tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25540013800399699602024-03-18T04:04:47.970+01:00LA3ZA Radio & ElectronicsSverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-21815719732889736742024-02-20T23:51:00.024+01:002024-03-07T12:13:22.723+01:00Svalbard, JW1ITS, in International WSPR Beacon Project<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFKiJv6vCRYZb-rEDSZKsljJ5-GSZXR65n9UQhGqUZYbucWCAYiHCE_6nbIqsmaTt2tGXZR5zKZvpEjGHZFe2zPtbUxXKdxsckR9IvFpcY6NV93HLhctS_siSvpq50vfBLsmj-Paju0VmjRYnDtT_-HgixGm7OuvGNZHLiQtZOzItgrcJxbz3P1OcSgo/s1013/JW1ITS-Feb2024.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="697" data-original-width="1013" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicFKiJv6vCRYZb-rEDSZKsljJ5-GSZXR65n9UQhGqUZYbucWCAYiHCE_6nbIqsmaTt2tGXZR5zKZvpEjGHZFe2zPtbUxXKdxsckR9IvFpcY6NV93HLhctS_siSvpq50vfBLsmj-Paju0VmjRYnDtT_-HgixGm7OuvGNZHLiQtZOzItgrcJxbz3P1OcSgo/w400-h275/JW1ITS-Feb2024.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1000 spots over the last 2-3 days of reception. <br />Image from <a href="http://wspr.rocks/" target="_blank">WSPR Rocks</a>.</td></tr></tbody></table>This month a new receiver station in the <a href="https://github.com/HB9VQQ/WSPRBeacon" target="_blank">International WSPR Beacon Project</a> was established near Longyearbyen, Svalbard. It is located at the <a href="https://kho.unis.no/" target="_blank">Kjell Henriksen Observatory</a>, at 520 m above sea level. This is a nice location for reception, but it is a tough place for outdoor antennas.<p></p><div>The receiver is an Airspy HF+ Discovery and software is running on a Raspberry Pi 4 and it is intended to run continuously 24/7. The receiver receives <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSPR_(amateur_radio_software)" target="_blank">WSPR</a> which was conceived by Nobel laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT. WSPR is run in a <a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2021/07/coordinated-wspr-band-hopping-with.html" target="_blank">Coordinated band hopping</a> schedule from 3.5 - 28 MHz, i.e. each frequency is received every 20 minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSrzElvjSDteiZ9hE6VaG2ZHe5h2G78zJP-2SeIDyU6uMJLeZdCTHstN_S8gp4mXzZM7cwia6uF7ND3sFvb47KXJ5JZK7WUOAynvcdk2b0YqYdNCeLN0H2qyOZo3smlgFkk4gW_9DFBg_mOnA5yXtYNQ56rGLSB0kuDins34j8P3p9oaoKJjHXprpNJA/s342/JW1ITS-bandCount.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="151" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYSrzElvjSDteiZ9hE6VaG2ZHe5h2G78zJP-2SeIDyU6uMJLeZdCTHstN_S8gp4mXzZM7cwia6uF7ND3sFvb47KXJ5JZK7WUOAynvcdk2b0YqYdNCeLN0H2qyOZo3smlgFkk4gW_9DFBg_mOnA5yXtYNQ56rGLSB0kuDins34j8P3p9oaoKJjHXprpNJA/s320/JW1ITS-bandCount.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>At present the antenna is temporary and quite prone to noise. It receives best on the higher bands, like 28 MHz (10 m), but there has been reception on all bands from 5 MHz to 28 MHz as is evident from the band count shown to the right. Work is under way to improve the antenna. </div><div><br /></div><div>The receiver station is a collaboration between:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The <a href="https://github.com/HB9VQQ/WSPRBeacon" target="_blank">International WSPR Beacon Project</a>.</li><li>The Norwegian Association for Amateur Radio (<a href="https://nrrl.no/" target="_blank">Norwegian Radio Relay League</a>).</li><li>The University centre in Svalbard (UNIS) where Mikko, also radio amateur JW5FUA, does local support.</li><li>Department of Physics, University of Oslo, whose instrument rack the receiver is located in and where I work.</li><li>Department of Technology Systems, University of Oslo whose call sign sign is used. The call sign, JW1ITS, is the Svalbard equivalent of <a href="https://www.qrz.com/db/LA1ITS" target="_blank">LA1ITS</a>, where the three final letters are the initals of "Institutt for Teknologisystemer".</li></ul></div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-8316959734864854042024-02-11T22:45:00.017+01:002024-02-20T13:41:54.313+01:00Better accuracy for the Multi Face GPS Clock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ4PRFxgsCaq7IiaXdkeanJNASswiQdr2BxI-BFEC8tceIgywZEFss7xtAHRD3L-DjIw8RkCx2sb6_-j_pVxUr-ENWe8cPLb0SoICSogzCzAlkq4sh7ACeA8pQ0iGH2qOeNk4JRQXUMprn13TT2fEMU4M-XYusOBOy6GPhdY9RFeinpp4XjNJa2de3P0o/s3460/3x2-local.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1162" data-original-width="3460" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ4PRFxgsCaq7IiaXdkeanJNASswiQdr2BxI-BFEC8tceIgywZEFss7xtAHRD3L-DjIw8RkCx2sb6_-j_pVxUr-ENWe8cPLb0SoICSogzCzAlkq4sh7ACeA8pQ0iGH2qOeNk4JRQXUMprn13TT2fEMU4M-XYusOBOy6GPhdY9RFeinpp4XjNJa2de3P0o/s320/3x2-local.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Version 2.1.0 of the clock now implements interrupt-driven setting of the second. It needs the Pulse-per-second PPS output from a GPS for that. The result is that the clock is more accurate as it now changes seconds a few hundred milliseconds earlier and aligns perfectly with other clocks I have.<div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlw7JBLqrVlbLNh7NBpBbLGcbwjXbL7vZypeg2j3mYALoQ74BbYTgOWnAigrMMnmuCXi28hutvAB6rp7InS3B4G0rt0FApNtaS2GJo11XKpz9xpGdi50vjdX_EulZ4cQ87HWtCoSBQSPkzmMFEOjdkkn6EiQrhSwUwWSXNK3fTKnJU0Db2o7oMlcJzp30/s3124/Status-2.1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1039" data-original-width="3124" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlw7JBLqrVlbLNh7NBpBbLGcbwjXbL7vZypeg2j3mYALoQ74BbYTgOWnAigrMMnmuCXi28hutvAB6rp7InS3B4G0rt0FApNtaS2GJo11XKpz9xpGdi50vjdX_EulZ4cQ87HWtCoSBQSPkzmMFEOjdkkn6EiQrhSwUwWSXNK3fTKnJU0Db2o7oMlcJzp30/s320/Status-2.1.jpg" width="320" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is optional whether one wants to use this feature or not. If not, the PPS flag needs to be set to 0 in the Setup menu, otherwise the clock will wait indefinitely for a pulse that never comes. In the image to the right the PPS flag is set to "1".</div></div><div><br /></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span>The rest of the code status screen shown here displays: Line 2: code version and date. Line 3: GPS baudrate and PPS flag. Line 4: Time zone and offset from UTC in minutes, and language used for day names when displaying local time.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a few new screens also in version 2.1.0, among them one which reads a little database with names and birthdates from EEPROM and displays them in sorted order. See <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock/wiki#new-in-v210-2024-01-21" target="_blank">GitHub wiki for details</a>. A program for writing to EEPROM is provided for loading this kind of data. Some big number screens, like the one shown first here, have also been made .</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">The code is on GitHub</a>.</div></div></div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-20092250351190770682024-02-08T19:20:00.006+01:002024-02-12T22:25:42.442+01:00My new HamClock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvgS8xiimEJpE2wlUmIMZMdWCi9oybNcU3grrDotxUORe8o01q_QPF9gzTKkm9X91cHSlE73W6jMS308fADWjMFt9ey59Q3U2VrIbiKCUUgdB9LBzYS8qnOOZIc-0UT8UsyFlC-C1AX5n1DRrAfSKpNp_NWNjA4TlWNewZ6pCsvUIxEwwUdAnxggM52Q0/s4137/Hamclock.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2432" data-original-width="4137" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvgS8xiimEJpE2wlUmIMZMdWCi9oybNcU3grrDotxUORe8o01q_QPF9gzTKkm9X91cHSlE73W6jMS308fADWjMFt9ey59Q3U2VrIbiKCUUgdB9LBzYS8qnOOZIc-0UT8UsyFlC-C1AX5n1DRrAfSKpNp_NWNjA4TlWNewZ6pCsvUIxEwwUdAnxggM52Q0/w400-h235/Hamclock.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I finally got the hardware for the HamClock and installed the <a href="https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/" target="_blank">free software</a>. It really looks like a labor of love on the part of its creator, Elwood Downey, WBØOEW.<p></p><p>I show the ISS footprint, for the occasional APRS signal from/to it, and DX cluster reports from zones near where I live.</p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>The hardware is a <a href="https://raspberrypi.dk/" target="_blank">Raspberry Pi 4 Model B - 8 GB</a>, with a <a href="https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001485174459.html?spm=a2g0o.order_detail.order_detail_item.2.4a7ff19clUDK1n" target="_blank">7" inch Touch Screen</a>. This particular screen is nice in that the Raspberry Pi just plugs in on its back, so no dangling cables are needed.<p></p><p>If I should change something, I might have opted for a larger screen. On the other hand, it is nice that it doesn't take up so much space on the desk.</p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-51227907853055598252023-12-26T18:20:00.012+01:002024-02-12T22:26:15.210+01:0010 bargraphs and progressbars for the LCD of the Arduino<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4t6hA9_NB07viKMwiJ4RJPPPkR1cq1dadaZBFUu1klFGqqwyKVPSw_jcD_2AaRtTEHpczefvFR5TD-Dot-0ytdSp_coD-ojmMHIeZl-h6FAHlT8GWoISFSt56ezrXvH3iaOAfkOWaxxSfDtaif4rqDjWZElzRYcNVFyMiBSle4G-l0x9eAVrKQLas84/s1118/Bar2-la3za.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="390" data-original-width="1118" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC4t6hA9_NB07viKMwiJ4RJPPPkR1cq1dadaZBFUu1klFGqqwyKVPSw_jcD_2AaRtTEHpczefvFR5TD-Dot-0ytdSp_coD-ojmMHIeZl-h6FAHlT8GWoISFSt56ezrXvH3iaOAfkOWaxxSfDtaif4rqDjWZElzRYcNVFyMiBSle4G-l0x9eAVrKQLas84/s320/Bar2-la3za.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I needed some progressbars and collected all the bars I could find and implemented them on an Arduino with 20x4 or 16x2 LCD. <p></p><p>There is a total of 10 different bars and here are the two which are used in the upcoming version of the Multi face GPS Clock.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFp23TBATjq2_Q1msSJv88QjXgO65xeykUffk9xAGg0bScTwRW7Hs23Oatkz4195rsA52DdGVYdAN4FdFZh1xIsp2F73XH0AxOeAt4Ha8QSEiAJ0lhKBo4scL8ln6X4cX_wfMcDhX3dbYpImVOjpnKBRR7Gf-t7q-zVSiBldXrblbomOXGyLbwoNFuNSg/s1134/Bar0-la3za.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="1134" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFp23TBATjq2_Q1msSJv88QjXgO65xeykUffk9xAGg0bScTwRW7Hs23Oatkz4195rsA52DdGVYdAN4FdFZh1xIsp2F73XH0AxOeAt4Ha8QSEiAJ0lhKBo4scL8ln6X4cX_wfMcDhX3dbYpImVOjpnKBRR7Gf-t7q-zVSiBldXrblbomOXGyLbwoNFuNSg/s320/Bar0-la3za.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The main design principle is that no more than 8 custom characters should be required per bar. That means that the custom character set is uploaded just once for each bar, giving much less probability for wearing out the LCD character memory with its presumed finite limit on the number of write cycles. <p></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>This excludes some fancier bars that require more or less continuous updates of character sets during progression of the bar.<p></p><p>The code and images of the other eight bars can be found on <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Bars/tree/main" target="_blank">Github</a>.</p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-18664095655392766842023-08-07T01:57:00.018+02:002024-02-20T13:41:39.876+01:00Multi Face GPS Clock ver 2.0 setup<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Clock nerds may appreciate that my multi-face GPS Clock software has come in a major new software version, V2.0.0. The main novelty is that it allows a typical user to setup the clock without having to edit the Arduino software. Youtube video demonstrations are below.</div><p></p>First, the 24 screens of the Favorites subset (make sure to turn on subtitles): <iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AJEWBOJmE1E" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br /><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span>Second, how to change the clock from EU to US setup (language, time zone, date format):<br /><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mNIamsUlenw" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br /><p></p><p>A brief press on the rotary encoder will enter the setup menu with these options:</p><p>< 0 Clock subset >, < 1 Backlight >, < 2 Date format >, < 3 Time zone >, < 4 Local language >, <5 Secondary menu>.</p><p>Submenus will lead the user to : </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Menu 0: Clock subset, gives a choice between Favorites (24 screens), All (40 screens), Calendar (13), Fancy clocks (22), Astronomy (16), Radio amateur (13)</li><li>Menu 2, Date format, gives a choice between EU, US, ISO, French, British, Period format, Dot format</li><li>Menu 3: 20 different time zones</li><li>Menu 4: English (en), French (fr), German (de), Norwegian (no), Spanish (es) day names for local time</li><li>Secondary menus will enable a choice of among others GPS baud rate</li></ul><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;">Chosen values will be stored in EEPROM so next time the clock is started it will start with the values used in the previous session.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A long press will reset the clock.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The code can be <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">found on Github</a>.</p><p></p><div><br /></div><p></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-10190748025555280722023-05-21T20:36:00.010+02:002023-05-22T08:13:12.831+02:00EA8/LA3ZA April 2023<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy0Hf07v_6BcljPGlWhmRTO1dr891kbBagMjrYCPdcbkJfpnF-n8DNJrqQGdK7I-SaVLwIZeEkJ368gcy-WI-6tsLEgFKVaX5QeYgmbccqfgNWlrSOg8nJN_QOPVlqJV7UKjqtwJSJ7AcjNImjKbfS1D06yKf9S8yL5XkpXcfCZ18Z960I3BIZb0vn/s1522/EA8-LA3ZA-Screenshot%202023-05-03%20233840.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="1522" height="191" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy0Hf07v_6BcljPGlWhmRTO1dr891kbBagMjrYCPdcbkJfpnF-n8DNJrqQGdK7I-SaVLwIZeEkJ368gcy-WI-6tsLEgFKVaX5QeYgmbccqfgNWlrSOg8nJN_QOPVlqJV7UKjqtwJSJ7AcjNImjKbfS1D06yKf9S8yL5XkpXcfCZ18Z960I3BIZb0vn/w400-h191/EA8-LA3ZA-Screenshot%202023-05-03%20233840.png" width="400" /></a></div>This was a fun <a href="https://www.qrz.com/db/EA8/LA3ZA" target="_blank">holiday operation</a> from the island of Tenerife with 2.5 - 4 Watts running digital modes, mostly FT8 and some FT4 using a low-band and a high-band QDX.<p></p><p>The best bands were 30 m (29%) and in particular 10 m (65%) with a lot of contacts across the Atlantic ocean as the picture shows. In total 62 different entities/countries were contacted. </p><p>QSL via Logbook of the World.</p><p><br /></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-35587673394852615882023-04-28T18:49:00.015+02:002023-04-30T09:53:59.282+02:003 tips for not blowing the finals of the QDX transceiver<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2SA-n0r0HIosuELUF-xMBXaM5CTd_b8OOQDWU0jSbQoIHkJr20JPjnftC-lzr2EZEK9zEsUHtpQtfS_04iM9mID9d2OrG9SztrkiWcimZ8_t9UsJ1CWd8avGuLs-pE7hHPx1nti3_o-To2LYRn020M0k4ZNsvLWH0VFww-F5JhkEWVshJ-fFdO43/s4608/2023-04-28%2010.06.09.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi2SA-n0r0HIosuELUF-xMBXaM5CTd_b8OOQDWU0jSbQoIHkJr20JPjnftC-lzr2EZEK9zEsUHtpQtfS_04iM9mID9d2OrG9SztrkiWcimZ8_t9UsJ1CWd8avGuLs-pE7hHPx1nti3_o-To2LYRn020M0k4ZNsvLWH0VFww-F5JhkEWVshJ-fFdO43/w320-h240/2023-04-28%2010.06.09.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I have now used both the low- and the high-band QDXes daily as <a href="https://www.qrz.com/db/EA8/LA3ZA" target="_blank">EA8/LA3ZA</a> for a period of two weeks without destroying the four BS170 final transistors. Here are some procedures and tips.<p></p><p>But first, I do actually have experience in blowing the finals. That happended under testing prior to leaving, and all it took was 9.5 Volts for my 9 V build and what I thought was a dummy load, but which might have been an open circuit load. One BS170 developed a short between drain and gate with the result that 9.5 Volts was passed directly into the outputs of the driver IC5, 74ACT08, so IC5 blew as well.</p><p>My three tips for avoiding such failures are:<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">1. Use a reduced power supply voltage for tuning</h3><div>I reduce the voltage from 9 to 7 Volts during tuning. as shown in the first image. That greatly reduces the risk of getting too high voltages over the BS170s.</div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNb3Q3pyZC8lTIAo97oXuzz9wyobITtE6X96rvuBTjDZz8ABmuX601mj4D9rMqH2p15pVFpwVP6eJzdSqnqZLaiFXVR-1AcAgGCyLxVlgfJAVB1fiTK-SIX_TGgVHnXtS4MiUZfmWy4kFG5gXh3MAwQKTnsfDbGuIyFlsUUOGZa69beQaTBnFYczi4/s4608/2023-04-28%2010.07.05.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="4608" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNb3Q3pyZC8lTIAo97oXuzz9wyobITtE6X96rvuBTjDZz8ABmuX601mj4D9rMqH2p15pVFpwVP6eJzdSqnqZLaiFXVR-1AcAgGCyLxVlgfJAVB1fiTK-SIX_TGgVHnXtS4MiUZfmWy4kFG5gXh3MAwQKTnsfDbGuIyFlsUUOGZa69beQaTBnFYczi4/w320-h240/2023-04-28%2010.07.05.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />2. Use a current limited power supply</h3><div>The image shows a limit set at 1.3 Amperes. That reduces the risk of overheating, should the current for some reason rise more than expected.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIID7uZwH5tY-F7doYIEC4ya-nNmyO_kl4YJo1vAtkkXptd4bqWcIScVxP2-z2nUeDPBBz3QOCt8pIvg0SUtyb2LNAhh4f-1vUrm-xtVo4E_Ab3mDzUbfhJ1_hc5okic74KLfYAt9tqZqK8_8DapObiQFbBO11cKYiWtk5XMokulEXfC8hk11IZcV/s4608/2023-04-11%2021.03.21.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIID7uZwH5tY-F7doYIEC4ya-nNmyO_kl4YJo1vAtkkXptd4bqWcIScVxP2-z2nUeDPBBz3QOCt8pIvg0SUtyb2LNAhh4f-1vUrm-xtVo4E_Ab3mDzUbfhJ1_hc5okic74KLfYAt9tqZqK8_8DapObiQFbBO11cKYiWtk5XMokulEXfC8hk11IZcV/s320/2023-04-11%2021.03.21.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />3. Use Zener diodes to protect the final transistors</h3><div>This tip comes from many of the transmitters designed by KD1JV over the years and consists in connecting Zener diodes from drain to source of each pair of PA transistors. The Zener diodes will conduct if the voltage exceeds a voltage somewhat less than what the transistor is rated for, 60 Volts, and protect the BS170s. </div><div><br /></div><div>I use 1N4756A, 47 V, 1W. I measured power output before and after fitting them and could not detect any change from 80 m to 10 m. </div><div><br /></div><div>I have accidentally transmitted with full power into an open-circuit load after I fitted the diodes, and the QDX was just fine afterwards. I doubt that that would have been the case without the Zener diodes.</div><div><br /></div><div>I cannot guarantee any adverse side effects of the Zener diodes, but my experience is that both the QDXes have worked flawlessly over the last few weeks, with plenty of contacts in South and North-America as well as in Europe. Those contacts have primarily been on 10 m (high-band QDX) and secondarily on 30 m (low-band QDX).</div><div><br /></div><div>The image shows how the Zener diodes are fitted on the underside of the printed circuit board of the Rev 4 PCB of the QDX.</div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-12286658901085322642023-04-18T23:09:00.004+02:002024-02-20T13:38:42.998+01:00Clock cycles through chemical elements<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBJbk9LX4dc3ZvoYSoQ8tEhLuA2bNq3xV5WdbSJ0xV2iLPKa52vvBy5Z4WJLMuLKU09bTnpDgS26bJoq7aPAYX0-nX_RZPTaIcxsFNFJCxipZDig61EAOJzb-B0i4YajZo1prkS-lZWs4qIjndKHhYag1Vo2Gy9rsIPyqyTMUrg2edUQ0UkQ99mtZ/s4335/Chemical.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="4335" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaBJbk9LX4dc3ZvoYSoQ8tEhLuA2bNq3xV5WdbSJ0xV2iLPKa52vvBy5Z4WJLMuLKU09bTnpDgS26bJoq7aPAYX0-nX_RZPTaIcxsFNFJCxipZDig61EAOJzb-B0i4YajZo1prkS-lZWs4qIjndKHhYag1Vo2Gy9rsIPyqyTMUrg2edUQ0UkQ99mtZ/s320/Chemical.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The latest addition to the Multi-face GPS Clock is a clock face that for hour, minute, and second cycles through the corresponding chemical element in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodic_table" target="_blank">periodic table</a>. This is shown in the image to the right.<p></p><p>This is screen number 39 for this clock, all of them selectable by rotating a rotary encoder. The project, with Arduino Mega hardware and software is documented on <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">Github</a>, where the current release is v.1.6.0 (2023-04-14).</p><p>The display also shows the full name for the element corresponding to the second, as shown above for element 3 which is Lithium. It is located in group (column) 1 and period (row) 2.</p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-86944688898974215922023-02-18T23:15:00.007+01:002023-03-28T16:00:00.096+02:00QDX Twins 80-10 m<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqCUdj8aRjLB_TjzwTIHLlo7aTq36cjcOTu2TzwXoGbnI8vh-wseP739K9cZ0dyqW_dyxOctZmBpNny3-_4HfqBxvV4PQIQzvnc1neZ7axtuhL8gRTr-pctMmg3xr_bM_Iuc6i0KDHG2Hb0UWGdiR9PcbCpe9ckmwWxkeIl-dwl_WoEJOe6m2yAUH/s2217/qdx-twins.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1640" data-original-width="2217" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkqCUdj8aRjLB_TjzwTIHLlo7aTq36cjcOTu2TzwXoGbnI8vh-wseP739K9cZ0dyqW_dyxOctZmBpNny3-_4HfqBxvV4PQIQzvnc1neZ7axtuhL8gRTr-pctMmg3xr_bM_Iuc6i0KDHG2Hb0UWGdiR9PcbCpe9ckmwWxkeIl-dwl_WoEJOe6m2yAUH/s320/qdx-twins.png" width="320" /></a></div>My QDX twins from QRPLabs: <p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>On top, the high-band version, 20-10 m, with a revision 4 PCB</li><li>In the bottom, the original 80-20 m version with a revision 3a PCB</li></ol><div>Both have been assembled for 9 Volts operation nominally.</div><div><br /></div><div>My wife and I have identical twins in real life and at times one of the ways to distinguish between them was by different colors. Here it is the same, so the high-band QDX has a yellow LED and the low-band one has a green LED.</div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-89026017895884270372023-01-10T03:43:00.022+01:002023-05-29T19:58:18.241+02:00Audio delay - the unspecified parameter for ham radio transceivers<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzO3Yr2U_HgYUMMwlIUAp6jenG6YDkWamy2-JfD2FbtbyOwHfye2djIfG-EUp5lxu3Us012J-jkiUNJR3x9u3AmsocbRSRmYBwZRQhameilPmy6C-C0r-W2i0w2NjV1e_JK_G-ck398sHPhvc-A3DCYRGYN4qk9sMglu3XM-XCH1t_G7-SQVRvkyh6/s512/PRINT_05.TIF" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="512" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzO3Yr2U_HgYUMMwlIUAp6jenG6YDkWamy2-JfD2FbtbyOwHfye2djIfG-EUp5lxu3Us012J-jkiUNJR3x9u3AmsocbRSRmYBwZRQhameilPmy6C-C0r-W2i0w2NjV1e_JK_G-ck398sHPhvc-A3DCYRGYN4qk9sMglu3XM-XCH1t_G7-SQVRvkyh6/s320/PRINT_05.TIF" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elecraft K3: Upper trace is start of sidetone and <br />lower trace is start of RF ~15 ms later.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>An amateur radio transceiver is not a precision measurement device. This is apparent when it comes to measuring time for your own round-the-world signal or when characterizing <a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/p/long-delayed-echoes.html">Long-Delayed Echos (LDE).</a> One cannot just substitute onset of sidetone for the actual start of transmission of RF. Similarly there may be an unspecified delay between received RF and start of audio output on the receiver side. <p></p><p>The main specification for ham radio transceivers is that the sidetone is synchronized with the keying. The delay to start of RF is only of secondary importance. All numbers should therefore be judged against the length of a dot which for instance at a morse code speed of 30 WPM is 40 ms. </p><p>Here are some measurements for the Elecraft K3 and K2 that I did in 2021 for a presentation on LDEs at the <a href="https://hamsci.org/sites/default/files/publications/2021_HamSCI/20210319_2030z-Sverre_Holm_LA3ZA.pdf" target="_blank">HamSci 2021 conference</a>. A video of the presentation is also available: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uE3IYmRxDw" target="_blank">Long delayed radio echoes – the illusive secret of the ionosphere</a></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>The first image shows that start of the sidetone is about 15 ms before RF is transmitted in the Elecraft K3.</p><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIGTaXO6fTI5Ilb4QKs7pSNYLRPnT96rCCdJPYaPEOe0auq9Sui5cS8p5BQyqMfkYNguZZafIA9-wP7_UTYurHVi2gX0ZbtYnhh997KUwm31RkQT9TcAV6mhYmaIzWfCN3__XSqPBQ385gu82VmrwfKn5RvskwQC_4JMQpCTgd9PZ1zN_RJBEdD1q/s512/PRINT_10.TIF" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="512" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmIGTaXO6fTI5Ilb4QKs7pSNYLRPnT96rCCdJPYaPEOe0auq9Sui5cS8p5BQyqMfkYNguZZafIA9-wP7_UTYurHVi2gX0ZbtYnhh997KUwm31RkQT9TcAV6mhYmaIzWfCN3__XSqPBQ385gu82VmrwfKn5RvskwQC_4JMQpCTgd9PZ1zN_RJBEdD1q/s320/PRINT_10.TIF" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elecraft K3: Upper trace shows RF and<br />lower trace start of AF output some 35 ms later.</td></tr></tbody></table>The second image shows that there is a delay of about 35 ms between RF is received and audio appears on the receiver side. This means that measurement of audio delay overestimates the value for RF delay by about 50 ms. It should be noted that in a transceiver with digital signal processing, especially the receiver delay will vary with settings. In the case measured here, the DSP was set for 50 Hz bandwidth.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAD6iqZIWtebw10zcNk_dvb1bmBKY9_0YIak8TST2R15UNX685GZ9N7SxoJFdH3UcMcV4NQXVlAmRkc15PnapuEXYImSyr6zRw64tjHP87x-nTW9I-bW_fGxA90sGpsPIHY8GQ87gL1yelVujKD-qVvcUiodzGR7OusIKcNaSTOnwhAumw4RCXQwHn/s512/PRINT_03.TIF" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="512" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAD6iqZIWtebw10zcNk_dvb1bmBKY9_0YIak8TST2R15UNX685GZ9N7SxoJFdH3UcMcV4NQXVlAmRkc15PnapuEXYImSyr6zRw64tjHP87x-nTW9I-bW_fGxA90sGpsPIHY8GQ87gL1yelVujKD-qVvcUiodzGR7OusIKcNaSTOnwhAumw4RCXQwHn/s320/PRINT_03.TIF" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elecraft K2: Upper trace is start of sidetone and<br />lower trace is start of RF ~4 ms later.</td></tr></tbody></table>The Elecraft K2 without the DSP audio processor is a 100% analog transceiver and has much less delay. The delay from sidetone to RF is about 4 ms.</div><div><br /></div><div>Second, the delay from RF to audio appears is about 8 ms giving a total of 12 ms additional delay to take into account.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFW9Nc5J6BhjoO4-3G3R9IT8qXfBqlUhLJhX6idSKxEUogiosgw-4D7nMBiLbT8U7ZVdjHKYN0UPkmXU8lKSneAJkp9mtPs4V_S5J7LGngVHjFZU-1PPr1KoAjlm7wynxtioVIHT88kGxM-4dMMtbN9mQ5dW0rkXibv4gCX8o0vP0hkMqaAq2vQ1tS/s512/PRINT_01.TIF" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="512" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFW9Nc5J6BhjoO4-3G3R9IT8qXfBqlUhLJhX6idSKxEUogiosgw-4D7nMBiLbT8U7ZVdjHKYN0UPkmXU8lKSneAJkp9mtPs4V_S5J7LGngVHjFZU-1PPr1KoAjlm7wynxtioVIHT88kGxM-4dMMtbN9mQ5dW0rkXibv4gCX8o0vP0hkMqaAq2vQ1tS/s320/PRINT_01.TIF" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elecraft K2: Lower trace shows RF and<br />upper trace start of AF output some 8 ms later.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /><p></p><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>I would expect other transceivers to have similar delays, that the delay will vary from one type of transceiver to the other, and even with settings of e.g. filter parameters for a single transceiver. <div><br /></div><div>The post "<a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2023/01/audio-delay-unspecified-parameter-for.html">Audio delay - the unspecified parameter for ham radio transceivers</a>" first appeared on the LA3ZA Radio & Electronics Blog.</div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-55573984999446317942022-12-31T17:02:00.009+01:002022-12-31T21:11:51.228+01:00QDX with voltage regulator<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRO7kc7emw3ZKDGIgEX8yq5QuWHp69Ly4sNk02Em7jqLHa07o2Hr7sgzlx5RDiO0z5boJFzFYpoKOOTYgeGYZH9KvpkALwSRRPWkI-qMFbLrvabu4lTo_XSDPGBZuaVeKsZHVswJrRttc5aDyiwx5O7ARjy6kcRdda6Zb53mLvPq_c1WlJKEYWV5b/s2448/QDX-hytta.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1924" data-original-width="2448" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNRO7kc7emw3ZKDGIgEX8yq5QuWHp69Ly4sNk02Em7jqLHa07o2Hr7sgzlx5RDiO0z5boJFzFYpoKOOTYgeGYZH9KvpkALwSRRPWkI-qMFbLrvabu4lTo_XSDPGBZuaVeKsZHVswJrRttc5aDyiwx5O7ARjy6kcRdda6Zb53mLvPq_c1WlJKEYWV5b/s320/QDX-hytta.png" width="320" /></a></div>Here's my low-band (80m - 20 m) 9 Volt QDX with a voltage regulator. Its only modification is a green rather than a red LED, as I don't like red LEDs to indicate anything but error conditions. <div><br /></div><div>The power amplifier of the QDX has hardly any built-in protection and can be ruined if run at full power into a poorly matched antenna. It will also easily be ruined if run at a higher voltage than the 9 or 12 Volts one may choose for at build-time.</div><span></span><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div>A recurring theme on the QRPLabs discussion list is how to feed it with the right supply voltage. My solution is an "<a href="https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255800011557910.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt&_randl_shipto=US" target="_blank">ZK-4KX CNC DC DC Buck Boost Converter CC CV 0.5-30V 4A Power Module Adjustable Regulated power supply</a>" from AliExpress as shown in the image. It can take any DC voltage between 4.8 and 30 Volts and convert it up or down to the desired value.<p>I turn it down to 7 Volts for manual tuning of the antenna and up to 9-9.5 Volts in order to achieve near 5 Watts output. If I exceed 10 Volts, the power module is set to turn itself off.</p></div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-68395341712904755202022-11-20T21:39:00.021+01:002022-11-21T15:10:15.429+01:00W8BH clock with EU option<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9iCEGiLTAFYVEiaxu8AUMngd5Vo5cUm7n2okVSiaSsyFx_PUhnNwSmI3pVi4VyWWon49XtqMTswgHy6_a0kiyDk05imailaCb9G7UpPrG7eC2qsDl4Abhl7rb8jwJF8RKLS3pPqC1ITwVv1Y1pRq_yowB8IorUwpWI0VXyUTHiDWULCNbimrN6h_v/s3613/Main.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2718" data-original-width="3613" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9iCEGiLTAFYVEiaxu8AUMngd5Vo5cUm7n2okVSiaSsyFx_PUhnNwSmI3pVi4VyWWon49XtqMTswgHy6_a0kiyDk05imailaCb9G7UpPrG7eC2qsDl4Abhl7rb8jwJF8RKLS3pPqC1ITwVv1Y1pRq_yowB8IorUwpWI0VXyUTHiDWULCNbimrN6h_v/s320/Main.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The <a href="http://w8bh.net/gps_clock_BN34.pdf" target="_blank">TFT GPS clock</a> with touch control which has been designed by <a href="http://w8bh.net/index.htm" target="_blank">Bruce E. Hall, W8BH</a>, is a very nice clock with a large and easily readable 3.2" color display. Its three different screens have been nicely laid out and designed also. The processor is an STM32 Blue Pill.<p></p><p>I cloned the software and modified it in two simple ways:</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>1. EU option</b></p><p>This is a backwards compatible version which can be Europeanized with formats for date and units. It also has possibility for removing the display of the battery icon, when running from a USB supply.</p><p>New boolean variables to set:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>US_UNITS - if false: m, kmh, Little-endian date with '.', if true: feet, mph, Middle-Endian date with '/'</li><li>BATTERY_DISPLAY - true: as original code, false: no display of battery icon and status</li></ul><p></p><p><b><span></span></b></p><a name='more'></a><b>2. Minor fixes</b><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>There is now a new way of initializing Serial1 (used for GPS input signal) as the original one didn't compile in Arduino IDE 1.8.13. See <a href="https://github.com/stm32duino/wiki/wiki/API#hardwareserial" target="_blank">https://github.com/stm32duino/wiki/wiki/API#hardwareserial</a></li><li>The satellite count in the upper right corner is more agile so it now drops to 0 whenever the GPS signal is lost, rather than stay forever at last satellite count.</li></ul><div>See code on GitHub: <a href="https://github.com/la3za/GPS-clock" target="_blank">https://github.com/la3za/GPS-clock</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The two other screens, selectable by touch, are these:</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BG-xcBjgyjuQL6lTuybxU7nGCmU7IW15ybjAGkcRpeXjKNeO9NBHxRCPHOGzabtK4pz2a5FwLC-pTw1PAmfWKtL6u_BF7uZdNlW3vf776NgOrcJ2Hi1DwPK-tA5_cI4ne_lGhK8tToH-8KowRbZ7fYRZs4UmILUCrvntAd7p_eI0rlKv6b3abrwU/s4206/Position.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3139" data-original-width="4206" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9BG-xcBjgyjuQL6lTuybxU7nGCmU7IW15ybjAGkcRpeXjKNeO9NBHxRCPHOGzabtK4pz2a5FwLC-pTw1PAmfWKtL6u_BF7uZdNlW3vf776NgOrcJ2Hi1DwPK-tA5_cI4ne_lGhK8tToH-8KowRbZ7fYRZs4UmILUCrvntAd7p_eI0rlKv6b3abrwU/s320/Position.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtci4xRpKU1-xssEGAMnlsO-Tbuk7TfvFcpF0XH-Jkg337IktATLQuuQn7UpmnJKz3nSTXDycllxcqlb2mN230a3t5kdQHst3Jijnj5NSB2FVKDE4mB5PrN_0aAZcK2jlyGpxsLrLqxRXpDAsdpO4kwLd4bpHXHXokrblg8WoUpDnQbO7jrD2-ieNe/s4096/UTC-CET.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2931" data-original-width="4096" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtci4xRpKU1-xssEGAMnlsO-Tbuk7TfvFcpF0XH-Jkg337IktATLQuuQn7UpmnJKz3nSTXDycllxcqlb2mN230a3t5kdQHst3Jijnj5NSB2FVKDE4mB5PrN_0aAZcK2jlyGpxsLrLqxRXpDAsdpO4kwLd4bpHXHXokrblg8WoUpDnQbO7jrD2-ieNe/s320/UTC-CET.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><p></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-38789573676967349722022-11-03T21:22:00.022+01:002024-02-20T13:38:53.303+01:00Planet positions for the Multi Face GPS Clock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3EtJDdG_WE__ewzUDAUclGhnbdmd2GlYbJvsg5-GbcRicLCkcCG0m7cp5XGMl9jyqJvufgJ00IrGGM8RJj-oVde2ikBjVF3WWPyyFSLa8Har41cXCeZe8cRKkW1rhfCjF6Hc57I4u1XFhfVWsmCFIHXov3pzZo2fOxkMWGkQmIEGl9ll3PrjiwKw/s2640/PlanetsOuter.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="911" data-original-width="2640" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3EtJDdG_WE__ewzUDAUclGhnbdmd2GlYbJvsg5-GbcRicLCkcCG0m7cp5XGMl9jyqJvufgJ00IrGGM8RJj-oVde2ikBjVF3WWPyyFSLa8Har41cXCeZe8cRKkW1rhfCjF6Hc57I4u1XFhfVWsmCFIHXov3pzZo2fOxkMWGkQmIEGl9ll3PrjiwKw/s320/PlanetsOuter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Another update, this time to add:<p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Azimuth and elevation for inner and outer planets relative to your present location. The inner planet screen shows Venus and Mercury and alternates also every 10 seconds between showing the position of the sun and the moon. The % illumination is also shown along with an estimate of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitude_(astronomy)" target="_blank">apparent magnitude</a></li><li>The combined local time and UTC display now has an option to show <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_week_date" target="_blank">ISO week number,</a> defined to start on Mondays. (It is my understanding that the week number in the US is different, as Sunday is the first day of the week)</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH25irDZ28_ouPOeSz4sUXXE8kXAGnsS840I2DHYJB9Nu5SX9EXNEZbNxa0MHTZbyUE6O0-4P5AyaG76qPO7ADmvp0hIYJ5IHsSXBaZeCw3SJfexkHb8SyzD1RAW85rKXPAvJNiKnj3-hbdTAycaoL5ObFxpYobsHQeLoc74qLNC8SCFFVBowOuoaA/s2931/IslamicJewish.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1038" data-original-width="2931" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH25irDZ28_ouPOeSz4sUXXE8kXAGnsS840I2DHYJB9Nu5SX9EXNEZbNxa0MHTZbyUE6O0-4P5AyaG76qPO7ADmvp0hIYJ5IHsSXBaZeCw3SJfexkHb8SyzD1RAW85rKXPAvJNiKnj3-hbdTAycaoL5ObFxpYobsHQeLoc74qLNC8SCFFVBowOuoaA/s320/IslamicJewish.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A new calendar screen now shows Gregorian (western), Julian (eastern) as well as Islamic and Jewish dates. The calculation of the Jewish calendar is tough for the Arduino Mega and takes some 5-6 seconds</li><li>A screen showing GPS Info has also been included. This screen shows the number of satellites in view (line 0), the number of satellites in use for position fix and their average signal to noise ratio (line 1), the mode and status indicators (line 2), and the Horizontal Dilution of Precision, Hdop, and its characterization in plain text (line 3).<span><a name='more'></a></span></li></ul><div>Sources:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Planet code is based on <a href="https://github.com/mobifu1/arduino_planet_ephi_positions/blob/master/Planet_ephi_positions.ino" target="_blank">arduino_planet_ephi_positions</a>.</li><li>Calendars are based on code from <a href="https://reingold.co/calendars.shtml" target="_blank">Dershowitz and Rheingold</a> adapted <a href="https://www.instructables.com/Hebrew-calendar-date-and-time-with-thermometer-on-/" target="_blank">for the Arduino</a></li></ul><div>The <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">code is on GitHub </a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZPx0Z4Wq_qLCXb93dF7wA-_bWl05kL1v9S2yFxe_jrgP91BewqhOjjvuWYtnHTbmj9k0KjLA6IMP3oqK9EfFp3R2K32Q6bE6SBTscrOZYoSlMlAjRgnnhH6gohOKdVh4dbyltrDuYzLV1M22R9nB0KBmt8GYQTUGgUedR_ugTG7JAjMQhXkDVNjK/s2750/InnerPlanetsLunar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="927" data-original-width="2750" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCZPx0Z4Wq_qLCXb93dF7wA-_bWl05kL1v9S2yFxe_jrgP91BewqhOjjvuWYtnHTbmj9k0KjLA6IMP3oqK9EfFp3R2K32Q6bE6SBTscrOZYoSlMlAjRgnnhH6gohOKdVh4dbyltrDuYzLV1M22R9nB0KBmt8GYQTUGgUedR_ugTG7JAjMQhXkDVNjK/s320/InnerPlanetsLunar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusF5KrPzNMgVzcaQpXc8jaaTs-_-SquX7wPMGtgqPePUf3S0w6wjAXNlNCagPsgHWURzGLS9p3jnSKtbIwqlCJlMTL6_6Bcj53VZfCg0NV3zGerv-vJbp1MTcbHb5zpJMLwDJCEhhGOhp0uZroFgrm_L2GnR2A7M0GCTv8m3FHXMG24_pzZffBfKG/s2781/InnerPlanetsSolar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="962" data-original-width="2781" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhusF5KrPzNMgVzcaQpXc8jaaTs-_-SquX7wPMGtgqPePUf3S0w6wjAXNlNCagPsgHWURzGLS9p3jnSKtbIwqlCJlMTL6_6Bcj53VZfCg0NV3zGerv-vJbp1MTcbHb5zpJMLwDJCEhhGOhp0uZroFgrm_L2GnR2A7M0GCTv8m3FHXMG24_pzZffBfKG/s320/InnerPlanetsSolar.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyWXlq2xx8GcKAYPxAWOav7sPmWDv2Ur3fWQa8UHNbeBhq_s7GlZemWQGz7Qdx2mU5mRrCFJLVypP-kV8HI5tYiM5Awp_F8aiZCzyykwP2U4Ma49kXT9Orm4jJXT9tJt_dn_PMp0VRg8UknEKrNZydAQeLjGSbaRjsHqxNUTHidSjXrR-07t09D5E/s2707/LocalUTCWeek.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="2707" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwyWXlq2xx8GcKAYPxAWOav7sPmWDv2Ur3fWQa8UHNbeBhq_s7GlZemWQGz7Qdx2mU5mRrCFJLVypP-kV8HI5tYiM5Awp_F8aiZCzyykwP2U4Ma49kXT9Orm4jJXT9tJt_dn_PMp0VRg8UknEKrNZydAQeLjGSbaRjsHqxNUTHidSjXrR-07t09D5E/s320/LocalUTCWeek.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhomr25jVbAb2_JjMm1Sap1-MGw0fS4ez7oLTmGox3aNjM-O_kXIIuwU6FoPj_2mHYFeZeB3DvcQuWjVa5-cGdba-Jxre1-CJ9dMWj2JqLwOJKvjhottb9kKBHZM53znU1JtvO9MRizicRC5QbHINnkDN1esOhgHdxtW_Sldl1m-MPmXAaAJqc-6Hv8/s2810/GPSStatus.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="994" data-original-width="2810" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhomr25jVbAb2_JjMm1Sap1-MGw0fS4ez7oLTmGox3aNjM-O_kXIIuwU6FoPj_2mHYFeZeB3DvcQuWjVa5-cGdba-Jxre1-CJ9dMWj2JqLwOJKvjhottb9kKBHZM53znU1JtvO9MRizicRC5QbHINnkDN1esOhgHdxtW_Sldl1m-MPmXAaAJqc-6Hv8/s320/GPSStatus.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-75262042069766384222022-08-26T13:46:00.010+02:002022-08-28T16:48:40.000+02:00QDX on 17 and 15 m: Receiver<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9Os4i5vyEizacT3FhF7DK4x0kX0IcU5DTIpBw9_EM7OqZMTO0_eXIfgP6l6kruZHw4lji9jtpWLHfmF306BIJQToWgZj-g4-edmhBgyMh2sbmp0LUIgVdh3rxvDd81L_WG-GFYjZmCtwVfHebBWjD6eL6sScdf-K1NL5u_F4pU_fxd_rPsjnQ3xs/s4608/2022-08-26%2013.42.12.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc9Os4i5vyEizacT3FhF7DK4x0kX0IcU5DTIpBw9_EM7OqZMTO0_eXIfgP6l6kruZHw4lji9jtpWLHfmF306BIJQToWgZj-g4-edmhBgyMh2sbmp0LUIgVdh3rxvDd81L_WG-GFYjZmCtwVfHebBWjD6eL6sScdf-K1NL5u_F4pU_fxd_rPsjnQ3xs/s320/2022-08-26%2013.42.12.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>I got myself one of the marvellous digital transceivers from QRPLabs recently: The <a href="https://www.qrp-labs.com/qdx.html" target="_blank">QDX - QRPLabs Digital Transceiver</a>. It is set up with receiver bandpass filters and transmitter lowpass filters for 80, 40, 30, and 20 m. It has also been found that the 40 m filters work well for 60 m. <p></p><p>The latest firmware, version 1_04, has a new "Band Configuration" screen where one may configure the list of supported bands. It is the intention that higher bands will eventually be supported.</p><p>I am not so interested in 80 m, so I wanted to see if I already now could get the receiver to work on 17 m and 15 m. With reference to the <a href="https://www.qrp-labs.com/images/qdx/schem3.png" target="_blank">schematics</a>, I modified the input filter's inductor, L12. </p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>It is tapped at 19, 30, 36, and 41 turns for 20, 30, 40, and 80 m respectively. It resonates with input capacitors C28-C31, with 22, 30, 56, and 220 pF respectively. <p></p><p>I gave the inductor 36 turns, omitting the extra turns for 80 m, and then tapped L12 after 13 turns. I also also changed C30 to 15 pF. That give me the bandpass characteristics shown below, as analyzed with the built-in analysis function of the QDX:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVk_dtEhbKbWfnfRbvbdcXN-QpT3oZm0qZ5rRTR8LbOf3ALzTWpMmiWL6lfprZ9tP2rEpEo4tkkYNLmx-rT4AuYQqPA5X_GYLVCU2cuO_2K23_Sm0Fo54y5xd3ROwkJKcWfCyWSWkyC67Yasto4e1qMUcmr6uBbK93YJBrpxU_jhF0bq2jPJDb0Def/s825/QDX-17m.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="825" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVk_dtEhbKbWfnfRbvbdcXN-QpT3oZm0qZ5rRTR8LbOf3ALzTWpMmiWL6lfprZ9tP2rEpEo4tkkYNLmx-rT4AuYQqPA5X_GYLVCU2cuO_2K23_Sm0Fo54y5xd3ROwkJKcWfCyWSWkyC67Yasto4e1qMUcmr6uBbK93YJBrpxU_jhF0bq2jPJDb0Def/w400-h253/QDX-17m.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>The filter peaks at about 19.5 MHz and is about 2 dB down at 18.1 MHz and about 7 dB down at 21 MHz. It seems to work well, and in my first tests, it receives FT8 well on both bands. <p>Here's a new sweep with firmware 1_05_002 (beta) which uses colors which are easier to read:</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixd-Q_BbxeL98bgfgBnIGXOCg_wpoDEoqjQ53xOa-6qkZ7zeuaZwrmtpXXCbdu088t0sUUF2wMP1B7h8sFLh7OSC0vioTLbuIhb4ja1bZhCPn8DXQc-oNLWX7RyKmTwo2asvESfz3ZD2g_bkNI-XdnbHxywN5A8dbmQ5AQ3ey8MCUHsHDDgLt9iK0t/s825/Sweep_17m.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="825" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixd-Q_BbxeL98bgfgBnIGXOCg_wpoDEoqjQ53xOa-6qkZ7zeuaZwrmtpXXCbdu088t0sUUF2wMP1B7h8sFLh7OSC0vioTLbuIhb4ja1bZhCPn8DXQc-oNLWX7RyKmTwo2asvESfz3ZD2g_bkNI-XdnbHxywN5A8dbmQ5AQ3ey8MCUHsHDDgLt9iK0t/w400-h253/Sweep_17m.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And now the next thing to do is the transmitter's lowpass filter for 17/15m, which is a bit harder.</div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-63733161210712152702022-08-07T12:38:00.019+02:002024-02-20T13:39:02.862+01:00French, Spanish, German, Icelandic, Swedish, ...<p>The multi-face Arduino GPS clock is inspired by the <a href="https://qrp-labs.com/clockn.html" target="_blank">Clock Kit from QRPLabs</a>. It is an <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">open source project on GitHub</a>, and it now has support for many more languages in the newly released versjon 1.4.0. As a language nerd myself, I love fiddling with multiple languages and character sets.</p><p>The local language option is for display of day name in case local time is shown. The default is English for local time. No matter the choice for local time, English is always used for UTC day name. Here are examples:</p><p>French:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ckdDJzoNSQJAwYOlQwxMw4MIB4_I4-8_WlE4yGKByOw0nFIek08E2BzDAxKbzg6q8e5i7saCvTgyaKcFzBc1gVyDBWxh7lwkhVPC-_bZN5O5biwtwWEj4lWWIhGENncWvQtSb4tzfI313krOeaN40HPsPCH0tcvxH8MmoB3eLYkZJw1vqadUwn8v/s2623/fransk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="2623" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3ckdDJzoNSQJAwYOlQwxMw4MIB4_I4-8_WlE4yGKByOw0nFIek08E2BzDAxKbzg6q8e5i7saCvTgyaKcFzBc1gVyDBWxh7lwkhVPC-_bZN5O5biwtwWEj4lWWIhGENncWvQtSb4tzfI313krOeaN40HPsPCH0tcvxH8MmoB3eLYkZJw1vqadUwn8v/s320/fransk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Spanish:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyQIi8cvbHWvyuj7ZTEcA8hEjAvteJo-QK9It9t6_WlGjoGRIspFF3B5E9QdWNIZuoo--weUKaV5YDVGpaWQS5GMq7Kg_A5KyojttJDhnjNooIN7AY5EiiiSlckYe_DTaVIPLMaIpfBPizz6pG56OPxmwO91dOKkaAD0zpqEE-fJ_ha3iuPA_6PXS/s2590/spansk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="887" data-original-width="2590" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAyQIi8cvbHWvyuj7ZTEcA8hEjAvteJo-QK9It9t6_WlGjoGRIspFF3B5E9QdWNIZuoo--weUKaV5YDVGpaWQS5GMq7Kg_A5KyojttJDhnjNooIN7AY5EiiiSlckYe_DTaVIPLMaIpfBPizz6pG56OPxmwO91dOKkaAD0zpqEE-fJ_ha3iuPA_6PXS/s320/spansk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>German:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1o0JGlqKSwKy-4-c0qSvftmiDUOOXuC3qNzcBGaGcsRnqLbUNmFSuoAf7lHebWL06SB2ykvmoZYkU4xosSgu-Hq2rsz2a18Vz1coE5COEGrZO8-pq6aMFoY88exfiLMVEboAF_J28UypSyL6wQudysgMt1vxam93uIFTWDlfkFupCsPc6B8g47qUk/s2631/tysk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="2631" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1o0JGlqKSwKy-4-c0qSvftmiDUOOXuC3qNzcBGaGcsRnqLbUNmFSuoAf7lHebWL06SB2ykvmoZYkU4xosSgu-Hq2rsz2a18Vz1coE5COEGrZO8-pq6aMFoY88exfiLMVEboAF_J28UypSyL6wQudysgMt1vxam93uIFTWDlfkFupCsPc6B8g47qUk/s320/tysk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Icelandic:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikuvDCuzmIEuWdH5tSMYYUhPc8aYCVy2a6kdSrYG4qd7_1nudaCDJbaw8kC2iWw9FTKAO23i-8A5GF1wbv1Ahsystneu1hTm5MQJuAo-HPqB-IFW6kS4V7jU3quvx-h85NnCH5NRLM570A8m4UdUJA7eJ0CiCmtoWyj8GjPzEiBAjz6m9xbnasAch/s2619/islandsk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="2619" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgikuvDCuzmIEuWdH5tSMYYUhPc8aYCVy2a6kdSrYG4qd7_1nudaCDJbaw8kC2iWw9FTKAO23i-8A5GF1wbv1Ahsystneu1hTm5MQJuAo-HPqB-IFW6kS4V7jU3quvx-h85NnCH5NRLM570A8m4UdUJA7eJ0CiCmtoWyj8GjPzEiBAjz6m9xbnasAch/s320/islandsk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Swedish:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ2fqwusEqamgT75j9FAfo8j22J2lgeF6vtk8_7TZ3fkhM5o1cpEFrincP3WHWnxJxnAmZOnR92XQKte1WLQpgUSW0VdqmDvnbUholtk3PUMduOcUF7gDHdu4CIlXPWoufzUqOJAjvHRMG3hyimSYtAcFCjcplOv8ImlDVUViaoDHTa1vRM1FQzdJj/s2804/svensk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="961" data-original-width="2804" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ2fqwusEqamgT75j9FAfo8j22J2lgeF6vtk8_7TZ3fkhM5o1cpEFrincP3WHWnxJxnAmZOnR92XQKte1WLQpgUSW0VdqmDvnbUholtk3PUMduOcUF7gDHdu4CIlXPWoufzUqOJAjvHRMG3hyimSYtAcFCjcplOv8ImlDVUViaoDHTa1vRM1FQzdJj/s320/svensk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Norwegian/Danish:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyqPrK66cCmsNyvjKGZ4DUU5Cqr8DfQww7EyintEhPsjrEyrDQWq5JJ9Sh-B7kJKLFnSAecpPngueQgJaP5v8spII1b6BJU3qRqcJTXVsd9YYOErRLVbIk_g0-EgtLLkZV3meWSkT8Gx14keBy-IudhHdnZ-PQCbhOlyeXLXK9uVebdJQp_gwd2sED/s2633/norsk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="924" data-original-width="2633" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyqPrK66cCmsNyvjKGZ4DUU5Cqr8DfQww7EyintEhPsjrEyrDQWq5JJ9Sh-B7kJKLFnSAecpPngueQgJaP5v8spII1b6BJU3qRqcJTXVsd9YYOErRLVbIk_g0-EgtLLkZV3meWSkT8Gx14keBy-IudhHdnZ-PQCbhOlyeXLXK9uVebdJQp_gwd2sED/s320/norsk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">English: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVCjadpXo7lWzc6NdVtuQgoiwtHJ2gJhS1-4eXCBvQS_mLpeCWEnaVdWTyHc56XlzzEvwM3_03tVTuUxUA9NJzkfCEaa_bxQFYx0ZvbfgHlWXIQgptOOsUUy4vE11qLZ9Jv0SYw8x5CmKO7xZZwuHa9SpZjtm8rCOern3v7c7DqsCFQqwskJS7UFUJ/s2582/engelsk.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="918" data-original-width="2582" height="114" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVCjadpXo7lWzc6NdVtuQgoiwtHJ2gJhS1-4eXCBvQS_mLpeCWEnaVdWTyHc56XlzzEvwM3_03tVTuUxUA9NJzkfCEaa_bxQFYx0ZvbfgHlWXIQgptOOsUUy4vE11qLZ9Jv0SYw8x5CmKO7xZZwuHa9SpZjtm8rCOern3v7c7DqsCFQqwskJS7UFUJ/s320/engelsk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>As is evident from the examples, the letters ø and ö are displayed when needed. The same goes for å, á, é, ð, and þ which are all displayed properly according to need in the various languages. The <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock/wiki" target="_blank">wiki of the project on Github</a> gives instructions for how to select language. It is also easy to add more languages.<div><br /></div><div>The language option comes in addition to <a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2021/09/gps-clock.html" target="_blank">date and time formatting options</a>.</div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-12935141173702704072022-06-23T12:16:00.015+02:002022-09-12T10:25:53.952+02:00Reversing the inductor in the Chinese QRP antenna tuner makes all the difference<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FgtklX5g5nbVzGJmItzxCK1CnqRuB6seFB_W97JZC34B46zWzH2tRZsmh5FuwcuahPRQ-RB09Va6rdrinBxqNfwtL7m4iG61qxWNVJEWj-a3JDZ8Y6pNjJpxvFyfgO3YIuvQ5sCBOcZ8DjzaA5dEx6NaSWRkRd2I4izAQLh4cG3Ko77-dCR10qDz/s4001/ChinaTunerLA3ZA.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2767" data-original-width="4001" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2FgtklX5g5nbVzGJmItzxCK1CnqRuB6seFB_W97JZC34B46zWzH2tRZsmh5FuwcuahPRQ-RB09Va6rdrinBxqNfwtL7m4iG61qxWNVJEWj-a3JDZ8Y6pNjJpxvFyfgO3YIuvQ5sCBOcZ8DjzaA5dEx6NaSWRkRd2I4izAQLh4cG3Ko77-dCR10qDz/s320/ChinaTunerLA3ZA.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Like many I was disappointed with the Chinese antenna tuner kit "QRP manual days" back in 2014 and I never really got it to work. <p></p><p>That was even after I had replaced the two polyvaricon capacitors. The two screws for mounting each of the variable capacitors were too long. The result was that they interfered with the moving plates of the capacitor and I ruined both of them. There was no warning of this in the manual, so beware anyone who buys this kit.</p><p>Despite fixing this, it didn't really tune anything. I later learned that it probably works for low bands like 80 m as it is, but I didn't notice that. I thought maybe the toroid core of the inductor was of inferior quality, but never really investigated it, so it sat unused on the shelf for 7-8 years.</p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Recently, however I learnt that there is an error in the instructions which makes all the difference: The order of the taps in the inductor should be reversed. In this way, one can get the small inductance value consisting of only a single turn at position A of the rotary switch. Prior to this fix, the inductor starts with 10 turns at position A, and this is too much except for the lower bands like 80m. <p></p><p>This is explained in this video by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JceLhTV28oI" target="_blank">KP4MD, Carol, from 7 July 2021</a> starting from about 10 minutes. The particular frame that shows this is reproduced here also.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOwo99HOseVt6f0_syGdOIY95_K4ObFaHxx5cH03uZ55iLKzw6qx-Pez4AedFBsgRH4g1GXdSbsSm9_QOk6dN47XdwTkG3AYpKv2gVy3XiSy4WoXo2_fnjr9nNbMUJndq8xpUkUSeDYlWk4uJosLf57nzJyx4PyZEZCh_E-Yw-C2jzAd5ljOdnxAf/s1600/ChineseATU-ReverseCoil.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoOwo99HOseVt6f0_syGdOIY95_K4ObFaHxx5cH03uZ55iLKzw6qx-Pez4AedFBsgRH4g1GXdSbsSm9_QOk6dN47XdwTkG3AYpKv2gVy3XiSy4WoXo2_fnjr9nNbMUJndq8xpUkUSeDYlWk4uJosLf57nzJyx4PyZEZCh_E-Yw-C2jzAd5ljOdnxAf/w400-h300/ChineseATU-ReverseCoil.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>What I did was to desolder all 12 or so connections from the inductor to the rotary switch - be careful not to melt the plastic around the switch contacts. I actually did that and had to disassemble it in order to get it back in working order. Then I unwound the wire from the toroid core and rewound it in the opposite direction. And then resoldered it back.</p><p>That made the trick, now it tunes 20 m also!</p><p>By the way, the odd name for this tuner seems to be a <a href="http://m1kta-qrp.blogspot.com/2014/05/comments-on-chinese-atu.html" target="_blank">mistranslation from Chinese. It should have been the more prosaic "Manual antenna tuner kit".</a></p><p><br /></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-79085804635956320982022-06-14T20:14:00.012+02:002023-05-21T20:38:25.044+02:00SV8/LA3ZA part 2<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pPzHbdZaKUxYHjiZaz67kXWrEt0EE29HyoDpnJRIcoYNUaducLNWKuIfAJp4I3gdu-TQDpXjb07JMlRTe0Y4d3t0rhRI2e6z-X0h0St7igJ9jPMsk2R3lTT17n_K5hiPDplYQJX8N8s6i83xcDv_Y-U8GQy0SML-F1JTDpQ4UvLdAO1g-IYUO2Fa/s4608/2022-06-12%2020.10.40.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-pPzHbdZaKUxYHjiZaz67kXWrEt0EE29HyoDpnJRIcoYNUaducLNWKuIfAJp4I3gdu-TQDpXjb07JMlRTe0Y4d3t0rhRI2e6z-X0h0St7igJ9jPMsk2R3lTT17n_K5hiPDplYQJX8N8s6i83xcDv_Y-U8GQy0SML-F1JTDpQ4UvLdAO1g-IYUO2Fa/s320/2022-06-12%2020.10.40.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>Below is a map showing contacts made from Pythagorio, Samos, early June 2022 using FT8. I tried to contact as many entities (~countries) as possible and got to a total of 55. The main band was 30 m, secondarily 20 m. 40 m and 17 m were also used. </div><div><br /></div><div>My quarter-wave antenna @ 30m, shown to the left in the image, performed well, despite the high noise level from the adjacent high-voltage line. The image is in the direction of Turkey (South-East), which is not visible at the time of the image.</div><div><br /></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span>I tried 6 m also, but despite being able to tune the antenna for 6 m and that I heard stations, I never made a contact for that band.</div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, I'm very happy with the result.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-1zPQbVZPFB-Wsy2zjWWUDAthu45HoPSVwJvplQ3P-GoCQUmXTFD-b-cL-9Mxj9FjcnUQw_sp6K8sCLuNDVkoBy8lawDTAgPnB0cxkt1CiNwswcOjZ1j_pByMftUmdSN6zY-gyVzcoVr7FRLO4jMxYEbR_M5grKvqrB9ivCLg4YZ0x-vt3or7S4Xr/s1905/sv8-la3za-2022-06-12-55DXCC.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="877" data-original-width="1905" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-1zPQbVZPFB-Wsy2zjWWUDAthu45HoPSVwJvplQ3P-GoCQUmXTFD-b-cL-9Mxj9FjcnUQw_sp6K8sCLuNDVkoBy8lawDTAgPnB0cxkt1CiNwswcOjZ1j_pByMftUmdSN6zY-gyVzcoVr7FRLO4jMxYEbR_M5grKvqrB9ivCLg4YZ0x-vt3or7S4Xr/w400-h184/sv8-la3za-2022-06-12-55DXCC.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The log mapping tool was <a href="http://qsomap.adventureradio.de/" target="_blank">Adventureradio.de</a></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-2208889663119403612022-06-03T14:20:00.019+02:002023-05-21T20:38:33.093+02:00SV8/LA3ZA<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYDUKAYWa6BZeiNlMRhUScPYhNTw3cpVCkmtyc_PCNhpKiqDeqBeG8xvMiula5moLVxafBt3cih6x7OkKdLl7u9LZcg12oDNkjsKhHanTikZPtXdtXN_y1Uz_extG3aagIAar0BIA-KH_xQTmiSGiY9ySiGfmvVF9nJb6nmp7TacceMwZslEmk0ax/s2048/Pythagoras.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYDUKAYWa6BZeiNlMRhUScPYhNTw3cpVCkmtyc_PCNhpKiqDeqBeG8xvMiula5moLVxafBt3cih6x7OkKdLl7u9LZcg12oDNkjsKhHanTikZPtXdtXN_y1Uz_extG3aagIAar0BIA-KH_xQTmiSGiY9ySiGfmvVF9nJb6nmp7TacceMwZslEmk0ax/s320/Pythagoras.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The polymath Pythagoras was born on<br />Samos and his birthplace village is now<br />called Pythagorio.</td></tr></tbody></table>For a short while I’m operating from <a href="https://www.qrz.com/db/SV5/LA3ZA" target="_blank">Samos, Greece</a> with my old K2 at 10 W output. Noise level here next to a high voltage line is S9+ on all bands except 6m, so only digital modes work. The K2's noise blanker does a good job of removing some of the noise.<p>The antenna is a quarter-wave vertical for 30 m which also tunes several other bands. It’s on the balcony with a 7 m Sotabeam glass fiber mast, on the left-hand side of the street in the image below.</p><span></span><span><a name='more'></a></span><p>I seem to be able to contact stations between Samos and the Netherlands, Canary Islands, and Saudi-Arabia as the longest distance. Considering that Pythagorio on Samos is facing south with a hill in the main direction towards Northern Europe, this isn't too bad.</p><p>I’m using a 10W <a href="https://transverters-store.com/" target="_blank">UT5JCW transverter</a> for 6 m. Sadly, that business is now closed due to the war.</p><p>By mistake I initially took the callsign to be SV5/LA3ZA. As is evident from the comment below that is wrong, as I am one island or so too far North for that. I will unfortunately therefore not be able to confirm any of those contacts.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2yyg21n-oUyl2I1kWZDpWycUDEt3qYCu9695RlQcem9EiNRmDgLUECsFXAFjU1ym2elWJY_UvQ2BvyyQJisy7xVBF-briz2ef5X-ewgNBLpQbqy82wmidXoEn6j8BWygGgktPYipsxqccJBIh78b4KcRbhJFE7NzHAEym0GbFjWyuxIsdG-3rJtQv/s2048/9CB29BEE-9ADA-4FA6-AB8C-A8A9782884C9.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2yyg21n-oUyl2I1kWZDpWycUDEt3qYCu9695RlQcem9EiNRmDgLUECsFXAFjU1ym2elWJY_UvQ2BvyyQJisy7xVBF-briz2ef5X-ewgNBLpQbqy82wmidXoEn6j8BWygGgktPYipsxqccJBIh78b4KcRbhJFE7NzHAEym0GbFjWyuxIsdG-3rJtQv/s320/9CB29BEE-9ADA-4FA6-AB8C-A8A9782884C9.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOl0aDlgT2dD0RzkG_A7duiwXW5J-H73NYjaY2XcB2Ba8YxF9saVWnZIAI3jt9tVbps1KF22kpKdSXmyNuS_aLvjWxKuumuP1ms8xNRZxpSYybsxijKLUcv2uZaQMWBw9rK6oNhfRyaAP6RemqtEV1yvmOw5kK-DIAhimUIguScg-vqdAxMghdxw-/s2048/2D5126C5-0E1D-4C77-A515-7D1CE947E747.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzOl0aDlgT2dD0RzkG_A7duiwXW5J-H73NYjaY2XcB2Ba8YxF9saVWnZIAI3jt9tVbps1KF22kpKdSXmyNuS_aLvjWxKuumuP1ms8xNRZxpSYybsxijKLUcv2uZaQMWBw9rK6oNhfRyaAP6RemqtEV1yvmOw5kK-DIAhimUIguScg-vqdAxMghdxw-/s320/2D5126C5-0E1D-4C77-A515-7D1CE947E747.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div><br />Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-34462263899094754332022-04-05T22:23:00.015+02:002024-02-20T13:39:11.768+01:00Even more functions for the Arduino GPS Clock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEc-3-xZFiJ-sRsGbasDSfVXuLbvKEZar9v4q_XvfrLNUqDgY8IEjQRGa7PGszvc0zZWMJxLKAT_pBWBRhtY3VayHqdFpE812LoFdDTAZ-1RqrqxYKyK8tzr-zVSWjXCsa1j0g3EH-uIv2Y9W47oRLNIrpTsP0C6eZRwbSycxZfOSYAfdGk8Ze1Qa/s4217/Demo.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1446" data-original-width="4217" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYEc-3-xZFiJ-sRsGbasDSfVXuLbvKEZar9v4q_XvfrLNUqDgY8IEjQRGa7PGszvc0zZWMJxLKAT_pBWBRhtY3VayHqdFpE812LoFdDTAZ-1RqrqxYKyK8tzr-zVSWjXCsa1j0g3EH-uIv2Y9W47oRLNIrpTsP0C6eZRwbSycxZfOSYAfdGk8Ze1Qa/s320/Demo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The multi-face Arduino GPS Clock has some new clock faces in software version 1.3.0:</div><p></p><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Demo mode, where all screens are cycled through, with 10-15 seconds per screen</li><li>Astronomical clock</li><li>Wordclock display</li><li>Roman numbers</li><li>Morse code clock</li></ul></div><div>This brings the total to 35 different screens. The updated code as well as documentation is on my <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock/" target="_blank">Github</a> page.</div><div><br /></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyc8fxmjwevWv0OSjxeoIiwE08cXgHb4ou9htcRA6kwuIgtW-YArFSozdPTr_hq9mw-5GeS5H0U5X60sKPbI8B_MtMEV7WlfNifvtQ-dpdXnzQHXTF-Qo57BMKEYO9VNuJGPXBES2ca29OK96v2tkB_F0eZVMMObrtFzpADzTAqgft_PfHNZW-1j66/s3262/Sidereal.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="3262" height="111" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyc8fxmjwevWv0OSjxeoIiwE08cXgHb4ou9htcRA6kwuIgtW-YArFSozdPTr_hq9mw-5GeS5H0U5X60sKPbI8B_MtMEV7WlfNifvtQ-dpdXnzQHXTF-Qo57BMKEYO9VNuJGPXBES2ca29OK96v2tkB_F0eZVMMObrtFzpADzTAqgft_PfHNZW-1j66/s320/Sidereal.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>The astronomical clock shows sidereal time as well as solar time:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A sideral year is one day shorter than a solar year, as noon is defined when the earth points in a particular direction relative to the stars rather than to the sun. Further explanation is here: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereal_time" target="_blank">sidereal time</a></li><li>Apparent solar time has noon when the sun is exactly to the South. It takes into account the shift due to daylight saving time, the shift due to my longitude relative to the 15 degree zone per hour, as well as irregularities in the Earth's orbit around the sun. See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_time" target="_blank">solar time</a> here.</li></ul></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdT4OcDCbXDi1gx-uRyBizSvac-l39teq4nSdtlurBGCeWbBeE51W8IVOhUL0GcO4CCCP_IIDcie4vrQ3OWFESe_BF2obPya3KPpVErllf8FqNRgXqkd3sNaMKHOtrpNMZyLgXhUyRlj4hdi0O63yCYE7jAleqd1xGRZUP8nnCfV3SjJKM3k5ID5F/s3249/Word.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="3249" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFdT4OcDCbXDi1gx-uRyBizSvac-l39teq4nSdtlurBGCeWbBeE51W8IVOhUL0GcO4CCCP_IIDcie4vrQ3OWFESe_BF2obPya3KPpVErllf8FqNRgXqkd3sNaMKHOtrpNMZyLgXhUyRlj4hdi0O63yCYE7jAleqd1xGRZUP8nnCfV3SjJKM3k5ID5F/s320/Word.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBuXbrVbgRTAyCp9bYl44A0Jecq0MuJVeIFUuAuEWbOBRaKhUco70maH-jX8HPCQygLjrwwnYGsPTkRbrsIi7ZYh0OmOpAbEVlRkMO0QPYjWEKbNRdWT82rmEIclZPfDVwsAriB47CrjypyY5Iq4iai2F22G8QdXmZpbFKKUSDoGZElLUio7XJZbF/s4321/Roman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1477" data-original-width="4321" height="109" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggBuXbrVbgRTAyCp9bYl44A0Jecq0MuJVeIFUuAuEWbOBRaKhUco70maH-jX8HPCQygLjrwwnYGsPTkRbrsIi7ZYh0OmOpAbEVlRkMO0QPYjWEKbNRdWT82rmEIclZPfDVwsAriB47CrjypyY5Iq4iai2F22G8QdXmZpbFKKUSDoGZElLUio7XJZbF/s320/Roman.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnoChpipLNat6hUAU65U01V31rf5D741eZJfKn888ZJOlEnVEg3xdSGFjEDgZXSIbck3GluRaFBYk6G7UJ-4nYCX2I3OrGTMqcg7GAcbVXp2vBgzLouVjua1uxWspDtBLTl2G5ZGKRI4JIXCZmf0dp6Ncwj5hwRrUdBeFTFtlwqWEXXW3EHZVXyw4Q/s4109/Morse.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1437" data-original-width="4109" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnoChpipLNat6hUAU65U01V31rf5D741eZJfKn888ZJOlEnVEg3xdSGFjEDgZXSIbck3GluRaFBYk6G7UJ-4nYCX2I3OrGTMqcg7GAcbVXp2vBgzLouVjua1uxWspDtBLTl2G5ZGKRI4JIXCZmf0dp6Ncwj5hwRrUdBeFTFtlwqWEXXW3EHZVXyw4Q/s320/Morse.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-6552128252035726432022-03-12T21:19:00.004+01:002024-02-20T13:39:20.320+01:00Presentation at Hammeeting 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzxWBtEQq8flAPvDQ9QZ9AGvtcb6hH3hu7520NGwBVae9oj_U5YOflRC0iENr6sP_AOmW01FjRy4L4GC7SN1Kr9vyus6SJWeD0suYqpq2fjd-3qvZPJ_2SIrrxa7CeZM4W92QRScjRh9UtkHbxnUeWDtmK1CASxyHQSreCNSEe6U1oyrB2lqXC6iMq=s2048" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="2048" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhzxWBtEQq8flAPvDQ9QZ9AGvtcb6hH3hu7520NGwBVae9oj_U5YOflRC0iENr6sP_AOmW01FjRy4L4GC7SN1Kr9vyus6SJWeD0suYqpq2fjd-3qvZPJ_2SIrrxa7CeZM4W92QRScjRh9UtkHbxnUeWDtmK1CASxyHQSreCNSEe6U1oyrB2lqXC6iMq=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Here's a link to my presentation on 12. March 2022: "<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w7rcGYg-sztFEOvh8DjpQFSqYljCAuX_/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">A simple-to-build GPS clock for the shack with more than 30 clock faces</a> " (in Norwegian),<p></p><p>Main links for documentation</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Github: <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">Multi Face GPS Clock</a></li><li>Documentation on this blog: <a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/search/label/Arduino%20clock" target="_blank">Arduino clock</a></li></ul><p></p><p><br /></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-51624287109415303962022-03-08T21:22:00.012+01:002024-02-20T13:39:29.993+01:00Ham meeting 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkxNU2Vz2p13y-Ii1fx9fpBw6F2-szU8ArdwC9xo-Y9tW3Z92ztNVvyuhCuXPuiAyGV2BRZrt23FJwXo7q7hSJAGtSnqaSMj4N6PavEBS09jJrPXxQIv152U6rGSzUi74nvX4qNUFlxmXY0Zy56xjHYKe5AUP-1y_G4-RDjeKlgzS-e-bGR4LxFwod=s2500" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="2500" height="80" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkxNU2Vz2p13y-Ii1fx9fpBw6F2-szU8ArdwC9xo-Y9tW3Z92ztNVvyuhCuXPuiAyGV2BRZrt23FJwXo7q7hSJAGtSnqaSMj4N6PavEBS09jJrPXxQIv152U6rGSzUi74nvX4qNUFlxmXY0Zy56xjHYKe5AUP-1y_G4-RDjeKlgzS-e-bGR4LxFwod=w400-h80" width="400" /></a></div><p>The Norwegian <a href="https://www.hammeeting.no/" target="_blank">Ham meeting 2022</a> will take place 11-13 March near Oslo Airport Gardermoen. Norwegian and some Swedish radio amateurs will meet and the program is here (Norwegian). It will be nice finally to meet again!</p><p>I will give a presentation on Saturday morning: "An easy-to-build GPS clock for the shack".</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgHU6SC_BcN4qcX511gd159DkVx2VDfGws3xo9l4uqu_cm4jY-_swyf9AlkZDWvIjmt-gtx-i3HLrPv8Gofx7w9wGJ1nyGoqoGF7T1Oz4Z8_p0sJ0s8k53ieegreeDd3lnhRFEdtRQ0jlKxerfJMuO8421mzYzUeckH8ls4vOYkh2NxspmUpfl6DqTG=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1397" data-original-width="2048" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgHU6SC_BcN4qcX511gd159DkVx2VDfGws3xo9l4uqu_cm4jY-_swyf9AlkZDWvIjmt-gtx-i3HLrPv8Gofx7w9wGJ1nyGoqoGF7T1Oz4Z8_p0sJ0s8k53ieegreeDd3lnhRFEdtRQ0jlKxerfJMuO8421mzYzUeckH8ls4vOYkh2NxspmUpfl6DqTG=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-54762577009004174312022-02-06T22:22:00.006+01:002024-02-20T13:39:40.210+01:00More functions for the Arduino GPS Clock<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbOWqGxr8KDDEjrf6yV_mZWMmaI1QREDqhvcLN5rXCbIFvWbeoD5BCz5r6bgQYyxdyaO11QZG-dNCblrf41LiPWk-jo7CJ88euKCovdt4sYRh3T4zZQS4SjkVNhLA57M_N2m4f_pvbhOHbF22wF2lmxz5tHRph5-ReTJ0LFWDpALfIBdWMqXfYK7NN=s2430" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="2430" height="106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgbOWqGxr8KDDEjrf6yV_mZWMmaI1QREDqhvcLN5rXCbIFvWbeoD5BCz5r6bgQYyxdyaO11QZG-dNCblrf41LiPWk-jo7CJ88euKCovdt4sYRh3T4zZQS4SjkVNhLA57M_N2m4f_pvbhOHbF22wF2lmxz5tHRph5-ReTJ0LFWDpALfIBdWMqXfYK7NN=s320" width="320" /></a></div>My <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock" target="_blank">Multi-Face GPS Clock on Github</a> now has a new software version: v. 1.2.0. Documentation is on the <a href="https://github.com/la3za/Multi-Face-GPS-Clock/wiki" target="_blank">Github Wiki</a>.<p></p>It has a new screen for predicting lunar eclipses 2-3 years into the future.<div><br /></div><div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKJXtEOlMxKWG_eSoDCQ31b13hbDQT3Kvofvy-CRTlz8I-iOL1OZa4UyM35rgypvky-dQJUEKY9xNF4xsQmFEzBuxvdgLzEntg4BnbAW7u1FJITRlefHuXLgrQ7NGzZZ38NI12QKhD_jxBgNDgnfEQk_OJ4hyxFojwEzZGKtItOkR8sdiRmoDt4byZ=s2436" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="823" data-original-width="2436" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgKJXtEOlMxKWG_eSoDCQ31b13hbDQT3Kvofvy-CRTlz8I-iOL1OZa4UyM35rgypvky-dQJUEKY9xNF4xsQmFEzBuxvdgLzEntg4BnbAW7u1FJITRlefHuXLgrQ7NGzZZ38NI12QKhD_jxBgNDgnfEQk_OJ4hyxFojwEzZGKtItOkR8sdiRmoDt4byZ=s320" width="320" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaRyiR-a-mo4OhzD1CoBWJrbWmdc3HIz5ZatPGvwhtuhmnaXSBVR3NMT0nbMMmVWy-X0JIds4bsJ7g-GWBenAKQ4Mpwxqc3GCcAQqaK97oW88W0fWonpilvSJFo0dIeO6UQEYvVnlXELHrEoP8hfkDULs7sgI6W6MqLUXw2Y0FO39CsBiPGZXA-P1C=s2426" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="2426" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaRyiR-a-mo4OhzD1CoBWJrbWmdc3HIz5ZatPGvwhtuhmnaXSBVR3NMT0nbMMmVWy-X0JIds4bsJ7g-GWBenAKQ4Mpwxqc3GCcAQqaK97oW88W0fWonpilvSJFo0dIeO6UQEYvVnlXELHrEoP8hfkDULs7sgI6W6MqLUXw2Y0FO39CsBiPGZXA-P1C=s320" width="320" /></a></div>It also has a MathClock inspired by the <a href="https://www.albertclock.com/" target="_blank">AlbertClock</a> which has its name from Albert Einstein. You have to be somewhat clever to figure it out. But actually it is not so hard. There are four ways to present an arithmetic computation to find hour and minute at regular intervals.</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjHya_3RtWko1H-25UugvVAsTeMcfKNGsZ268Wfgxa91tGhy93tact_rM3Bw4OXCLR2Jsa46FSnWLweI2uHlzDsSjthJufB4Io7ahgTPeuMmWcbc2lslsEYlljHTFjr5thA07d0AfZNA6L5lBz5IWf6p5j0c30DXEREla3DPRNoaAkxmFuQvloLpeG8=s2428" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="2428" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjHya_3RtWko1H-25UugvVAsTeMcfKNGsZ268Wfgxa91tGhy93tact_rM3Bw4OXCLR2Jsa46FSnWLweI2uHlzDsSjthJufB4Io7ahgTPeuMmWcbc2lslsEYlljHTFjr5thA07d0AfZNA6L5lBz5IWf6p5j0c30DXEREla3DPRNoaAkxmFuQvloLpeG8=s320" width="320" /></a><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Additions only</li><li>Also subtraction</li><li>Also multiplication</li><li>and finally subtraction, multiplication, and division </li></ul><p> </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtso4rx1Sam_Ma1Mj8-YAQAmJN9ujFP05ODQiONhKciFicW2tp2c-HSg-15ixjzs1nYehpIX6uhZTqDWEUVNZF3Jtp6pAgaONL_QcFRgOHIh4eNW28zpsV6HiJKLAollg85jO5x16oY3umtoHG8Mnidk3FrTyin8SuIyorcNcwu66_DRcY2EOgvqmU=s2490" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="2490" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgtso4rx1Sam_Ma1Mj8-YAQAmJN9ujFP05ODQiONhKciFicW2tp2c-HSg-15ixjzs1nYehpIX6uhZTqDWEUVNZF3Jtp6pAgaONL_QcFRgOHIh4eNW28zpsV6HiJKLAollg85jO5x16oY3umtoHG8Mnidk3FrTyin8SuIyorcNcwu66_DRcY2EOgvqmU=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrFSdimZVm_VCDiIDTcA5Fwc2cS8sj2Grv6MW6GIbDUzM0gRlL358UE_OrCnmLeRtLANjIoDD0m5sRzFrBwaNY2GpAvBofvCwQVMYkRNRRKJnAZbAZZQz0_HPyElcARC1ZZMXLfRWTJO4SpVv4b93YZ9hvKWvOpCjevJITaLJZwqU25_2LJqjXJfmE=s2583" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="2583" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrFSdimZVm_VCDiIDTcA5Fwc2cS8sj2Grv6MW6GIbDUzM0gRlL358UE_OrCnmLeRtLANjIoDD0m5sRzFrBwaNY2GpAvBofvCwQVMYkRNRRKJnAZbAZZQz0_HPyElcARC1ZZMXLfRWTJO4SpVv4b93YZ9hvKWvOpCjevJITaLJZwqU25_2LJqjXJfmE=s320" width="320" /></a></div>There is a new simpler look for a screen showing rise and set times for the sun according to Actual Civil, and Nautical sunrise/set with definitions 0, -6, and -12 degrees below the horizon. <br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBF7QaQfWixGLPPMQWBazONeAqSMXHkR_2kRz_0VV3l4oREKPGYijNfAPq5CIR15VN7p-nj8MmgLAZAVkggUM-mXwL7tWdzQY5Vcsu4mlnibp_iunYtnZ1ldbs60dpwzCHIqhO0xNJdKNobgZ__MNISC1i_OlEm2Upc0pIDoQesCvwHoOB8-KZbgot=s2573" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="867" data-original-width="2573" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiBF7QaQfWixGLPPMQWBazONeAqSMXHkR_2kRz_0VV3l4oREKPGYijNfAPq5CIR15VN7p-nj8MmgLAZAVkggUM-mXwL7tWdzQY5Vcsu4mlnibp_iunYtnZ1ldbs60dpwzCHIqhO0xNJdKNobgZ__MNISC1i_OlEm2Upc0pIDoQesCvwHoOB8-KZbgot=s320" width="320" /></a></div>Finally, a screen with Actual rise time, solar elevation at local noon, and present elevation and azimuth for the sun has been added.<p></p><p> </p></div></div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-10906804553121860882022-01-09T10:00:00.008+01:002022-01-10T14:15:39.775+01:00Magical speaker cables - part 2<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhISya6wPArktdKC5VNU7bQCsMsbYJmTHeI1cUBU_GagNUpNA2orhq-4ZsIVteJtSGHBsyt1wILolIz9Gs3LQk9KTEcOwK36LdpC9W-QgGf129y6cQSaBeqIHbtJw-3mfjAK96ie1XvwuaRTL_FZarTA06AOsOoLo5Tznr-iEAAjbqhLlAmwIME_ZfA=s1562" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1562" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhISya6wPArktdKC5VNU7bQCsMsbYJmTHeI1cUBU_GagNUpNA2orhq-4ZsIVteJtSGHBsyt1wILolIz9Gs3LQk9KTEcOwK36LdpC9W-QgGf129y6cQSaBeqIHbtJw-3mfjAK96ie1XvwuaRTL_FZarTA06AOsOoLo5Tznr-iEAAjbqhLlAmwIME_ZfA=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cable with large distance between the <br />conductors (<a href="https://www.schnerzinger.com/english/" target="_blank">Schnerzinger</a>)</td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2022/01/magical-speaker-cables-part-1.html">Part 1 of this article</a> concluded that it is important to have thick enough cables in order to bring down the resistance. It also showed two examples of slightly more exotic cables, shown in the first two images here.<p></p><p>The first example had a l<b>arge distance between the conductors</b> and was placed on its own stand to get distance from the floor. It was designed to minimize capacitance between conductors. Another design criterion was to minimize the impact of vibrations created by the speakers themselves.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkpoudHESCq3aRioHDhdEJAjAwgIqfP7fwCQUs_iQukYikPzr3TY13CSWRalO_Rd4f6-LXkxOAoq3B4QTcQAe4HpcEUOJPCgNIHfgf6cPniXNBHUTBnUwW25PA5URmaYf6WUF7hOWf_G1jQaGqhcIZ8vDhM4-6RQJsK46vqNuc4ELDvBUcefpQ0eQT=s775" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="775" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkpoudHESCq3aRioHDhdEJAjAwgIqfP7fwCQUs_iQukYikPzr3TY13CSWRalO_Rd4f6-LXkxOAoq3B4QTcQAe4HpcEUOJPCgNIHfgf6cPniXNBHUTBnUwW25PA5URmaYf6WUF7hOWf_G1jQaGqhcIZ8vDhM4-6RQJsK46vqNuc4ELDvBUcefpQ0eQT=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Twisted multi-conductor cable</span></td></tr></tbody></table>The next example was a cable made by <b>twisting together many thinner conductors</b>, in this case a <a href="https://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/Low-Inductance-DIY-Speaker-Cables/" target="_blank">do-it-yourself cable</a>. It was designed to have the least possible inductance and also to minimize the skin effect.<p></p><p>There is no shortage of science-based claims for how cables affect sound. There are so many of them that this blog post, where my ambition is to say something about all of them, gets to be a little longer than I would have liked it to be. If you are impatient, you may go to the end and just see the conclusion. For the curious, I will consider the claims one by one.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>After resistance, it is <b>inductance </b>and <b>capacitance </b>that matter. But is a small inductance or a small capacitance preferable? Ideally, both should be zero. A cable can be made with a small value for one by getting a large value for the other. But it is not possible to produce a cable with both low inductance and low capacitance. And whether you have much of one or the other, they will both influence the treble. A hand-waving way of saying it, is that inductance blocks high frequencies while the capacitance short-circuits them. And even in a regular short speaker cable, this means that the bass will arrive a little later than the treble (dispersion).</p><p>But in a normal short speaker cable, the <b>difference in time delay</b> does not correspond to much more than if the tweeter element in the speaker was moved a maximum of one mm back, so the consequence is minimal. In addition, the <b>attenuation of the treble</b> is so small that it can be neglected in most cases. If you still want to minimize the loss for high frequencies, it pays to design for a low inductance rather than low capacitance. In other words, it is an advantage that the conductors are close together as they are in most cables, and not far apart as in the cable in the top picture. I’ll come back to why at the end of the article.</p><p>Some cable designers emphasize minimizing the <b>reflection </b>of the signal from the ends of the cable. That means adapting the load to the cable's characteristic impedance. This is well known from cable TV where the impedance of the transmission line is 50 or 75 ohms. There are several objections to impedance matching for speaker cables. First, it is not possible to make cables with impedance as low as 4 or 8 ohms as is typical for speakers. But even more important is that a TV cable is long in relation to the wavelength of the signal. That is what makes the transmission line model applicable. This is not the case for audio cables where the highest treble has a wavelength of at least 10 km and the bass even longer. Therefore, speaker cables cannot be understood as transmission lines and all talk of impedance matching is meaningless.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjQZJoLrGhIdidi7p-35LDv_rrVcOyO3LZ3JHEk5abEGoPpOFawt-6gDptsfcKTpll5CyoFsCqL0ucoXbGW_M38-Ley9OEyTeh0WFf0uoCALyGKzd45b-oRY6G8Eld2DthEgehmPzTwJ9bOZ2IOJFHmi5uCuzYSNcDgeBIe9kUgahO87uj148nc5qdZ=s423" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="423" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjQZJoLrGhIdidi7p-35LDv_rrVcOyO3LZ3JHEk5abEGoPpOFawt-6gDptsfcKTpll5CyoFsCqL0ucoXbGW_M38-Ley9OEyTeh0WFf0uoCALyGKzd45b-oRY6G8Eld2DthEgehmPzTwJ9bOZ2IOJFHmi5uCuzYSNcDgeBIe9kUgahO87uj148nc5qdZ=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pupin coil on insulator on top of a telephone pole <br />(American Electrician 1903)</td></tr></tbody></table>It is different with old-fashioned telephone cables that can be as long as 100 km. They must be considered as transmission lines, often with a characteristic impedance of 600 ohms. It was discovered as early as 1900 that <b>adding loading coils</b> (inductance) at regular intervals, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loading_coil" target="_blank">so-called pupinization</a>, was an advantage. There exist speaker cables with such coils as well. But again, here a model for a long cable is incorrectly applied, not the model which is valid for a 4-5 m long speaker cable. For such cables, it is an advantage with the opposite, namely low inductance, as just mentioned.<p></p><p>Others emphasize that their cables avoid <b>resonance</b>. This may sound convincing, as a system that has inductance and capacitance always has a resonant frequency. Even here there is a mixture of two models. The low frequency model of a cable, the one that applies to audio, consists of a discrete inductance and a discrete capacitance. Using typical values, one will find a resonance frequency of a MHz or two, which is far higher than what is audible. This fact alone should indicate that the effect is insignificant. Even more important is that at these frequencies, there is another cable model that applies, namely the transmission line model mentioned above. It has distributed inductances and capacitances and that gives no resonance. Therefore, the whole resonance problem is yet another imagined problem due to incorrect application of models.</p><p>Closely related to resistance is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect" target="_blank"><b>skin effect</b>.</a> This means that the higher the frequency, the more current is displaced to the outer part of the conductor. Even at 50 Hz, as in the electricity supply, the current does not penetrate much more than one cm into a copper cable. At 20 kHz, the skin depth is about 0.5 mm. This means that for thick cables (2.5 mm2 and more or AWG 10 and less) the effective resistance increases slightly with frequency. The <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proximity_effect_(electromagnetism)" target="_blank">proximity effect</a></b>, which is how currents in the two conductors influence each other, also contributes in the same direction.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgE1hXv1AA5Ldnvgc9MyoAp5SuZ-HfmbefOgFCWwh-vOL1_zx-IwzIoDrGdtG7N96teYBMa1DFOkh8RTz7egrW7J__lYXMgSzVP8I8Iom1-FoD73_25o7lKRyddC0fzoOl0qE9khvNYs0WNMH_byysvcHqBP1BsNcnnTKs0xgu4wGtQNs7w6RggRhie=s300" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="300" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgE1hXv1AA5Ldnvgc9MyoAp5SuZ-HfmbefOgFCWwh-vOL1_zx-IwzIoDrGdtG7N96teYBMa1DFOkh8RTz7egrW7J__lYXMgSzVP8I8Iom1-FoD73_25o7lKRyddC0fzoOl0qE9khvNYs0WNMH_byysvcHqBP1BsNcnnTKs0xgu4wGtQNs7w6RggRhie" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Flat cable which is 12.5 cm wide <br />(Magnan Audio Cables)</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Some expensive cables are therefore designed with multiple conductors, each of which is thinner than the penetration depth, as shown in the picture of the twisted cable above, to avoid this. Alternatively, the cable can be made <b>flat </b>and with a thickness which is less than the skin depth, as shown here. By the way, this is quite nice if the cable is to be put under the rug!<p></p><p>A third way to deal with the skin effect is to make a <b>hollow coaxial cable</b>, as used for cable TV. The expensive Pear Anjou cable that annoyed James Randi, was built this way (see part 1). However, compared to the increase in impedance due to the inductance of the cable, the contribution from the skin and proximity effects is not very large. Still, it does not hurt if a cable minimizes these effects, but it may be questionable whether it is worth the money. The skin and proximity effects are real effects that can be measured. They illustrate the fact that even if something can be measured and analyzed, it does not necessarily mean that it is important. Designs like that of the twisted multi-conductor cable shown above are despite this reservation to be recommended.</p><p>How can it be that some exotic cables are made with a large distance between the conductors to get<b> low capacitance</b>, when I have just said that it pays to have small inductance? Often it is because they have focused on a <b>memory effect</b> found in capacitors and which is due to dielectric absorption. Even when a capacitor is what appears to be fully discharged, it may still remember some of the charge. I have illustrated this in a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhHog_yCQ4Q" target="_blank">YouTube video</a>. This is a real effect, especially in capacitors with high capacitance, much larger than in a cable. It has to do with the quality of the material between the conductors. Materials such as Teflon minimize it, but even better is air such as in the cable that floats on stands above the floor in the picture above. A cable supplier can make it a point that their Teflon insulation cures such effects and explain how cables can be 'non-linear' and smear the sound and give a bad stereo image. Is it real? Not really, as the memory effect is linear since it can be modeled with a network of capacitors and resistors, none of which can distort a signal non-linearly. This has been<a href="https://www.edn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/1982-10-13_EDN_Pease-capacitor-soakage.pdf" target="_blank"> illustrated by analog guru Bob Pease</a>.</p><p>Then there are those who emphasize the importance of proper <b>materials in the conductors</b>. As mentioned earlier, good conductivity is important. With its good conductivity, acceptable price, and good mechanical properties, it is no wonder that copper is so popular. It is barely beaten by silver which has 5% lower resistance than copper. Gold does not come out so well as it has almost 50% more resistance, but it is well suitable for electrical contacts as it does not oxidize. You can get expensive speaker cables made from silver. But the question is whether it is not better to increase the copper cross sectional area by 5% rather than use the much more expensive and mechanically more fragile silver.</p><p>There are also many who emphasize the <b>purity </b>of the material. Here it is appropriate to say something about how a signal is conducted along a cable. A common analogy is a water pipe. In a cable, it is the electrons that are said to flow like water in the copper. But this analogy starts to falter when you look at the transport velocity of electrons in a material like copper. It increases with frequency but never becomes more than a few tens of m/s. Let's say that a power plant located 500 km away starts up and the current is transported by electrons traveling at 10 m/s. Then it will take almost 14 hours before I notice that the power has been turned on! Here, the analogy with the water pipe has obviously broken down.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjx0KgLiJVwwYkQ52qiabZgetTPmBpoPrplVLk1pyqd-1PwZR7s1sOC3MrsceQ1bbsoMUnihH0YVhNKJN53RSUUGW62_IrkpPTz7YsqUvIaKGuC0L4iIPW2bmUzMdkMi9SiXb3AyQja2KwRrpeU9onFeJYlpfgZjCWLIBoj2NeiB44KGM_QnWLxtGib=s218" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="135" data-original-width="218" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjx0KgLiJVwwYkQ52qiabZgetTPmBpoPrplVLk1pyqd-1PwZR7s1sOC3MrsceQ1bbsoMUnihH0YVhNKJN53RSUUGW62_IrkpPTz7YsqUvIaKGuC0L4iIPW2bmUzMdkMi9SiXb3AyQja2KwRrpeU9onFeJYlpfgZjCWLIBoj2NeiB44KGM_QnWLxtGib" width="218" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Nobody likes corroded cables</span></td></tr></tbody></table>For it is not <b>electrons </b>that carry the energy, but an <b>electric and magnetic field</b> that propagates almost as fast as light and which passes between the conductors. The field induces current and movement of electrons in the cable. But all the movement of electrons means lost energy. Therefore, high conductivity in the cable means less loss. On the other hand, impurities will not matter, unless it affects the conductivity, as the energy that enters the material is lost anyway as heat. Another aspect is that copper quality affects both how flexible the cable is and how good it is at resisting corrosion. Oxygen-free copper (OFC) is often preferred for that reason.<p></p><p>The same applies to those who argue that there will be distortion if the cable consists of <b>several strands</b>. For this reason, there exist rigid and unwieldy speaker cables made from solid copper. The idea is that there will be a rectification effect in the transition between the various strands, i.e. between copper and oxidized copper, much like in a crystal in an old-fashioned crystal radio. But this is also energy which is lost as heat. Moreover, such a distortion should be possible to measure, but I have never seen such measurements. The argument that the cable needs a <b>break-in period </b>of several hours or more, as well as the idea that it is important which <b>direction </b>a cable is connected also fall on its own unreasonableness. Remember, however, that it is still important that both speakers are polarized in the same way, so it does matter which of the two cable ends is connected to which of the speaker terminals. But this is a pure acoustic effect to ensure that both speaker diaphragms move in and out in phase and it has nothing to do with the properties of a cable.</p><p>When it comes to tube amplifiers, some may have noticed that knocking on a tube sometimes can be heard in the speaker. This is a <b>mechanical </b>or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboelectric_effect" target="_blank"><b>triboelectric </b>effect</a> that also can happen in poor quality microphone cables. The danger is that the sound pressure from the speakers themselves can cause the cables to vibrate and create distortion. Some people get hung up on this in the design of speaker cables and argue for choosing geometry and insulation materials based on it. Since it is possible to design microphone cables which are robust against such effects with their very low signal levels, it goes without saying that this cannot be an important effect in a speaker cable where signals are so much stronger.</p><p>There is also an effect which in a way is the opposite of that in the previous paragraph. Due to the large currents in a speaker cable, there may be <b>forces between the conductors</b> that can make them attract and repel each other. If this leads to movement, it can give rise to a new signal which can disturb and distort the actual signal. This is used as an argument for putting the conductors far apart. But the cure must rather be to make a mechanically stable construction. Besides, this is also an effect which should be measurable. I have even tried to measure it myself without success. Therefore I doubt if there is anything here to worry about.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUtk_rD7OqjMU_P6TOZkb7Fd0heJguKr5OsFZWRUt5_CAaHUIHkURcOG03wTZPLlPuvOMPAcc3AaGrgeP8IymmV8tQXb1e2qKHkbfZD6phzAel7Ys-eUk_DDsMDEbJg8D3VLxu3Yt7BM2kt45xkbBALIgmsxMqO4NjbJSO5s1-hgyEwsfAJeCRjhox=s300" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgUtk_rD7OqjMU_P6TOZkb7Fd0heJguKr5OsFZWRUt5_CAaHUIHkURcOG03wTZPLlPuvOMPAcc3AaGrgeP8IymmV8tQXb1e2qKHkbfZD6phzAel7Ys-eUk_DDsMDEbJg8D3VLxu3Yt7BM2kt45xkbBALIgmsxMqO4NjbJSO5s1-hgyEwsfAJeCRjhox" width="300" /></a></div>My last point is an effect which is easy to forget. There is a possibility that a speaker cable will <b>act as an antenna and pick up unwanted signals</b>. This applies especially to signals that are outside the audible range. They are sent 'backwards' into the amplifier. What happens next depends on how well the amplifier is designed. Such signals can be from nearby radio transmitters. Medium and long wave frequencies are often worst. But it can also be from a noise source that not many people think about and which can be in their own living room, namely a plasma TV. The open cable solutions with a large distance between the conductors are clearly the worst. This has been confirmed by both measurements and listening tests. The best cables to minimize such interference are shielded (coaxial) cables and twisted multi-conductor cable, but cables with the conductors close together are also good.<p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvISQDjkGySYDhQsir1kQHW64gRwOYEmwtuzrOgsH6vyIUJOWgpNuKIRv_qAMZ_BDZTpKLJ5Z0QvRy_c9wS1JoMj4KyQgK5n1Xu20wrGWDLaYO86Lldbx-8NAKBZ0JBEWe_PsvqM5-_TTHqlyJINjPcmZWp6hkGxr6PtUBR6uVOWJcXXSOWWOWb5yk=s356" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="356" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvISQDjkGySYDhQsir1kQHW64gRwOYEmwtuzrOgsH6vyIUJOWgpNuKIRv_qAMZ_BDZTpKLJ5Z0QvRy_c9wS1JoMj4KyQgK5n1Xu20wrGWDLaYO86Lldbx-8NAKBZ0JBEWe_PsvqM5-_TTHqlyJINjPcmZWp6hkGxr6PtUBR6uVOWJcXXSOWWOWb5yk=s320" width="198" /></a></div>In fact, there are several amplifiers of <b>minimalistic design</b> in hi-fi that are more easily influenced by external factors than other more robust constructions. These can be amplifiers that professionals steer clear of, but which are still large in the high-end hi-fi market. This may be due to sensitivity to external radiation, or that the amplifier is only marginally stable and thus extra sensitive to capacitive loads. Then a standard low-inductance cable, implicitly one with a high capacitance, could create problems. Finally, it should be mentioned that tube amplifiers, which often have a large output impedance, are more easily affected by the complex interaction between a cable, the crossover filter in the loudspeaker and the loudspeaker elements than other amplifiers.<p></p><p>What should we <b>conclude</b>, is there magic in speaker cables? We have looked at the effect of a large and a small distance between the conductors, on reflection and resonance, on skin and memory effects, on the purity of the conductor, whether break-in and polarizing the cable is important, on vibration effects and finally on potential interference from external signals. One factor that has deliberately not been discussed is the aesthetic value. It should not be underestimated that hi-fi sells both on acoustic performance and on pleasing design.</p><p>But from a purely performance point of view, <b>I end up with </b>the finding that <b>low-resistance, low-inductance cables</b> are well supported. The most common and cheapest type is with conductors next to each other, but they may be twisted together as well. This means that the cables can be quite affordable as long as they have a cross section of at least 2.5 mm2 (AWG 10). In professional audio, 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 mm2 are often used (AWG 6-3), unless they use active speakers where there is hardly any cable at all. <b>Twisted multi-conductor cables</b> are often not very expensive and may possibly have an edge at high frequencies. In any case, the longer the cable, the thicker it should be. Due to the possibility of radio frequency interference, exotic cables with a large distance between the conductors are something I want to warn against. The same goes for high-inductance cables with discrete inductors embedded in them, all other exotically designed cables have no negative effects, other than possibly on your wallet. And since no cable is ideal, the recommendation is to make it as short as possible, but still the same length for each speaker.</p><p>Sources:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Greiner, Richard A. "Amplifier-Loudspeaker Interfacing." Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 28.5 (1980): 310-315.</li><li>Robert A. Pease, "Understand capacitor soakage to optimize analog systems." EDN, Oct. 13, 1982.</li><li>Davis, Fred E. "Effects of cable, loudspeaker, and amplifier interactions." Journal of the Audio Engineering Society 39.6 (1991): 461-468.</li><li>Edwards, John, and Tapan K. Saha. "Diffusion of current into conductors." Australasian Universities Power Engineering Conference. Vol 1. CRESTA, 2001.</li><li>Black, Richard. "Audio Cable Distortion is Not a Myth !." Audio Engineering Society Convention 120. Audio Engineering Society, 2006.</li><li>Newell, Philip, and Keith Holland. Loudspeakers: for music recording and reproduction. CRC Press, 2006.</li></ul><p></p><p> (First published in Norwegian in: <a href="https://kollokvium.wordpress.com/2013/08/19/magiske-hoyttalerkabler-del-2/" target="_blank">Magiske høyttalerkabler - del 2</a>)</p><p>The post "<a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2022/01/magical-speaker-cables-part-2.html" target="_blank">Magical speaker cables - part 2</a>" first appeared on the LA3ZA Radio & Electronics Blog.</p>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-8496040166489995792022-01-02T09:39:00.013+01:002022-01-09T18:13:10.716+01:00Magical speaker cables - part 1<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgHEwt6M6FL08aEzr6OtcdeucB7DQGnih7Wr-Ls3F-OsNGr1OZoobsPZVoVawrmhbt5h0VGJU4BJWeMcb1KAA4SskFwEz5e6J0fr4QvVBEdZtHcwMtwAzC397SCQnua4qKgcy2dOG3Vz9VE8PXLgLR8CCVHcMcJEO2lg0HzAZ0yXRvngamJLDtnjnK=s241" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjgHEwt6M6FL08aEzr6OtcdeucB7DQGnih7Wr-Ls3F-OsNGr1OZoobsPZVoVawrmhbt5h0VGJU4BJWeMcb1KAA4SskFwEz5e6J0fr4QvVBEdZtHcwMtwAzC397SCQnua4qKgcy2dOG3Vz9VE8PXLgLR8CCVHcMcJEO2lg0HzAZ0yXRvngamJLDtnjnK=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pear Anjou speaker cable</td></tr></tbody></table>I’m sure many have seen advertisements for speaker cables costing thousands of dollars. Some take this very seriously while others consider it to be pseudoscience. <div><br /></div><div>What should one believe? Here I want to help clarify the concepts.<p></p><p>A climax in the cable dispute may have been reached in 2007 when the skeptic James Randi offered <b>a reward</b> of 1 million dollars if anyone could prove that speaker cables costing $2750 for a pair of 1 meter long cables provided any improvements. He was provoked by the claims of the <a href="https://positive-feedback.com/Issue32/anjou.htm" target="_blank">Pear Anjou cables</a> shown in the image.</p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>There was a time when connecting speakers to an amplifier was simple. Speakers came with a thin cable and that was it. This cable was very unassuming and easy to hide as shown in the image below. Then someone came along claiming that this <b>wasn’t good enough.</b> Neither were the tiny DIN-rated speaker plugs, even though they followed German industry standards (DIN once meant Deutsche Industrie-Normen). Since then, there has been no end to the flood of increasingly elaborate and expensive speaker cables.<p></p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYdZ2Y4_GodQoWHs0wZ5iuSyxhJVA9RDCqgVqKA7pxuzIfwrQeGRlGkdVBMLrZhD0OnPNAOa78IuAGw09dkTAZbHV8YEAUk-Bk8RIxvAdnN81Vn3NibWzJWD8bvCRjNgul9GFxYyN8-T9aujaVNjlIhm_34JvVY2-uJb-tedyYNTtk1zmVPMPuSPIC=s300" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYdZ2Y4_GodQoWHs0wZ5iuSyxhJVA9RDCqgVqKA7pxuzIfwrQeGRlGkdVBMLrZhD0OnPNAOa78IuAGw09dkTAZbHV8YEAUk-Bk8RIxvAdnN81Vn3NibWzJWD8bvCRjNgul9GFxYyN8-T9aujaVNjlIhm_34JvVY2-uJb-tedyYNTtk1zmVPMPuSPIC=s16000" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Thin cable from the 1970's with DIN plugs</span></td></tr></tbody></table>Often the disagreement is between <b>subjectivists </b>and <b>objectivists</b>, or as Marc Perlman called his article in "Social Studies of Science" in 2004: "Golden Ears and Meter Readers: The Contest for Epistemic Authority in Audiophilia". Since epistemology is the theory of knowledge and cognition, it boils down to whether it is the ears which decide when something sounds right or if a measurement is more important. <p></p><p>Music is something that means a lot to many and it has an almost direct path into the emotions. There is therefore no doubt that what we hear and experience is what counts. But we are talking here not just about ordinary ears, but <b>golden ears</b> - those who through training and experience have a special ability to perceive what others cannot hear. Although it is easy to cheat in this field, there is no doubt that such golden ears exist. But they have their limitations. They are good for analyzing and spotting deficits in sound reproduction, but they provide very few clues as to what it takes to design equipment that sounds correctly.</p><p>The story about the Norwegian company Electrocompaniet illustrates the value of golden ears. In the 1970's they came up with one of the first power amplifiers that fixed what was called ‘<b>transistor sound</b>’. Many could hear the problem with early transistor amplifiers, but few knew what caused it before the Finnish professor Matti Ottala explained it as transient intermodulation distortion. Today it is usually called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slew-induced_distortion" target="_blank">slew-induced distortion</a>. This story demonstrates how an audible problem was not fixed until someone managed to quantify it with measurements. Read the fascinating story of Svein-Erik Børja with the golden ears, and Terje Sandstrøm with the engineering talent in <a href="https://www.hifinews.com/content/electrocompaniet-electro-vintage" target="_blank">British Hi-Fi News from 2011</a>. It shows how important it is to quantify with numbers what matters to the audible impression.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4EqrrDBJIaDIj1-Splj7bC42Zn_iPEmo26aLX8hUuDchK7z58SgjsEWBGlyfh5WxXVvn1rX8TKOAtEEqC1qWenTIF7fwxFmNQKsdyHH40VZrgAxW2lQXTG8lOhJSBAjNfZD8lNyZR5U_Zzqy8mMWRcqyMamOXjS-9pRrSJEwjuzo8-XoLbEwHkjgx=s2127" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1265" data-original-width="2127" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4EqrrDBJIaDIj1-Splj7bC42Zn_iPEmo26aLX8hUuDchK7z58SgjsEWBGlyfh5WxXVvn1rX8TKOAtEEqC1qWenTIF7fwxFmNQKsdyHH40VZrgAxW2lQXTG8lOhJSBAjNfZD8lNyZR5U_Zzqy8mMWRcqyMamOXjS-9pRrSJEwjuzo8-XoLbEwHkjgx=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">A speaker cable which is too thin <br />along with one that is better</span></td></tr></tbody></table>When it comes to cables, there is agreement on at least one thing. The thin speaker or lamp wires and flimsy plugs from the 1970’s <b>no longer measure up</b>. Instead of 0.38 and 0.75 mm2 cross-sectional area (AWG 27-21), one should use 2.5 mm2 (AWG 10) and preferably 4 or 6 mm2 (AWG 6 or 3). This is the only thing which is unambiguous based on listening tests and something that there is little controversy about.<p></p><p>It is also easy to explain from measurements. It is first and foremost <b>resistance</b> in ohms per meter that explains it. For the thinnest cable it is 0.045 ohm/m or 0.45 ohm for a 5 m cable (back and forth). The voltage of the amplifier will be divided between the resistance of the cable and the resistance or impedance of the speaker of nominally 4 ohms. This gives a loss of 1 dB which is audible. Even more audible will be the coloration of the sound that comes from the speaker's impedance varying with frequency. It can cause both a resonant top in the bass and a raising of the treble. Another argument for low resistance is that this helps the amplifier dampen speaker motion once a signal has stopped. This is called the damping factor.</p><p>Here many with a scientific or technical background stop and reject all other arguments. My point in the rest of this article and in part two, is to discuss the main technical arguments that have been raised. The various manufacturers don't really promote their solutions solely on the basis of subjective listening impressions. Virtually everyone has arguments based on some <b>physical principle</b>. They like to claim that they are particularly good at this single aspect where the company believes they have a special insight. This is formulated in scientific terms. But then we are really at the heart of what this blog is all about. If it is formulated in scientific terms, it should be possible to analyze with respect to whether this aspect is important or not.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw1g4mHJsjK_YQSZN4X_suq3mCHW1UWcR_J5Q5G322Cx9mrYq-hm63jPIAL8HqVDkWZVsWacQG6SQqUKpl5V9sXvBfJjHdDDAzIzGMPg7tpm1g-1bdlFITGsd7LLdGaMReRlxyO_jWY8rIsTgotwaLXw8GzI_rWA9YIbbHp1xRvbnBaJxE-Htq9Jfe=s775" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="775" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw1g4mHJsjK_YQSZN4X_suq3mCHW1UWcR_J5Q5G322Cx9mrYq-hm63jPIAL8HqVDkWZVsWacQG6SQqUKpl5V9sXvBfJjHdDDAzIzGMPg7tpm1g-1bdlFITGsd7LLdGaMReRlxyO_jWY8rIsTgotwaLXw8GzI_rWA9YIbbHp1xRvbnBaJxE-Htq9Jfe=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Twisted multi-conductor cable</span></td></tr></tbody></table>We should keep in mind also that the science of cables for transfer of energy has been around for a long time. We have had <b>power cables for 50 or 60 Hz</b> for a hundred years. You may rightly say that it is more challenging to transfer audio with frequencies from the deepest bass at 20 Hz to the highest treble at 20,000 Hz. But we have also had <b>telephone cables for over a century</b>. Here the distances have been around 10 km, not just 4-5 m as for a typical speaker cable. For sure we must have learned something in a hundred years that can be applied to speaker cables.<p></p><p>I have already shown the most common types of cables in the figures above. Here are two slightly more exotic types. The first is a cable made by <b>twisting together many thinner conductors</b>, in this case a <a href="https://diyaudioprojects.com/Power/Low-Inductance-DIY-Speaker-Cables/" target="_blank">do-it-yourself cable</a>. It is designed to have the least possible inductance as well as to minimize the consequences of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_effect" target="_blank">skin effect</a>. The latter is the tendency for alternating current only to flow in the outer part of a conductor.</p><p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4L_1eaqKOHaj9P6Ddy7whIGShfDjxOZEg66ly5F2PfowE47wqOYJwyTFi0bUqVEXl9etEDLWBtAMag5j5I2mfvlf0wMCgr1NfNCXZG7MkdlRZwayAzWFMyijPKP0yF0kbro6gRX7n0Wxh4I7a8hA-8JsSYQW5xsdcPirn2i2ELvUXBpK1GGhWw8FO=s1562" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1562" height="176" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4L_1eaqKOHaj9P6Ddy7whIGShfDjxOZEg66ly5F2PfowE47wqOYJwyTFi0bUqVEXl9etEDLWBtAMag5j5I2mfvlf0wMCgr1NfNCXZG7MkdlRZwayAzWFMyijPKP0yF0kbro6gRX7n0Wxh4I7a8hA-8JsSYQW5xsdcPirn2i2ELvUXBpK1GGhWw8FO=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Cable with large distance between the <br />conductors (<a href="https://www.schnerzinger.com/english/" target="_blank">Schnerzinger</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table>The next cable has a <b>large distance between the conductors</b> and is even placed on its own feet to minimize influence from the floor. It is designed to have the least possible capacitance between the conductors and to minimize the impact of vibrations created by the speakers themselves.<p></p><p>But what are the factors which are of real importance? In <a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2022/01/magical-speaker-cables-part-2.html">part 2</a>, we consider those aspects, beyond resistance, which are emphasized in cable design.</p><p><br /></p><p>References:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.uio.no/doi/abs/10.1177/0306312704047613" target="_blank">Perlman, Marc. "Golden Ears and Meter Readers. The Contest for Epistemic Authority in Audiophilia."</a> Social Studies of Science 34.5 (2004): 783-807.</li><li><a href="https://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=11886" target="_blank">Sandstrøm, Terje. "Distortion in class AB power amplifiers."</a> Audio Engineering Society Convention 71. Audio Engineering Society, 1982. (From his master's thesis in physics, University of Oslo)</li></ul><p></p><p>(First published in Norwegian in: <a href="https://kollokvium.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/magiske-hoyttalerkabler/" target="_blank">Magiske høyttalerkabler</a>)</p><p><br /></p><p>The post "<a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2022/01/magical-speaker-cables-part-1.html">Magical speaker cables - part 1</a>" first appeared on the LA3ZA Radio & Electronics Blog.</p><p><br /></p></div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2554001380039969960.post-35310422768187078232021-10-26T22:36:00.021+02:002024-02-20T13:39:55.530+01:00Updated Arduino Multi Face GPS Clock<p>The <a href="https://la3za.blogspot.com/2021/09/gps-clock.html" target="_blank">GPSClock from last month</a> has now been updated and software version <strike>1.10</strike> 1.1.0 is <a href="https://github.com/la3za/GPSClock" target="_blank">available on Github</a>. The main upgrade is the possibility to use a rotary encoder for selecting display screen or clock face.</p><p>In addition a new screen showing Easter for the next three years, according to both the Gregorian (Western) and Julian (Eastern) calendars, has been added as number 22. The dates are shown in the Gregorian calendar:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOlnp0SRh541B13fONiI5wuBpkzWN-KmrqzCczTfTXrddf6QsPGj-TndKLGDj0hhULV5J3DmBk4gtm-fMhiRpJIQ5Tm49E5i6IdGd0CTSKi5A6Mt-CiQD1kgqN9urA2TiKBEzm9mqgWE/s2783/22-Easter.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="954" data-original-width="2783" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEOlnp0SRh541B13fONiI5wuBpkzWN-KmrqzCczTfTXrddf6QsPGj-TndKLGDj0hhULV5J3DmBk4gtm-fMhiRpJIQ5Tm49E5i6IdGd0CTSKi5A6Mt-CiQD1kgqN9urA2TiKBEzm9mqgWE/w400-h138/22-Easter.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A new screen showing the clock in binary, octal, decimal, and hex format is screen 21:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-N2l7bQja2zkrmvylP9bvpMAQDGmN0ksjQw8NRtC7tkj1dSQR2fm3MKM04k6gOrIe-Gn4-d9gU4nz8hjMVWkqOsVIYnHPh2VpvzsW2vG4bJf3WebG3TcpP23amV5AJu7fEePaVUOu-o/s2769/21-BinOctDecHex.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="947" data-original-width="2769" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0-N2l7bQja2zkrmvylP9bvpMAQDGmN0ksjQw8NRtC7tkj1dSQR2fm3MKM04k6gOrIe-Gn4-d9gU4nz8hjMVWkqOsVIYnHPh2VpvzsW2vG4bJf3WebG3TcpP23amV5AJu7fEePaVUOu-o/w400-h136/21-BinOctDecHex.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>Screens 19 and 20 show the clock in octal and hexadecimal formats and are not shown here.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Screen 15 showing UTC time, locator, position, altitude, and number of satellites has been reorganized in order to work correctly for Western and Southern positions also:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5nDFvfiMxYtA8QxNaqAuHvUYcCuCwejd_V4C_r8MlbM-f1H-4H8P5_vS6iWA6ZFxchPdkicl7Zo6txal0rruryToOwjXoOk8kSvUlnAseRdlUIOPrAZRvLW0C-DslfjHXuPzrnPLnIg4/s2615/15b-UTCPosition.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="2615" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5nDFvfiMxYtA8QxNaqAuHvUYcCuCwejd_V4C_r8MlbM-f1H-4H8P5_vS6iWA6ZFxchPdkicl7Zo6txal0rruryToOwjXoOk8kSvUlnAseRdlUIOPrAZRvLW0C-DslfjHXuPzrnPLnIg4/w400-h138/15b-UTCPosition.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Screen 7 showing binary format has been corrected:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt6YYjGXhrVsjL0rkfhdAeM6r5vKieHjbgsAxAKbBOsvrTsZlBo0ZidR6lU_mnIVo_jYZ8fqmWk00JvOm8DFQMbA5Y1qzAyTJQr_lOMzkS5-TICYjF6lk2BMNJZT059VqtoyG2abP40T4/s2617/07b-Binary.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="2617" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt6YYjGXhrVsjL0rkfhdAeM6r5vKieHjbgsAxAKbBOsvrTsZlBo0ZidR6lU_mnIVo_jYZ8fqmWk00JvOm8DFQMbA5Y1qzAyTJQr_lOMzkS5-TICYjF6lk2BMNJZT059VqtoyG2abP40T4/w400-h136/07b-Binary.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The schematic when a rotary encoder is substituted for the push buttons is:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTaW9XGOQUq5AE3y-8lBweSpNM99C_ULGxL-PQYmYKQXbrJF7r9pY2R4xY9TYWmAwCk0ghPBM-pGYKW03l_zjskKOoOr2VBb2LBrx1RuOiePw1R6DWh0Vg__QzvEqO7PkdXLtt2ZdPxk/s900/2021-10-21-GPSClock-RotaryEncoder.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="900" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTaW9XGOQUq5AE3y-8lBweSpNM99C_ULGxL-PQYmYKQXbrJF7r9pY2R4xY9TYWmAwCk0ghPBM-pGYKW03l_zjskKOoOr2VBb2LBrx1RuOiePw1R6DWh0Vg__QzvEqO7PkdXLtt2ZdPxk/w400-h205/2021-10-21-GPSClock-RotaryEncoder.png" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A <a href="https://github.com/la3za/GPSClock/wiki" target="_blank">wiki has been started</a> on Github where all hardware and software options are described in detail.</div>Sverre Holmhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08306221557326542499noreply@blogger.com0