Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Build a $2 USB Radio Programming Cable
August 19th, 2015 | 
Author: | Frustrated with that generic programming cable? This $2 solution might just be your ticket to sanity. | |||||||||
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| Let’s See…You purchased a radio and programming cable, loaded the software, and that’s as far as you’ve gotten. You’re fighting with error messages: – Radio did not respond – Could not open COM port – Run Time Error and Windows (TM) 10 keeps changing your drivers.Now you do what many owners do. Put the radio in the drawer to be worked on later. This is like buying a rollaway treadmill and putting it in the closet until the next time you want to exercise. (NOT gonna happen)But wait, yours has the company name and logo right on the cable. – It doesn’t matter. Keep reading.There are a few options available, such as an FTDI cable. It’s truly Plug ‘n Play, and costs about $20.But here’s a project that just might solve the issue for around $2. All you need is a small flat blade screwdriver, a soldering pencil, and a CP2102 board. CP2102 The CP2102 is a USB to TTL UART chip. What? CP2102 boards can be found on eBay for around $2 and on Amazon. Here’s How Let’s start with that original cable.
Take a small screw driver and pry the open the case from the back where the cable enters.
It should only be snapped together.
Unsolder the 3 wires connected to the board.
Solder the 3 wires to the corresponding terminals on the new board. Note 1: Some boards may have the TxD and RxD reversed. If it doesn’t work the first time, reverse the two wires. No damage has been done. Note 2: Some boards have pins on the back requiring small connectors. You can either remove the pins, solder to them, or use the connectors. Whatever floats your boat.
Driver If the driver is labeled CH340 instead of CP210x in Device Manager, that’s not a problem. Both chips are designed to do the same thing. But I don’t have a Cable If you don’t have a generic cable, you can use 2.5 and 3.5mm stereo jacks. Here are the pin outs, and what Jim’s (KC9HI) cable looks like.
Cosmetics If you are adventurous, try retrofitting the new board inside the original plastic housing. This will require a Dremel tool, X-Acto knife, Glue, and some patience, but it can be done. If the board only has 5 terminals instead of 6, it’s not an issue. You only need GND, TX and RX. Some come protected with a piece of clear heat shrink over the board so you can see the cool blinking lights. Note 3: If you are trying to retrofit the board inside an existing shell, the red board below is a bit shorter and easier to fit.
For a dollar or so more, you can find the same boards in a metal case.
What’s the Advantage – First and Foremost, it works. Take the radio out of the drawer, program it and have some fun. – Next, it only cost around $2 to save the generic cable from the trash. – Very Important – Bragging Rights. Now, when you go to a club meeting and someone says they can’t get their cable to work, tell them they can build their own, just as you did. I hope you had fun with this project. It’s super simple and very rewarding. I’ve made several and never had a failure. Say goodbye to driver issues.
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Shack photo
This was me on the 2m FM net in East Cambridgeshire last night. There were only 3 of us on last night. These days I tend to use WSPR quite a bit as my voice is still pretty poor. We meet on 144.575MHz FM at 8pm local time most Mondays. Note, this is in the all-mode section. Newcomers are always welcome to join us. QSOs are never more than 1 hour and frequently much less.
Failed 136kHz QRSS3 test
Well, I optimised my 136kHz QRSS3 beacon match into my earth electrode “antenna” used on 472kHz and tested it in the house and right outside. All looked promising, so I headed for my local car-park about 1.8km away. I was quite confident that with an E-field probe on the car I’d get a decent result. From the old QTH I got to the far side of Cambridge before I gave up as copy was so good!
Not a dicky bird – nothing at all, indeed I only got copy again when I entered our close at a range of a few hundred metres. As at VLF, the earth electrode “antenna” at this QTH is useless.
Not only that but at the end of the test I realise how poorly I still must be as I was totally exhausted. In my fitter days this test would have been totally trivial, but not any more. I think my trees and short baseline make this “antenna” totally out of the question at this QTH at LF. I need a better antenna for LF and MF use.
So, 136kHz was bad. A poor result and quite a lot worse than I was expecting. I was hoping for an encouraging result, but none was to be had.
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 73
Getting started in Meteor Scatter
I write this during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower as it’s much more likely for a newcomer inspired by the article to decode meteor scatter bursts with a modest VHF station.
M1BXF
Perseids peaking
My receiver immediately sprung to life with a very loud SSB signal, slightly off-tune. We talked back and forth for about another 60 seconds before the burn finally dissipated.
VE7SL
Meteor Scatter experiments
Last weekend was very close to the peak meteor shower from Perseid. This gave us an ideal opportunity to try meteor scatter for the very first time.
Loughton & Epping Forest
J-Pole antenna grounding
A fully grounded antenna is certainly a very worthwhile goal so long as you don’t needlessly compromise the antenna’s functionality.
hamradio.me
Cross country HF APRS
The HF APRS network that resides in North America is on the high end of 30 meters. This band is open day and night.
VE6AB
$40 Arduino antenna analyzer
It is no surprise that hams will build an antenna analyzer from a DDS module and an Arduino instead of dropping a few hundred dollars on a commercial unit.
Hackaday
Skywave Linux
With global SDR access, shortwave listeners can access broadcast, utility, amateur radio, military, and other signals from almost anywhere in the world.
Skywave Linux
Tennessee QSO Party 2015
1800z Sunday, September 6 until 0300z Monday, September 7, 2015
Tennessee QSO Party
Noise canceling speaker hack
I have several Onkyo speakers from a retired surround sound system and a 100 watt 12 volt car audio amplifier and started to think on hacking this into something usable.
Prepared Ham
How to
Add OpenStreetMaps to Xastir
This tutorial will guide you how to install OSM maps into Xastir software.
S55MA Ham Blog
Video
Replace the meter light on a Kenwood TS-430s
KF4NOD
Portable radio operations
Using Morse Code to keep in touch with friends.
Wiltshire Man
"Web price is best or call"
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| FT991 from Yaesu |
The ongoing saga of the FT991 price fall continues. The phrase in the title is from the latest advert by MLS in Radcom. It looks like they know the price is too high but are looking to see who drops the price first – a kind of game of “chicken”. The best price advertised is £1139. Meanwhile the FT450D (HF and 6m) is just £499 from Waters and Stanton. I confidently predict the price of the FT991 from the major retailers will drop to £999, or even less, soon.
Global Overlay Mapper ham radio mapping suite gets major update
The Global Overlay Mapper has been around for some years. The previous version was built as a series of browser pages within a Windows shell, and reached the end of its life once Window introduced ‘User Account Control’, making remote updating too difficult. At the time I was away from Ireland, back-packing around the world as a pro-travel photographer (http://www.gnomeplanet.com/) for 8 years.
Now back home again, I decided to completely re-write the Global Overlay Mapper as a proper Windows program that was compatible with Win 7, 8, and 10. Its 38 maps were updated to include all the new countries, prefixes, flags, and IOTA entities. (The Global Overlay Mapper is the only ham map-suite that displays all IOTA entities.) As a proper Windows program, I could now add a variety of features that I’d been planning for some time. You can now geocode a Cabrillo or ADIF log – in other words, you can add positions to each QSO and then plot your log on a map, thanks to the nice guys at HamQTH.Com. You can plot lists of positions or Maidenhead Locators. You can see, display, and plot callbook information. You can see real-time NCDXF Beacon transmission schedules, and plot the beacons.
The Global Overlay Mapper is ideal for every ham, no matter where their special field of interest might be. The local ragchewer, the HF and VHF dxer, International or Local Contester, Field Day Team, Emergency Communications Specialist, DXCC and Award Hunter, IOTA expeditioner; all will find the Global Overlay Mapper an important tool for everyday use. The Global Overlay Mapper is now shareware – it works for 30 days, then requires registration, which costs just USD15. If you registered a previous version, you can upgrade for just USD5.
To find out more, and download your copy, please visit:
Coax losses
If you are like me, then you always want to know the loss of your coax at 6m,2m and 70cm, possibly higher I found this very useful table to compare various coax cables at different frequencies. You may have your own favorite table! If not, I hope you find this one useful.
