Logbook of the World seems to be back. I was able to log on and see my QSOs - which reminds me, I haven't done an upload in a while. I'll make sure to do that over the long holiday weekend. I also checked to see if our July 13th VE Session was removed from the calendar. It wasn't, even though I had sent an e-mail to the ARRL requesting that be done. I received a reply informing me that they still could not access that server. I'll be away that day and rather than put the onus on someone else to act as "Liaison for the Day", I decided to cancel.

Our annual trip to Lake George will be happening soon.  This year, in addition to the AlexLoop and the AX1, I'm going to bring along the PAR ENDFEDZ 40-20-10 as well as my drive on mast base and my 20 foot crappie pole. I'd like to bring the Jackite, but it doesn't slip into the mast holder - it's too wide/thick. Usually, each time we go up to the Lake, I take some time to head up to Mt. Prospect (which is not a SOTA peak) and set up in the parking lot that is near the summit. There's a solitary picnic table there (in the parking lot!) and in the past I've parked the car some 20-30 feet away and have used the end fed as a sloper. There are other picnics tables in a wooded grassy area off to the side, but those are usually occupied by picnickers. Who wants to picnic in a parking lot, right? I usually have that table to myself. I can do a POTA activation as it's part of the Adirondack State Park - US-2001.

We had a CERT meeting in town last night and Marv K2VHW and I were asked to do some kind of licensing class for the CERT members in town. The two words I hate to hear the most were bandied about - "Ham Cram".  I know Marv feels the same way I do. But what I'm thinking is maybe to have a period of reading the licensing manual beforehand with some Zoom meetings interspersed where we can answer questions and explain more "difficult" topics culminating in a day of review - the "cram" - followed by the exam session.

Looking at the QRP Labs website, I'm calculating that based on the number of built kits that leave the factory every month, I may see my QMX sometime in August. It would be neat to have it for the Skeeter Hunt. I was smitten by that HB-1B that I was given the opportunity to play with. I'm looking forward to adding the QMX to my small herd of radios.

Finally, I signed up and am Bumble Bee # 57 for this year's FOBB. The Heinz Bee - LOL! I will probably head over to Cotton Street Park for the event, although if I decide to head up to Washington Rock State Park it would be a two-fer ...... FOBB and a POTA activation.

Thirteen Colonies started Sunday night, I guess. I've no interest in participating in that as all, for reasons which I will not go into here. The best I can say about it is that it generates a lot of activity on the bands. I'll leave it at that.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!

Mention Atlas Radio and immediately you think of Herb Johnson who also was the creative genius behind Swan Engineering later Swan Radio.

After far too long, I've finally managed to get Fldigi and Quisk to work together to finally do digi modes like Olivia. The problems I had before were the following:

• When I used hamlib to set the frequency from Fldigi and switch Quisk from RX to TX via PTT, it seemed like Quisk and Fldigi were fighting each other. The frequency then jumped back and forth for so long that Fldigi became so unusable that I had to terminate the process .
• I did not see the sound devices within Fldigi

The guide by James Ahlstrom helped a lot, which unfortunately I initially hadn't understood in as much detail as I should have.

I have implemented the following instructions with the following software versions:

• Debian 12 stable with Cinnamon as DE
• Fldigi 4.1.23
• Quisk 4.2.35

Quisk: Sound Settings

The following screenshot shows how I've set up the audio settings in Quisk:

The two important settings are:

• Digital Tx0 Input: "pulse: Use name QuiskDigitalInput"
• Digital Rx0 Output: "pulse: Use name QuiskDigitalOutput.monitor"

Fldigi: Rig Control

I've switched from hamlib to flrig / xmlrpc with the following settings:

• Enable flrig xcvr with Fldigi as client
• Shutdown flrig with fldigi
• Addr: 127.0.0.1
• Port: 12345
• Flrig PTT keys modem

FlDigi: Soundcard - Devices

Check the option "PulseAudio":

Gluing the Sound Stuff together

Now comes the interesting part!

First, start both, Quisk and Fldigi. It is very important that the applications are running.

Now start the Pulse Audio Volume Control application with the command pavucontrol. You might need to install it first from the package repository.

Click on the tab "Recording". There should be a line visible with the Fldigi icon and the text "capture (some number)". Select "Monitor of QuiskDigitalOutput" in the drop down box next to it:

Click on the tab "Playback". You will notice that there is no such line with the Fldigi icon visible. This is because it is only there when you transmit from inside Fldigi. Pick a clear frequency and e.g. send a longer CQ message in Olivia. As soon as Fldigi switches to TX, a new line with the Fldigi icon and the text "playback (some number)" will be shown in pavucontrol. Select "QuiskDigitalInput" in the drop down box next to it:

That's it!

Now you are good to go: It should now be possible to change the frequency in both Quisk and Fldigi for both applications at the same time, PTT from Fldigi should work without any problems and you should be able to see the signals received by Quisk in the Fldigi waterfall and also be able to make transmissions.

I recently spent some time in Central Pennsylvania at my daughter’s house. Since I was going to be there a while, I brought along my Raspberry Pi hotspot. While I’m not really active in digital voice modes (or any voice modes, for that matter), there are a couple of DMR nets I like to check into each week. 

One issue I ran into in the past, is that my hotspot refuses to connect to their Wi-Fi network. Their Wi-Fi SSID has both an apostrophe and a space in it, so I’m guessing that’s the issue. I could have connected the hotspot directly to their router via an ethernet cable. Because of their router’s location, I would have had to move some furniture and put the hotspot in an awkward location. So, this time around I brought a little travel router to try another approach. 

Back when I was working, I had a TP-Link Nano router that I took on business trips. Typically, I would connect it to an Ethernet port in my hotel room to create a personal Wi-Fi network for my laptop and phone. A while back, I upgraded to the newer (and faster) TP-Link TL-WR802N travel router. I don’t travel nearly as much these days, so the new router hasn’t seen much use.

I brought the travel router along on this trip to create a wireless bridge from the house’s Wi-Fi to my personal Wi-Fi. The router’s Wi-Fi network has an SSID that my hotspot likes. I haven’t used that mode much, so I had to resort to the user manual to refresh my memory on how to set this thing up.

Actually, it was pretty easy to set up. It was simply a matter of connecting my laptop to travel travel router’s Wi-Fi to access the admin functions. From there, I set it up in the “Hotspot Router” mode. Then, I scanned to find the house’s Wi-Fi network and logged into it.

Testing the internet connectivity with my laptop, the speed looked good. I had previously added my travel router’s SSID and password to the hotspot, so soon after powering up I was hearing the sounds of DMR coming from my HT. This configuration worked great, and I successfully checked into a few nets during the week. 

The next time I go out there to visit, I’ll just need to power up the router and the hotspot, and everything should work. (Knock on wood)

No ground-breaking technological advances here. I just love when a plan comes together. 

73, Craig WB3GCK

[Disclaimer: I have no monetary interest in this product, and there are no affiliate links in this post. I’m just a satisfied owner.]

AllStarLink has announced a major update to their software, AllStarLink 3 (ASL3). Now in beta, ASL3 upgrades the popular repeater and hotspot software from Asterisk version 1.4 to version 20, a 15 year leap in PBX phone system technology. Asterisk is the backbone of AllStarLink driving a network of repeaters, hotspots, and base stations all connected via voice over internet protocol (VoIP). ASL3 is now capable of running on both X86_64 and arm64 hardware, physical and virtual. Additional improvements include:

• Runs as non-root user
• Supports Debian 12 and future updates
• Improved EchoLink support
• Reduced microSD wear

Learn more about ASL3.

Source: AllStarLink

POTA at Longfellow House

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to do a POTA activation at the Longfellow House National Historic Site (US-0843) in Cambridge, MA.

Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.¹

About the Longfellow House

According to its official website, the Longfellow House “was a site of colonial enslavement and community activism, George Washington’s first long-term headquarters of the American Revolution, and the place where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his canon of 19th-century American literature.”

The house served as George Washington’s headquarters during the Siege of Boston from July 1775 to April 1776, making it an important Revolutionary War site. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived in the house from 1837 until his death in 1882. It was a center for literary and cultural activity during his residency. The Longfellow House was a gathering place for prominent literary figures, artists, and intellectuals of the time, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Charles Dickens.

Activating the Longfellow House

I live about 7 miles from the Longfellow House. Like the Alewife Brook State Reserve that I activated recently, this is a semi-urban site. Being Sunday, I was able to drive to the site and park across the street. Note that Cambridge has strict parking enforcement with few non-resident spaces in this area on other days. So you may want to consider a Sunday activation. Alternatively, you could take the 77 MBTA bus from Harvard Sq. to this POTA site.

The park consists of a single large lot nestled in tony West Cambridge. I walked the grounds to explore a bit and find a good place to set up my Elecraft KH1 Transceiver. In the back, there was a nice garden.

Initial Setup

Just behind the visitor center on the northern end of the house, there are some picnic tables well-suited to a small rig like the KH1.

Unfortunately, early in my activation, my radio display indicated that it was overheating and stopped transmitting. It was probably good it did so—I was so focused that I didn’t realize that I was overheating myself! So I took a break and found a new site on the southeastern side of the small park with some beautiful trees and shade. I’ll probably just set up at that location in the future. It’s out of the way of foot traffic and has great shade.

I resumed my activation. Propagation was not good that day. I had to work fairly hard for a little over 2 hours to make 11 contacts and consider my efforts successful.

You can see the map of my contacts that day. Thanks to all the hunters who stuck it out that day with my little 5-watt radio, my compromised whip antenna, and poor conditions.

Pride

While I was there, the park was hosting a Pride Month event. So this is my chance to wish all LGBTQ friends and allies a Happy Pride Month!

You’re seen and you’re loved.

1620 1916 Radio Zorro. SINPO 33433.
1630 1910 Radio Zwarte Boekanier. SINPO 34433.
5880 1903 Radio Rock Revolution. SINPO 34433.
6285 2000 Radio Batavia. SINPO 54444.
6450 2012 Radio Tidalwave. SINPO 24432.

Attention: Full ARRL members in the Central, Hudson, New England, Northwestern, and Roanoke Divisions. You have the opportunity to choose a Director and Vice Director to represent you for a 3-year term beginning January 1, 2025.

ARRL is governed by its Board of Directors. A voting Director is chosen by ballot by the full (licensed) ARRL members in each of its 15 Divisions. Vice Directors who ser...

Good afternoon. KJ7T is in the booth! This is Tom Salzer with some Random Wire Reflections for Issue 97 of the Random Wire Review that will publish on Friday, July 5th.

And I have to laugh a bit when I saw I'm in the booth, because the reality is I'm at my messy sit-stand workstation at home, early in the morning when it is quiet, and just pretending that I have a recording booth!

I actually recorded this podcast inside the passenger compartment of my Honda Ridgeline truck while waiting for my daughter’s prescription to be filled. I captured audio on my Zoom H4N Pro Handy Recorder with a “dead cat” filter over the sensitive microphones. The audio was later imported into Audacity for final editing. I exported the audio in mono to save space, making this podcast a bit more friendly for folks using cellular bandwidth to listen.

Overview

OK, let's take a dive into Random Wire Review issue 97.

Topics in issue 97 include:

• Independence Day;

• a new (to me) Dakota Lithium battery;

• the Digirig Mobile and Digirig Lite devices; and

• a terminal node controller by MFJ.

I also offer some reflections on encryption of radio traffic and on APRS. The closing notes include a short bit about cloning my hotspot microSD card, a sound clip from an AllStarLink net, and a few photos from the Hillsboro Hops baseball game.

If you are interested in AllStarLink, you’ll want to stay tuned to the very end where late-breaking news is shared about a major version upgrade for AllStarLink!

Independence Day Edition

Since issue 97 will publish on July 5th, I'm calling it the Independence Day Edition.

On July 4th, my wife and I will attend a baseball game that pits the Hillsboro Hops against the Eugene Emeralds. We'll try to eat a few hot dogs, have a beer, and watch the fireworks show that will be featured at this game. Usually we get together with family, but having a night out for the two of us seems like a great way to celebrate Independence Day this year.

In issue 97, I refer readers to a Reddit thread about the First Amendment and ham radio. Reading through those comments helped me appreciate the many privileges we enjoy as licensed amateur radio operators even more.

New Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery

I succumbed to a deal on Facebook for a 12-volt, ten amp-hour battery from Dakota Lithium, for $69. That’s a nice price for a portable battery.

This little guy is a bit larger than my off-brand 12.8V 6 amp-hour battery by TalentCell. I'm surprised the Dakota battery doesn't weigh much more than the TalentCell battery.

I tested the battery by clipping the power leads from my Ten-Tec Scout 555 to the spade lugs on the Dakota battery. It worked great and I can tell this is going to be a mainstay in my ham radio kit.

Digirig Mobile and Digirig Lite devices

I have a Digirig Mobile device that I bought because I couldn't get an MFJ TNC some time ago. The Digirig device works great. It's about the size of a large thimble, as in the protective device you put on your thumb when sewing.

Actually, the Digirig kind of blows my mind. Essentially, it's an external sound card that is just tiny.

The catalyst for me to look again at the Digirig products was an issue of Steve Stroh's great newsletter titled Zero Retries. Steve included a bit about the new Digirig Lite device that incorporates some of the needed cabling into the device.

I love a tiny and complete solution so the Digirig Lite is on my "must acquire" list.

If you like content that is interesting and future focused, produced by an experienced and capable ham, I recommend Steve's newsletter to you. A subscription button is included in issue 97 of the Random Wire.

A New TNC Arrived in the Shack

And speaking of terminal node controllers, Steve's mention of the Digirig Lite caused me to remember why I bought the Digirig Mobile, so I went looking for an MFJ 1270X TNC again. Most vendors I checked list this device as out of stock, but Ham Radio Outlet had some in Sacramento.

I very swiftly logged into my HRO account and ordered up another 1270X. It arrived a few days later. I include unboxing photos in issue 97.

Encryption of Radio Traffic

I overheard an interesting conversation from an east coast reflector while on a morning drive for the coffee that fuels the start of my day. Somehow, those hams got onto the topic of encryption of radio traffic by city, county, and state agencies.

I reflect a bit on this in issue 97. I'm of two minds. Normally I would prefer radio be open to all. But I've been in the public safety arena and I understand the need to protect people, families, businesses, and public officials. If encryption makes public safety officials safer and better able to do their jobs, then I support it.

How Do You Do APRS?

I actually did laugh out loud when this title popped into my head because it echoes a line in the 1980s movie The Last Starfighter. In that scene, an alien astronaut is meeting the hero's friends and family on Earth, and when one of the people asks him "How do you do?" he responds with: "I do WELL! How do YOU do?" That's the intonation I hear in my mind when I read How do YOU Do APRS?

I run APRS in my mobile rig: a Yaesu FTM-300DR on VFO B. I also have APRS enabled on my desktop AllStarLink node and on my Yaesu System Fusion hotspot. These latter two devices simply report the position of the devices. They aren't digipeating or igating APRS traffic.

I'd love to know how you use APRS, and if you don't, why not? The technology has been around for a while but I consider that a strength because it means there are a significant number of APRS digipeaters around the world.

I've been kinda sorta thinking of adding a digi on my home network, and that means either getting a pre-built device like the WX3in1 Plus or building a fill-in digipeater. There are links to some interesting digi projects in issue 97.

Notes

I did clone my hotspot microSD card as I suggested I should a few weeks ago. The clone is currently in the hotspot and running fine. The original card is labeled and in my workstation drawer. The image file that I can use to burn more microSD cards is stored on my file server. That's about as backed up on this system as I need to be.

Something I'd like to do in Random Wire Review issues is include a sound clip of a particular operating mode. In issue 97, I link to a seven-minute clip of an AllStarLink net that let's you hear the wide range of audio quality among the participants. Audio ranges from smooth and clear to completely broken.

One of my goals is to help subscribers who have not used some of these modes experience the kind of audio you might hear.

I think I'll throw in a few photos from the Hillsboro Hops game, just for fun. Getting away from radio for a few hours can be a refreshing change that helps provide a bit more perspective when you come back to it later.

LATE BREAKING NEWS

Hours after Random Wire 96 was published last week, AllStarLink announced the availability of ASL 3. This is presented as a Beta release. If you take a look at the online manual, this is a big step forward for ASL:

• Supported Hardware & Software

• Any x86_64/amd64 hardware device

• Any emulated x86_64/amd64 virtual machine

• Any arm64-based device such as Raspberry Pi

• Any emulated arm64 virtual machine

• Debian 12

I welcome this big version change but I think it should come with a caution. Many of us will want to upgrade to the latest and greatest version which is now ASL 3 Beta. If your node is running fine, I suggest waiting a bit to see if undiscovered bugs or problems come to light, especially if your node is publicly accessible.

Despite my sense of caution, I must say well done to the AllStarLink folks. I feel like my financial support of AllStarLink is helping to make a difference. AllStarLink is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization so your donations may be tax deductible.

I’m sure I’ll give it a try soon. My cloud node is definitely a public-facing system so I’ll capture multiple backups of the working node before I go down this path. Step one, though, is to read the user manual!

With that, I'll say thank you for taking the time to listen and to comment. 73 to all. This is KJ7T and I'm clear.

Credits

• Intro music: Positive Uplifting Music For YouTube Videos by UNIVERSFIELD — https://freesound.org/s/702873/ — License: Attribution 4.0

• Fades between segments: Atmospheric, ambient fade by waveplaySFX — https://freesound.org/s/384695/ — License: Attribution 4.0

• Closing music: Unforgettable Moments by UNIVERSFIELD — https://freesound.org/people/UNIVERSFIELD/sounds/698550/ — License: Attribution 4.0

• Cover art: The cover art for the podcast stream is by Wallace Chuck — https://www.pexels.com/photo/black-headset-on-condenser-microphone-3587478/

• The other cover: If you see a photo of a person with a headset, that is a selfie of Tom Salzer KJ7T using a Heil headset.