14 May 2014

Optical article in June RadCom

June's RSGB RadCom carries my article, "Over the Horizon at 481THz" describing my non line-of-sight optical experiments last year. My poor health (stroke) has prevented me doing more with this in 2014. The article was written last year (2013) before my stroke.  Hopefully, a return to good health (by the autumn?) will allow me to continue this fascinating part of our hobby. At the moment I am just too clumsy.

Testing the optical RX
8.5km "over the horizon" NLOS by clear air scattering (in a cloudless night sky) was very straightforward with simple, low-cost optical gear that could be made for next to nothing.  Unlike microwaves, optical kit is very inexpensive and requires only very basic (audio frequency) test gear to set up. Optical alignment is critical and more stable tripods would have helped. 

What amazed me was that nothing was visible or audible at the RX yet the signal decoded and displayed perfectly with Spectran software on the PC.

If you get this magazine, I hope you enjoy the article.  Please let me have any feedback.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the article Roger. I am still amazed that a lot of Hams don't use Spectran or Spectrum Lab, if they gave it a try they would be converted AND they are both FREE.

Alan G8LCO

Roger G3XBM said...

Thanks Alan. Totally agree about the free software. Amazing stuff.

Jon G4LJW said...

Just read the article this evening - very good stuff, and enjoy reading your blog too!

Roger G3XBM said...

Thank you Jon. Glad you enjoy the blog too.

G1KQH said...

Good article glad to see the writing hand still works. Lets hope it bounces a bit of interest into the THz DXing..

73 G1KQH

Roger G3XBM said...

Thanks Steve.

The optical article was written last year before my illness, but writing largely OK still thanks. I make lots of errors which need to be corrected, as you may have noticed on the blog.