DSP-10 Software Radio
Advanced Operations Page

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Although a lot of the fun is building software and hardware and making it work, the ultimate goal here is to perform operations that advance the Radio state of the art in some sense.  In this equipment environment, such operations are limited mostly by imagination.  I have many plans.

The first advanced operation was a simple outgrowth of reading the user's manual, getting frustrated, and writing a post processing program to fill a small gap in capability.  Read about it here:

EME2 Without Hardware Upgrades

Here is my AMSAT-NA 2006 Symposium paper on the subject, (c) AMSAT-NA 2006.
This paper was presented in Foster City, Ca, 2006 October 19.

Gave a version of the same talk to JPL Amateur Radio Club 2006 November 8 (the day of the transit of Mercury) and to the La Crescenta Amateur Radio Club on 2010 May 13.

Of course, not all Space Radio occurs on the DSP-10 platform.  Sometimes an opportunity arises that has us dusting off older rigs such as the QRO HAARP EME tests in January 2008.

2008 January 19 - 20  HAARP Reception Report

2009 February 5  The BWT planning effort pointed out that I should be able to add AO-7 Mode A contact to the list of achievements easily.  AO-7 switches randomly between Mode A and B.  Listened easily to several Mode B passes, even without an elevation rotator on the 2 meter beam, and decried again that 432 MHz is still a mid-term goal, not near-term.  Monitored several passes and the online AO-7 Log for the next several days.

2009 February 12  Found AO-7 in Mode A (2 meters up and 10 meters down).  Could hardly hear anything on the TS-680 for the downlink, but did pick up my own string of dits near mid pass and did snag AA5PK for a weak QSO at 0301 Z.



2009 June 13  Per the full-bore Cocoa effort, and no new two meter hardware to test in the station, wasn't going to do the VHF QSO Party this year, but was sitting on frequency with the beam pointed north (away from most of the action) when I heard a station in DM05 for the first time ever.  I've heard the N6NB beacon up there but never heard or worked a live station.  No sooner was I finished with him than I heard and worked a CM94, previously the toughest workable grid from here.  With those two (like the Canadian maratime provinces in SS!) went ahead and made a bunch of QSOs to fill out the others, DM03, 04, 12, 13, 14, for my first-ever 7 grid entry.

n5bf/6 DSP-10 page
n5bf-at-amsat-dot-org

update 2011 July 6 cbd

updated 2009 November 27, cbd