First UK Amateur Radio Contact on 241 GHz

The first UK amateur radio contact on the 241 GHz (1.2mm) band took place on Friday 19th February 2016 at 15:00 GMT 

I was transmitting on 241.01 GHz, Chris was on a nominal 241.02 though it was 1.3 MHz low on 241.0187 GHz. We used separate TX & RX. All TXs were derived from Elcom synths. Chris’s LO also, though I was using 16.0385 as LO (x15) into a Tektronix mixer. Chris used a 1mm dia. hole in the block on RX with cut-off around 175GHz, I used a piece of WR-03 - 173GHz cut-off.
— Roger G8CUB

The contact was made between Roger G8CUB/P and Chris G0FDZ/P in locator square JO01EP. The distance was 30 metres and the CW signals were 559 and 589. 

With signal to spare both ways an attempt was evaluated to increase the distance to over 50m but with deteriorating weather likely, a decision was taken to limit to 30m as antenna alignment was taking a very long time to achieve. 

UK Microwave Group - http://www.microwavers.org/

LED Bulbs Tested for Electromagnetic Interference

The Swedish national amateur radio society SSA have produced a report detailing measurements taken of the RF interference generated by 11 different types of LED lamps 

Only one, 38-23717, exceeded the EN 55015 limit. This has been reported to the Swedish Safety Board.

New EMC measurements on LEDs (Google English) - http://tinyurl.com/SSA-LED-EMI-2015

PDF's of the Conducted EMI Test Reports - http://www.ssa.se/sektioner/emc/led-produkter-som-ssa-anmalt-till-elsakerhetsverket/

Raspberry Pi Ham Radio Kits

UK Licenced Amateur Radio Operator Jenny List G7CKF, has made available an RF Breakout kit and a Pi-HF direct conversion radio kit for the Raspberry Pi 

The breakout kit provides a breakout board to use the Raspberry Pi clock generator as an RF source or simple amateur radio transmitter. The Raspberry Pi has a built-in clock generator, a powerful frequency synthesiser which can generate frequencies up to 250MHz. This is enough to provide a useful RF signal source for experimentation, or given suitable filtering and antennas to allow the Pi to be used as a low-power amateur radio transmitter.

The Pi-HF is primarily for frequencies between 130 kHz and 30 MHz, however it has a bandwidth over 100 MHz and so will also perform at higher frequencies including the 50 MHz (6m) and 70 MHz (4m) amateur bands with reduced performance. It is not a software-defined radio, instead it is a traditional direct conversion radio receiver with software control.

Raspberry Pi RF Breakout Kit (video) - 
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/raspberry-pi-rf-breakout-kit-video/

Language Spy - Amateur Radio and Raspberry Pi kits - 
http://shop.languagespy.com/products/rf-breakout-kit-for-the-raspberry-pi