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VHF Communications Magazine

General Interest Site Links

All about the Smith chart

You often need to print out a Smith diagram quickly in order to indicate or monitor something. On this homepage you can find everything (but everything!) on this subject. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking for a tutorial or printed blanks or tools or books or other websites: it’s all here somewhere, all you have to do is look.

Address: http://www.sss-mag.com/smith.html


LC Filter Design

Anyone who has to develop an LC filter in a big hurry usually turns to our tried and tested “fds.zip” or “Faisysn”. For those who are in a real hurry but don’t have these programs installed on their computers, there’s this online calculator. You just key in the data and press < Enter> - and you’ve already got the component values, the circuit and the simulated attenuation path on the screen. Slightly simplified, it’s true, but the readings are absolutely correct. Do please try it out.

Address: http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~fisher/lcfilter/


Electronics Tutorials

Here's something from a part of the world in which people (looked at from our point of view) are standing on their heads. An Australian site, crammed full of interesting links and tutorials - so somewhere you can root and rummage around in for hours. And here's one thing you can search for straightway: just look for the Marine Corps “Field Antenna Handbook” (192 pages, downloadable as a pdf file). A handsome and interesting book!

Address: http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/


HP8410

For anyone who develops microwave circuits, a vector network analyser is an essential but expensive part of the workshop. Despite it’s age the HP8410 does the job very well if used with care. It is easy to repair and documents are readily available. Here is a small selection of Internet addresses with interesting information:

http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/

http://www.pacificsites.com/~brooke/MWTE.shtml


TutorialsWeb

The name says everything: tutorials are collected here and the topics are so varied that a thorough search is worthwhile. You will find some very useful topics covered that will be extremely useful. The scope of the topics will not be revealed here by suffice to say that the web site is well worth visiting.

 Address: http://www.tutorialsweb.com/index.html


Noise and Noise Figure Measurement

A very good detailed homepage. This is nearly a complete textbook online. Great fun to read either for the first time or to refresh knowledge from the past.

Address: http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~black/Noise/ppframe.htm


QTH Viewer for Google Earth

Daerek Milka, SP6NVK has produced a QTH Locator Square overlay for Google Earth. Using the link below select “QTH Locators viewer” to download the .kmz file. When this is used for the first time with Google Earth it produces an overlay of the main QTH locator square over the globe. Under “My Places” there are three check boxes to control the overlay. A tick in the subdivisions check box will generate subdivision squares.

Address: http://www.hamatlas.eu/Gg/KML_en.htm


VOACAP Quick Guide

“HF Ionospheric Communications Propagation Analysis and Prediction “ this is a wave forecasting and propagation prediction program. It gives information on the current conditions and a free software download.

Address: http://voacap.com/


Matjaz Vidmar, S53MV

Readers of VHF Communications Magazine should know this name very well because of the developments and projects that have been published.

There seems to be no end to the new projects that come from Matjaz, probably something to do with his job as a university professor. Take the time to look at his latest activities.

Address: http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/zifssb/kband.html


Microwave101

At first sight the title says nothing. Once you open the site you are greeted with by a complete collection of microwave documents including calculations and information etc. A lot of time is required to investigate everything.

Address: http://www.microwaves101.com/index.cfm


EME

The abbreviation means Earth Moon Earth it is a specialist part of our hobby; QSOs with the moon as reflector. Everything concerned has to be at the forefront of technology and technical know-how because the transmitter powers are limited not much signal arrives at the receiving antenna or the following LNA. This homepage presents the current state of the art information to give an idea of the requirement including the financial ones needed to succeed.

Address: http://www.hb9bbd.ch/index.php3


SETI

Another exotic abbreviation that stands for: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This web site has all the information about the many interesting spin aspects; this is sometimes at the edge of physical technology.

Address: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/


Radio Electronics

Sometime homepages are boring but this homepage is full of tutorials ready to download. There is plenty worthwhile browsing here.

A tip: Begins with  the “RF Technology and Design” section.

Address: http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/electronics-tutorials.php


Amanogawa.com

This is a small collection of on-line calculators. Particularly aimed at antennas.

Address: http://www.amanogawa.com/index.html


Introduction to IQ-demodulation of RF data

Modern communications use different types of modulation, among other things QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation). A good manual is useful for those who would like to train themselves or gain some experience.

Here is one that is not only accurate but also written to be easily understood. It is actually part of a manual for a piece of equipment.

Address: http://folk.ntnu.no/htorp/Undervisning/TTK10/IQdemodulation.pdf


AC6V´s amateur radio & DX Reference Guide

This one can keep you occupied for hours.

Address: http://www.ac6v.com/


Mixer Basics Primer - A Tutorial for RF and Microwave Mixers

A very nice introduction to this topic, the rest of the home page and the other documents from this company are very interesting e.g. mixer up to 65 GHz. Another application note that is equally important is: T3 mixer primer - A tutorial on high linearity, high IP3 RF & microwave mixers

Address: http://www.markimicrowave.com/assets/appnotes/mixer_basics_primer.PDF


SPICE models

You often have to search for a long time to find the SPICE models for specific components required for simulation circuits.

So here are a small set of addresses that you can browse one by one.

Addresses:

http://www.TI.com/ADC/docs/midlevel.TSP?ContentId=31690

http://www.analog.com/en/amplifier-linear-Tools/topic.html

http://www.Tech-DIY.com/spice.htm

http://www.webtopicture.com/spice/spice-models-library.html


RF-WEB

As down-to-earth as the name implies. A very comprehensive but very unimpressive site greets you, containing nothing but links to interesting aspects of radio frequency technology. But if you take a closer look at this list, then you will very soon be mentally begging the author’s pardon, because not only is there an unbelievable amount available here, but it’s a real Treasure Trove.

Address: http://www.rfweb.com


RF-Cafe

This, as you might expect, is a site where you just sit back and have a good old rummage around. You will undoubtedly know of, or you’ll already have, a lot of the literature or software mentioned here, but the author never sits still and is always on the lookout for interesting new items (such as a waveguide filter designer).

Address: http://www.rfcafe.com


SM5BSZ Home Page - Equipment for VHF DX

This is a simple homepage of the Swedish radio amateur, Leif Asbrink, SM5BSZ, who is a reader of the German version of the magazine, UKW Berichte. His web site has many interesting topics that are easy to access..

Address: http://www.sm5bsz.com/index.htm


Circuit Sage

It is simply joyful to browse in this extensive library. On this web site you can find basic articles, interesting Application Notes, many technical documents and many other interesting things.

Address: http://www.circuitsage.com/


Odysseus

This web site is a secret store of articles and tutorials on RF technology., particularly to the area of RFIC. They are very well presented even if you sometimes have to search for things. First class!

Address: http://www.odyseus.nildram.co.uk/


eHam.net

This site has something for every radio amateur but you have to spend the time to look around and find the things that interest you.

Address: http://www.eham.net/