Monday, November 15, 2021

Some time ago, I attempted to research sources for kits on the Internet, only to find out that there wasn't a one-stop-website for Ham Radio kit suppliers.

QRPGuys AFP-FSK Digital Transceiver III

I decided to put together a good list of sources for kits that are currently available. Many of these are

for QRP operation, but a few are full-featured professional transceivers (Elecraft, DZ). On the beginners side there are a few sources that stand out: QRPguy.com has a great assortment of kits. QRPme offers the inexpensive, easy-to-build tuna-can products, and I would like to make special mention

Raspberry Pi Applications For Ham Radio - HRU 2021

I would like to thank everyone that attended our new virtual format this year. Here are some links and a link to the presentation.

PRESENTATION: CLICK HERE

Raspberry Pi Foundation:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Purchase:
Newark - Element 14
Micro Center
Adafruit
PiShop

HAM Pi Distro: Download Here

Groups IO Group for Ham Pi here

Pi FM Project
Link to GitHub Project

TAPR WSPR board for Pi
Link to the current version

QRPGuys EZ WSPR Pi Raspberry Pi module (board only)
Link to product/order page

Basic USB Sound Card
Link to Amazon page

Windows (ARM) on Pi

Link to Project at Tom's Guide

Kiwi SDR Project (using BeagleBone)

QUESTIONS (and answers from the forum):

1. What's the best way to power a Raspberry Pi from 12 Volts?

-- A good quality car USB adapter (Micro for Raspberry Pi 1 - 3, and 'C' for Ras Pi 4) would work fine. Just make sure you pick one with decent wattage (rated for large tablets)

-- Mike KD8QDL suggested this device, which I consider something like this essential for the workbench: Link to Amazon Listing

2. There was a question about the DRAWS Hat which I couldn't remember the details on.

-- The DRAWS Hat is a multifunction board for interfacing the Pi with multiple devices in the shack. From the website, it includes a "high-performance sound chip (CODEC), a GPS with pulse per second (PPS) that includes an embedded battery backed real-time clock (RTC), and a 12VDC power circuit to power the onboard devices and the Raspberry Pi from a single power supply. It has two mini DIN-6 audio sockets that match the ‘TNC’ specification found on many radios designed for amateur radio, an SMA connector for a powered GPS LNA antenna, power connection socket, and a small GPIO array for additional I/O". This sounds great, and I think I'll pick one up before next year's HRU! You can read about it and get one here: Link to DRAWS Hat at NW Digital Radio

3. Mesh on Raspberry Pi. I mentioned that there was a distribution for this. I was mistaken. I was thinking of PiNet which is for classrooms. Here is the closest thing to what I was talking about: https://github.com/binnes/WiFiMeshRaspberryPi

4. Somebody asked about Node Red. Here is the Wikipedia description of it: Node-RED is a flow-based development tool for visual programming developed originally by IBM for wiring together hardware devices, APIs and online services as part of the Internet of Things. Node-RED provides a web browser-based flow editor, which can be used to create JavaScript functions. It appears that it does work on the Pi. Link here

That's all for 2021. See everyone next year!

MY RADIO KIT GUIDE PAGE:

radiokitguide.com

Digital Modes Including FT8 - Ham Radio University 2021

Hi all, thanks for attending my talk at this year's HRU. Here are the important links and the presentation I gave.

PRESENTATION: CLICK HERE

WSJT-X Downloads on this page: https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx.html
Meinberg NTP (Windows Time Sync): https://www.meinbergglobal.com/english/sw/ntp.htm

JTAlert add-on: http://hamapps.com/

FT8 operating guide by ZL2IFP: https://www.g4ifb.com/FT8_Hinson_tips_for_HF_DXers.pdf

JS8Call: http://js8call.com/

JS8 Guide (If link is dead look for new one at the JS8Call site): https://tinyurl.com/yc6z73do

FT8 RADIO KITS:

D4D DSB Transceiver Kit

From CRKits.com

DSB Digital Transceiver Kit

From QRPguys.com

K1SWL’s Phaser Digital Mode SSB Kit

From midnightdesignsolutions.com

Digital 40 SSB Transceiver Kit or Assembled