The Bridge - Issue 2, 2019 - 22

Feature

GREAT IMPEDANCE MATCH FOR KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER:
Amateur Radio as Part of Electrical and Computer Engineering Education

Mini-Circuits
ADEX- 10L+ mixers

Local Oscillator-Input

Q input
Modulator
Output

I-Input

Q-Input

(a) Circuit Board
Variant

Modulator
output

I input

(b) Dead Bug
Construction
Variant

Local
Oscillator

Fig. 5: These are I-Q digital communications modulator/demodulators designed for the 910 MHz amateur radio band. (a) This design uses two minicircuits double balanced mixers and a student-designed PC board. (b) Students can also build a "dead bug" version of the modulator.

radio homebrew" one can benefit from a century of
innovation in electronics projects from the amateur
radio community. These projects are designed with
the new experimenter in mind with limited budget
and limited time. Amateur radio groups continue
to incorporate the latest advances in electronic
hardware and software into their designs that are
made widely available. The Electrical and Computer
Engineering Community can easily leverage this work
toward compelling laboratory projects that can be
used in the university laboratory education system.
Fig. 6: Here is an example of a senior/graduate level system project
involving a 2.4 GHz amateur radio band transceiver or radar
system. This design is adapted from Small and Short Range
Radar Systems, by Gregory Charvat (K1CXT) ISBN-13: 9781439865996.

Figure 6 shows a simple radar system that is
designed, constructed and tested as part of a
senior/graduate level course in system design.
This prototype was constructed over a 10-week
quarter with a team of 4 people. It can use FMCW or
Doppler radar modes. This class has students work
with analog and digital electronics, microprocessors,
software and a significant amount of troubleshooting
and design verification.
In summary, if one simply searches the term
"amateur radio construction projects" or "amateur

THE BRIDGE

Extracurricular Activities in Amateur Radio
Outside of the formal ECE curriculum, the amateur
radio community offers students many opportunities
to design, build and operate radio systems for
public service, emergency communications, and
experimentation or simply for fun. Amateur radio
clubs are a great resource for universities to engage
with electrical and computer education. Local and
regional meetings, electronics trade shows, and
radio conferences are widely available to students
and faculty and provide excellent opportunities for
networking and collaboration (http://www.arrl.org/
hamfests-and-conventions-calendar). Each of these
activities provides practical, hands-on experience that
often ties directly back to the ECE curriculum.

http://www.arrl.org/contests http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar https://hkn.ieee.org/ https://hkn.ieee.org/

The Bridge - Issue 2, 2019

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