I've been poo-pooing using Raspberry Pis as WFM transmitters, but VK5DGR has recently been experimenting with using them for FSK, and hooking one up to a spectrum analyzer. Turns out they're not as bad as one would think! You always need a low-pass filter for the harmonics of course, but there's seemingly zero splatter. http://www.rowetel.com/?p=6317
@sebastian A lot of antenna/balun stuff in ham circles runs on hearsay. You're better of getting a book on the subject or learning how to use nec2c (which is in Debian)
Getting ready to make another attempt at receiving the world heritage VLF transmitter SAQ in Varberg, Sweden on May 1st. Wrote a GNU Radio thing for mixing the 17.2 kHz carrier down to a more listenable 1 kHz:
Looking at Additive Quantization for improving the 700 bit/s encoders in #codec2. This would both speed them up and allow using a deeper and more proper beam search. Relevant paper for those playing along at home: https://social.umeahackerspace.se/url/284901 !amateur
@Elizafox The hobby is what you make it. We're seeing a big generational shift, which is good. Still mostly dudes though, but maybe that'll change given the makeup of YOTA.
We have an OStatus group for hams on this instance: !amateur
If propagation is your main interest then you might want to know there's automated tools for that. Check out #WSPR. There's some neat hardware for it, like UltimateS3 from QRP labs: http://www.qrp-labs.com/ultimate3/u3s.html
Personally I'm most interested in digital modes. I'm also a somewhat active contributor to #FreeDV, a libre digital voice system 😊
so now that I got my only ;) MTD sock banned I'm free to get back to crawling down !amateur radio rabbit holes, I think my next one will be QRP + homebrewing (this might take a while)
Lots of CW and PSK activity this morning. Haven't bothered making any contacts yet since I'm heading out soon, but way more than last night at least !amateur