AmateurRadio.com

Part 2 of 2 

If you purchase the DHAP with the Raspberry Pi, it includes a factory image of the OS and software. Configuration is easy enough. The DVAP software is set to auto-boot so you need only configure it once. If you connect the device to a wired network connection the Pi will boot up and obtain a connection. If you want to use the device with Wi-Fi, then you have to launch the WiFi configuration tool and set up the connection.

This is only slightly tricky because it would be handy to plug in a keyboard, mouse, and the network dongle — three USB connections while the Pi only offers two. A USB hub handles the multiple connections and you’re underway. After setting it all up once, there’s no need for reconfiguration as it all just boots up and obtains a network connection without the need for additional interface.

In other words, connection to a monitor, mouse and keyboard is only required for the initial configuration. After that, the DHAP can be operated “headless”.

Unless of course you’re thinking of taking this on the road with you and would like to connect it to a hotel’s Wi-Fi. Then you’re going to need to carry the input peripherals and a monitor, or use the TV in your hotel room if that’s possible.

This is all much more than I like to carry on out of town trips which is why I tether the DHAP to my cellphone. Carrying Wi-Fi in my pocket simplifies things considerably though this brings me to a tip I’d like to pass along when using it this way.

Wi-Fi and Tethering

If you set your home Wi-Fi and your tethered connection to have the same SSID, password, and encryption method, then there is never a need to reconfigure the Raspberry Pi. One of my home wireless networks (WPA PSK2) is called ‘GUEST’ and the password is ‘lemonade’ and I’ve made those settings identical on my phone.

When I’m away from home, I tether to my phone. When I’m home, the Pi auto connects to my home Wi-Fi. Simple. Easy. Clean.

It takes about 15-20 seconds for the Pi to boot up and another 20-30 seconds for the networking to kick-in, negotiate a connection, and begin working. When you power up the DHAP, give yourself a full minute before trying to connect to it with your radio.

Powering the DHAP

The DHAP comes with a brick charger that has an LED indicator. When it’s red, the batteries are charging and when it’s green the charge cycle is complete. Silly me. I plugged it in and started using it right away. The charger went through the cycle, the LED turned green and the voltage began to drop. Though I wasn’t paying attention and several hours later my D-STAR connection was dead. When I checked on the DHAP the voltage display showed 2.2 volts — not enough to keep the Pi or the DVAP alive.

This seemed odd. The battery voltage was low but the charger LED was green. There was no charging going on for some reason and I thought I had a defective unit.

Then I discovered that the charger is fairly “dumb”. It provides one charge cycle then stops. Removing power resets it for the next charge. This works well if you charge the DHAP, then unhook it and take it in the field. If, on the other hand, you want it to just sit on the shelf at home and provide a hot-spot, you should provide power via the USB Power socket on the front panel.

This bypasses the batteries altogether and directly powers the Raspberry Pi and the DVAP. By the way, *don’t turn the unit on in this mode* — and the voltage display will show the power being supplied via a USB power supply — probably something a little less than 5 volts.

A one amp USB power supply should do the trick nicely.

Odds and Ends

It makes sense to get things working with your DVAP connected to your desktop (or laptop) computer before installing it in the DHAP. It will operate exactly the same once it’s tucked away in the enclosure.

There is a small slot in the top of the DHAP that permits you to see the activity LED’s on the DVAP. You will find this quite useful.

The tiny antenna on the DVAP works well enough but it can be replaced with a more efficient “ducky” style antenna. The DHAP comes equipped with a built-in cable that can “remote” the antenna connection to the back panel. Don’t be tempted to try and interface the DVAP to a full-sized, outdoor antenna. Internet Labs has reported hardware failures that they attribute to doing just that.

Have Fun

D-STAR is not worth the bits it’s built upon if you don’t enjoy it. If you’re considering joining the growing crowd in this unique mode of operation let me first ask you one simple question: do you enjoy repeater operation?

Because at its core, that’s what D-STAR is. A global collection of repeaters and individual users who have the ability to communicate with each other using this digital technology. If you’re answer is “YES” and you enjoy rapid learning, then you will no doubt enjoy digging in and exploring this evolving mode of operation.

But if you’re answer is “NO”, well, then this facet of amateur radio is probably not for you. Don’t waste your time — or your treasure. Move on and find something you really enjoy. After all, amateur radio is a hobby with endless things to do, people to meet, and fun to be had.

[miss part one?]

Part 1 of 2

I’m traveling this week with a DHAP and the Icom ID-51A dual-band handheld. This combination of hardware permits me to stay connected with my friends on the D-STAR network from wherever I happen to roam – no local digital repeater required. The DHAP is a custom-built enclosure and battery supply for a Raspberry Pi and DV Access Point – a DVAP.

If all this sounds like too much alphabet soup (it is!) let’s first break it down in pieces.

The DVAP is a small USB powered D-STAR transceiver that runs about 10mW of power on UHF. VHF is also available. It’s manufactured by Internet Labs. The concept here is that you plug the DVAP into a USB port on your Windows, Mac or Linux computer, running the proper software and connected to the Internet, and it looks a lot like a D-STAR repeater to your radio — albeit a micro-repeater with only about 100 yards of coverage.

With this arrangement, a user can connect to other repeaters and reflectors on the network. While it’s an effective solution, it’s not elegant or efficient to keep a desktop or laptop computer running all the time just to maintain that connection.

Enter the Raspberry Pi, a single board computer that’s smaller than a pack of cigarettes, costs $35, supports networking, and runs Linux. It didn’t take long for users to see the advantages of this arrangement over the desktop PC and the rapid migration was underway.

You can put all this together for the price of the DVAP and another $50-100 for a Raspberry Pi, memory, associated cables, power brick, and all that jazz. It will work perfectly well setting on your desk or workbench like that, but if you want to take it outside with you, an enclosure to house and organize it all is a really good idea.

Which gets us to the DHAP. Manufactured by Hardened Power Systems, this contraption is a robust enclosure for the DVAP and the Pi that conveniently brings all of the on-board connections out to the front and back panels. NiMH batteries run the show for several hours between charges while a front panel display shows the battery level.

It’s not waterproof, and I suppose you could break it if you tried. But it is a hardened, machined case that’s slightly smaller than a football. Once it’s configured and charged, you just pick it up and carry it with you wherever you go.

Of course, it requires a network connection that can be provided from a hardwired Ethernet cable or via a Wi-Fi network. That Wi-Fi link means it can be easily tethered to your cell phone, which is how I use it on the road, when I bring it home, it automatically connects to my home Wi-Fi.

It’s the ultimate in convenience and portability for the D-STAR enthusiast though it’s not cheap. $300 [US] for the unit with a Raspberry Pi, a little less if you’re bringing your own Pi. And that doesn’t include the DVAP…

More about how I use all this on the road, and a few tips about the DHAP in the next post.

State QSO Parties come in all shapes and sizes but the intent is always the same — to stir up activity on the air and to have fun in the process! Approach these as serious contest activities or as a casual event punctuated by a little scorekeeping. Your choice. There are plenty of reasons to participate, but if you need more convincing, allow me to share with you five GREAT reasons why you should get in the party line!

1. It’s good practice for big contests. You get a chance to see how your station performs, and identify your weakest link. You can stress test that new paddle or audio chain, make certain your logging program is working properly with your equipment. In other words, a State QSO Party provides an excellent trial run for your budding contest station — if that’s your cup of tea.
2. Finish off your WAS basic award by snagging that State that you just never seem able to confirm. When dozens of operators are calling ‘CQ’ in their own QSO Party, from whatever state you might still need, chances are good that you will log a bunch of them, increasing your odds that at least one will confirm your QSO. Same goes for band and mode slots. Say you have the basic WAS award, but now you want to confirm all of them on RTTY. Or 80M CW. The State QSO Party’s will turbocharge your efforts to reach those goals.
3. County hunters lick their chops over QSO Party activity. And with good reason. Those who organize a QSO party usually go out of their way to make certain that every county in their state is activated. Even if that requires engaging multiple “rover” stations who drive to and operate from counties that may have a zero ham population and are never active. And bonus, some of these rover station operators find their mobile/portable adventure so enjoyable, it becomes the primary focus of the hobby for them. It’s just another of the many facets of amateur radio.
4. It’s a stress-free way to collect wallpaper, plaques, and bragging rights. Most QSO Party’s offer awards and plaques for top scores. And in many cases, you don’t need the biggest gun in the hunt to bag one. Do a little research and consider focusing on specialty entries. Enter as ‘QRP CW’ for example, and you will compete in a smaller pool while the plaque for taking first place in that category is even sweeter.
5. Participation will make you radioactive! It’s no coincidence that those who rarely make use of their radio are often the most vocal critics of – well – almost everything about the hobby. Meanwhile, those who are frequently active on the air are too busy enjoying the hobby to waste time picking nits.

Operating in State QSO Parties couldn’t be easier, especially for those outside the state where the exchange is usually just signal report, your state or province, and sometimes a sequential number that begins with one and increments each time you make a contact. Inside the state, operators will also include their county. You can submit your log electronically (usually Cabrillo format) or send in paper, the old-fashioned way.

Read the rules, sketch out a plan, put in the effort, and then watch your logbook fill to overflowing.

(adapted from a recent issue of Quintessence, a weekly, personal letter about amateur radio)

This last weekend was a major DX contest and I managed to stay away from the HF radio for all of it. At least until the waning minutes of the contest. The waters had been mightily churned and it seemed one cacophonous mess to the casual listener.

And then, almost magically, as the clock rolled over to 0000 of the next day, the silence was suddenly deafening.

I can just imagine there were quite a few exhausted operators and it’s likely many of them had to be grinning over putting a few news ones in the log. I’ve played in these waters before and know the feeling. But somewhere along the road to becoming a grumpy old man, I got turned off by the high-speed exchanges of button pushing keyboard jockeys staring into the glow of LCD monitors while their computers and radio equipment ran the show.

Anyway, after the contest I had the rig on and was monitoring familiar territory on 40 meters. It was just getting late enough that the band was beginning to go long. I suppose that means different things depending on your location. Here in the Hoosier Heartland 40 meters is good for 250-750 miles, give or take, while the Sun shines. Things can be a bit spooky and unpredictable right around the gray line, but as the hours pass after sunset, the workable area for me on 40 meters grows dramatically.

By 0200 it’s not strange to begin working the West coast. And as the night continues we often see a path to Hawaii and the rest of the Pacific. By 0800 signals from the VK’s and ZL’s waft over Central Indiana just begging to be snagged by anyone awake at that ungodly hour.

So last night at around 0300 I was listening to the quiet while putting together a few things for an early next-morning conference call when I heard a seven calling CQ.

And what welcome relief his signal provided, like an oasis.

Good old-fashioned CW, sent by hand, the way God and Hiram meant it to be, flowing from the desert to my front door.

My new friend was in Lake Havasu City, some 1600 miles southwest of here. After the usual opening platitudes that CW enthusiasts suffer in hopes of what might come next, conversation ensued. Real conversation. He told me about a boating trip he had planned for today and we spoke of other things besides radio and the ailments of age. It was probably the longest CW conversation I’ve enjoyed in 2013 and I would have been pleased had it gone on even longer.

But through the burps in the QSK I could hear other signals floating into the bandpass. No doubt other parched patrons of the dits and dahs anxious to get their turn in the aether now that the contest was over and the band had purified itself from its former abuse.

We signed off in the customary manner of the mode with 73 and many hopes to meet again.

After the logging, I closed station for the night. Now sleep was the one calling CQ and I was slipping into the abyss. But just before passing to the other side of consciousness, I couldn’t help but think that when radio is good, it’s very good.

The Dayton Hamvention® has been around for a long time. Hard as it may be to believe, the event has been around longer than most of the radio hams who now attend it year after year. It hasn’t always been conducted at Hara Arena though it has been there since 1964. In earlier days the event took place at a time of the year when the weather is not stable in this part of the country and attendees had to prepare for any contingency.

Moving the event into May certainly has helped.

And that was evident this year – the weather was spectacular. Some might complain that it was a little on the “warm” side as the weekend wore on, but I suspect those would also complain about finding a four-leaf clover!

By now the cat’s out of the bag and you’ve no doubt heard all the big announcements – the new Flex-Radio, the Yaesu FTdx3000, the Kenwood TS990S. Of course many other new items were shown and discussed and all of these will undoubtedly be dissected in painstaking detail in ham radio blogs and magazines over the coming weeks and months.

But the most important story is that another Hamvention® has come and gone and it provided us with yet another opportunity to meet new friends and reconnect with a few old one’s. Most of all, it imprinted a few new memories on the gray matter – memories conjured over one magical weekend.

A stroll through the flea-market is like a trip back in time…

On a more practical level, Hamvention® always provides opportunity. Local news outlets reported that this year’s event was expected to generate $6 million dollars in revenue for local businesses. It’s where enterprising hams share their ideas and new wares and as a result many will go on to market success. Having a great product debut at Dayton often guarantees financial success for these entrepreneurs while a big flop can mean disaster.

But Dayton is about so much more than just the bottom line.

Much of the talk about Dayton over the coming months will focus on the new product offerings, the attendance, speculation on the number of inside exhibits and outside booths, and the inevitable endless debates about why the event should be moved to a more modern facility in an entirely different location.

It would be nice if during these conversations that we not forget that Hamvention® has been around since 1952 and has become yet another in a long line of traditions in our century-old hobby. Like the Wouff-Hong and the Rettysnitch, Morse code, the ARRL and DXing.

Dayton is a permanent marker in the sands of ham radio time and its place in radio history is forever secure.

Ham radio is an activity that’s been around for over a hundred years and boasts millions of adherents around the world. It should come as no surprise that an institution so ancient and so compelling would harbor a few mysteries.

During the early development of radio the activity was particularly attractive to a certain kind of fellow, one with a keen interest in science and industry and often a fellow whose station in life was a cut or two above that of the ordinary man. The formation of clubs and societies, recondite in nature and hidden within the rank and file of this adventurous lot of explorers led to more than a few secrets.

That much you might know. What you probably don’t know is that a few of these clandestine organizations remain active inside the hobby to this very day.

I’m not personally a member of any of these groups nor do I have first-hand knowledge of who they are or what they do on a daily basis. But from time to time I hear from some of these secret members who drop bombshells on me that strain credulity.

I think they’ve given me a few of these nuggets to distribute because I’m an oddball. Really, compared to other ham radio bloggers I rarely over-hype the hobby and pretend to be its personal spokesman as has become common among those intent on making “X” number of contacts a day and who extol only the virtues while never telling the whole story of what it’s like to be a radio amateur.

That’s what I like to think anyway.

More’s the likely they know I’m close friends with W6OBB and they’re looking for a higher profile outlet in exposing the reclusive activities of the Lodges and are using me to get that information to him. In any event, on occasion a package arrives at my shack, delivered by a personal courier as happened just a few days ago.

This time the package included a short tale of something that happened 35 years ago and it included instructions to share it with my readers, which I’m doing today…

It seems that back in the late 1970’s a distinguished scientist and radio amateur whose name must not be spoken had developed a rather amazing antenna that performed well at high frequencies. It’s precise construction remains a secret to this very day but imagine if you will a six-foot long tube whose diameter was about two-inches. A coil of wire was wrapped around almost the entire outer body and inside there were active components, including a small pump as most of the tube was filled with a Noble gas compound that periodically required refilling.

To simply say that this antenna worked well would be a serious understatement.

Reports indicated that the antenna was highly effective without a tuner across all of the HF amateur bands. Placed horizontally or vertically in the corner of a room or the attic it was an order of magnitude more effective than any directive array installed at 150-feet.

In a nutshell, it was The One, the killer antenna that the prophets had written about.

This would revolutionize the world of HF communications. No longer would the fellow with the 100-acre antenna farm and California Kilowatt rule the Honor Roll. Now even the lowliest QRPer with his milliwatt homebrew designed gear would be on equal footing with the millionaire.

In essence, the new antenna would instantly turn the 99 percent into the 1 percent and at least when it came to hardware, there would be no more elite amateur radio stations.

Plans were made to manufacture the small wonder. This scientist/inventor wanted to sell the antenna for US $1000 and he fully expected to eventually sell one million of them making him the first amateur radio manufacturer with $1 billion dollars of revenue.

He tried to keep these plans as secret as possible for obvious reasons so he never patented the antenna which would have announced it to the world. His belief was that the gas compound required was so exotic that even if someone managed to reverse engineer the design, the compound would remain the only edge he needed.

The first five-thousand units were assembled in a large, vacant building somewhere in New Mexico.

It was about that time that the inventor discovered that his secret had leaked when he got a call with an offer to purchase the design – which he refused – and he continued to build inventory. But the phone calls and strange contacts never ceased – all warning him to sell the design for the antenna or risk losing it all.

He underestimated the threat and continued in the pursuit undaunted. Until one night when he was visited by four members of one of these secret societies who explained to him that ham radio was bigger than he and his design. And that his antenna while extremely clever would ruin the hobby by allowing those with the most basic equipment to compete on equal footing with those who had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in hardware and antenna farms.

Equal wasn’t good nor was it even “fair” he was told.

Unmoved by their threats, he stood to leave so they grabbed him, pulled a covering over his head and tossed him into the back of a dark colored sedan and drove off into the desert where he was never seen again.

The inventory of over five thousand antennas was moved by truck to a landfill outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico where they were first crushed and then buried. Three feet of concrete cover the burial site and while a few of the local hams had some knowledge of this activity, the years have created doubts as to its veracity and scope, leading some to conclude that this was just another urban legend.

But I know better and now so do you.

I can tell you this because the inventor had an assistant.

A fellow radio ham who hid in the shadows when the abduction took place and who watched this all unfold.

And at 85 years of age, he figures there’s no reason to take this story to his grave…

Hardly a day goes by when you don’t read some new health report. More coffee, less coffee, more wine, less wine, fish oil pills, vitamin E, raw food, some old world fruit that no one has ever heard of – these are all cited by one expert or another as a potential, partial solution to much of what ails us. Especially as we grow older. The indomitable human spirit wants to live forever while the old clay jar is a whole lot less willing.

One of the effects of the many advances in health care that we’ve seen is that there are now enough chemicals, procedures and micro-gadgets to keep our hearts beating longer than that of most of our ancestors who were considered to have lived to a ripe old age if that made it to 50.

Living 80, 90 or even 100 years has become much more common these days but with that advance we’ve seen an epidemic of the ills that regularly attend old age.

Evolution has best equipped humans to be pattern seekers. We look for order in all sorts of chaos – which is why a fluffy white cloud so often looks like a dog or a dead President. Seeing a human face in the random pattern of bark colors on the side of a tree comes naturally to us since it served our survival needs best to see a vine and think it was a snake than to ignore the deadly serpent.

If not the most horrible, then certainly one of the most horrible diseases humans can face is Alzheimer’s. While science continues to look for a miracle drug for that terrible disease, humans look for patterns of behavior that result in lower incidence of disease or a later onset.

For instance, we often promote diet and behaviors that reflect the way people live in a particular part of the world where they live longer and healthier lives. I’m not suggesting that this is a bad idea, but it at least partially explains why coffee is good for you one day and bad for you the next.

Alzheimer’s disease is of particular interest to me because my Mother suffered with it for five years before it claimed her life in 2005. Because of that, I tend to read more news articles about this breakthrough or that hopeful new treatment in the disease.

Nothing is certain at this point but one thing does surface in almost every medical report about Alzheimer’s.

Those who lead more active lives and who remain more mentally active seem to have a higher probability of escaping life without a visit from this disease or the onset of it is delayed. There are all sorts of ideas of what constitutes healthy brain exercise – from playing chess to reading to learning a new language.

Having been a radio amateur since 1977 I have to tell you that I have seen a lot of old hams, I’m talking about a lot of fellows who are over 80 years of age and it occurs to me that they share certain attributes. Things like maintaining a close cadre of friends – either over the air, via the local club, or at hamfests, etc. Most of the older hams have used CW for decades and continue to do so. And most remain fairly inquisitive about the nature and properties of radio – and in the last few decades, many of them have taken to personal computers which offers a new learning challenge.

If you think about the mechanics of Morse, one must hear the sound of it and decode it, often out of the noise. It must then be mentally translated into words – and many operators choose to either hand copy 100% of a message or at least make notes on paper. When it’s their turn to send, they have to think about what they want to say and translate those thoughts into mechanical motion in a particular pattern.

It seems to me that this constitutes as much, and probably a whole lot more brain exercise than almost any other mental function that I can imagine.

Amateur radio is probably too far outside the mainstream for scientists to target it for serious research in this matter. But given the advice that seems to have become standard in this regard I don’t think it’s far out of line to suggest that being an active radio amateur could be an effective weapon in the battle for a clear mind and a higher quality of life for those who have lived beyond the median age.

Frequent medical advice for brain health includes staying physically active, maintaining proper body weight, controlling blood pressure, enjoying a glass or two of red wine each day, and maybe, just maybe they should add – making a few CW contacts each and every day.

After all, there’s absolutely no downside in adopting all of the above.