Broadcast - 24 March 2024
While I have your attention I have a reminder…… There will be no Coffee Morning this coming Friday the 29th of March at the NTARC club rooms, this is due to the Easter break.
Now that’s out of the way, there are two carry over items from the recent Wednesday evening club technical night. It is actually a combination of two items from different time periods, about forty years apart. Firstly, the not really old but quite heavy and secondly its newer lighter equivalent. I will let Idris VK7ZIR explain the rationale behind the arrival of a parcel at his front door a couple of days ago and the displaying of both items of equipment on the club table recently.
Over to Idris: “The time had come for me to look around for a better RF signal generator, as my current instrument could not reach the higher frequency bands I was interested in. The Rohde and Schwartz SMS 302.4012.25 had served me well, built in the 1980’s but had too many limitations, a major one being size and weight. At 12 Kg it was a lump to carry around. The infrastructure consisted of a large number of plug in cards, which had needed the connectors cleaning and reseating on occasions when strange effects started happening. So after much research into what was available at the time, with the features I wanted, and what it was going to cost, I settled on a RIGOL DSG821 RF signal generator with an upper limit of 2.1 GHz, and most of the features I wanted. A much smaller form factor and only 4 Kg meant less bench space and much lighter weight. With a large LCD display and easy menus, it was a joy to use, and the signal stability was superb. But the thing that struck me the most was the giant strides that test equipment had made in ergonomics, construction and accuracy since the era of my previous instrument. Watching a video subjecting one of these instruments to a “tear-down” with critical inspection, further influenced my choice. The construction of the completely sealed RF deck with surface mount devices was a wonder to behold! Such was my satisfaction with my purchase, and the aforementioned amazing advances in the technology, inspired me to put fingers to keyboard. I can only recommend the current crop of compact instruments of similar quality for Amateur Radio purposes. The old R & S has been retired to lighter duties in the Club workshop.”
Thank you Idris, hopefully once you get a chance to familiarise yourself fully with your newest purchase you will bring it back in for a more comprehensive demonstration of its capabilities. This new crop of equipment certainly has a “smaller footprint” on the workbench while increasing the overall performance and functionality. It is indeed a very capable instrument.
Over the years some of us have been fortunate enough to work with this Rohde and Schwartz SMS 302 signal generator plus equipment of similar high calibre, but it was a bit of a shock lifting one again. It was much heavier than I remembered or maybe I am not as strong as back in the eighties! HiHi
I believe the club’s electronics work shop is lucky enough to be the benefactor of Idris’s retiring Rohde and Schwartz. Retired maybe, but still fully functional and needed, thank you Idris.
As always, pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast.
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet session - Every Wednesday, TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7pm till 7.30pm…. and a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30pm till about 8.30pm. Your host for the evening will be Nic VK7WW.
No Coffee Morning - the NTARC Club rooms will be closed this coming Friday.
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be on Wednesday the 27th of March and will commence at the usual time of 6.30 pm, running through to about 10 pm, at the Club room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Club General Meeting - Saturday 13th. of April at 2.00pm. Held at the NTARC Club Room, Rocherlea Scout Hall, Archer Street, Rocherlea. If you have items you would like added to the agenda please email the secretary at: secretary@ntarc.net no later than Friday the 12th of April.
Finally - A reminder to all members that if you have any items of news you would like added to our weekly roundup, no matter how trivial, then please email them to the Secretary at the following address news@ntarc.net all items to be received no later than 5pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73, Stefan VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
