ND2E's Blog

For months now I have been stymied in completing my Digital Modes Worked All States award. There are five states missing and I just am not hearing many PSK stations from the missing states. I have been studying CW and completed the KE1L WKUSB keyer so I can do conventional CW rather than using DM780′s MCW mode. The addition of CW allows yet another digital mode for me to search for the missing five states. Unfortunately DM780 requires a really clean signal to decode the Morse code and I am not proficient at Morse (yet.)

I read that JT65 was an extremely useful weak signal mode. I installed JT5-HF software and set it up to work with Ham Radio Delux. Although it was a simple install there was a lot of interesting reading material before I felt comfortable going on the air.

Once I had JT65-HF set to what I thought was the correct settings I needed to test the PTT interface and the TX level. Luckily the Elecraft K3 has a test mode that allows you to check PTT and transmit levels without actually radiating. I could have done the same thing by reducing the power level and running the transmitter output to a dummy load. Either way will work but it was quick to just go to test mode.

I did a quick Google search for operation information and found an Italian site that had some really good information. The info was very helpful as was the setup instructions included with JT65-HF.

The good news is that on 5 watts you can message the world. The bad is it is slower than watching grass grow. I tried working on 10 meters (28.076 MHz). There were literally dozens of signals during the day and early evening. Japan was present but I had no luck in making a QSO. I did several but it is slow roughly five minutes per QSO. This is definitely not a mode you want to use during primetime on Field day … but I bet it might be worthwhile overnight when there are few new stations to log.

Hopefully I will be able to pick up the missing states using this mode…I did see several stations on PSKReporter running JT65-HF in several of the missing states.

JT65-HF can send signal reports to both PSKReporter and to the Reverse Beaconwebsite.

Back in September I ordered a PIC El III from Kanga. I finally started on the assembly a couple of days ago. Finished it this afternoon. Did the basic tests and it seems to be working. The first PIC project will be a recording voltmeter that I need for a solar charger project for the station battery and for a solar heat controller I have promised to build for a friend.

I would change the order of assembly slightly so that the resistors are installed first so that there are scrap leads available for the test points. I would also be careful when installing U1, it is quite close to one of the R1 pads and could be a problem.

I recently finished redoing the ham shack so I now have a permanent workbench for electronic projects. I salvaged a bit of anti-static mat from on of my previous employers when they were redoing their rework center. The bench is L-shaped and has storage for parts and tools. So far I don’t have any bench test equipment but I hope to finish the function generator I started back in the 80s. I thought ahead and put plenty of power outlets in the area as well as a Cat 6 drop. Once I started working on the circuit board I soon learned that my old eyes needed more light. I installed a 4 foot three element track light overhead. Power is controlled using an X10 wireless switch that was leftover from the house in Wylie TX. It still needs more light but it will work for the moment.

My E-Bench in use

Messy Workbench

Workbench - another view

I have wanted to run APRS for a long time now. I built a KISS TNC so I could interface to a 2M radio. I even bought a stand-alone GPS head. But, I never got around to putting everything together because I found that the radio in my car is operationally deficient. It insist on transmitting APRS data on what ever frequency is active – not a very nice thing to bleep everyone on the repeater with an APRS data burst. I am too forgetful to remember to change back to the aprs frequency.

I recently I went looking for a new VHF radio with GPS so I could do APRS without having to worry about my current radio’s problems. I was shocked to see what a new APRS-capable radio costs. There had to be a better/cheaper/simpler way.

I Googled APRS and followed a bunch of rabbit trails until I found a neat Android application…APRSdroid. APRSdroid is a free app that allows a ham to set up his Android phone to send APRS packets via the Internet (APRS-IS).

Setup is not exactly logical but it works. The first item that needs to be taken care of is to request a passcode. After 3 or 4 days you should have the passcode that will allow you to send APRS data using the app. At this point you can set up the rest of the items:
• Callsign
• Passcode
• SSID
• APRS symbol
• Status message
• Minimum update time
• Minimum update distance
• Await speed & bearing
• Use network location
• Neighborhood radius
• Connection protocol
• Server

Each of these items has a short explanation but so far there is no user documentation. The Wiki has a bit of info such as the map display does not show other stations in the neighborhood unless you are using TCP.

I have been playing with the app and have been able to send position reports and on occasion been able to see myself on the map display but have not been able to try all functions. Since the app is still in Beta things are fluid and what I comment on today may or may not work tomorrow. Hopefully this app will be fully functional and robust in the near future. I plan to use this in lieu of radio transmitted APRS until I can replace the radio in my car or when I am traveling in a vehicle without an APRS setup.

Look for ND2E-10 using FINDU or APRS.fi.

I don’t know if anyone reads this blog but I have turned the comments back on. If I start getting Spam here I will turn the comments off again…I really don’t want to do that.

For those folks selling SEO services, you really need to understand that this is not a commercial station…So don’t try to sell me SEO services.

I finished the new computers and was facing the confusion of having 2 mice, 2 keyboards and 2 displays. The conventional solution to this kind of problem is to add a KVM switch and use one keyboard. KVMs are relatively inexpensive if you only need 2 computer ports. But if you are going to go beyond 2 ports you need the expensive variety of KVMs.

Either way it is still an expense and I had just built 2 new computers and purchased a new 24 inch display for one of the computers. I needed a cheap inexpensive means of switching the keyboard and mouse between computers.

I found a piece of software, Synergy+, that allows the sharing without the need for hardware.

I installed it last night and find it is a convenient. Even-though it is still beta, I haven’t noticed any bugs. It must be installed and set up on each of the machines. It is not difficult to set up but the instructions are a bit obscure.

I also use Logmein Free to run the K3 when I don’t want to be in the basement. It is very useful on digital modes where you don’t need to hear the audio. I can also use it with HRD decoding CW since I don’t copy CW very well and I really don’t need to hear the audio (but I should be listening so my proficiency increases.)