Contents

Features & Reviews

16 Commemorating Cassini's demise and Sputnik's birth

The Cassini spacecraft will be deliberately plunged into Saturn this month, to certain destruction. It's had a remarkably successful mission. We also look at the world's first man-made satellite, Sputnik, 60 years on - by Ross Tester

40 This month: Melbourne's turn for Electronex Expo

Australia's only dedicated electronics design and assembly industry expo and conference returns to the Melbourne on September 6 and 7

61 The unclear future of radio broadcasting in Australia

Did you know the ABC turned off its shortwave transmitters in January, leaving vast areas of Australia without a viable radio service? AM, FM and DAB+ don't stand a chance - so where do we go from here? - by Alan Hughes

63 Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM): what's it all about?

DRM could be the solution for continent-wide broadcasting and beyond -with excellent quality and can even be in stereo. It's a much better proposition than anything else and its cost would be minimal - by Jim Rowe

78 LTspice Tutorial Part 3: Modelling an NTC Thermistor

We show how to simulate this tricky non-linear device - by Nicholas Vinen

Constructional Projects

24 Fully adjustable, 3-way active loudspeaker crossover

Want more than a boring passive crossover? Build this one! The crossover points and levels for tweeter, midrange and woofer are fully adjustable with separate level controls for each driver - by John Clarke

66 Dead simple radio IF alignment with DDS

Gone are the days when aligning a superhet radio IF took lots of gear and time: this Maximite-based DDS module makes short work of it. And it's really simple! A must for all our (many!) vintage radio enthusiasts - by Nicholas Vinen

86 An Arduino Data Logger with GPS, Part 2

Here's the description of how the software works and how it all goes together with a custom shield - by Nicholas Vinen

92 Arduino "ThingSpeak.com" ESP8266 data logger

It's easy to log data to the cloud using an Arduino - by Bera Somnath

94 El Cheapo modules Part 9: AD9850 DDS module

It can be programmed to produce sine and square waves from 0.0291Hz to over 62MHz in tiny increments - by Jim Rowe

Your Favourite Columns

36 Circuit Notebook

(1) Automatically rebooting NBN modem each night

(2) UDAR rangefinder with Arduino

(3) Level shifting the output of the High-Temperature Digital Thermometer

73 Serviceman's Log

When a GPS loses its way - by Dave Thompson

Everything Else!

100 Vintage Radio

The 3-transistor Philips MT4 Swingalong - by Ian Batty

2 Editor's Viewpoint 4 Mailbag - Your Feedback 104 Silicon Chip Online Shop

106 Product Showcase

107 Ask Silicon Chip

111 Market Centre

112 Advertising Index 112 Notes and Errata