Ever since I built my RaspberryPi/SHARI AllStarLink node I’ve had to manage connecting/disconnecting to/from other nodes using the Allmon2 or Supermon web admin interfaces. These work fairly well albeit, a bit clunky and buggy. It’s impossible to use from a mobile device though and so I have to get my Macbook out each time I want to connect/disconnect nodes.
Being a Node-RED fanatic I decided that I should put something together that was more portable, mobile friendly and much easier to use. A simple user interface is all that is required and can be achieved very easily using the standard Node-RED dashboard nodes.
Initially I started investigating the Linux command-line interface for Asterisk, the VOIP system that underpins AllStarLink (ASL). I very quickly discovered that the ASL node can be very easily controlled directly from the command-line and that this would be an ideal interface to use to enable node management via a Node-RED dashboard.
In very little time at all I had an experimental control dashboard working with the ASL node and was able to connect/disconnect to/from a single node. All that was required now was to extend this so that I could connect to a number of nodes with nothing more than a push of a button.
The resultant flow consists of 3 sections, Connect/Disconnect Main Flow, Manage Node Subflow and /var/log/asterisk/connectlog Subflow.
The Connect/Disconnect Main Flow handles all the input from the buttons on the dashboard and the communication to the underlying Asterisk VOIP system.
The button status is denoted by 3 colours, green (Ready to connect), orange (Transitioning to/from connect) and red (Connected). Each button is updated automatically by the button refresh function that is triggered every 2 seconds.
The Manage Node Subflow provides a simple interface to restart the Asterisk VOIP system, reboot the RaspberryPi and shutdown the RaspberryPi. The node status is automatically updated every 45 seconds and will show when the Asterisk subsystem is being restarted or the node is being rebooted or shutdown.
Finally the var/log/asterisk/connectlog Subflow monitors the Asterisk connectlog looking for connect/disconnect messages so that it can signal to update each button status.
Each section of the dashboard can be collapsed/opened by touching/clicking the little blue arrows on the right of the dashboard. The dashboard works fine on Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS and Linux.
If you’re not familiar with Node-RED and haven’t yet installed it to your PC, take a look at the Node-RED Getting Started Page. The information takes you through installing Node-RED onto a multitude of devices including PC and RaspberryPi devices.
Once you have Node-RED installed all you need to do is download the AllStarLink Control Dashboard Flow and import it to your Node-RED flow editor.
Once downloaded, select Import from the burger menu icon on the right-hand side of the flow editor as shown below and import the flow file.
Once imported you will find that some of the nodes in the flow are not available. This is because you need to add them to the flow editor palette before being able to deploy the flow.
Drop down the same menu as shown above but, this time select Manage Palette. This will open another window where you will need to select the Install tab as shown below.
You need to install two node sets to complete the flow, node-red-contrib-bigssh and node-red-dashboard. Type in the name of each package one at a time in the search bar and then click the Install button.
Once the two packages are installed you then need to configure the credentials for logging into your RaspberryPi. This is simply done by double clicking the blue Send Command to ASL node at the top of the main flow and then clicking the Pencil button at the end of the Credentials field. This will open another window where you will need to type in the IP Address of your ASL RaspberryPi into the Host field, then enter 22 into the port field, add repeater into the Username field (repeater is the default username, if you have changed this then you will need to add the new username name in instead) and then the password associated with the repeater login into the Password field. (Normally allstarlink)
Once this is done, do the same on the other blue nodes, namely “Get Node Uptime“, “Command =>> RaspberryPi” and “Tail ConnectLog”.
The final thing to setup is the dashboard size. Click on the downward pointing triangle at the top right of the menu bar (under the burger menu) and select dashboard. Check that the sizes are set the same as in the image below. For some reason, these settings aren’t always imported (Possible bug?) so, if your dashboard layout isn’t like shown above it will be because these settings failed to import.
You are now ready to deploy your AllStarLink Control Dashboard!
Press the red Deploy button at the top of the flow editor window.
To access the dashboard from any device, open your favourite web browser and enter the following URL: http://IP-Address-of-Node-RED-Computer:1880/ui
Finally, if you want to change the nodes that each button connects/disconnects you will need to edit the set flow var’s function at the top of the main flow. All you will need to do is replace the existing node numbers taking care not to alter the rest of the code in any way otherwise, it could stop the flow from working.
Once you’ve edited the node numbers, double click on the associated button node and change its Label to show the new node name.
Once your changes are complete, Deploy the flow again and your changes will be live.
This is version 1 of the ASL Dashboard, I already have ideas for version 2 that will also have the ability to enter a node number into a field and connect to it without the need to program it into a button.
More soon …
I arrived yesterday (5th September) and have erected the DXCommander. The BTV is waiting until...The National Traffic System (NTS) is celebrating 75 years of service this October. As NTS...
Read more at RSGB.co.ukRead more at RSGB.co.uk
One of the things that makes Parks on the Air (POTA) so successful is the way that they use their database to keep folks involved. It’s very easy for activators to upload their logs, and once uploaded, the website takes it from there, generating myriad awards for participants. There are awards for all kinds of things including activating or hunting early in the day (Early Shift) and later in the day (Late Shifter). There are “rover” awards for operators who like to operated from many different parks and “repeat offender” awards for those that tend to operate from a single park or a small handful of parks.
And, if you’re a repeat offender—which I tend to be—there are awards for making at least 1,000 contacts from a particular park. They call these the “Kilo” awards. Earlier this year—June 20, to be exact—I earned my first kilo at Island Lake State Recreation Area, US-3315. Today, I earned my second at the Pinckney State Recreation Areas, US-3322.
I worked fairly hard to do this. Since June 20, when I completed my first kilo, I activated US-3322 14 times, making a total of 667 contacts, almost all of them on CW. My most productive activation was 82 contacts on August 2. My least productive activation was 11 contacts on August 17.
This activation was a short one because of the weather. Just after I made the seventh contact, it started to sprinkle. Thinking that it might blow over, my wife handed me an umbrella (see above). Just as I made the ninth contact, however, it started to pour. I was just able to squeeze in two more contacts before I decide the best course of action would be to shut everything down before it was drenched.
My 51 contacts today put me over the top.
Now that I’ve made it to 1,000 at two parks, I’m pondering what I should do next. I could go for 2,000 at US-3315 or US-3322. US-3322 is really a pleasant place to operate.
I could also expand my park selection. There are several nice parks that are only a little further away than Island Lake or Pinckney. I have, for example, 52 contacts from Waterloo State Recreation Area, US-3331, and Maybury State Park, US-1518, is purported to be a nice place to operate from.
Something else that I’m working on is coming up with some new gear for POTA. I’m currently working on building a QRP Labs’ QMX transceiver kit. Last night, I managed to wind and install the first toroid, T501 (see below). Only 10 more to go!
I’m also going to have to purchase or assemble a tuner to go along with the radio. Maybe once I get it all built, I can start on my first 1,000 using only gear that I’ve built. Maybe I could suggest that POTA add an award for making so many contacts with homebrew or kit rigs.
Last weekend when playing with the new antenna, I ended up using my G90 for running FT8. However, it had been a long time since I’d used it for this and I’d forgotten what to do, even of which cable to plug in where! I also ran into a few issues, so this post is a reminder for myself of what to do.
I’m using the CAT cable that comes with the radio (with the blue USB), this plugs into the side of the head unit, with the person image (under the headphones). For audio I use a USB soundcard dongle (random off Amazon), and a headphones/mic splitter, and then a 8 pin mini DIN to TRRS audio cable. Think I bought this off ebay, like this one. The alternative is buying the CE-19 expansion port…but that’s more expensive. This cable plugs into the DIN port on the back and then the USB into the computer.
On the G90 (I have firmware 1.78 so no U-D data mode), put the audio to line in with Fn+Power button, turn off compressor, turn off Preamo, and push the volume knob so it switches to headphones (unless you like listening to data modes!). There are some other recommended settings from the internet in the menu. Not sure how important they really are but I set them anyway:
RF gain 50%
Mic Gain to 10
AUX In volume to 8
AUX out volume to 15
WSJT-X has Xiegu G90 in the Radio menu but it’s very temperamental…at least for me. I found using FLRig as an intermediate for CAT control to be much better. You could just use VOX and skip CAT control. I also found newer version of FLRig had issues and went back to v1.4.8 for a more stable experience.
Once FLRig is running, you can then setup WSJT-X as follows:
I adjust the sound in Windows Sound Settings so that the receive on the left is about 70 dB, and then adjust the slider in WSJT-X for the transmit power such that ALC is 99-100 on the G90. This should correspond to the power output set.
Then enjoy your digital operations! Probably works for all digital modes with other software too.
The final day of driving on our recent western states road trip found us waking up in Winnemucca, Nevada. Growing weary from days on the road but refreshed after a night’s sleep we once again pulled onto I-80 West.
Up to this point I had never activated a POTA reference in the state of Nevada, even though it’s the closest other state to me at my home QTH of San Francisco.
About 50 miles west of Winnemucca is Rye Patch SRA (US-4444). I had my eye on this park as potential operating spot since I would reach it still fairly early in the day and it was not far off the highway. Rye Patch Reservoir is an 11 mile long man-made lake that runs parallel to interstate 80 and is held back by a dam at its southern end.
We got to the turn off and despite my desire to put the hammer down and get home, I thought to just have a look around to see what Rye Patch SRA looked like.
Naturally, once inside the park there is very little chance that I am not going to attempt an activation. At 10 in the morning, the high desert had already warmed into the 80s and I wanted to keep this operation on the quick side, if possible. These facts called for an in-car operation with the air conditioner running to try keep both the humans and the radio as cool as possible.
From the road I spied a parking area where a lone tree provided a patch of shade. It was in a bit of a bowl, but better that than roasting in the full sun up on the desert plateau.
I used the Yaesu FT-818 this time, perched on the center console in an attempt to keep it cooler. Turns out it would have been easier to use the KH1 in this situation but I didn’t feel like taking the time to switch radios.
About halfway through the hour of operating needed to get to 10 contacts for a valid POTA activation I was visited by the park rangers who’d obviously taken notice of the out-of-state plates and big antenna on the car. They were friendly enough and mentioned they’ve seen other ham operators at the park in the past.
I was just glad that I had paid the day use fee at the self-serve kiosk prior to my activation. Not to say that I had even remotely considered not paying! I fully encourage supporting our parks so that we continue to have access to this great public resource.
With 10 QSOs in the log, we furled the station, rolled up all the windows and put the A/C on high before jumping back on I-80 for the drive through Reno, over the Sierras and back to our home in San Francisco.
This is the conclusion of this short series of brief field reports on outdoor amateur radio on this western states road trip. Six new to me POTA references activated from five new states with a total of 65 QRP CW QSOs.
73 de W6CSN
I am surprised that I actually managed to do something useful today. For a while now I have been meaning to put a Cross Country Wireless HF/VHF/UHF antenna splitter to use and today was the day. It is now sat upside down on the top shelf above the radios, fed from the discone in the loft and feeding two little LoRa modules, one for TinyGS and one receiving radiosondes. The TinyGS receiver had been running for some time sat in the loft and was previously the only thing connected to the discone. The radiosonde receiver had a 70cm ground plane in the shack and never received anything. Since reorganising the feed it has burst into life, rather surprisingly finding a balloon quite close to this QTH which was apparently launched from somewhere to the west of the Lake District but the data does not show the launch site. Looking at the altitude figure in the data I suspect it is already sat on the ground. Pity I cannot go out right now to see if I can find it.
Now, the cabling is RG58 and so not particularly good at UHF. The next step is to put a pre-amp next to the discone, and then to run some Ultraflex 10 instead of RG58. It’s only a few metres but every little helps.
TinyGS info can be found at https://tinygs.com
The software on the radiosonde receiver is rdzTTGOsonde and information can be found at https://sondehub.org/
 |
| March 14, 2024 |
PART 97—AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE
Subpart A—General Provisions
The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:
(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.
As of March 2024, the validity of Godfrey's claim is yet to be established.[12] On 6 March 2024 the BBC documentary Why Planes Vanish: The Hunt for MH370 examined Godfrey's claim and reported that scientists at the University of Liverpool were undertaking an analytical study of the possibility of using WSPR technology to locate the missing aircraft. The University stated they would release their results within 6 months
I’ve been casually looking for N5J on Jarvis Island for the past week or so. I heard them once on 12m CW early on, and have seen many spots. Since my operating time has mostly been between local noon and 6 PM, that simply wasn’t an optimal time.
This morning I happened to be awake right around sunrise (about 6 AM local time), and figured grey-line propagation might help. So I checked the spotting network, and sure enough saw a number of spots on 18.095 FT8. I didn’t want to wake the house stumbling downstairs to the basement, so I used my phone to connect to my FelxRadio 6600M. That tiny display certainly wasn’t optimal, but I did see that N5J was on the air and quite strong, so I gave them a call. A few minutes later, I had an answer
Data screen of SmartSDR on my iPhone showing NJ5 Contact
Waterfall display from SmartSDR showing strong N5J signal at RX frequency, and my TX offset
Solar position showing N5J location. The contact was made 26 minutes after local sunrise
About 10 hours later, N5J uploaded their log, and sure enough my contact was confirmed! Jarvis happens to be an ATNO (All Time New One) for me. and should bring my DXCC count to 280.
{ED} A couple of days later I worked N5J on 20 and 15m CW. Never heard them on SSB.
Thanks to the DXpedition for their hard work. I understand they finished with over 100,000 QSOs, which is outstanding.
Special event station TM67JO is active to celebrate the Paris 2024 Olympic Games which began...The plane is empty.
She’s adamant that we must stay in our assigned seats but I somehow find myself stealthy relocated to a window seat.
Tired, excited and most likely caffeinated we are airborne from Cairo. The previous flight had left London sometime past midnight, presumably to garner the cheapest departure cost, inevitably has disrupted my sleep pattern, worsened by rigid and unbending seats.
Alarm and confusion set in as we descended early and all l could see was miles of desert and dunes. This can’t possibly be India and I wonder if we have somehow found our way onto the wrong flight to the wrong destination. Maybe she’s amused but responds that we are landing in Dubai and assures us we will get to Bombay after a short stop that requires no disembarkation on my part.
Weeks go by and we’ve traveled enormous distances at a snail’s pace. We’ve crept south from Bombay to Cape Comorin, the southernmost tip of India. As lone travelers we are an oddity to many. We visit Hindu temples, have become very familiar with train stations, carriages, government hotels and a diet that is proving hard. Density varies from a handful of people in remote and struggling villages to throngs that are almost a deluge in cities of equally challenged people. We’ve swung north along the Bay of Bengal towards Darjeeling.
Weeks become almost two months and we’ve skirted westward across the lower Himalayas and into Kashmir. Maybe it was an article in the Guardian, but Rico has decided we must visit Leh in the otherworldly place called “Little Tibet” or more formally, Ladakh. Not long since a war frontier in bloody battles with China, this area is now open for the first time to tourists.
Ill again, I stay in the Srinagar hotel room. Against the odds, Rico has scored a victory with two bus tickets and permission for us to ride from Srinagar up through the mountains on what is sometimes a plausible road clinging to the mountain side high above the Indus River.
Kargil is a desolate high altitude place. Unfamiliar with much, all hotel beds are nabbed by those in the know and we find ourselves sleeping on a dirt floor in a hovel. Maybe tea revived us the next morning but a day later we arrived in Leh and straight into the 15th century. No cars, limited electricity, heavy felt clothing, distinctive hats all make for a sense of somewhere that is not India. Buddhist pray wheals, pray flags and a miniature Portola dot a hilly and rugged community and close in feel and outlook to Tibet versus India.
The compartment was typical of the era. Two doors, two bench seats offering privacy and these cramped spaces were repeated the length of the carriage. No bathroom, no ability to move up or down the carriage. If trapped, fellow travelers could make the journey almost unbearable.
Each is not particularly heavy nor bulky but five, seven or more rapidly became a chore to move. Pulling one out was possibly the highlight of the trip. Aged relatives with little to say made for difficult company for this ten year old who was shy and also had little to say.
In a world of black and white TV and music pouring from a tiny transistor radio, badly curated by a prescriptive BBC, National Geographic was manna from heaven. A beautiful, exciting and colorful world existed beyond the drab 1970s UK.
I loved the photos of American National Parks, hoodoos in Bryce or geysers in Yellowstone. Definitely not central London. I loved the photos of American states, colorful Vermont, cactus rich Arizona, I’m sold, I’m coming!. The occasional pull out map was always a perennial favorite. Photo tours of Africa, South America and even Europe were a delight. The ads for Bell Air or Cadillac conveyed such a sense of optimism. Camera and exotic shortwave radio ads sealed the deal for me. There is a Brave New World somewhere else.
We were essentially broke. Film was expensive, space was tight and unbelievably for an almost three month trip I have around twelve rolls of 35mm film, predominantly color but a few rolls of black and white. As a pretty unseasoned photographer on such a ridiculous “snap” budget it’s a marvel I have really anything to show for what was and is tritely, a life changing trip which made me a better human. Not many, a few, sunrise at Cape Comorin and this.
Permission granted, not as V victory but by two fingers, a rupee for each.
I snapped it, I labored to develop and print it and caringly carried it over the decades through countless moves, an emigration to America and stashed it with family photos.
Its significance, somewhat unrecognized nor fully understood until later in life. In a way it’s a homage to National Geographic. Imitation is the finest form of flattery and I was “mimicking” what I had so enjoyed.
Twenty five percent inflation, relentless crippling strikes and an IMF bailout sharpens the will in 1970s London to avoid failure.
With a newly minted Computer Science and Math degree, emigrating to join the A team was made all the more palatable having so enjoyed National Geographic’s simple message; the world is a wonderful place, the glass is half full, not half empty and optimism and America are the same thing.
A simple philosophy to guide a simple life.
Login
