Stuff I do

WSJT-X is a great desktop application for communicating via radio using various weak signal modes. I use it on the HF bands to contact amateur radio operators literally all over the world. The new 1.7.0-rc1 alpha release features a new algorithm for decoding, and it is quite a bit more effective than the previous 1.6.x versions. One of the most important parts is decoding Reed-Solomon codes. The previous versions used a proprietary decoder, this one uses a new, open-source method. Since I work a lot in JT65 and JT9 on short wave, building the new version definitely worth the struggle.

In this chapter I'm going to show you how to build an atmospheric ion chamber for detecting radiation. The detector will have little drift, can be set to zero, and can be used to compare the radioactivity of samples, measure weak sources, or follow the decay of short half-life sources for hours or days even. These features all require that the detector to be stable, and the readings don't drift around with temperature. Temperature drift is very likely the worst offender to our previous ion chamber design, so we're going to deal with that one this time.