Archive for the ‘amateur radio’ Tag
Maker Faire Bay Area 2015 T-Shirts for Makers
Maker Faire Bay Area is now history. Our booth, “Not Your Grandpa’s Ham Radio” included new projects and demonstrations. This was our fourth year as Makers and the fifth year as visitors to the Maker Faire in San Mateo.
This is a short overview of our display. Stay tuned for more images, stories and videos.
Here is the text from our handout. It answers some of our most-often asked questions:
What are we doing?
Thank you for your interest in our Maker Faire display “Not Your Grandpa’s Ham Radio.” This is our fourth consecutive year as “Makers,” and our goal is to show people what today’s ham radio operators are doing with the newest technology.
Who are we?
We are licensed Amateur radio operators (“hams”).
Is this like CB?
Yes and no. Ham radio is similar in that we use two-way radios and antennas to talk with each other, but hams can communicate using Morse code and computers in addition to voice, and we even have our own satellites. Ham radio requires a license issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US and licensees are required to pass a written test on electronics theory, radio regulations and operating procedures.
How far can you talk?
We can communicate with other ham stations around the corner or across the globe, depending on a variety of factors that affect the way radio waves travel. The equipment we are using operates on frequencies that generally follow line-of-sight paths. However, hams have discovered that signals can be reflected against objects such as buildings, trees, islands and mountains to extend the range. Using these techniques, we are able to contact other stations hundreds of miles away.
What kind of radios are you using?
We are builders and experimenters in microwave radio communications. No commercially-built, “off-the-shelf” equipment for these frequencies exists, so we must build our own equipment, or modify commercially-made equipment meant for other communications services, such as satellite TV, cell phone and long-distance telephone.
How much does this equipment cost?
Like any other hobby, people spend as much or as little as they can afford. Most people involved in ham radio spend as much as any serious stereo enthusiast, amateur photographer or woodworker.
Where can I get more information?
American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and QST Magazine
CQ Magazine
If you are a licensed ham and want to try a new challenge, contact your local VHF and up club:
The 50 MHz and Up Group
The San Bernardino Microwave Society (SBMS)
The Microwave Group of San Diego
Wayne Yoshida KH6WZ: YouTube
Broadband Hamnet-REV2
Broadband Ham Radio Network Under Construction. Photo by Dennis Kidder W6DQ
Software Defined Radio
Elements for the SDR. Photo by Dennis Kidder W6DQ
Old-vsNew-Ant-tuners
Old vs New Antenna Tuner Technology
KH6WZ 10GHz rig-Poster
Microwave transverter system by Brian Yee W6BY. Photo by Brian Yee W6BY
APRS Poster
APRS demonstration
The Greeter
The Maker Faire Team from the San Bernardino Microwave Society (SBMS) and the 50 MHz and Up Group is once again displaying their newest projects at the Bay Area Maker Faire.
We are “Not Your Grandpa’s Ham Radio” – Maker Number 50122
SAN DIEGO, Calif., March 19, 2015 — Microwave Update (MUD), the paramount international conference on Amateur Radio experimentation above 1,000MHz, will take place from Thursday, October 15 to Sunday, October 18, 2015 at the Crowne Plaza San Diego.
MUD 2015 will include technical programs, a banquet and the opportunity to network with fellow microwave ham radio enthusiasts from around the world. This year’s event is sponsored jointly by the San Bernardino Microwave Society (SBMS) and the Microwave Group of San Diego (MGSD).
Special hotel rates are available to MUD 2015 attendees. Be sure to mention the Microwave Update 2015 when making hotel reservations.
Call for Papers and Presentations
MUD is a great opportunity to share your ideas by presenting and writing papers. If you are interested in writing and/or presenting a topic for the 2015 MUD, send an e-mail message to mud2015-presentations@ham-radio.com with an abstract or a general idea. This will help the conference planning and scheduling team organize the event.
Presentation and paper guidelines are posted at
http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/mud2015/mud2015_call_for_Papers.pdf
The deadline for proceedings submissions is September 1 and deadline for presentations is September 25.
For more information and the latest updates on MUD 2015, go to:
http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/mud2015/
Hotel Information
The hotel is taking reservations now, so take advantage of the discount rate. Remember to ask for the Microwave Update (MUD) special rate.
Crowne Plaza San Diego
2270 Hotel Circle North
San Diego, CA 92108 USA
Phone: +1-888-233-9527
http://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/san-diego/sancp/hoteldetail
About the San Bernardino Microwave Society
The SBMS, founded in 1955, is a non-profit technical organization and Amateur Radio club and dedicated to the advancement of communications above 1,000MHz. Affiliated with the ARRL, the SBMS membership includes over 90 Amateurs from Hawaii and Alaska to the East Coast and beyond. Meetings are held the first Thursday of each month at 7 pm at the American Legion Hall, 1024 Main St., Corona, CA. For more SBMS information, go to http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/
About the Microwave Group of San Diego (MGSD)
The MGSD is an informal association of Radio Amateurs interested in the frequencies above 1000 MHz. A net is held on the air each Monday night, except the third Monday of the month, on the Palomar Amateur Radio Club Repeater, 146.730 (-0.600), (tone 107.2) at 9:00 PM. For more MGSD information, go to
http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/sd/mgsd.htm
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Maker Faire – Where it’s Cool to be Smart
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Photo by Kyle Cothern of CrashSpace
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The Electric Giraffe at Maker Faire
Maker Faire headquarters announced early bird discounts for Maker Faire Bay Area on May 16 and 17, 2015.
What’s Maker Faire? Take a look at this Drone’s Camera View from Bay Area Maker Faire 2014.
The sale ends on February 28, so don’t delay!
Order your tickets now to take advantage of the discount.
I will see you there – Look for “Not Your Grandpa’s Ham Radio” and our new projects!
The call for Bay Area Makers is open now. The deadline is Sunday Feb 15.
What’s a Maker? Take a look at what a lot of us are doing in The Maker Movement.
But if you think this idea is new, read this post about re-inventing the wheel. In this case, the wheel is the definition of “Maker.”
More info on the 2015 Bay Area Maker Faire. . .
Just to whet your appetite about the upcoming Maker Faire – take a look at a Drone’s Eye View of Maker Faire 2014!
Search for “Makers” and “Maker Faire” on this site to see some of my previous projects and participation at Maker Faire.
Photo by Bleu Cotton Photography, Inc.
All that hard work paid off. D25, Peter Barbour’s entry in the Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade earned First Place, Best Animation/Special Effects. This is the 11th time D25 has won an award in the parade.
The theme for 2014 was “Something’s Cooking in the Kitchen” and included a boiling tea kettle on a stove with smoke (steam) effects. All of the items on the sail area are animated and are controlled by a total of four computers.
If you look closely, a Christmas “Easter Egg” is planted on the stove. Do you see it? Maybe this photo, taken when the decorations were still under construction will help.
An argument about a detail on D25 for 2014
Still don’t see it? When Steve was painting the final touches on the stove, a heated discussion took place. Should the clock on the stove be analog or digital? What time should it show? Our thinking process went from “I doesn’t matter” to “Midnight. Doesn’t everyone wait until midnight to open all the gifts?” to “Wait. Christmas. December 25. Boat is named D25. 12:25!”
Here are some more images of D25 under construction . . .
Other 2014 Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade Winners are posted on the official Newport Beach Christmas Boat Parade website.
Peter is N6RAS. D25 includes Amateur Radio equipment as well as a GPS and APRS locator/tracking system on board.
What’s in store for Christmas 2015? Only Peter knows – but we can all look forward to something amazing!
I discovered an announcement of this open house the night before the event. The lead came from a Meet Up post from Make: OC, since I have been displaying at Maker Faire for several years now. It was a very short notice — but I am glad I saw it — especially since the Urban Workshop is less than 5 minutes away from my office.
Steve Trindade is the Founder and CEO of the Urban Workshop.
Urban Workshop is a hacker space, a membership organization where creative and talented people can get together and learn from each other. Urban Workshop provides the tools and support staff to help people build what they imagine.
They have an impressive array of stationary power tools for wood as well as metal, including a laser cutter and CNC mill. They have all types of welding equipment, too. And of course, they have a very expensive-looking 3D printer.
There is a full page of classes on a variety of subjects, including automotive alignments and race car chassis setups, CAD concepts, CNC router programming, electronics soldering basics and Arduino programming, machine tool instruction and more.
The equipment is all high-end, professional gear, and looks brand new.
Click here for more information on Urban Workshop.
Here are some pictures. . . .
Immediately after the San Bernardino Microwave Society (SBMS) Tune-Up Party at the Fairview Park in Costa Mesa, the annual summer BBQ was held at the QTH of Dennis, W6DQ.
As usual, the food was great, and Dennis did a great job at the BBQ. It is nice to be a guest at a BBQ every now and then….
Probably the best thing I enjoy at these events is catching up with the club members and see what projects they are working on.
Anyone interested in young people education has probably heard of the Maker movement and the Maker Faire. Or, at least, they may have seen a copy of Make: magazine on the newsstands. Many educators understand the connection between science and technology education and how this Maker movement can be used to make learning fun.
Well, I have to say this is a lot of successful marketing hype – since so many people worldwide think this is a new and wonderful phenomenon. Here’s some news for everyone: This is not a new idea. Amateur radio operators (“hams”) have been among the original Makers since the early 20th century.
In case you have not heard about Makers, here is a brief description: The Maker movement is about making something rather than buying something, fixing it rather than throwing it away, pre-cycling or recycling instead of throwing it away and modifying something to make it work better or different.
This “making” refers to anything you can think of, from clothing and costumes and computers to bicycles and cars and aircraft. And for ham radio operators – it’s making or modifying radio communications equipment.
A Personal Passion and Mission
Since ham radio has been and continues to be one of my passions, I want to make sure people understand that today’s ham radio is not an outdated, dying hobby that no one uses any more. It is not necessarily a hobby for old retired engineers talking to strangers from their basements and closets. The Amateur Radio Service is much more chic and many of us are using today’s technology and applying it to ham radio activities. And as a science and an educational tool, ham radio has a lot to offer.
A Timely Showcase
The Bay Area Maker Faire is at the end of May each year. Sponsored by Make magazine, the Maker Faire website describes this event as, “A two-day, family-friendly festival of invention, creativity and resourcefulness and a celebration of the Maker movement.”
When you actually get there, you may describe it as a giant playground for everyone where science, art, food, clothing, bicycles, fire, machines, lasers, steam, electricity and music all crunch together into one giant gathering. And I can insert ham radio into this cornucopia of educational fun.
In 2012, my ham radio friend Dennis Kidder had some free passes to the Bay Area Maker Faire. Since the tickets were a great bargain, we had to make the all-day drive to the Silicon Valley to see this thing. We had such a great experience that year we decided to create our own display to show off our ham radio projects. Besides, we got to meet Grant Imahara from the Discovery Channel show “Myth Busters,” and a famous female hacker named Jeri Ellsworth. Adam Savage, also from the Myth Busters show, is the Maker Faire emcee.
Amazingly, Maker booths are free. Considering how much commercial exhibitors pay for booth space, electricity, water, compressed air and cleaning for tradeshow booths, this is an incredible deal.
For 2014, my Maker Faire theme, “Not Your Grandpa’s Ham Radio!” continues for the third consecutive year. Our displays include a wide range of experiments, demonstrations and practical wireless communications equipment using a mixture of traditional and the most modern techniques. Here are some examples of our projects from previous Maker Faire events…
Ramsay Electronics KH6WZ laser communicator
W6DQ – Dennis 10 GHz transmitter-receiver with software defined radio (SDR)
79 GHz transmitter-receiver system by Tony KC6QHP
Antenna positioning system by Brian W6BY
See more stories on my LinkedIn pages. . .
University of California, Davis Engineering Project at Maker Faire Bay Area 2014
This radar system operates at 2GHz (S-band). The Arduino stack consists of a radio front end, controlled by an Ardunio Uno and signal processing is performed using an Arduino Due. A Bluetooth link moves the data from the radar system to the notebook computer, where the radar information can be seen using a “waterfall” visual display.
The DART lab is located in Kemper Hall on the UC Davis campus and is led by Dr. Xiaoguang “Leo” Liu, pictured at left. Daniel (center) and David on the right demonstrated the 2GHz radar system to the Maker Faire visitors. For more information on the UC Davis Engineering programs, visit
The Davis Adaptive RF Technology (DART) Lab
UC Davis College of Engineering Electrical and Computer Engineering
2014 UC Davis Picnic Day
Not Your Grandpa’s Ham Radio
Maker Faire Bay Area 2014
wayneyoshidakh6wz 