ON3JT » Projects

Designing and building a Manned Beacon or MEPT, part 1 of many

Joost — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:53:05 +0000

I came acros the site of IK0VVE with a wonderfull description of a MEPT. MEPT stands for Manned Experimental Propagation Transmitter and is usually very low power. He uses a crystal oscilator but I find them pretty expensive. So I Looked around the net for programmable oscillators. Those are even more expensive and in the most cases you [...]

Designing and building a Manned Beacon or MEPT, part 1 of many is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Build a simple magnetic loop antenna.

Joost — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 08:19:28 +0000

This article is a reprint from my original article published in 2004. I don’t use the antenna anymore (collecting dust in the basement) but the article will stay here for informational purposes. I live in an appartment and don’t have the space to put up a large antenna for my Kenwood R1000 receiver. I knew the excistance [...]

Build a simple magnetic loop antenna. is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Build a lowcost yagi antenna for PMR446

Joost — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:45:46 +0000

This post is taken from my old website. I’m still dismantling that site. What is PMR446 anyway ? PMR446 stands for Personal Mobile Radio and is a license free radio in the 446 MHz UHF band. That is about 6 Mhz above the 70cm amateur radio band. There are 8 channels starting at 446.00625 MHz and ending [...]

Build a lowcost yagi antenna for PMR446 is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Avoid uncontrolled transmissions with this simple modification on your radio interface

Joost — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:20:50 +0000

Ham radio operators interested digital modes will often use these computer interfaces to automate CW contacts (send morse code from the PC), use the PC soundcard for RTTY and control push-to-talk functions among other things. Many of the PTT interface drawings found on the net suffer the same problem. Well it is not really a problem. Let’s have [...]

Avoid uncontrolled transmissions with this simple modification on your radio interface is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Programming a PIC processor with a cheap USB to RS232 adapter

Joost — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:26:29 +0000

I’m currently experimenting with a PIC processor. The term microcontroller is actually better, but you know what I mean. It all started when reading about the bitx20 kit. This transceiver has no frequency readout and if you look around you’ll notice that everyone is using a PIC or an AVR to build a frequency counter [...]

Programming a PIC processor with a cheap USB to RS232 adapter is a blogpost from: ON3JT

BITX20 status

Joost — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:44:08 +0000

From left to right : The kit has just arrived. The PCB, nice and clean job. What I did in january. Where I stopped in march. More to come. addthis_url = 'http%3A%2F%2Fon3jt.byze.be%2Fbitx20-status'; addthis_title = 'BITX20+status'; addthis_pub = 'on3jt'; BITX20 status is a blogpost from: ON3JT

BITX20 status is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Current projects that needs attention

Joost — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:35:14 +0000

Like many amateurs I have more than one project that needs attention. Here’s a list what is keeping me busy : Cantenna for 23cm Short 40m inverted V dipole BITX20 tranceiver kit 23cm ATV biquad antenna Antenna switch box 1×6 Pic programming for the BITX20 Make cables for a small LCD panel … The cantenna needs to be tested and cut for best SWR. [...]

Current projects that needs attention is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Reception reports for ON0VRT using Google Maps

Joost — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:50:13 +0000

ON0VRT is a repeaterplatform installed at the VRT tower, located in Sint Pieters Leeuw, near Brussels. The platform will house a 6m, 2m, 70cm and a 23cm repeater. To see the range, I thought that displaying the various reception reports on a map is usefull. So after a couple of days playing with Google Maps and [...]

Reception reports for ON0VRT using Google Maps is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Cantenna for the 23cm ATV band

Joost — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:13:56 +0000

A cantenna is a directional waveguide antenna for long-range Wi-Fi used to increase the range of (or snoop on) a wireless network. Although the original design was based on a Pringles potato chip can, a cantenna can be made from various cans/bottles. These include antennas on both the ground and antennas heightened by means of [...]

Cantenna for the 23cm ATV band is a blogpost from: ON3JT

Repair a Diamond X200 VHF/UHF antenna

Joost — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 21:12:13 +0000

I bought my Diamond X200n antenna on a local ham fleamarket in october 2006. It was brand new and never used before. The antenna was mounted on the first of august. There is about 21m of H500 coax between the transceiver and the antenna. The antenna performs well on 70cm with a very low SWR curve. [...]

Repair a Diamond X200 VHF/UHF antenna is a blogpost from: ON3JT