eHam.net News for Saturday 18 March 2017
 

eHam.net News

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Charleston Hamfest Set for March 25:

Posted: 17 Mar 2017 05:08 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/38840


CHARLESTON - The 33rd annual Charleston Area Hamfest and Computer Show is
set for 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at the Charleston Civic
Center. The public is invited to attend this flea market of new and used
amateur radio, electronic, and computer gear and parts and accessories.


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Radical Radio Chip Uses Software Filtering to Work Anywhe

Posted: 17 Mar 2017 05:07 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/38839


Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new type of
radio-on-a-chip that could mean cheaper, more flexible wireless systems.
Smartphone makers could, for example, use the technology to make a single
model of each phone that works anywhere in the world. Single-chip radios
have become a popular choice for communications hardware in the last decade
because most characteristics of the radio are determined through software,
not discrete hardware components. For this reason, they are often referred
to as software-defined radios. But software can only do so much. In many
transceiver devices -- ones that transmit and receive -- an array of
filters is needed to protect the sensitive receiver circuity from signals
being transmitted. Those signals can be up to a billion times more powerful
that the ones being received, so without the filters, the radio would be
overwhelmed and useless. The radio developed at Cornell covers frequencies
from 300MHz to 5GHz, which encompasses many active communications bands,
including those for cellphones, Wi-Fi, amateur radio, emergency services
and some fixed wireless broadband and satellite communications.