http://g7kse.co.uk by Alex Hill Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:39:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A run down the beach ended in a little more than the post exercise stiffness thanks to some ice http://g7kse.co.uk/uncategorized/oops/ Having been thoroughly concerned about soldering SMD's it's apparaent that they aren't all that bad! Last night I finished the preliminary build and completed the checks on the build notes. There were a few odd voltages across some of the pins of a U6 and U8 but it seemed to fire ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/hf-lite-built/ Last night i tried out my SMD sodlering skills on a very generously donated board and few surplus components, thanks Kevin, and I'm happy to say that it wasn't as hard as I forst thought. I managed a few without any magnification and as long as there is good light ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/practice-soldering/ I spent an hour or so with Kevin, MOKHZ last saturday getting a brief lesson on SMD soldering and I'm a bit more confident now about how to put the softrock together. Now all but the iron tip has arrived so as soon as that turns up I'll be starting ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/soldering-smds/ The CMOS chip is due to arrive soon so i'll have a complete kit ready for my blundering soldering skills to knacker up. I've done a bit of research as to the best way to solder some of these tiny little monsters and I think it'll be a bit of ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/hf-lite/ Now that I'm back into the land of semi normality and that sleep is now a thing of the past my HF Lite arrived a few days ago and I've had a good look through the parts and I think that I may have bitten quite a big chunk for ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/hf-lite-arrived/ Having run the active antenna for a month or so it seems fairly obvious that it's just not pulling in the signals. I've swapped it for a wire antenna with a 1:1 balun. The wire is approximately 25m long with a 10m coax feeder. It'll be positioned in a suitable ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/antenna-replacement/ I'm very happy to say that our latest addition decided to make an appearance this evening. weighing in at a svelte 4.31Kg he's obviously enjoyed something! [caption id="attachment_188" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Samuel David Hume Hill"][/caption] http://g7kse.co.uk/uncategorized/samuel-david-hume-hill/ The suns having a lazy autumn. or spring depending on you hemisphere. The numbers through on the ARRL propagation bulletin make for a fairly low reading with what is reported to be a a bit of a pattern where a sunspot appears for a few days then is quick to ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/ssns-still-very-low/ Searching through the emails?I receive during the day can sometimes be a bit of a chore. Other times some really useful informations comes to light. The softrock yahoo group has the latest news on the various softrock product but now they've annouced that the v9.0 if the HF lite has ... http://g7kse.co.uk/radio/hf-lite-v90-receiver-available/