:: ham and eggs from frgo ::

Dr YLs es OMs ! On March 23rd I gave a presentation of the features of the ADT-200A Software Defined Transceiver at the local Amateur Radio Club, DARC e.V. OV Ermstal DOK P31 .  The presentation focused on practical aspects of actually using the ADT-200A. We had about 15 radio amateurs (only OMs, unfortunately, HI) in the room and what was planned as a 1 hour talk turned into a 2 hour session ... We had fun using the TRX  and two CW QSOs have been completed with RA9XU - about 3000 km with just 50 watts into a dipole on 40 meters.  The exceptional performance of this TRX created some "wow" and "ah" effects -  it was a pleasure listening to CW signals with just 150 Hz bandwidth - the digital CW filters are going down to 50 Hz (we used 150 Hz for the QSOs) and there's no signal degradation whatsoever. Really sweet  ... One OM asked if I would by another TRX if I had all the money I can imagine - I just answered "Why should I ?" ... Fo

Dear fellow OMs! I have been busy the last few days creating a new Hamlib backend for the ADAT ADT-200A  transceiver. This transceiver is the best one currently available for a hobbyist budget. I really can recommend this TRX for any ambitious radio amateur. A missing piece was the support of Hamlib for the ADT-200A. Well, Winter holidays are a perfect time to just sit down and implement this - so I did. The software will be released in a few days ... Just for a teaser here's a screenshot of an interactive session with rigctl (the control application of Hamlib): Terminal session on Mac OS X, connected to an ADAT ADT-200A via Hamlib 1.2.14 The session shows that there is a ADT-200A with Serial Nr 1004079 connected that has loaded Firmware version 1.36bg (This firmware version will soon be released - please be patient - final testing is happening these days). Huge thanks go to Hans, HB9CBU, the inventor of the ADAT ADT-200A. OM Hans helped me answer endless questions

Hi all fellow Radio Amateurs and Hams, dear interested guests ! My new project reached a first milestone: Basement done.  The final tower height will be 18 m (approx. 50 feet) ... This tower is a Hummelmasten Explora 500 with an edge length of 500 mm. See the pictures and enjoy ... Step 1: Preparing the basement section of the tower with protective paint (bitumen). The result: About 80 cm of the tower lower end covered in bitumen - 2 layers ... Took about 2 hours to get in all the little edges and to cover all hidden surfaces ... Step 2: Digging the hole for the basement. 3,2 x 3,2 x 1,2 meters ... the little digger helped a lot. See also the panel of the photovoltaic power generation installation in the background ...  Step 3: With the basement bottom concrete layer in the steel cage for the tower is built. We need steel - more steel ! On the left side you see the two black tubes: The coax cables and the control lines for the rotor and even Ethernet wi