Slowly building out all the digital modes. :)
I just realized tonight that I could check into the PAPA Tech net on 4 different radios in 4 different digital modes. :)
M17 is cool stuff. Looking forward to their HT being completed. :) For now an MD-380 can be modified fairly easily. or Droidstar can be used.
All the volunteers could operate under the site license. Maybe?
Microsoft Surface Pro 7, 8 Gb Ram, 128 Gb storage. I was running Linux on it, but just recently made the switch back to Windows.
The Wyse terminal is a smart design choice. These older desktop / terminal systems have plenty of power to run a specialized software package, and they tend to last way longer than the manufacturer intended.
Chips, with no dip. Some reason I like them plain. But, I will never turn down anything that resembles dip.
Cross Post from Mastodon
Had the pleasure of operating some FT8 this afternoon on 15m. Made 2 contacts with Japan, running 10 watts from the Discovery TX-500 into a WRC Platinum 1000.
I completed the codeplug. I will send it to the folks over at PAPA systems so they can post it. It is a lot of work to build so if I can save people some headache I will.
About 1/2 way through building the codeplug. If anyone is a PAPA member I will submit it to the web team for availability on the website.
I was reading a post on the other site about a guy who really had a bad experience. I guess he posted asking questions about material on the test but phrased them in the first person. A number of people really lit him up. Basically accused him of being a war criminal. Needless to say we really should self police when we see stuff like that going on.
Shari nodes are pretty cool. Honestly I jump around a lot between all my nodes. I use one for my D-Star stuff, and another for DMR/M17. M17 is a work in progress. The thing I like most about SHARI nodes, you build them yourself. It feels less like buying a product, and more like buying a fun project. Mine took me about 2 hours to build up. I have a reasonable amount of linux experience.
Building the codeplug for this thing is pretty epic. Of course the code plug isn't the same as the one for the 390.
GD77 Install on MD-UV390
Got GD77 onto my MD-UV390. Installation was dead simple. Now building the codeplug. The codeplugs are different from the TYT CPS and the GD77 CPS.
So I bit the bullet and got the pro set 7. These things are super comfy and very good at blocking out the world around me. Thank you everyone for the input and recommendations.
The price between this and the KX base aren't that far off. So probably a decent comparison. The BP-500 battery pack is difficult to come by, but I am considering making my own. For now, I am using bioenno batteries. I was also torn between this and the KX line but this one was available and I was in a sales tax-free state, so I jumped. Others have compared this with the IC-705. I think the 705 is more fully featured, but not really designed to withstand abuse.
Started a new journey
Lab599 — Radio for adventure, extremes, for using in places unattainable before, without compromise between performance and features
Recently started looking at this radio. After Delta paid me to postpone my trip for a day, they gave me enough for this radio and then some. I stopped by HRO and bought it. I spent some time today tuning an EFHW made from a chalk line, and hopefully tomorrow I will get out to use it. Anyone used one of these before for digital, or other modes? Any M17 HF nets?
It was down a couple of months ago for me. Recently started working again.
Had a chance to work through some of this during the week. Got the resistor installed and the lead on the battery contact side of the board that goes to the front. Then I found that my soldering iron isn't small enough to make the contact on the STM32. So now I need to order some new tips for the iron.
That's the double edged sword of federation. The owner of the server has ultimate control over the content hosted on it. There are other servers who's administrators will ban users using hate speech. Look around they are easy to find.
Also found something neat last night. I wasn't expecting this, but sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade did not break the installation on the nano pi. For ~$50 access points, this software really opens things up. The default software 'pi-star' wasn't maintained as well for the nano pi.
Yeah, they are nice. I was just hoping to upgrade the hand mic. Then I went down a rabbit hole. So I was thinking when out on the lawn I could go total old man style and use a headset. In the end it still means I have to do something with my HM-31. Maybe I'll just modify the HM-31.
I still need to get proficient with morse code. I was trending toward that goal last year, but deviated off the path.
Heil Upgrade
I have an FT-891 and I noticed I have to jack my mic gain way up to get any output on the radio. I am considering a Heil headset. I generally use apple ear pods to listen to the radio, so the experience might not be all that different. Anyway, I noticed there is an 2 different microphone offerings. Which one should I go with?
I will be attempting this next weekend
After the post in here about W0CHP dashboard for Pi-Star I decided to dedicate a hotspot to M17. I have it functioning, but that means now I need a radio. :) who doesn't want a good excuse to buy a radio?
Hey Bard, What changes to the FT8 protocol could be made to make it faster and more resilient to low signal strength?
There are a number of changes that could be made to the FT8 protocol to make it faster and more resilient to low signal strength. Some of these changes include:
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Increase the bandwidth: Increasing the bandwidth would allow more data to be transmitted per symbol, which would improve the speed of the protocol. However, this would also make the protocol more susceptible to interference.
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Use a different error correction scheme: The current error correction scheme in FT8 is relatively simple, and it can be difficult to correct errors when the signal is weak. Using a more sophisticated error correction scheme would improve the resilience of the protocol to low signal strength.
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Change the modulation scheme: The current modulation scheme in FT8 is based on frequency shift keying (FSK). Changing the modulation scheme to something like quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) would improve the spectral efficiency of the protocol, which would allow more data to be transmitted over a given bandwidth.
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Use a different symbol rate: The current symbol rate in FT8 is 31.25 baud. Using a lower symbol rate would improve the resilience of the protocol to low signal strength, but it would also reduce the speed of the protocol. These are just a few of the changes that could be made to the FT8 protocol to make it faster and more resilient to low signal strength. The best changes to make would depend on the specific requirements of the application.
In addition to the changes mentioned above, there are a number of other things that could be done to improve the performance of FT8 in low-signal conditions. These include:
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Using a better antenna: A better antenna will improve the reception of weak signals.
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Using a higher output power: A higher output power will increase the strength of the transmitted signal, which will make it more likely to be received by the other station.
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Using a noise-cancelling filter: A noise-cancelling filter can help to reduce the noise in the received signal, which will make it easier to decode the signal.
By making these changes, it is possible to improve the performance of FT8 in low-signal conditions and make it possible to communicate over longer distances even with weak signals.
Get QSL cards from the ESA :)
The Fly Your Satellite! (FYS) programme, initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), presents an exciting challenge for radio amateurs and space enthusiasts worldwide to establish communication via the LEDSAT CubeSat digipeater. This unique opportunity invites participants to connect with the ESA ...
This looks fun, I might give it a go.
DroidStar
Contribute to nostar/DroidStar development by creating an account on GitHub.
I found this software when trying to get into M17. There are other versions like DudeStar but this one worked best on my system (Debian Linux). Anyone used M17 Yet?
Venus X1C5 APRS tracker
I use mine as an I-Gate with the default firmware installed on it. Has anyone looked into building open source firmware for these? The reason I ask, it seems as the device does not really transmit any packets. This could be a setting or a filter I have wrong. so maybe someone has some insight.
sBitx v2 – HF SIGNALS - As seen on Ham Radio 2.0
I saw this on the Mastodon.Radio feed, now I want one.
Share your longest distance contact
It wasn't the longest contact ever but I did manage Washington state from San Diego last weekend. running 2 watts into a WRC antenna from the QRP-Labs QDX.