W0JEC’s Projects

What’s Included On This Website

 

This website offers details and downloads of two ham radio projects I have undertaken.  The first, MPE Calculator (Maximum Permissible Exposure Calculator) is a software program I wrote quite a few years ago using an early version of Microsoft Visual Basic.  The program provides a calculator that you can use to determine if your station meets the FCC requirements for RF safety.  You can enter details about your transmit power, feedline, and antennas and the software will calculate safe distances from your antennas for each band according to the FCC guidelines.  The MPE Calculator web pages describe the FCC guidelines regarding RF exposure safety and the procedures for evaluating your ham station to determine if you meet these guidelines.  It was intended to be used on computers running up to Microsoft Windows 95 although it still runs fine on XP, Vista, and 7.  A free download of the software is available on the Downloads page.  One of these days, I intend to rewrite this software for modern computers using Visual Basic 2010 but for now the original software will have to do.

 

The second, and more recent project, concerns HF Remote—the operation of my HF station remotely from my laptop wherever I have access to the internet.  To do this, I have selected the free software Ham Radio Deluxe to remotely operate my two HF radios, and the very inexpensive software PstRotatorAZ to remotely operate my Hygain Antenna Rotator.  Somewhat more challenging was a means to remotely control my LDG DTS-6 antenna switch and turn on and off my backup HF transceiver and other station accessories.  For this, I built a circuit board utilizing the Picaxe microcontroller chip by Revolution Education.  Of course, the chip had to be programmed and I had to write the Visual Basic 2010 software (W0JEC Remote Station Control) to access and control the chip remotely from my laptop.  All of this — the circuit board, microcontroller command file, the VB program, and detailed setup and operating instructions are offered free for download from this website.  Just browse through the web pages using the content menus to find information about each of the HF Remote devices and software.  Enjoy.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Crisman, W0JEC

 

      I am a retired hospital administrator and presently teach microbiology at Bemidji State University in Bemidji, MN.  I was first licensed in 1972 and hold the Extra Class license.  I built my first computer, a Heathkit H89, in 1980 and wrote my first computer program in assembly language for that computer.  Since then, I have dabbled in electronics and computer programming and enjoyed the ham radio hobby.  In ham radio, I especially enjoy building antennas, helping to maintain the local radio club’s repeater network, working contests (especially Sweepstakes and CQ SSB WW), and working with county emergency management providing ham radio communications support.

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