Broadcast - 2 March 2025
Nic VK7WW unable to attend the Wednesday Club Room Technical Night, because he was hosting the on air TestNet and TechNet session dropped through during Friday morning tea to show us his latest acquisition. Nic did post pictures on Discord during his Net Night of his new multi band radio receiver with digital and analogue display, but they didn’t do it justice. It looked small in the pictures, but in the flesh it really was small. When I say small I mean it came in a 73 by 32 by 12mm 3D printed case. It sported a colour display just under 50mm diagonal with a 170 by 320 pixel resolution which was crisp and easy to read.
As far as the radio side went it has multiple bands covering long wave, medium wave and shortwave to nearly 30MHz plus a 66 to 108 MHz FM band. There is nothing above 108 MHz so that means no aircraft to tower chatter. The internal speaker is only 15 by 11 mm but gives a surprising good account of itself in sound reproduction. With the built-in 800mAh battery you have about 10 hours or run time. Recharging is via the USB C socket. Standard operating modes of AM and FM are normal but the inclusion of USB and LSB reception modes is the icing on the cake. The inclusion of a BFO to tune any slightly off frequency signals worked very well for SSB reception.
Even though the SI-4732 “Radio on a chip” has been around for over ten years in different variations this would be the smallest useful version I have seen. It certainly is good value when you consider it is in the sub $50 price bracket. Just search for Pocket Mini Radio or Amazing Small Radio on the internet.
The radio chip is combined with an ESP-32-S3 microcontroller to handle all the radio chip interfacing as well as displaying the frequency and menus. The screen is not touch sensitive so menu options are selected by a rotary control knob to scroll through the options and a momentary push to select. This setup works well and is pretty intuitive. A telescopic antenna mounted on a SMA plug comes as standard, Nic also purchased the optional printed circuit board loop antenna.
Nic has been testing it out around the HF bands listening to a few amateur nets and gives it a glowing report.
This one has a black case but for those of us that can remember the ABC program “The Inventors” back in 1970’s ……. yes it does come in different colours, Hi Hi
While we are speaking of old things, Idris VK7ZIR…. no not him, but what he brought in to morning tea.
He had a circa 1960’s Sierra 164B Radio Frequency power meter to show anyone interested.
This refugee from a car boot sale came in a substantial carry case and was obviously well travelled. The case itself was in good condition apart from a broken and much repaired leather and cable tie carry handle, with rusty ends. Easily replaced. Once on the table, it was noticed why the case would not shut properly, it was because the meter still had a slug plugged in.
Much interest was gathering by now, and a “brains trust” was soon at work figuring how to remove the slug. Not being the same as a good old Bird 43 where the slug came out easily, those with higher experience showed that one had to release the meter housing from the base of the instrument by way of clips, then unplug the meter connection from the slug, and then lift the slug upwards, released by yet another clip. Quite a process!
There was however, method in the madness, as the slug had an inbuilt mechanism so that by operating a knob on the top of the slug, the power level scaling on the meter could be changed by lowering or raising a pick-up on the slug thus varying the attenuation to the meter.
If you had the full complement of ten plug-in slugs or modules you can conduct “Test and Measurements” within the frequency range from 2 to 1,000 MHz and power from 100 mW to 5 kW!
With a little TLC to the case and a new handle, it would be quite presentable and a useful instrument. Thanks Idris.
As always pictures will be available on the NTARC Web site under “Blogs” for this broadcast. NTARC Blogs
UPCOMING EVENTS
TestNet and TechNet session - Every Wednesday, TestNet/CW course on 3.580MHz from 7 pm, then a TechNet on 3.567MHz from 7.30 pm till 8.30 pm. Your host for the evening is Nic VK7WW.
Club Room Technical night session - The next session will be this Wednesday the 5th March, at the usual time of 6.30 pm at the Club Room Archer Street, Rocherlea.
Coffee Morning - held every Friday in the NTARC Club rooms. Time is from 10 am to noon and we look forward to seeing you all there. So why not pop in check the QSL cards and join us for a cuppa, there is endless tea and coffee along with biscuits available for a donation.
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 5 pm on the Friday prior to the Broadcast.
That’s all folks,
73, Stefan VK7ZSB, Secretary NTARC Inc.
