Monthly Archives: March 2014

WSPR with a vector network analyzer

I’ve been playing a lot with my N2PK VNA lately. Not only learning how to measure things (using the wonderful VNA tutorials of PA4TIM), but also how it works internally, and how I can control it from an Arduino. I can already set the frequency and phase of the two frequency generators, and I can read out the ADC.

Meanwhile, at the Radio Club Leuven, there has been a huge interest in WSPR lately, a low-power beacon-like digital mode, ever since Wim ON3ZOE demonstrated running WSPR with a Raspberry Pi. By hooking up an I/O pin to an antenna, with only a filter in between to remove the harmonics, he has gotten all the way to Greenland, 3500km away from Belgium. Hmm…

Arduino controlling the VNA

Arduino controlling the VNA

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