General – VE3OIJ Amateur Radio

VE3OIJ

2018-04-16

The ice storm cometh…

The mid-spring ice storm has taken its toll… my long-standing Butternut HF9V is no more.

Fortunately, I have some spare antennas (Buddipole, and some wire antenna if need be), but I shall replace this antenna. I was happy with the HF9V for almost 10 years.

[edit]

Looking at it today, it appears the 15m bit is broken, but that’s only a wire, so fixing that is trivial. The bend on the pole there is actually in the counterpoise kit, which is much cheaper to replace than the entire cost of the antenna, though still $400. Ugh.

VE3OIJ

2016-03-17

Google thinks deleting is suspicious. – The Squid Zone

General, Security, Technology

Sunday night I was up late. I wasn’t sleeping and decided to log into GMail to do some clean-up. This is a regular task for me – I go in, empty the bin, delete old mails, sort the inbox into categories, etc. I’ve been doing this for years, usually from the same computer at home […]

Source: Google thinks deleting is suspicious. – The Squid Zone

VE3OIJ

2016-01-16

Force Apache to use strong cryptography – The Squid Zone

General, Security, Technology

How to modify Apache’s ssl.conf to require TLS 1.2 and strong cryptography.

Source: Force Apache to use strong cryptography – The Squid Zone

VE3OIJ

2016-01-08

4 bit computer built from discrete transistors

Equipment, General, Technology

I started this project as an attempt to teach myself about how computers worked. As such comments, useful links, or anything else related would be appreciated. Prior to this my experience in electronics was mostly microcontroller based. The computer is perpetually half done (it could be more it could be less, I only design the logic for the chunk I’m working on) but currently consists of about 300 transistors. I’m pretty sure that the computer follows ‘Harvard architecture’ (corrections welcome) as the RAM and ROM are strictly segregated. 4 bit is used loosely data width is 4 bits but instruction width is 8 bits as some instructions include 4 bit values. some stats: RAM: 16 nybbles (dictated by address register width) ROM: 16 bytes (dictated by program counter width) clock speed: more than one (the computer is currently not clocked as much of the sequential logic has yet to be built)

Source: 4 bit computer built from discrete transistors

VE3OIJ

2015-06-29

ARRL Field Day 2015

Clubs, Digital Modes, DX, General, Operating, Technology, Voice Modes

It’s the end of June and that means ARRL Field Day 2015. Squidette (VA3CEW) and I deployed to the Outlet Beach (FN13jv, right beside Sandbanks Provincial Park) to operate a Field Day station as VE3EEE.

Equipment

We went out with the standard VE3EEE portable pack:

Honda EU2000i generator
Quad core i7 laptop
Yaesu FT-847
Begali paddles
RigExpert Plus TNC
LDG automatic tuner
Hy-Gain DP-19D dipole (set for 20m)
Buddipole (set for 15 or 40 depending on the time of day)

WX

Cold and miserable with drizzle for basically the entire time. That was not fun at all. Nevertheless, we did have shelter, so it wasn’t the end of the world.

Solar WX

There were geomagnetic storms earlier in the week, but they had pretty much abated. K-index bounced between 1 and 3. 15m down to 80m seemed to be open. I listened on 10 and didn’t hear anything, so I didn’t bother with 6m.

Results

We made 72 contacts between 40m, 20m, and 15m, almost all digital although we threw in a few CW and Phone contacts just for good measure.

Social

We also took the time to drive across the county to visit the Quinte ARC Field Day site in Ameliasburg. It was rainy and miserable there too, but they had a great setup with 4 radios going!