This blog exists primarily to help me keep track of my HF transceiver project. I'm rarely capable of taking notes for my own edification, so the lurking fear that an audience might see my crummy notes will help me keep them in order. I've also found that the free internet lacks much clear information on engineering-related topics, especially compared to pure physics-related topics, and I'd like to help fix that. I get the impression that much lies behind the various paywalls, but I'm not willing to shell out the cash to find out. With any luck, I'll finish my project successfully and someone else will benefit from my notes.
I'm building a HF transceiver for my Summits on the Air outings. I've been playing mountaineer in Colorado for a couple years, and started bringing my 2m HT along for SOTA in January 2012. On that first outing, I rediscovered the limitations of VHF propagation, and I've been looking for ways to get some HF capability without breaking my back under the weight of a cheap radio or emptying my bank account on more features than I need. I'm also a bit of a Mennonite at times, so I find the price of new radios appalling. Also, I see home brewing as an essential part of the amateur experience, though I have precisely zero (as of November 2012) working home-brewed radios of any kind. Maybe the content of this blog will de-hypocritize me.
I suspect that because mountaineering essentially gave birth to this iteration of my radio hobby, lots of mountaineering and climbing stuff will wind up on this blog. I hope it's enjoyable. Much like with radio stuff, I'm irritated at the cost of outdoor equipment, and I'm slowly turning into a grouchy weirdo who sleeps in makeshift shelters instead of "proper" tents.
On that note, I've read these books and use this software:
The Art of Electronics by Horowitz & Hill
Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills by The Mountaineers
QUCS for circuit simulation
LibreCAD for drawings
gEDA for circuit board layouts
More to follow.
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