SSTV – Images via Radio presentations

September 27, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Slow-Scan TV presentation.

Framework

The framework I chose to use for the presentation slides is called reveal.js. It is an HTML framework meaning it will run in any HTML 5 capable browser. Looks a little better than a PowerPoint presentation.

Navigation

Useful navigation keys in the presentation. In addition to navigating with the keys below, you can swipe (tables/smartphones) or use the navigation arrows on screen in the lower right.

Toggle full screen: press [F11].

Advance to the next slide: press [n] or [SPACEBAR].

Go back to the previous slide: press [p] or press and hold the [SHIFT] key while pressing the [SPACEBAR].

Display presentation overview: [ESC] then use the arrow keys or mouse to select a slide. [ESC] again will exit overview mode.

Links

Clickable links are colored in blue text.

Presentations

Three variations are available: presentation version is viewable in a browser. Printable version for printing or saving in a different format (Chrome, Chromium, and variants compatible only). Finally a PDF version.

They may take some time to load because I left original images untouched and some were a couple MB in file size.

Slides

The presentation is about 45 minutes in length.

Presentation version
Printable version
PDF version

This presentation was given at the following meetings:
Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association on 9/27/2016.
Geauga Amateur Radio Association on 9/25/2017.

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – September 2016 edition

September 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Scott – N8SY and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Scott has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the section will need to use the mailing list link above.
Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
Go to www.arrl.org and logon.
Click Edit your Profile.
You will be taken to the Edit Your Profile page. On the first tab Edit Info, verify your Email address is correct.
Click the Edit Email Subscriptions tab.
Check the News and information from your Division Director and Section Manager box.
Click Save.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/09/september-edition-of-ohio-section.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,
I don’t have to complain to you about the hot and extremely humid weather we’ve had because all of you are living it too. Storm season arrived later in Northern Ohio. I wrote last month how my city got hammered by some storms. It continued with a tornado outbreak in Indiana on August 24th. Friend and regular checkin to the Ham Nation D-STAR net luckily sustained no damage. However, his neighbors a quarter-mile to the north and south had their homes destroyed. The line of storms that moved through Indiana spawning many tornados prompted the National Weather Service in Cleveland to staff the Skywarn desk. I was one of the operators at NWS that night. Though the storms significantly weakened by the time they reached the Toledo area, there was one confirmed EF0 tornado in Pemberville (Wood County – my old stomping grounds). It touched down along route 6 and dissipated quickly but not before removing sheet metal roofing from nearby buildings. No injuries or fatalities.

Public service season is quickly wrapping up for most of the section. Technical Specialist David KD8TWG ran much of the five-day public service event at the Great Geauga County Fair. Being from Cuyahoga county (and the far west end at that), I was a little skeptical. ‘OK the GREAT Geauga Fair.’ But it really was a great fair. It’s the biggest one I’ve attended. There’s a ton of people, displays, awards, animals, events and acts, and yes people really do stand in line 45 minutes for a milkshake. This was confirmed in a casual conversation between fair-goers. As far as ham radio there is a great mixture of technologies including Ohio MARCS, 800 MHz, APRS, Mesh, VOIP, and a portable repeater for their communication needs. It was quite the elaborate setup and really is a great example of utilizing technology to suit communication needs.

The public service season concluded in Cleveland on the 11th with a half-marathon called “River Run.” It was great weather and there wasn’t a single ambulance call. A lot of the ham radio event coordinators have to beg, twist arms, and make many phone calls to get people to come out and help. Please volunteer and help out with these events. You’re there to make sure everyone has a good, safe time during the event. Your presence also gets ham radio out in front of the public and builds relationships with event organizers and county officials. If you’re active in helping out with public service events, you’re more likely to be called in the case of an actual situation.

Ham Nation episode 264 (https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation/episodes/264) was an episode that featured an all YL cast. Everyone on the show that night was a young lady. The episode highlighted female participation in the hobby and pointed out that ham radio is not made up entirely of OMs. Additionally, Dr. Skov (who is not licensed … yet) gave a detailed tutorial on ionospheric conditions and how space weather effects propagation on the HF bands. She talks about the atmospheric layers, electron density, how those layers change during the day vs night vs gray line, the layers which reflect signals, Kp and X-Ray Flux indices. Her tutorial would have really helped me on those licensing test questions! It starts about 44 minutes into the episode – with some interesting analogies. I will leave it at that!

I’ve been spending a ton of time learning more about the DV4Mini and DMR in particular. The DV4Mini is a USB hotspot device about the size of a large USB memory stick. It has the ability to “speak” several different digital modes: D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, P25, and dPMR/NXDN/IDAS. A hotspot is a device that provides connectivity. In this case, to different digital networks from your home PC or Raspberry Pi with a low powered transmitter (usually under 10mW). A misconception I hear a lot and have been asked about: yes you do need a radio for each digital mode you want to operate. To connect to D-STAR reflectors you’ll need the hotspot device and a D-STAR capable radio. Similarly, for DMR talk groups, you’ll need the hotspot and a DMR capable radio. I’ve been hanging out a lot on the Ohio Statewide talk group (3139) and USA Nationwide (3100), I even ran into our own Section Manager on the network!

The more time I spend with the DV4Mini the more issues I find with it. It’s a great concept to have one device to work 5 different modes. The DV4M has a lot of issues that I hope the developers correct related to its performance. I actually bricked mine updating it to the latest firmware. Had to crack the case and put into bootloader mode to re-flash the firmware. The update took the second time. This happened to another user too. Comparing audio quality to repeaters on the network and listening to BrandMeister Hoseline, the audio from the device sounds bad most times and terrible the rest. The direct calling feature doesn’t seem to work. A buddy of mine found the developer for the BrandMeister extended routing feature (DV4MF2) completely ceased development as of September 9th. It will be interesting to see why that happened and if that means anything for the future of the device. There are other hotspot devices out there and I hope to find out more about them soon.

David KD8TWG and his presentation on APRS at the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association (LEARA) meeting was fantastic. We had a lot of fun with APRS on our smartphones and radios sending messages back and forth.

Thanks to the Cuyahoga Amateur Radio Society (CARS) for having me at their meeting on September 13th. I presented my introduction to the Raspberry Pi computer. Good discussion ensued in both cases on new technology hams can utilize.

Coming up, I will be at the Cleveland Hamfest on the 25th. Two days later I’m giving a presentation at the LEARA meeting on Slow Scan TV. If you’re in the Cleveland area and want to see SSTV in action, stop by the meeting on the 27th. More details will be available at leara.org as the meeting date approaches.

Congratulations to Scott N8SY on being reelected as Section Manager for the Ohio Section. Give him a pat on the back or buy him a beer when you see him for all his hard work!

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – August 2016 edition

August 15, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/08/august-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

As I’m beginning this month’s article some nasty storms just ripped through Cleveland on the 11th. There were branches, trees, wires, power lines down, and road closures on the west side due to those hazards, including my QTH of Westlake. Luckily I’ve heard of no injuries. If you’re not part of the NWS Skywarn program, please consider joining as a spotter. Skywarn is a volunteer program that helps the local National Weather Service office know what’s happening on the ground and assists in warning people about dangerous weather conditions. Training typically happens in the early spring for spotters. Check with your local club or Skywarn organization.

The Republican Nation Convention went off without major incident in Cleveland. I was working from home and had the scanner on most of that week. Three major trunked radio systems were utilized: MARCS, the new MARCS-IP (Multi-Agency Radio Communications System), and GCRCN (Greater Cleveland Radio Communications Network). If you didn’t set a wildcard or use UniTrunker to watch those systems, you probably missed a lot of the event communications. There were about 12 primary talk groups on GCRCN where most of the action took place. These were previously unidentified so they were not in any lists or databases that use Radio Reference. A wildcard stops on any talk group whereas programming specific talk groups into the scanner will only stop on transmissions for those talk groups. The “old” MARCS system was shut down immediately following the convention as it was kept online largely for backup. It has been replaced by the MARCS-IP system.

This month we learned the sad news of Hara Arena’s closing. No more Hamvention at Hara Arena after 52 years. The Dayton Amateur Radio Association put into action their contingency plans. It was announced that Hamvention will still be in the Dayton area. The new location is The Greene County Fair and Expo Center located in Xenia, Ohio. Michael Kalter and Ron Cramer talked about the new location on Ham Nation for about 30 minutes in episode 259. Couple of links worth visiting:

-Why we are saddened by the loss of the Hara Arena: http://ad8bc.com/bc/?p=601
-Hamvention Announces Venue for 2017: http://hamvention.org/hamvention-announces-venue-for-2017/
-Ham Nation episode 259: https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation/episodes/259, or YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_OaKmllEDY

One of our Technical Specialists, David KD8TWG, has been involved with setting up a DMR repeater in Cleveland. The frequency is 442.0875 (+5 MHz standard offset) using Color Code 1. The repeater is connected to the K4USD cBridge (http://www.k4usd.org/). On that website is a listing of the “standard configuration” for repeaters connected to the bridge. Right now, your code plug should follow the layout listed on the site. A cBridge is a feature that allows interconnecting of repeaters over the Internet and a Color Code is equivalent to a PL tone or DCS on analog repeaters.

When I picked up my DMR radio at Dayton, I found a code plug that had repeaters in Dayton and Columbus for the drive home. It was a nice opportunity to quickly get on the air with DMR but I kept threating myself to write my own. With the installation of the repeater in Cleveland, I took the opportunity to do just that. What is a “code plug?” Some history I found online notes the origins came from wire plugs, later jumpers, which were plugged into the radio to enable certain options or features. Since everything is now processor based, the term continues to stick with the radio world and is a fancy word for ‘radio configuration.’ It contains transmit/receive frequencies, tone selections, timeout values, IDs, configuration settings, etc. I used the one I found in Dayton as a reference. There is also a sample one on K4USD’s site for my radio. I compared the two and designed mine the way I thought worked best. Just because someone designed a code plug one way doesn’t mean you can’t modify or do it differently. It’s analogous to one ham’s memory channels are not the same as another. In the end, it took about 3 hours to make mine! Keep in mind that was a lot of learning and comparing, in addition I programmed all 65 possible talk groups so I don’t have to add them in later. From discussions on the air indications are it took others a few hours as well. But my code plug works! I couldn’t be happier. Well OK I could, apparently I’m just far enough away that my 5 watts doesn’t quite make the trip. I took the radio to work and tested it from there.

I am writing an introductory series for the Wood County Amateur Radio Club on getting started in digital modes. The first few articles were for those who have never worked digital and want to upgrade their station. Remaining articles will focus on a specific mode. I’ve completed 3 so far (starting in February): an introduction, station setup, and working JT65/9. Published versions can be found at the club’s website in the CQ Chatter newsletter: http://wcarc.bgsu.edu/. As I point out in the second article, Technician class licensees can still participate. All of these sound card digital modes can be operated over FM simplex or even a net on a repeater using an HT! There are clear downsides like not being able to transmit as far as an HF station and occupying the full 10 to 15 kHz FM, even though the bandwidth of the audio generated by the computer is less. Yes, this defeats the purpose of narrow bandwidth modes. Someone wanting to learn and experiment with these modes may get bitten by the bug and lead to a license upgrade. That’s how I did it. I plan to write an article every 2-3 months.

My dad and I had the opportunity to join the Toledo Mobile Radio Association (TMRA) on August 10. They had Chris Wilson N0CSW, National Sales Manager for Yaesu talk about their System Fusion. Chris did make it clear that the company was paying for travel so there would be some ‘sales pitches.’ The presentation was short but the program ended up being driven by the audience with a lengthy question and answer session. Some things I learned: the DR-2X repeater announced at Dayton is not going to be a replacement for the DR-1X, though they may have improved on some shortcomings. The 2X is more of a full featured repeater. It will have the ability to operate dual receive and dual transmit (but not at the same time) creating two repeaters from one unit. They are including voice messaging (like club meeting announcements). Mailboxes were users can record messages for others. This reminds me of the mailboxes repeaters used to have when autopatches were more prevalent. The 2X can monitor a separate control channel for commands. This repeater will not support WiresX but will have “MSRL” (Multi-Site Repeater Linking) via an add-on Ethernet port. Their linking technology will allow the repeater to be linked over any IP based network, including mesh. This brought to mind an interesting use-case where multiple low profile/portable repeaters could be linked at sites with mesh such as air ports, hospitals, and Red Cross shelters. This would create a linked repeater system where not as many users would have to setup cross-banding or run to the other end of a hospital to reach a radio. In contrast, something similar can be done using the AllStar Linking system. At the meeting there was alot of: “I would like this feature/I don’t like this feature in the radio,” “we’re having this problem setting up the repeater to do X” kind of Q&A. My take away from that, their plan is to add features to radios by firmware update and not always release new radios.

In addition to all the work David KD8TWG has been doing to get DMR up and running in Cleveland, he’s been helping repair and upgrade analog repeaters, and setting up APRS IGates around town. He will be giving a presentation on APRS at the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association’s club meeting on August 30th. Dinner starts at 6:30pm with the meeting at 7:30, don’t need to have dinner to attend the presentation. Haven’t seen an official announcement on location yet but it’s expected to be at the Play Arcade in Mayfield Hts (5900 Mayfield Rd, Mayfield Heights, OH). Check the LEARA website for updates and for dinner reservations: http://www.leara.org/.

I will be giving my introductory Raspberry Pi presentation at the Cuyahoga Amateur Radio Society meeting, September 13 at 7:30pm. It will be updated as there is new hardware and innovations available. Their meeting location is the Busch Funeral Home, 7501 Ridge Rd, Parma, Ohio. More: http://www.2cars.org/.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, Digital Communications in Amateur Radio articles

Digital Communications in Amateur Radio: JT65 and JT9

July 28, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

This article appeared in the The Wood County Amateur Radio Club newsletter CQ Chatter August 2016 edition.

Read the rest of the series in the Digital Communications in Amateur Radio articles category.

My favorite digital mode has to be the “JTs” otherwise known as JT65 and JT9. Many have equated them to watching paint dry. Others call it the musical mode. I call it my ADD mode. Whatever you call ’em, JT65 has become one of the most popular digital modes second only to PSK. I call it my ADD mode because I can browse the web, watch TV, or write this article during the 7-minute exchange. But you better pay attention because it can still keep you on your toes!

JT65 and JT9 began with Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Joe Taylor – K1JT. One of Dr. Taylor’s passions was weak signal communications and moonbounce (EME). A signal is sent toward the moon at about 1.5 kW on VHF using large directional antenna arrays. The signal is reflected off the moon and received by an equally powerful station with large arrays. After the signal makes the 500,000 mile round trip, there wasn’t much left. CW was the only effective mode. In 2001, K1JT came up with JT65 which allowed hams to make Earth-Moon-Earth contacts with 150 W and 11-element beam antennas. Still not exactly easy but it made EME a possibility for many more hams. Years later it was discovered that JT65 works great on the HF bands too. It allows stations to make contacts without high power or gain antennas. This is perfect for hams that cannot have large or visible antennas. Over time, JT9 was added specifically for the LF, MF, and HF bands (“Work the World with JT65 and JT9”).

It’s not my intention to dive into the technicals of any mode but to give hams practical operating information. When talking about JT65 almost all information applies to JT9 as well. Both are highly time-synchronized. The computer’s clock must be as accurate as possible and within 2 seconds of other stations. One minute transmit and receive sequences are utilized. Transmitting happens within a one-minute window then the roles are reversed for the following minute. Stations begin transmitting 1 second after the beginning of the minute and stop 47.7 seconds later. In the remaining 11.3 seconds applications decode received signals, display them on screen, and receiving stations get their message ready to transmit. The total exchange takes about 7 minutes. More if the message is lost or not decoded. Being such a robust protocol doesn’t leave room for long messages meaning it’s not a conversational mode. The maximum message length is 13 characters with the intent of limiting the exchange to call signs and signal reports. Below is an actual exchange. The first column is the time, second is the exchange, third is the exchange translation. Exchange beings at 01:00 UTC and completes at 01:07. In messages with two call signs, the receiving station is to the left and the transmitting station to the right.

0100 CQ K8JTK EN91
I’m calling CQ from grid square EN91.

0101 K8JTK K5ND EM12
K5ND is returning my CQ from grid square EM12.

0102 K5ND K8JTK -01
I reply to K5ND with his signal report of -1 db (RST Sent).

0103 K8JTK K5ND R-05
K5ND responds with my signal report of -5 db (RST “R”eceived).

0104 K5ND K8JTK RRR
I respond with “roger-roger-roger.”

0105 K8JTK K5ND 73
K5ND responds with best wishes.

0106 K5ND K8JTK 73
I respond with best wishes.

Differences between JT65 & JT9 are bandwidth and signal reports. JT65 takes up just under 180 Hz and about 16 Hz for JT9. JT9 is much better for spectrum efficiency and uses less power due to narrower bandwidth. The JT65 sub-band can often be seen with multiple overlapping signals and they usually decode correctly. JT9 can have ten-times the signals but decoding of overlapping signals is much less likely to happen. Signal reports range from -1 to -30 db signal-to-noise in JT65. The lowest I’ve seen is -27. They are capped at a -1 db upper limit to keep somewhat consistent with EME reports. JT9 is extended to give more accurate signal reports with a range from -50 to +49 db. The limits I’ve seen are -27 and +15. Propagation is comparable between the two modes. JT65 is the overwhelming favorite of operators.

JT65 & JT9 have their own sub-bands. Below is a listing of those frequencies. JT9 is typically 2 kHz above the JT65 frequency. USB is the mode regardless of band.

JT65	JT9
1838	1838
3576	3578
7076	7078
10138	10140
14076	14078
18102	18104
21076	21078
24917	24919
28076	28078
50276	50278

Software is available on all major platforms. Ham Radio Deluxe is expected to include JT65 in the very near future.

Windows:
JT65-HF (http://jt65-hf.sourceforge.net/). It’s very reliable and I’ve only noticed one issue where free hand text doesn’t always transmit. This is the old standard but no longer in development.

JT65-HF-HB9HQX-Edition (http://jt65hfhb9hqxedi.sourceforge.net/). This is the replacement for the above. It’s built on the same code-base so look and feel are similar. The developer has implemented many new useful features. I recommend using this one for newcomers.

Windows/Mac/Linux:
WSJT-X (http://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html). Software released by K1JT. This seems to give the most accurate signal reports. It’s the only program that currently implements JT9. WSJT-X is the program that I use.

WSJT-X Conversation — WSJT-X application showing QSO with XE1SAX

Application setup is fairly straight forward. In the setup, enter your call sign and grid square. If you don’t know your grid square, check QRZ or enter your address on: http://www.levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php. Choose the correct sound input/output devices. Configure Rig Control/PTT if needed. Rig Control is not required but helpful when using the internal logging methods.

Before starting any of the applications, ALWAYS sync your computer’s clock with the Internet. In Windows, go to the Control Panel, Date and Time, Internet Time tab, Change settings, click Update now. Most Linux distributions need to invoke ‘ntpdate.’ One feature of the HB9HQX version is automatic time syncing every 15 minutes.

All programs have the same general layout and operate in the same manner. They have a waterfall showing signals received and display markers indicating active transmit and receive windows. These can be moved by clicking on the waterfall.

Conversational buttons and boxes are often labeled Calling CQ and Answering CQ. These buttons automatically generate text during the conversation (following the standard exchange format). Free Text/Message is for free hand text. Other buttons will enable and disable transmitting. Halt will interrupt the transmission midway through. Even/odd indicates which minute you will transmit (only applies to calling CQ). It has no effect when answering a CQ because the software will transmit in the next minute.

The Signal Decoding window is the most important because this is where all conversation exchanges are displayed. A couple labels are seen: UTC – time the signal was decoded, Sync – measurement of the sync signal — higher the better, DT – time difference between decoded station and yours — should be less than 2 seconds, DF – frequency deviation above or below the center point in Hz, and finally the Exchange or Message text. Colors are frequently used to distinguish items of importance. Green is a station calling CQ, red is a message/exchange intended for your station (contains your call sign), gray is exchanges between other stations.

Luckily the software takes care of much of the exchange. It generates response messages by double-clicking a received line. Stations that don’t follow the standard format can easily confuse the software. This is where it will keep you on your toes. If you’re not careful you can end up sending a message twice or not properly advancing to the next message in the exchange. The software does not automatically advance the conversation for you. If things go off the rails, use the appropriate conversational button to get things back on track.

The Free Text field can be used for noting your power, antenna, or sending holiday greetings. These messages are often in place of the 73’s and will not show up in red because no call signs are included. You may see “30W DPL” (I’m running 30 watts into a di-pole antenna), “50W LOOP” (I’m running 50 watts into a loop antenna), “THX 4 NM” (we’ve worked before, thanks for the contact using a new mode from previous contacts), “THX 4NB” (we’ve worked before, thanks for the contact on a new band), “SRY/SRI NO DECODE” (I see a signal on the waterfall but it did not decode) you’ll see this one but it’s not commonly used, “MERRY XMAS” –you get the idea. It’s only 13 characters. Be careful not to baffle the user and you have to be quick. There are some I’ve received that I still have no idea what they mean.

In the JT’s it’s ether a clean decode or nothing at all. No in between. When I see a signal on the waterfall and the message doesn’t decode, I always send my last message again. Some stations will not transmit in the following minute. Other stations (wrongly) move on in the conversation. Then I have to use free hand text to send “SIG RPT?” or similar because I didn’t receive my signal report. At minimum, I make sure RSTs (reliability – strength – tone) have been exchanged and won’t log the contact until “RRR” has been sent/received. Some QSLs I received go as far to log the DF frequency. I’ve only logged the center frequency.

After you feel comfortable monitoring activity, double-click a green “CQ.” The Generated Text field will update with your call sign, their call sign, and your grid square. You’re off! Also, refer back to article two for station/DSP/audio setup. I’ve seen some of the worst over modulated signals on JT65. JT users are really good about uploading spots to PSK Reporter (https://www.pskreporter.info/pskmap.html). You can use it as a ‘reverse beacon’ network to see where your signal is propagating.

PSK Reporter Spots — PSK Reporter application showing received stations worldwide

It’s a lot to take in but an extremely fun mode to work. Find out more information:

Amateur Logic.TV on JT65: https://youtu.be/L7e5NbqhbVU?t=28m10s

QST article: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Get%20on%20the%20Air%20with%20HF%20Digital/FORD%20JT.pdf

PowerPoint introduction: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Get%20on%20the%20Air%20with%20HF%20Digital/Getting%20Started%20with%20JT65%20on%20the%20HF%20Bands.pps

“Work the World with JT65 and JT9” book: http://www.arrl.org/shop/Work-the-World-with-JT65-and-JT9/

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – July 2016 edition

July 14, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-issue-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,
It’s been a busy month with ham radio holidays and national holidays. June was a great operating month for me as I had taken some time off work after Dayton. Since I really hadn’t been on the air the first half of the year, I spent a lot of time catching up. Heck April I made a total of three contacts. Bleh. I racked up 130 contacts including Field Day and 17 National Park activations. As usual I’m coming to the party late on NPOTA so I’m getting there. Our own Affiliated Clubs Coordinator John KD8MQ has given many updates in past editions of the Journal; check them out. More: https://npota.arrl.org/

I will tell you no matter what you do for Field Day, you’re always going to have a good time. If you get together with a club or some buddies, there are going to be good stories too. This year I took a different approach and decided to operate as a 1D station. Still had a good time. It gave me a chance to refresh my memory and practice using the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and filtering features of my radio. As one would expect, there were stations all over the place. The bands weren’t that great either. I would hear a station but not clearly. I used different Automatic Gain Control (AGC) settings, Noise Reduction, filters, Passband Tuning (PBT), the whole nine yards. If I wasn’t hearing much scanning around, I would go work on something else and come back later to work more stations. In total made 30 contacts mostly on 40m from the home QTH.

The following weekend was Canada Day and the Independence Day holiday weekend. First up was the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) Canada Day contest on July 1st. Since I’m a station outside Canada, the exchange was RST and serial number. The serial number was the number of Canadian stations worked during the contest. I worked 14 stations total over the 24 hour contest.

Then (of course) starting Friday morning was the 13 Colonies Special Event. There is one station in each of the 13 original colonies and two bonus stations. Bonus stations are Philadelphia where independence was declared and England for the “British Standard” contact. Things were going well for me. I started out working 9 stations on Friday night and 5 on Saturday morning. Then nothing. The British bonus station was eluding me. I kept trying when they were calling on sideband but they never came back to me or by the time they went through the numbers and got to 8 – they were down in the noise. It wasn’t looking good. In literally the 11th hour, I finally made contact with England on PSK for my clean sweep! I’ll be sending away for my certificate and sending out QSL cards soon. If you worked any of the 13 colony stations, please support them by making a donation or sending in for a certificate. Many stations took time out of their holiday weekend to put on another successful event. More: http://www.13colonies.info/

Last month I mentioned the Portage County Amateur Radio Service was going to have an Earth-moon-earth presentation for their July meeting. I’ve never experienced or knew anyone that worked EME so this was a presentation I did not want to miss. It was a bit of a drive in rush-hour traffic from downtown Cleveland. Nonetheless, food was great and it was an excellent presentation. Tony WA8RJF talked about the properties and theories involved making EME contacts, early days of EME needing monster arrays with gain antennas and rotor controls the size of two truck-beds –in one case. Then he talked about JT65 being the game changer to make EME communication more accessible to regular hams. The majority of my HF contacts are JT65 so a lot of it hit home for me. JT65 was originally created for EME but later adapted to HF and has become the second most popular digital mode. Thanks to Tony and PCARS for allowing me to be a guest at their meeting.

Speaking of modes I haven’t yet operated, the QSO Today podcast interviewed Art Towslee WA8RMC of Westerville who is heavily involved with ATV (Amateur Television, sometimes called Fast Scan TV). ATV uses video and audio much like a commercial broadcast station. In many ways you are operating from your own studio with a video camera, microphone, lights, or other video sources. In the podcast they about Art’s history, knowledge, and involvement in projects to move ATV forward using Digital TV standards. With the introduction of Digital TV, quadcopters and 4K resolution, ATV is becoming popular once again. Slow Scan TV in contrast is sending a single still image over the air. More: http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/wa8rmc and https://atco.tv/

The TAPR Digital Communications Conference is coming up September 16-18 in St. Petersburg, FL. The list of speakers and forums haven’t yet been released but topics will likely include Software Defined Radios, digital voice modes (D-STAR, Fusion, DMR, P25, Codec2, FreeDV), digital satellite communications, APRS, and the like. More: https://www.tapr.org/dcc.html

In a great article from ARS Technica, they talk about the Linksys WRT54GL router that is 11 years old and still making millions for Linksys. This router came out in 2005 but really had an ecosystem built around it. The router was Open Sourced making it easily modifiable and turning it into a much more powerful router. We hams have seen this first hand as these are one of the more popular models used in Mesh Networking. Linksys said they’ll continue to make the router while suppliers keep selling the parts; great news for Mesh users. More: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/07/the-wrt54gl-a-54mbps-router-from-2005-still-makes-millions-for-linksys/

On a sad note that hits close home, especially those in Cleveland. At the end of July, Amateur Radio equipment retailer Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) will be closing for good. We all have stories about the long time retailer. I liked browsing the show room and playing with the radios on display. They were always helpful to their customers. It’s sad to see a retailer leave and friends lose their job. 73’s to the AES crew. You will be missed. More: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-electronic-supply-closing-after-59-years-in-business

That’s about it for this month. With the conventions going on in the state, everyone please stay safe. As I’m writing this a few days before the RNC, there are plenty of changes happening in Downtown Cleveland: unmarked SUVs, helicopters flying around, “Cell on Wheels” (COW, portable cell sites) popping up, temporary stages going up, and TV equipment trucks. My company has made previsions for us to work remotely. Those with a P25 digital trunked capable scanner in the Cleveland area will probably find most activity on the Ohio MARCS-IP (Multi-Agency Radio Communications) and GCRCN (Greater Cleveland Radio Communications Network) systems. The old MARCS 3.5 legacy system is going to be kept on-line as a backup to the MARCS-IP system. After the convention that system is expected to be fully shutdown. No definitive word on talk-groups to listen to but keep an eye to the Radio Reference Ohio forum and frequency database pages as things gear up.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – June 2016 edition

June 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/06/june-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,
You’re reading this so you survived another Dayton. My dad N8ETP and I went down on Thursday. We stopped at MCM Electronics. It was actually on the way because we stayed south of Dayton this year. My dad was looking for some parts. I ended up buying another Raspberry Pi 3 on a Dayton weekend special and an Arduino Uno board. The Arduino was cheap and a lot smaller than I expected. Don’t have much lined up for it but I did want to try a project I saw on AmateurLogic.TV some time ago.

The difference between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino Uno boards is the Pi can run a full operating system (usually Linux) while the Arduino Uno runs instruction sets uploaded to memory. Variants of the Arduino can run entire operating systems. Both have General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins for interfacing. I haven’t mentioned it in this space – Raspberry Pi 3 is the latest addition to the line of cheap micro-computer devices. The Pi 3 has all the features of the Pi 2 with an upgraded CPU to 1.2 GHz 64 bit, built in Wireless N LAN, Bluetooth 4.1 and Low Energy (LE). All of this goodness (still) at $35 in the same form factor. I ran a compile of Fldigi/Flmsg for comparison. The Pi 2 compiled the programs in about 22 minutes, the Pi 3 compiled in about 13 minutes.

This year I really didn’t have a lot on the Dayton shopping list. I wanted to take a look at the new ICOM IC-7300. That is a very nice radio and a huge improvement over my IC-7000. I didn’t pull the trigger on that for some reason. I’m reluctantly holding off. The newer radios are coming with built in USB. For someone looking to get into HF digital check out the newer radios. You won’t need a SignaLink type device because the sound card is built in!

I did attend Dayton with the intent of purchasing a DMR radio. From the amount of people I heard on DMR repeaters and podcasts afterwards, it sounds like they were the popular item this year. For good reason, I picked up a Tytera MD-380 for a little over $100. It included the radio, battery, charging base, 2 antennas, programming cable, and software.

DMR stands for Digital Mobile Radio and is a standard published in 2005 that came from our friends in Europe. It is an open standard (publically available for adoption and modification) and widely adopted for commercial use. In practice manufactures have introduced proprietary features into DMR and created marketing buzzwords like MotoTRBO. With enough surplus hardware available in the market, the price dropped low enough for hams to adopt the standard and setup DMR repeaters. I have a lot to learn about how all this works. There aren’t DMR repeaters in range of my QTH. Couple on the opposite side of town and to the south. There are some repeaters in Toledo and Columbus. The greatest concentration is between Dayton and Cincinnati. Thanks to the folks at the Dial Radio Club in Middleton, Ohio, I had a DMR repeater easily accessible from my hotel room during the show.

New things I saw include scanners from Whistler with DMR (expected June 2016). Following quickly behind was Uniden with the same announcement (no release dates set). If you have a public service agency utilizing a DMR system, you’ll soon have scanner options available. Kenwood showed off their 2m/220/440 radio with APRS and D-STAR (and hopefully DPRS). My dad and I both noticed how incredibly crisp and clear the color display was. Standing about 5-6 feet away we could easily read it. Wireless Holdings showed off a new digital all-in-one radio, the DV4mobile. This thing has ALL the features: 2m/220/440, DSTAR/DMR/Fusion – with P25/NXDN/NEXEDGE coming next year, LTE (as in cellular connectivity), remote programming, remote operation, Ethernet/WiFi, SMS (text messages). Will this thing do my dishes too? Wow. Both Kenwood and Wireless Holdings are expecting release dates in about 6 months.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Field Services table at the ARRL Expo. I had a great time chatting with hams from England and exchanging ideas. It was fun meeting those in Newington who administer the programs we know and love. A lot goes into these programs and there’s a lot of technical research happening. The table was staffed by representatives from the Ohio Section including moi. Scott and his wife Jane spent most of the show at the table making sure everything went smoothly. Huge thanks to them for getting everything organized. It was nice to meet all of you. I picked up a couple books in the store on the way out. More stuff to do!

Reminder about Windows 10: Don’t forget the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 is set to expire July 29th. You still have about a month to decide on the upgrade. If you missed my April article, I went into great detail about Windows 10 and the push to upgrade users. Check it out on my site or on the Ohio Section Journal site. There is no indication from Microsoft if the upgrade will become a premium option or if they will extend the offer. Some analysts think it will become a pay upgrade others think the upgrade offer will be extended indefinitely. One change, Microsoft is becoming even more aggressive in forcing the upgrade. Didn’t know this was possible but they’ve succeeded. I mentioned in April that clicking the red “X” to close the upgrade pop-up will delay the upgrade. This is no longer true. Microsoft’s new interpretation of clicking the red “X” is an AGREEMENT to the upgrade. This whole upgrade thing is ridiculous. I have no defense for this behavior. If you want to disable the Windows 10 upgrade, run Never10 (https://www.grc.com/never10.htm). Many users are disabling Windows Update to prevent the upgrade. Please don’t. If you have, run Never10 and disable the upgrade. Reboot. Check it’s still disabled by running Never10 again. Run Windows Updates and let it do its thing. Then run Never10 again to verify the upgrade is still disabled. I’ve been upgrading my machines to Windows 10. It takes some finessing to disable the crap. I do keep coming back to a single question: “why?” Not ‘why did I upgrade’ but ‘why is this useful setting now burred and takes fifteen clicks when it used to be three’ or ‘why would you change things (color schemes, color contrasts, move things around for the seventh time) just to change things?’ Haven’t yet taken the plunge to wipe-out my machine in the shack.

Technical Specialist report:

With summer and projects gearing up, requests have been coming in. Bob K8MD and a good friend of his Dave NF8O traveled to the Ohio Veterans Home station, W8OVH, in Sandusky. They have a sideband station and wanted an upgrade to run digital modes. Bob and Dave spent a few hours working with them to get the station up and running. They trained the club members how to use Fldigi and helped them make their first PSK31 contact! The guys reported it was a humbling experience talking to Vets who served in major conflicts from WWII to Grenada.

Dave KD8TWG has been busy with presentations for ARES groups. First was a presentation on APRS for Cuyahoga ARES. The presentation touched on history, uses, settings and what they mean, and systems built on the APRS network. There is a lot to APRS and I learned a lot. Soon after he did a “program your radio without a computer” for Geauga ARES. Interesting concept. Most groups bring computer programming in to help newbies program their radio. Knowing how to program a radio without a computer is useful during an event or public service activity where improvisation is likely needed. Could you change PL tone on your radio and save it in memory though the front of your radio? Programming a temporary repeater that has a 1 MHz split? DCS, anyone? It’s good to know and practice changing transmit, receive, PL frequencies, and power settings on-the-fly through the front of your radio.

PCARS (Portage County) club members contacted me about a moon bounce (EME) presentation. This is an area I wasn’t familiar with or knew anyone who operated. I reached out to the assembled mass of Technical Specialists. Tracey – W8TWL came through with a couple contacts. Got PCARS in touch with one of them and they are working out the details for the July 11th meeting. I’m hoping to make this meeting and see a great presentation on Earth-Moon-Earth.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Img: VA3XPR, raspberrypi.org

Amateur Radio, Tutorials

APRS RX IGate with RTL-SDR and Raspberry Pi

June 11, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

For sometime I wanted to experiment with an APRS IGate. Coverage was spotty at best in my area. There is an IGate in my city but it doesn’t receive so well. Recently there have been more IGates blanketing the area.

APRS stands for Automatic Packet Reporting System and has been developed since the late 1980s by Bob Bruninga – WB4APR. It’s a digital communication mode amateur radio operators use to primarily broadcast location information, though this wasn’t the intended use. It handles text messages, alerts, announcements, bulletins, and information of interest like weather station reports. APRS operates typically on a single frequency. A system of relay stations and digipeaters repeat messages over a wide area. APRS Internet System (APRS-IS) are Internet connected receivers (IGates).

Any ham can add an icon or information to the APRS map. The information is available on the Internet or to users on the local RF network. Data is automatically tracked over time. APRS is frequently used to track mobile stations in a public service event or volunteers in a search and rescue event to visualize locations and track progress.

This project will utilize the Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR dongle. The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized micro-computer intended for teaching computer science to students but became popular with the makers. RTL-SDR dongles are DVB-T (European standard) TV tuner dongles. It was found the signal data could be accessed directly which allowed them to be converted into wide band software defined radio receivers. The Pi costs about $35 and RTL-SDR about $20.

Since the RTL-SDR dongles are meant to receive high power wide bandwidth TV signals, they are not as as sensitive or frequency stable as a ham radio or scanner. Receiver performance will be a little less than an equivalent radio performing the same task but depends on the usual variables: amount of APRS activity, antenna height, antenna gain, propagation, etc, etc. With my antenna about 15 feet high, I get about 5+ miles of coverage. With band openings I’ve heard stations on the opposite side of town and across Lake Erie into Canada.

Even though this IGate will be non-transmitting (cannot relay packets from the Internet), packets are forwarded to APRS-IS. The higher profile – higher power Digitpeaters in the area will relay packets received by your IGate to the local RF network.

Assumptions

This guide is step-by-step in nature, meant for beginners, with brief explanations of the steps. It will help to have an understanding of Linux commands and scripting. Capitalization is important in Linux!

My setup is on my home LAN. The IGate could be installed at a remote site using a shared Internet connection. Be aware that firewalls that might block connection to the APRS-IS network on a shared connection. You may want to request or have port 22 open on your router for SSH to establish a remote connection.

If all wired options fall through, look for a cellular hotspot device such as a MiFi to install along with the Pi. Use the built in WiFi on the Pi 3 or approved WiFi dongles for earlier Pi devices. Associate the MiFi with your Pi (turning on WPA2 so no one else piggybacks on your connection). Test the setup before installing it. Don’t find out after leaving the site that the MiFi times out after a few hours.

Program versions

Applications and versions used in this writeup:

Windows 10 64 bit
Raspbian Jessie 2016-05-27
Win32 Disk Imager 0.9.5
PuTTY 0.67
SDR Sharp 1.0.0.1444
RTL-SDR 0.5.3
Multimon-NG ?
Pymultimonaprs 1.3.0

Parts list

Listed below are all the parts needed to get this project working. It is noted when items can be left out or substituted.

Raspberry Pi 2. A Raspberry Pi B+ could be used. Processing power required is minimal. Consider a Pi 3 when WiFi will be required.
Adafruit Raspberry Pi B+ / Pi 2 Case – Smoke Base w/ Clear Top or select any of the other enclosures.
5V 1A (1000mA) USB port power supply
SD/MicroSD Memory Card 8GB or larger.
USB MicroSD Card Reader/Writer – microSD / microSDHC / microSDXC or a SD Card Reader/Writer that can handle SDHC cards.
USB cable – A/MicroB
Ethernet Cable
HDMI monitor or Television.
HDMI Cable for video.
Basic USB keyboard. I used an off-brand 5V 50mA.
Basic USB mouse. I used a Microsoft optical wheel mouse.
NooElec RTL-SDR
USB A-Male to A-Female extension cable. Optional, use for when the RTL-SDR blocks USB ports.
MCX adapters. This will depend on the connector for your antenna: MCX to BNC, or MCX to SMA, or SMA to something else (search the net) maybe needed. You may need a second adapter to convert SMA to PL-259, for example.
144 MHz (VHF) antenna. This is to your liking or situation. An existing ham antenna will work, or scanner discone since the IGate is receive only. Check DX Engineering (they are a Ham Nation sponsor) or any ham radio store.

That’s all the parts needed for this project. Check out the AdaFruit Raspberry Pi page for other hardware that might be useful, like the USB to PS/2 adapter for example. Many of these parts are included in the Raspberry Pi Starter Pack.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Amateur Radio, Tutorials

Use Soundcard Oscilloscope to understand DSP features of an HF radio

June 5, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

As I continue to use Soundcard Oscilloscope in the shack, I find new uses for it. In a previous post, I showed how to use it to calibrate receive levels for Ham Radio digital modes. I’ve used Soundcard Oscilloscope to understand DSP (Digital Signal Processing) features of my radio. I have an ICOM IC-7000 which doesn’t have any of the features the newer/larger radios: waterfall display, frequency display, or oscilloscope. As a substitute, I’ll fire up Soundcard Oscilloscope to set filters eliminating loud adjacent stations or set a manual notch filter for annoying stations that tune up on frequency.

Soundcard Oscilloscope is a program that emulates an oscilloscope from signal data received from a sound card. It also has a frequency graph which will be used for this tutorial.

Station setup

HF Radio and antenna.
SignaLink USB and correct cable for your radio (pictures). Any audio interface will work or even 1/8″ male-to-male audio cable between the audio out of the radio and Line-in on any regular sound card.
PC computer where the radio interface is connected.

Program versions

Windows 7 – 64 bit
Soundcard Oscilloscope 1.46

Download and Installation

This will install Soundcard Oscilloscope on your PC.

Go to https://www.zeitnitz.eu/scope_en.

Click the link to “Download the latest version.” Save it in your Downloads folder.

Launch the installer.

Click Yes.

Click Next.

Installation will begin.

Click OK.

Click Finish.

Soundcard Oscilloscope is now installed.

Configuration

This will setup Soundcard Oscilloscope to capture audio coming from your audio interface device.

Start Soundcard Oscilloscope by clicking the Start orb.

Click All Programs.

Click Scope.

The first time the program is run, you’ll be prompted to select a language. Select your language and click Continue.

The program is not free and will ask for a License key. Not entering a license will display this screen each time the program is started. The program is less than $12.50 US. Please support the developers by purchasing a license. This is made at the download site by clicking the “private donation license” link.

Click Continue if you don’t have a license.

Click the Settings tab.

Under Windows Sound Parameters, Audio Devices, Input is where you select the audio interface device. For SignaLink USB, this would be Microphone USB Audio Codec. Other interfaces: Line In, or Mic In would be selected appropriately and known from my audio interface setup tutorial.

Soundcard Oscilloscope is now configured.

Loud adjacent station

An example using notch functions and filters to remove a loud and stronger adjacent station.

Click the Frequency tab.

These settings will need to be reset after restarting the program. At this point, my radio is off but it doesn’t matter.

Along the bottom is the Frequency graph, click about 1500 Hz (1.5 kHz) on the graph.

Slide the Zoom control over about 5 ticks so that the frequency graph now shows 3000 Hz (3 kHz) near the right edge.

I unchecked Auto-scale. This is not required and only keeps the vertical graph at the same scale for this tutorial.

Turn on the radio if it is not already.

Between 2500 Hz and 3200 Hz is a strong adjacent station to the frequency I’m trying to work. The station is really coming in between 2100 Hz and 3200 Hz as we’ll see in a moment.

I try a Notch Filter (Manual Notch Function – MNF) to notch out the signal. The wide setting it not enough to get rid of the signal. The signal is still peaking between 1750 Hz and 3200 Hz. You can see the notch between 2750 Hz and 2900 Hz. I tried adding in the 2nd notch filter and it didn’t fully notch out the entire signal.

Notch filter settings on the 7000 radio.

I am able to knock out the loud adjacent station by choosing a narrower filter and using pass band tuning to shift the filter.

Turn off the Notch Function. Selected a filter bandwidth of 1.8 kHz (FIL) (SSB-3 default on the 7000 is 1.8 kHz). I used pass band tuning (PBT) to shift both edges of the filter to the left (on screen). In this case the Shift Frequency was -650 narrowing the bandwidth to 1.7 kHz. The filter shape was SHARP.

These settings eliminated the adjacent station as shown in the previous image. Everything higher than 2000 Hz is completely gone.

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – May 2016 edition

May 15, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/05/may-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

I’ve wanted to do this article for some time but kept putting it off due to more relevant and timely topics. Ham Radio Podcasts. With Dayton quickly approaching, you’re likely to see many of these hosts at Hamvention. If you’re not, you may have seen them in the past and wondered “what’s a podcast?”

The word “podcast” is a mashup between the words “IPod” and “broadcast.” There is some debate on this because the word predated the IPod portable media player. Some say ‘POD’ means “portable on demand.” Either way, they are both accurate. “Net cast” is an Internet broadcast and synonymous with podcast but typically don’t make content available offline.

A podcast is a digital media file offering audio and/or video content. PDFs or eBooks (books in electronic form) can be considered podcasts too. In general, podcast refers to audio or video. The content can be whatever the creator wants each file to contain. Most are a series of episodes covering a topic of interest. Some follow a news magazine format discussing recent news and developments. Others could be clips from a longer radio show including interviews or bits made available for download. Podcasts often serve niche interests where it might not be popular as a broadcast radio show to the general public. The same content targeted toward special interests or hobbyists would do very well.

The creator or distributor maintains a list of episodes known as a “web feed” which provides users with updates. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to publish frequently updated information. The RSS rippling signal icon with headphones or microphone signifies a podcast feed. An app known as a “podcatcher” monitors the web feed for new content. The app then notifies the user or downloads the episode automatically. Once the file is downloaded, it’s available offline where you don’t need to be connected to the Internet. In this way someone can download a number of episodes and listen to them at a remote camping site with no Internet. This is different than YouTube or Netflix where a connection to the internet is required to view content on demand.

The first podcast was believed to be released around 2003. This technology really became popular with the growth of the internet and portable media devices like the IPod. Podcasts cover a vast range of topics including: movies, news, science, comedy, interviews, storytelling, health, love, self-improvement, music, food, business, sports, pop culture, and farming. The list… goes on. There really is something for everyone. Podcast technology is considered disruptive because the radio business spends a lot to provide content to wide-ranging audiences. Podcasts have shown that preconceptions of audiences, production, and consumption are no longer traditional. Sure some podcasts are produced in studios with professional equipment. The majority are recorded using similar pieces of gear found in your ham shack: professional microphone, mixer, computer, internet connection to bring in guests, and maybe a video camera or webcam thrown in there too. Anyone can do it!

On the flip side, since anyone can do it, episodes depend on schedules of the host(s). Some release on a weekly schedule, some monthly, others “as time permits.” Some podcasters have been around awhile. While others try it out and decide it’s too much effort.

I consume podcasts using my phone. If you do the same, know the limits of your phone’s data plan and use Wi-Fi when possible. Video files in particular can be very large depending on quality (hundreds of megabytes to a gigabyte). Podcatcher apps are available on every platform. Check the ‘app store’ for your device. PocketCasts is my favorite. It’s available on Apple and Android devices for about $4. I think it’s the nicest looking app and it’s easy to discover podcasts. Stitcher is another popular app, and free. Apple ITunes, Google Play, and TuneIn have podcast directories. Poddirectory (poddirectory.com) is great for desktop users. Also devices like the Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV allow for viewing on a TV.

Podcasts are free. Many are supported through sponsors. In the same way that podcasts are targeted for special interests, the ads typically are too. Some ask for support and donations in lieu of advertisements. Others don’t ask for any support. If you find any podcast useful or you regularly listen, show your support for the work they are doing by throwing them a couple bucks or visiting their sponsors. It does cost money for equipment, bandwidth, storage, projects demonstrated, and services needed to bring you a wonderful podcast.

For content and podcast creators, gain lots of exposure for your work. Post new episodes and show notes on places where likeminded people hang out (QRZ.com). Even though ITunes is a terrible experience all around, nearly all podcatcher applications get their directories from ITunes. Get listed there so all the podcatcher apps pick up the show!

Below is a list of ham radio podcasts I’ve found. It includes the ARRL! I’m sure this list is not complete because I’m constantly finding new ham radio podcasts. This list mainly came from headline posts on QRZ.com or I discovered them in my podcatcher app.

Podcasts:

100 Watts and a Wire (100wattsandawire.com) – Experiences of a new ham operator hosted by Christian K0STH.

Amateur Logic and Ham College (amateurlogic.tv) – Ham Radio and technology show hosted by George W5JDX, Tommy N5ZNO, and Peter VK3PB. They do a second podcast covering theory, history, and topics that appear on the Technician exam.

Amateur Radio Newsline (arnewsline.org) – News for Radio Amateurs. You’re probably heard this newscast on a local repeater.

ARRL Audio News (arrl.org/arrl-audio-news) – News of the week from the ARRL hosted by Sean KX9X.

Everything Hamradio (everythinghamradio.com) – Ham radio topics hosted by Curtis K5CLM.

Ham Nation (twit.tv/hn) – Ham Radio topics covered by Bob K9EID, Gordon WB6NOA, George W5JDX, Don AE5DW, Amanda K1DDN, Val NV9L, and Dale K0HYD. I host the D-STAR After Show Net for this podcast.

Ham Radio Now (hamradionow.tv) – Covers ham radio topics, forums, and seminars with Gary KN4AQ.

Ham Talk Live (hamtalklive.com) – Call-in ham radio show with Neil WB9VPG.

HamRadio 360 (hamradio360.com) – Ham Radio topics hosted by Cale K4CDN.

ICQ Podcast (icqpodcast.com) – Talk-radio style podcast.

Linux in the Ham Shack (lhspodcast.info) – Covers Linux, Open Source, music, and food for the shack hosted by Russ K5TUX (get it?) and his YL Cheryl.

PARP [Practical Amateur Radio Podcast] (myamateurradio.com) – Operating with Jerry KD0BIK.

QSO Radio Show (qsoradioshow.com) – Ham Radio talk show on WTWW shortwave hosted by Ted Randall WB8PUM.

QSO Today (qsotoday.com) – Interviews with Eric 4Z1UG.

SolderSmoke (soldersmoke.com) – Radio-electronic homebrewers.

TX Factor (txfactor.co.uk) – Professionally produced programs dedicated to ham radio.

Net casts (typically online only):

DX Engineering Interviews (youtube.com/user/DXEngineering) – Tim K3LR interviews guests.

Ham Sandwich (thehamsandwich1.blogspot.fi) – “Off beat” show about Amateur Radio with Steve KD0PXX and Greg OH2FFY.

Ham Sunday (youtube.com/user/adafruit –then search “Ham Sunday”) – “Lady Ada” Limor AC2SN of Ada Fruit learning ham radio.

K6UDA (youtube.com/user/bondobob) – Bob K6UDA, the Elmer with an attitude. This one can be NSFW (not safe for work).

W5KUB (w5kub.com) – Tom W5KUB, you know him as the guy who documents his trip to Dayton Hamvention using the “Helmet cam.” He hosts roundtable events on Tuesday nights.

YHAMRADIO (w5mhg.com/yhamradio) – Interviews “Y” hams got into ham radio with Mark W5MHG.

I will see you at Dayton! Stop by the ARRL Ohio Section table at the ARRL Expo in the Ballarena late afternoon on Friday and early afternoon on Saturday. Hope you stop by and say ‘hi.’

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, Digital Communications in Amateur Radio articles

Digital Communications in Amateur Radio: Station Setup

April 26, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

This article appeared in the The Wood County Amateur Radio Club newsletter CQ Chatter May 2016 edition.

Read the rest of the series in the Digital Communications in Amateur Radio articles category.

This time in our quest to get on the air with digital, I’ll discuss station setup. For most of this article, it will be related to HF and sideband operation. I’ll talk about FM near the end.

For a Ham Radio digital setup, three things are needed: a radio, computer, and an interface to connect the two.

First the radio. Theoretically, any radio can be put into digital service. Two things are important to consider: frequency stability and switching speed. Frequency stability is critical to digital operations because drift is deadly. Tube and older radios tend to drift in frequency as they warm up. For a mode such as PSK, drifting a few hertz puts you into someone else’s conversation. Switching speed and fast turnaround times are needed. The switching speed of older radios can be hard on relays. Solid-state radios manufactured in the last two decades are recommended. Radios that cover HF/VHF/UHF all mode – open up even more operating possibilities.

icom_ic-7000_(accessory_&_data_ports) — ICOM IC-7000 rear view showing data and accessory ports.

Most radios are designed with digital modes in mind. Radios with an “accessory port” or “data port” built in are ready to go, though not plug-and-play. The data port is the recommended way to connect an interface to the radio. These ports have pins for keying, transmit audio, and received audio. The audio pins have fixed audio levels and do not change based on the volume setting of the radio. If the radio doesn’t have accessory or data ports, microphone and audio out can be used. It’s not an ideal situation but it will work. An important thing to keep in mind, some radios mix various audio inputs. An example is an external mic connected to the accessory port maybe mixed with audio coming into the data port. This means audio generated by the computer will mix with ambient noise picked up from the microphone. You don’t want this because you’ll interfere with other digital exchanges. It’s important to know your radio and how it operates in different configurations. Test with a buddy or Elmer first before jumping in.

CAT (Computer Aided Transceiver) ports on the radio including RS232 (serial port) and CI-V are useful when creating your own interface. Audio cables between your radio and computer would provide transmit and receive audio but these won’t key the radio. CAT ports provide a lot of functionally including the ability to change settings in the radio, update memory channels, change frequency, etc. Keying the radio via CAT is universally supported in applications. A configuration example would be using the soundcard for audio in/out to the audio out/mic-in on the radio. A separate cable between the computer and radio provides CAT commands, usually via a COM port.

Duty cycle is the amount of time the radio is generating RF. When operating SSB voice, the amount of RF the radio generates depends how loud your voice is at that moment. In CW, RF is generated with each dot and dash. In both cases, the radio is operating at less than 100% duty cycle due to pauses in between words and characters. Many digital modes operate the radio near 100% which causes a lot of heat. Heat causes components to fail. Radios are designed for SSB voice though some newer models are including 100% duty cycle. Operate the radio at a power setting of 50% or less (30% recommended) of the total output power. A 100 watt radio would be set between 30 and 50 watts. FM, by nature, is the exception because voice or digital over FM uses the same bandwidth. The typically longer key down times for digital will still generate more heat.

Radios have different operating modes: USB, LSB, FM, AM, RTTY, DATA, DIGITAL and possibly others. HF digital mostly uses Upper Sideband regardless of frequency. In most cases the USB setting is what you want. Some radios will not allow keying from a computer unless they’re in a ‘digital’ mode setting. Check your operating manual and, again, practice and test with a buddy first. Turn off all filters, blankers, attenuation and the like or set it to the least disruptive setting. Set transmit and receive bandwidths to the full SSB bandwidth allowed (2.8 kHz). No filtering and wide bandwidths have less of a chance to distort or modify the signal. Modification of the signal affects the ability to decode a signal. Filtering can be used but after practice and understanding how they affect decoding. Contests usually warrant filtering to keep loud adjacent signals from affecting the exchange.

The interface. It serves two main purposes: act as a modem and the device that keys the radio. It acts like a modem by taking modulated audio from the software application and sending to the radio for transmit and taking received audio from the radio and sending it to the application for demodulation. Nearly all computers and laptops in the last decade have on-board audio while older configurations utilize an addon soundcard. Most computers don’t have serial ports these days. If a serial port is needed for CAT, options such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus) to serial adapter, serial port addon cards, or cables manufactured with USB to serial adapters built in are available.

rigbaster_advantage — RIGblaster interface–front view.

All-in-one interface solutions make the connection between the radio and computer easy. Solutions offer a built in sound card and fewer cables needed to make the connections. Offerings include products from West Mountain Radio, MFJ, MicroHAM, or RigExpert. These options free your on-board soundcard to listen to music or surf online minimizing the possibility of transmitting audio not suited for the airwaves. Adjustments on these interfaces are audio levels and speed (delay) at which the interfaces switches the radio from transmit to receive. Newer models include all functionality integrated into a single USB port requiring only one cable.

signalink_front — SignaLink USB interface–front view.

The recommended solution for a radio without integrated USB audio is the Tigertronics SignaLink USB. Two cables are needed to make all connections. A USB cable connects the computer and SignaLink for the audio (soundcard) and a cable to the radio for audio and keying. The cable for the radio is specific to connector type or manufacturer. A list of cables is available and simple internal wiring diagram to match the cable to the radio.

signalink_back — SignaLink USB interface–rear view.

Unterminated cables are available to create custom solutions. The SignaLink and cable are about $120 and available at all ham radio retailers. It is a simple VOX (“voice” operated switch) device. When sufficient audio is generated by the computer it keys the radio. It unkeys the radio when that audio has fallen below a threshold.

signalink_diagram — SignaLink USB connection set up.

If you have an interface or are setting one up for the first time, I wrote a tutorial on configuring the interface in Windows. It shows setting default devices and audio levels. These settings help avoid splattering on the bands (taking up more bandwidth than intended) due to too much audio fed into the transmitter. Again, practice with a buddy or Elmer to verify optimal audio settings. Included is a section showing how to record digital transmissions and play them back for decoding at a later time (time shift) such as a net: http://www.k8jtk.org/2015/04/16/radio-interface-setup-for-getting-started-with-ham-radio-sound-card-digital-modes/

The computer. Aside from the requirements to make connections, most computers work fine for digital operation. Ones made within the last decade seem to work without issue. Some older ones tend to have issues. A computer with a 1.5 GHz CPU and 4GB of RAM is sufficient. As always, more is better. Windows is the operating system of choice for digital programs. Mac and Linux are well represented with a program or two less viable than their Windows counterparts. Let’s not forget portable devices like tablets and smartphones. Digital applications are available for those devices too. My operating has been on a Windows 7 64 bit desktop computer.

Up to this point I’ve talked about operating digital on HF and Sideband. What about Technicians who don’t have access to digital portions of the HF bands? All of these digital modes can be operated over FM so you Technicians can get in on the fun too. Won’t be able to transmit as far as an HF station but digital can be transmitted over simplex or even a net on a repeater using an HT! On HF, audio tones are generated by Audio Frequency Shift Keying (AFSK). Audio generated by the computer is converted into RF frequencies when transmitted. Only those frequencies in use at that time are transmitted by the radio. This allows hundreds of exchanges to take place on the same frequency. FM on the other hand occupies the full 10 to 15 kHz, even though the bandwidth of the audio generated by the computer is less. So it still stands only one transmitting station can have the frequency at a time. Yes, this defeats the purpose of narrow bandwidth modes. Someone wanting to learn and experiment with these modes may get bitten by the bug and lead to a license upgrade. I say let them have at it. That’s how I did it.

To this point, Stephen Cass – KB1WNR, Senior Editor for the IEEE magazine built a low power FM digital transmitter for just that reason, get more people interested in digital. It’s a great maker project or demonstration tool for digital. I also mention it because he used my instructions to get Fldigi running on the Raspberry Pi! http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/hands-on/hands-on-a-ham-radio-for-makers

Next time, I’ll start covering specific digital modes, software, and operation.

Images: F8DZY, W3YJ, West Mountain Radio.

Jeffrey Kopcak, MBA – K8JTK

SSTV – Images via Radio presentations

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Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – September 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – August 2016 edition

Digital Communications in Amateur Radio: JT65 and JT9

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – July 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – June 2016 edition

APRS RX IGate with RTL-SDR and Raspberry Pi

Assumptions

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Parts list

Use Soundcard Oscilloscope to understand DSP features of an HF radio

Station setup

Program versions

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Loud adjacent station

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – May 2016 edition

Digital Communications in Amateur Radio: Station Setup

Ham radio and tech.