Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 338
AllStarLink version 3 beta
The next generation of AllStarLink repeater and hotspot software.
AllStarLink
GoodWatch
A Ham Radio smartwatch.
KK4VCZ
My first, easiest (and last?) SOTA
If you spotted a couple of weirdos on a hilltop with a big antenna yesterday, this is what was going on.
Ian Renton
Reducing QRM from a portable solar panel system
It is not the solar panel itself that produces the radio frequency noise, but rather the charge controller attached to it.
KA7OEI
Venturing into the world of AllStarLink
Setting up a Raspberry Pi based AllStarLink hotspot.
M0AWS
Ham Radio 101 basic set-up
The equipment list will be geared for either home or portable operation for digital net operation.
KK4Z
What you should know before buying a Motorola radio
Things that you as a Ham should know before buying a used device.
DK1MI
TetraPack presentation at HamRadio 2024
Dive into the new features revealed in the latest project update.
Brandmeister
Field Day photos
Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club shares photos from Field Day 2024.
Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club
Video
Friedrichshafen Ham Radio Expo 2024 walk-through
14 minute tour of the main hall.
rigsearch
The antenna that took 7.200MHz by surprise
Buddistick Pro antenna for a Parks on the Air (POTA) activation.
N2MAK
A look at my mobile Ham Radio setup
Installing a Radioddity DB25-D into a 2018 Ford Escape.
KI5IRE
Testing VHF/UHF antennas with the NanoVNA
We look at the 3 antennas supplied with the Tidradio H8 handheld VHF/UHF Ham Radio.
learnelectronics
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TX Factor – Show 31 is On Air
We present you with a dilemma! Whether to watch Euro 2024, the headliner act at Glastonbury, study the manifestos of the UK political parties, or . . . to sit back and watch the latest episode from TX Factor. The choice is yours. However, this latest show will keep, so there’s no need to rush. In this programme, we look at the latest device from Icom. It’s the IC-R15 communications receiver. Bob and Mike discuss how best to configure the Anytone BT-01 bluetooth microphone with your Anytone AT-D578 – a boon for mobile operating. And, of course, part 2 of our two-part feature on operating via the QO-100 satellite with the Groundstation 2 from DX Patrol. We hope, the best team wins (political party and the football!).
TX Factor is sponsored by the Radio Society of Great Britain. http://www.txfactor.co.uk
Go Back In Time – Vintage Film
Turning back time to virtually witness a critical historic method of shortwave communication using the fundamental mode of continuous wave modulation. This is a film from 1944, teaching the basics of Morse code, for military comms.
What is the proper (and most efficient) technique for creating Morse code by hand, using a manual Morse code key? Ham radio operators find Morse code (and the ‘CW’ mode, or ‘Continuous Wave’ keying mode) very useful, even though Morse code is no longer required as part of the licensing process. Morse code is highly effective in weak-signal radio work. And, preppers love Morse code because it is the most efficient way to communicate when there is a major disaster that could wipe out the communications infrastructure.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmg1MlstxWM[/embedyt]
While this military film is antique, the vintage information is timeless, as the material is applicable to Morse code, even today.
Credits: National Archives and Records Administration
Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer. (09/18/1947 – 02/28/1964)
ARC Identifier 36813 / Local Identifier 111-TF-3697. PRINCIPLES AND BASIC TECHNIQUE FOR GOOD, RHYTHMIC SENDING 0F MORSE CODE BY OPERATING THE HAND KEY.
Made possible by a donation from Mary Neff.
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 337
Experimenting during Field Day 2024
Running solo for Field Day in the backcountry of Kananaskis Country.
VE6LK
Amateur Radio for aspiring professionals
So much of what I do in other classes is coding on a computer, which made the hands-on aspect of this class very appealing.
Carnegie Mellon University College of Engineering
Here’s how Starlink satellites weathered May’s major solar storm
The average Starlink user experienced less than one minute of disruption.
PCMag
Decoding Meshtastic with GNU Radio
The GNU blocks send and receive data via TCP port, so using the radio as a data connection is simple.
Hackaday
Lithium batteries: Where we came from, where we’re going
Lithium batteries have changed the world the same way transistors did back in the 1950s and 1960s.
Off Grid Ham
Meme Appreciation Month is on the air
A way to spread joy & cheer to all the good little Hams on the RF spectrum.
Meme Appreciation Month
APRSDroid and dual port Direwolf
Running a Direwolf instance with two ports (VHF and HF) on an Orange Pi Zero.
F4FXL
CQ CQ
Ham Radios are an extremely complex hobby.
The North Star Monthly
World Radio History
An archive of magazines, books, and more, related to the history of broadcast radio.
World Radio History
Video
Field Day 2024 at Blue Mountain Park
The Coquitlam Amateur Radio Club was joined by the New Westminster Amateur Radio Club and the 39 signal regiment.
Coquitlam Amateur Radio Emergency Services Society
Build a Raspberry Pi Pico APRS tracker
Use a Pi Zero, a Digirg Lite, and a Baofeng to build an APRS tracker.
KM4ACK
SDR: View all HF bands at the same time
Receiving 64 MHz of bandwidth using the RX888 Mk2 SDR Receiver and SDR Console.
Tech Minds
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German Teletype (RTTY) Weather on HF (Shortwave) Radio
This is a video of the German Weather Broadcast from DWD, Hamburg, on shortwave (HF), using teletype (RTTY). I demonstrate two decoding software options: JWcomm32 (older), and, FLdigi. Note the in FLdigi, the “Reverse” feather is selected to properly decode the signal (in either USB or LSB, you still need to select, “Reverse”).
The radio used to receive these weather bulletins is an Icom IC-7610, using an antenna designed for 160 Meters.
RTTY is a system for broadcasting text over radio. The technology dates back to the late 1950s and seems somewhat anachronistic. Speeds are slow, even slower than NAVTEX. A similar service is the USCG service, SITOR (Simplex Teletype Over Radio) providing offshore and coastal forecasts over very wide and remote areas from the tropics to the polar regions.
There is dedicated equipment to receive RTTY and SITOR but we can receive both using a standard HF/SSB receiver with software packages such as TRUETTY and SEATTY to decode the signals.
The main advantage of RTTY/SITOR is the reception of information over an entire ocean area. The USCG also shares frequencies across multiple transmitters according to a schedule, rather like NAVTEX. The system is available over the Atlantic and Pacific including polar regions not served. For more about SITOR see the Monitoring Times link or the USCG site.
Around Western Europe and the Mediterranean, the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) , the German Weather Service has accepted the responsibility to broadcast weather information for mariners on RTTY. Frequencies are in the table on the webpage at:
https://weather.mailasail.com/Franks-Weather/Radio-Teletype-Weather-Broadcasts
This video captures the RTTY transmission on 14467.3 kHz (with adjustment in the passband to center on Mark and Space as seen in the video).
DWD (Hamburg) Broadcast Content:
Some broadcasts are of raw weather observations in a WMO coded form. Otherwise, for the broadcasts include,
- Strong wind, gale and storm warnings for German Bight, Western and Southern Baltic Sea, German North Sea and Baltic Sea coast
- Weather forecast for the North Sea and Baltic Sea, Weather situation, forecast valid for 12 hours and outlook valid for another 12 hours
- Weather report German North Sea and Baltic Sea coast, Weather situation and forecast valid for 12 hours.
- Navigational warnings for North Sea, Baltic Sea and German coast
- Weather report Norwegian Sea and Baltic Sea Route North Cape – Shetlands, The Quark – Gulf of Finland. Weather situation and time series forecast for 2 days
- Weather report North Atlantic. Route Pentlands – Southwest Greenland. Weather situation and time series forecast for 2 days
- Station reports North Sea and Baltic Sea
- Weather report Western European Sea. Route Southern Ireland – Area Canarias. Weather situation and time series forecast for 2 days
- Medium range weather report North Sea, Weather situation and time series forecast for 5 days
- For the Mediterranean there are Station reports Mediterranean Sea
- Weather report Mediterranean Sea (in German), Weather situation and forecast valid for 24 hours.
- Alborán – Tunis. Weather situation and time series forecast for 2 days
- Weather report Eastern Mediterranean Sea (in German). Route Eastern Tunis – Rhodes/Cyprus. Weather situation and time series forecast for 2 days
- Medium range weather report Mediterranean Sea (in English), Weather situation and time series forecast for 5 days
- Around the North Sea and the Baltic this service is a useful supplement to NAVTEX. Particularly so are the 5 day outlooks, These give wind forecast every 12 hours for the 5 day period. The values are straight from the DWD NWP model at a few grid points although these are sufficient to give an overall view and much quicker to receive than synoptic charts on radio fax.
In the Mediterranean, most valuable is the 5 day forecast which seems to be used and very highly regarded by the majority of serious cruising yachtsmen. It is a most valuable service for predicting the major strong wind systems such as Mistrals, Libeccios, Tramontanes, etc. Such winds are usually well predicted 4 and often 5 days ahead. Conversely, I have never found the 24 hour forecast to be much use. For this period, the French, Spanish and even the Italian NAVTEX broadcasts are to be preferred.
Modern Amateur Radio Hobby – An Introduction
This video is an introduction to an international public-service and technology hobby known as ‘amateur radio’ (or ‘ham radio’).
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K40HpIjDLRs[/embedyt]
Amateur radio (also called ham radio) describes the use of radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communication. The term “amateur” is used to specify “a duly-authorized person interested in radioelectric practice with a purely personal aim and without pecuniary interest;” (either direct monetary or other similar rewards) and to differentiate it from commercial broadcasting, public safety (such as police and fire), or professional two-way radio services (such as maritime, aviation, taxis, etc.).
The amateur radio service (amateur service and amateur-satellite service) is established by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) through the Radio Regulations. National governments regulate technical and operational characteristics of transmissions and issue individual stations licenses with an identifying call sign. Prospective amateur operators are tested for their understanding of key concepts in electronics and the host government’s radio regulations. Radio amateurs use a variety of voice, text, image, and data communications modes and have access to frequency allocations throughout the RF spectrum to enable communication across a city, region, country, continent, the world, or even into space.
Amateur radio is officially represented and coordinated by the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), which is organized in three regions and has as its members the national amateur radio societies which exist in most countries. According to an estimate made in 2011 by the American Radio Relay League, two million people throughout the world are regularly involved with amateur radio. About 830,000 amateur radio stations are located in IARU Region 2 (the Americas) followed by IARU Region 3 (South and East Asia and the Pacific Ocean) with about 750,000 stations. A significantly smaller number, about 400,000, are located in IARU Region 1 (Europe, Middle East, CIS, Africa).
Activities and practices
The expansive diversity found in the amateur radio hobby attracts practitioners who have a wide range of interests. Many hams begin with a fascination of radio communication and then combine other personal interests to make the pursuit of the hobby rewarding. Some of the focal areas amateurs pursue include radio contesting, radio propagation study, public service communication, technical experimentation, and computer networking. But, that is just a sampling of interest areas found in the hobby.
Amateur radio operators use various modes of transmission to communicate. The two most common modes for voice transmissions are frequency modulation (FM) and single sideband (SSB). The FM mode offers high-quality audio signals, while SSB is better at long distance communication when bandwidth is restricted.
Modern personal computers have encouraged the use of digital modes such as radioteletype (RTTY) which previously required cumbersome mechanical equipment. Hams led the development of packet radio in the 1970s, which has employed protocols such as AX.25 and TCP/IP. Specialized digital modes such as PSK31 allow real-time, low-power communications on the shortwave bands. More robust digital modes have been invented and improved, including such modes as Olivia, JT65, and WSPR.
NASA astronaut Col. Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, Expedition 24 flight engineer, operates the NA1SS ham radio station in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station. Equipment is a Kenwood TM-D700E transceiver.
Amateur radio operators, using battery- or generator-powered equipment, often provide essential communications services when regular channels are unavailable due to natural disasters or other disruptive events.
This video comes to us via Canada, and is used by permission from Bernard Bouchard – / ve2sms – The original video was published on Feb 28, 2013.- Website is https://www.ve2cwq.ca/amateur-radio-club-ve2cwq/
Voici maintenant, la version complète du documentaire «La radioamateur» d’une durée de 11 minutes. On y aborde toutes les activités sur le monde de la radioamateur. Ce vidéo a été produit par le Club Radioamateur VE2CWQ / Canwarn-Québec. Pour information: https://www.ve2cwq.ca/
Connect with me at https://NW7US.us
USA Amateur Radio information: http://ARRL.org
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 336
Field Day locator
This page is intended to show public Field Day sites that members of the public and media can visit.
ARRL
ARRL Field Day information and rules
Field Day is Ham Radio’s open house.
ARRL
Effective Field Day operating
Operating at Field Day is a lot different than operating a home station—and that’s more than half the fun.
OnAllBands
Broadcast network coverage of 1948 ARRL Field Day
You will hear extended coverage of several Field Day locations, with excellent background material.
Radio Relay International
Set your QSL card as your IC-705 startup screen
Upload an image using an SD card.
G7UFO
Do Hams still listen to shortwave?
They do in Canada.
K4FMH
The May 10th superstorm electrified Earth’s atmosphere
Superstorm zaps the global electric circuit.
SpaceWeather.com
The future of Ham Radio: Palmer Junior Middle School’s Ham Club
A budding group of young students have just taken up the torch of Ham Radio.
BridgeCom Systems
Digital only POTA activation using FT8 on the sBitx V3
I wanted to see how hard it would be to get the activation only on FT8.
WK4DS
Video
How does Starlink satellite internet work?
A Starlink satellite zooms across the sky at 27,000km/hr.
Branch Education
DIY 6 meter Moxon antenna
Boost your summer VHF fun.
KB9VBR
Cassette box size 50MHz SSB, AM, CW transceiver
Homemade small transceiver for SOTA operation.
7L4WVU Homemade radio