1. Technical talks for 2009 (following a review of 2008)

2. Our theme will remain: The design of HF Transmitters, Receivers, and Antennas.

3. The intention of this talk not just to introduce the future talks
The intention of this talk not just to introduce the future talks. It’s to explain why these subjects are relevant.

4. These proposals are not set in granite
These proposals are not set in granite! Your feedback about the proposed technical talks will help focus on your needs and interests.

5. Reference designs We will primarily refer to the SoftRock 40/80m kit (Though the BITX20 will still be of use to us).

6. It introduces digital techniques which we will be covering this year
Why the SoftRock RxTx?
It introduces digital techniques which we will be covering this year

7. SoftRock Receiver

8. Many of the same principles are used in the SDR Transmitter Which we will look at in detail

9. SoftRock Transmitter

10. In the individual technical talks we will cover the following subjects:

11. Software for use with an SDR What is available How it works in outline
Software for use with an SDR What is available How it works in outline. (How it works in detail after introducing some concepts in later talks)

12. Analogue circuit design Field effect Transistors and Valves (Last year we covered Bipolar: Common emitter, emitter follower, common base). Transistor pairs: Cascode, long tailed pair, current mirror.

13. Introduction to integrated circuits Operational amplifiers & their internal design Logic gates, flip-flops, transmission gates

14. Analogue signal processing Frequency, Phase, Vectors, Numbers Standard Filters (RC active, LCR passive) (Last year we only covered RC & RL passive filters) Filter design with passives or op-amps

15. Electric and Magnetic Fields (We covered only Inductors last year) Transformers (Bifilar winding, Baluns) Self and mutual inductance Leakage reactance Stray coupling

16. Electro Magnetic Fields (e. g
Electro Magnetic Fields (e.g. radio waves) Transmission lines / coax cables Propagating EM Fields Fundamental Antenna theory (dipoles) Antenna matching / tuning Phased arrays / Yagis

17. Digital signal processing Digital Communications e. g
Digital signal processing Digital Communications e.g. PSK31 A/D & D/A, Shannon’s law, sampling theory Some more logic circuits leading up to: Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) Digital filters and their design

18. An introduction to programming A simple in introduction to computer architecture. (Von-Neumann). Programming of PICs Demonstration of software development tools, debugging.

19. Demonstrations of digital signal processing These will be non-theoretical demonstrations of signal processing using a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) demo system. If interested this can be followed up with more detail and a live demonstration of FPGA programming (probably in 2010!)

20. Questions. Please remember that these proposals are not set in granite
Questions? Please remember that these proposals are not set in granite. Your feedback about the proposed technical talks will help focus on your needs and interests.