Amateur radio ⁽²⁴⁹⁾

After our trip to Europe and Japan I really want to do FT8 or other digimodes - my preferred mode because of naff hearing etc - rather than just take handhelds. But the weight of the FT818 + tuner + PSU + a laptop is prohibitive. True, the PSU and tuner would go in the checked bag but I feel that the FT818 would really need to come as carry-on. And anyway I do not own a laptop, plus the fact that we tend to travel light so there is very little room for my stuff anyway. So it got me thinking. At home I use one PC for Linux, one for Windows 10, the Mac mini, and a Pi. Four systems, four screens, and great flexibility as all the audio is interconnected by a mixer. But the Windows PC is now playing up and is too old for Windows 11, not that I want that but I guess it is inevitable as running Windows without security patches is just about the worst thing I can imagine. Well, ok, my imagination runs a lot deeper than that, but you know what I mean. The QRP Labs QMX+ looks most interesting,…

We just had a short trip to Europe and then Japan and so I took a couple of handheld radios along. For Europe the CEPT licence was fine but for Japan I arranged a short term one via JARL who were very helpful. So, licences and HTs in hand, or, rather, in carry-on bag, off we went. I had broken the radios down into battery, radio and antenna and put each in a plastic bag to keep everything clean. Big mistake! My bag was searched at the UK airport and in Schiphol. The bags were causing confusion, especially as, at Schiphol they asked how the battery related to whatever the Mouser code was on the old plastic bag I had used. Very quick though, it only added a couple of minutes each time and they were happy. So I left the radios intact for the onward trip from Schiphol and into Japan. No issues at all at either end or on the return. So... note to self, leave the radios intact.

I wanted to get a programmer for the ID51. So, off to RT Systems as I have some of their programmers already. Got the Mac version of the package for the ID51 but it does not allow programming via SD card. That caught me out because their package for the FT2D does and I wrongly assumed this would too. Of course, it needs a cable! Off to eBay… an allegedly suitable cable arrived today but the RT Systems program will not find it. Typical, it needs one of their enfangled cables that are incompatible with the rest of the world. No way that will arrive in time for our trip. So… Chirp then. Downloaded the Mac version but it, too will not see the eBay cable. I know the Mac sees it so why won’t the software? RT Systems has no option to select a USB port, Chirp does but offers no help as to what it is. Try Linux? Hmmm… I’m really not into fiddling with flatpack or any other enfangled package managers - apt is enough, no apt, no use. Windows then! Got Chirp, and it can find the cable, and Chirp will see it and will download…

I now have a Raspberry Pi set up on one of the four monitors in the shack. The original layout was two screens at the top on Linux, then bottom left on Windows and bottom right - central to where I sit on the Mac as the main screen. But that layout had two major issues... I use a program called Barrier to basically act as a KVM switch for the three systems with the Mac as server. That way the Mac mouse and keyboard controls any of the systems, although it can be awkward sometimes where Windows expects keys which Apple doesn't have. But Barrier does not understand dual monitors and so moving the mouse up from the Mac got to the Linux box fine, but moving it down from the left hand screen would not get to Windows as the program does not see it being physically there. I could live with that, except for issue two... The main issue was with the Linux screens being at the top and thus making me sit back or crank my neck upwards, not a good position. So... I got to realising that although I use both screens on the Linux…

Another new toy, a Quansheng UK-K5(8). Size-wise it's taller and heavier than the Baofeng UV5R and has a nicer display. The reason I got this, apart from the price is there is firmware available to enable a spectrum display among other things. I've loaded this version: https://github.com/egzumer/uv-k5-firmware-custom/wiki. Loading was simple enough. There have been mentions that one needs to insert the programming cable very firmly but I found that my aftermarket Baofeng USB cable went in quite easily with a click. Once I had remembered you need to turn the radio on in program mode the firmware went in via the Edge browser in just a few seconds. Other than that I have yet to use it on air and it has not yet been near a spectrum analyser so no idea how good or bad it is RF wise. There's plenty of information out there already anyway. For me, like the UV5R it's a handy little radio that won't hurt too much if lost or damaged, but it is the available firmware that seals the deal.