Amateur radio ⁽²⁵⁶⁾

I dug my poor dusty MD380 out yesterday and charged it up. For a while now I have had Fusion and POCSAG on the pi-star but I rarely use the FT2D and when I do it's only for APRS. So I thought why not get DMR back into the pi-star. I have a dual DVMEGA HAT with pi-star set to duplex from when I was fiddling with the new HAT. Anyway, since I last used the MD380 I changed the rx and tx frequencies in pi-star to the 'designated' hotspot frequencies so the MD380 needed reprogramming. That's where it all started to go south... First off, since I rebuilt the Windows PC I did not, for some reason copy across the MD380 programming software. Ok, found it on the web and installed it. Can it see the TYT programming lead? Nah. This particular lead is basically a wire, it does not have a chip built in apparently and so needs a specific driver. Oh yes, Windows will see the lead and knows what the device is but has no clue about the driver. Ok. Found a driver. Installed it - apparently - it does not give an error but the…

(edited 27/7/24 15:34) I recently came across Meshcom (https://icssw.org/en/meshcom/) which broadly speaking is an amateur radio off grid messaging network like Meshtastic. I had a 433MHz Heltec V3 with Meshtastic installed but as there is no 433MHz activity nearby it has just been sat in the abandoned project pile aka the corner of the desk. So, I thought, here is an interesting use even if there are no nodes nearby… yeah, that’s always a bad start. Anyway, as yet the instructions are not as polished as those for Meshtastic and I struggled to get anywhere, routinely managing to lock Windows up completely when using the esptool. When I finally got the thing to look like it had connected the downloader instantly gave an error and packed up. It was then I noticed there is a web flasher (url) so I tried that. Off to a bad start, the flasher reported that the serial port (the device is directly USB connected) was not ready, and no amount of whinging and gnashing of teeth fixed it. Unplugging and re-plugging the Heltec in made no difference. Three times, same thing. I connected it to the Mac and checked that the esptool.py there could…

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…