New Year Ramble

Well, that's Christmas and New Year over with. I have to say that radio activity for me has been quiet over the Festive period, due to being away for a large part of it and away from the shack.

Since returning four days ago, I have had MB6IAG running on the UK Hub Net on Wires-X and have heard little or no activity. There was a net publicised on the NWIS room for New Years Eve, where stations from all over the world were invited to take part and celebrate the New Year from wherever in the World they were, in real time, but that was also under subscribed.

There was a short local net on 2m on New Years Eve, for an hour or so earlier in the evening, but I couldn't make it to the radio due to visitors.

The Gateway is running at the moment and apart from a few overs earlier, there has been nothing for at least three hours. Admittedly I haven't called either as I'm doing other things, and I suspect that is what everyone else is doing.

This all points toward a distinct lack of activity in general. Could this be a sign that the Hobby is in decline? I know of several Operators locally to me who have forsaken the hobby to pursue other interests. Propagation on HF has been poor, lack of activity on other bands and modes and general disinterest have contributed to ghostly silences of late.

I'm concerned that we will soon have no hobby, despite record numbers of Licensees, where are they all?

New Year, new objectives -  I intend to get the studying in and the Advanced exam under my belt this year. I did say the same last year but circumstances led to my time being prioritised in other directions. I also want to tackle Morse this year - its something I feel I'm missing out on at the moment, so to have that capability in the arsenal would be an advantage.

I'm looking forward to the Spring and better weather to go out portable - it's awfully chilly at the moment, so I haven't been out lately.

VoIP seems to be growing in popularity and I have plans afoot to become more involved with AllStar and EchoLink - if the inactivity on 2m and 70cm continues it will soon be the only way to talk to anyone.

Anyway, let's hope that things will improve somewhat and in the meantime, I will carry on regardless.

For now 73 de 2E0ENN

Gateway to Rambling Heaven

I have been bemoaning my absolutely abysmal broadband connection for quite some time now. It was slow, unreliable and would drop - out at the drop of a hat. Well, that seems to be all in the past now, as I have a super - fast, high speed fibre connection now. It's been connected for 36 hours without a single drop out and the up and download speeds are improved threefold. The upshot of all this is that MB6IAG  (my Wires-X gateway) now operates as flawlessly as it can.

Heartened by this improvement I have obtained a second Yaesu FTM-100DE. The original FTM-100 is installed as node radio and the gateway operates through that and the HRI-200 interface, while the second FTM-100 is used for node access, local FM and to access the DV4 Mini.

The FT-817ND still continues to give a great deal of pleasure. I have found a superb spot for /P work and last Sunday I had a couple of hours working HF. I managed a QSO with a portable station in Denmark on 40m and a contact into Canada on 20m, amongst others which were mainly European stations, and all on just 5 Watts. Pound for pound that little radio has given better value in terms of enjoyment and functionality than any of my other radio purchases.

I'm still disappointed at not being able to have a decent V/UHF antenna at home but at least with the Internet Linked and Digital modes I am able to carry on enjoying the hobby. To be honest, working /P suits me fine - at least it gets me out of the house and into the fresh air.

And there I will leave it for now. Tune in next time for another exciting edition.........

73 de 2E0ENN

Ramblings

It's been almost a month since I set up my Wires-X gateway and I can report that it appears to be working well, despite not holding a solitary QSO on it! There are countless nodes and rooms connected but few, if any, conversations happening  I have called out on numerous occasions in various rooms and, apart from US rooms, I have heard next to nothing. I wonder why this is? Maybe it's a low number of operators on the system? Doubtful, as a glance at the connected node list shows thousands world wide. Are we becoming a hobby filled with licenced SWL's? It's a great shame, as the audio quality is superb, the infrastructure of the Wires-X system is extremely sound and the potential for a huge uptake is certainly there. Even using the Fusion reflectors in the FCS system shows a distinct lack of activity.

D-STAR is very busy at times, I connect to REF001 C regularly and there is always a lot of traffic. Granted, D-STAR has been around for much longer and there are far more people using it, but the audio in comparison with C4FM is a little "robotic".

As for DMR, the almost constant monitoring by the "DMR Police" and the equally constant changes in the infrastructure, and the Politics involved with the various networks has spoiled a once pleasurable experience.

AllStar has not been without its difficulties as well. There has recently been a "branching out" where members of the UK Hub have splintered away to form HUBNet UK, taking users and splitting the community. It's impossible to pledge an allegiance to one particular "network", I just want to talk to people regardless of their particular differences.

Locally, the already depleted ranks of operators on 2m have dwindled away to the occasional few. Not so long ago a QSO could be guaranteed almost every evening, but not so now. Even use of repeaters has decreased to the levels that would not justify a Repeater Keeper continuing.

What do I glean from all of this? I suspect that there are many disillusioned Amateurs out there. There are the "Die Hards" who only use Simplex, Analogue and decry "new fangled ideas" such as Digital and Internet Linked systems. There are the up-takers of systems like DMR, who are put off by the almost constant derision by those who are seldom heard in a QSO. They only come on air to chastise those who they perceive to have transgressed. The fact is that, regardless of the means used, it's all about talking to people. Why participate in a hobby that involves communication if you don't wish to speak to anyone? So, let's put the calls out, let's answer a few of those calls and get talking again!

On a somewhat lighter note, the FT-817 is still impressing me greatly. It really is a superb radio, and if power (or the lack of it) is an issue, just look at some of the QRP forums out there to see just what can be achieved with a measly 5W. I bought a Moonraker SPX100 portable multi-band antenna to use with the 817 and I have to report that as a dummy load it is as useless as it is as an antenna. It is not resonant (at all) on any of the bands and flatly refuses to tune with a tuner. Even adding counterpoises has made little difference, so my Hamfest bargain has flopped somewhat. All is not lost though, my trusty wire with un-un is still doing its job. I have it mounted on a 10 metre fishing pole, as a vertical, and it still tunes 80m to 6m with no problems. Granted, it's a compromise antenna, but for portable use its fine. It telescopes down to a metre in length and can easily be carried whilst out and about.

Last weekend was JOTA and myself and other members of South Kesteven Amateur Radio Society activated the Scout Hut at Foston for the event. I was unable to participate on the Saturday but managed to spend the whole of Sunday operating and assisting with the station. Best contact of the weekend was into Cyprus, and many European stations were also logged. The Cubs, Beavers and Scouts all had a whale of a time, as did Stewart, Andrew, Richard and myself. Looking forward to next year.

Not much else to report, but watch this space.....

73 de 2E0ENN

QRP and other Ramblings

Back on HF at last! My lovely other half got me a Yaesu FT-817 for my birthday, I've added a Z817 tuner and a multi-band antenna and I now have the ideal portable set-up. As a power source I have one of those car boost starter units - very small but packed with multi-voltage outputs and runs the 817 very well. As I write this I'm out in the car putting the set-up through its paces and I have to say that I'm mightily impressed.

Last weekend saw the National Hamfest,  just down the road from me at Newark. I went on the Saturday and had a fantastic day, meeting up with friends and making new ones. I collected my competition prize from the Practical Wireless stand, in conjunction with Yaesu UK. The Yaesu FTM-100 and HRI-200 interface are now up and working my Gateway, MB6IAG, on System Fusion/Wires-X. I did encounter a small problem with the interface in that it was the review model used by the magazine and had been previously registered on the Yaesu system. An e-mail to Yaesu quickly resolved the conflict and it's now working well.

JOTA is upcoming this month and it's my favourite event of the year. Members of South Kesteven A.R.S. (www.skars.co.uk) will be activating the event for several Scout groups in the Grantham area and I'm hoping to be there, all being well.

SKARS now hold a weekly net on a Wednesday evening using GB3GR and it is well attended. GR is Echolink (GB3GR-R) and AllStar  (node 28202) enabled, so if you wish to participate, please do. The net starts at 20:00 GMT and all-comers are very welcome.

Back to the radio for a bit longer now....

73 de 2E0ENN

Rambling On........

What's been happening Radio-wise since my last Blog? Well, I've now got more or less full Digital capability. I have acquired a D-STAR Icom ID-51 handheld, along with a second DV4 Mini and a Yaesu FT-1XD Fusion handheld.

I have one DV4 Mini coupled with a Pipo X8 Windows device that I use for Fusion and DMR, and the second DV4 Mini is coupled to a second Pipo X8 for D-STAR.

Activity is a bit limited on the FCS Reflectors for Fusion, but I suspect that word will get out and the number of users will grow. There is a lot of Fusion activity using WIRES-X and I hope to eventually get a Yaesu FTM-100D and WIRES-X box. D-STAR is a bit more lively with plenty of activity on REF0001C, so there's plenty of traffic to keep me occupied. DMR remains a small issue with the DV4 Mini in that it's awfully tricky to get just right with the settings, however it works sufficiently well provided I keep my overs short.

After months of indecision, I finally took the plunge and drilled a hole in the roof of the car to hard mount the SG7900 Super Gainer aerial for 2m and 70cm. I'm very glad I did, as signals are hugely improved over the triple magmount. Received signals are at least 2 to 3 S points higher and I suspect my transmitted signal is improved.

Back in the early 1980's, when I was a teenager, I had a CB radio. I had a shack and a Silver Rod half wave aerial and spent hours playing radio with fellow CB'ers in the local area. It fell out of favour for me when it became a haunt for ne'er do wells and the language and music playing made it an unpleasant experience. Fast forward to the present day and I notice that in my area are a number of Amateurs who still dabble with "The Dark Side". I have found an old Jesan KT-750 handheld CB and, after cleaning it up and installing fresh Ni-Mh batteries, it still works perfectly, so that's another weapon in the arsenal.

Have a listen out on AllStar  (nodes 41522 and 27066) D-STAR REF 0001C and Fusion  FCS001-55 for a natter sometime.

73 for now, de 2E0ENN

Clarified Ramblings

Having set up and used VoIP systems for a little while I thought I would provide a layman's guide to what it is, how it works, what's needed to operate it and general information.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a means of communication whereby the service provider hosts a server that can be accessed via the Internet by its users. Voice (and data) traffic is sent to and from the server and users communicate in this way. To access the server, users are given log in credentials and these are used when signing in to the service.

There are many ways of placing your traffic onto the server: directly by PC using the sound card/mic and speakers, by connecting a radio via an interface to the computer being used to access the server and by mobile phone device access using dedicated software.
The software used transfers the traffic using a coding system that the servers can decode into voice.

EchoLink, for example, takes your voice traffic either directly from the PC (User mode) or from the node radio, via a connecting interface, to your PC (Sysop mode). You simply "dial in" the node number of the person you wish to speak to and, once connected, you conduct the conversation.

It really is basically that simple. There are more technicalities in how the systems actually work but for a layman's guide this should suffice.

Different systems (EchoLink, IRLP, All star etc.) can be linked with bridging software, however this is quite complex and best left to the experts.

BROADNET

BroadNet is a commercial VoIP service and is used mainly for professional communications via the Internet. BroadNet do offer a service for exclusive use by Radio Amateurs. Their UK NET gives access to registered users and there is a bridge into the AllStar UK Hub. They supply a mobile phone adapted for use with the service, which looks like a radio but is in fact an Android mobile phone with a PTT switch and external antenna. Access is via mobile phone data and it is supplied SIM free and can also be used for calls and texts, as it uses the mobile network.

If anybody needs any help or more information on setting up for VoIP, drop me an email 2e0enn@mail.com and I'll walk you through it

73 de 2E0ENN

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