RAN Technology

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	Posted	Category
Quantum Spectrum - a DSP add-on for low-end SDRs As one who has been playing with small inexpensive SDRs since the days of the Softrock, I've been amazed by how well the simple yet very effective Quadrature Sampling Detector aka "Tayloe Detector" (named after it's inventor Dan Tayloe) actually works. Using calibrated equipment I've measured the Minimum Detectable Signal (MDS) at -122dBm using the same 3dB ... READ MORE	ranickels 03/12/2023	General Information
WANTED: Bendix 3206 Power Supply/Mod/IF unit This is an odd and unusual piece of gear, it's got IF cans one one end and a dynamotor on the other! It's the back half of the receiver plus power supply and modulator for the Bendix 3801 HF system that was used on aircraft before the switch to VHF. The functions were split between the two units to save panel space. Click the image to e... READ MORE	ranickels 06/08/2022	General Information
New droplet-based electricity generator A drop of water lights up 100 small LED bulbs A team of engineers has figured out how to take a single drop of rain and use it to generate a powerful flash of electricity. The City University of Hong Kong researchers behind the device, which they're calling a droplet-based electricity generator (DEG), say that a single rain droplet can briefly generate 140 volts. Their findings were published in the latest issue of the highly prestigious ... READ MORE	ranickels 03/29/2022	General Information
Russian soldiers uses Chinese portable radios Baofung UV-82HP - unencrypted The Russian military has used civilian mobile phones and radios for their communications, including Chinese-made civilian handheld radio, during the ongoing Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.According to Defence-Blog.com, the Russian military is using the BaoFeng UV-82HP radios for communication within the frontline units currently stationed in Ukraine.The Ukrainian military manages to sei... READ MORE	ranickels 03/24/2022	General Information
Amateur radio transmittting suspended in Ukraine part of a 30 day emergency order Full information hereSee Feb. 27 update HERE.Some webSDRs now blocking the spectrum around UVB-76 to prevent monitoring of it. ... READ MORE	ranickels 02/24/2022	General Information
Local IL Ham featured in newspaper article W9JC, Freeport IL A former Honeywell work colleague and local ham friend was recently featured in a front-page story in the Freeport Journal StandardJohn does a nice job of explaining the relevance of Ham Radio in the 21st century:“Think about that little cell phone you carry around which is only a radio,” he said. “That all happened in the last 100 years. That’s one lifespan for many people... READ MORE	ranickels 02/04/2022	Ham Radio News
This 22-year-old builds chips in his parents’ garage the crystal set of the 21st century? In August, chipmaker Intel evealed new details about its plan to build a “mega-fab” on US soil, a $100 billion factory where 10,000 workers will make a new generation of powerful processors studded with billions of transistors. The same month, 22-year-old Sam Zeloof announced his own semiconductor milestone. It was achieved alone in his family’s New Jersey garage, about 30 miles ... READ MORE	ranickels 02/02/2022	General Information
The Seasons Best Wishes de KPH Yes, a holiday greeting card from the original KPH, Port Reyes CA. I don't have an exact date but I would guess late 50s or early 60s because it came from the estate of Roger Kaney (SK) who was W9AF when I knew him, but had been W9ZRU previously. Roger was a retired marine radio operator when I met him in the late 80s, and even then would "stand watch" at nigh... READ MORE	ranickels 12/18/2021	General Information
Larry Sabella KA9BQR, SK known for his trademark hat, a good guy Lawrence “Larry” Joseph Sabella, 84 passed away Tuesday, November 16, 2021 at Serenity Hospice and Home in Oregon, IL. Larry was born on April 26, 1937 to Daniel A. and Jean M. (Konieczka) Sabella in Chicago, IL. In 1961, he married the love of his life, Barbara N. Wise in Maywood, IL. Larry proudly served his county for 5 ½ years as a sergeant in the United States Army and Army... READ MORE	ranickels 12/14/2021	General Information
May all your Christmases glow in the dark! wishing you a very Mecky Christmas! A dark shot of the John Meck T-60 transmitter provides a warm glow for 2021's Christmas greetings!CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE... READ MORE	ranickels 12/06/2021	General Information
Wes Schum, Amateur Radio's Unsung Hero new book released, available on Amazon My friend Nick Tusa K5EF has just released his book on the life of Central Electronics founder and ham radio pioneer, Wes Schum W9DYV. Wes was not only an innovator but a crack salesman and promoter of single sideband in the early days and his transmitters and other products did more to popularize this new mode of operation than anything else. It wasn't until after Art ... READ MORE	ranickels 10/30/2021	General Information
New! Online International Morse generator website Nothing to download, works in your browser Pretty cool, a website that you can enter text into that will play Morse through your browser without any downloading or software:https://morsecode.world/international/trainer/generator.htmlSpacing and other customizations are possible. No excuses for not practicing your code now (says to self...)... READ MORE	ranickels 08/23/2021	General Information
More hamfests return to WI-IL-IA in 2021 it's about time! Hamfests return in 2021 to Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin! The 2021 DeKalb (Sandwich) and Starved Rock hamfests were great successes! This was the first time for Starved Rock Radio Club to hold the hamfest in Mendota IL which worked out great - hope it helps the club rebuild what was once one of the best hamfests in the area..The South Milwaukee 'fest is special because i... READ MORE	ranickels 03/25/2021	General Information
W9RAN wins MCRN 7th place Midwest Classic Radio Net The Midwest Classic Radio Net has been conducted on 3885 kHz AM since 1987 as a salute to classic AM rigs and operation. The net remains one of the most popular AM nets in the country and sometimes last for well over an hour.Harry N9CQX took over the net after long-time NCS WA9ZTY became a silent key and instituted record-keeping to know how many stations participated. Befo... READ MORE	ranickels 01/08/2021	General Information
The Old QSL Card site is back who doesn't love old QSL cards? After the old Google+ site was shut down by Google, the amazing online collection of old QSL cards maintained by Bob Green, W8JYZ, has a new home - at his website. Browse thousands of vintage QSL cardsIt doesn't take long to find a memorable name or callsign - maybe even someone you know!Please share your appreciation with W8JYZ at the link on the home page for providin... READ MORE	ranickels 09/21/2020	General Information
Spartanburg Hamfest - sanity in the age of COVID-19 Intelligent risk-management by attendees Sanity! Individual responsibility!From the BRARS webpage:Welcome to the Blue Ridge Amateur Radio Society (BRARS) HamfestBy purchasing a Hamfest ticket, You are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present, “While attending the BRARS Hamfest you and any guests that you may bring voluntarily assume all risks related to ex... READ MORE	ranickels 09/12/2020	General Information
Beaker Street returns to the air! If you remember it, you were there! If you remember "Beaker Street" it's about the best news ever! Otherwise this will seem like going to someone else's high school reunion...In the late 60s, for kids living in "flyover country" in most small towns in the midwest, there were not many local rock and roll radio stations that could be heard during the day. But with sunset came the ski... READ MORE	ranickels 09/11/2020	General Information
Hamfests Return! A quick look at the Wauseon OH swap on June 6, 2020 Thanks to Rex WA6GYC for this short video of the Wauseon OH swapfest - one of the first to be held in what is otherwise "the summer without hamfests". Bryan KB8ELG, club president and promoter, put an AN/GRC-9 field radio on the air, hand-crank power and all! Full information can be found at the club's website http://k8bxq.org/hamfestAccording to Rex,&nb... READ MORE	ranickels 06/08/2020	General Information
Soviet Spy Radio found in forest (oh yeah, I put that there...I'll take it now thanks!) COLOGNE, GERMANY—According to a Live Science report, archaeologist Erich Classen of the Rhineland Regional Association and his colleagues were looking for a Roman villa in western Germany when they unearthed a Soviet spy radio that had been sealed in a metal box and hidden along a path through what was the Hambach Forest, just a few miles away from a nuclear research center and military air ... READ MORE	ranickels 02/24/2020	General Information
Announcing the W9DYV Radio Society honoring SSB pioneer Wes Schum W9DYV Nick Tusa, K5EF, longtime friend of Wes Schum and organizer of the W9DYV-Central Electronics Technical Symposium for a number of years, has announced that the W9DYV callsign will again be active, as the club callsign of the W9DYV Radio Societ NFP. Congratulations to Nick and friends for memorializing Wes Schum's contributions to amateur radio in this way!... READ MORE	ranickels 02/11/2020	Ham Radio News
WBBM-AM tower moves to Bloomington IL watch the old tower fall (video link below) The WBBM-AM radio tower has moved out of Itasca and found a new home in Bloomingdale.After 77 years, the over 680-foot WBBM-AM radio tower came down Thursday in Itasca. The property sold for development and WBBM Newsradio's new tower will now be located in Bloomingdale, at the same site as its sister station,WSCR (670 The Score), and will be diplexing off of their tow... READ MORE	ranickels 08/26/2019	General Information
Apollo 11 and Collins Radio “Every American voice transmitted from space was via Collins Radio Co. equipment” Those who may be interested in the technical details and the history of the space program leading up to Apollo should find plenty of interesting reading at this site:https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/contents.htmlUsed with permission.The Manned Space Flight Network antennas operated in the S-Band, on frequencies around 2.2 GHz. The system employed was known as the "Unified S-... READ MORE	ranickels 07/21/2019	General Information
Google gets stung for swiping content thanks to embedded morse code Dah-dit hits crash dot-dash cash-bash From The Inquirer:GOOGLE HAS FALLEN for a sting which is said to have proved the firm is 'stealing' data from a rival website.Genius.com, a site specialising in providing song lyrics, had suspected that Google had been scraping its site and using the lyrics to populate the 'information panels' often seen in the side of search results.This isn't that uncommon, but... READ MORE	ranickels 06/17/2019	General Information
Hara Arena badly damaged in Dayton Tornado Drone footage shows extensive damage The City of Trotwood OH is under an emergency declaration and the Hara Arena suffered extensive damage when tornadoes and severe storms moved through Monday night. Drone footage shows the roof and side of the structure blown off in several places.WATCH... READ MORE	ranickels 05/28/2019	General Information
Masa - AB9MQ - has the Coolest Rig in the World (this week) Check out his newly restored Kenwood TS-511DN It doesn't belong to me, even! Masa AB9MQ has recently acquired one of his "dream rigs" from Japan, a Kenwood TS-511DN, one of the predecessors to the famous TS-520. Check out his nice work and (way too neat!) "Maximum Quality Laboratory" in the Gallery.... READ MORE	ranickels 04/05/2019	Radio Friends
MICROPHONIA! is here Cool mics from my collection and ones I wish were I like microphones. I have lots of them, and lust after more! I'll be featuring cool microphonia in the Gallery from time to time, so check back often!... READ MORE	ranickels 03/26/2019	General Information
The Coolest Rig in the World! (this week...or until I say otherwise!) Borrowing from Little Steven's Underground Garage on SiriusXM, I will be featuring "The Coolest Rig in the World" on this very website!By what criteria? MINE! But rest assured, each featured rig WILL be cool...Check out the Gallery section for The Coolest Rig in the World (this week)!... READ MORE	ranickels 03/23/2019	General Information
Making A Transistor Radio in memory of Rev. George Dobbs G3RJV (SK) In memory of G3RJV, here is a link to the excellent book he wrote in 1972 titled "Making A Transistor Radio". It is in e-book form so you can view it in high resolution color online:https://archive.org/details/MakingATransistorRadioRev. Dobbs started the G-QRP club and wrote countless articles promoting homebrewing, simple radios, and QRP operation. His absence will lea... READ MORE	ranickels 03/12/2019	General Information
Rev. George Dobbs G3RJV, SK "Mister QRP" to many, a sad loss for the homebrewing and QRP community The founder of the GQRP Club and Amateur Radio author the Rev. George Dobbs, G3RJV, of Littleborough, England, died on March 11. He was 75. Dobbs was reported to have been in ill health for some time and had been living in a care facility, where his condition deteriorated quite rapidly over the past few days. He was the honorary secretary of the GQRP Club (G5LOW), which he founded in 1974 to... READ MORE	ranickels 03/12/2019	General Information
Febr. 4 solar activity aka "Rotten Conditions" if this ain't the bottom...you can see it from here! Anyone who operates HF has no doubt channelled "The Old Man", muttering about "Rotten Conditions!" lately.A look at the spaceweather.com site last weekend made it abundantly clear where we are in the current sunspot cycle:The month of Febr. was the first since Aug. 2008 without any sunspots at all. Fortunately, one has appeared since, so March will hopefully be a li... READ MORE	ranickels 03/08/2019	General Information
K9QET Update AM stalwart net control op and all-round good guy needs your thoughts and prayers Febr. Update: Our AM pal K9QET has left the hospital and prsently is in an rehab facility. Please continue to include John in your thoughts and prayers for his continued recovery and rehabilitation. Hopefully he will be able to return home and rejoin the airwaves.Thanks to Jerry W9JMK for keeping us informed of John's progress and to all the midwest hams who have sent cards and no... READ MORE	ranickels 12/22/2018	General Information
DX-60 and Mighty Elmac Nets on 75 meter AM Great AM fun! UPDATE: Steve W8TOW from near Lansing MI and a long-time friend of N8ECRs has taken over responsibility for the "N8ECR Memorial DX-60 Net" on 3880 kHz, Sunday mornings. All rigs are welcome, but this net has a long tradition of encouraging the use of low-power AM transmitters like the DX-60.As does the Wednesday night "Mighty Elmac Net" that Mike s... READ MORE	ranickels 12/16/2018	General Information
The Mighty Elmac Net continues Wednesday is Elmac Night! NEW NET CONTROL: Rex WA6GYC from Troy MI picked up the Elmac Net on Febr. 27 and did a Fine Business job! Hopefully he will be willing to continue in this role, as the lack of a primary net control and difficult propagation at this point in the solar cycle have made it challenging in past weeks. Please turn your radio on - Wednesday is Elmac Night! (... READ MORE	ranickels 12/12/2018	General Information
DX-60 Website Announced Celebrating the fun of low-power AM While everyone who knew Mike N8ECR is shocked and saddend by his untimely passing, we commemorate his legacy of promoting low-power AM operation with the new DX-60 Net website: https://dx-60.net//index.cfm?key=mainMike gave tirelessly of his time and energy to provide an opportunity for AM operators in the midwest part of the country to have fun, make friends, and play radio every Sunday mor... READ MORE	ranickels 12/09/2018	General Information
Bob Paquette, microphone collector, passes away The Microphone Museum, Milwaukee WI Bob Paquette's microphone museum in Milwaukee was known internationally and he will be missed. This photo shows only a part of his vast collection, in a 2001 visit by Harry N9CQX and Jim K9RJ (SK). Here is the announcement from the Wisconsin Antique Radio Club:Subject: Bob Paquette Sr. 1929-2018Friends of WARCI, It is with great sadness that we announce the passing... READ MORE	ranickels 12/04/2018	Radio Friends
Mike Beachy N8ECR - SK "If there's a ham radio heaven, they've got a hell of a net control operator" Dedicated AM operator and long-time net control for the DX-60 and Mighty Elmac nets, Mike Beachy N8ECR became a silent key on Sat. Dec. 1, 2018. This is very sad news for all of us who have enjoyed talking with Mike for many years. I've never met Mike in person but through the bonds of ham radio he was a good friend. RIP Mike. Mike’s S... READ MORE	ranickels 12/04/2018	Radio Friends
Take the Boatanchor Survey! Let authors and organizers know what you're interested in Take the Vintage Radio Interest Survey: https://tinyurl.com/boatanchorsurvey This survey is intended to better understand your vintage radio-related interests for use by vintage radio authors, product developers, and event organizers.Entering your email address helps to ensure the quality of the survey and enables you to receive an Executive Summary of the survey results when it is comp... READ MORE	ranickels 11/13/2018	General Information
W9RAN's "VERSA-TR" (as featured in Dec. 2018 QST) A Versatile T/R solution for SDRs and vintage radios Inexpensive Software Defined Radios offer excellent performance and value for hams and SWLs, but they lack key features that are needed for actual use on the air:Provision for automatically muting the speakers when transmitting, to eliminate overloading and audio feedback.A sidetone to monitor CW keying. SDRs do not provide a CW sidetone, and even worse, the time delay resulting from digital signa... READ MORE	ranickels 11/11/2018	New Product Announcements
Welcome to the new RAN Technology Inc. Website Bookmark this site! The new RAN Technology Inc. / W9RAN webpage is on the air! Please bookmark this page and check back often for news and information ranging from vintage radio to the latest developments in Software Defined Radio. ... READ MORE	ranickels 11/10/2018	General Information

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