More PC blues

M0RVB May 19, 2020

I finally decided to rebuild the shack PC given that just about everything was going daft. I suspect this is a result of various software installs while testing new stuff that were not fully deinstalled. Yeah I know I should test in a VM...

Anyway, a complete fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04 with it formatting the disk has got the PC back to normality. Almost. Networking works again with the inbuild (un)helpful config rather than me setting it up by hand each boot via a script. And I remembered to sort Gnome out so I can get the classic view rather than the daft dock setup.

But there are two oddities... first off, the rather annoying way the screen layout changes (un)helpfully (!) when you touch the to left corner with the mouse. This can be disabled but when done so the Applications menu - the leftmost top bar menu - is no longer accessible. No amount of permutations of the toggles via gnome-tweaks will sort that.

But more annoying I have lost almost all decode highlights in wsjt-x. The only ones that work are CQ, tx and my call, nothing else. I've tried every combination. It's not wsjt-x (I installed a previous version just to check, same result) and I am rather stuck with that now. It will be something obvious but I just can't see it... hmmm.

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M0RVB July 17, 2018

D-Star registration blues

So I got an Icom ID-51 so I will have DMR, C4FM and D-Star. Well why not... it's currently on its initial charge for 2 more hours or so. I though that a good time to read the manual and sort out registration. So far, not so good. DMR was simple. I can't remember what I did for C4FM but it all works. D-Star? I followed the guidance and looked for the nearest repeater in the list. But the nearest one in that list is now C4FM. Ok, next nearest. That has a registration URL which takes me to an information page on which there is no sign of anywhere to go to register. Right. Next nearest - and no way I could contact it from here - has a broken registration URL. So I started at the top of the list. I gave up after 15 - most had no registration URL, the rest had broken links or had apparently gone over to DMR. I picked a few others at random, all follow the same tale. Off to Icom UK via Google - it has a link to a registration form but it does not actually work, i.e. you…

M0RVB May 28, 2017

More bits of wet string...

...well actually aluminium. I finally cut down an old 'fm' radio dipole to 2m and quietly ran yet another run of WF103 into the loft. So the Trio TR-9130 I got a few weeks ago finally has an aerial. SWR is not bad at 1.2 or so on the VNA. It's mounted horizontally as I got the transceiver in the hope of one day finding some 2m SSB... well it's been 3 hours, nothing yet! Impatient! Anyway it worked fine for the local RSGB News this morning, and to hear someone asking if 145.5 was in use but with no callsign... This also means I finally have a use for the KW520 SWR/power meter. However, it would not register any power on the 20W setting on the 140-525MHz range but did on the 1.8-200MHz range (both of course cover 2m). I took the lid off, discovered it would be rather difficult to get at the switches to check them so put it back together. Of course it now works fine. Perhaps the initial swearing at it actually worked. The Trio causes some QRM on the speakers of one of our PCs - actually in the room below the dipole. But…

M0RVB April 17, 2017

JT9 blues

I've had a couple of JT9 attempts these past two days on 20m where I've answered a CQ and received a signal report back, and sent mine but then received the same -nn signal report again. And again. Presumably the remote station has not been able to decode my reply. So I never get to the 73. I'm guessing the band just fades away from underneath me... If I remember right it was the same remote station each time. I've had successful JT9 QSOs so I am putting these down to bad luck and I hope the other guy isn't getting frustrated!