User:Jhasslinger/enes100/Ham

Team Page: BH^2

Problem statement
Work on creating a simple radio transmitter and a data base of information

Work in progress...

Task1
Get in contact with the team and talk about ideas of what we are going to be doing. Also setup team and individual project pages

Compare actual work done to Task1

 * Individual page and team page created.
 * Contacted team but there was uncertainty on the focus of the project.

Week1 Narrative
At the end of class (09/14/11) our team got together and talked about the project. One of our teammate had to leave class early. Talking with Rhea, we both liked the idea of working on creating a way to increase the range of a wireless router. However we were not sure on this idea because we wanted to check with our other teammate. Through emails with the team we gave a back round of ourselves and worked on setting up the wiki pages.

On monday the 19th our team meet up in class and got our project worked out. we each had our own task for the week. My was to get some information on the overall science of HAM.


 * Work in progress***

www.crystalradio.net/crystalplans/index.shtml

Week1 Peer Review
Jon is definitely critical to our success in this project. He is researching the reason why the radio should work or not. The research he has done has allowed us to set reasonable goals. When he was absent the team adjusted, but his presence was definitely missed. Fab4187 02:21, 26 September 2011 (UTC)

Assign Task2
Do some more research on foxhole radios. start coming up with a part list and find places to get material/order.

Compare actual work done to Task2

 * Researched Radios and HAM
 * Started building a foxhole radio
 * Disassembled a two way radio
 * Volunteered and participated for setup duty for HAM fest
 * Went to HAM fest

Week2 Narrative
There was a lot of work done this week:

Foxhole Radio


 * So this week I started off looking for information on what a foxhole radio (FHR) is and how it works. I found two great sites which are logged in this gdoc: FHR sites. From here i went and collected the materials needed to build a FHR. All of the materials used were found around my house.

List of Materials(Picture to the right):
 * 1 Razor Blade
 * 2 Large Safety Pin/ Paper clip
 * 3 #2 pencil]
 * 4 Toilet paper roll, cardboard only
 * 5 Wire
 * 6 Thumb tacks
 * 7 Wooden base
 * This was a fun little project to start working on. I have a few razor blades in the picture of the materials to test to see if there is any difference after i get it working. I started with the standard rectangle blade. However, I only got 50 percent done. This link shows the progress made:FHR 50% progress. Unfortuntely there hasn't been time to get back to it and i plan to finish it and test it during week three.

Disassembled a Walkie talkie


 * Wednesday i brought two radio shack walkie talkies in to class so that our group could take them apart and look at the circuitry. We got them apart and took some pictures(Pictures can be seen below). Next we used two of the power supplies to attempt to get them to communicate with one another. We got one working and was hearing feed back from it. However while i was hooking up the other walkie talkie i put to much current through it and ended up blowing a capacitor in it. Our work ended with that.



Carafest


 * CaraFest was a great experience. It was held at the Howard county fair grounds by the Columbia HAM club. My team mate set this event in motion for us and got in contact with Dave Prestal (VP of columbiaARA(Cara)). We ended up going to the fairgrounds on Friday and Saturday to help setup. Friday we laid out a grid in the parking lot for HAM users to come and tailgate. After we finished, Dave came over and talked to us for a few. He was very helpful. He gave us a run down of what CARA does and how it uses HAM around Maryland. I learned that HAM is the back up emergency system if the state emergency system goes down for any reason. They have multiple repeater sites in the area. Dave mentioned the possibility of getting a tour of one of these sites sometime. He also told us about the different levels of HAM certifications. Dave has been a great help, he plans to donate some old equipment and study materials for individuals to study up for the HAM test. Felix and i ended with inviting him to come and talk to the engineering club one wednesday.


 * On Sunday i went up to the fairgrounds to see what carafest offered. I got there and meet up with Dave and he pushed me off to go take the test. I took the test but failed. The test consisted of 35 multiple choice questions. The questions were based on FCC regulations and rules, circuitry and theory of radio systems. I plan to study some and retake the test later this month. After the test i went around the grounds and saw what was going on. Come to find out that most of carafest were people coming and selling equipment, circuit components, routers and other misc things. There weren't any active systems there which was a little disappointing. Overall it was a great learning experience.

Assign Task3

 * Finish work on Foxhole radio
 * Attempt to get Foxhole radio working
 * Work with group to setup time for Dave Prestal to come in to talk to the engineering club
 * Get equipment and HAM study material from Dave(W/Th)
 * Upload Ham documents and put guide together on wiki
 * Study for HAM test (Test 10/15/11)

Compare actual work done to Task3

 * Finished Foxhole Radio(FHR)
 * Collected prices and locations of parts
 * Did some trail runs with FHR
 * Got HAM equipment from Dave on Sunday
 * Looked over HAM material to get a general idea of material

Week3 Narrative
This week in class we did another presentation. My team mates went over the goals we plan to get done in the upcoming weeks such as building a transceiver and some of the issues we are having with moving forward on this idea. I discussed the work that I have been doing on the foxhole radio. I pulled up the picture of my 50 percent complete foxhole radio and discussed what each component of the radio was.

Foxhole Radio

This weekend I worked on my foxhole radio some more. I finished hooking up the rest of the parts to what I had done in the previous week. Here are two pictures of the finished FHR:. As you can see I added the speaker and antenna to the circuit. I ran a wire off the side so that I could hook it up to a ground of choice. Once it was all setup I hooked the ground up to my copper pipes in my basement and ran the antenna out my basement window. Then I moved the pencil over the razor blade to try and get a radio reception. However my radio failed to pick up anything. This week (week4) I plan on trying some of the troubleshooting ideas and mods that other people have done to get theirs working (FHR sites doc week 3). Some of the ideas include;


 * Heating the razor blade up using a touch. This is known as bluing which in the industry is a way to protect from rust. It also oxides the blade which helps with picking up a radio signal
 * Adding a battery/power source to the circuit to increase the volume

Price and locations of parts for FHR
 * Inductor coil – Set of 3, Magnet wire 22g, 24g and 30g wire
 * Price: $7.39
 * Location: Radio Shack
 * Antenna – I used some old 25 foot Ethernet cable
 * Price: $18.57
 * Location: Radio Shack
 * Push pins (100 count)
 * Price: $6.49
 * Location: Wal-Mart
 * Paper Clips (100 count)
 * Price: $8.49
 * Location: Wal-Mart
 * Razor blades (10 count)
 * Price: $15.48
 * Location: Wal-Mart
 * 2 Pencils (12 count)
 * Price: $5.47
 * Location: Wal-Mart
 * Speaker/ Ear piece- this was a tough one to find. All searches for small speakers came up with shelf systems and car speakers. Need to find a component speaker

HAM with Dave Prestal

This past Sunday I finally got over to Dave’s house to pick up some equipment that he is donating to us to work with. He gave us a bunch of boxes with a random assortment of things. Some things he donated were a temperature controlled solder, random cables for radio equipment and some kits and components used in radios. There is a lot more in those boxes that I plan to go through with my team this week.

Also he gave us the following study materials and some power point presentations to help with studying for the HAM technician test. The power point presentations start off with a review of material and then have test questions on the material. The following are the documents:



Last thing I did this week was talk to Dave about coming in and speaking to the engineering club. He also is in contact with one of the engineers that worked on the mercury probe mission and we plan to work out a time that he can come in and speak too.

Assign Task4

 * Work on troubleshooting FHR to get it working. Try the mods that have been suggested from other FHR websites.
 * Go through equipment that Dave donated with the team
 * Start working on putting a transceiver together using some of the schematics that Rhea found online
 * Finish up project team page

Compare actual work done to Task4

 * Failed to get time to work on Foxhole radio. Will make a task for week 1 of new project term
 * Brought equipment in to school. Went through a little of the stuff with team mates
 * Finished project done page

Week4 Narrative
This week was light compared to past weeks work. During class on Wednesday the 12th, I brought the donated equipment from Dave Prestal to school. I got the group to help carry in the boxes. We went through some of the boxes and plan to go through and organize the equipment in the upcoming weeks. I also emailed Dave again to update him of the changes to the speaker times and to get him to comment to come in and speak to the class/Eng. Club.

The majority of the time went to finishing off the team done page. I worked on creating the poster which can be seen to the right: I used auto cad to create the HAM symbol image. This was a simple task. Next I worked on creating the Foxhole radio tutorial. Below are the written documents and schematics i created and some external references to help future HAM projects. These will also be posted on the team done pape with external links so that in the event my personal page gets deleted it will still be documented. Foxhole radio Tutorial document links:
 * Manual to construct a Foxhole Radio

Also I copied the links of the Technician study guides to the tutorial list.

Unfortunately I didn't have any time to work on my Foxhole radio this week. I plan to get it working in the next few weeks. I need to find a good ground.

Start Next Project Week0 activities
Continue with HAM project