Blog – Page 2

A cheaper antenna: the Red Green J-Pole

Written on January 8, 2021.

What else would you expect? People make J-Pole antennas out of all kind of things… copper pipe… twin-lead/ladder line. But who has that kind of stuff lying around the house? And the tools to work it? Everybody has speaker wire! Old speaker wire. Now that’s something a lot of people have lying around. If you took a ham...

Isolated? Learn or improve your Python!

Written on January 5, 2021.

Don’t just sit there – learn something! We’ve rounded up some resources for anyone who wants to learn or improve their Python coding skills. Ylab has held Python for Programmers classes in the past and created some new Python bigots fans. But there’s only so much knowledge we can impart in a two hour session. Plus,...

Ylab’s A.I North Is Back Jan. 4 and On-Line. Now with social-distancing included.

Written on January 3, 2021.

Don’t just sit there – learn something! With COVID still upon us and A.I. North founder Lucian confined to quarters, we are kicking off 2021 with a move to on-line sessions. We already have speakers lined up for the first three sessions, and we are looking for more. It all kicks off on January 4, 2021 with A.I. Gets a Bite...

Talking around the world with a handheld radio: the magic of IRLP

Written on December 29, 2020.

Talking around the world with a handheld radio: the magic of IRLP If you have a handheld radio and live in almost any populated area in Canada, you can reach a repeater to have your signal rebroadcast with much more power and much farther away. If the repeater supports IRLP, you can connect to other repeaters around the world by punching in tones...

Understanding Frequency Bands and Bandwidth

Written on December 26, 2020.

Understanding bands, signal bandwidth and device bandwidth When we look at a modern radio like the one above, we don’t see much. We might recognise that this is a dual-band radio, since it has two frequencies on the display – 145.410 and 444.400. These frequencies are in MHz (MegaHertz) – but there’s nothing on the display...

Connector Installation Secret Revealed!

Written on December 26, 2020.

Connector Installation Secret Revealed! No matter how many youtube videos I watched… no matter what type of connector… no matter how many times I did it… I always mess up something when I install a connector. My rule when buying connectors: for every one I need, buy another because I’m going to mess one up. The screw-ups...

Don’t let the radio man frighten you. He’s just trying to help.

Written on December 26, 2020.

Don’t let the radio man frighten you. He’s just trying to help. The vast majority of ham operators are excited to see new people get into the hobby. They will readily jump in with advice. They’ll drive to your house to help you set up. But they forget what it was like to be a newbie. A couple of years ago, while still a newbie myself, shortly...

Free ham radio class! On-line! But why?

Written on December 22, 2020.

Free ham radio class! On-line! But why? Stuck in your house during COVID? Want to talk to people but don’t want them to see your sequestration hair-do or lack thereof? Wishing you had done more to properly learn electronics? Too much dust on your voltmeter and soldering iron – if you can find them? Think a ham radio license would...

COVID Closure Extended

Written on December 22, 2020.

COVID CLOSURE EXTENDED – WE’RE GOING ON-LINE The City of Richmond Hill, our hosts at the David Dunlap Observatory, are anticipating keeping all community centres closed until June 2021. The DDO is managed as a community centre, so that puts our activities there on hold until then. Ylab members have been meeting on-line, including our...

Update on the DDO Restoration

Written on November 29, 2020.

New paint job on the dome Ylab’s home at the DDO has been undergoing an extensive restoration since the spring. As scaffolding is starting to come down, it’s looking amazing. The work has been extensive. Removing all the old lead paint without getting it in the environment. Carefully restoring all the windows to their original...