While my intent is for this to be a forum for discussing QEX articles, I hope that more will come of it. So I thought I'd make a post about my personal major interest.
An almost 40 year obsession of mine dating from when I started work in the oil industry and first learned DSP is the idea of creating a reliable communication system capable of achieving antipodal range at mW ERP.
FT8 provides similar real time capability, but requires higher power levels to keep the QSO time tractable. My goal is reliable asynchronous transmission of ~ 2 kB text in 24 hours to another station at <100 mW ERP. Email by ham radio. There are a slew of ways to implement the concept.
At the moment I am trying to master basic RF amplifier and oscillator design, so it will be a while before I get back into familiar territory doing DSP. My present goal is to be able to take a small signal transistor and based on either the data sheet or if needed measurements consistently design a circuit that does precisely what I want it to do.
I *think* I've finally deciphered Chris Boswick's and Thomas Lee's books and know how but have not yet built an amplifier to test my calculations against a VNA.
I should note that I am severely ADD and am prone to wander off and do something completely different such as play jazz guitar for weeks or months or do precision metal work. No matter what I do, I feel guilty about all the things I'm not doing. A few too many interests.
Have Fun!
Reg
