Personal
I live at 221 Pleasant Plains Road, Stirling, New Jersey 07980 USA with my wife Susan. We have two children, Jennifer and Michael. My main sports are birding and skiing. I also enjoy cooking. I am an exercise junkie, and work out at the Summit YMCA every week.
You can email to this company address, but it is subject to aggressive filtering, so if I don't reply, and you are a long lost friend, please call me at home at 908-580-1319.
Professional
I work at Interet Corporation as a computer programmer. My main languages are Python, C and Fortran (yes, Fortran 77), plus a bit of C++ and several Unix mini-languages. Interet was an early adopter of Unix, and we currently run Linux servers for our office.
Software
I am a big fan of the Python programming language, please check it out. Python is an easy to use programming language with advanced features like classes and structured exception handling. It is mature, powerful, practical and free. It runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, Macintosh and other systems.
Ham Radio Projects
I got my first Amateur Radio license as a teenager. Amateur radio operators are licensed (in the U.S.) by the FCC to operate radio transmitters. We "hams" use our stations to chat with other hams around the country and around the world. My teenage license expired when I got busy with college. I got re-licensed later, but that license expired when I was raising my kids. In 2006 I got my most recent license, and I got my old call back, N2ADR.
I am interested in digital radio and Software Defined Radio (SDR). There is a lot of activity in this area. For an excellent list of SDR projects, see this list by Christophe, F4DAN. I am building a homebrew station using SDR techniques. The software for these projects is available under the General Public License (GPL). The various projects are listed below.
SSB/CW Exciter
My SSB and CW exciter is currently (2007) based on an FPGA. The design is entirely digital. The output is generated by a DAC and there are no analog mixers. For SSB, audio data from the PC is sent to the exciter using Ethernet. For CW, the key connects to the hardware, the FPGA provides a shaped carrier at the output frequency, and the PC is only used to provide a sidetone. This project will be published in QEX.
QUISK
I have written SDR software optimized for CW operation called QUISK. QUISK reads I/Q data from the PC soundcard and then tunes and demodulates it. The most recent version also works with the SDR-IQ make by RfSpace. QUISK supports fast QSK (full breakin) operation. QUISK runs under Linux. The QUISK software controls my SDR receiver and my SSB/CW exciter.
ft245 Installation
I have written installation instructions for the Linux ft245 driver. This driver supports the FTDI USB serial chips that are used in the SDR-IQ and SDR14 receivers from RfSpace. There are also a couple of programming notes.
AT-200PC Control Software
I have written control software for the AT-200PC antenna tuner. The AT-200PC by LDG Electronics is an automatic antenna tuner that is similar to their AT-200 Pro, but has no buttons or display. Instead, it is controlled by the serial port (or USB port) of a PC, and so is ideal for a PC-controlled radio. My software runs on both Windows and Linux.
PCR-1000
I have written control software for the Icom PCR-1000 radio. This radio is a small box the size of a paperback book. You connect it to your PC serial port and tune it with my software or other control software. My software is written in Python, so it comes with source code and you can change it yourself. It runs on Windows, Linux and any other system that supports Python and Tkinter. This project is no longer being developed.
Last modified January 2008.