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Both the Baofeng UV-5R handheld UHF/VHF radio and the Sainsonic AP510 APRS tracker come with interface cables with pirated chips. These are clones of Prolific USB/serial chips. Since Prolific has taken measures against this, only old drivers will work with them. That means that one has to stop automatic driver updates as explained on the Miklor site for the Baofeng UV-5R. The same is true for the AP510. This is a nuisance.

I got tired of this and got myself some USB/serial modules from Ebay based on the CP2102 chip instead. The cost was US $1.43 a piece so it should be affordable for anyone. I also got some clear heat shrinkable tube.

It wasn’t too hard to follow the instructions on the Miklor site. I ended up replacing the chip in the original Baofeng serial cable. I’m a hardware guy so I think it is a shame not to see the three LEDs for power, rx, and tx so I used my Dremel to make a 12×12 mm cut-out in the original case, and then I closed it by using transparent shrinkable tube. For a picture, see the top of the first image.

If it doesn’t work the first time, exchange the rx and tx connections and see if that works better. According to this site, the boards can be marked just opposite of what you might think.

The Sainsonic AP510 APRS unit has a cable that on first sight just looks like a standard USB cable, but it also contains such a chip. Here I made a completely new cable without any case.  It is important that 5 Volts also passes through as this is used for charging. The pinout can be found on the site of DJ7OO (use Google translate if needed). I enclosed the board in shrinkable tube which is transparent enough for the LEDs to shine through as seen in the bottom of the first image. The board with the fake chip is found in the middle. 

So now I have interface cables for both units that don’t require me to stop updates of drivers or any other special precautions and it is much easier to program the devices from any PC.

Just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference with u blox Neo-7M GPS module to the upper right, 10 MHz output buffer lower right, USB interface to the upper left, CR2032 lithium battery center left, GPS antenna in the center, and SMA output connector lower left.

My just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference which drives the external clock input on my Elecraft K3 kept losing its configuration if power was off for a day or so. I have therefore fitted a CR2032 3V lithium battery as seen to the left in this image.

It is connected in series with a 1N4148 diode in order to prevent attempts at charging the lithium cell. The connection goes to pin 22 (V_BCKP) as described by G4ZFQ on his website. The diode is visible to the upper left of the battery.

With this, I consider the 10 MHz reference to be finished.

Earlier related posts:

• Just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference
• Better with SMA

Just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference with u blox Neo-7M GPS module to the upper right, 10 MHz output buffer lower right, USB interface to the upper left, CR2032 lithium battery center left, GPS antenna in the center, and SMA output connector lower left.

My “just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference” which drives the external clock input on my Elecraft K3 kept losing its configuration if power was off for a day or so. I have therefore fitted a CR2032 3V lithium battery as seen to the left in this image.

It is connected in series with a 1N4148 diode in order to prevent attempts at charging the lithium cell. The connection goes to pin 22 (V_BCKP) as described by G4ZFQ on his website. The diode is visible to the upper left of the battery.

With this, I consider the 10 MHz reference to be finished.

Other related posts:

• Just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference
• Better with SMA
• Improved GPS reception with a ground plane

“The starship hypothesis is a very interesting one, and the one which seems to be the most popular one on the internet,” said Sverre Holm, a professor of signal processing at the University of Oslo. “Such theories always excite our imagination, but it builds on a very poor data set. Unfortunately I believe it says more about human imagination than anything else.”

Although scientists have yet to settle on a final explanation for these mysterious echoes, Holm believes this is has less to do with a lack of scientific knowledge than a lack of willpower.

“I think that with today’s satellites and sensors, the mystery of Long Delayed Echoes (LDEs) could probably be solved,” he said. “What’s holding us back is most likely the problem is not considered important enough—it doesn’t occur often enough and doesn’t affect important enough forms of communications.”

These are excerpts from an interview in an article entitled “Radio Ghosts Have Haunted the Airwaves for Nearly a Century” on Motherboard Vice written by Daniel Oberhaus. It builds on a web page that I created some years ago after having spent days studying the archives from the 20’s of professor Carl Størmer at the National Library in Oslo.

“The starship hypothesis is a very interesting one, and the one which seems to be the most popular one on the internet,” said Sverre Holm, a professor of signal processing at the University of Oslo. “Such theories always excite our imagination, but it builds on a very poor data set. Unfortunately I believe it says more about human imagination than anything else.”

Although scientists have yet to settle on a final explanation for these mysterious echoes, Holm believes this is has less to do with a lack of scientific knowledge than a lack of willpower.

“I think that with today’s satellites and sensors, the mystery of Long Delayed Echoes (LDEs) could probably be solved,” he said. “What’s holding us back is most likely the problem is not considered important enough—it doesn’t occur often enough and doesn’t affect important enough forms of communications.”

These are excerpts from an interview in an article entitled “Radio Ghosts Have Haunted the Airwaves for Nearly a Century” on Motherboard Vice written by Daniel Oberhaus.

I had some trouble closing the lid on the “Just good enough 10 MHz GPS reference” due to the size of the BNC jack. Therefore I changed it to an SMA (SubMiniature version A) female jack. A thin cable connects it to the K3’s SMA input and there is no need for any SMA-BNC adapter on that end.

At the same time I moved the GPS antenna to a more central location in the tin, in the hope that the walls of the tin would interfere less with GPS reception. That’s the theory anyway, if it matters much in practice is a different story.

Actually, I think I’m going to use SMA more often with these clear top tins and also Altoids tins. They take up much less space and are easier to install and to work with.

There aren’t any high power applications for circuitry in such tins, so I cannot so any reason why the SMA won’t work just as well or even better than the BNC.

Other related posts about the 10 MHz reference:

• Just good enough 10 MHz reference (3 Oct 2015)
• Curing amnesia in the 10 MHz GPS reference (19 Nov 2015)
• Improved GPS reception with a ground plane (11 April 2016)

I had some trouble closing the lid on the “Just good enough 10 MHz reference” due to the size of the BNC jack. Therefore I changed it to an SMA (SubMiniature version A) female jack. A thin cable connects it to the K3’s SMA input and there is no need for any SMA-BNC adapter on that end.

At the same time I moved the GPS antenna to a more central location in the tin, in the hope that the walls of the tin would interfere less with GPS reception. That’s the theory anyway, if it matters much in practice is a different story.

Actually, I think I’m going to use SMA more often with these clear top tins and also Altoids tins. They take up much less space and are easier to install and to work with.

There aren’t any high power applications for circuitry in such tins, so I cannot so any reason why the SMA won’t work just as well or even better than the BNC.