Radio and rails...

M0RVB

Big wheeling

Seems the Big Wheel 2m antenna in the loft is working ok, at least according to 2m FT8 with a bit of lift. It manages a good spread... (there's one 4m in there too)

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M0RVB

ISS SSTV August 2021

Just managed to receive a fairly good image from the closest ISS pass. This started as it crossed the UK and continued as it passed onwards to Germany. There were a few dropouts (I run the FTM100DE with an open squelch for these) but all in all this pic is better than any that I managed from the last series. The transceiver is connected to a white stick 2m/70cm colinear in the loft and I really need to stop being lazy and set the Arrow up for these passes.

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M0RVB

pi-star

No idea what my pi-star setup was doing the other day but this might amuse some: With all that load it was still managing to do all the comms stuff! Rebooting it sorted it out and it has been back to it's usual 0.1 load ever since.

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M0RVB

Allstar Link project

One of my ongoing projects was to build an Allstar Link node. I had acquired a working Baofeng 888 from eBay some time ago and a few days ago duly programmed it (all the channels in case I ever accidentally turn that switch) to the 70cm frequency I want to use. Also in the box of waiting bits was a Pi 3B, ex my Portsdown project (that has a Pi 4 now), a CM108 USB dongle and a dummy load. Anyway, it came to the top of the project list (= I wanted something relatively simple to fiddle with. The CM108 came from Amazon and only cost a couple of quid. They had four available, all of which are now here! Following the excellent guide (among other similarly excellent guides) at https://allstarsetup.com/modify-a-cm108-sound-fob/ this was abused into something ready for use. Next came the 888 modifications (all relevant information can be found via https://allstarsetup.com/allstar-mini-node-construction-details/) which went fine except the information I was reading did not make clear how one powers the radio. I figured that out. Note that the radio needs 3-and-a-bit volts so two diodes in series with the 5V line works ok here (I need to add another yet).

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M0RVB

More projects

Some aluminium arrived for a couple of antenna projects. This took a while as the first order got lost somehow and now they only sent part of what I ordered, but sufficient to make a start. The first ones are for 70MHz, a ground plane for 4m FM, so I can reinstall the AT588, and a halo. I can't fit a big wheel type in the loft but a halo will fit and replace the current dipole.

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