Another APRS update

After soldering an offcut of Ethernet cable into the auto-key interface I originally built for the CB gateway (including removal of the relay as the Leixen VV-898 can RX without a mic connected), I managed, after some trial and error, to successfully transmit an APRS packet which was  received by MB7USD, the antenna was still indoors and power was my max allowed 10 watts (though cable losses and SWR may have caused it to be reduced some at the antenna itself, before actually transmitting a packet I located a clear frequency to check the key circuit was working, it was working just fine.

After this test I removed the interface line from the mic socket, I then moved the rig so it is now located on top of my Grant II to make sure I had some desk space, this then amounted to a recheck of the SWR to make sure it was the same, it is, and all I need to do is finish the antenna (I was thinking Sugru for the centre) and hang it up outside, I may also cut the coax shorter as it is RG58 and on 2-meters it is a bit lossy for my liking.

So, I can now transmit on the APRS frequency from home, just need to do that for the car but as I mentioned in my previous post I can use my mobile phone as a stop-gap

Another day and another success in Amateur radio

73 de M6RSQ

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

A catch up after a busy few weeks

I have had a lot on over the last few weeks, but I have some good news, I made it to the Newark Hamfest after going to a local Toyota dealership and obtaining a 2009 Toyota Aygo Platinum, which at the moment lacks rigs but does have a Parrot handsfree and an aftermarket SD/USB MP3 virtual CD changer, and the only Amateur radio activity I have done from this car is by means of Echolink on my phone.

The hamfest was what I imagined it to be, a couple of the other club members were also in attendance, I went down in the hope to get a 2-meter rig for home that was SSB capable that I could run off a slim jim or a homebrew 1/4 wave groundplane antenna, though I am going to put this on hold at this time because I'm having the windows replaced in the not too distant future and I did not get a rig anyway as there were no suitable used rigs in my price range, perhaps after Christmas which will also be when my motor insurance should go down as I've had no claims (touch wood)

I have also begun my Intermediate training, which I have been eagerly looking forward to, it's going to be a while before I can get that 2x0 call but it will be a great day when I do, and hopefully as soon as I pass I will progress onto the full license, which is my ultimate goal, the more I progress in the hobby the more I am interested in it.

I haven't been as active on the air as I would have liked of late and need to get back into the habit of going on air, I believe that after the disaster of an MOT that my old car went through only to ultimately be scrapped I feel that I lack a bit of motivation, I should be happy as I have another car now but perhaps I still miss my old car.

Anyway, I should be on air more frequently soon

73 de M6RSQ/26CT730

Uncertain times in mobile radio use and the trip to Newark

My plan was to attend the Hamfest in Newark at the end of this month, and as part of that plan I was to submit my car for it's MOT at the first available date at the beginning of September, that day was Wednesday, unfortunately the car has badly failed it's MOT and I am having to part with it.

However I may still be able to get to the Hamfest, my intention is to buy another car as soon as I can, the Hamfest takes place at the end of the month and is only a fiver to get into, however there now remains the issue of the rigs.

Both rigs and antennas have been removed from the car, all that is left is the holes in the dashboard and ashtray lid where the screws went in, my plan would normally be to install these items into the new car as soon as it is possible to do so, however the car I have seen is a much more recent car and I don't feel comfortable screwing the rigs down to the dashboard, I may need very strong adhesive pads for this until such times as I feel happy to screw the rigs down, and finding suitable rig locations does not help when I do not have the car yet, also a means to get power to them from the car's battery needs to be sourced.

I can still get on air to a degree at home, for CB my Grant II can be connected to the excalibur antenna (though not for SSB as interference is a great risk), for Amateur I still have my handies, which is great as I live close enough to GB3IR and can get into GB3HG, I also have Echolink on the shack computer for the time being

So, lets see what happens

73 de M6RSQ/26CT730

Progress with the shack

I may or may not have mentioned in my last post about rearranging the shack somewhat, as it stands the work I have done thus far is as follows

• Moved the existing Maplin PSU to the shack desk and placed above it a Unilab multi-voltage power supply that I acquired recently, the Unilab supply is unique in that is has AC and DC output and the mains cable coming out of the front, it also has a carry handle, both these power supplies are in the place where my Midland BaseCamp446 used to be, that is on top of the supplies
• removed an empty computer case to bring the top of the two in-use computers level with the desk, freeing up some space to move my soldering station and allow easy access to the power leads for the various chargers and power supplies.
• Brought in the President Grant II CB radio and connected it to power and my homebrew extension speaker (after rewiring the speaker cable), this awaits some form of antenna
• placed the chargers for the Wouxun and the two Baofeng handhelds in easy reach, the two Baofeng chargers are on top of the Grant II temporarily, the Wouxun charger is on top of the soldering station base unit.
• Nailed a hook into the wall for my Sony MDR-V150 headphones, I chose these over the Sony MDR-XD200 headphones, the MDR-V150 headphones are plugged into the front port of the shack computer
• Relocated the DVD rack that is behind the television in my living room further back to allow the shackcam to be relocated further back until it can be swapped out for a Raspberry Pi on the network, a possibility as I should have one Ethernet cable spare after an IPTV installation which is to come, thus freeing the camcorder currently in use for other things.

To do is mount the monitor to the wall, the current monitor is a Samsung SyncMaster 152v, this is a 4:3 monitor with a 100x100 VESA mount, once this is done further desk space will be made available for the shack and accommodation of new radios for other bands will be possible, a base 2-meters rig is something I am after and I plan to use one with a homebrew antenna, hopefully I can get a suitable all-mode rig at Newark in September as right now I am stuck with 2-meters FM on handies and mobile. as for CB, the Grant II is my new home rig as I plan to part ways with the Moonraker FA5000, antenna wise, for 2-meters I plan to cobble something together and for CB I may get away with my existing or a second T2LT.
I am pleased with progress so far and hope to have things finished in the next week or so, starting with the monitor as moving it to the wall is priority number one as the more desk space I can free up the better


73 de M6RSQ/26CT730

Long overdue update

Due to personal reasons radio has not been at the front of my mind, nor has a lot of things to be honest aside from work where I have been exceptionally busy, my last radio activity was the "big net" for a year of legal AM/SSB CB, I set up at Tan hill but had no replies whatsoever, was also still too windy to put up the T2LT and my fibreglass mast is in need of a little TLC.

On the Amateur front, I am still attending the club, however not been on air so much lately, however I am making some major changed to the shack, first and foremost attaching the computer monitor to a wall mount to free up some extra desk space, the main 7A PSU has been moved from the shelves to the desk, above it is an ageing Unilab variable voltage PSU with both AC and DC outputs though I've not connected any load to this yet, and on top of those is my Midland BaseCamp446.

The Moonraker FA5000 CB will be removed from the shack, as it still works I may sell it on, my Midland Alan 78 Plus Multi B may also be sold on as I have my President Grant II and may be able to pick up another legal AM/FM/SSB CB as these come onto the market through the usual outlets.

Antenna wise, only my loft CB antenna and tuner at the moment, I still have the part-finished 446 bazooka antenna but have not put it on air or even tuned it properly, I still have a slim-Jim for 2-meters lying about but I was thinking for the sake of discretion to build an extremely lightweight 2-meter groundplane antenna out of nothing more than some bits of copper wire and an SO239 chassis socket, a new 2-meter rig is needed in the shack so I don't have to worry about handies and the batteries running out, I may be able to pick a used but working unit up from the National Hamfest next month.

Going back to the CB rig side of things, my Grant 2 developed an unusual issue during the "big net" weekend back in June, normally on SSB there is no power unless you speak, not according to the S-meter on the Grant 2, which was generating some sort of noise, this may have been the mic as it has since stopped after I did some fiddling, on AM and FM audio seemed to be fine, but despite this the fiddling with the mic seemed to have cured the problem for now.

I am making steady progress to get back into more radio, and maybe get my significant other interested, after all if we're both licensed we can do anything Amateur radio related together, and I would like that as I do know there are plenty of couples out there that are both licensed, so why not me and my significant other

Right, I'm caught up, probably be next posting from or about the National Hamfest unless I have some major QSOs in the mean time, also I may get some HF work done if I can get a suitable HF antenna built and a suitable rig acquired, another hamfest one I think.

73 de M6RSQ/26CT730