In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the intricacies of optimizing power settings for the Elecraft K3S and WSJT-X. From understanding the impact of power levels on signal quality to fine-tuning your setup for maximum efficiency, this guide provides invaluable insights and step-by-step instructions to enhance your digital communication experience.
I have twisted and worked my way around this problem for some time now and this probably isnβt the last time that I will revisit this topic. However, my station is evolving and as a result, Iβm going to make some notes here and share what I know so that other folks can make use of it. Honestly? Itβs more so that I will remember how I got here when I inevitably screw something up and have to back it out.
Why Are We Doing This Again?
My solution for the home setup, was to run Win11 on a stick PC that I could interface with the IC-7100 for Winlink email and Other Stuff. Now, what is Other Stuff? In ham radio, we have an unhealthy relationship to old and busted Windows-Only software. Itβs changing slowly, but there are still weird packages that find their way into my hands that I βneedβ to use for This or That.
With the shift from the barely usable Win10 to the What Is This Nightmare Of Constant Advertising Win11, MS pushed me too far. Every time I touch what used to be the Start Menu, I get an advertisement or some unwanted tidbit of news with a picture of a politician or other pop culture nuisance. On top of that, theyβd now like me to have an βAIβ that follows me around and trains itself using my hardware?
Weβre done here.
CrossOver
I donβt know how the link came to me, but I found my way to WG1Vβs site and encountered a very different approach to solving the Winlink/Vara/All That Stuff conundrum.
The author simply runs CrossOver on their Mac and all of the stuff works.
Now, back in the day, as a Frothy Linux Zealot, I was a reluctant user of Wine to address some needs I had in my day job. I wrestled with it and made it work. Over time, running VMs to handle this stuff seemed to become the new hotness and I didnβt even think about CrossOver for the Mac. The trouble with a VM is that itβs still a full install of Windows and still antagonistic to my desired mental state. Would CrossOver really do the trick?
In a word: Yes.
Following the instructions at the above link, I got VARA HF and ARDOP up and running on my Mac which is what I attach to my shiny new IC-7300 in my shack. It worked out of the box with no fiddling. Full disclosure: I hadnβt updated brew in some time so that took a minute, but with that done, everything else fell into place.
What about the Other Stuff? Most of the radio software out there that might be used for programming an HT for example, is built on ancient frameworks that happen to run reliably under CrossOver. I even pulled up some piece of software that I used to program my DMR HT and it worked out of the box. That outcome was unexpected, but most welcome.
Now What?
To send Winlink mail, I kick off rigctrl and pat with its HTTP UI from a command line and launch either ARDOP or VARA from CrossOver and send my Winlink mail. This gets me two big wins: No Windows and No Winlink Express. This is called Winning.
I have been noodling with my Surface Go to make sure that I can use the 7300 under my Ubuntu setup as well. I want my two main computing devices to be fully ready to run any rig Iβve got that can do a digital mode. On Ubuntu, it will be ARDOP and pat as well. For me, thatβs a well-oiled setup with the IC-705. I need to take a minute to add the IC-7300 to the configuration. No big deal, just 10 minutes or so when I get it.
The outcome of all of this is that I now have a single shack computing device that is my Mac and I can do all of the things that I do in one place. Simplifying things is good. And Iβve even got this little stick PC that I can throw something on for an internal fileserver or something.
The Future
In an ideal world, someone (maybe me someday?) will get ARDOP running on a Mac. ARDOP is under active development again and these are exciting times for that modem. I canβt wait to see where it goes! But for now, I will leverage it in this new ecosystem with CrossOver. It works and thatβs what matters.
Final
Itβs probably pretty clear that Iβm willing to work with all flavors of software in different evironments. Iβm not opposed to paying for useful software, though my first stop will always be Free/Open solutions. The sticking point here is that I donβt have a lot of time to mess around with some of this stuff and this approach gets me from A to B rather quickly. Again, Winning.
For last yearβs 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 βdupesβ, 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 25β² 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 βOpen Network & Internet Settingsβ.
Step 2: Select βEthernetβ on left, and then βNetwork and Sharing Centerβ on right.
Step 3: The βUnidentified Networkβ is set to βprivateβ which is what I want it to be. For contrast, my wifi network is set to βPublicβ (see arrow on the left). Click on the βEthernetβ hyperlink.
Step 4: Click on βPropertiesβ of the first box that pops up. Then click on βInternet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)β.
Step 5: Click βUse the following IP addressβ and add in β192.168.1.200β for βIP addressβ. The βSubnet maskβ 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 β200β rather arbitrarily. Once you are done, click βokβ, βokβ, and βcloseβ 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 βsecpol.mscβ into the search bar and press enter.
Step 7: In the pop-up window, click on the βNetwork List Manager Policiesβ under the βSecurity Settingsβ tab. Then click βUnidentified Networksβ. In the next pop-up, choose βPrivateβ. Hit βApplyβ and then βOkβ. Your βUnidentified Networkβ settings should now say βPrivateβ.
Step 8: Open the file manager and click on βNetworkβ. Your computerβs name should be listed there. My computer is named βPC-1β.
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. Donβt forget to change the ethernet connection to βPrivateβ 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 βNetworkβ tab in the file manager to make sure the second computer (in my case, βPC-2β) 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 βWindowβ menu, find and click βNetwork Statusβ.
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 βNetwork Statusβ window. A bubble will show that gives you an option to turn on βNetworked Computer Modeβ. 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 βMasterβ 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!
Carsten, OZ9AAR added many new features. The best in this release is:
When a station with "/" in the callsign (/P, /R etc) is called, UHM will retry a number of times to get "DX heard me" status (if the DX is using UHM). This helps when the DX/Rover has bad internet connection. Terminal will retry 4 times with 5 seconds delay to get an answer. This means that it can take more than 20 seconds before you get a UHM confirmation on a "/P" etc station ! If the DX has good internet, the confirmation will happen instantly (after the delay configured in "UHM settings"), if internet is not optimal, it will allow 20 seconds delays from the DX to the UHM server.
The latest versions can be downloaded on his Website.
The Amateur Radio Software Award (ARSA) committee is pleased to announce that they have selected OpenWebRX, a project led by Jakob Ketterl DD5JFK, and OpenWebRX+, a project led by Marat Fayzullin KC1TXE, as the winners of the 5th annual Amateur Radio Software Award. The award recognizes software projects that enhance amateur radio and promote innovation, freedom, and openness in amateur radio software development.
These projects allow access to radio reception from around the world, whether they are ham operators, shortwave listeners or somebody curious about radio waves. The committee is impressed with the ease of installation, simplicity of use, and overall features that are provided.
The history of these projects showcase the benefit of open source software. OpenWebRX was originally created by AndrΓ‘s Retzler but due to the demands of his career he decided to discontinue its development. Jakob Ketterl took over the OpenWebRX project and continues to maintain and improve OpenWebRX. Marat Fayzullinβs OpenWebRX+ builds on top of Jakob Ketterlβs OpenWebRX adding support for additional communication modes and advanced features. Both projects are currently separate, allowing implementers of hosting sites to choose between the simple core version or the enhanced version, while allowing the developers to focus on their projects goals.
Jakob Ketterl plans to use the award money to purchase new hardware for the build system of the OpenWebRX project. Recently he added a number of avionics related modes (ADS-B, VDL2, HFDL), a new decoder for DAB (European digital broadcast standard), the ability to decode RDS / RBDS, and a new experimental data interface in the form of MQTT that is intended to allow third-party processing of the information that is received via OpenWebRX.
Marat Fayzullinβs goal for OpenWebRX+ is to support as many communication modes as possible without the need of tweaking multiple pieces of software. In his own words: βIn a way, I view OpenWebRX+ as a real-life βtricorderβ for the radio spectrum.β
The ARSA committee is already looking forward to next yearβs award and welcomes input and nominations for future awards.
Altium Designerβs Constraint Manager acts as a central hub for managing all your PCB design rules, electrical properties like trace width, physical dimensions, and clearances. It simplifies organization by offering a table format for...
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This blog exists for me to catalog sucesses and failures. The other thing it does is provide me with a place to put things so that I can get to them no matter where I am assuming β an internet connection. The topic for today is a refresher on my setup for my portable digital operations.
The Gear and Software
This discussion centers around the use of the IC-705 and the Microsoft Surface GO 2. I have no reason to believe that changing the computer will make any difference as I have gotten this working on other laptops, but the operating system will require some attention.
Iβm running Ubuntu as my Linux distro on this device. There is pre-reading required to make this all work and weβll get to that in a second.
Software includes the following from the Ubuntu repository:
wfview
fldigi
WSJT-X
Pat
I am currently using the fork of ardop known as β ardopcf from pflarue on GitHub. New and exciting things are happening here in the world of ardop.
The Pre-Work β wfview
There is a great set of instructions on how to get ALSA loopback devices set up appropriately for wfview in their well-written user manual. Start here:
With all of that done and in place, there are a few things to look at in wfview for rig control to make life a little easier. At the bottom of this page of the wfview manual there is some good information on setting up wfview to do what flrig would do. Thatβs what I do. Why? Because itβs working and keeps things simple. The important thing, in my experience, is to set the port number to something other than 4532 which is the flrig default. I set it to 4533 because thatβs a safe port number.
Here is what my wfview External Control tab looks like:
The screen for External Control in the wfview application.
It should be noted that Iβm using the Virtual Serial Port. This is a mapping to /dev/pty/NUMBER and it takes care of itself once set up.
fldigi
With wfview up and running, setting up fldigi is relatively simple. The following configurations for audio and rig control are currently working.
fldigi audio settings with the PortAudio section selected, Loopback PCM (hw:10,1) set for Capture and Loopback PCM (hw:11,1) set for Playback.
The rig control settings are set on the HamLib segment of the Rig Control section in the configuration dialogue.
Use hamlib is selected. Rig is set to Hamlib NET rigctl (stable) Device is set to 127.0.0.1:4553 (as found in wfview) Baud rate is set to 115200
All other settings are defaults.
The fldigi rig control settings configured with the values defined above.
With this complete, save and initialize the connection and then go to the main fldigi window to tune or send a station ID. Rig control and audio should function as expected.
WSJT-X
WSJT-X is the odd duck. My dad and I have the rig control configured differently, but it still works for both of us. What does that mean? There might be more than one successful configuration so maybe find what works and donβt touch it after that. What I use is listed here.
The Radio settings tab is configured as follows.
Rig: Icom IC-705 Serial Port: /home/jcw/rig-pty-1 Baud Rate: 115200 PTT Method: CAT Data Bits: Default Stop Bits: Default Handshake: Default Mode: Data/Pkt Split Operation: None
The WSJT-X Radio configuration window with the values set as detailed above.
The Audio setup matches the devices that are set in wfview but in reverse.
Note: I find the labeling in wfview to be counterintuitive. Itβs probably just my broken brain, but I have to remind myself to flip things around and think about it as source/destination pairs. Itβs probably just me.
The WSJT-X Audio configuration window with the values set as detailed above.
With this configuration in place, one can test the rig control on the Radio tab or by going to the main window and changing frequencies. Running a tuning cycle briefly will test audio output.
ARDOP β ardopcf
ardopcf is available on GitHub as a binary. Simply download it and put it in /usr/local/bin, run a quick chmod+x on it, and it should be good to go. Thatβs all that it required of me.
With ardopcf in place, lauching ardop is fairly simple. I put it in a little script so that I donβt have to type out the arguments each time. I named the script βstartardop.shβ and dumped it in my home directory. Creative, huh? Hereβs what it looks like:
When you start ardopcf, you should start to see pairs of numbers in the terminal showing you audio input levels. If youβre getting a lot of 0,0 then you might have a problem or wfview might not be running. Maybe your rig is off? Check your signal chain. If, on the other hand, youβre seeing numbers pop up every 4 seconds or so, then youβre in good shape.
Wow. Thatβs a lot of stuff. That is the configuration that is currently working for me for sending Winlink email using ARDOP or telnet.
What a lot of people seem to miss is that Pat has a web gui that will run on localhost:8080. It makes using Pat a lot easier and gives a fresh, modern GUI to Winlink email. And yes, it handles forms and everything. Itβs pretty darned cool!
To get that up and running, I use yet another creatively named script: startpat.sh. The contents of that are:
pat-winlink --listen "ardop,ax25,telnet" http
What does that do? It starts up Pat listening for connections on ardop, ax25, or telnet. I didnβt detail ax25 here because, well, Iβm not done playing with that just yet. And telnet should always be there so that you can use Pat if you have a good internet connection and NEED to check your Winlink email. The http argument starts the application listening on 8080 for the web UI. With Pat running, all you have to do is go to https://localhost:8080/ui and youβll see the web UI. Youβre now free to explore Pat and send/receive Winlink email.
Final
This is the setup that is currently working for me. I will update this as I add other modes, etc.
There's been some contention in POTA circles lately as park designators are changing.Β For instance, parks in Canada have gone from VE-XXXX to CA-XXXX. If I'm not mistaken, the parks un the USA are going to be changing to US-XXXX from what I've read. (Again, I may be mistaken.)Β
The logging program that's been the rage for POTA and SOTA and other portable ops fans has been HAMRS. It seems, from what I've read, that there's been some difficulty and confusion as the app doesn't recognize the change in park designators, which is a real pain when you want to upload your logs. However, HAMRS was developed and is being maintained by a person, not a company or an organization - so updates and fixes may or may not occur. It depends on the author's time and availability, and as any volunteer can tell you, time is a most precious and sometimes limited resource.
The YouTube video above introduces POLO, which is not available for download yet, but is in the Beta testing stage. The video provides a link where you can go to download and become part of the Beta testing team. According to the opening moments of the video, POLO will be available for iOS and Android.
Title: Elevate Your Amateur Radio Experience with Station Master Software: A Comprehensive Guide βAmateur Radio Station Master Software: Elevate Your Radio Experience, Connect with Confidence.β Introduction:Amateur radio enthusiasts understand the importance of seamless communication and efficient station management. In the world of ham radio, Station Master Software has emerged as a powerful tool, providing operators [β¦]