Amateur radio Microwave module

[96terrano]

Heard somebody Over the radio talking about a microwave module, then start talking about wattages, what is a microwave module and what does it do? Sounds interesting

I'm guessing it ain't a microwave oven magnetron for cooking yer chicken :lol :lol:lol

 

[supergnome]

Radio amateurs have their own communications satellites, can talk to astronauts aboard the International Space Station, and are often involved with cutting-edge experimental wireless technology. It is an incredibly diverse and very popular interest with over six million people involved. Microwaves are just shorter wavelengths. Mains electric is 50Hz mobile phones are around 2.5GHz Shorter still are microwaves. Never used it myself but its there as part of the frequencies available to amateur radio enthusiasts.David.

 

[supergnome]

Also found this it may help you.

http://www.rsgb.org/committees/spectrumforum/microwaves.php

 

[briggie]

interesting stuff innit ? , microwave transmissions are basically " line of sight "

 

[96terrano]

Mmmm that is interesting, cheers:thumbs

 

[waterman]

Microwave modules made Amplifiers for 2 mtr and 70cm radios.

 

[briggie]

Microwave modules made Amplifiers for 2 mtr and 70cm radios.

they did indeed

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Radio waves have 2 measurements, frequency and wave length. For some reason we mix and match the measurments. Basically the higher the frequency, the shorter the wave length.

CB's 27Mhz is about an 11 meter wave., Microwave tends to be anything less than 3cm., which is about 10,000 Mhz.

As said, it only tends to work over line of sight, but allows for very fast transmission speeds.

Dr. Percy Spencer invented the first microwave oven after discovering that his chocolate bar melted when he left it in front of one of the radar transmitters.

 

[96terrano]

so the lower the frequency, the further it'll travel?

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

so the lower the frequency, the further it'll travel?

Sort of... The distance is related to how much power you give it and how much it can bounce off of things, rather than being absorbed them.

basically sound is very low frequency, and light is very high.

Light travels a long way, but will not pass through most things and will reflect of very few surfaces. Sound on the other hand can travel a good distance (no wind, or other noise to cover it up) but it also bounces off of walls, and hard objects (echos) so can appear to travel a lot further.

Longer radio waves tend to bounce off of clouds and the atmosphere, so seem to travel much further than short waves, which are more easily absorbed by clouds, trees, hills, etc.

 

[96terrano]

cool, very interesting:thumbs

 

[ocelot]

Basically, from 30mHz upwards, this is line of sight comms, below that, then you have two external factors, the earths crust, and the ionasphere. The earth has a nice magnetic field which affects low frequency radio transmissions, you've heard of the VLF rugby time signal, transmitted around the world?
The ionasphere has 4 layers during the day, D, E, F1 and F2, at night these become simply D and E. This allows radio waves from 1.2mHz to around 30mHz to 'bounce' off the ionasphere and the earths crust causing them to travel long distances using morse or voice (ssb/am) transmissions. VHF (above 30 meg) can sometimes 'bounce' but not reliably or regular.
Microwave refers to very high frequencies, SHF(super high frequency) mobile phone, satellites etc, the main advantage of higher frequencies is lower power requirements, if mobile phones used HF ie 3-30 meg, they'd weigh a ton......

Hope my meandering thoughts help........

 

[96terrano]

Well,, believe it or not, now and again I scan though the AM waveband on the radio in my t2 to see if there's anything I can pick up from other country's and I can.... sometimes. once at night I received a Spanish radiostation at the very bottom of the FM Waveband. The signal was strong enough that I actually got the station name..... It was radio ONDA CERO.

But then after 5 mins it vanished. And I couldn't find it. Was quite strange. Any ideas on why this is?

I'm fascinated by these sort of things. I build small transmitters, aerials and things from old electronics and bits & bobs. Brilliant fun too

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

Well,, believe it or not, now and again I scan though the AM waveband on the radio in my t2 to see if there's anything I can pick up from other country's and I can.... sometimes. once at night I received a Spanish radiostation at the very bottom of the FM Waveband. The signal was strong enough that I actually got the station name..... It was radio ONDA CERO.

But then after 5 mins it vanished. And I couldn't find it. Was quite strange. Any ideas on why this is?

I'm fascinated by these sort of things. I build small transmitters, aerials and things from old electronics and bits & bobs. Brilliant fun too

Stations coming and going are related to what they call "Atmospherics". Basically everything has to be just right, and for that time the signal was bouncing of the Ionosphere, and them and your self happen to be in just the right place for it to line up.

This might help http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream/atmos/ionosphere_max.htm

 

[96terrano]

Cool!:thumbs

 

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

Is the bounce factor, aka skip for cb'ers. Had similar effects on fm radio too though
not that extreme. Suspect parking up on highest hill helps certainly got my old 4watt
cb further like that. Thinks it fun to see what can do with standard/legal kit without
recourse to burners or linear amplifiers.

Was chatting to the Sheffield Amateur Radio Club yesterday at a show, had a custom
built show trailer set up with all sorts of gear, really tempted to join.

 

[96terrano]

Is the bounce factor, aka skip for cb'ers. Had similar effects on fm radio too though
not that extreme. Suspect parking up on highest hill helps certainly got my old 4watt
cb further like that. Thinks it fun to see what can do with standard/legal kit without
recourse to burners or linear amplifiers.

Was chatting to the Sheffield Amateur Radio Club yesterday at a show, had a custom
built show trailer set up with all sorts of gear, really tempted to join.

Think I'm going to park on a hill and see if station reception improves, just out of pure curiosity, theirs a tv, radio & military sub station near by, I'll go to that as its on a huge hill

 

[jims-terrano]

Think I'm going to park on a hill and see if station reception improves, just out of pure curiosity, theirs a tv, radio & military sub station near by, I'll go to that as its on a huge hill

Actually that may not be as good an idea as you first think as your receiving equipment may get swamped by the stronger signals being transmitted even though they may be on a different frequency to what you want to listen to.

 

[jims-terrano]

Is the bounce factor, aka skip for cb'ers. Had similar effects on fm radio too though
not that extreme. Suspect parking up on highest hill helps certainly got my old 4watt
cb further like that. Thinks it fun to see what can do with standard/legal kit without
recourse to burners or linear amplifiers.

Was chatting to the Sheffield Amateur Radio Club yesterday at a show, had a custom
built show trailer set up with all sorts of gear, really tempted to join.

It wasn't covered in RSGB logo's was it and called "GB4FUN" was it? seen it and it is rather tasty.

 

[Thomas-the-Terrano2]

It wasn't covered in RSGB logo's was it and called "GB4FUN" was it? seen it and it is rather tasty.

believe it was, or had been as the sarc site refer to it a recent gift fro rsgb and this weekend
was its first 2 outings, yesterday at Heeley Gala and today its at an event at Elsecar.

Big boxy thing thing like a twin axle caravan size, looks like using a land cruiser amazon
as tug.