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Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

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Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#21

Post by Stratoscope »

ianburrell wrote: post #7
api wrote: post #3

What's Ham radio like these days? My grandfather was a ham and I have fond memories of him teaching me about radio waves (and early computer programming!) as a kid in his den. I still remember that he was W4LMU, and searching on it finds this: https://www.qsl.net/kq4pl/skeys.htm His gear was huge, still used vacuum tubes (already retro in the 1980s but he was a Ham), and consumed enough power to run a small neighborh…

One big thing recently is POTA and SOTA where people go to parks and mountain summits to make contacts. The latter requires small radio, putting up your own antennas, and using Morse code. People talking on the radio is sort of dead. HF is still popular. There is FT8 digital mode that let's make contact with low signal. I've reached Australia, Chile, and Russia from west coast. There is a lot of hacking, but it doesn…

Something wild that a local Bay Area group of hams do is Parachute Mobile. It's just what you may guess: they jump out of an airplane with ham rigs strapped to their chest and make contacts from under the canopy.

https://parachutemobile.wordpress.com/

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#22

Post by rtkwe »

itomato wrote: post #20
api wrote: post #3

What's Ham radio like these days? My grandfather was a ham and I have fond memories of him teaching me about radio waves (and early computer programming!) as a kid in his den. I still remember that he was W4LMU, and searching on it finds this: https://www.qsl.net/kq4pl/skeys.htm His gear was huge, still used vacuum tubes (already retro in the 1980s but he was a Ham), and consumed enough power to run a small neighborh…

You don't need a license to explore and have fun. Cheap, firmware hackable HTs are hawt, in particular the Quansheng UV-K5,K6. Tons of SDR receivers out there to explore, and many extremely exiting transceiver projects out there also. Just so much: https://github.com/jopohl/urh http://websdr.org/ http://kiwisdr.com/public/ https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/

Listening is license free but transmitting in the US on any of the interesting bands (ie not just DMR or a walmart walkie where the device is licensed instead of the operator being licensed) requires a license.

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#23

Post by anamexis »

robxorb wrote: post #18

Are there limits on what can be done in a wristwatch? I mean in terms of RF reception? Like, is it possible in such small sizes to receive any frequency, or is there certain limits, say based on heat, or necessary component footprint or other constraints?

I think the primary constraint would be the antenna. Generally speaking, the longer the wavelength, the longer the antenna needs to be to efficiently receive it (or transmit it). You can still receive/transmit with a too-short antenna, but efficiency drops off very quickly.

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#24

Post by robxorb »

anamexis wrote: post #23
robxorb wrote: post #18

Are there limits on what can be done in a wristwatch? I mean in terms of RF reception? Like, is it possible in such small sizes to receive any frequency, or is there certain limits, say based on heat, or necessary component footprint or other constraints?

I think the primary constraint would be the antenna. Generally speaking, the longer the wavelength, the longer the antenna needs to be to efficiently receive it (or transmit it). You can still receive/transmit with a too-short antenna, but efficiency drops off very quickly.

Thanks! This makes me wonder if it might be possible to build a wristwatch SDR, essentially the same as this project but with a very wide band into the Ghz, as with some small USB SDR's. It'd be so cool to have something so versatile in Casio form-factor.

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#26

Post by 01100011 »

anamexis wrote: post #9
ianburrell wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One big thing recently is POTA and SOTA where people go to parks and mountain summits to make contacts. The latter requires small radio, putting up your own antennas, and using Morse code. People talking on the radio is sort of dead. HF is still popular. There is FT8 digital mode that let's make contact with low signal. I've reached Australia, Chile, and Russia from west coast. There is a lot of hacking, but it doesn…

> People talking on the radio is sort of dead. I don't have any reference to how it used to be, but there's a fair amount of voice activity on the 2m and 70cm repeaters near me.

Lots of folks remember the 2m/440 activity in the days before unlimited cell phone minutes. Nothing compares to that. I'll say that, in my major west coast metro, the repeaters are pretty dead outside of nets.

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#27

Post by DominoTree »

api wrote: post #3

What's Ham radio like these days? My grandfather was a ham and I have fond memories of him teaching me about radio waves (and early computer programming!) as a kid in his den. I still remember that he was W4LMU, and searching on it finds this: https://www.qsl.net/kq4pl/skeys.htm His gear was huge, still used vacuum tubes (already retro in the 1980s but he was a Ham), and consumed enough power to run a small neighborh…

Something really cool I stumbled upon recently - someone near me hosts a trivia show via ham radio once a week, and other folks in the area will listen for their callsign and then answer his questions

Makes me really happy to run across random unexpected things like that

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#28

Post by HWR_14 »

anamexis wrote: post #23
robxorb wrote: post #18

Are there limits on what can be done in a wristwatch? I mean in terms of RF reception? Like, is it possible in such small sizes to receive any frequency, or is there certain limits, say based on heat, or necessary component footprint or other constraints?

I think the primary constraint would be the antenna. Generally speaking, the longer the wavelength, the longer the antenna needs to be to efficiently receive it (or transmit it). You can still receive/transmit with a too-short antenna, but efficiency drops off very quickly.

This watch uses a wire in the wristband. Can the antenna length be increased by simply using multiple coils?

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#29

Post by anamexis »

HWR_14 wrote: post #28
anamexis wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the primary constraint would be the antenna. Generally speaking, the longer the wavelength, the longer the antenna needs to be to efficiently receive it (or transmit it). You can still receive/transmit with a too-short antenna, but efficiency drops off very quickly.

This watch uses a wire in the wristband. Can the antenna length be increased by simply using multiple coils?

Antenna design is wildly complicated, but once you start coiling you get more problems as it becomes more inductive and you get weird phasing. I think the short answer is no, but this is out of my element (unintentional antenna pun)

Re: Goodwatch – A Ham Radio Wristwatch (2020)

#30

Post by rtkwe »

rtkwe wrote: post #22
itomato wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need a license to explore and have fun. Cheap, firmware hackable HTs are hawt, in particular the Quansheng UV-K5,K6. Tons of SDR receivers out there to explore, and many extremely exiting transceiver projects out there also. Just so much: https://github.com/jopohl/urh http://websdr.org/ http://kiwisdr.com/public/ https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/

Listening is license free but transmitting in the US on any of the interesting bands (ie not just DMR or a walmart walkie where the device is licensed instead of the operator being licensed) requires a license.

General rule of thumb in the US is that either the device or the person has to have a license to transmit and most of the Chinese radios are not licensed. Another easy check is that most of the specs for radio based licenses require that the antenna be permanently attached at least for hand terminals.
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