First post from rebuilt shack computer

I have taken the time to install Windows Live Writer on the shack computer now it is running fine, this will allow me to post to the blog without having to actually log in to Blogger, however I may still do that when I am not at this computer, for example I am at my laptop.

All appears to be working well, as noted in my earlier post. the ShackCam is also under test again to ensure that it works fine with this computer so it will be running overnight for a little while, so you may see the shack but not me in it, though I am at time of posting given the title of this post

So, perhaps now I will be in the shack a bit more, I left the Internet chat rooms that were causing me some serious issues with my health, the time may as well be put to better use.

 

73 de 26CT730

Shack computer rebuilt

The shack computer has been rebuilt and the stop-gap hard disk installed and an OS running on it, though this was not without it's problems

Firstly the boot loader on the hard disk failed to work as it should have, rendering it useless, so I reinstalled Windows 7, however once I had Windows 7 and the network card drivers installed I went to open Internet Explorer to download Google Chrome, which is perfectly normal, however something went wrong and the system ended up infected with what appeared to be ransomware (along the lines of your system is locked until you pay a £100 fine for looking at things you should not be), it was easily determined that it was ransomware by virtue of atrocious grammar used in the "warning", and incorrect naming of certain organisations, as well as the fact that my other windows systems were not suffering the same issue.

Solution, reformat the hard drive and let the swines that caused the infection just be £100 out of pocket, however this time I decided to err on the side of caution and not open Internet Explorer, and won't be doing so ever again on any system that has been freshly installed, I also have since disabled Internet Explorer.

After that, I installed the FRN client, some logging software, and all that is needed for the RTL-SDR to function as it should, I have yet to install the programming software for my Wouxun KG-UVD1P but will be doing this after dinner.

The old motherboard may be donated to my work as I no longer have a use for it, and it will just be taking up space otherwise, the new board is in fact smaller than the old one surprisingly, I also got a sticker with the CPU which I attached to the front of the case

All in all a hectic few hours to get the system operational but I got there in the end, perhaps next will be the President Grant 2

73 de 26CT730

Shack computer update

The shack computer's replacement internal components should be arriving at some stage tomorrow, which I rescheduled, however I could have kept it today had I known I'd be stuck in the house today due to ill health.

Sadly however the conversion board for the hard disk has not surfaced, in fact it has not been marked as dispatched, so what I will have to end up doing is using a spare drive I have lying around that is unreliable until the part I need arrives, it does have a suitable version of Windows 7 on it but as the drive is starting to fail (though it does appear to boot) I have little faith in it working properly, it will be fine a stop-gap until the adaptor for the more reliable drive already in the system arrives

Edit: 9:20pm: Maplin have just marked the adaptor to convert the existing Western Digital WD800BB hard disk to work with the SATA ports on the new motherboard as despatched, it will be arriving via normal post and should be small enough to fit through my letterbox so I do not need to be home, if it arrives tomorrow (unlikely but it is possible they sent it but did not mark it as despatched until later) then I will be good, however I suspect it will not arrive here until Thursday or Friday, the computer rebuild will continue as planned regardless of the arrival of the part, the other hard drive being used as a stop-gap.

Judging by the state of my health, I may not be making it out tomorrow either unless I absolutely have to, but with the parts arriving then I won't go mad and will have a better computer in the shack and be able to spend my time there, though I may be fit to leave the house, I also hope that I am not waiting around for the delivery because that is something I seriously dislike.

What will happen is something like as follows

• Prior to the parts arriving the PMR446 gateway will be shut down and removed, it is on top of the shack computer and it's previous case, the radio will remain in situ, the empty case will also be removed and the shack computer will be unplugged and disassembled.
• The entire existing innards of the shack computer except the power supply, DVD drive, and hard drive will be removed from the computer and an assessment of the inside of the case made, original RAM from the shack computer will be removed from the original motherboard and set aside for the PMR446 gateway computer as it would act as a suitable replacement, the CMI8738 sound card from the shack computer will be retained
• The shack computer will then be rebuilt, put into place before the other systems, and configured headless, due to a lack of optical drive (it's incompatible with the new board without the same £12 adaptor the hard drive is due) the drivers will be moved to a flash drive and installed from it.
• Once configured the empty case will be placed on top of it, following this the RAM from the old board will be installed in the PMR446 gateway computer, hopefully improving performance.

And that should be it, I will, of course, have to remove everything again when the adaptor arrives, my SDR will then perform as it should do, the FRN will work nicely, so will Zello, the ShackCam feed, and whatever else I may need, I'll obviously have to clear everything else off the temporary hard disk first before connecting the network as it's horrifically out of date not being in a live system for some time,

Next to come will be the President Grant 2 all being well (as well as all the things I need for my DXpedition to Tan Hill).

73 de 26CT730

DXpedition preparations, parts list and rough measurements for T2LT antenna, and a possible cheap and light power supply

As I am hoping to order a 100 meter drum of coax, specifically RG58, I have taken some measurements for the T2LT antenna, I may make a second antenna for home if the design proves itself in service, the measurements are those used by YouTube user UKCBTV, a fellow Charlie Tango station (though can't remember the callsign), with a working centre frequency of around 27.500MHz, should cover the legal 80 channels with little in the way of trouble.

Another thing I found while watching UKCBTV's videos was his excellent idea of a portable power supply, which uses 10 1.2v rechargeable batteries, which range in capacities up to 2500mAh, that would be roughly 25Ah at 12v DC, so something I may cobble together, as well as get hold of a decent battery charger plus some new batteries, he also fitted a volt meter, a good idea to ensure voltage is stable and a cigarette lighter line socket, the battery box and cigarette lighter line socket can be sourced from Maplin Electronics, the voltmeter appears to be an eBay purchase.  This idea was compared to the Midland 77-805 Portapak CB radio, which had a battery box with it, handhelds are another option but the battery life in most is usually pretty dire and the rubber duck antenna is usually hopeless.

The current draw for my Midland Alan 78+ Multi B is around 1.1A on TX, presumably at full modulation, the 42 handheld (which includes a car adaptor) is slightly shy of 1A on TX, the President Grant 2 is 3A on TX with modulation. my Moonraker FA5000, which I now hardly use, I do not know the current draw for as I've lost the manual.

So if I can get the T2LT antenna built and tested in the next couple of weeks, I can focus on a suitable power supply, the battery pack idea above from UKCBTV sounds ideal and is cheaper and lighter than the car jump starter I was originally going to use and will get me started, a telescopic fibreglass mast, and, importantly, a shelter, a collapsible tent may suffice, and a means to carry it all on my back while riding my scooter (I don't have a car yet) then I'm  all good to go, and can get on the air portable at Tan Hill hopefully come August time, if you're on air the day I am up there then we may hear each other on air that day, I'll be using the usual callsign

So, progress in the right direction, power lead, a possible electrical supply, and the measurements for the T2LT written down.

73 de 26CT730

President Grant 2 to be ordered soon maybe? (also a shack computer update)

I may place an order for a President Grant 2 next week if my finances look good, this will allow me to operate on SSB, in particular on my DXpedition to Tan Hill, however I will see what's what.

The reason I chose the President Grant 2 is several reasons, it is the first legal rig that allows you to switch between the new modes in the UK band (this is a recent update to the firmware in the radio), the radio is fitted with a power socket on the rear that the power lead plugs in to, this is similar to my Moonraker FA5000, a rig I hardly use now.

The President Grant 2 is easy to open up to export mode, inside there's a white wire and a jumper block, simply snip the wire and move the jumper, at the loss of your warranty and and your own risk, you also would lose the UK setting but you can get this back by moving the jumper back to it's original position.

It support's President's Liberty wireless microphone, a great idea that no one really thought of in the past, means you are not tied to sitting in the shack or your /p station, you can take a wander if you like, up to 100 meters I think it is, much like a DECT phone or a bluetooth headset.

Another nice feature of the rig is a choice of two backlight colours, orange and green, which also includes a dimmer so you're not blinding youself with a bright backlight at night.

There are other features as well on the rig but I'll do a full write up when I actually get hold of one, hopefully in a couple of weeks all being well

My shack computer has had a new motherboard, RAM, and CPU ordered for it, this would help with performance with regards to SDR use, there are incompatibility issues with the hard disk, optical drive, and existing graphics card, the hard drive has had an adaptor ordered for it to allow it to continue to work, the optical drive will be rectified later as it's not important at this time, the power supply should be sufficient for the new board, the only card that will be fitted is to be the CMI8738 sound card that the machine already has and that is compatible with the board.

Performance with SDR# has been dire with the RTL-SDR operating, the FRN client does work... just, the shackcam feed isn't really reliable on the machine (it's controlled by it both hardware and software, though I intend to replace this with a network camera,, which will make it software and link), and with plans to do the Amateur radio foundation exam as well I want the machine to reliably handle the Echolink software.  Another radio software installed on the machine is Zello, this runs reasonably OK but I tend not to use it as I use it on my phone more than I do on the computer.

Programming my Wouxun KG-UVD1P has proven unreliable with this machine, upgrading the internal hardware may be sufficient to remedy this (the official software, that is practically incomprehensible, works fine, the easier KG-UV commander doesn't read the radio properly, though it could be a bug with the software rather than the computer).

I should be taking delivery of the motherboard and it's ancillaries by Wednesday at the latest, for fitting that evening, which will take out the 446 gateway for a couple of hours but this is no real issue, the RAM on the existing board, if compatible, will be used in the 446 gateway computer to hopefully try and improve things, the GPU in that machine will also be swapped out with the one in the shack computer as I feel the one currently fitted to it is wasted in it and would be useful in another installation.

So, a better shack computer and maybe, just maybe, a President Grant 2 will be sitting on my shack desk soon, but we will see :)

73 de 26CT730

Planned DXpedition to Tan Hill, an update

I have looked on Google Street View for suitable spots to set up a /p station up at Tan Hill, in front of the pub itself is a car park, with large fields all around, my aim is to set up somewhere out of the way of the pub so I don't upset the landlord and landlady, there is a side road just down from the pub, so I could use a spot just past there, provided I can find somewhere dry, boggy ground could upset various components.

I was thinking a quick to erect tent would make a suitable shelter, of course I'd need to ensure that my antenna coax would reach sufficiently to the radio and my temporary mast wouldn't fall down (I plan to get one that has stays on it that would just fit in the ground much like tent pegs which can simply be removed quickly at the end of the day), as I've already completed a pair of power leads for portable power I simply need a portable power supply, mast, shelter, and antenna, the antenna wouldn't be too difficult to source as it's the T2LT I mentioned in my last post that I will be making, I found a suitable mast on a site that specialises in this kind of equipment, and I can pick up a small, easy to erect, tent from either Yeomans or Mountain Warehouse, the power supply may come from Halfords or Maplin, as a jump starter for car batteries would suffice as these tend to have cigarette lighter sockets, the radio I will use for now will be my Midland 78, as mentioned on my previous post, later I will be investing in a President Grant 2 but whether I use it for this remains to be seen.

My home made power lead is a cigarette lighter plug, a short run of cable (which was already fitted), a ring terminal with a bolt through it for negative, and a terminal block for positive, this would make it exceedingly difficult to reverse the connections as the vast majority of rigs have a ring terminal on their negative line, and I usually fit one to rigs that do not anyway.

I include a picture of the lead in question

This picture was taken in the "shack" not long after I put it together, the radio it is on top of is the same Midland Alan 78 Plus Multi B that I will be using, the bolt came from the metal frame my scooter was delivered in, the terminal block and the power cord itself were both lying around, also on the desk is a coax cable stripper and roll of electrical tape that I did not use and the solder that I used to tin the wires to prevent copper oxidisation occurring.  The "CB 27MHz label on the rig is there so I know what the rig operates on if I don't take a good look at what the rig is but all my mobile type rigs are CB anyway, though the picture shows the radio has  PL259 plugged into it, this goes to a salt water dummy load via an SWR meter.

I made a second lead using the plug off the car kit that came with my early (2007) Intek H-520 Plus, the newer H-520 has one with it and it didn't appear to work as well when I tested it so I figured I may as well, there is no picture of this however but it is similar to the first one except it has a black and red wire per pole.

So, preparations are underway, hopefully I will be up on Tan Hill sometime in August all being well.

73 de 26CT730

SDR improvement, an update

I have taken delivery of the two connectors needed to fit to the top of the lid of the metal container that will hold the RTL-SDR stick and the coolant (which will be vegetable oil), and have set up the USB port to be a type B on the outside of the case, in line with USB specifications and to allow the connector of the RTL-SDR to connect.

The next job I have to do is drill two holes in the lid, one to accommodate the USB connector (which turned out to be a little smaller than I initially thought) and the BNC connector, these will be sealed up with silicone sealant to stop oil escaping through the connectors, the RTL-SDR stick will then be placed inside the can, connected to USB and antenna first, then the can will be filled with oil as far as possible, the lid fitted, and the edges sealed up to prevent leaks.

As I plan to upgrade the motherboard in the machine to a more recent model the shack computer will be used, the board swap will mean a port change and reinstallation the drivers for the stick, this is not a problem for me, I have at least 3 compatible antennas for this new setup, or 4 depending on how you look at it, these are my Nagoya NA-771 2/70 antenna, 2 Intek KA-520 antennas (one is a bit bent but I think it works), and the stock antenna of the Midland 42 (I do not know the manufacturer's designation for it).

The RTL-SDR should run cooler after this and should not drift or require the offset to be changed, also reception without an antenna should be either heavily reduced or eliminated.

so, I can start to get this thing built and will try and order the parts to upgrade the shack computer this weekend, which I have already chosen.

73 de 26CT730