Amateur radio projects

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This page is intended to be a pool from which future ARCatUCF activities can be selected. Some of these are also appropriate for individuals as well. If any of these projects interest you, please bring it up at the next club meeting!!! If you think of any additional radio projects, feel free to add them to this list!

Bold items have already been completed by the club, but could be repeated, as not all club members were involved.

Activities[edit]

Personal starter projects[edit]

These are projects intended for an individual to complete and take the result home. Some of these are completed designs for which we have parts and can build at any meeting. IF you want to build one of these, please notify us ahead of time (in discord or in previous meeting) so we can make sure we have enough parts for everyone who wants to build one.

See also Easy antenna projects

build time have parts description
30m - 2h yes 900 mhz solid wire J-pole antenna
30m - 2h yes 70cm (440mhz) solid wire J-pole antenna
2-3h on order 2m tape measure yagi antenna
30m-1h maybe 2m or 70cm moxon antenna
30m - 2h maybe 2m roll up wire j-pole antenna
40h? no SolderSmoke Direct Conversion Receiver Challenge

ARCatUCF project designs and meeting activities[edit]

  • 14mhz band pass filter

Research:

  • HF broadside helical for 20m
  • HF double bazooka 20m antenna

In development:

See also Category:ARC projects

Proposed basic projects:

  • ~$5 2m receiver
  • practice code key (physical key plus 555 based or cpu based)

Proposed advanced projects:

  • HF power amplifier (see QST contest!)
  • grid dip meter (cheap at hamfest?)
  • small tuned loop for 2m
  • ATV transmitter

Proposed field trips

  • National Weather Service office (Melbourne) during Melbourne hamfest
  • tour of a county emergency operations center
  • tour of an airport traffic control tower
  • tour of a commercial radio station
  • UCF/KSC satellite ground station

Proposed guest speakers / topics

  • UCF frequency coordinator
  • AMSAT (amateur satellite)
  • National Weather Service Skywarn training (UCF sponsored talk)
  • microwave and weak signal
  • EZnec antenna modeling

Current active projects[edit]

These are projects for which we have partial materials and/or designs.

See also ARC active projects

Active[edit]

This list is mostly up to date as of July 2025. All of these are active! All of these projects are looking for team members and some need project leads too!

stage:

0 thought experiment
1 brainstorming
2 partial designs started
3 prototyping
4 usable prototype complete
5 prototype tested
6 production version in construction
7 production version ready
8 in production, polishing, tweaking features
9 production version installed / complete
NA continuing activity, not a completable project

Marked * have had activity in the last week, either at meetings or in discord.

stage Project type status project leader
4* Remote SDR software design, need antennas Steve
3* Portable Rotor software dev, hardware designing Travis/Julie
9 POTA Cart carpentry polishing Jessi/Travis
5* free standing portable HF vertical Antenna build prototype tested Ryan (NY2O)
2* Ham exam study, build new curriculum for college students document weekly Corenna
0 Winlink and APRS Project hardware, software research
NA Guest speakers organize who when! Corenna
0 Repeater controller hardware, software design, research Unassigned
0,4,8,9 Meshtastic projects hardware, software dev (multiple)
3* Pi receiver projects software (multiple)
0,1 WX detect/alert projects software dev, hardware (multiple)
8* WX Discord bot Software dev Polishing Skye2
0,1,9 discord/meshtastic bots software dev (multiple)
9 WX midland / meshtastic trigger hardware complete/testing Skye1, Travis
0 WSPR hardware / software exploring options Travis
0,4 Fox hunt beacon hardware
0 5ft Sat Dish rotor Mechanical have some parts unassigned
NA tower maintenance organize planning Travis
2* ATV transmitter Electrical reverse engineering

Details of active projects[edit]

Remote SDR and SDR software
Provision one or more raspberry pis (and desktops) with software and one or more SDRs (one SDR per antenna)
discone: multiplex between general VHF receive, NWS weather, ADS-B, etc., or dedicate antenna+sdr to some
HF loop? : multiplex between general HF receive, WSPR, weather fax, etc.
Rotor Antennas and related projects
build a small Az/El rotor suitable for aiming a handheld yagi with full computer control
Portable Rotor and Ground station
POTA Cart
build a cart to carry the bin containing all radio equipment for POTA activation
This project is mostly done, just finishing touches needed.
fix wheels, attach with better screws
fancy paint job
Add eye hooks for bungee and other stabilizers for piled pieces
Ham exam study
pick vocab and a few questions to cover at each meeting to help pass the exams!
free standing portable HF vertical
design and build an HF vertical antenna suitable (small, lightweight) for POTA use
Winlink and APRS Project
Find or buy hardware and set up one or more packet radio stations capable of winlink and APRS protocols
Guest speakers
Pick guest speakers as a club, then coordinate parking (Steve) and timing, guest accomodations (Corenna)
Lou, Stan, Travis (eznec)
Repeater controller
(replace this project with off the shelf parts?)
replace the repeater controller with something programmable that can handle echolink
suggest something Pi based
multiple sub projects are possible once this is done
Meshtastic projects
Personal nodes (shopping)
select new personal nodes and fund a group purchase
MQTT local gateway (software)
serve as a hub for multiple software projects instead of one radio per project
Bot discord gateway (software dev)
bidirectionally gateway between a (rate limited) discord chan and a meshtastic chan
WX alerts (software dev)
improve the meshing around WX alerts
RF WX digital SAME receive (hardware/software dev)
directly receive NWS digital SAME alerts and gateway to discord/meshtastic
shack alert! (hardware,software dev)
connect an arduino or similar to neopixels and/or strobes and send commands via shack computer and meshtastic
WX projects
RF WX receive (above)
Lights and sirens in the shack (software dev + hardware)
Midland meshtastic: connect midland relay output to meshtastic GPIO pin and configure it
possible weather station
Fox hunt beacon (hardware, software dev)
similar hardware to https://github.com/eleccoder/raspi-pico-aprs-tnc
WSPR
Receiver / reverse beacon network
transmitter / permanent antenna? (which bands?)
5ft Sat Dish rotor
possible MAE senior design project
mechanical rotor to support dish, wind load, etc.
Tower mantenance
get guy wires professionally inspected
replace damaged antennas
add antennas on tower and other locations
ATV transmitter
Reverse engineer and/or fix the ATV transmitter we have and possibly build a new one

Proposed and inactive projects[edit]

Proposed[edit]

Inactive[edit]

(designs and/or parts partially available)

  • pypanadapter -- python panadapter that uses an RTL-SDR and the IF of any radio, links with hamlib(?) / contact Steve if you want to work on this
  • Design new QSL card and activate online bureaus, etc.
  • (funded research) cheap high bandwidth digital telemetry radio modem for satellite and ground station
  • repeater controller design (switch to raspberry pi?)
  • portable field station demo
  • field day prep projects
    • construct psk31 cables for ts2000(tested?) and ic706(partial/donated)
    • test and write up instructions for serial / digital for fldigi and all radios and cables

Other project pages[edit]

External kit pages[edit]

Misc. projects[edit]

  • Pneumatic Antenna Launching Systems
  • Radio to Bluetooth Interface, QST Feb 2007
  • Lightning Protection fo rthe Amateur Radio Station (QST June/July/Aug 2002)
  • PIC projects (TAPR has many)
  • The St Louis Switcher (QST May 2002 p35) turn a computer power supply into a radio power supply
  • Mirophone adapter for the IC-706 (QST May 2002 p39) includes sound card interface
  • A Quality Sound Card Interface for ICOM Rigs (QST March 2002)
  • An Accurate dip Meter Using the MFJ-249 SWR Analyzer (QST Nov 1993)
  • Indestructible Co-ax Attenuator
  • Salt Water Dummy Load

Tools[edit]

  • Field Strength Meter
  • nanovna tools
    • jig for capacitors, inductors
    • jig for measuring dielectric, ESR of raw plates

WiFi projects[edit]

Internet remote base projects[edit]

These would allow the club to install an HF radio on a remote tower, and allow control from the shack (or anywhere else) without unreasonable expense.

  • good overview article, QST November 2002, pg 39
  • Remote control of the Amateur Station, QST April 2007 pg 28

Components of a remote base would be:

  • hardware
    • remote controllable radio such as the TS2000, IC756, and others
    • remote antenna switch
    • remote antenna rotor
  • control systems and protocols (assuming ethernet rather than radio link)
    • encrypted authentication
    • voice over IP
    • remote serial ports for above hardware

A few of the control ideas are similar to a repeater controller.

Repeater projects[edit]

The club repeater could use some enhancement.

  • Voice over IP and remote control / remote link setup (for repeater or HF)
  • weather station linkup for repeater
  • voice synth and/or DVR for repeater
  • build a repeater controller from scratch using an embedded system

ARES/RACES related projects[edit]

  • form jump team, build kits
  • put emergency antennas on all shelters (Arrow J-pole recommended)
  • practice events, emergency power testing, etc.


Antenna projects[edit]

More antenna links

  • Portable transmission line J-pole
  • Copper loop (plumber's delight) for 2 meters (QST December 2002, pg 46)
  • Fox hunt antennas
    • Tape measure yagi
    • small loop
    • stepped attenuator
  • Portable antenna tripod and ground plane
  • 2.4ghz high gain antennas
  • full wave 2m loop
  • discone antenna
  • Moxon directional antenna
  • Texas potato masher single rotor LEO tracking antenna (donated to club June 2005 tailgate)
  • Maximum gain portable HF yagi QST sept 2007 pg 34
  • Baloon-Lift Loop Antenna (for field day) QST July 2007
Arrow J-poles
Arrow dual band J-pole (10 gets a price break)
Arrow Foxhunt antenna
foxhunt VHF loop. Very pretty, but price is a bit high especially for a receive only antenna. (Perhaps we should try to build some?)

Satellite projects[edit]

  • dish mounting bracket
  • dish rotor control system
  • automated satellite and rocket tracking software

Weather station[edit]

lightning detectors and mapping[edit]

Embedded systems[edit]

Project sources[edit]

Retrieved from "http://newton.i2lab.ucf.edu/w/index.php?title=Amateur_radio_projects&oldid=19273"