A Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) is an important test and measurement tool for RF electronics. It is capable of measuring both transmission and reflection of an electronic network. An electronic network is just a connection of electrical components, such as resistors, inductors, and capacitors, etc. This is not to be confused with an IP network… Continue reading The Amazing NanoVNA V2
After getting my first Helium hotspot and researching more about the technology I decided to get a second hotspot. But the issue became how to get one, as it can take months to receive one after a preorder. So there is substantial risk in the purchase. My first hotspot took almost 5 months and I… Continue reading SenseCAP M1 Helium Miner Setup
With any successful wireless system, you want to have some theoretical basis that your transmitted information can reach its intended receiver with enough power to be deciphered correctly. This is the basic idea behind a link budget where you compile information about your radio hardware and setup such as transmitter power, receiver sensitivity, antenna gain,… Continue reading Simulating Helium with HotspotRF
After about a week of running my Nebra Indoor Helium Hotspot, I began to look into upgrading my antenna. The stock antenna was doing pretty well and was picking up witnesses from 10s of kilometers away and its beacons could be heard by 10-12 other hotspots in my area. I was earning an average of… Continue reading Easy Helium Outdoor Antenna Upgrade
I previously create a PCB patch antenna using the Matlab antenna design toolbox and had some pretty good results, but the narrow bandwidth of patch designs means that small errors in the simulation parameters cause a shift away from your desired frequency. My old post into the details of my journey of learning about patch… Continue reading 2.4GHz PCB Patch Antenna V2 Design with Matlab
I have been hearing about Helium for a while now and it seems to be gaining traction with n number of gateways now scattered throughout the world it is starting to become a viable solution to providing an IoT backend. The incentive to gateway owners being the HNT cryptocurrency that is mined when they provide… Continue reading Nebra Helium Hotspot Miner
Diving deeper into antenna design you find really interesting antenna structures based on what parameter you are trying to optimize for. I was looking for antennas that had wide bandwidth and some directionality, to use in conjuncture with my LimeSDR Mini for one of my many projects, that's how I found out about the Vivaldi… Continue reading Vivaldi Antenna Design with MATLAB
This is the last day of technical conference talks so its packed to the gills with content. There is also a closing talk with Ben Hilburn and Derek Kozel where they close out the conference with a bunch of information. Along with a reveal that all or almost all of the workshops have been recorded… Continue reading GRCon20 Virtual Conference Day 4
More amazing talks from day 3 for GRCon20, Im still working on the CTF but got stuck fairly quickly... I would still encourage everyone to take a look at the signals in GnuRadio, hopefully they will release solutions, not just the flag values but how they got to them! Schedule Full Conference Schedule 9/14 -… Continue reading GRCon20 Virtual Conference Day 3
The Virtual GRCon continues! The conference is in full swing, more and more people are becoming active in the conference chat and there has been a flurry of activity in the Capture The Flag Competition (CTF). The reason I went to my first GRCon was to learn from the hands-on workshops and to better understand… Continue reading GRCon20 Virtual Conference Day 2
