SWR Analyser

Home brewed around an arduino nano and an ad9850 I also have a self written pc program that complements this item

RSGB Centenary PSK Reciever

A nice easy kit to build and works very well, recommended for those on foundation or intermediate courses.

Cone Development Program

Used mainly for use in sheet metalwork for making Cowls or Reducers for ducting or piping.

Main control window and frequency display for my FT450 CAT control program

Fully functional and continuously evolving. I have replicated the standard FT450 information display, but with the addition of VFO B, useful when working split, and an AF gain indicator, there is a seperate analogue style S-Meter Display inspired by the style of the Yaesu DX3000.

Computer programming and basic electronics

My Projects

My first foray into the world of computer programming was shortly after leaving school when I attended a course in BASIC programming on the Commodore PET series of computers. I quickly gained an interest in the BASIC language and became fairly proficient using it.

I dabbled with machine code on the 6502 processor, as this was what the PET ran on and had a machine code monitor as standard. However coding was long and laborious using this method. I later purchased the Commodore 64 when it was released and marvelled at it’s capabilities. Work commitments took priority and the programming halted for a very long time. The next time I tried some coding was using Delphi when I wrote a sheet metal cone development program. Again other commitments halted any further projects.

Many years later I had become interested in Flight Simulation Software, particularly MS FSX. It was during this time that I got interested in building a full size airbus simulator. I wrote some software using Visual Studio

VB.NET to produce sizeable and moveable gauge displays for use on a multi monitor setup.  I produced a standby altitude indicator and a standby airspeed indicator which worked well. I started work on the upper ECAM display which was written from the ground up using various sources of information. I  had some panels laser  cut to make up the bulk of the cockpit, but excluding the overhead unit. This quickly evolved into a mammoth task as I wanted to implement all my own switches, displays and software. I started work on the FCU display, created a pcb to mount the 7 segment LED’s on, and wrote some code for an arduino to multiplex and control the display. We since moved house and I no longer have room to complete this project so it is on hold at the moment and will probably never be finished.

My CAT control program for my Yaesu FT450 is both fully functional and continuing to evolve .

I have also written some code for the Arduino platform to talk to my radio via CAT, and display info on either a 16 x 2 LCD, or a 3.2” TFT display  (I have an UNO and 2 Mega2560 variants).

I also have a Rasberry Pi that I am quite impressed with for a modest outlay it is a fairly capable piece of kit.