2018 Albuquerque Duke City Hamfest/ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention

I trace the development of ham-radio technology from the beginnings with Marconi in 1894 through the present day.  I periodically visit the gear used by a personal friend, Bob Higgy, W8IB, from his spark transmitter in 1912 at age 11 to his last transceiver, a Ten Tec Century 21 in 1977.  I will show gear from 1929, the 1930’s and perhaps an operating, early SSB station from the 1950s. 

Larry will introduce you to the universe of low cost, yet highly serviceable test equipment for amateur radio applications.  You'll hear about the manufacturers of new equipment at reasonable prices, sources for used equipment, and what to watch out for in that marketplace. Finally, you'll hear about DIY test equipment construction projects that range from simple attenuators to RF power meters, signal generators and antenna analyzers.  This part of the Test Gear Trilogy will conclude with a quick look at a credit-card sized, digital, multi-function, FPGA-based device that can replicate seven different test and measurement devices and cover a frequency range out to 60 MHz. It can even function as a Software Defined Radio (SDR).

For the finale, Brent will zoom in on three competing software-defined test systems systems. Each costs less than $500 and can replace several pieces of expensive test equipment.  Devices discussed will be the Arduino family, the Red Pitaya (now STEMlab), and the Analog Discovery 2.

All in an environment where you are welcome to bring your lunch in and learn!