My name is David Brainerd. I am an amateur radio operator with the
callsign of WB6DHW. I live near Kooskia, ID. This is in north-central
Idaho approx. 50 miles east of the Idaho-Oregon-Washington junction.
My main interest is "homebrewing". Since retiring from the US Navy
Civil Service in 1998, I have built several pieces of test gear for my
home electronics lab. These include the N2PK Vector Network Analyzer,
the AADE digital L/C meter, a 3GHz frequency counter, a 0-500MHz power
meter, an IQ HF VFO, the R2 receiver, and the AMQRP Micro 908.
My main ham radio activity is with the Mission Trail Net on
3856KHz LSB at 8pm PDT (7PM PST in winter).
I have decided to turn my homebrew activities into a small home business.
I plan on offering a series of boards and some kits that can be used to
make a complete amateur radio station plus some test equipment.
I have uploaded videos from Saturday and Sunday and 2 pics(pict 1, and pict 2 from our local 2009 Field Day operation at the
Kooskia City Park. The view of the "Amateur Radio Field Day" sign is looking west. You can just see the south fork of the
Clearwater River at the edge of the grass. The south fork joins the central fork of the Clearwater River about 1/2 mile
north(to the right). Note the steep hills nearby on both the east and west. They rise over 1000 feet. Probably explains why
we heard lots and lots of Calif. and British Columbia stations but couldn't work the east coast! We still contacted almost all
states west of the Mississippi, all the southern states as far east as Louisiana. Also, Alaska(on both 80 and 20), BC and Alberta
in Canada. Introduced HF to quite a few new hams in the clob and to some of the general public. A very good time was had by all.
On June 30, KLEW TV in Lewiston, showed the 2 pictures and read the press release I sent. (KLEW Clip - 45 MByte)
I have been playing with a homebrew SDR(Software Defined Radio) board with an Si570 programmable oscillator.
I have it connected to my Thinkpad Notebook using the internal sound card. To listen to what the Mission Trails Net sounded
like on 8-19-08, download the MP3 file on the left. I was using PowerSDR on the Notebook to do all the massive math required.
The recording was made with the Noise Blasnker On with a 2.7KHz wide LSB filter. Most of the net members are in Calif., I am in
north-central Idaho. The start of the net was daylight, the end was in darkness.
My wife Barbara's Internet Radio Program:
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