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I survived ApolloCon just fine, and I'm more energetic than I can remember being, so I have started to work on projects again. I have too many projects, but I still want my memory keyer to be finished, so I'm working on that.

A while back, I finished the board layout for the correct transistor pinouts, and I sent it off to OSHPark to be turned into actual boards. I also ordered parts. Last week I even found out what was wrong with my soldering iron (it wasn't set up right at the factory) and I fixed it. So, I was all set.

Just a quick note to let everyone know why I haven't been blogging. It's not because I don't have anything to say. I have been tempted to write about RM-11708, but I just don't have time. June is a horribly busy month for me, mostly because of my involvement in Apollocon, a science-fiction convention that has traditionally been held Field Day Weekend. I'll be back in July, and maybe even before then, but don't hold your breath. You'll turn blue.

I got into a bit of a twitter exchange yesterday with some people. It started because Rich Holoch KY6R made his own blog post with the title "The Future of DXpeditions?" and my response "Expensive hobby + expensive trips = lots of old people on DxPeditions. Nobody else can afford it." got several retweets and a favorite or two, and a couple of responses. I have trouble fitting what I think about this into 140 characters, so I'll post it here.

I've been working on an SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver that I can control via computer so I can use my TV receiver dongle to work linear transponder satellites. It hasn't work or, rather, has kind of worked strangely so last night I took it apart, metaphorically, and experimented with locally-generated signals so I could try to figure out what was going on. Having identified the errors, corrected those errors, and tested the correction, I can now explain how to make one of those things that works. The receiver part, anyway.

The FT-102 was delivered about 5:30 this evening, Houston time. It has been set up and preliminary tests are that it works well. I'll be giving it a workout over the next few days.

The FT-102 is in transit and should be here tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to screwing my back up (again!) carrying it back upstairs.

While I'm waiting for new boards to come in for the Arduino-based memory keyer and while I'm waiting for NC4L to get my money order so he can ship my FT-102 back, I'm working on getting back on the satellites. I've decided to try my hand at the linear-transponder satellites. I've watched guys like Andy (W5ACM) operate linear satellites with nothing more than an FT-847 and some well-practiced skills, but I don't have any FT-847 equivalent, and the all-mode radio that I do have is computer-controllable so I can run computer-controlled.

I have two updates from previous posts. First, Mal just called and said my FT-102 is ready. The problem appears to have been a bad 10 MHz crystal reference oscillator. It wasn't putting out enough signal so the phase comparator wasn't working so the PLL wasn't locking up. I should get the radio back in a week or two, I just have to (gladly!) pay for the repair.

I've wanted a memory keyer for a long time, but they tend to be expensive and I don't work enough CW to really justify it. However, about three years ago it occurred to me that you could make a memory keyer out of an Arduino. (An Arduino is an amazingly cheap microcontroller board that some clever Italians designed. See, e.g. http://www.arduino.cc/ for more information.) Anyway, a while after I thought of that, I decided that I didn't want to spend a bunch of time designing the hardware and programming the Arduino.

I've been busy building my Arduino-based memory keyer (based on the work of K3NG) making antennas and doing some SDR work (with GnuRadio) in order to work some satellites.