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 […]

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 […]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 […]

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 post Thermal solutions for the Raspberry Pi appeared first on Ham Radio . Magnum Experimentum.

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.

The post Airspy YouLoop LF/MF/HF Möbius Receive Antenna appeared first on Ham Radio . Magnum Experimentum.

Release DVPI Version 1.0

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.

1.Download Link

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/tag/v1.0

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/download/v1.0/dvpi_1.0.zip

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/download/v1.0/dvpimanager_1.0.zip

2.What was added in Version 1.0 (from Version 0.95)

2.1 DVPi Manager 1.0 has added the ability to change the DMR password.

  Of course, you can change the DMR password using the DVSwitch Setup function in DVPiManager. But it will be a pretty long process.

If you have changed the DMR password in https://brandmeister.network/, you can easily change the DMR password in DVPiManager.

Enter the password you changed at brandmeister in the password field.

If you are using DVPi in DualMode, select both MMDVM_Bridge#1 and MMDVM_Bridge#2. If not, just choose MMDVM_Bridge#1.

Then click the'Change Password' button. Restart DVPi and your new password will take effect.

2.2 DVPi update function

If you are using DVPi 0.95 you do not need to update to Version 1.0. Just download DVPiManager 1.0.

But if you want your DVPi to appear as Version 1.0, click the Update button.

It automatically downloads and updates DVPi executable files from the web.

When all updates have been completed, the following message is displayed.

If you restart DVPi, Version 1.0 will be displayed. 

If the update fails, you can download the DVPi executable file below.

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/download/v1.0/dvpi_up.zip

3. Getting started with DVPi

Posts on DVPi :  http://www.hamskey.com/search/label/dvpi

Final version of DVPi circuit : http://www.hamskey.com/2020/09/dvpi-schematic-final-version.html

DVPi works without additional circuitry. You can configure additional circuits when you want to be more convenient.

Thank you for using DVPi.

Next time, I'll post a new kind of article.

Ian KD8CEC

Release DVPI Version 0.95

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.

1.Download Link

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/tag/v0.95

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/download/v0.95/dvpimanager_095.zip

https://github.com/phdlee/dvpi/releases/download/v0.95/dvpi_095.zip

2.What was added in Version 0.9

2.1 DVPi is stabilized.

  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