Ban PLT

Click here for the Ban PLT website.
Showing posts with label Chinese mobile rigs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chinese mobile rigs. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 January 2019

An APRS black hole to fill?

Perhaps, looking on ukrepeater.net shows that MB7USD is no longer licenced, so as soon as I have my full licence this may be an opportunity to fill in a gap in APRS coverage and packet access to and from the APRS-IS.

My plan is to run an igate or digipeater, whichever, to cover the area once covered by MB7USD, using a self-contained setup of a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ (or whatever will be the highest performing Pi by that time), with solar power, a reasonably high capacity battery (probably a leisure battery), and my Leixen VV-898 for an output of about 10 watts, hopefully linked to my home WiFi and kept in my shed to start with until I can find a suitable place elsewhere.

The VV-898 being a 10 watt radio should more than suffice for this job, and being a cheap radio to get hold of should it fail I can swap it out for another one, and being low power draw it is suited to this ultra green setup.

I need to fit a shelf in the rear of my shed which means moving some of my antenna mounting hardware up to the shack, there are already mounting points to do this and a convenient air vent at the rear, though I suspect I ought to tread carefully as I did see a wasp nest near the vent and therefore there could be wasps but the nest may be derelict or all wasps in it dead due to this very cold snap we've had lately, the air vent is convenient as that will serve as a path for coaxial cable to feed through, RG8-mini preferred as that is small enough in diameter and low loss compared to RG58, the vent will also serve as access to solar panel power cables.

The need for GPS is not required for this setup as it is fixed, it's precise location will, for its and my security, be off slightly (appearing on the map on the roads near to my home QTH.

As a temporary antenna I could use an off-the-shelf mobile antenna on a magmount on top of a suitable piece of metal, I have an old magmount that I got with the Team RoadCom-FS that I don't plan to put on a vehicle, I just need to change the coax (with RG8-mini) as it needs a coax change anyway

I've not even started my training for my M0 call and I am already planning on what NoV to get when I am able to, and when this is done I hope to restore local APRS-IS access in the local area.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Monday, 11 June 2018

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

Thursday, 7 June 2018

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

Tuesday, 24 November 2015

The previous Sunday local net on GB3IR

I don't often post about the regular local net on GB3IR unless there is something of note, and, although this is a couple of days late coming, there was something noteworthy the previous Sunday.

First off, the Sunday evening net on GB3IR is open to anyone who can access the repeater either direct on RF or over Echolink, it's not strictly local and it's nice to hear new voices on the air.

So, how is it noteworthy, by use of the Leixen VV-898 and my homebrew yet unfinished dipole of course, it was still hung up and I thought to save the batteries on my handhelds (of which I have reprogrammed to include all 2-meter analogue and System Fusion voice repeaters in the UK), performance wise the antenna was getting into the repeater fine (though I could just as easily use a very leaky dummy load or a piece of wet string though of course I'd not recommend that given that I am very close to the repeater).

This has been the first time the VV-898 has been used for a Sunday net on IR since removal from my previous car, it has not been fitted to the new car as it would be much easier for me to fit a radio with a detachable front, hence my interest in the Yaesu FTM-100DE (which I think is an after-Christmas purchase though I am seeing this rig in the flesh soon to see what it is like), though I am also interested in this rig for the benefit of System Fusion, the ability to turn up the TX power once I have my intermediate, and the APRS side of things as well as I'd like to get a bit more into that, all of these things are beyond the VV-898 (except the APRS with a little bit of extra hardware), hence why it has been now demoted to home radio, and it only puts out 10-watts anyway

The VV-898 seems to be performing well as a home rig on the homebrew dipole, the next thing to do is put the antenna outside and see what it can really do, but first there is waterproofing to do, as for the VV-898, it will be taking place in most Sunday nets on GB3IR and perhaps any simplex nets once I get the antenna outside the window, I just need to waterproof the coax join, I was initially going to use black Sugru but I may use blue Sugru instead as it matches the blue on the dipole elements..

As for the Sunday net itself, nothing of note to mention really apart from the antenna and rig I used, just leaves me to finish it off, roll on payday and a trip to somewhere I can get blue Sugru from

73 de M6RSQ

Sunday, 22 November 2015

How to get a Leixen VV-898 to transmit and recieve on APRS

Just exactly how do you get a Leixen VV-898 to transmit and receive on APRS? This is how it is done.

Firstly you need to find the pinout for the mic, a Google search will bring it up in no time, using my method you may also need to find an Ethernet pinout as well, but be aware that the pin numbering may be opposite to that of the VV-898 mic plug diagram, it remains for you to match and note the colours.

Next you need an interface, I already had one lying around but my shack computer has no physical COM port onboard so a USB to Serial adaptor had to be used, the one I have is a Prolific type, be aware that these may need older drivers as newer drivers reject some cheap programming cables that are allegedly based on a Prolific chip but it is in fact a non-genuine chip, and the Serial adaptors may have one of these rather than a genuine Prolific chip, my serial adaptor appears to have a genuine chip in it unlike my mass of programming cables and TTL lead, my interface is wired up to pin 7 on the serial plug (RTS) though you can wire it to pin 4 (DTR).

On your computer you need to install a sound card TNC, I use UZ7HO's Soundmodem, there is a high speed version as well but we do not want this for APRS, it needs no installation, just extract from the zip file to a convenient folder (desktop on my shack computer with the icon pinned to the taskbar), set up the modem as required (APRS is 1200 baud AFSK), then set it up for the PTT on your COM port, in my case this was COM 7 but yours may differ, unless you have a physical COM port which is always COM 1 (modern computers rarely have more than 1 onboard COM port)

Next you need to set up your APRS client, I use APRSIS32, this client can be used without a radio to connect to the Internet, and also as an iGate or digipeater, but we don't need that functionality and it would require the appropriate NoV and a full license from what I understand, it needs to be able to talk to sound card TNC, this is found on localhost (unless the machine you're running the client on is on your network separately from sound card TNC), if you have a second sound card in your computer (I do) then ensure that is set up in the sound card TNC first so your main sound card can be used for other things like Echolink for example, plug a lead into the back of the VV-898, I placed a ground-loop isolator on this line to eliminate unwanted noise, power it up, and tune to the APRS frequency (in the UK this is 144.800 MHz, in other European countries it should be the same, but check first before you transmit), ensure you have disabled the APRS-IS side of APRSIS32, and it is not set up as an iGate or digipeater (turn off options for RF to IS and IS to RF and if you wish disable Internet access entirely), if the soundmodem is working and APRSIS32 is talking to it you should see a list of callsigns and other items scrolling on the top left of the window.

Now you can test your interface, tune the rig to a clear frequency or connect it to a dummy load, and connect the circuit to the mic socket, the rig should do nothing, if the red light comes on and it has gone into transmit this indicates a problem with the interface wiring, if not you're good to go.

At this stage don't plug the audio feed into the computer, if you are doing this into a dummy load there should be no need to identify, you should still be able to listen on a handheld placed close to the dummy load and tuned to the same frequency, you will also need to get the volume set up correctly, you can use existing APRS transmissions as a reference, if your interface is built with a potentiometer, as mine is, you may need to adjust this, too quiet the iGate and other stations won't receive the transmissions properly, too loud is just as bad and may cause interference, once you have it right, connect your rig back to the antenna and send a packet to APRS, if it is heard by an iGate you should appear on aprs.fi, if not your packet was not received properly by the iGate if at all, in this case check all your settings carefully.

Once it all works give yourself a pat on the back, you've got a radio with no TNC port to transmit APRS packets successfully.

Though if you are in my situation and want to use the same rig for voice, just disconnect the leads and reconnect the mic, job done.

73 de M6RSQ

(note that this isn't an exact guide, the full ins and outs are a lot more detailed)

Saturday, 21 November 2015

APRS update

I have got APRS working on both the laptop and my phone, the latter will be used in the car until I obtain the Yaesu FTM100DE which has this on board anyway, and both report position to APRS-IS no problem, I have yet to get the Leixen VV-898 to transmit on the frequency as I've not had chance yet today to remove the relay and old CB related cabling from the auto-key unit and wire in an Ethernet cable.

What does this mean? It means that anyone, licensed or not, can see my current location on aprs.fi or similar, just need to search for my callsign, which will have a - then a number after it, mobile use (in the car) is -9, my laptop currently is -10 (internet only as my laptop rarely if ever leaves the house) and my shack should show as either -0 or no number after my callsign.

I'll post a bit more later once I have the VV-898 operational on APRS, time to grab a cup of tea and a hot soldering iron.


73 de M6RSQ

A bit more time dedicated to radio

Firstly with my Leixen VV-898 on the bench rather than in the car (I had replaced the fuse holder for a mini-blade type after the regular one fell apart) and connected to the power supply I thought maybe it is a good idea to play with antennas so I dug out my 2-meter slim-Jim that I had built at the club some time ago, only to find it was not working as it should (the SWR was a bit high so I figured it was kaput as it had been on the floor in the hallway for some time), a T2LT cut to the right length was my next attempt, again this did not work, then finally I relented and assembled a dipole, this too, despite being cut to about the right length, was not working with a high VSWR, though it was lower on 70cm, what gave? Turns out the choke I had wound was too far from the feedpoint, so I cut the excess coax between the choke and antenna out (I did this so I did not have to redo the choke), after resoldering the antenna elements (two pieces of the neutral conductor from high-current twin and earth cable) to the coax at their new position and rehanging the antenna from my winter washing line in the living room and reconnecting it to the rig, the SWR had dropped though still read between 1.5 and 1.7 on the meter, better than it was but could still be better however it handles the 10 watts the radio gives it fine, all I now have to do is finish it off and hang it up outside the window.

I have also had a look into APRS, as there appears to be transmissions on the APRS frequency in the locality, which I believe is coming from MB7USD as aprs,fi isn't really showing a lot otherwise, I have been working to get the VV-898 to be able to TX on APRS but thus far have only got it to receive into my shack computer, and I don't yet have a passcode to do Internet-only operations as yet, as I have decided to decommission both my FRN gateways indefinitely some time ago as I want to focus a bit more on the Amateur side of things I plan to modify the auto-key circuit I built for the CB gateway to use it with the VV-898 for APRS as it sounds like something that might be worth playing with and the Yaesu FTM-100DE has this onboard as well and as I plan to get one of these for the car (as the box can live under the seat or in the boot out of the way) I may as well use the APRS feature on it, I'll hopefully be looking at one of these up close and personal at the next club meeting intermediate training pending.

I also have the APRS software installed on my laptop computer, of course not having a passcode as yet means I cannot transmit onto the APRS system but that should change soon, with a crude but working antenna up I should have no problems transmitting all being well, so let's see what APRS is all about

73 de M6RSQ

Saturday, 21 February 2015

Leixen VV-898 compact mobile VHF/UHF radio

I became aware of a gem of a radio on the Charlie Tango forums, the Leixen VV-898, this radio is extremely compact so will fit in the smallest of spaces in the smallest of cars, and it is perfect for the foundation license holder in that it is maximum power of 10 watts.

Originally I was going to use my Wouxun in the car, however after seeing this rig it meant I could have something a little more permanent, the theory is that I should be able to use this radio to get into GB3IR from a little further away, this is in part due to my Wouxun only putting out 5 watts on VHF and 4 watts on UHF, my recently acquired Baofeng is similar in this regard.

Wiring this new rig into the car should not be that difficult, it wasn't for the CB though the power cables were too short, so I don't see any major issue with this rig, I will more than likely need some new reels of wire from Halfords though.

This rig retails at less than £100, Moonraker sell it for £99 give or take, Martin Lynch & Sons sell it for £90 with a programming cable or £80 without, though to be honest the story is always the same with all these Chinese radios, buy a programming cable.

This radio, like all the Chinese made VHF/UHF radios, can transmit on the PMR446 frequencies with the correct steps, but you do this at your own risk, I take no responsibility for illegal use of radio equipment.

With two weeks left to go before my foundation exam (yes, it's two weeks today) I have decided that once I pass (which I have every confidence that I will) I will get this rig ordered the same day, installed by the following weekend, with the antenna SWR check done at Whashton Road car park as per my usual routine for setting up mobile rigs, unless the proximity to GB3IR causes problems, which it should not do, or I have not received the needed information from RSGB before that date to get my license from Ofcom, I have, however, found out that these radios, or at least more recent ones, are equipped with a BNC connector as opposed to an SO239, this means an adaptor will be needed, but I can deal with that when I need to.

I will post a quick video to YouTube as well

Another rig to show up for me soon will be the Anytone AT6666 as I plan to order one of these when I get paid next week, probably with another YouTube video as well.


73 de 26CT730