Fred C (W6BSD)
I live in the middle of Silicon Valley in a suburban setting with small front and back yards. My property does not have tall trees to take advantage of when installing an antenna. Given these conditions, my best option was to use a vertical antenna. I got a Hustler 4BTV resonant on the bands from...
Fred C (W6BSD)
Note This article was also posted on the San Mateo Radio Club monthly news letter. In California, the majority of new hams come from an EmComm1 group. In this article, I am not going to talk about EmComm. It is a vast subject and your EmComm group is better suited to talk about all the things you...
Fred C (W6BSD)
If you are a new ham checking into a repeater or someone listening to the ham radio band with a scanner, you will discover a lot of the jargon. In the following table, you will find the most common lingo you will hear on the amateur band and, more specifically, on repeaters. The table also...
Fred C (W6BSD)
In my last article, I wrote about working DMR+ using the DMRGateway module of your Pi-Star hotspot. In this article, I'm going to explain how to use the same DMRGateway module to talk to D-Star networks using your DMR radio. What is cross-mode? When you talk on digital radio, the radio encodes the...
Fred C (W6BSD)
When it comes to DMR, especially in North America, people think of BrandMeister. There is another network of interconnected repeaters and talk-groups called DMR+. Pi-Star hotspot DMR+ was the first network that developed tools to interconnect ETSI Tier 2 DMR repeaters. It started in Europe and has...
Fred C (W6BSD)
I wrote a little python program to send my iGate telemetry through APRS. The metrics include the temperature of the Raspberry-Pi, the load average, the amount of free memory, and network traffic. Sending the iGate metrics through APRS allows me to use the graph tools offered by aprs.fi or the...
Fred C (W6BSD)
Tech day in Sacramento This Friday, I was invited to Sacramento to give my presentation on common mode current, what it is, and how to block or prevent it using common mode chokes. Once a month, Jeff (AK6OK) and Craig (N6YUV) organize a meetup they call ham tech day. A bunch of hams from the...
Fred C (W6BSD)
I needed to remove some RF noise from an air filter in the next room. When the fan turns on, the background noise raises my radio S meter by 2 S units. Like most of you, I tend to collect ferrite cores from random places. Unfortunately, the ferrite cores I gather from hamfest or other projects are...
Fred C (W6BSD)
A couple of weeks ago I got a new D-Star mobile radio. The radio is an Icom ID-4100, VHF/UHV. According to Icom, this rig is a D-Star1 entry-level radio. The ID-4100 has the same features as the ID-5100, with a smaller screen and only one VFO. Clear display What I like Icom's menu system is...
Fred C (W6BSD)
A couple of months ago I designed a convenient Battery Monitor board with a voltmeter, one Andeson PowerPole connector as well as a USB power connector. This board is suitable to turn any 7Ah, 9Ah SLA or Lithium battery into a convenient power source for indoor or portable operation. For example,...
Fred C (W6BSD)
Note This article was originally posted in 2019. The program fllog has evolved, and many things have changed since the first version. Please check the README file on GitHub to see how to install and use it. One of my favorite activities on the radio is making contacts using digital modes. I'm not...
Fred C (W6BSD)
Yaesu FT-70D The Pi-Star has the capability of working across digital modes. This means you can use a C4FM1 (YSF) radio to talk on DMR and vice-versa. You can find the complete list of cross mode capabilities on your Pi-Star configuration page. In this post, I am going to focus on YSF to DMR...
Fred C (W6BSD)
Since I got my ham radio license, I have participated in Field Day with the PAARA1 radio club in Palo Alto. PAARA is one of the area's large regional clubs. Their Field Day setup is one of the most impressive of the San Francisco Bay Area. I am not a CW operator and I am not a good contester, what...
Fred C (W6BSD)
In a previous article I describe how I built a mobile Allstar node. I carry this node me with when I go to a meeting, or on a trip, leaving the node running in my car. California is a sunny state, and the inside of a car can get hot. As you can see in pictures in my previous post, I have installed...
Fred C (W6BSD)
The FT-70D is a great little radio that I always recommend for new hams as well as for experienced hams who want to try digital voice. It is simple to use and well priced for the quality and performance you get. What is digital Yaesu FT-70D There are several forms of digital communications in the...
Fred C (W6BSD)
I often use small 7 or 9 Ah lead acid batteries because they are convenient and inexpensive. For example, my AllStar node at home is plugged to a battery like the one on the following picture With this battery I can continue to transmit for a few hours even when there is a power outage. The...
Fred C (W6BSD)
One of the useful tools a ham radio operator can easily and cheaply build is a clamp-on RF current probe. For example, this probe can help you check if you have common mode current on speaker wire or on a power cord. It can also help you find where the RF current is high and low on your...
Fred C (W6BSD)
AllStar is a network of analog repeaters or nodes linked through the internet. It is based on a modified version of Asterisk, an open-source PBX software. Like for the telephone, numbers are assigned to users/node. This allows them to ‘dial-up’ other nodes and create temporary or permanent...
Fred C (W6BSD)
To work simplex with your DMR or C4FM radio please do not use the FM analog national call frequencies 2m (146.520 MHz) or 70cm (446.000 MHz). Do not use these frequencies for any digital work. Below are the recommended simplex frequencies to be used with DMR in the United States and Canada. In...
Fred C (W6BSD)
Parachute mobile is all about the fun of jumping off a perfectly working airplane and share our thrill with our ham friends. Parachute mobile is also about tinkering with electronics and experimentations. Over the years we went from simple VHF contacts to HF contacts, APRS, video, and digital...
Fred C (W6BSD)
At Parachute mobile we like to tinker with things. One of the projects I have worked on is an APRS iGate. Parachute mobile is a group of people who combine their passion of ham radio and of skydiving. For us, POTA doesn't mean park on the air but Parachute on the air. Our skydivers carry a bunch...