Digital Ramblings

I have recently taken delivery of a Yaesu FT1XDE C4FM/ Analogue handheld for use with the DV4 Mini. Here is a brief review :-

The first impression upon un-boxing is the sturdy feel to the unit. It is well built and, whilst not being heavyweight, it does feel rather substantial in the hand without being uncomfortable in use. The XDE comes with a higher capacity battery than the previous model and the GPS function is improved. Having said that, the GPS and APRS is a little tricky to understand and set up - I need to do a bit of reading before I embark upon that side of things.

Sound quality from the speaker is good, it's not the loudest of outputs but it is enough. The keypad buttons are a tad on the small side and for my large fingers I find it slows me down a little when inputting but it certainly is no great detriment to the radio - just needs getting used to.

Analogue performance is what you would expect from Yaesu - DTMF, CTCSS and auto repeater shift are all present and work as they should.

Now the really good bit - C4FM Fusion. One word - WOW! - the audio quality is superb, vastly superior to DMR. Crystal clarity and a balanced audio experience. Users sound as clear as if we were speaking face to face. Another bonus is that it works flawlessly with the DV4 Mini - no drop outs due to incorrect frequency matching and, because Fusion uses a different system for digitising the speech, there is no need for error correction. The DV4 and the FT1XDE are a perfect combination.

Throw an extremely wideband receiver into the mix and you have a great all-in-one monitoring solution. The receiver covers 0.5 to 999 MHz in AM, NFM, and WFM but sadly no SSB. The internal antenna is only really any use with strong broadcast stations but, with an external antenna, things improve.

The GPS receiver uses a whopping 66 channels and ensures a truly accurate fix. Time to first fix was under a minute and subsequent fixes are done in seconds. The position data is displayed on the LCD display and it is shown in a simplified, clear way.

Programming is a little convoluted if doing manually, but the instructions are concise and once mastered it becomes very intuitive. Yaesu supply a programming lead with the radio and programming software is available to download from the Yaesu website. There have been various reports on the functionality of the Yaesu software but I programmed in quite a few simplex/duplex channels with relative ease using it. Chirp also supports programming but is not as good (in my humble opinion). There is provision for a Micro SD card for storage of radio data and also snapshot images, which come when using the snapshot camera mic (not supplied but is an extra cost option). The SD function is not like the dStar, where programming information can be loaded directly to the radio - the SD card is used merely as storage and for back up  (reading the card information into the programming software).

The radio functions are mainly menu driven but they do follow a logical path, so getting to grips with the menus is no real hassle.

Would I recommend it? - Heartily

Is C4FM worth the investment? - Certainly

Do Icom need to worry about dStar? - I think so, the monopoly on DV radio has been broken so we will have to see how Fusion stacks up.

I'm off to play radio for a while,

73 de 2E0ENN

No Ramblings to Report

Since my last post, nothing much has been happening radio wise. It's been a quiet and relatively dead period.

The Allstar nodes continue to function as they should but there's little activity of late, save for a bit of drive time traffic here and there. I suppose it's the season for being out in the fresh air as opposed to being in front of a radio.

The DV4 Mini is now working well attached to the Pipo X8 Windows device and having a wired ethernet connection. There appear to be cliques emerging on DMR with a number of regular operators only working within their little gangs - so far this evening I've put out over ten CQ calls and nobody has answered, despite a list of call signs appearing on the system. Maybe I should change my deodorant.

I will be away this coming weekend and will attempt to use EchoLink at some point, although I'm not holding out for much in the way of contacts if the recent lack of activity is anything to go by.

The Broadnet system brings the occasional QSO - this is also very quiet with call signs listed as connected but no replies to calls. It would seem that by and large the Amateur Radio community is increasingly being populated with "licenced SWL's"

Local activity on 2m seems to be centred on the same group of people as well, and repeater use is virtually non-existent. There does seem to be a distinct lack of interest shown these days. I'm considering giving it all up and looking for another hobby - what's the point if there's nobody talking much?

The only contacts I've had recently have been as part of my Radio Club's special event stations and I suspect that that's mainly due to curiosity as opposed to interest.

I'm in a state of flux with the hobby at the moment - it's not stimulating me much (if at all) at the moment.

So it's a half hearted 73 de 2E0ENN

Portable Ramblings

I now have a functioning portable set up. The antenna is a Watson Multi-Ranger-9, which sits on my triple mag mount. It covers 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2, and 70cm and also receives on airband. Tuning is via a jumper cable in the coil and adjusting the length of the resonator. A quick test in the car gave promising results. I'm fortunate in that I have an LDG AT-897 auto tuner attached to the FT-897 and tuning on 40, 20 and 6 meters is a breeze. I'm not expecting earth shattering performance from a whip on a magmount but at least it will get me on the air and out of the house. I also have an Ampro whip for 40m so I have some options.
I also have the end fed wire and an 11 metre long fishing pole so there's even more flexibility. I have bought a 12 Volt car battery boost starter (essentially a battery in a case with jump leads and a cigar lighter socket attached) to either power the radio or jump start the car once I've flattened the battery.

I have relinquished the 70cm Gateway and have applied for a 2m allocation in its place, due to myself and immediate neighbours experiencing issues with interference to car remote locking fobs. My Gateway frequency is/was 430.500 MHz, which is also channel 40 on the LPD band. As Amateurs and LPD users are secondary users of the 70cm band (the MoD being primary users) and as I live within the confines of an active RAF Base,  I thought it prudent to make the change. I have conducted limited testing on 2m with the AllStar node and it seems to be stable, without interference issues. I'm just waiting for the NoV to be issued, it has been passed by Ofcom so I just need the NoV document to make it all above board.

I'm out and about over the next couple of days - working HF from the car, and I'm looking forward to the experience. I have a number of locations earmarked but if the weather isn't too bad I might just have a ride up the East Coast to the Mablethorpe area, near the salt water, and try some 6m activity.

73 for now, de 2E0ENN 

RF induced Ramblings

Neighbours - who'd have them?
I went out into the garden last Sunday to change over the broken pole for my HF Antenna. I'd been out there for about five minutes when I was accosted by my looney tunes neighbour. He went into a rant about yet more aerials and threatened to report me. For what, I don't know but I retained a dignified manner and didn't rise to the bait (which is unlike me). Then his wife came rushing home from work as he had phoned her to say he was having an epileptic fit. It transpires that my AllStar node blocks their car remote central locking and that my collinear aerial requires planning permission and they can always tell when I'm on the radio because the frequency upsets their dogs. After doorstepping her my XYL was mightily fed up. So, the HF aerial was dismantled and tomorrow the collinear is coming down, even though the installation is within planning regulations. I will leave a smaller aerial up for VHF local use but HF operation will now be either mobile or portable. I have an Ampro 40m mobile whip and I've ordered a Watson Multi Ranger 9 multi band whip and I also have the end fed wire and a 11 metre pole, so I'm set up for some mobile/portable ops this Summer. The FT-897 will be used with a 12V boost starter for power (either to power the radio or to start the car once I've flattened the battery).

Once again the Numpties win. However, I'm not defeated and am looking forward to getting out and about over the Summer to work the bands.

The enrolment form has now been filled in for the Bath Advanced distance learning course and I will be getting into that in July.

I now have two AllStar nodes running. The home node is radioless, being directly linked via a Linux converted laptop. I have a portable Raspberry Pi RF node as well and that will be installed in the car - I just have to remotely mount the Pi, as if the access radio is too close to it my transmitted audio is accompanied by a hum. This is overcome by moving away from the Pi 's psu.

I have updated the control panel software for the DV4 Mini and now have a hard wired ethernet connection to the laptop and it seems to be working much better. I will also be looking into the DV Mega with a Bluestack board for DMR and I'm contemplating getting both Fusion and Dstar handie talkies to complete the Digital station capabilities. 

Doing a spot of Raynet duty in June, covering the Grantham Carnival  and a proposed SES to commemorate the Queen's official birthday.

73 for now de 2E0ENN

Further Rambling News

Another period of relative inactivity radio - wise. After replacing the soggy X510 and further messing about with Raspberry Pi's and a spot of PSK31 activity, there hasn't been much of note to report.

I recently participated in the activation of GB5ROC at Buckminster, a SES hosted by SKARS at the Britain on the Brink event at the former ROC post at Buckminster. Stewart (M0SDM) brought along his ex military Land Rover and 12m push up mast and Andrew (M0NRD) supplied a Yaesu FT-450D and I supplied the biscuits! We had a number of contacts and the weather was good to us and the day was a resounding success.

I can't let a month go by without a radio related purchase, this month's aquisition is a Yaesu MD-100 desk mic. It's possibly the best purchase I've made in a long while, superb audio reports and a much more comfortable operating position whilst coupled to the venerable FT-897D.

I'm presenting a talk on Internet Linked systems on Friday 6th May at SKARS - www.skars.co.uk for details - and I will be demonstrating AllStar with my portable Micro Node.

That's enough for now, further updates as and when there's anything of note to mention!

73 de 2E0ENN

Rambling up the Ladder

I had occasion to remove my X510 Collinear today, due to abnormally high VSWR readings. Not surprisingly, when I disassembled the antenna it was obvious that there was a sealing problem. The antenna comes in three sections and the central element runs right up the middle of the fibreglass enclosure. Each fibreglass section screws together with an 'o' ring to seal the joint. Where the fixings to join the section are, the void around the fixing is sealed with an epoxy resin. On inspection, the resin had separated on both joints and was allowing water ingress - hence the high VSWR. The inner element was saturated and the N connector also had water present.

I have taken the antenna apart and it will be stored until it's dry but I won't be reinstating it. It's not a Diamond item, I went for the cheaper alternative, and the quality shows. The trusted X50 is now on a long (6 metre) pole and the base is about 30ft from the ground. It works much better than the X510 ever did, even when new, so it's staying where it is.

As I write this, I'm sat in the shack, bemoaning the lack of any activity on any of the bands. I'll have to put a few calls out.....

73 de 2E0ENN

Updated Ramblings

My experiences of setting up a node for AllStar have prompted a fair bit of testing and a little code writing, and my latest project - a mobile hotspot. I downloaded and installed the Asterisk image and wrote that to a 16 gig SanDisk micro SD card and uploaded it to my Raspberry Pi2. Software sorted, I then drove a 90 mile round trip to collect a modified Baofeng 888, hard wired to a modified sound fob, which interfaces with the Pi. Hardware sorted. Initially the Pi has to be connected via an ether net cable and Putty (an SSH client) is used to set up the configuration to run the node. All fine so far. Then I had to go into the network configuration file to find the wireless connection to my mobile phone hotspot. After countless visits to Google to find out how to get into the config files, I eventually managed to set up the connection, unplugged the ethernet cable and did a re-boot of the Pi. On re-booting, the Pi did indeed find my phone and I then proceeded to set up the audio on the node. Having set everything up I retired to my much missed bed and left the mobile installation for the next day. Using a 12V to 4.5V adaptor to power the BF-888 and a 2A USB supply for the Pi, I found a convenient spot in the dashboard to install the Pi and the interface and another spot to locate the radio. On test, the initial verdict was that it was all working as it should and I undertook a journey to test the mobile capability. I used the dual band mobile radio installed in my car to activate the node and was informed that there was massive over-deviation. So, I switched to another Baofeng handheld and tried again, this time ensuring that narrow deviation was selected. One user reported my audio as "too loud", another said "too quiet", yet another said "quiet and then loud" and a final operator described it as "just right" - quite which report was accurate is debatable but it seems that individual opinions vary greatly.

Problems continue to plague the DV4 Mini - this time it's software issues. I recently got hold of a Windows tablet, to be able to use the dongle when away, and I downloaded and installed the software and it worked perfectly - in fact it worked better than with the laptop, perhaps due to the tablet having a quad core processor, whereas the laptop only has a dual core. All worked well for a couple of weeks until the software started causing issues. When booted, the DV4 control software initiates in DStar mode, when changing to DMR mode, an exception occurs which closes DV Serial and connection to the dongle is lost. A look on the official software download site proved fruitless as all previous versions of the software had been removed, so rolling back the software version was out. I can't be bothered with it at the moment, so it will remain where it is until I can forgive it's shortcomings. Recent developments with the DVMega project have resulted in a software update which enables connection to the DMR network, using Bluespot software. I think this will be my preferred method of connection in future. In the meantime, I can still use DMR in the car, by utilising the facilities provided by GB7RR - this entails a short drive (about half a mile from home) but that isn't really a big deal to me.

I have experienced a noticeable increase in the VSWR with my X510 Collinear. I initially suspected the feeder but I think there might have been an amount of water ingress into the antenna. With the high winds, the aerial has swayed about a little, and I wonder if that movement has allowed the water in. I will take it down at the weekend and replace it with my X50 - this time on a six metre pole on the T&K brackets on the side of the house. I would think that the shorter length will eliminate any flexing in the wind and, although the antenna has less gain, the increased height shoud improve performance. I will replace the feeder as a matter of course, so I will hopefully have a correctly functioning V/UHF set up again.

The latest radio to be added to the collection is another Kenwood TM-G707, bought second hand from a local amateur for a very reasonable price. I already have one, indoors in the shack and when this new (to me) one came up I jumped at the chance to install it in the car. Receive audio is superb, as is transmit, and I find Kenwood equipment to be particularly well suited for mobile installation.

I really need to stop spending on radio for a while - I could do with saving up for a Yaesu FT-817 for portable use in the upcoming Summer season - I still have the Ampro 40m Whip.

Well, I'll leave it there and until next time - 73 de 2E0ENN