AmateurRadio.com

Martin, G3USF, has been busy collating the outstanding short form 6 and 10 reports and they are available in the usual place. Just a quick reminder that these short form reports are a way for Martin to give more current information based on the reports from Costas, SV1DH, which come in first. The ‘final’ edition of the report will be uploaded once all the remaining data has been collated and formed into the report.

I hope you enjoy them and find them useful. Let me know if you have any problems or comments.

Whilst I was scanning the 6m band during my white noise listening experience (or UKSMG 50Mhz Summer Es contest) I started a little googling and came across a tool that I hadn’t used before. From the website description it calls itself a ‘DX cluster (DXC is its name by those in the know) telnet client which attempts to resolve propagation modes from spots and also attempts to calculate sporadic e possibilities purely based on incoming data from the cluster’

It uses a great circle map and a the ON4KST telnet client as well all from the comfort of a single simple desktop. A little screenshot is below for reference based on my settings and a bit of ‘personalisation’

The software seems to be developed for those with an interest in 2m really but works well for 6m as well as I found out to my surprise on Friday evening when I was hit by a wall of QSO’s from all round me. Live MUF showed a whole range of spots almost like a cloud on the screen moving from the south east of the great circle map up to just below me on the south coast where the yellow patches in some cases had turned red.

Whilst I am increasingly sceptical of propagation prediction tools I think as this is based on actual data it has saved me quite a bit of time and heartache having this running in the shack telling me if I am likely to be lucky enough to be involved in any QSO’s.

If this is your thing and you’ve already come across it then this won’t be news to you, but if like me you’re gun is more like a 99p water pistol (And I’m talking about it in a radio sense before we get carried away) then give it a try. As far as I can tell there is no installation as such it just runs an executable file and so could be used portable from a USB drive if you desire. There is also a web based version for those who might like to take a look when away from the shack. Have a look here (ps the site seems to be down at the moment but hopefully not for long).

Like many others my little Pi turned up on the doorstep in a little cardboard box. As expected there wasn’t much in the box apart from a sort of ‘Welcome Note’ and directions for downloading the OS. Needless to say it took longer to download the OS than it did to write it to the SD card. So all connected up to the keyboard, mouse, screen and ethernet and away we go. Power on.

The first boot took a little while longer than expected but I expect it was creating bits and bobs all over the place. This was confirmed as subsequent boots to the command line, or rather to the login part of the command line took considerably less time. Login details are simple enough with the user name as Pi and the password as Raspberry. Something that you may want to change later on.

Once you’re into the command line it could seem a little confusing as to what to do next. Especially if you are used to a nice looking GUI with a mouse etc. Have no fear as a simple “startx” without the quotes fires up the window manager (LXDE – Lightweight desktop environment).

One thing I like to do is to run “sudo apt-get update” from the LX terminal just to make sure everything is up to date before we get started. The other thing that may be useful is to install synaptic package manager with “sudo apt-get install synaptic”. Again from the terminal window.

Time was running out for me at this point so I thought I’d have a quick look at Xastir (APRS application) to see if it would work. After a bit of a turned up face at the look of the interface I confirmed that it works as easily as it would on any platform. A bit of configuring and you’re away. I didn’t connect up the radio then as it’ll need a sound modem like the AGWPE for windows. That’ll be the next step.

One thing I hadn’t noticed is that there is no on board clock and the Pi get the time either by you setting it in the command line or through the ethernet. This could mean that if applications like WSPR can run on it then an external clock is going to be needed or a permanent connection to the ethernet.

So first impressions are done with and I have to say that it does struggle a bit if you ask it to do too much at once but that’s more to do with managing your own expectations but this is going to be a very interesting little gizmo to keep an eye on for ham radio

If you fancy designing yourself a PCB for a project then you’ve got quite a few choices. For a long time Eagle has been the standard. It offers just about everything that the novice and expert needs to create a professional looking board that blurs the lines between hobby and business. It has been acquired by AutoDesk, the people behind the hugely impressive Inventor 3D CAD package. Loved by clankies like me.

But what about open source software? Well KiCAD is the ‘other’ standard, with a slightly different workflow it still roughly follows what must be normal. That is, design a schematic and then tackle laying out the PCB.

I’ve not designed anything in Eagle for a long time and so have largely forgotten how to do it. So, thought that now I’ve switched almost entirely to Linux that I’d give KiCAD a go. Download through your favourite method and take my advice, download and print off the ‘Getting Started’ pdf.

The plan was to copy an existing layout first and see if I could make the PCB. I can report that I have achieved what I set out what to do. So, without boring you to death about the in’s and out’s of the software, here’s what I learnt….

1. KiCAD has moved on. A lot – It is a simple and quick way to produce a hobby project. I understand as well that a big update is on the way.
2. Workflow is different to Eagle – Schematic – Netlist – PCB rather that Schematic – PCB. This additional step is actually beneficial as it lets you make sure that the component can be sized separately from determining its functionality.
3. AutoDesk still has a fantastic set of suite of applications and no doubt it will produce a superb link between electrical and mechanical that will be hard to beat. Commercially this will be hard to beat. The hobbyist will reap the benefits in time.
4. KiCAD is fundamentally fit for purpose and definitely is not second best. What is clear is that the two suites follow different paths. There are a bunch of other pieces of software that fit the bill but most hobbyists have heard of both of these.
5. RTM – Did I say Read The Manual? I’m going to say it again, read up. This isn’t a 5 minute investment and planning will pay off.
6. If you’re keen on open source software then crack on. No need look elsewhere.

I’m going to continue with this project and no doubt learn new stuff. Today I learnt that importing .dxf files for the creation of PCB shapes is simple. A really quick way of getting the Altoids tin shaped PCB I need.

Martin, G3USF has produced a few short for reports which hopefully clear up some of the backlog. They are kept in the usual place, here. The plan for future reports which are taking a while to compile is to produce the short forms as soon as possible and then to fill in the report as data comes in. There is always a little gaps between the issue date and the actual date but this is growing a little. Hopefully this will help to close that gap.

Please feel free to browse and hopefully you’ll enjoy what Martin, G3USF produces.

I’d almost forgot that I had an order in for one of these. But my royal weekend was topped off nicely a royal (mail) delivery of 1 Raspberry Pi.

I had a few plans for one of these when I first heard about it but first off I’ll spend a bit of time getting to know the linux distro and I’ll assume there is a way of running something like WSPR without too much trouble as it has a native Debian (.deb) version. First off though will be trying to get a video signal out to my rather old monitor that doesn’t have a HDMI input.

In the mean time I think I’ll have a google about to see what anyone else has done. Always a good start to learn from others.

I never really thought I would be saying this but I have entered, or rather plan to, enter a contest. Sports radio as it is sometimes called always seems like a bear garden on HF with just about every station barking out ‘CQ Contest’ to claim a few more points. To me it doesn’t sound like a sport unless you’re keen on drowning out the competition.

I have mostly avoided contests as to me it has the perception of something where ‘He who has the largest bank account wins’ and the is little room for tiddlers. So to challenge this perception I shall be entering into something that I think / hope will be a bit more relaxed. The UKSMG Summer Es contest might be the highlight of the 50Mhz calendar but for I shall be operating at the most for 6 hours. The likelihood it will be around 3 hours at best as a tiddler station.

I will be operating at best 100W from my IC7000 into my homebrew 50Mhz vertical which so far has escaped the operation in anger mode it needs. Part of the reason for this is to see if I actually enjoy it. The other part is to do something different.

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for 6m but have no idea why as my QTH precludes much in the way of ‘proper’ antennas and so far I have only made a few contacts on the magic band. Most of these contacts were a few years ago when I could put a beam up in the garden for a few weeks. This needs to change in my opinion and this weekend is the best opportunity for me for a while.

So if you happen to be on the magic band, listen out for the tiddler that is my station (operating as GM7KSE as it happens). The contest starts on the 2nd June at 1300Z