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Showing posts with label K1JT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label K1JT. Show all posts

Friday, April 26, 2019

Nobel Prize winner Joe Taylor, K1JT, Talks to a Radio Club



Really great to see this session with Nobel Prize winner Joe Taylor, K1JT.
I liked his comments on his use of his retirement office at Princeton, University. 
I also liked his slide on how far below the noise level you can go with various modes. 
And then there was his reminder to 1) RTFM and 2) be sure to check the EME delay box so that your software will get the timing right when working earth-moon-earth. 

"Pulsars keep good time." 

Thursday, August 3, 2017

AE7KI (VK2APG), FT8, and WAS on a BITX20

I've had several very nice conversations with Gerry AE7KI (aka VK2APG).  His Australian accent sets him apart from the other Tennessee stations.  Last time we talked Gerry mentioned having competed Worked All States with his BITX20 (below). Very cool.


Gerry also alerted me to a new digital mode created by Joe Taylor.  This one is called FT8.  Gerry is using it to good effect on the 6 meter band. Here is Peter Marks' initial reaction to FT8:


As I type, there are 252 stations monitoring 6 meters for FT8 signals.   You can see a map displaying these stations here: 





Thursday, February 11, 2016

Gravitational Waves, A GREAT VIDEO, Phasing, and Joe Taylor K1JT



Wow, you really have to spend 20 minutes and watch the video (above).  It is really well done.  I loved it.  I give it FIVE SOLDERING IRONS!

And big news today!  They did it!  Gravitational waves finally detected.  Here is a good New York Times article that includes a recording of the signal, a nice NYT video that has a good explanation (with phasing!) of how lasers are used in the massive detectors, and mention of Joe Taylor, K1JT, whose Nobel Prize winning work contributed to this great discovery.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/12/science/ligo-gravitational-waves-black-holes-einstein.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Words to Live By...





Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Monday, May 6, 2013

Homebrew Adventures with JT65


My six dollar DDS board hasn't arrived yet, so this weekend I worked on the re-build of the 30 meter Direct Conversion/DSB transmitter that I built in Rome (originally for WSPR use).  I was hoping to use this rig to make at least a few PSK-31 contacts.   But I started seeing these strange looking sigs in the waterfall.  I found out they are JT65 (JT for Joe Taylor).  So I downloaded the program JT65-HF.  I got the receiver going very quickly (it is a 40675 dual gate MOSFET followed by the audio amplifier out of Roger Hayward's Ugly Weekender RX).  The transmitter is just a two diode singly balanced modulator followed by the RF chain from Peter Parker's Beach 40 Rig.   QSOs seem imminent.


Our book: "SolderSmoke -- Global Adventures in Wireless Electronics" http://soldersmoke.com/book.htm Our coffee mugs, T-Shirts, bumper stickers: http://www.cafepress.com/SolderSmoke Our Book Store: http://astore.amazon.com/contracross-20

Sunday, May 3, 2009

K1JT Spots My DSB QRPp WSPR Signal

2009-05-03 16:42 N2CQR
-29



K1JT
7035 4371
2009-05-03 16:38 N2CQR
-24



K1JT
7035 4371

I got into WSPR because I wanted the gratification that comes from seeing a map readout indicating that my QRP signal has crossed various oceans. Well, yesterday I crossed the pond for a second time, but this time the receiving station heard the signal more than once, so the rx station callsign appeared on the display (if the signal is heard only once, you get the line showing the path, but NOT the rx station call). And what a fine callsign it was: K1JT, Joe Taylor, Nobel Prize winner and the inventor of WSPR.

In the last SolderSmoke I got Joe's name wrong (I called him John). It must have been too early in the morning here. Anyway, I was gently corrected by Wes, W7ZOI, and I promissed to make ammends. Sorry Joe! (Thanks Wes).

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

WSPRing Across the Mighty Atlantic

You have to look carefully, but in the picture above you can see a little green line stretching from Rome to Maine. That's my 20 milliwatt WSPR signal crossing the Atlantic. W1CDO's receiver picked me up at 0452 UTC yesterday.



Date Call
SNR


W
by loc km mi
2009-04-29 4:52 N2CQR
-22


0.020 W1CDO FN43ou 6541 4064

The day/night terminator was in the mid-Atlantic at that time, so I think I had a bit of a tailwind from the gray line! But still, not bad for 20 mw in Maunder Minimum II. K1JT's software and W1CDO's receive system did the heavy lifting. Antenna here is just an end-fed wire among the buildings of central Rome.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

WSPRing along at 27 db below the noise....

WSPR is fun. I haven't crossed any ponds yet, but the real- time displays of the reception reports are very addictive:
http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spots
Be sure to click on the map display also.

I was intrigued by the Signal to Noise ratio column, and wondered what the reference bandwidth for the noise was. K1JT's pages show the reference bandwidth is 2500 Hz, and that WSPR can decode signals that are as much as 27 db below that noise.

That's great. I guess I don't have to worry about the lower sideband of my 30 mw signal causing anyone any trouble. It will be very far down in the noise.

Friday, July 18, 2008

The QRSS Knight with the Nobel Prize


We are in some very distinguished company on the QRSS "Knights" mailing list. Joe Taylor, K1JT, is active in the group. Joe won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1993. His biography includes references to ham radio that will warm the hearts of all Knack sufferers: K1JT's bio

This year, Joe created a new piece of software that is being used by many of the Knights. It has a name that will appeal to QRP'ers. Here is a description:

WSPR is the name of a computer program.
It is pronounced "whisper",and stands
for "Weak Signal Propagation Reporter";
it implements transmitting and receiving
functions for a digital soundcard mode
called "MEPT_JT", which stands for
"Manned Experimental Propagation
Tests, by K1JT".

WSPR generates and receives signals
using structured messages, strong
forward error correction,
and narrow-band 4-FSK modulation. Its
principal design goal is reliable
copy at very low signal levels. In
practice it works well at
signal-to-noise ratios down to -27 dB in a
reference bandwidth of 2500 Hz.
Joe recently released a new version of WSPR, so if you are going to give this a try, make sure you do so with the most recent release. You can download WSPR 1.0 (r972) from

http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/WSPR100.EXE
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