s 11th March 2019 and I’ve just added an OLED display to my MiniTiouner. A simple, low cost, low effort addition to an already brilliant piece of kit.

This blog post shows how I did it.

Click the continue button to see more.

Amateur Television (ATV), Audio & Video, Workshop

Solent 1.3GHz / 23cm Amateur Television Transmitter

June 27, 2019 No Comments

Last year I purchased a Solent 23cm Amateur Television (ATV) transmitter. Although working, it needed a bit of a tidy up. Whilst tidying things up I decided to make a few modifications and place the transmitter in a new case too.

Click the continue button to see more.

Amateur Television (ATV), Arduino, Audio & Video, Comtech, Workshop

Comtech 23cm Amateur Television (ATV) rotary LCD tuner using Arduino

November 30, 2018 2 Comments

In October 2018 I started using a Comtech 23cm transmitter for my ATV operations. Rather than use the 8-way dip switches to tune the transmitter, I decided to work on a project to develop a rotary LCD tuner using an Arduino Uno as the micro-controller. This article shows how I did it, including the code.

Amateur Television (ATV), Audio & Video

M0NWK Amateur Television ATV Test Cards

October 11, 2018 No Comments

I made these test cards for my Amateur Television (ATV) station on 11th October 2018 using Adobe Photoshop and Camtasia Studio 2018.

Audio & Video

How to straighten Microbore copper tube

September 5, 2017 4 Comments

Simple workshop technique that shows how to straighten Microbore copper tube using basic workshop tools

This post shows a technique I’ve used to straighten 10mm Microbore copper tube and forms one of a series of video’s I’ve made to show how I’ve constructed my Quadrifiliar Helix antenna or QFH as it’s more commonly known.

Audio & Video

Numbers stations

August 23, 2017 1 Comment

Welcome to the weird world of numbers stations

Known to exist since World War I, numbers stations are believed to have been used or still being used, for transmission of coded messages to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries.