I had to wait a few days in Cobar for a new brake drum to come in and be fitted. There's not a lot to see and I saw it all. Picked up the van and the brakes are still not right so I decided to push on to Wilcannia.
An end fed for 40m was set up but storm activity made it not worth while. The van's solar system and the fridge create a lot of HF noise so in Cobar I purchased an SLA battery so that the radio can be run completely isolated from the van and this seems to work.
The road is pretty good but coming out of Cobar it was mostly goats which was better than kangaroos which have a nasty habit of jumping in front of cars. Plenty of them lie dead on the road being eaten by crows.
The van is very comfortable. At Wilcannia the night was hot at first - I ran the fan for a while - but there was a cool change and it was even cold by morning.
It's Saturday now and I've arrived in Broken Hill. A major attraction for me was to visit the Mad Max 2 museum at Silverton.
They've got lots of artefacts from the production including some of the vehicles. Clearly the production left a bit of trash in the desert that people have been finding and bringing in for the display.
Tonight I'm going star gazing again, it's one of the most amazing things about the outback.
The brakes in the van are very soft and I'm going to stick around in Broken Hill to get this issue fixed before heading further west.
Now that the weather has cooled a little, I've hit the road from Sydney in the van and am heading west. (I emailed old friends George and Harry and told them to put the kettle on).
I'm taking it considerably slower than Google's navigation suggests.
First stop was a visit to the wonderful QTH of Brian VK2AAF and Susi in Linden. We've spoken via Twitter, email and 80m but never met face to face and it was a real pleasure.
Next a quick stop at the stunning Govetts Leap.
First night was spent at Lithgow in a very nice camp ground over looking a farm with ducks.
An attraction here is the small arms factory.
I'm not really interested in guns but the history of the manufacturing was interesting and particularly how they struggled with the second world war ended. They made everything and anything including prototypes and sewing machines.
Next day on to Dubbo where I camped in a vineyard right next to the observatory.
The observatory show begins at 8pm led by the appropriately named Peter Starr who has an amazing knowledge of the night sky.
There were three telescopes set up and Peter used a powerful green laser to point things out in the sky. After a few cloudy nights we were in luck and my little Sony camera captured this with about a 10 second exposure. (Click to enlarge).
As I drove to Cobar, a squeaking in the rear left wheel started getting worse so I dropped in to a local mechanic who took a look and diagnosed that the brake pad is sticking to the drum and a new drum is needed. This part won't be here for two days so I'm enjoying a bit more of Cobar than originally planned.
The town is the site of a rich copper deposit and has some wonderful buildings. The local historical display is fantastic.
Cobar has three pubs and two IGA supermarkets. I'm doing a load of washing at the laundromat and when it gets too hot for walking this afternoon I'll head for the library.
Next stop is planned to be Broken Hill either Friday or Saturday depending on the van repair. Keep that kettle on gentlemen, I'm on my way.
A few years ago I wrote a simple iOS app called WSPR Watch that lets me quickly check the WSPRnet site for reports of my WSPR spots. It's on the App Store as a free app - I get the data free from WSPRnet so I don't think it's fair to then ask for money to view that data.
While I don't make any money from the app, I do get nice emails from time to time from users. Some users report that this is their most used app!
Recently I've had a string of great feature suggestions from John, AA7US. The app has some new features which you may not find, so I'll show them here.
Tapping a spot in the spot list now more quickly shows information about that spot and also requests more detail from the QRZ.com XML API.
There's a button to show the call on the QRZ website (which unfortunately doesn't look too good on a phone).
Finally there's a button, with a search icon and the call sign, which searches the loaded spots for just that callsign.
This also works if you tap a spot on the map. The first tap shows the basic info. If you tap the Info icon you get the same detailed info.
In settings there's a button to let you use your QRZ login and if you have a paid account you'll get some extra information in the info display.
In the callsign search fields the little book icon is a button that takes you to a list of recently used callsigns.
The callsigns list is built automatically based on what you've searched. You can simply tap a callsign to put that call into the search field. The list itself is editable, swipe left to delete an entry, tap the edit button to allow you to re-order the list. This feature is nice if you like to watch a few different calls.
Finally, in Settings, if you have the Apple email client set up on your device there's a little email button that creates an email to me for feedback about the app.
The bad news is that the WSPRnet seems very slow recently and often I see requests timeout even though I have set a 30 second timeout. There's not much I can do about this, I don't want to hammer the site with more requests.
I wish there was an answer to this issue. The database of WSPR reports is a very valuable research tool.
Some previous versions of CubicSDR have given me some grief on macOS. Today I found that the current release, version 0.2.5, seems to work really well.
Here you see it working with an Airspy HF+ but RTL-SDR also works very nicely.
I like CubicSDR because it has some keyboard and mouse actions that are really handy.
Arrow up and down zooms
Arrow left and right moves the visible spectrum
Dragging with the mouse moves the visible spectrum
Like others, clicking on the spectrum tunes to that frequency
Spacebar brings up a box where you can type the frequency
Shortcuts are shown in the window footer
Great work, I wonder when they'll get to version 1.0?
One bug I see is that if you click in the audio waveform panel it crashes.
Inspired by the latest podcast (210) from Soldersmoke, in which Bill and Pete talk about wearing a Beret while home brewing, Stephen VK2BLQ and I went Beret shopping today.
It turns out that berets are widely available and there were several options. Naturally we went for the most economical one, shown here, from Targét at AU$10.
Bill, in the podcast, generously offered a prize for pictures of home brewers working in the shack wearing the approved head gear and I submit the entries you see here.
We enjoy the podcast very much and when a new episode is available messages fly around here to let everyone know. I'm hoping to win the free subscription!
Ross, EX0AA, is getting in to the spirit too:
He hasn't got the soldering iron grip quite right yet.
73s Bill & Pete from Pete and Stephen down under.
Update: Winners!
Bill wrote (on his blog) "Your dediscation to the cause and your adherence to our dress code is truly, uh, REMARKABLE! I hearby award all of you FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS to the on-line version of the SolderSmoke podcast.
But seriously, thanks a lot fellows. I have sent Pete the blog link and I'm sure he will be as pleased as I was. 73 Bill"
We're very excited of course, although the berets might be a bit warm as today it's predicted to be 34C (about 200F in your units I think).
No, you don't need to update flash. Two of my friends with Macs have ended up with malware on their computers recently and I think the vector is agreeing to install what pretends to be a Flash update. I've seen a few of these recently and I think they're coming in via targeted ads that re-direct multiple times before showing things like this.
Just close the window. Here's a few more examples.
Today I attended the Wyong Field Day. Once again I helped David Rowe on the FreeDV table and in between table duty had a look around.
This year they'd arranged things so that it was pretty much all under cover. Unlike some previous years when it was oppressively hot, it was cool and a tiny bit wet. There was lots of surplus gear not to buy.
I attended an interesting talk on MMDVM (multi mode digital voice modem).
Attendance felt a little down on some past years. Perhaps the threat of showers put some people off.
The ARNSW Home Brew Group had a terrific display, indoors this time.
Peter, VK2EMU, is illustrating below how he can build two amplifiers with the same output power but in vastly different form factors.
A few years ago I bought a second hand Mid 2010 MacBook Air 11 as a standby machine. It came with a dead battery. A cheap Chinese replacement was purchased via eBay but while the battery life was usable (for reading the news over breakfast) it would warn that it was going to shut down after about two hours. Shown here in activity monitor.
I did what they advised in that I charged it up and then used it until it warned me on the first cycle.
The battery actually reported that it had more than the design capacity and I figured this was a lie.
Figuring I'd bought a low capacity battery pretending to have more mAh than it really did, I ordered a new one from a reputable dealer, iFixit Australia.
While waiting for the new battery to arrive I read up on battery manager calibration and this time did the following:
Fully charged the battery over night
Ran the laptop with screen and disk never sleeping, also no screen dimming (Energy saver)
Left it like that to run until it shut itself down
Left it another 5 hours to really go flat
Fully charged it over night
Interestingly as it discharged there was a long flat part of the charge graph before it actually turned off.
After this exercise, the battery had much better life, perhaps five or six hours of heavy use.
The new battery turned up and I figured I might as well put it in to see if it's better. Replacing the battery in an old MacBook Air is pretty easy if you have the pentalobe screwdrivers.
Interestingly, it reports less capacity in CoconutBattery and the Chinese import.
I again followed the calibration process outlined above and this time, just for fun, I ran a bash script to record screen shots for a movie.
For my own future reference, create a folder on the Desktop called "ScreenRecord" and run this command line to capture screen shots periodically:
Measuring real world battery life is not easy as load varies wildly. I think the new battery is slightly better than the old one after calibration, but I wish I had done this earlier and saved my money.
The hotspot board I ordered via eBay for AU$60 arrived (I note the price has increased recently). It turns out to be labeled a Jumbo Spot rev 1.6. I already had the Raspberry Pi Zero but the other parts came as shown here.
The metal box is very solid, the board is good quality and the OLED display was already soldered in place. There was some soldering in that the pin headers for attaching to the Pi had to be soldered on to the Pi Zero board.
The Pi-Star software was downloaded from here and copied to the microSD card using Etcher on macOS.
Because I hadn't read enough documentation, I fired it up connected to a monitor and keyboard and attempted to get it on to my Wifi via the command line. (Don't do this).
The right way to get started is to let it boot and after a minute or so it creates a Wifi network called "pi-star-setup". On a computer, join that wifi network and go to http://pi-star.local and you log in with username pi-star and password raspberry to do the configuration via a web interface. Here you can tell it about your wifi network and then let it join. After that, go back to your own network and again visit it via http://pi-star.local.
Jumbo Spot isn't in the radio/modem type popup so I used MMDVM_HS_Hat (DB9MAT & DF2ET) for Pi GPIO and that appears to work.
DMR Master is set to DMR+_IPSC2-AUS-2 with options "TS2_1=505;TS2_2=3802;TS2_3=3803;TS2_4=3804;TS1_1=13;TS1_2=113;TS1_3=123". These settings derived from VK7HSE in the Pi-Star forum. I am seeing traffic and can see myself transmit.
There's a good tutorial on setting up Pi-Star configuration on Amateur Radio Notes here.
All boxed up now and it looks like a solid bit of gear.
I set it to the frequency which was already in a code plug I used in my TYT MD-380. I can see a bit of activity on the web interface.
Range seems excellent, it certainly covers the house without any problems. I'm still figuring this thing out but so far it seems good.
I've had a few brief contacts on talk group 505 slot 2 but often can see that a station is there but not hear them.
Updated firmware to 1.4.14
Following the instructions from hvdn.org I've just updated the Jumbo Spot firmware from v1.3.3 to 1.4.14. So far so good and very easy to update.
Here's a VK4 talking to a VK3. I'm in VK2 via this Jumbo Spot.
There is a page for the IPSC2-AUS-2 network which my hot spot is connected to here.
The DMR radio I ordered for AU$127 just days ago arrived today. I thought this would be a place to leave notes for myself that might help others as it's pretty mystifying to get started with.
For the price it's a very solid feeling radio. Heavy in the hand (in a good way), with a good keyboard and knobs. It came with the USB programming cable - I didn't know this and ordered one at the same time. The charging dock is solid and the little power adapter came with an Australian plug adapter. Two antennas, a small stubby one and a slightly larger one that the manual says works better. On UHF the full size one is quite compact anyway.
MD-380 doesn't turn on! Turning on the power and nothing. Charged for an hour, still nothing... it turns out that there was a piece of tape between the battery and the radio so I had to remove the battery and peel it off to turn on the radio. All good.
I registered my callsign for a DMR ID at https://www.radioid.net/ note that you need to upload a copy of your license.
From the recent talk at ARNSW, I learned that I'd need to download a "codeplug" file, edit it to put in my DMR ID number and send it to the radio.
The vk2kvp/md380-codeplug was downloaded as a zip and the file "MD380-90_All_AU_DMR+analog+CB_v15.rdt" was extracted out of that.
A TYT Code Plug Editor was downloaded from Milor.com and it opened the .rdt file extracted from the vk2kvp zip. I put in my callsign, my DMR ID (5050184) and saved the file. It warns about passwords being set but I checked and they were blank.
Finally, I opened the codeplug (.rdt) file with TyMD380tools and sent it to the radio. Update, I've now realised that the code plug editor can directly send to the radio, very nice.
I know from earlier experiments with an RTL-SDR that I can hear the Sydney repeater VK2RCG so I went in to zones and chose that one.
Initial Observations
The colour screen is low resolution and even short callsigns have to scroll to be read.
The large icons on screen take up space, I wonder if they can be reduced?
My screen backlight stayed on until I changed it in Menu, Utilities, Radio Settings, Backlight.
When the backlight is off, the screen is completely unreadable.
After hearing nothing all afternoon and calling on Talk Group 9, which I thought was the local TG, I asked for help in the Facebook group. It turns out that the Sydney repeater is off the internet. Les suggested Talk Group 505 Slot 2. I called and got a reply from VK2RF who said I was showing up as unknown ID.
I guess that because my ID is new it hasn't been added by other users yet.
Audio sounded good and I'm now thinking that a hotspot might be the way to go as the only repeater I can hear is off line.
The Facebook group is a great source of info. The reason why I wasn't hearing much is that pretty much all the local repeaters are currently down and the one I can hear is off the internet.
My thanks to Glenn, Les, Pete, Bruce, Bevan and Denis for their help.
Ordered a hot spot
I've ordered an MMDVM Hotspot for AU$60 (I have a spare raspberry Pi already). This seems like the way to go as all the local repeaters are currently down of off the internet. It will take a few weeks to come from China and I'll report the experience here.
The OpenSPOT2 looks tempting but I quite enjoy Linux tinkering and the Pi-Star software for the MMDVM hotspots is being actively updated and looks amazing.
Talked with Les VK4TB
I successfully sent Les a text message via TG505 and then he suggested we have a talk on TG3809 Slot 1. This wasn't in my code plug so I've added it (I got the name wrong saying QLD) but anyhow we were able to talk between Sydney and Brisbane quite well as you'll see here.
I have now flashed the firmware to the "enhanced" version. I was unable to do this under windows as the program just crashed each time I hit flash.
Mine had Firmware version D014.004 and CP Vers V01.37. This seems pretty recent but it looks like updates are available from TYT. Including "MD-380_390 FOR USA" dated 2019-01-07. I have not tried this.
Flashing the firmware worked smoothly on Ubuntu Linux following the excellent instructions from the author Travis Goodspeed here.
The new firmware has a number or worthwhile enhancements including showing the name and info about the person talking:
When no one is talking, you can configure to see lots of useful info including the time slot and talk group (without having to wait for it to scroll into view) and down below is the last call heard.
Nice code plug editor for Linux - editcp
There's a great code plug editor for Linux called editcp by Dale Farnsworth. The binary installed as advertised on Ubuntu and works well.
The UI, built with qt, is superior to the Windows program I've been using as you can drag to re-order items in the lists. One slightly concerning thing is the warnings about fields with illegal values that I get each time I save or go to send to the radio.
Despite this warning all seems well and I've grabbed the code plug (terrible name for settings) from the radio, edited various things, and sent back to the radio where all works nicely.
Since getting back in to RTL-SDR for my recent foray into decoding DMR, I found that these are a very useful (and low cost) bit of gear.
At the last ham radio meeting at Dural, I bought a Shure radio microphone and when I got home I wanted to find out what frequency it was on. Cranking the knob on a receiver was taking forever so I decided to look into scanning broadly with RTL-SDR.
There is a bundled tool called rtl_power which seems perfect for this but it creates a CSV file that's a bit annoying to look at or graph. Now I've stumbled upon RTLSDR-scanner.
RTLSDR-scanner is a python module which you run from the command line. You give it a low and high frequency and it quickly scans and displays a nice graph which can also be exported and looks like this:
(Click images to enlarge by the way). RTL-SDRs don't have much dynamic range so I don't really think this would be good for real spectrum analysis tasks, like finding spurious emissions from transmitters, but for finding the output of a mystery radio mic (622MHz by the way) it was perfect.
Alternatives
There is some great software around for driving RTL-SDR and other SDRs. One that looks terrific is Spektrum but I can't get it working on my Ubuntu or Windows machines here.
