Iambic CW Paddles

Fri, 22 Jul 2022 11:54:25 -0600

I have been trying to work toward my General ticket in Amateur radio, mostly due to the desire to use QRP as efficiently as possible on the lower bands and with some pretty awesome digital modes. That said, I also have a fascination with CW (what most people know as Morse Code).

I also think that the Homebrew tradition of radio should stay alive and well. When I decided to learn to use an Iambic Paddle (I had a FUNKeyer from a good friend) I decided I was going to make one. The concept was simple. In essence an iambic paddle is simply two switches, one that triggers a keyer to send a “dit”, or one that triggers a keyer to send a “dah”. If held down, the keyer will, generally, repeat the “dits” and “dahs” with a regular interval until the key is released.

With that in mind I settled on building one out of some Aluminum sheet, and some hardwood cutoffs.

I used two aluminum lengths as the paddles themselves. These were connected to a common post in the back with two bolts. This gave a common ground to use for the paddles.

Two 90 deg brackets (that’s for you crazy Radian fans.) form the standoffs for the “dit” and “dah” closures for the switches. The paddles, when depressed, short ground to these two brackets.

For connection, each bracket has a wire that connects it to the respective connections on the keyer circuit. (left-hand right angle is “dit”, right-hand right angle is “dah”).

For anyone who would like to follow along at home, here’s a diagram with some simple instructions on how to handle the sheet metal.

I plan on upgrading these paddles and making them with some brass parts, a solid post for the common ground in the back, brass paddle lengths, some nice wood paddle ends, and 2 custom angle brackets. I will probably make it with a walnut base instead of the cherry I used this time. It will use 3-conductor cloth braided wire, and hopefully look and feel amazing.

Weather Satellites!

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 22:22:19 -0600

There are a few satellites that the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration operates 3 satellites that anyone can use to receive atmospheric images. I’m very excited to see these images…

If I can successfully build an antenna…

I have been trying to make a v-dipole at 137 MHz, but I haven’t been able to actually get a clear signal from the satellite. I’ll be uploading my notes on the actual creation of the antenna once I can get a working one. If I can’t successfully get a good signal from the V-Dipole, I plan to go through and try making a couple of other forms of antennae.

Hopefully, in the coming days or weeks I’ll be able to upload some images I’ve pulled from satellites.

Additionally, I’ve got a weather station set up, I’m working on setting up an automatic upload of weather data from my location, but I have more work to do on that… and it doesn’t really belong in the radio section! (You should still expect to see a weather subsection here soon with some fun information about putting together a DIY weather station.)

Update: 7/8/2022

Holy shit, y’all

I identified the NOAA signal today, but was not able to get a quality recording that wxtoImg could process. I have the 137 MHz BPF designed, I plan on putting it together when my SMA connectors come in. I’m going to build it component to component, and encase it in an aluminum box to shield it. I also have an LNA on the way that should allow me to make it work.

Although, if I’m lucky, I might be able to find the signal and down a good audio sample before all that is done, and use those to really tune the signal in.

Update: 7/13/2022

I’ve got some good results lately, although nothing quite enough to pull an image from. I do have some audio signals and some screen caps. All of the images I get I’ll just throw on the gallery at the end of the page!

I did get some super weird interference on the 137 mHz band… I can’t seem to figure out what it is, but I’m thinking it’s probably interference from electronics in the house. I can’t wait to take this thing out with the RV and get some really clear signals.

Gallery

I haven’t yet gotten a successful image… I’m working on a new antenna as of Aug 07 2022

73 K0NOS

Projects on K0NOS

Iambic CW Paddles

Weather Satellites!

Gallery