DV Hotspot update 3

I received notification early hours yesterday that my MMDVM board, case and antenna have been marked as shipped, this is good but I still am uncertain whether this can be configured and working before the Colburn & Richmondshire District Amateur Radio Society do their talk on Yaesu System Fusion (and possibly some DMR as myself and at least two other members are equipped for it).

I still have yet to find a suitable location for home use for the completed hotspot though have found a nice short power cable in which to run it (power is supplied from the Pi Zero W to the whole unit and therefore it simply requires a micro-USB cable and either a phone charger or a power bank, this allows me access to the unit on the move, it can also run off a car charger as well though I'd have to do a shutdown before I turn off the car.  I took the time to eventually get the WiFi to work on it (it dislikes my main WiFi so has to connect to my guest WiFi), both for home and mobile use, I think the unit would make an excellent demonstration of Amateur radio combining off-the-shelf tech, and could well get younger people interested, as I am building this as a kit (from a couple of pre-assembled boards, one being a Pi Zero W and the other being the MMDVM though I think some final assembly is required) this might be enticing to those that would rather be hands-on.

As I have to work soon at time of writing I will have to keep this one short and sweet and will return with a bit more on this as it progresses, and I will hope to return to the blog with more soon

73 de 2E0EIJ

DV hotspot update 2 and the Activate all Counties event

So the Pi Zero W has arrived and the MMDVM board has been ordered, the Pi booted and the config done to the point it can be, currently no modes selected for DV and no modem set, this comes later.

The Pi Zero W is currently running as a WiFi hotspot using the Pi-star software, this allows it to be configured over the web interface, though from what I can tell connecting it to the Internet is not possible in this manner, once it is assembled as a hotspot then I hope to take it out of the mode it is in and connect it to my WiFi and my phone and get on the air on DMR from home.

I have had a listen to the CQ-UK room on Wires-X by way of MB6RY, the local gateway run by Andy M1SDE, the gateway, though dropping out for me while I was driving around last night, gave me an insight as to who uses CQ-UK, and I should be able to access that using the complete hotspot by means of DMR (Phoenix, not Brandmeister) and Fusion.

With the Pi Zero arriving (and making it my second Pi Zero after the one that runs my IRC bouncer) attention turned to the rest of the hotspot, with the MMDVM board (one with an OLED display) ordered hopefully to arrive before the club meeting on the third Thurdsay of this month (if so it will mean I can assemble it and video it for YouTube).

Now for the Activate all Counties event, I did not get this filmed to go onto YouTube sadly, this was due to a few factors, one of which the complete failure (my fault) of the Grant II, fortunately for me an emergency radio was to hand and I was able to participate in the net, I managed to get into a net on Channel 37 midblock, confirming my T2LT was getting out and that Tan Hill is an ideal spot to play radio.

Initially it was planned I run the radio off a newly acquired generator, sadly my proximity to the Tan Hill Inn (literally across the road from it) prevented me using the generator as it was loud, but it was there should I have needed it, the mast was bungee corded to my car's wing mirror mount on the passenger side, the coax fed into the car through the window (which did not matter as it was a hot night) and connected to an inline SWR meter, SWR was spot on.

Another test I performed as I had the CRT SS9900 with me as this was not unpacked was to see what it was like on 10-meters, as the T2LT is exceptionally narrow banded the SWR was in the red there, not to worry, it gave me an excellent idea and that is to make a wire antenna for 10, not sure I could base this on the T2LT design however I shall get another dipole centre at some point.

Conditions improved as the night went on but the band was getting swamped by German stations operating FM, I flicked through to another net close to my location however it was right in the back of the box, so my T2LT reached out to Northumberland and Tyne & Wear from my location, on receive I heard two stations in Morpeth, one of which was the famous Delboy, probably the first time I had heard his voice, this was on flicking around, not during the time I called into the net.

This is the first time that I have managed to get my CT call logged on 11-meters successfully, it was a worthwhile event and I am glad to have been a part of it.

All in all I am impressed and by what I understand the Activate All Counties was a success, shame I had to leave Tan Hill at 9:30, as I did not fancy driving down from there in total darkness nor taking the antenna down in total darkness, and on the drive back down it was back onto 2-meters and putting a few calls on GB3IR once I could hear it, as I remained in that radio mood.

Doesn't matter if it's 11-meters or the Amateur bands, it's still radio and it's what we all enjoy, and I say enjoy it

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

DV hotspot update 1

I have received notification that The Pi Hut have shipped the Raspberry Pi Zero W I ordered, this should be with me tomorrow or Thursday, I have found a micro SD card from an Internet radio receiver that I build out of an old DAB radio and a Raspberry Pi B V1 until the regulator failed, this card still works and is being flashed with the image, when the Pi Zero W arrives I should be able to insert this pre prepared card and boot it without the HAT to ensure connection to my WiFi network and, in the event of being out and about, connection to the WiFi hotspot in my phone, the HAT config can only be done once the HAT arrives.

The HAT is yet to be ordered, this should happen later this week if all goes according to plan, and though the Colburn and Richmondshire District Amateur Radio Society is doing a talk on System Fusion (of which myself will take part in) that may cover DMR and hotspots as well my own cheap hotspot may not be ready in time as it takes a while for items from China to reach the UK, though I still have my FTM-400 in the car for the talk.

I have also sourced a power cable for the Pi Zero W as I have a few cables lying around, where in the shack it will go I am not sure as yet though I can easily put the hotspot in the living room I'd rather it be in the shack.

I know the Pi Zero I use as an IRC bouncer draws very little even with a USB hub with onboard Ethernet plugged into it, switching out the LED status doesn't make a lot of difference and it is powered with a 700mA charger, as the Zero W has WiFi onboard it will draw more power, how much more shouldn't be too great as long as the signal to the WiFi is good.

more to come

73 de 2E0EIJ

DV hotspot on the cheap

As you know I've got an AnyTone AT-D868UV which I purchased at the Bowburn rally a few weeks ago, and unfortunately due to the primary spectrum user not allowing it there is no 70cm DMR repeater here and thus no access to the DMR network for me but that is set to change and the primary spectrum user need not worry because this should not have any effect due to exceptionally low power on the access side.

The device in question is of course a DV hotspot, now there are loads out there, however until now none of these are cheap... until now that is.

China, a country well known for cheap products, has produced boards that essentially are Raspberry Pi HATs that work as DV hotspots that support modes such as DMR, Yaesu System Fusion, D-STAR, P25 and NXDN (though the latter 2 aren't used in the UK that I know), you can get these assembled in a case with a Pi (or Pi Zero) or for a little cheaper get the parts and assemble them together, the software side is in the form of an SD card image for the Pi called Pi-star, which must be configured to work with the Raspberry Pi and the MMDVM HAT you have on the Pi.

There are instruction videos already on YouTube on how to set these up so I won't be covering that aspect here, as I am going to buy the HAT and the Pi as separate items and assembling them together which will be filmed and uploaded to my YouTube channel.

Powering this unit simply requires a micro USB cable and a mobile phone charger, even one of the widely available power banks can work for this use, I have a Goodmans 8000mAh power bank that could run this sort of setup for a few hours in the event of being away or without mains power, though it still needs the Internet which my mobile phone and tablet can provide as I suspect data use is small, at home I simply just plug it in somewhere in the shack, sit in the living room and have QSOs on DMR, in the car I can use Fusion (I may get a second unit for the car for exclusively this and add the frequency manually to the FTM-400 with TX at low power of course.

I have ordered the Pi Zero W I need for this already (it's like building a house, you have to start with the foundations on which to build), the next order should be for the module, some of the ones from China come with a case and OLED screen so I need not have a display attached to the Pi Zero at all, I am also in the process of getting the Pi-Star image ready, that needs to go onto an SD card which I will purchase locally.

Knowing a Pi Zero can hold a decent uptime I may leave this thing powered up and connected so all I have to do is run the radio.

A bit of programming of the radio will also be involved of course but that's no problem as the codeplug software is on the computer already.

73 de 2E0EIJ

μBITX QRP transceiver kit

on my search for the cheapest way to get onto 40 and 80 meters (top band is optional but I'll stick with 40 and 80 for now) I happened across a kit from India called the μBITX, a small 10-watt HF kit capable of CW and SSB operation from around 3 to 30MHz, for around US$129 (price in GB£ will vary depending on the exchange rate), all it needs is dropping in an enclosure, wiring up, connecting to power, a little calibration and it's good to go.

A kit like this is just what is needed to bring the true meaning of the hobby back, in the earliest days of radio all transmitters and receivers were built from the ground up, though this has near enough all the PCB components soldered onto the board there is a little bit of work to get it working, it also requires an enclosure (metal of course) and a speaker, ventilation should be provided near the finals to help with the cooling.

This kit proves you don't need an Icom, Kenwood or Yaesu radio to get on air on HF, you don't even need an Elecraft for those SOTA activations, just one of these kits fully assembled, a suitable antenna and tuner and you're good to go, and of course batteries, even AA batteries, and you can get on HF from a hilltop, away from that wretched QRM that all today's modern consumer electronics generate, and if you do accidentally cook the PA transistors, they're of a common type and you can replace them for pennies.

The full details of this kit and how to order it are here, and I am very tempted to order one myself and start getting out there and getting on HF.


73 de 2E0EIJ

possible T2LT shootout

I recently happened across eXtreme Antenna Systems, run by Scott 26DRX111/26CTX3111/2E0XVS, he sells antennas ranging from the humble T2LT (of which I built one myself as per Gary 26CTX101's instructions.

Looking at his pre-made T2LT I thought "why not order one and run it against my own T2LT, on the same day using the same radio and the same mast and see which fares better", and this probably will take place after the celebration of legal AM/SSB on the 11-meter band, and after this purchase one of his antennas that can work both 10 and ll meters, put that in the tree outside and have only one feeder back to the shack with a switch in the shack between the Grant II and the CRT SS9900 which may get me on part of HF from home at the very least and may well eventually be swapped by the CRT SS6900N as that has CW whereas the 9900 does not, to do the shootout I may well need a second SOTApole from SOTABeams, as the current one has proven successful already on tests prior to its first official use.

If the 10/11 1/2 wave antenna proves a success from home I will order a second for portable ops to be able to use 10 and 11-meters in the field, this may well prove beneficial for the National Hamfest 2018 in which I plan to run a station from.

I will of course need an antenna switch for the shootout as well

I'll update in due course

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

Local 11-meter noise tests

Before work today I decided to get the mast out and up at the home QTH on the drive on mast stand, this was to find out what the local noise levels using a T2LT antenna would be around here as I plan to hide one somewhere convenient, barely passing S1 on the meter, for arguements sake I took the reading on my CRT SS9900 (bear in mind this is not a type approved radio for the Citizens' Band service so I did not transmit of course) and the President Grant II, the noise did not exceed S1 on both radios for most channels, some cases it would hit S3 but the noise levels were good, even with the SS9900's RF gain turned up to full, this was, however at around 3pm on a weekday, I suspect when everyone is home and they have electronics running the noise level will go up.

QRM is a major inconvenience for the modern radio operator, the vast majority of electronic devices sold are compliant with the rules that prevent them generating QRM, however there are certain things such as solar charge controllers and, worse, PLT homeplugs for networking over the mains that can potentially wipe out most if not all HF bands, the latter are well known examples of devices not complying with the directives in place and being sold regardless, most solar charge controllers are usually cheap units from China and in most cases quality control leaves a lot to be desired.

So I am going to repeat the tests another day when I know that many people will be on the Internet, this may take place after the celebration night on Wednesday, perhaps the Monday night after the celebration night, this will make this test fair.

The next 11-meter related post should be on the subject of the celebration of legal AM and SSB,

73 de 26CT730

Mast update 2

The mast arrived today around midday, almost with the delivery driver leaving thinking I was not in not having waited long enough for me to answer the door and thus me not getting the mast.

First impressions were that it was a good quality product and I expect it to perform well, the bottom of the mast however keeps coming off and thus risking me losing the mast sections, this can simply be glued back on with a bit of superglue.

I took a drive up to one of my usual local radio testing points later on in the day, about 3pm, got the mast up, and into my drive on mast stand and fastened to the driver's door of the car with the radio on the bonnet rather than a fence post as at this location there weren't any readily available.

The band was open but as I caught it starting to close, I managed to catch a station in the south of France on UK40 channel 40 but could not work him, though he was operating at 15 watts and also I was getting more local transmissions on top of him, I heard a station to the north of me as well on the same frequency but quieter than the French station, by the time I tried again the band had closed so it was at this point, as I had other things to do, I decided to pack up.

SWR as reported by the Grant II (I forgot my good HF SWR meter) was spot on, though a test on a proper SWR meter is always a good idea (I am not a fan of built-in SWR meters) and will take place on the day of the celebrations next week.

Overall I am pleased, the antenna is working and is bringing in stations, and tunes and transmits just fine.

73 de 26CT730

Mast update 1

The telescopic mast is expected to arrive tomorrow, a week ahead of its first official outing, this will be helpful as the existing mast I have is damaged as you know, this will hopefully give me an opportunity to go out and test out the T2LT antenna on the President Grant II from my usual places, as not having the antenna on air in some time has led to concern that it may not be working as it ought to be, I was primarily concerned that it had been damaged during the move, though this is not as much of an issue as I simply can build a new one as I have sufficient parts to do so.

Should the mast arrive tomorrow in good time this will allow me to get it up to a high point locally and get it out on the air with the Grant II, which will run off the battery power supplied from the jump starter, I don't expect there to be many stations on 11-meters during the day tomorrow as it is a weekday.

I hope to film this for YouTube as I would like to show a bit of success with the antenna, the Big Multimode Nets/Activate All Counties next week will definitely make it to YouTube, and SSB contacts as part of this would be great.

I hope band conditions on the day of testing are desireable

73 de 26CT730

more issues by Chance Callahan KD0MXN

It has come to my attention that Chance Callahan KD0MXN, the young man unfit to be a licensed Amateur for the many reasons I have alluded to, is up to no good again, this time accusing someone of 'stealing' a picture from Reddit with no proof, no evidence, and no grounds, sound familiar?

Of course it does, he has a track record of false accusations against people, and this is the latest on that list, though this is a minor infraction and does not breach Part 97 of the FCC rules in of itself it is another clear hint of his bad personality.

As far as I can tell, anything posted to Reddit becomes public domain, same as it would if you posted it to any website where anyone can access it and their are no privacy settings, only when the privacy settings are on is when there would be an issue, seems Chance Callahan has completely disregarded this and of course made false accusations like he is so good at.

The sooner he is out of this hobby the better, he ruins it for every other Amateur in the world.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Edit: 18/06/18: I have revisited the thread on reddit and it has been conclusively revealed that the picture that Chance Callahan KD0MXN was claiming to have been 'stolen' was in fact not so and was not originally from /r/amateurradio but in fact posted there as a joke thread some months prior, so I am now 100% satisfied that Chance Callahan KD0MXN is one again accusing an innocent person of crimes they did not commit, and he is allowed to hold an Amateur radio licence... why?

Edit: 19/06/18: I have dug deeper into this, and confirmed the original image is in fact a screenshot of a click bait ad, thus confirming what I already alluded to above, this picture was absolutely not stolen from /r/amateurradio at all as the source of it is in fact the very click bait ads it came from, and already being satisfied that Chance Callahan KD0MXN was making false accusations, I don't need to say anything further on this

New telescopic mast ordered in time for The Big Multimode net and also for portable Amateur HF ops

I have ordered a new mast from SOTAbeams today, this one is a 7m mast as opposed to a 10m mast though this is not any real issue, with there being just under two weeks before the Big Multimode Net I needed to remedy the mast situation.

Though the news I posted yesterday is still fresh in my mind I understand that the hobby must go on and though the net on the 27th is for 11-meters (CB radio) it is still radio none the less, and I will operate that day as 26CT730/P from, I hope, Tan Hill, and hopefully achieve something I've wanted to do for many years, work Roy in Corsica if he is listening and the conditions are good on the day.

The radio I hope to use is my President Grant II, it has had very little airtime since I bought it, and it's legal for 11-meter SSB use.

Of course the mast I've bought will be grand for portable HF ops when I have some portable HF gear (I've been looking at Yaesu FT-817s as these are becoming available a little cheaper due to the 818 but still outside my price range), I will still, however, use type approved CB equipment for 11-meters even in portable ops so anything for Amateur HF will be for exactly that, I believe that the SOTABeams masts are good for long wires, though I suspect two spaced appropriately can support a full sized G5RV when I finally do get the portable HF on Amateur radio off the ground.

The Big Multimode Net is a good way to get interest in the radio hobby, no licence and no special equipment, just a normal AM/FM CB radio and an antenna is all you need to get started, you can power a radio easily off the car cigar lighter socket if it's a normal CB.

There is a second "Activate all Counties" event on the same day as the Big Multimode Net at the same time to get all of the English Counties on the air, if you have a CB setup I urge you take part in this, also if you want to do more than what a set of 80 channels on 27MHz and 16 channels on 446MHz allows you to do then go get your foundation licence, it is worth it.

If you're a CB/11-meter operator I look forward to working you on the air on the 27th June

73 de 2E0EIJ/26CT730

Charles Ring W3NU, SK

It is with great sadness I report the passing of one of the first Amateur radio operators I knew, Charles Ring W3NU, an operator who I had known for nearly 20 years, long before I had got into the hobby.

Though Charles was not my inspiration to get into the hobby, he was an operator I wanted to actually make contact with on air, as I only ever chatted to him over the Internet, he didn't think it would be possible for me in the early days when I had my foundation license as I suspect he was unaware that UK foundation licence holders were permitted to use HF where CW operation takes place, as he was a CW operator more than anything else.

In his memory and honour I plan to learn morse code and operate CW, as I feel that, as a licensed Amateur, the old ways shouldn't die out with the older generation, and also push to get my full licence, and also pass what I know to the younger generation once I have a full licence and help them to get on the air, I can of course still do this now but I cannot supervise those that would be under training, as I want to do this in Charles' memory as out of all the Amateurs I know it is he who I had the most respect for.

My thoughts are with Charles' family and friends at this very difficult time.

RIP Charles, you'll be very sadly missed.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Portable ops and pager intermod follow up

Today I went back to the old racecourse in Richmond and gave another go at portable operation there but this time using my KT-8900D, this radio suffered from the intermod issue as well but nowhere near as bad as the VV-898, as for me to hear it I had to open the squelch (which is shown in the video I took).

I managed one QSO, and almost got another one too but there was some confusion on S20 as to who was calling who, no matter, one was better than none at all.

This has drawn me to the conclusion that I must now build a notch filter (or spend US$90 or so on one pre made which I'd rather avoid), as my intent is to block out pagers I can use the pager frequencies and the RTL-SDR to tweak it and suppress the pager transmissions so they don't cause intermod.

Looking online there are some designs for these, some use a coil of wire and capacitors and screened enclosures, of course what I need is something that can basically work to TX on 2 and 70 without any issue so I will look at that of course, however the ultimate aim is to stop the pager noise dead in its tracks.

I will obviously test the final design with the worst offending radio, the VV-898, in the field at the old racecourse.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Portable ops... ruined by pagers

Yesterday I went out to do some portable ops on 2-meters (FM only considering my equipment though I could have done DMR had I took an adaptor with me for the Anytone which I did not do), I took my Leixen VV-898 as the radio simply because I could go as low as 5 watts (which is QRP in my opinion) if I wanted though I stuck with 10, however no matter what channel I went on in the FM simplex range or any of the repeaters, the radio was wiped out by intermod from pagers in the 155-158MHz range, and though pagers are not as common as they were because of the SMS facility on mobile phones, they are still in use as they work almost anywhere a mobile phone does not as they use high power transmissions from their base stations.

I will of course be doing a test with my QYT KT-8900D to see if it has better rejection of the paging traffic or not in the same location, and will also make a point to promote the hobby at that time and also the local club to try and get some more numbers there, after all it makes some sense.

I have a video of how the VV-898 was swamped by the pager noise in the pipeline, a short one but it gives you an idea of what the problem was, and I will do some footage of the KT-8900D when I go up next to the location to show if the KT-8900D is a better radio or not.

I am also looking at fitting a notch filter to the VV-898 to see if that helps get rid of the pager intermod as that seems to be the worst problem for it.

The pager issue itself will not go away, but there are means to help prevent it interfering with Amateur radio operations.

The video should appear on YouTube and here in the next day or two, and an update regarding if the KT-8900D is also suffering intermod from pagers will be posted as and when.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Edit: the video is live on YouTube and is also available here, comment on YouTube if you have one of these radios and have suffered the same intermod problems

Cheapest Yaesu HTs on the market?

Today via twitter I became aware of 2 Yaesu HT that are priced around the point of the more higher end Baofeng radios, these are the FT-4VE single band and the FT-4XE dual-band, these are both FM only, no C4FM or APRS on these HTs, and the XE variant costs £63, yes that's £63!.

The VE variant is only £60 and both are available from good Amateur radio suppliers, it was brought to my attention on twitter via Martin Lynch and Sons, who no doubt are as shocked as I am that these radios are cheap but Yaesu radios.

On another blog Simon the Wizard commented that they are made in the Anytone factory (he used the name Qixiang which I know is actually Anytone, owning two Anytone made radios myself), though I wouldn't see how or why Yaesu would subcontract manufacturing to the Chinese, though these radios are placed in the budget bracket.

I am tempted to get one of these radios for review, as it is in a price band I can stretch to and justify, I rarely review radios but this is a cheap Yaesu and I feel is worth reviewing.

I shall keep an eye on this one to see how it sells as well.

73 de 2E0EIJ

homebrew dipole working

Last night I got my homebrew 2-meter dipole antenna tuned and working while the rain held off, to use it I clamped the upright to an open window and the boom with the antenna on the end was outside the window, GB3CD was able to be accessed but it seemed to be below my squelch and a little in the noise, as were a couple of the stations on the S12 net I discovered, one in Darlington could hear me as I could hear him just fine, from the location given the station in Darlington was on the other side of Darlington to myself up near the retail park and car dealers, this was enough confirmation the antenna was in fact doing its job satisfactory, GB3HG and GB3IR obviously were not going to prove a challenge for the antenna given their locations.

Tomorrow if the rain holds off and the weather is good I may set up a portable station on Richmond's old racecourse with this antenna, the radio I will take I have yet to decide, also undecided is if I will go QRP or not, my VV898 can go as low as 5 watts (QRP levels) however the KT-8900D can only go to 10 watts at its lowest settings, after all this antenna is meant to be a portable design requiring nothing more than a screwdriver to disassemble the support from the boom, the VV898 may of course need reprogramming depending on how it is currently configured.

The next antenna I'd like to make is an antenna to work the FM satellites as I have still yet to do that, this dipole is my third successful antenna, the first being the T2LT for CB work and the groundplane antenna for 2-meters that was my original homebase antenna.

The coax on the antenna itself is a short run of RG58 to a BNC, this meant I have had to use a BNC-PL259 adaptor and a SO239 coupler to connect the feedline, which is the repaired feeder that was from the groundplane antenna after it was cut and it works great and is fitted with a crimp on PL259.

I shall see what happens tomorrow and see what stations I can work simplex if I go portable.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Rebuild of my homebrew 2-meter dipole near completion

I have spent today rebuilding my homebrew 2-meter dipole, previously it was just a dipole centre made with the neutral conductor of twin and earth cable, and it did fail at some point before the QTH move, yesterday I went out and got some parts and today I have got it assembled to somewhat functional, or at least receive anyway as I’ve not had opportunity to tune it

As should be known with me I prefer to build my own antennas rather than buy them, though I make exception for mobile use, and I feel building antennas is in the true spirit of Amateur radio, and my eagerness to build rather than buy antennas would make Marconi very proud indeed

I hope to finish and tune the antenna tomorrow, it will have a pair of clamps fitted to the support to allow it to be attached to anything that can support it, though it is lightweight in general, and I plan to give the support structure a little more rigidity as at present it is a little more flexible than one would like.

The antenna will spend its time connected to my QYT KT8900D and will be used with at most 25 watts, and spend most of its time being used on FM, the inspiration to build this antenna was down to me discovering a net on S12 at about 9pm or so every night, as I have the FTM-400 in the car I tend to listen while I work and am in the car, I don’t transmit usually while working, except in exceptional circumstances, and once this antenna is working I would like to maybe join in on this net on S12, assuming from my home QTH the other stations in the net can actually hear me.

I rarely work simplex given my current antenna situation but this should be set to change, especially with an antenna I can install and remove very quickly indeed.

I will post more as progress is made

 

73 de 2E0EIJ