Bargain 5000mAh 21700 Li-ion battery

Heath, VK3TWO, spoke about Meshcore at the latest Macedon Ranges Amateur Radio club meeting and mentioned a low cost way to get extra batteries to charge solar powered devices. These Click brand USB-C phone powerbanks are $6.98 at Bunnings.

They are a bit hard to get in to. The top has strong clips and, I assume, glue. I used a Dremmel cutting wheel to reveal the contents. It's pretty much all battery. I've seen similar 21700 batteries for $37 on their own.

It looks like a proper charging circuit with a temperature sensor. One thing to watch for is that these were in a big bin near the service desk and one of the four I purchased turned out to have lightning output rather than USB-C - that's the one I cracked open.

The other great tip Heath had was for building solar powered Meshcore repeaters, by buying a decent solar powered garden light and replacing the light with your radio gear. The good ones have one or two 18650 batteries inside them. They are also designed to be left outside.

HermesNeo - macOS software for Hermes Lite 2

I've had a Hermes Lite 2 on the bench for some time but couldn't find SDR software that I liked. This is very early software so it's not ready for prime time but is working for me on the bench here. You'll note that FreeDV RADE is a first class mode in this application.

Here's an over the air test of FreeDV RADE 1 and 2. The audio you hear is what is decoded by FreeDVNeo connected to an X6200.

 

Note sure how common the Hermes Lite 2 is, and of those owners, how many have macOS. I believe other radios are somewhat compatable and I'd be interested to hear if any others just work - as they say.

More info and download link here.

HackRF Transfer GUI for macOS

hackrf_transfer is a command line tool for getting a HackRF to capture and replay IQ files. I often use this for testing software such as FreeDV RADE and digital modes. Playing back a slab of a band full of SSB contacts is a great way to demonstrate receivers such as my Soldersmoke Direct Conversion receiver.

This GUI looks for hackrf_transfer which I install with homebrew but if you have the binary somewhere else you can choose it manually in settings.

The main window has two main parts. Capture and Transmit. Here's capture, showing the level monitor which is handy for setting the gain to an optimum point for recording.

It can also play back .c16 files captured in the field on a HackRF portapack.

I've put a page about the app with a download link here.

JTTY Traffic increasing

I've been monitoring JTTY traffic on 40m. (As an aside, 7090 USB is a poor choice of frequency here in Australia as there's a lot of 7100 LSB activity here).

I'm just on a small dipole near the house but here's what I logged using my JttyChat app over night.

RX Hello this is A test from VK3TPM 2026-10-16 18:33:23 +10 dB

RX H%</A 2026-10-16 18:56:10 -15 dB

RX 1135 0110 2026-10-16 19:10:24 -16 dB

TX CQ DE VK3TPM 2026-10-16 20:22:08

RX CQ 2026-10-16 20:27:26 -13 dB

RX Avy QSL 2026-10-16 20:27:42 -10 dB

RX JW4MFL 2026-10-16 20:46:18 -16 dB

RX JTTY slice netw ... E N2A ... Eck ins please K## 2026-10-16 20:47:39 -8 dB

RX DE N2AVY web page HTTPS://MUSE.AI/S/THE-OUTER ... -SLICE-NETWORK-ZD6IB8ZGGX0V an 2026-10-16 20:48:05 -5 dB

RX ://MUSE.AI/S/TH ... Er-jtty-sl ... K-ZD6 ... GX0V 2026-10-16 20:48:39 -9 dB

RX CQ the outer JTTY slice network DE ...  N2AVY ... Ins pleas 2026-10-16 20:49:18 -5 dB

RX Net open N2AVY web page HTTPS://MUSE.AI/S/THE 2026-10-16 20:50:53 -8 dB

RX Net open N2AVY web page HTTPS://MUSE.AI/S/THE-OUTER-JTTY-SLICE-NETWORK-ZD6IB8ZGG 2026-10-16 20:53:23 -6 dB

RX CQ the outer JTTY slice N ... K DE N2AVY N2AVY check ins please K 2026-10-16 20:54:08 -6 dB

RX CQ CQ the outer JTTY slice network ...  Avy N2AVY check ins please K # 2026-10-16 20:55:44 -6 dB

RX All stations please standby for net control DE N2AVY K## 2026-10-16 20:56:24 -4 dB

RX DE N2AVY standing by ... Any S ... Eck in che ... Use netlogger and check 2026-10-16 20:56:58 -7 dB

RX CQ CQ the outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY N2AVY check ... Please K # 2026-10-16 20:58:03 -6 dB

RX CQ CQ the outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY N2AVY check ins please K # 2026-10-16 20:58:37 -6 dB

RX CQ CQ the outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY N ... Check ... Please K # 2026-10-16 20:59:45 -6 dB

RX DE N2AVY the net controller for todays the outer RTTY slice network. 2026-10-16 21:00:18 -6 dB

RX The outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY check ins please K# 2026-10-16 21:01:57 -6 dB

RX CQ the outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY N2AVY ... Ins please K# 2026-10-16 21:02:27 -4 dB

RX The outer JTTY slice ... E N2AVY check ins please K 2026-10-16 21:03:52 -7 dB

RX Pen N2AVY web page HTTPS: ... E.AI/ ... -Outer-jtty-slice-ne ... -ZD6IB8ZGG 2026-10-16 21:04:33 -6 dB

RX DE N2AVY W ... Ge HTTPS://MUSE.AI/S/THE-OUTER-JTTY-SLICE-NETWORK- ... 8ZGGX 2026-10-16 21:05:04 -7 dB

RX The outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY N2AVY ...  Ins please K 2026-10-16 21:05:56 -7 dB

RX JSN CQ DE ...  In check in K 2026-10-16 21:07:37 -6 dB

TX CQ DE VK3TPM 2026-10-16 21:08:23

RX Q DE N2AVY check in check in K# 2026-10-16 21:08:33 -7 dB

RX CQ tojsn CQ DE N2AVY check in check in K# 2026-10-16 21:08:58 -7 dB

RX Net open N2AVY web page HTTPS: ... E.AI/S/THE-OUTER-JTTY-SLICE-NETWORK-ZD6IB8ZGG 2026-10-16 21:09:23 -5 dB

RX DE N2AVY the net controller for tod ... He outer RTTY slice network. 2026-10-16 21:10:28 -6 dB

RX CQ N2AVY N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:11:23 -7 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:11:39 -11 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:12:23 -8 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:12:33 -9 dB

RX DE N2AVY QSL 2026-10-16 21:12:57 -7 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:13:06 -8 dB

RX Net open N2AVY ...  Age HTTPS://MUSE.AI/S/THE-OUTER-JTTY-SLICE-NE ... -ZD6IB8ZGG 2026-10-16 21:13:29 -7 dB

RX SL 2026-10-16 21:14:10 -11 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:14:17 -9 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:14:27 -9 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:15:19 -8 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:16:14 -6 dB

RX DE N2AVY Q 2026-10-16 21:16:19 -8 dB

RX CQ N2AVY CQ 2026-10-16 21:16:26 -12 dB

RX CQ the out ... TY slice network DE N2AVY N2AVY check ... Please K# 2026-10-16 21:17:14 -6 dB

RX CQ the outer JTTY slice network DE N2AVY N2AVY check ins ...  E K# 2026-10-16 21:17:38 -4 dB

Scoring Apple's Knowledge Navigator against Siri and ChatGPT

Earlier this year I posed the question Apple Knowledge Navigator - are we there yet? I was very pleased to see that SmartFriend™ Tony has done the hard work, now that xOS 27 is out with Siri AI, to test and find out.

Check out the Rambling Rows post "Scoring Apple's Knowledge Navigator against Siri and ChatGPT".

SiriAI is vastly better in many ways but, as a caller to my ABC Nightlife talkback spot last night observed, it's got worse at basic tasks like flipping lights and setting timers. I guess it's over-thinking simple tasks.

Binaural receivers can receive double sideband

Talented home brewer Stephen, VK2BLQ, mentioned that - unlike a direct conversion receiver - a binaural receiver can be used to listen to a double sideband transmitter. He sent some pictures and a sample recording.

I think this is promising in that it could be used to make a relatively simple transceiver comprising a double sideband transmitter and binaural receiver that could talk to another instance of the same design.

Here's Stephen's circuit notes:

 

Binaural receivers are useful for CW operators working with a busy part of the band as they spread signals out across the soundstage between your ears.

A beautiful day for the Bendigo Hamfest

Richard, VK3LRJ, and I drove up to Bendigo for the excellent BAREC Hamfest. 

There was a good crowd and a decent amount of stuff on sale although I thought some of the prices were a bit optimistic. I bought an old Radio Shack condenser microphone and stand for $20. I had one back in the 80s and it was amazing quality at the time. This one didn't work when I got it home but the problem was that the body had turned so many times that the little power wire had broken. I fixed that but the mic doesn't sound good - it's had a hard life. 

Mostly it was a social event and great to catch up with a bunch of friends. Hugo VK3HUG, Colin VK3XW, Dallas VK3EB and Dave VK3ASE.

Great job by the organisers - it must be a big job putting something like this together.

Simple JTTY app for macOS

The JTTY application I made for Linux uses the QT6 framework. I could have built this for macOS but thought it would hurt my eyes so I've made a native macOS version.

There's a page for it here and the source code is available here.

It does depend on hamlib for rig control. I install it with homebrew. At the moment this is left as an exercise for the reader - as they say.

Thanks to Zero Retries (an excellent ham radio newsletter) for the warm mention in the latest edition.

"Macs, thanks to developers like VK3TPM are rapidly becoming “first-class citizens” in Amateur Radio!" - golly, I'm blushing!