Let me start by saying that I LIKE Ham Radio Workbench. But I found a lot in the current edition that I disagreed with. The whole panel seems to be chuckling at the older gear. And the guest is from... Flex radio. So what do you expect? The title was "Radio Rejuvenation" -- I expected something different. I thought we'd hear more about how to get old tube radios going. Instead, the focus seems to have been on how to take an old radio and stuff an RTL dongle, or a Raspberry Pi, or a Flex radio in there. Yuck.
At one point they are laughing at old magic eye tubes! They wonder if there is a digital way of recreating this tube in digital form. Sorry fellows, that has already been done:
Lest in diesem Beitrag über unseren Impressionen vom Besuch der diesjährigen Ham Radio. Am 29. Juni machten wir, Otmar DJ1OF, und ich, Stephan DG1BGS/9V1LH, uns bei strahlendem Sonnenschein mit dem Katamaran von Konstanz auf den Weg zur Ham Radio 2024 in Friedrichshafen. Im Shuttle-Bus trafen wir bereits viele Funkamateure, darunter den bekannten DXpeditionär Mac JA3USA. … Unser Besuch auf der Ham Radio 2024 weiterlesen
I appreciate that the last post here was about the HamClock and I said I wouldn’t be providing a guide to building one but I’ve been asked by a few people if I can write some instructions, showing what’s needed from start to end so I’ve decided to do it. This is a long guide […]
Shameless Commerce Division: Please use the Amazon link on the blog to start your Amazon purchases. And please consider using Patreon to support the podcast and blog. We try to send extra content to our Patreon supporters. Mostly DIY RF -- Boards, Kits and Pete's PSSST
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Bill's Bench
More trouble with the 15-10 rig. Rounded passbands in 25 MHz filter. See figure 4 in both links:
For some years I’d been aware of HamClock and around April last year I decided to investigate further and built one using an old Raspberry Pi 3B that I had spare.If you’ve never heard of HamClock, it’s described on the authors page thus: “HamClock is a kiosk-style application that provides real time space weather, radio […]
Die meisten von euch kennen ihn natürlich oder haben ihn zumindest schon einmal gesehen – den Jumbospot. Eigentlich eine ganz normale MMDVM Platine, nur mit der Besonderheit das Sie auf einen Raspberry-Pi Zero passt (auf größere Modelle natürlich auch). Diesen gab es bisher nur als Simplex Modell. Seit kurzer Zeit ist er aber auch als … OSTAR: Neuer Hotspot für Duplex-Betrieb weiterlesen
In the arcane and niche world that is the intersection of peak bagging and ham radio, aka SOTA, the participants fall into two broad groups; activators and chasers.
Happening daily across the planet, activators, especially the apasionada, ferret radios to wild and distant peaks, setting up a temporary radio station and then hoping that the co-dependent chaser community hear, respond and make the trek worthwhile. All things being equal smiles abound.
Within this rarefied world is another notable accolade where activators assume a dual role of activator and chaser. The chance to communicate from one peak to another is special in that two apasionadas get to experience what their weak and faint signal must sound like to chasers but unlike most chasers get to do it in a “electrical” noise free environment. Often a faint and perfectly audible voice from a distant location plays in the headphones. This contact unsurprisingly is know as a Summit to Summit (S2S).
Some in our community are legendary in the pursuit of S2S contacts such as Colorado based Cary (KX0R) and Dave (N6AN) here in SoCal.
Sadly, I’m not one of these legends nor anywhere close.
As with many activators, my initial goal was to attain the coveted Mountain Goat award which in true Western style I achieved in a respectable two year window having shlepped my gear up 100+ mountains. The equivalent chaser award, Shack Sloth took me over seven years to achieve through only S2S contacts, no comfy chair for me!
Truth is I’m never quite as aware as I could be about other activators concurrent efforts and pretty much all my S2S contacts have been others calling me.
Seven years in the making, a new Shack Sloth above Bergen, Norway
I love to mix up my hobbies and pondered the practicality of applying technology to my deficiency.
I kicked the tires on an idea, in hindsight possibly overkill of creating a small PC centric solution for the 2023 G/LD event that Mark M0NOM organized. Reasonable progress was made but I became distracted and then further distracted with a return to the UK.
Real time display of activators and ability to click and work them….early prototype
My morse code dabbling has spurred a re-interest in past projects primarily to complete and/or use some of what I’ve done in the past.
Green for go!!
Peaks can be cold, dusty, beautiful and throughly inhospitable. Two problems exist that limit my S2S enjoyment; awareness and too much fiddling to get on frequency.
Improving awareness could be as simple of an LED lighting up or possibly a bank of LEDs conveying opportunities immediate and those slowly drifting into history. A green LED could indicate a new and current S2S opportunity, yellow some or one that are aging out dictating prompt action and red for opportunities that are most likely missed.
Green for new S2S, yellow for hurry up and red for all gone, you missed it!!
Less fiddling might be a winner
On a busy Saturday, details of activators scroll by on our notification web site in a random and jarring way. I’m reading one, checking the time, frequency and suddenly the line is displaced down one or two or more slots. Lost, I attempt to regain acuity and give up in my transliteration from web to frequency readout on my radio. Another S2S is missed.
Tailored for my iPhone screen, a list of current activations is displayed with a color coding to denote age matching the LEDs. Sorting them narrows to band (maybe 10m for the current 2024 challenge), geography, calls, mode etc.
Click on any activator line gets you one step closer to QSY-ing
Press QSY button and KX2/KX3/K2 is automatically tuned to Mitja’s frequency
Quickest way from A to B
Once upon a time people paid me to write software.
During the dawn of computing we used a gamut of languages from labor intensive assembler to one of a multiple of block structured languages and even the grand daddy of “object oriented” in the form of Simula 67. As someone, that was ejected into the ranks of shepherding software engineers, I often lamented at how long software development remained in what appeared an efficiency neolithic age. ChatGPT has dispelled that notion but along the way graphical almost cartoon like systems have surfaced.
Node-Red dev environment – this is possibly 1/3 to 1/2 of code to implement this prototype
As a quick and efficient way to develop a working system, Node Red is actually quite easy to master and satisfying in the immediacy of usable software. Maybe not appropriate for large scale mission critical system, it never the less has a real and valid place.
Zeros at 7 o’clock
Raspberry Pis come in many shapes and forms but alas have been far too hard to find for far too long. Rummaging through my “junk box” yielded a Pi Zero W, forgotten and feeling inferior to the newer and unobtainable Zero 2 W, its pressed into serviced simply based on its size and ability to sit neatly on my newly established “flight deck” aka a clip board.
The Pi OS comes in two or three flavors one known as “headless” but unlike a Zombie can be counted on to do useful things. Installed along with Node-Red on my forgotten Pi Zero W and it’s single USB serving as a conduit to the CAT interface on my KX2, I’m off to the races.
Diminutive Raspberry Pi Zero with LED breadboard behind
In addition to QSY-ing to a frequency, pressing CALL with send W6PNG in morse or S2S an declaration of opportunity.
LED Duration
On that same busy Saturday, it’s plausible that the Green, Yellow and Red LEDs are on all the time somewhat negating their value. I need to experiment with durations which could vary depending on time of week or an event. For example, maybe on a busy day green is only for displayed ….
Predicated on cell service
Cellular service is seemingly everywhere even in remote parts of the Western USA especially atop a peak. However, a peak’s height and hence reception of/by multiple towers can confuse things such that we often end up with no cellular service. Go figure.
An original “silent movie”……
I’ve learnt that sometimes it’s worthwhile to pause, try something and then consider refinement and next steps. There’s lot of things I could do beyond determining if the current prototype is usable and useful.
Certainly this work/project has been a great complement to hiking in that it’s a brain work out.
Any comments, thoughts, suggestion or ideas how to evolve this little project are always welcome.
A few weeks ago I bought the official Raspberry Pi 7″ touchscreen display for a project which sadly didn’t work as intended, this left me with the unused display and a case. I started thinking about things I could use it for and settled on a shack clock. Long term readers of my site will […]
We’re still waiting on our house to be delivered. It’s out of our hands at this point, as the transporter says he needs a long stretch of dry days in order to safely deliver the house down our narrow and windy road. Given how stormy it’s been this late Winter (and now early Spring), there’s… Read More Progress Marches On!
Telnet: dxspider.co.uk:7300 There are many DX Cluster nodes out there and to be fair, they’re all very similar. They all connect into the same network and they all offer pretty much the same services. I make no claims that my node is better than any others but it does have a lot going for it […]
A short while ago, the new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W was announced. The original Pi Zero and the Zero W are widely used in MMDVM based hotspots and the new Zero 2 W is a direct, drop in replacement. The most obvious question is whether you need to replace your Pi Zero with a […]
Recent metal case offerings from Raspberry Pi enclosure manufacturers help mitigate heat issues when you dare try process-heavy applications including amateur radio spotting servers.
The Airspy YouLoop is a no tune, broadband, small footprint, affordable LF to HF receive antenna that works indoors. Its modular construction facilitates experiments to understand where the Möbius inspired electrical design provides benefit.
Version 1.0 and Version 0.95 are the same. If you are using Version 0.95 you do not need to update to Version 1.0.
DVPiManager has some features added. If you want to use features added in Versio 1.0, you only need to download dvpimanager.
DVPi uses the USRP Client protocol. When you install and use DVSwitch, you must read and comply with the license that appears. The user is responsible for the license for the use of DVPi.
Version 0.95 is a candidate version of Version 1.0 so, If there are no major problems you won't need to upgrade to Version 1.0
DVPi uses the USRP Client protocol. When you install and use DVSwitch, you must read and comply with the license that appears. The user is responsible for the license for the use of DVPi.
The goal is 10 hours of nondisruptive operation, but most of the test devices have been running for more than 24 hours. The main purpose of Versoin 1.0 is stabilization
I tested stability for about 2 weeks with a few people who helped me with the test.
2.2 Viewing the status of other Talkgroup is now possible again. (bottom line in TG Button)
I have created a server program that manages the DMR Talkgroup status. Several Amateur radio operator are servicing the server.
You don't have to do anything for this.
You can use this feature without doing any work. But if the Talkgroup Status server doesn't work, you can choose another server.
2.3.ThumbDV settings are now supported by DVPiManager.
When you use DVPi in Dual Mode, you can set VFOA and VFOB independently.
2.4 DVSwitch 1.6.0 is supported if you install DVSwitch on DVPi (builtin DVSwitch)
2.5 Several modifications were made for the use of D-STAR. (Ex: Support Unlink Button in D-Star Mode)
2.6 Recording function has been added. It was added in Version 0.88
When you press the record button, the sound output from the speaker is recorded. You can export to Wav file from DVPi Manager.
2.7 And Minor bugs have been fixed and minor UI changes.
- The color of the underline of the TG button has been changed to make it easier to see. As the QSO time increases, it changes from blue to white.
- The display method of the LOG Window on the right side of the screen has been changed. Since the callsign is the most important, changed it to a way that all callsign letter appear. (display order = minute callsign: Talkggroup )
- more...
3.conclusion
The horse.brandmeister.network server was down, so it took time to create a replacement service. Also, for Version 1.0, I have been testing it for quite a while to increase stability.
Perhaps this version will be Version 1.0 without much change.
If you are using Version 0.95 you do not need to update to Version 1.0.
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