For last year’s Field Day, I took a stab at networking a couple of computers together with an ethernet cable so that our N1MM+ logging software could be synced up. It was both surprisingly easy to do, but equally daunting due to the curious lack of reasonably digestible tutorials tackling the topic on the interwebs. So now that Field Day is again upon us, I felt that same sort of dread that comes from staring up at a steep learning curve. Because quite frankly, I could not remember at all how to create a N1MM+ computer network. I checked back at my blog page on the topic, and was dismayed at how little of the process I documented. So, I am here to rectify that.
Here is my use case. I want to have three computers with Windows 10 operating systems host logging software (N1MM Logger Plus) for a multiple station ARRL Field Day event. All of the computers need to be synchronized with each other in order to avoid such dreaded contesting faux pas as “dupes”, i.e., getting the same person twice. I also do not want to have to rely on an internet in order to maintain communication between these computers.
As far as hardware goes, I already was in possession of three (quite aged) computers. I splurged on three new 25′ ethernet (CAT 6) cables (one for each computer), and a Linksys 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch. I set up the computers simply by plugging one end of an ethernet cable into its ethernet port, and the other end of the cable into the switch. Remember the gigabit switch does need power to operate!
Before I began networking the computers, I had updated all of the necessary software, including Windows and N1MM+. All of the computers need to have the exact same version of N1MM+, as well as exactly the same inputted contest information, before N1MM+ is able to synchronize between multiple stations.
Once the hardware was gathered and the software was up-to-date, I followed the step-by-step procedure documented below.
Step 1: Go to internet icon, click, and “Open Network & Internet Settings”.
Step 2: Select “Ethernet” on left, and then “Network and Sharing Center” on right.
Step 3: The “Unidentified Network” is set to “private” which is what I want it to be. For contrast, my wifi network is set to “Public” (see arrow on the left). Click on the “Ethernet” hyperlink.
Step 4: Click on “Properties” of the first box that pops up. Then click on “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”.
Step 5: Click “Use the following IP address” and add in “192.168.1.200” for “IP address”. The “Subnet mask” should just show up as 255.255.255.0. While I am no expert by any means in networking computers, I do think you can choose the last three digits of your IP address from 1 to 255 254 [Correction sent to me by my favorite critic, AC1JR!] I picked “200” rather arbitrarily. Once you are done, click “ok”, “ok”, and “close” on the multiple windows.
Step 6: If you need to make your network private because it is showing as public (see Step 3 above), you need type “secpol.msc” into the search bar and press enter.
Step 7: In the pop-up window, click on the “Network List Manager Policies” under the “Security Settings” tab. Then click “Unidentified Networks”. In the next pop-up, choose “Private”. Hit “Apply” and then “Ok”. Your “Unidentified Network” settings should now say “Private”.
Step 8: Open the file manager and click on “Network”. Your computer’s name should be listed there. My computer is named “PC-1”.
Step 9: Now it is time to network your second computer. Go back through Steps 1-8, but this time on the new computer. Below shows all of the steps ordered numerically. Don’t forget to change the ethernet connection to “Private” as shown above. The only difference is that you want to assign this computer a different IP address than the first one. I chose 192.168.1.201.
Step 10: Check the “Network” tab in the file manager to make sure the second computer (in my case, “PC-2”) shows up.
Step 11: Repeat these steps as many times as you need to in order to connect all of your computers to the network. Just change the last digits of the newly assigned static IP address, as they all have to be something different. I have three computers that are now linked together.
Step 12: Once your computers are all networked, open N1MM. Under the “Window” menu, find and click “Network Status”.
Step 13: Make sure that the most recent version of N1MM is installed or else you will get an error message when attempting to connect to the other networked computers (in red below). You also need to make sure that everything else about N1MM is identical, in particular that the contest information for the log is the same.
Step 14: When all of the computers are identically set-up, with the same software versions and contest information, open up the “Network Status” window. A bubble will show that gives you an option to turn on “Networked Computer Mode”. Click it!
Step 15: If you see all of your computers listed with no red error messages, your networking efforts are a success! Make sure you have designated one of the computers as the “Master” by checking the appropriate box.
There you have it! N1MM Logger Plus synchronized across multiple stations for Field Day! I hope to catch you on the air!
I’ve quit Twitter/X, and am now part of the Fediverse. There are quite a few radio amateurs in the Fediverse, and if you’d like to follow me there, you can follow @kb6nu@mastodon.radio. Mastodon.radio is a space for radio amateurs and SWLs, but it’s not the only radio-focused Fediverse server. It connects with the servers listed on fediverse.radio, including mastodon.hams.social, a server here in the U.S.
Mastodon seems to have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than Twitter. Here’s a few links I found and things I learned on Mastodon last night:
K8CX Ham Gallery. K8CX has an interesting collection of photos from Dayton, DX sound clips, and a QSL card museum. I’ve submitted a couple photos of me and the ICQ Podcast crew at Dayton 2024.
M17 Users mailing list. The home page for this mailing list says, “The primary assumption of this mailing list is that M17 is (in June, 2024) in usable (enough) form for actual deployment and use in amateur radio.” They believe that all the pieces are there now. Typically, to use M17, you’ll have to be “somewhat of an experimenter” to work around the inevitable glitches in using M17, but in the opinion of this list founder, “all the pieces are there now”.
44-foot doublet. Last night, there was some discussion of portable antennas, mainly the 44-ft. doublet antenna. This is the antenna that L. B. Cebik describes on the web page, “1 Wire, 7 Bands, 2 Directions, or The 44′ Doublet as a 40-10 Meter Antenna.” There’s a similar antenna out there called the NorCal Doublet. The NorCal Doublet uses ribbon cable as the feedline to reduce weight. These two antennas look like they’d be worth experimenting with.
Last night was my first time ever being net control! I volunteered to host a monthly net for the Narwhal Amateur Radio Society (NR7WL), of which I am a proud member. The Pride Radio Network graciously has allowed us to connect our hub to their network, so that our members (and non-members!) can connect via the plethora of bridges they have set up (DMR, YSF, D-Star, P-25, NXDN, Allstar, Echolink, etc.)
Because I figured we’d probably only have a handful of check-ins for this first time around, I decided to do the net “E-Cars” style, where as net control, I’m on for the hour, and just put out periodic calls for check-ins. I felt like that went very well, and it made me wonder why more repeater-based and network-based nets don’t run in that style, instead of the “be here at the exact right moment” variants.
I felt like it makes it easier for participants, because they can show up whenever they want during the hour, and it takes the pressure to feel like the airtime has to be filled up, off the net control and other participates. Instead, it makes it a time where you just kind of hang out, call for check-ins periodically, and either chit chat with folx who checked in, or wait quietly while multi-tasking between check-ins, based on whatever the net control, participants, and vibe for the net seem to dictate.
Anyway - I had a blast! If you’re potentially interested in checking in in the future, here are the net details:
Time: 1st Tuesday of Every Month at 7pm Pacific, 10pm Eastern
Location: Hosted on the NR7WL Allstar Node (61672), the N3VEM Repeater (Allstar 56001 & Echolink 994842), and the Pride Radio Network.
We’d like to specifically thank the Pride Group for allowing us to connect our hub to their system - The Pride Radio Network enables club members and non-members wishing to check in to connect via DMR, System Fusion, D-Star, IRLP, Echolink, M-17, NXDN, P-25, Hams over IP, Hamshack Hotline, plus some others. Be sure to check out the Pride Radio Network site as they regularly make updates and improvements to their network.
If you want to join the net via Allstar, you can simply point any Allstar enabled repeater, hotspot, or VOIP application at node 61672 during the net. If you’d like to connect via any of the other modes mentioned, please visit the Pride Radio Network Information Page for details on node numbers etc.
The NARS Club Net is a directed net, and also serves as a 1 hour time slot where net control will be monitoring the hub even if there are no check-ins. This means that folx can feel free to check in at any point during the hour that works for them; just tune in and listen for the preamble and call for check-ins which will be repeated periodically, or throw out your callsign if a few minutes goes by and you don’t hear anything.
When checking in, feel free to share your name and location as you are comfortable (or not), answer the net question, and/or share anything else that is on your mind. We strive to be welcoming and accommodating, so don’t worry about whether or not you are ‘doing it right’ - with us, you’re always doing it right as long as you’re following the guidelines of your license and having fun!
On Thursday, May 16, I attended Four Days in May (FDIM), an event put on by the QRP Amateur Radio Club International (QRP ARCI). The first FDIM was held in 1996, and QRP ARCI has held it every year since, excluding the Covid years. This year, nearly 300 people attended the event.
Like the name implies, there are FDIM events on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but the main event is the series of talks on Thursday. These start at 8 am and run until 5 pm. This year, the talks included:
The Construction and Use of a WhoZat by Jack Purdum, W8TEE. Jack is a retired professor from Purdue University, a frequent speaker at FDIM, and the designer of many microcontroller-powered ham radio projects, including transceivers and antenna analyzers. This year, he talked about his latest design, the WhoZat. WhoZat is a portable, battery-powered device that allows an operator to type in a call sign prefix and obtain information about the country associated with the callsign. It will give you the country name, and the azimuthal bearing from your location to that country. One of the takeaways from this talk is that the WhoZat is powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico, and Jack encouraged everyone to consider the Pico for future projects because it has more computing power and more memory than most Arduinos.In addition to talking about the WhoZat, Jack was promoting his latest book, Digital Signal Processing and Sofware Defined Radio. It’s available on Amazon for $45.
Top 10 Junkbox Projects by Hans Summers, G0UPL. Hans is the genious(?), madman(?), entrepreneur(?) behind QRP Labs. In this talk, he extolled the virtues (as I have done) of a well-stocked junkbox. The project that resonated the most with me is the one-tube transmitter.The reason it resonates with me is that I’ve been threatening to build one for years myself. Hans actually did it, though. In fact, he made his first QSO with a transmitter he built from an ECL82 tube.At the end of his talk, Hans gave a little plug for his newest transceiver, the QMX+. The embedded SDR rig covers 160 – 6m, in a slightly bigger form factor than the QMX, for only $125. It’s incredible, really.
zBitx–A Portable Station for the CW Operator by Ashar Farhan, VU2ESE of HF Signals. In this talk, Ashar described his zBitx, a portable CW/FT8 SDR transceiver. This isn’t a radio that Ashar is selling (yet!), but it does look like a complete design. And, of course, that design is completely open source, something he ribbed one of the other presenters about.
The zBitx is a very small, portable CW/FT8 radio that uses a smart phone for an enhanced user interface.
This radio is powered by a Raspberry Pi, specifically the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. This module costs $15 and runs Linux. Ashar says, “If Arduino was a matchbox RC car, this Raspberry Pi is an Airbus A380, both in terms of size and speed. It can run WSJT X, fldigi, and full-stack SDR.” The radio also takes advantage of the WiFi capablity of the RPi. There’s an app that runs on a smart phone that acts as a front panel.
At the end of his talk, instead of flogging a product, Ashar passed out a small PCB assembly called the sBitx Hat. Designed to plug into a Raspberry Pi, it includes an Si5351 clock generator and a 96 kbps, dual-channel audio codec. It looks it will be a fun thing to play with.
Adventures of a QRP Evangelist by Cliff Batson, N4CCB, proprietor of the QRP School YouTube channel. Cliff gave us a primer on QRP operation and on how to make YouTube videos. He encouraged us all to go out and make videos. I’m not so sure about this myself. It seems to me that there is already too many ham radio videos to watch.
Amplifying Your Adventures, Minimizing Your Power by noted YouTuber Tom Witherspoon, K4SWL. In his presentation, Tom concentrated on the personal and operating aspects of QRP, not the technical. The conclusion published in the proceedings does a good job of summarizing his talk. It reads, “Since my journey into ham radio began in 1997, I’ve encountered countless naysayers proclaiming, ‘That won’t work’ or ‘Life’s too short for QRP.’ These discouraging words often came from individuals who lacked firsthand experience in the field. Rather than accepting the pessimistic views, I’ve treated them as a checklist of challenges to overcome. my approach has been simple: get out there, experiment, and fully immerse myself in the moment. It’s through this hands-on exploration that I’ve discovered the true joy and potential of QRP operations.”
Designing the Elecraft KH1: From Vision to Reality by Wayne Burdick, N6KR. Wayne certainly needs no introduction. His talk concentrated on how he made some of the decisions he made in designing the Elecraft KH1 hand-held HF transceiver. It was a great talk that gave quite a bit of insight into the design process. Personally, I’m not sold on the KH1, but Elecraft can’t make them fast enough, so I guess that tells you how valuable my opinion is.
The Amazing Thermionic Valve by Greg Latta, AA8V. Greg is a professor emeritus of electrical engineering from Frostburg State University. He delved into some of the theory of how vacuum tubes work and some of the practical applications.
Stealth Operation from Hotel Rooms and Other Unlikely QTHs by Ross Ballantyne, VK1UN.
Unfortunately, Ross was unable to present, either in person or via Zoom. According to the paper in the proceedings, Ross was part of several peace-keeping missions to remote spots around the world. On these trips, he operated from many hotel rooms and gained quite a bit of experience doing so. For example, he writes that virtually all of his antennas are made from wirewrap wire, which he gets from Ali Express. To couple the wire antenna to the transmitter, he uses a Z-match tuner or a modified Z-match tuner called the FRI match ATU. It’s a shame that Ross wasn’t able to adress us in person, as he sounds like quite an interesting fellow.
A walk with VU2ESE
After the talks, I decided to take a walk and stretch my legs. Just as I got to the street, I ran into a friend of mine, Arun, W8ARU, and Ashar, VU2ESE. We decided to walk together, and ended up walking about a mile and a half or so.
Arun and Farhan have been friends for many years. In fact, Arun hired Ashar to work for a company that Arun owned when he lived in India. (Arun now lives in Ann Arbor, MI, which is how I got to know him.) Arun once told me the taught Farhan how to solder. I confirmed that story at Hamvention last year when Ashar visited the ARDC booth.
In addition to all his development activities, Farhan recently joined the board of directors of Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), the private foundation that I retired from last May. We had a great chat about the future of ARDC and amateur radio in general, among other topics. It will be interesting to see in which direction the new board members take ARDC.
Vendor Night
Thursday evening, FDIM holds Vendor Night. It’s a great deal for vendors. There’s no charge to participate as a vendor, and it’s a lot of fun. A couple of years ago when I did Vendor Night, I also shared a booth with the Dayton Makerspace on Friday and Saturday at Hamvention and ended up selling more books in 2 hours at the FDIM Vendor Night than I did in 2 days of Hamvention.
This year, I sold about $150 worth of books. What was even better was meeting everyone, including those who have used my books to get licensed or to upgrade. For example, Tom, K4SWL, came over and shared his story with me.
He said that one year his wife said that she would also get her ticket as an anniversary present. He gave her my study guide and ten days later, she had her license. How cool is that?
Kudos to QRP ARCI for another successful FDIM. If you’d like to get a copy of this year’s proceedings, you can contact them by emailing toystore@qrparci.org or n8et@woh.rr.com. QRP ARCI also has some other goodies, if you’re interested, in their Toy Store.
Well as you know the bands have been fairly poor so I have no stories to share with you about “Rare DX” and even my Parks on The Air (POTA) activities have been less than usual.
A while back I did post about the “New” Xiegu X6200 and how it looked impressive “on paper” and was waiting to get more info before making any opinions (good or bad) on the unit.
Well the X6200 is now available for sale and from some actual dealers rather than the usual Chinese companies…
The information I comment on today is from the Waters & Stanton website who are selling the unit in the UK….
The prices I quote are from their website including their estimation of Duties and Taxes in Canadian $$$.
The price of the radio is 795.00 in Pound Sterling and from there the websites calculates the following…
So if you take in the above sub totals it looks like the converted price of the radio is $1389.70 (CDN) then you add the Duties and taxes of $226.73 (CDN) giving a total of $1616.43 (CDN)
But remember the disclaimer from above:
The estimated duties and taxes are based on CA$1,389.70 of product and may fluctuate due to changes in currencies, shipping costs, clearance fees or how the items are classified by customs. Duties and taxes may be collected upon delivery of the items.
So at this point I am guessing (yes guessing) that the retail North American Price will be fairly close to the above price in the range of $1600 -$1700 (CDN) but remember that is my “Best Guess”.
From what I can see of the details of the 6100 they will be in competition with the ICOM IC705 and the ELECRAFT KX3.
If it is as good as it seems… It still could be a contender in the upper end of the QRP rigs.
73bob
Disclaimer:This post is me thinking out loud. I am not recommending or endorsing any of the products listed above. I believe that you if you are thinking of purchasing one…. That you should do all your research and draw your own conclusions before you buy one from whatever source you choose.
If you were checking the Trans Provincial Net Website you might of noticed a small blurb mentioning I will be taking the summer off.
“Bob VA3QV will be away starting 18th May till September 2024.”
I currently cover the 11am (EST) hour 5 days a week and I do enjoy being a NCS…. But… Now that the nicer weather is finally looking like it might arrive… I decided I would prefer to spend it doing other stuff compared to sitting in the shack for a while.
No doubt that radio will be a big part of my summer but it won’t be from the shack unless its raining.
As always if I am doing (or have done) anything interesting in radio you will be able to read about it right here.
Eight to ten POTA activations on Friday between Cheyenne and Gillette, WY. Sat I will be roving for the 7QP contest covering 7 Wyoming counties.
HF & 6M digital
No radio plans, doing chores and getting ready for a trip to see Mom
Amateur radio satellites as usual.
Winlink Activities for multiple Nets
POTA activation if the weather allows
None, working this weekend
No plans yet
messing around with my linbpq setup for #farpn possibly getting on the air Friday evening as my spouse is out of town and I don’t usually get on the air at night when she’s around.
pota activations if weather allows, pota hunting if stuck inside
POTA activation
Deploy darkmode for our radio club website
Region 7 is hosting the annual 7QP and I am thinking of visiting one of the local club participants.
Probably some more 20m(day)/40m(night) JS8Call.
Installing VHF/UHF in the RV
Prepping for a wires-x talk. Anyone know anything about wires-x or have a presentation I can steal. I’m going from 0 to hero. I hope.
Not sure I have any!
Saturday, work on HF vertical. Sunday, Run For The Zoo communications volunteer
Busy with yard tasks, so probably just some VHF monitoring.
Get an antenna up on the ship in preparation for a sea voyage
Attending a swap meet and hoping to get a PK-88 TNC hooked up and working
Weather permitting, I’m hoping to stop by our first local hamfest of the season Sunday morning
Prepare 6m antenna and mast for the start of Sporadic E season, and finish my PCB layouts for a K3NG Rotator controller.Currently on 318 Grids for VUCC 50Mhz, would like to get up to 350 this year.
This morning (after coffee) I went out into the back yard with a 33 foot pole with a hook on the end of it and about 60 feet of wire.
Above pic… Wishful thinking on my part
After about 1 hour of hooking thin green wire over the green cedar tree branches its back in the air and working so far. Its the same length as it was before but I was able to get the wire hooked over the branches a bit higher than before.
It seems to work… Using my SGC 237 auto tuner I was able to get a suitable match on all bands between 10 and 80m. 160 was a poor match before and it still is now. First contact was into the Mid Cars Net on 7.258. I received a 5/7 signal report from the NCS who was in OHIO.
As with any stealthy/portable/wire antenna that you re install there is a very good chance that I’ll never get it in the exact same location that I had it in before.
This means that it might work better (hoping) than before or it might work worse (with my luck) but no matter what it will be working at least.
I used to say that I would rather be on the air with a poor antenna than not having an antenna… I made that statement about 30 years ago and I still feel that way today.
Although I did get on Friday night for a couple hours after dinner to partake of the QRP ARCI Spring QSO Party, which ran from 8:00 PM to Midnight, my local time. There was a decent amount of activity, which was really, really nice to see/hear. I worked 17 stations - all QRP ARCI members. I mainly searched and pounced, but I did call CQ on 20 and 40 Meters, not so much to run a frequency, but to get an idea via the Reverse Beacon Network in order to see where I was being heard.
From the results tally so far, I'm sitting in the bottom third of the pack, which I half as much expected. If I had put in the full four hours, instead of just under two, I probably would have worked a lot more stations. When I decided to pull the plug stations from the West Coast started coming in on 20 Meters and I worked two from Washington state. I was beat because Friday afternoon was an experience in and of itself.
Recently, Marianne and I decided to drop Verizon FiOS TV from our Verizon package. Neither of us watch TV all that much, and pretty much everything we want to watch, we can catch on our Roku device - pretty much everything, expect for local channels. I'll be looking into getting an indoor HDTV antenna as the only thing I don't want to miss is "Jeopardy" and NYC is only about 25 miles away as the crow flies, so I should be able to get WABC TV rather easily. Dropping the TV portion of the bill reduced it .......... dramatically.
However, when you drop the TV package, Verizon has to come in and install a new router, as that's how the TV portion is transmitted. When I called to make the service appointment, they noted that my internet connection was ancient, and they upgraded that and provided a new router free of charge. The upgrade in internet speed is quite noticeable Not so much on my phone or laptop, but the data to my Hamclock set up in the basement shack is much faster and I get a lot less fewer drop outs/error messages..
The pain in the posterior aspect of all of this is that re-setting devices for the new SSID and password is akin to going around the house and re-setting clocks for the time change! I didn't have to deal with Cara or Joseph's devices as they're young and computer savvy, and I didn't have any trouble reconfiguring the laptop in the computer room, or Marianne's and my phones and tablets.
The "fun" part came when reconfiguring our Ring doorbell and chime. The instructions they give you on line are there all right, and complete - but they're not the easiest to locate. It's almost like operating the menus on an HF radio where there are multiple sublayers. I finally figured that out and got those working again. Reconfiguring the Rokus was quite easy, because as soon as the Roku couldn't detect the internet via the old SSID, it took you directly to where you had to reconfigure for the new one.
The real pain in the butt one was/is the weather station. I have an Ambient WS-2902. I managed to dig out the instruction manual to refamiliarize myself with the procedure for setting up the wifi connection. it's actually quite simple as you go to the Ambient Tool on your phone and go from there. And that's where things got interesting. My weather station has been out there and running since ........ it was either 2016 or 2017 when Marianne bought it for me as a Christmas gift. The current version of this model weather station is the WS-2902D. The Ambient Tool has gone away and has been replaced by the AWN app.
Not a problem, right? Just go to Google Play, download the new app and reconfigure the wifi, right? That's what you would think, but it turned out to be much more than that. I followed the instructions, which told me to press the "wind" and "pressure" buttons on the console until a little wifi icon popped up in the temperature indicator square. I tried that several times with no result. So I thought maybe I have to unplug the console from its AC adapter, wait a minute and try again. I did that - no wifi icon.
As they say, Google is your friend and I searched on "Reconfiguring wifi for WS-2902". What I found was that the AWN app will NOT work with the original WS-2902 and the old Ambient Tool is no longer available. I had changed phones since I originally installed the weather station, so the old app was not carried over to my current phone. The solution is that I had to purchase a new WS-2902D console. It will work with the sensor package, as that hasn't changed (except that I can now add some fancy new things, like soil moisture detectors and lightning detectors, which I chose not to do). It should be here within the week, and in the meantime the weather station is still working, it's just not reporting to WeatherUnderground and the Ambient Weather Station network for now.
Saturday was our monthly VE Exam session and we had two candidates, with one coming all the way from East Stroudsburg, PA. One got his Technician ticket and our East Stroudsbuger, Jeremy KB3OPJ upgraded to Amateur Extra. After the exam session, I headed over to a clothing drive for HCT Technologies, the company that finances SPARC, to help with accepting bags of used clothes.
Sunday morning it was back to the clothing drive for a while and then into Plainfield to help out with our parish's Second Sunday Soup kitchen. I did manage to check into the St. Max Net on 80 Meters at 0000 UTC, but the QRN was horrific! The net usually lasts for a half hour to 45 minutes. It was over by 00:15 UTC last night.
Tonight, SPARC members who are also CERT members are going to show up at the monthly Boro Council Meeting. One of the Office of Emergency Management deputies is being promoted from sergeant to lieutenant and we want to congratulate him and show him our support.
No doubt about it - the internet is a double edged sword. There's a lot of fake news, garbage, hate, bigotry and plain ol' vanilla stupidity to be found on it, and particular that's true for social media. But if you know where to look, there's a ton of golden nuggets to be found as well.
For as long as I've been writing this blog (20 years now), I've always had the blog role listed on the right side. There have been blogs that have come and blogs that have gone - but each one that I list, I think has value for those of us who love Amateur Radio, and in particular QRP, Morse Code and Portable Ops. By the way, if you know of any real good ones that have escaped my attention, please drop me an e-mail, or bring it to my attention in the comment box. I'm always open to adding to the list.
Just the other day, I added a list with links to YouTube video channels that I think are worthy of your time to pay attention to. I do not have the equipment or time to develop my own video channel and you wouldn't want to risk listening to my New Jersey voice for more than five minutes anyway. The ones I have listed are IMHO, quite excellent. I could never do a job that would even come close to what these guys have done and continue to do. The same thing goes for my offer about blogs - are there really good YouTube channels that I have missed? Let me know!
The last topic that I'm going to touch in this post is about Facebook. Facebook is the double edged sword within the double edged sword. There is so much garbage on there that if you look at it for any length of time, you'd swear your eyes were starting to bleed and you'd also swear you'd never darken the halls of Facebook again. Yet, if you give it a chance, there are so many good Facebook pages that offer so much good Amateur Radio information.
To do it justice, I think I'll have to open another box on the right with links - but for now I'm going to list several Facebook groups that I really enjoy and have found useful and worthy of my time:
There are so many more! If you truly think that Facebook is a vast desert wasteland, with no redeeming value whatsoever, and you swore to yourself you'd never bother with it - I'd ask you to just do a search on your favorite aspect of Amateur Radio - you're sure to find something. Granted, even some of what you'll find is garbage, but you'll also be pleasantly surprised by the good groups, as there's a lot of good information and ideas being passed back and forth.
And OK, one final, final topic. While we're on the subject of the "plus" side of the internet, it also allows for greater and widespread publicity of the operating evenrts and contests that we all enjoy so much. A case in point, Paul NA5N put out the official announcement for QRP To The Field (QRPTTF), which will take place on Saturday, April 20th.
The annual QRP TO THE FIELD (QRPTTF) will be held SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2024 0800-1800 your LOCAL time (The 3rd Saturday in April).
Operate from HOME, OUTBACK (your backyard) or in the FIELD
Scoring change: Bonus points for *working* OUTBACK or FIELD stations for a higher score. SOTA and POTA stations worked count as a FIELD station.
KL7, KH6, KP4 and DX stations can work anytime they wish during the contest period for best local and time conditions.
Exchange is compatible with most logging programs. Logging name optional.
You may have to add up the Outback and Field stations worked manually.
Summary Sheets are a spreadsheet for calculating your score in both Microsoft Excel (.xls) or Open Office (.ods) formats.
Now to express my ignorance. I do not have any Apple or Linux machines. If you know of a program to convert between Excel and Apple NUMBERS, please let me know and I'll add the link to the rules webpage for Apple users.
Here in NM, it's been 73F one day, rain and snow the next. Hopefully, we'll have a nice, warm Spring day for QRPTTF and favorable band conditions. QRPTTF is a fun day to get on the air and QSO fellow QRPers, old and new, at all skill levels, whether from your home shack or outside. Not a 35wpm contest. Chit-chat after the exchange is certainly allowed!
Some time ago I wanted a logging program that would do things my way. Although there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of the various offerings they generally try to be everything for everyone and none of them really sat well with me. So I wrote my own in PHP (learning Python is high on my list of things to do, along with Mandarin, Morse, cooking…) which uses the QRZ.com logbook as the backend. Ok then, really I wrote a series of various scripts in PHP that make it all work. The advantage is it does just what I need and nothing more and can easily be modified to add functionality. The downside is I never was a coder (well, ok, I have a certification in COBOL from the 1970’s!) and it is not going anywhere other than my own server. So you can’t have it…
The way I tend to log stuff is via wsjt-x or other software that logs to a local file. I then have a script that takes the ADIF data and populates QRZ.com on a QSO-by-QSO basis. Somehow having to actually do something after each QSO feels like I am actually engaging in the process. But I am not a contester… it would simply not work for any stress situations (but then I could easily make it work if I so desired…)
With QRZ.com being the master a script then populates a local database which does all manner of stuff that I personally need. For example, it holds records of eQSL sent/received, real QSL sent/received, and various tabular data for Worked All Britain (WAB).
Scripts also modify the wsjt-x log file on all my systems such that each has a record of all QSOs. As QRZ.com is globally accessible (not tried from China mind… not that I plan to take any radio gear there anyway) and my main database is on a VPS so is also globally accessible the various scripts work from anywhere.
I do plan to move the database from the VPS to a system at home once we get FTTP broadband and use the VPS as a backup, synchronising between the two. But that will wait.
One plan which is more immediate is LoTW integration because as yet my LoTW logging is via QRZ.com which means an extra step. No biggie, I mean it’s its a few clicks and a password… but it would be nice to integrate it. The same goes for eQSL sends, but as yet I only send on receipt and I have scripts to deal with that anyway.
Definitely from the "Don't believe everything you see on the internet" file.
In all my 67 years of living in New Jersey and in the some 45 years of paying attention to this stuff as an Amateur Radio operator, I have never seen aurora in New Jersey, ever!
I think it would take an almost Carrington type event for aurora to be seen this far south of the Arctic Circle. And if aurora was actually able to be seen over my state, then invariably it would be cloudy or overcast and that would "86" the opportunity.
This latest geomagnetic storm was intense, but it didn't shut down HF communications - not by a long shot. I was able to make contacts on 20 and 30 Meters yesterday afternoon, and the St. Max Net on 75 Meters last night went exceptionally well. I was able to hear everyone who participated and that's not often the case. Yeah, the band was a little noisier than it has been, but that's probably due more to the fact that we're approaching Spring atmospheric conditions.
In addition, I'm not sure where places like earth.com get their information. The aurora maps that I saw that were published by NOAA yesterday didn't even show NY State as a possibility. And as far as I'm concerned, I think the best chance of me EVER being able to see aurora would be if a very severe geomagnetic storm occurred while we are up at Lake George some summer from now.
Aurora visible from Alabama? Maybe I'm dead wrong, but I would think that if that were the case, then the skies over New Jersey would be a spectacular light show!
http://www.mrca.ar88.net/Old%20Pages/Net/MandS.html One my pals mention “ The Moose and Squirrel Cold-War Clandestine and Long-Range-Reconnaissance-Patrol Net (A place to actually use your military radio.) Not certain this is still running, but the premise is fab! 73 SteveK9ZW
It’s been quite a while since I updated this blog, so a great time to post an update on some projects and interesting items I’ve bumped into on the Internet.
First, an update on a concept called White Rock Hams that we started over three years ago with a mention on this blog. It’s since turned into a real club with many activities and a pretty good following with over 30 members. We’re using groups.io for all of our messages and files, and hamclubonline.com for official club stuff. Both of these tools have been extremely useful in keeping members informed and active. You can follow all of our exploits at wa5wrl.org which is the vanity call sign we were able to snag from the FCC.
In Internet news, I am just about ready to pull the plug on Twitter. I was a very early adopter personally and helped get my Fortune 500 employer back then on board. Since Musk has taken it over, it’s become quite a dumpster fire and I’m not sure how much longer I can stand it.
I’m spending more of my time now on Mastodon. I like that it’s federated and non-centralized. Sort of feels more like the way the Internet was supposed to be in the first place. It’s not owned and run by a tight group of billionaires. If you’d like to join us, take a look at joinmastodon.org. Scroll though the servers and pick an interesting one, or just use mastodon.social like many folks do. You’ll find a lot to like, including authors you’ve probably seen previously on Twitter. And, if you’re a ham, choose mastodon.radio! Don’t sweat about the server choice, though, since they all connect together. Once you’re on, you can find me at @n5csu.
I’m getting a kick out of my hamclock running on a little inovato computer. This device has become a must-have for active hams that use the high frequency bands.
I’d like to give a shout out to the website blogs.radio, a great place to find updated blogs by ham radio operators.
That’s about it for now. I’m composing this using Word on my iPad via microphone for the first time, then pasting into WordPress. It’s so much better than my two finger typing.
One of the (many) banes of the amateur radio operator's existence is often found at the end of an Ethernet cable - specifically a device that is being powered via "Ethernet": It is often the case that interference - from HF through UHF - emanates from such devices.
Figure 1: POE camera with both snap-on ferrites installed - including one as close to the camera as possible - and other snap-on/toroids to suppress HF through VHF. Click on the image for a larger version.
Why this happens
Ethernet by itself is usually relatively quiet from an (HF) RF standpoint: The base frequency of modern 100 Megabit and gigabit Ethernet is typically above much of HF and owing to the fact that the data lines are coupled via transformers making them inherently balanced and less prone to radiate. Were this not the case, the integrity of the data itself would be strongly affected by the adjacent wires within the cable or even if the cable was routed near metallic objects as it would radiate a strong electromagnetic field - and any such coupling would surely affect the signal by causing reflections, attenuation, etc.
This is NOT the case with power that is run via the same (Ethernet) cable. Typically, this power is sourced by a switching power supply - too often one that is not filtered well - and worse, the device at the far end of the cable (e.g. a camera or WiFi access point - to name two examples) is often built "down to a cost" and itself contains a switching voltage converter with rather poor filtering that is prone to radiation of RF energy over a wide spectrum. Typically lacking effective common-mode filtering - particularly at HF frequencies (it would add expense and increase bulk) - the effect of RF radiating from the power-conducting wires in an Ethernet cable can be severe.
Even worse than this, Ethernet cables are typically long - often running in walls or ceilings - effectively making them long, wire antennas, capable of radiating (and intercepting) signals even at HF. The "noisy" power supply at one or both ends of this cable can act as transmitters.
What to do
While some POE configurations convey the DC power on the "spare" conductors in an eight conductor cable (e.g. the blue and brown pairs), some versions use the data pairs themselves (often using center-tapped transformers in the Ethernet PHY) meaning that it may not be easy to filter just the DC power.
While it is theoretically possible to extract the power from the Ethernet cable, filter it and and reinsert it on the cable, the various (different) methods of doing this complicate the matters and doing so - particularly if the DC is carried on the data pairs - can degrade the data integrity by requiring the data to transit two transforms incurring potential signal attenuation, additional reflection and affecting frequency response - to name just a few. Doing this is complicated by the fact that the method of power conveyance varies as you may not know which method is used by your device(s).
It is possible to subject the entire cable and its conductors to a common-mode inductance to help quash RFI - but this must be done carefully to maintain signal integrity.
Comment:
Some POE cameras also have a coaxial power jack that permits it to be powered locally rather than needing to use POE. I've observed that it is often the case that using this local power - which is often 12-24 volts DC (depending on the device) - will greatly reduce the noise/interference generated by the camera and conducted on the cable - provided, of course, that the power supply itself is not a noise source. Even if a power supply is used near the camera, I would still suggest putting its DC power cable through ferrite devices as described below to further-reduce possible emissions.
There are some devices (such as those sold by DX Engineering) that are essentially back-to-back signal transformers that can reduce radiation of signals from Ethernet cable, but these typically do not permit the passage of power and are not candidates for use with POE devices.
Ferrite can be your friend
For VHF and UHF, simple snap-on ferrites can significantly attenuate the conduction of RF along, but these devices are unlikely to be effective at HF - particularly on the lower bands - as they simply cannot add enough impedance at lower frequencies.
To effectively reduce the conduction of RF energy at HF, one could wrap the Ethernet cable around a ferrite toroidal core, but this is often fraught with peril, particularly with cable carrying Gigabit Ethernet - as tight radius turns can distort the geometry of typical CAT-5/6 cable, affect the impedance and cause cross-coupling into other wire pairs. If this happens, one often finds that the Ethernet cable doesn't work reliably at Gigabit speeds anymore (being stuck at 100 or even 10 Megabits/second) or starts to "flap" - switching between different speeds and/or slowing down due to retransmissions on the LAN.
One type of Ethernet cable that is quite resistant to geometric distortion caused by wrapping around a toroidal core is the flat Ethernet cable (sometimes erroneously referred to as "CAT6" or "CAT7"). This cable is available as short jumpers around 6 feet (2 meters) long and, with the aid of a female-female 8P8C (often called "RJ-45") coupler can be inserted into an existing Ethernet cable run - just be sure that it is from a reputable source and rated for "Gig-E" service. As it is quite forgiving to being wrapped around ferrites, this flat cable can be pre-wound with such devices and inserted at the Ethernet switch end and/or the device end at a later time. I have found that with reasonable quality cable and couplers that this does not seem to degrade the integrity of the data on the LAN cable - at least for moderate lengths (e.g. 50 feet/15 meters or less) - your mileage may vary with very long cable runs.
As the flat cable and female-female Ethernet coupler are to be inserted into the cable run, they must be of known, good quality so it is best to test the couplers and cable that you obtain prior to installation to be sure that their use doesn't cause a reduction in signal quality/speed.
Practical examples
Best attenuation across HF
Figure 2: Three toroids wound on "flat" Ethernet cable. An FT114-43 is used on each end with an FT114-31 in the middle. Click on the image for a larger version.
Using a test fixture with a VNA, I determined that for best overall attenuation across the entire HF spectrum I needed three ferrite toroids on the 2 meter long flat Ethernet jumper. All three of these were FT-114 size (1.14", 29mm O.D.) with the first and last being of material type 43 and the center being type 31: Both types 31 and 43 offer good impedance to low HF but 43 is more effective on the higher bands - namely 10 and 6 meters - and types 52 and 61 may be useful at even higher bands: The three toroids, separated by a few inches/cm, offer better all-around rejection from 160 meters through 10/6 meters than just one. Having said this, it is unrealistic to expect more than 20dB or so of attenuation to be afforded by ferrite devices at high HF/low VHF - "because physics".
One might be tempted to use the more-available FT-240 size of toroids (2.4", 60mm O.D.) but this is unnecessarily large, comparatively fragile and expensive: While you can fit more turns on the larger toroid, one hits the "point of diminishing returns" (e.g. little improvement with additional turns) very quickly owing to the nature of the ferrite and coupling between turns. Using the FT114 or FT140 sizes is the best balance as it may be much less expensive than a larger device, it can accept 6-8 turns with the cable's connector installed, and more than 6-8 turns is rapidly approaching the point of diminishing returns for a single ferrite device, anyway.
In bench testing with a fixture, it was found that three toroids on a piece of flat Ethernet cable provided the best, overall attenuation across HF and to 6 meters - significantly better than any combination of FT114, FT140 or FT240 toroids of either 43 or 31 mix alone: Figure 2, above, shows what this looks like. Two FT114-43 and one FT114-31 toroid were used - the #31 toroid being placed in the center, providing the majority of series impedance at low HF and a #43 at each end being more effective at higher HF through 6 meters.
To construct this, the flat Ethernet cable was then marked with a silver marker in the center and four turns were wound from each end, in turn, for a total of eight turns on the FT114-31. Placing an FT114-43 at 12 inches (25cm) and winding seven turns puts the FT114-43 fairly close to each connector, allowing the installation of one or two snap-on ferrites very close to the connector if it is determined that more suppression is required to suppress radiation at VHF frequencies. Small zip-ties (not shown in Figure 2) are used to help keep the turns from bunching up too much and also to prevent the start and stop turns from getting too close to each other: Do not cinch these ties up enough to distort the geometry of the Ethernet cable as that could impact speed - particularly when using Gig Ethernet.
It is important that, as much as possible, one NOT place a "noisy" cable in a bundle with other cables or to loop it back onto itself - both of which could cause inadvertent coupling of the RFI that you are trying to suppress into the other conductors - or to the far side of the cable you are installing.
Best attenuation at VHF andHF
If you are experiencing interference from HF through VHF, you will need to take a hybrid approach: The use of appropriate snap-on and toroidal ferrite devices. While snap-on ferrite devices are not particularly useful for HF - especially below about 20 MHz - they can be quite effective at VHF, which is to be expected as that is the purpose for which they are typically designed. Similarly, a ferrite toroid such as that described above - particularly with type 43 or 31 material - will likely have little effect on VHF radiation - particularly in the near field.
Figure 3: A combination of a snap-on device with an extra turn looped through it and two ferrites to offer wide-band suppression from HF through VHF. Click on the image for a larger version.
Figure 3 shows such a hybrid approach with a snap-on device on the left and two toroids on the right to better-suppress a wider range of frequencies. In this case it is important that the snap-on device be placed as close to the interference source as possible(typically the camera) as even short lead lengths can function as effective antennas at VHF/UHF. You may also notice that the snap-on has two turns through its center as this greatly improves efficacy at medium/low VHF frequencies but may be counter-productive at high VHF/UHF frequencies owing to coupling between turns.
Doing this by itself is not likely to be as effective in reducing radiation at VHF/UHF from the cable itself, often requiring the placement of additional ferrite devices. Figure 1 shows the installation of several snap-on devices placed as close to the POE camera as physically possible - mainly to reduce radiation at VHF and UHF as at those frequencies where even a few inches or centimeters of cable emerging from the noise-generating device can act as an effective antenna.
Determining efficacy
During the installation of these devices on my POE cameras I was interested in how much attenuation would be afforded at VHF: Since I'd already used the "chokes on a flat cable" approach like that in Figures 2 and 3 I knew that this would likely be as effective as was practical at HF - but because the VHF/UHF noise could be radiated by comparatively short lengths of "noisy" cable - and that the 43 and 31 mix ferrites were probably not as effective at those frequencies - I needed to be able to quantify that what I did made a difference - or not.
Figure 4: The cable in Figure 3 installed, but not yet tucked into place as depicted in Figure 1. (This does not show the snap-on ferrites installed where the wire exits the camera housing.) The female-female RJ45/8P8C "splice" can be seen in the upper-left corner of the picture. Click on the image for a larger version.
For HF this was quite simple: I simply tuned my HF receiver - connected to my main antenna - to a frequency where I knew that I could hear the noise from the cameras and compared S-meter readings with the system powered up and powered down. This approach is best done at a time during which the frequency in question is "dead" or at least weak (e.g. poor propagation) - 80/40 meters during the midday and 15/10 meters at night is typical.
For VHF this required a bit more specialized equipment. My "Go-To" device for finding VHF signals - including noise - is my VK3YNG DF sniffer which has extremely good sensitivity - but it also has an audible "S-meter" in terms of a tone that rises with increasing signal level: This allowed an "eyes and hands off" approach in determining efficacy of the installation of a ferrite device simply by hearing the pitch of the tone.. Switching it to this mode and placing it and its antenna at a constant distance fairly close to the device being investigated allowed me to "hear" - in the form of a lower-pitched tone - whether or not the application of a ferrite device made a difference.
Slightly less exotic would be an all-mode receiver capable of tuning 2 meters such as the Yaesu FT-817, Icom IC-706, 703 or 705. In this case the AM mode would be selected and the RF gain control advanced such that the noise amplitude audibly decreased: This step is important as not doing this could mean that if the noise decreased, the AGC in the receiver would simply compensate and hiding the fact that the signal level changed. By listening for a decrease in the noise level one can "hear" when installing a snap-on ferrite made a difference - or not.
One cannot use a receiver in FM mode for this as an FM detector is designed to produce the same amount of audio (including noise) at any signal level: A strong noise source and a weak one will sound exactly the same. It's also worth noting that the S-meter on a receiver in FM mode - or an FM-only receiver - are typically terrible in the sense that their indications typically start with a very low signal and "peg" the meter at a signal that isn't very strong at all which means that if you try to use one, you'll have to situate the receiver/antenna such that you get a reading that is neither full-scale or at the bottom of the scale to leave room for the indication of change.
Of course, a device like a "Tiny SA" (Spectrum Analyzer) could be used to provide a visual indication, using the "Display Line", markers and stored traces to allow a quick "before and after" determination. As mentioned above, one would want to place the antenna and the receiving device (an actual receiver or spectrum analyzer) at a fairly close distance to the device being investigated - but keep it and its antenna in precisely the same location (or connected to a fixed-location antenna) during the entire time so that one can get meaningful "before and after" readings.
Conclusion
With the use of ferrites alone, one should not expect to be able to completely suppress radiation of RF noise from an Ethernet cable - the typical maximum to be reasonably expected is on the order of about 20dB (a bit over 3 "S" units) and this can vary wildly with frequency. In a situation where the POE device is very close to the antenna, it may not be possible to knock the interference down to the point of inaudibility in which case relocation to place the two farther apart - or trying similar devices of different models/brands to try to find a combination to reduce it..
The most effective use will be for noise sources will be at some distance from the receive antenna - particularly if a long cable is used that may act as an antenna. Additionally, these measures can be effective in situations where your transmitter causes problems with the device itself due to ingress of RF energy along the Ethernet cable.
Be prepared to install appropriate ferrite devices at both ends of the cable as it's often the case that not only does the POE device itself (camera, wireless device) radiates noise but also the POE switch itself: No-name brand POE power supplies and Ethernet switches are, themselves often very noisy and the proper course of action would be to first swap out the supply or POE switch with a known quiet device before attaching ferrite.
As every interference situation is unique, your mileage may vary, and the best road to success is being able to quantify that changes you have made made things better or worse.
I’ve been a member of Facebook for many years, joining since before it became the advertising behemoth it is today. Back then I did make fairly regular use of it to interact with friends and colleagues as well as groups. But my use of it dwindled to reading group posts and posting ‘happy birthday’ messages. But I kept it.
As hobbies changed with time and retirement I joined several new groups. Again, really all I did was read posts.
At some stage during this time I also began to use Messenger. I now find that I rarely get any use out of Facebook and only have two contacts in Messenger that I do not have elsewhere. So I thought it time to get rid of Facebook. That did not go as planned!
First, the Messenger app on the Mac decided it would log me out and I cannot log back in. I get as far as the 2FA challenge where it allegedly sends me a text which never arrives. Three goes at that and I just deleted the app, life is too short.
Then I went into Facebook and after being bounced around between Facebook and the overarching Meta sites I was a given a choice of disabling my Facebook account and keeping Messenger, or deleting my Facebook account – which was my aim – but losing Messenger as well.
Choices, choices… so I’ve disabled it pending contacting my only two Messenger contacts and asking them if they have WhatsApp, Telegram or Signal. Hopefully they do, and Facebook can be assigned to (my) history.
Update: 11/1/24 YES! Both contacts use WhatsApp, so… Facebook deleted. Or it will be after 30 days apparently, in case I change my mind (fair enough, nice to have a cooling off period)
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KM1NDY
I’ve quit Twitter/X, and am now part of the Fediverse. There are quite a few radio amateurs in the Fediverse, and if you’d like to follow me there, you can follow @kb6nu@mastodon.radio. Mastodon.radio is a space for radio amateurs and SWLs, but it’s not the only radio-focused Fediverse server. It connects with the servers listed on fediverse.radio, including mastodon.hams.social, a server here in the U.S.
On Thursday, May 16, I attended Four Days in May (FDIM), an event put on by the QRP Amateur Radio Club International (QRP ARCI). The first FDIM was held in 1996, and QRP ARCI has held it every year since, excluding the Covid years. This year, nearly 300 people attended the event.
KA7OEI's blog
