Friday, November 25, 2011

Table-top version of JOTA Transceiver built by Sudhindraraja, VU3PWT

JOTA TRx. in a box
Table-top JOTA Transceiver


Sudhindraraja, VU3PWT, an Amateur Radio enthusiast and a home-brewer built this table top version of the JOTA Transceiver.

An acrylic sheet was used to built the transmitter and  receiver sections. A common MHz VFO was used as local oscillator for both transmitter and receiver. A 7-segment LED frequency counter display, volume control, speaker, MIC jack and tuning knob was mounted on a separate acrylic sheet. For TX. and RX., power and antenna switching was done by a D.P.D.T. relay.

Using this Table top version of the JOTA TRx., an Indonesian HAM was contacted.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Malabar Repeater Inauguration at Payyannoor, Kerala

Malabar Repeater Inauguration at Payyannoor, Kerala

Inauguration of the repeter by Ramaprabhu, VU2DEV


Visiting Repeater QTH


Audience attending the Repeater Inauguration




Monday, November 7, 2011

Pictures of ISDR workshop held at Indian Institute of Hams on 5th and 6th November 2011

Introduction to ISDR

Students and Team members

ISDR kits handed over to Students

Assembly begins

Team helping students



Teams setup of the ISDR

Students try their hands-on with ISDR


DAY 2 of the workshop

Team members helping the students

Team member testing the students ISDR

Finished ISDR of a student

Student tests his ISDR

Friday, November 4, 2011

Workshop at Indian Institute of Hams

Indian Institute of Hams will be conducting practical workshop on SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO (SDR). It is a 7 Mhz  receiver (Amateur Radio Band).  Any Indian Institute of Hams member interested to assemble can enroll for this unique workshop.  Workshop will be conducted by Mr Ramprabhu , VU2DEV  Trustee & Technical Adviser, ofcourse  veteran Ham.


Date and Timings
SATURDAY, 5th November 2011 between 1500 hrs – 1900 hrs
SUNDAY, 6th November 2011 between 1000 hrs  – 1730 hrs

Note:  All workshop materials like soldering iron, lead, required tools will be made available.
  
Once you assemble, download the software on your desktop and connect the assembled receiver to monitor the HF amateur radio band.  Of course, a simple antenna is required.  

NO LICENCE REQUIRED TO MONITOR THE AMATEUR RADIO.

Address
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF HAMS

Gate No.2, 2nd Floor, 
Sree Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium,
Kasturba Road, 
Bangalore - 560 001
Phone:+91-80-26664501
Cell: +91-9448302677



Wednesday, November 2, 2011

DDS using AD9833

AD9833 soldered on to a PCB

In a prior research project in the communications field, AD9833 was used to make a DDS (Direct Digital Synthesis). The AD9833 is a low power(12.65 mW) programmable waveform generator which has10-lead MSOP (Mini Small Outline Package) hence soldering onto a regular PCB is very difficult as the lead pins are very small. So a PCB was fabricated to assist easy soldering of the AD9833. The above pictures shows the AD9833 being soldered onto the PCB to make connections easily.


 

A development board is created to test and program the AD9833 using PIC16F84A. A 20Mhz crystal oscillator was used as Master Clock. The pic configuration of AD9833 are:

1 - COMP                    6 - SDATA
2 - VDD                       7 - SCLK
3 - CAP/2.5V               8 - FSYNC

4 - DGND                    9 - AGND
5 - MCLK                   10 - VOUT

The FSYNC, SCLK and SDATA is conneted to the PIC16F84A through Pin 10, Pin 11 and Pin 12. These connections are required to program the AD9833. The FSYNC is basically the Chip Select. The timing diagram below explains the method of loading the required data.

TIMING DIAGRAM

The AD9833 contains a 16-bit control register that allows the user to configure the operation of the AD9833. Hence the control register has to be first initialized before loading the frequency.  The AD9833 as two Frequency Registers and two Phase Registers. Each of the register is 28-bit long. While loading the frequency in the registers 2-bits are used to select the register and we have remaining 14-bits for loading. The Frequency registers are loading using two write cycle. So we require 5 write cycles to be loaded.

0x2100 - Initialize the Control Register
0x____ - 14-bits LSB of the Frequency
0x____ - 14-bits MSB of the Frequency
0x____ - Phase Register
0x2000 - Reset

The 28-bits to be loading in the Frequency register is calculated using the formula:

FreqReg = (Fout x 2^28)/Fmclk = _____d = _______ Hex

To program the PIC16F84A, MPLAB IDE is used to write the program and compile it. The complied HEX file is loaded using a Parallel port programmer. The PIC16F84A was loaded with the program and theAD9833 was successfully loaded with the desired frequency and checked on the oscilloscope.






Indian Software Defined Radio (ISDR)

The ISDR is developed for Students and Radio Amateurs. ISDR is a  low cost 40 meter band receiver.


PC Sound card's MIC jack(stereo) is extensively used for the ISDR. So, the ISDR performance depends on the PC Sound card. The center frequency is 7056 KHz and typical frequency range the receiver covers is about +/- 48 KHz and depends on the PC sound card sampling rate which happens to be 96 KHz. The receivers performance depends on the usage of a good antenna.  

A 28.224MHz  crystal which is used to create stable oscillations.  IC 74HC00 is used as a Local Oscillator of frequency 28.224MHz. The output of the local Oscillator is first divided by  to provide True and Complement signals (0 degrees and 180 degrees) by IC 74HC74. These two signals are agian divided by 2 to provide 0 degree and 90 degree by one more  IC 74HC74. These signals are given as L.O. input to the mixers to drive the P and Q amplifiers through transistor buffers. The output signals P and Q (mono-jacks) are low frequency signals which have a phase difference of 90 degrees. These signals are connected to the MIC jack (stereo) of the PC.

Front Panel  :  Outputs P & Q (mono jacks)
                      ON / OFF switch
                      LED indicator.
Back Panel  :  Antenna connector(UHF/ BNC)
                      12V D.C. binding posts.

Software to be used: Rocky, WinRad, PowerSDR etc. (all software used are free )


Research and Development