This is my ham radio page !
This is my ham radio page !
I have been a ham since 1989, first I was KB2IXD, now I am
I have been published in QST with my friend Stuart Hanbebuth, KB0QXR, for an experiment that we did using radioactive Cs-137 as a transmitter. Here is the brief text of the article, it can be found in the August 1995 edition of QST, page 14.
Radioactive Hams. Two members of the Rutgers Ham Radio Club (WA2NPP in New Brunswick, New Jersey), Stu Hanebuth, KB0QXR (L), and Tim Koeth, N2LPN, claim the worlds record for highest-frequency QSO ever. The FCC allocations "only" go up to 300 GHz (light) and above that all frequencies are open to experimenters. The two amateur radio operators made a CW contact spanning a distance of 12 cm on 285.1 THz (285,100,000,000.0 GHz)- Stu says284.5 THz was busy. They used small radioactive cesium-137 sources to send gamma waves, keying them by shifting a lead aperature. The recievers were scintillation detectors and portable ratemeters. They exchanged callsigns and 599 signal reports at 0702 UTC on March 17, 1995, to make what they believe was the first recorded QSO in this portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Any challengers ? {reported as seen in QST, 8/95, pp.14}
Here is a scan of the QST article, as it appeared in the journal...
Please be sure to check out the Rutgers Ham Radio Club's, WA2NPP, web page !
This is duplicated on my wedding page, but just in case you didn't get there, here it is again...
There were quite a few hams at our wedding, it is not a suprise since Michelle and
I met at the Rutgers Ham Radio Club, WA2NPP, in college. We had the photgraphers take a photo of all
the hams present at the receptiom (there were even more at the wedding). Here is who they are:
Left
to Right Standing.
Richie W2PQ our friend
Louis N2MIY Michelle's brother and a groomsmen
Ralph WA2KZO my uncle
Stu KB0QXR my best friend and my best man
Bill W2WK my dad
Michelle N2OAV my wife
Me (Tim) N2LPN
Louis WA2GKH Michelle's father
Jim KB2UOI our friend
Josh KB2SQS our friend
Charles N2VJW my uncle
Drew W2OU our friend
Seated L to R:
Vicky KC2FMW Michelle's best friend from college and bridesmaid
Florence N2SRI Michelle's mother
Janet K2MOM my mom
Laurel
N2OAU Michelle's best friend from childhood and a bridesmaid, adjoining call signs...
This is a list of several Ham Radio Clubs (* indicates I am a member, ** indicates I was or am an officer)
A link to the wonderful call sign server QRZ.com
The most interesting aspect, in my mind, is the fact that these two UHF repeaters use the same station master antenna. I accompolished this by using two duplexers and two notch cavities. There is very little receiver desensing in either repeater while the other is in transmit. I can provide a more technical description if anyone is interested in using a similar approach. Here is a general overview of the installation:
Above is the view of the repeater anteanna from the Physics Building. The antenna's to the lower right are the Rutgers Police department's antennas, about 15 feet lower !
Above: the repeater cabinet that houses both machines and notch cavities.
Above: the front of the repeaters. Notice the WA2NPP machine is missing (it's on my bench for repairs).
Above: the rear of the repeaters, It's all nicely packed in there, two repeaters and two duplexers.
Above: detail of the notch cavities. Note the RG58 (lossy I know, I will replace it with RG213 someday). They are tuned lengths: odd muliptles of a quarter wavelength of each opposing machines TX wavelength. The reflection from the high impedance cavity then completely cancels at the (effective) half wavelength at the transmitter output - all the transmitter "sees" is the 50-ohm antenna.
Above: A view back towards the Physics Building from the antenna.
444.350 (-5 MHz input) PL: 186.2
WA2NPP
441.950 (+5 MHz Input) PL:141.3
Please note that the WA2NPP is off the air for repairs. Sorry !
(written for QRZ.com)
At age 13 earned my novice license, KB2IXD, with my dad, Bill W2WK, through evening classes hosted by the Piscataway Amateur Radio club, K2VOA. Initially my father had to drag me along, but only for the first class. Ever since my first exposure to ham radio, the hobby has been very influential to my life.
Throughout high school, ham radio complimented my already strong interest in electronics. Various experimental antennas, including running a 2-meter beam up the school's flag pole early one Janurary morning. The principle was not pleased, but he overlooked this one. I also remember assisting and being assisted by a friend of mine N2LHM on Spanish exams through the use of Morse Code tapped on the desk - It was a good thing Senora Smith was hard of hearing or just didn't know CW herself ! Although very interested in electronics, my true love was and still is Physics, Nuclear/Particle Physics specifically. Ham radio and Physics of course overlap in many areas, however subtle, for instance wave mechanics. How could I forget E&M ? In addition to pure science, ham radio put me into Piscataway's Emergency Management group and circuitously I joined Piscataway's Arbor Hose Volunteer Fire Company for over 5 years.
After high school I attended Rutgers University where I earned a B.S. in Physics. No surprise there. Many of my undergraduate experiences were related to ham radio. First most, I met my wife, Michelle N2OAV, in the Rutgers Ham Radio Club WA2NPP. Kinda a nerdy thing to do, I guess, but we both are nerds proudly. We were both presidents of that club at one time or another. I also met my best friend Stu, KB0QXR, through ham radio, sort-of at least. He and I were featured in August 1995's issue of QST for holding the highest frequency QSO every recorded. My first undergraduate job was a technician position in the Physics Department's electronics shop that lasted about a year. I then moved on to an official Physics experiment at Fermilab: the world's most "powerful" particle accelerator. I became a member of Fermilab's ham radio club: WB9IKJ. After graduation, I moved to Fermilab to work in the Accelerator Division on Super Conducting RF cavities as an accelerating structure for charged particles. They operated at 3.9GHz at 2.4 Kelvin.
After funding for SCRF project ended, I returned to Rutgers University in NJ and have been working on a large detector for a Physics experiment at CERN (The European Nuclear and Particle Physics Lab, located near Geneva, Switzerland) ever since. I have traveled to CERN extensively these past few years for various experiments and events, but one of my most anticipated activities of every trip is to operate their club station F6KAR, of which I am a member. I of course use 20 meters to contact the US every night.
A special thanks goes to them, because it was my only form of communication and source of information during the tragic Spetember 11, 2001 attacks on the WTC and Pentagon. My French, Italian, or German is not up to following the local television stations, so I had to rely on the BBC and VOA HF broadcasts. Plus, phone communication was poor that 20 meters became crucial for staying in touch with my wife and folks.
This is very brief, and by far does not cover even a small fraction of my involvement in ham radio or better yet, ham radio's involvement in my life. It is a fantastic hobby and life companion. 73's Tim