AmateurRadio.com

HRD DM-780

Another day in the shack but not really on the radio as so much as setting up the radio. I decided to take the plunge and go head first into setting up a digi mode. PSK was my weapon of choice. I did some looking over of notes last night to get my mind into it. The software I have preloaded on the PC is  Julian's Kcomm, fldigi and HRD's  DM-780.  One of the trying tests for me is to get the radio to communicate with the
software. I was not disappointed.... figuring out the com port, stop bits, CAT settings,

Kcomm with fldigi

handshake or not....and the list goes on was a challenge. Then there is the sound card setup and settings!! Some of the troubles I ran into were.....not being able to get the K3 to key up when the software said it should. After overcoming that  the K3 had no problem keying up but then would not un-key at the end of the macro!!! After solving those two hurdles I then had troubles getting the 5 watts output I wanted to have. It turned out to be a jungle of sound card tuning and radio tweaking. I was not sure how I did it but I am now able to have a solid 5 watts out on all bands and simply adjust the K3's power control if I want to increase the power. I won't try to figure out what I did as when I do for some reason I un-configure  the configured. The software I decided to stick with was DM-780. Kcomm is great and works well with the

fldigi with flr

K3 radio. The setup of communication between the radio and software was the easiest of all the software I dealt with. I was not able to get the waterfall going I did integrate fldigi waterfall but it seemed to run as two separate programs. I was getting frustrated at this point and really never looked into getting around this issue. One great feature of Kcomm are the macro's that control aspects of the K3.  With running fldigi on it's own I was not able to get the K3 out of transmit when the macro was done sending....again frustration was setting in. I am sticking with DM-780 but have to do some reading on how to customize the macros and some other minor settings.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Welcome to another fine and dandy episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. The end of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 have been very busy for your stalwart co-hosts, but we press on. Shows are being recorded, content is being disseminated and our listeners are being educated–sort of. We hope everyone has had a wonderful start to the new year and best of luck in all your endeavors, present and future. Oh, and if you find a free moment or two, please tell a friend about LHS. The publicity will do us all good.

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

There’s a lot of excitement right now in the UK tech community about a new computer called the Raspberry Pi. It’s a bare board computer with an ARM processor that runs Gnu/Linux that is expected to sell for $25. It’s aimed principally at the education market with the intention of getting schools to teach students how to program and build things with computers instead of just learning Word and Excel as they do now.

The Raspberry Pi will soon be available for anyone to buy. When they are, I’m tempted to get one. My recently acquired Gadget Gangster has helped me recapture some of the magic and excitement I felt when I first started dabbling in home computers back in the ’80s with things like the Nascom 1, ZX81 and Sinclair Spectrum. I think the Raspberry Pi would do the same.

PCs and Windows are great tools, but they have turned computers into appliances and made computing boring. Microcontrollers are like QRP computers – more of a challenge to use but when you succeed you feel a real thrill at having accomplished something.

I think there has never been a better time than now to have an interest in electronics. I hope the Raspberry Pi is a huge success. Perhaps it will result in more of our young people becoming engineers instead of wanting to be lawyers or salespeople.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

CT1IUA on the beach

Good afternoon fellow bloggers, went to see the Chiropractor and Physiotherapist today regarding my back troubles. The news was...... come back and see us and in the mean time REST!!! Well for me it is very hard to sit still and Julie can attest to that. One way to make sure I sit still and rest is to softly hobble into the radio room. I started out the day on WSPR I was transmitting 1 watt on 20 meters. The big reception report for me was from FR5DN on Reunion Island. At 1 watt that made it 9463 miles per watt for my attic dipole. I also tried some CW on 30m and 17m. Now my DX-33 dipole is not resonant for either of these bands but the K3 does

PV8ADI at the desk

have a tuner so I gave it a shot. Things did not work out very well although the bands seem to be open my signal was just not happening. The LP-100A meter here was showing an SWR up to the antenna of 8.89:1 on 30m's and 9.3:1 on 17m's. The K3's tuner was able to bring it down to 1:1 so the K3 was happy. Later in the day it was off to CW and I checked DX summit's cluster and found a spot for CT1IUA in Portugal. I spun the K3 over to the spot and there was a nice pileup trying to make contact. I gave it a go and was able to snag CT1IUA on my first call with 5 watts. I then saw a spot for PV8ADI in Brazil I spun the dial in that direction and there was not really anyone calling him. He in fact called CQ several times without an answer. I gave him a go at 1 watt but that did not seem to do the trick. I then went to 2 watts and he was able to make out my call with 2 repeats. Funny though I still got a 599 as a report. So at 2 watts that makes it 1529 miles per watt on that contact. I did notice there was lots of action on PSK on the cluster so this evening I hope to get PSK all straightened out this evening with my rig and the software. That way on Tuesday I can maybe do some digi contacts.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

If you were within earshot of an HF transceiver this past weekend and especially tuned through the data portion of the bands, I’m sure you heard the tell-tale signs of a digital contest taking place.   You really can’t miss it.  The quick bursts of RTTY signals going back and forth is music to some and a nightmare to others. 

Between a heavily packed weekend consisting of an amateur radio breakfast on Saturday morning, taking the Christmas tree down along with the lights outside before the snow started falling and a few other misc. items on the “honey do” list, I managed to find about 3 hours of spare time to spend in the shack working the ARRL RTTY Roundup.  During this time I logged 79 RTTY QSO’s mostly on 20 and 40 meters. 

I must admit I don’t work a lot of RTTY contacts outside of contests and while I started getting serious about contesting in 2011 and actually submitted logs for several, digital contesting isn’t something I get overly excited about.  This fact may sound odd, especially coming from someone who spends 75% or more of his on-air time working the digital modes. 

In any event, as the title states….I did have fun and this is what matters to me.  I’ve mapped out many of the contests (mostly State QSO Parties) I hope to operate in throughout 2012.  I hope to make 2012 and my involvement in the radio sport  aspect of the hobby a memorable one.  So between many of the upcoming on-air contests and my SOTA involvement.  You’ll be certain to hear CQ CQ CQ from KD0BIK throughout the year. 

Until next time…

73 de KD0BIK

Jerry Taylor, KD0BIK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. He is the host of the Practical Amateur Radio Podcast. Contact him at [email protected].

My morning surf has brought me to the ARRL’s website with a nice little quiz about Ham Radio that has been on TV and in Hollywood. The recent news in the community about Tim Allen’s new TV show giving Ham Radio some “props”, has inspired this.

This quiz is thanks in part to the websites of AD7DB, KB9MWR and AC6V for the references. As I went through looking at it, some were pretty easy, and some were a little tougher. I didn’t check my answers to see how I did. I wanted to see what you posted for your results first. I know this is a pop quiz, but hey, my teacher did it to me in school, and I’m sure he/she did it to you too. So take the quiz and let us know how you did.

73.

 

 

 

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Rich Gattie, KB2MOB, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Paul PC4T may be taking a rest from blogging but he is still active. Yesterday evening I spotted him using the new Opera mode.

Andy K3UK has prepared a quick guide to using Opera which some may find helpful. As he points out, Opera is not a QSO mode. The only information that is sent in a beacon transmission is your callsign. Other information that is displayed in the software such as QTH, distance and bearing is sent over the internet back-channel by connected software clients.

Eldon WA0UWH has taken the Parallax Propeller code from my previous post and tried it out on the air. He has already received several reception reports.

Before I can do the same I will need to build a small PA / LPF with an output in the range 200mW to 500mW. Hopefully I can find a suitable circuit that uses standard components such as 2N3904 or 2N2222 which I have in my parts box. Suggestions welcome.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].