II I I!II I I Easyto buildmicrocontrolter weekend projects-for use in theshack, in thefield, and on air! Edited by leigh L.. Klotz, Jr.. WASZNU Contributing Editors MarkJ.Wilson, KiRO BeckySchoenfeld, WiBXY Production: Michelle Bloom, WBiENT Jodi Morin, KAiJPA David F. Pingree, N1NAS YEARS Maty Weinberg, KBiEIB Advancing theArt and Scienceof Radio Cover Design: Sue Fagan, KBi0KW -Since1914 Onthe Cover The Sweeperproject byAlan Biocca,W6AKB, usesthe Arduino Unoand PCboards to make an SWR scanner.The Sweepermeasures SWR over arangeoffrequencies and displays center frequency, 2:1 SWR bandwidth inkHzand minimum SWR.[Alan Biocca,W6AKB, photo] Arduino" isaregistered trademarkofthe Arduino Team. PICAXE@isaregistered trademark licensed byMicrochipTechnology to Revolution Education Ltdforexclusive worldwide use. Copyright©2013 byTheAmerican Radio RelayLeague, Inc. CopyrightsecuredunderthePan-American Convention Internationalcopyrightsecured. Allrightsreserved. Nopart ofthiswork may bereproduced inanyformexcept bywritten permission ofthe publisher.Allrights of translation arereserved. Printed intheUSA Quedan reservadostodoslosderechos ISBN:978-0-87259-324-4 FirstEdition FirstPrinting I f t nt Foreword AboutThis Book Makers and Hams DaleDougherty Preface Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU About the ARRL 1 CQ DX- A Ham's "HelloWorld!" Leigh L.Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU 2 Timber: An APRS Data logger Michael D. Pechner, NE6RD 3 Customizing the Data logger Leigh L.Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU 4 QRSS:Very Slow Sending Hans Summers, G0UPL 5 MultimodeTransmitter Shield Hans Summers, G0UPL 6 Thermic: a High Voltage, High Frequency, and High Temperature Data Logger Hans Summers, G0UPL 7 Airgate: A Receive-Only, Low-Power APRS iGate Markus Heller, DL8RDS 8 Axekey: A Simple PICAXE Keyer Rich Heineck, AC7MA 9 Sunflower SolarTracker Bill Prats, K6ACJ 10 Pharos: A PICAXE CW Beacon Keyer Bill Prats, K6ACJ 11 N6SN Nanokeyer Bud Tribble, N6SN and Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU 12 Time Out: A Handheld Radio TalkTimer Keith Amidon, KJ6PUO and Peter Amidon, KJ6PUN 13 Hermes APRS Messenger Michael Pechner, NE6RD 14 Dozen: A DTMF Controlled SSTV Camera Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU 15 Marinus: An APRS Display Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU 16 Cascata: An Arduino Waterfall Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU 17 Buddy: A Rover's Best Friend Leigh L. Klotz, Jr,WA5ZNU 18 Sweeper: An Ardulno SWR Scanner Alan Biocca, W6AKB 19 Swamper: A CypressWaterfall for 2.4 GHz Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU Appendices A Laser Cut Project Case Michael Gregg, KF6WRW B LCD Shields Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU C Argent Radio Shield Library Leigh L. Klotz, Jr,WA5ZNU D Arduino Hardware Choices Leigh L. Klotz, Jr,WA5ZNU r r Experimenting. Homebrewing. Modifying. MostAmateurRadio operators enjoy doing things, whether it's building a simple radio from akit or handful ofparts, integrating anew station accessory, or making anew antenna from alength of wire or aluminumtubing. Tune the ham bands, surfthe web or pick up the latest issue of QST, and you'll discover hams fiddling with a new piece of hardware or software and using it to improve station or operating capabilities - and then sharing their experiences with others. In this book, EditorLeigh L. Klotz, Jr,WA5ZNU, leads ateam of contributors who show us new ways to experiment- this time with the Arduino Uno microcontrollerboardor PICAXE and ATtiny microprocessor chips. These low-costmicrocontrollers can be used in a variety of interesting and creative ham radio applications. Most ofthe projects describedhere use a microcontrollercombined with a few additional components or accessory boards - all ofwhich are inexpensive and readily available. Software is open source and may be downloadedfrom this book's website or from manufacturers' websites. The examples and explanations in this book, along with online tutorials and support groups, put these projects within reach even ifyou are not an experiencedprogrammer. Or perhaps you already have some experience, and one of these articles will provide ideas or building blocks for yourown project - which you can then share with fellow hams. Leigh and his fellow authors have close ties to the thriving worldwide community ofMaker/DIY (Do ItYourself) experimenters who are using these tools for countless homemade applications and sharinginformation about them. See "Makers and Hams" by Dale Dougherty, founder of MAKE Magazine and The MakerFaire, and Leigh's Prefacein the following pages for an overview ofhow ham radio fitsin with the broaderDIY community. Wehope you'lljoinin and give it atry too. David Sumner, K1ZZ ChiefExecutive Officer Newington, Connecticut February 2013 t IIIlI I DearImaginary Reader, Youhave aham license, and you already have some electronics skills: you can read schematic diagrams, solder, and use a solderless prototyping board. Youknow your way around a computer and can find a web page or two to get help on installing software. YourARRL membership is current, and youjustboughtthis book. Oh, you're a real reader? How embarrassing! I'dbetterstart over. This bookis a collection of weekend projects for hams to spark creativity and give you the tools you need to get your own projects done around the shack and in the field. If you already have the skills and interests the imaginaryreader does, you're ready to start. If you are areal person and don't have all these superpowers, this bookis still for you, but there are some other books you might want to have handy at the same time. If you don'thave an AmateurRadio license at all, a great book to start with is Ham Radiofor Dummiesby H. Ward Silver (whose FCC-issued amateurcall sign is N0AX). Youprobably alreadyknow where to buy books, but if not, look for it by ISBN: 978-0-7645-5987-7. As the dust jacketputs it, Ward goes to "extreme wireless." Let's say you have aham license, and you know which end ofa solderingiron to hold (hint: not the hot one), but beyond that you need a little help. This time, try another Ward Silverbook calledDo-It-Yourself Circuitbuildingfor Dummies, ISBN: 978-0-470-17342-8. OK, so you know about circuits, but it's the whole analog thing that causes you trouble. Ward again comes to the rescue with ARRL'sHands OnRadio Experiments, 978-0-87259-125-7 andARRL'sHands-On Radio Experiments, Volume2, ISBN: 978-0-87259-341-7. If you feel comfortable with RF and analog electronics, but need a less steep slope to ramp up on programming, try Getting Startedwith Arduino, 2nd Edition, by Massimo Banzi, ISBN 978-1-4493-0987-9. (By the way, Massimo had aham license as akid, and credits that with putting him on trackto design the Arduino.) By buying this book, you are supporting the ARRL and the authors in their efforts to promote AmateurRadio. The software and hardware in the projects that the authors have developedfor this book are all released under licenses compatible with the goals of the Open Source Initiative ope.n.s~urce and the Open Source Hardware Association, and are available for free mrnative download at the companion website. The chapters in this book, however, are a separate work, and are only available in the book. Butbooks aren't the only answer. Hamradio is all about community, and we have clubs and organizations around the country ready to welcome you. Visit www.arrl.org/find-a-club and get involved with a local club whose members are eagerto learn whatyou have to contribute, and are glad to Elmer (mentor) you back. So there you have it: this bookwill help you jointhe fantastic Arduino microcontrollercommunity, or roll with the PICAXE controller, or go your own way with the bare-minimum 8-pin ATtiny micro. 73, Leigh L. Klotz, Jr, WA5ZNU r WhenI started writing computerprogrammingbooks with Tim O'Reilly over 25 years ago, one of the things that struckme then - and which I still find exciting - is that I truly enjoyed seeing what other peopledo with the informationIhelpedbring tothem. That's one reasonI startedMAKEMagazine, to expandthat bounty of interest in doing things with computers to include making things happenin the real, physicalworld. The urge and ability totinker was a part of Americanknow-how until at least the 1960s: ifyou wantedto fixyour car, you read PopularMechanics, and you knew how to do it. Yetin the decades since, the complexities of modemlife and modemtechnology have weakenedthis spirit. In founding MAKEMagazine, Ihelpedthis culturere-emerge. Idid itby building on the enthusiasmfound in SiliconValley's Home Brew ComputerClub in the 1970s and 1980s. And Ilearnedfrom the firstcomputerhackers (the good ones) atMIT in the 1960s and 1970s, and took what they knew and loved and appliedit to help peoplecreate their own successes. And with MAKE, we succeededhugely, and branchedout to startthe Maker Faire, where hundreds of thousands of people attend gatherings each year.They gatherbecausethey want to share their passion, their ideas, and their interest with others to help make things by combining art, electronics, software, and rediscoveredtraditional skills such as working with wood, metal and glass. I am proud of having had ahand in starting this movement, but I also acknowledge anotherdebt tohistory: Hamradio operators may be the originals in this mold. Sincethe early 1900s,they have beentinkering, inventing, andbending ideas in electronics, radio technology, mathematics and space explorationto solve aproblemor achieve somethingnew. Hams have afantastic and growing community, with over 700,000in the US and well over amillionin Japan, and more in every country in the world. Hams are still active in cutting-edge areas such as satellites, digital signal processing, electronics design and ionosphericresearch. And even thoughham radio is a dynamic, passionatecommunity, in some ways itremains anisolatedecosystem with its rich, specializedknowledge, auniverseparallelto the growing DIY and MakemovementIhelped create. Whenthe ARRLproposedthis book, the goal was to bring the ham communityand the Makercommunity closer. The projects here use common, off the-shelfphysical computingparts such as the Arduino, and leverage techniques and expertisefrom the ham community and the Makercommunity tomake something that both groups can appreciate, use and extend. Ihope you enjoy reading this book and building the projects. Ham radio has beenan inspiration to the people who have made the makers, bringing the vitality and excitementof buildingyour own stuffto the world. This year marks the intersection, igniting interestin contemporary makingin hams and afascination for radio in Makers. The line should blur. Makers will want to becomehams; hams will want to become modem tinkerers. Only then will the universe beright. Dale Dougherty Founder, MAI(EMagazine and The MakerFaire r f The Arduino is apoint on a curve, an arc of developmentreaching backin humanhistory to the same events that spurredthe development of ham radio. As a small, inexpensive, easily programmed and easily interfaced microcontroller board with an extensive supportcommunity of practitioners and arich ecology of software libraries, hardware add-on shield boards, and well-written project explorations, it serves as aplatform on which to build and enhance ideas and inventions, and share them with other enthusiasts. In this regard, the Arduino community resembles some of the best parts of ham radio. Hams have been coming up with circuitideas, inventing new types of modulation, and experimenting with the aether since the early 1900s. Wehave a long tradition of do-it-yourselfprojects, and also a great history of building on each other's ideas. This beliefruns so deep that among the Q-signals, the three letter abbreviations used originallyin Morse code, there is one that stands for it: QST means "Information to share with all stations." The ARRL embodies this spirit, and has expressed it by publishing a magazine called QSTsince 1915. At its basis, ham radio involves communicating over radio waves, but it is also rests on afoundation of experimentation and sharing. In the US, the FCC codifies this goal in its regulations, where the purpose of Amateur Radio includes "continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art," and "advancing skills in both the communications and technical phases of the art." Based on physical phenomenawhose discovery dates back to James Newtechnology meets old technology:The Ardulno Uno and a key for sending Morsecode by hand.