yophotoman's diy projects

According to the NATO standard phonetics, my amateur radio call sign, KN4RBO, is:
"Kilo Nobember Four Romeo Bravo Oscar" I acquired this license in December of 2018, the "Technian" level or introductory, most radio guys first license.

Radio Amateurs (aka HAMS) have a long and rich history of pushing the boundries of communication using radio, often by building their own power supplies, radio recievers, transmitters and antennas and/or coverting commercial or military radios for amateur use. These days of miniaturization and robotic manufacturing, building your own is mostly relegated to antennas. However, how amateurs assemble devices into a radio station is unique to each licensee.

Today, modern radio amateurs explore global signal propgation with GEO location mapping websites, bounce signals off the moon, asteroids and even the aura boralis. They even communicate with their own satellites and the International Space Station (ISS). Amateurs are connecting through the Internet with transceivers linked in networks to allow what used to be local contacts to extend across the globe. The nature of communications has so drastically changed that the FCC broke with a century of tradition and dropped the Morse Code requirement for amateur licensing in 2007!

Way back, when I was a teenager, radio amateurs often used military surplus radios or parts from them to assemble ham stations such as this BC-348 reciever pictured (left image), I still own it & it works. These days, not only is equipment miniaturized but their abilities are enhanced beyond anything we would have thought of in the 50's or 60's and cannot hand build in a garage. Today, an amateur radio station often includes integrating a computer into the setup.

As a teenager, I did a bit of DIY radio by assembling a Heath Kit AR-3 general coverage reciever (right image). It was a tube radio and you had to solder point to point every connection (no printed circut board) following an instruction manual. It worked first time, no mistakes. Dad was shocked. Youtube Video About the AR-3: Click Here

Old vs New Ham Shack

← From this

   To This →

The amateur radio license, KN4RBO, graduated up to the next license level, "General" in Febuary of 2020... yeah, just before the lock downs. Since then, I've been listening to the high freqency bands (HF) and building wire antennas for those frequencies. See Page 7 Eventually, I acquired a HF transceiver, see Page 10. Just for fun, link --> online radio station mapping