My F2DC station around 1963 (Photo courtesy of F5IA : thanks André).
From left to right : home-made AM Transmitter, Geloso G207
Receiver, Home built Phasing type 14MHz SSB transmitter
Now.
I'm currently using an Elecraft K2 transceiver built from a kit
and the DC7 home made transceiver described in this site. From left to
right, a home made linear amplifier mainly used for SSTV, home made
13.8 V power supply, the K2 and an old Drake SPR4 receiver. A HM102
Heathkit SWR/ power meter is above the power supply. A FT290 2 m
transceiver and some other equipment stand on the upper shelf.
Picture reception and transmission.
Over the years, picture transmission and reception has always been a part of my ham activity :
- Around 1968, I was interested in weather satellites picture reception and built a specially devoted equipment (click here) .
- 1969 : I designed and built a BW solid state (except the CRT) SSTV
monitor. In December 2020, I restored this old monitor and was able to
display 8 seconds BW pictures on its screen (click here).
- From 1993 to the begining of the 2000s, my son Lionel and I designed and tested several methods
to improve SSTV reception. Real time processing of SSTV signals allows
a significant improvement of picture quality when conditions are
poor (click here for more info).
- In connection with my aeromodel
activities, I was involved in 1994,
with some friends of the local aeromodel club, in the TV transmission
of pictures taken by a camera carried by a radio-controlled aircraft (click here) .
Home made test equipment.
As you probably guessed from the above lines, I'm more interested in
the technical side of amateur radio than in its operating aspects. A
good part of my shack is filled with measuring equipment, mainly second
hand. Over the years I have built some additional test devices :
two-tones AF generator, low phase noise RF oscillators for RX
intermodulation distorsion evaluation, VNA, etc. (click here)
Many years ago, I built a high performance transceiver : its design
changed over the years and its present state is a prototype working on
the 14 MHz band with an output power of 10 Watts (click here for more information).