Ham radio, electronics and educational short presentations from the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio University annual “Nerdfest.”
February 12, 2022, NERDFEST
KPC3+ Power Chip Replacement Presentation Video
Winlink in a Box Presentation Video
KeyCad PCB Design Presentation Presentation with Notes Video
DDF7001 Presentation Video
Missing Ground Plane Presentation Video
SDR Tricks Presentation Video
Samlex Powerpole Mod Presentation Video
January 8, 2022 Motorola & Kenwood DMR Prog Presentation Handout Examples Video
December 10, 2021 Chinese DMR Prog Workshop Presentation Handout Video
November 13, 2021 RouterOS 101 Presentation Worksheet Video
October 20, 2021 CHIRP radio programming Presentation Video
October 9, 2021 Overall Video
Presentation 1: VHF DX Doug Sharp
Presentation 2: VHF DX Wayne Heinen
April 10, 2021 – Mountaintop Applications for Raspberry Pi – Presentation – Video
March 24, 2021 – PiStar from the Ground Up – Video
March 13, 2021 – Lightning Protection – Presentation
February 23, 2021 – Winlink RMS vs P2P – Presentation – Video
February 13, 2021 – Nerdfest:
- CPING – Concurrent Ping – Presentation – Video – Program
- Open Broadcaster Software – Presentation – Video
- Forester Logging Application – Presentation – Video
- Revisiting Slot Antennas – Presentation – Video
- Care and Feeding of a 501(c)(3) – Presentation – Video
- The Day RTCMs Took Us Back In Time – Presentation – Video
- QMesh: A long range, low cost wireless mesh network for digital voice communications – Presentation – Video
January 20, 2021 – CHIRP Programming – Presentation
January 9, 2021 – All About Batteries – Presentation – Video
December 29, 2020 – All About TM-D710 – Presentation – Video
December 12, 2020 – Test and Measurement – Presentation – Extra Material – RMHAM U Video
November 14, 2020 – IP Networking and Routing – Presentation – RMHAM-U Video
October 10, 2020 – RMHAM DMR BASICS – Presentation – RMHAM-U Video
April 18, 2020 – RMHAM DMR Repeater Network Overview – RMHAM-U Video
April 2020 – Mountain Top Raspberry Pi Applications (CANCELLED)
March 2020 – RF Coverage Planning (CANCELLED)
January 2020 – Antennas – K2AD & January 2020 – Transmission Lines – AE5IT
December 2019 – Space Weather
November 2019 – Working Satellites
October 2019 – Advanced DMR for Amateur Radio
July 2019 – DMR Basics Webminar – RMHAM-U Video
April 2019 – Linking Repeaters
March 2019 – Building your PODCOM – RMHAM-U Video
January 2019 – Building Repeaters 102
December 2018 – Practical Amateur Radio Measurements
November 2018 – Ad Hoc IP Networks
October 2018 – DMR Systems and Uses
April 2018 – Locating Interference
March 2018 – RF Applications for the Raspberry Pi
February 2018 – Home Brew and Kit-building Expo
December 2017 – Every Antenna is a Multi-band Antenna
November 18, 2017 – Getting a Handle on RF Noise and Interference An Introduction to Radio Frequency Interference
November 18, 2017 – Getting a Handle on RF Noise and Interference Finding and Fixing RFI to Your Station Includes Grow Lights & Century Link Modems
October 21, 2017 – DMR in Ham Radio
April 15, 2017 – Easy SDR Experimentation with GNU Radio
March 18, 2017 – Impedance, Reflections and Transformation
February 18, 2017 – SCOM CONTROLLER TRAINING
December 17, 2016 – Microwave Data Transmission
November 19, 2016 – DMR – Linking, Programming, Best Practices Overview
October 15, 2016 – Raspberry Pi and Ham Radio Applications
April 2, 2016 – High Speed Data Transmission – ERP Calculation Spreadsheet (EXCEL)
February 27, 2016 – Basic IP school, Intro to Subnetting
Dec 5, 2015 – New Mexico IP School Presentation
August 20, 2015 – Allstar User Presentation
March 21, 2015 – Cables, Batteries, Grounding and Antennas
February 28, 2015 – Motorola Programming | CS700 Programming
January 10, 2015 – Auxcomm Colorado Addendum, (1) Intro to Public Safety Comms, (2) Intro to Public Safety Comms, (3) Intro to Public Safety Comms, 2014 National Emergency Communications Plan_October 29 2014, voice_radio_communications_guide_for_the_fire_service
January 10, 2015 – ARES Antennas, Modes and Communications Tools Presentation
December 13, 2014 – Allstar Linking class Presentation
November 2014 – RM Ham University – Repeater 201 System Optimization, Interference Mitigation, Filtering
March 2014 – Rocky Mountain Ham University Digital Repeaters
February 2014 – Rocky Mountain Ham University Analog Repeater Controller TrainingUpdated with changes from class!
December 2013 – RM Ham DMR Network_Basics
S-Com Controllers
Back when the first S-COM controllers were designed, laying out circuit boards was done using manual techniques. In the 80’s, schematics were drawn on paper using stencils and mechanical pencils. Circuit boards were laid out on clear mylar sheet film with special tape of various widths. You can imagine that that can take a while.
As computers became more powerful and capable, graphics tools were developed to generate the information that the circuit board fabricators required to manufacture quality boards. But the tools became very expensive for small companies and individuals to own.
During this time, open source software became popular. KiCad, an open source tool suite for circuit board design, first released in 1992, has just released its sixth major version. I’ve developed some small test boards and 7330 accessories using KiCad. Now I’m ready to tackle the larger, more complex boards we need for a shipping controller.
I was recently asked to come up with a short presentation for a local club’s annual “Nerdfest”. The annual “Nerdfest” is a collection of short presentations on what members have been working on. See the full list of this year’s topics at the following link, including the streamed video of the event:
https://www.rmham.org/course-syllabus/
For my presentation, I created a slideset titled KiCad Quickstart. This slideset introduces the tools of KiCad and walks thru the steps to implement a simple example project. With these slides, you should be able to complete the project and have manufactured your first circuit board. You too can order 5 boards and have them on your doorstep in a week for less than $5 a board.
My slideset is available here:
http://www.scomcontrollers.com/downloads/jhk-labs/KiCadQuickStart_220212.pdf
And here’s a version with Speaker Notes that can help with implementing the example project:
http://www.scomcontrollers.com/downloads/jhk-labs/KiCadQuickStart_Notes_220212.pdf
And here’s the video:
Let me know if you have questions.
Stay tuned for more as I make progress here at JHK Labs…
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http://www.scomcontrollers.com/DavesBlog
This educational series is brought to you by Lakes Region Repeater Association