Radio and rails...

(updated / edited 16/Feb/2025) Having played with Meshtastic a little while ago I came across an amateur radio specific mesh, MeshCom (https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/). Aimed at 70cm operations and with callsigns required I thought this was a better way forward than Meshtastic which, in our area at least is (or was at the time anyway) entirely used for people asking if they can be heard. MeshCom will work on a variety of hardware similar to Meshtastic. I opted for a RAK setup because it has an Ethernet module and I personally prefer this over wifi connectivity. It also gives the possibility of powering the device using PoE which in turn makes it easy to remotely power cycle it. So, the RAK hardware duly arrived via Aliexpress and is easy to assemble, literally plug and play. I got the RAK 4631 RF module, 19007 base board, 13800 Ethernet interface and 19018 PoE module. Firmware is loaded by simply downloading the file from the MeshCom website, althogh it can be quite hard to find. Once that is done, the RAK module is set to appear as a USB disk by quickly clicking the reset button twice. The firmware is dragged across and the RAK…

I now have a second YouLoop (supplied by Moonraker) set up in the loft, this time connected to the RSPdx which itself is connected to the Linux PC. I use SDR++ on the Mac and am getting used to the excellent software (see https://www.sdrpp.org). There are versions specifically for Ubuntu, Windows, MacOS (Intel and Apple silicon) and the Raspberry Pi, plus the source code is available to compile yourself. So I wanted to compare the Airspy HF+ Discovery and the RSPdx. When installed on the Linux PC SDR++ does not see the RSPdx. However, once the relevant API is installed and running it duly appears in the devices list as SDRplay and displays the necesary antenna selection menu. So here they both are, looking from 0 to around 85kHz. First the Mac and Airspy: And the Linux PC and RSPdx: This is about as clean as I managed to get the various settings and it is particularly useful having the same software on each machine. Of course this is a rather arbitrary comparison given the multitude of settings and the fact that they are on two different platforms, plus the two YouLoops are facing in different directions. But it does…

Just recently I realised that amongst my kit I do not have a scanner other than the baby IC-R2. So I had a look to see what there is and they range from cheap but limited range ones that do not have a continuous coverage to expensive types that are just way over the top for my needs. My interest is limited to having something I can quickly switch on and listen to a few spot frequencies, including amateur radio ones and the local airport ATIS. I also have a bunch of various SDRs but none met the 'quickly switch on' requirement. Time to fiddle then. Other than the various Raspberry Pi systems the only always-on system I have is a Mac Mini. The other two desktops - Linux and Windows - only get turned on when I want to use the FT450D or TS2000X on digimodes or I need more screen real estate for something. So what can I do with the Mac? I already had CubicSDR loaded and I downloaded the Mac version of gqrx. As I use SDR# on Windows and after reading some blog posts I found and downloaded sdrpp. I already have the Airspy HF+…

Some interesting distances in the VHF/UHF lift on the 18th and 19th January, all not too bad for loft mounted antennas - a 2m QFH and a 70cm big wheel, running 20W from the TS2000X, FT8. On the 18th I managed three 2m FT8 QSOs with French stations, one 386 miles south from me. Later on I was receivd 502 miles away in Denmark on 70cm FT8 but no QSO. On the 19th came a 2m FT8 QSO with Denmark at 432 miles.

(updated 01/01/25 - added 11 and 12) I managed to receive all of the 12 images in the December 2024 ISS SSTV event. These were received using an indoor QFH and the TS2000X, with MMSSTV on the PC. Here they are in numerical order: