Foundations of Amateur Radio

Latest Episodes:

The Science of Amateur Radio May 01, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

The amateur radio community is as varied as humanity across the globe. It represents an endless supply of ideas and experiments that continue to attract people looking for something new and exiting.

On the face of it, our hobby is about radio and electronics, about propagation and antennas, about modes and contacts, but if you limit your outlook to those topics you'll miss out on a vast expanse of opportunity that is only just beginning to emerge.

Until quite recently, computing in amateur radio was essentially limited to logging and contest scoring. It has evolved to include digital modes like PSK31 and the advent of smaller, faster and cheaper computers in the home has brought the possibility of processing unimaginable amounts of data leading to modes like WSPR and FT8.

In the past I've spoken about how amateur radio means different things to different people. Making contact using a digital internet enabled repeater is sacrileges to one and manna from heaven to another. Between those two extremes there is room to move and explore. Similarly where one uses valves, another expects an integrated circuit. One wants low power, the other wants every Watt they can lay their hands on. Contesting versus rag chewing, nets vs contacts, SSB vs. CW, FT8 vs. RTTY. Each of these attracts a different part of the community with different outcomes and expectations. For some it's about antenna building, others going portable, climbing a mountain, or setting up in a park.

Those are all traditional amateur activities, but the choice and opportunity don't end there.

The longer I play with computers the more I see a convergence in the world, a coming together of technologies and techniques. I've talked about some of this before when in 1994 I produced a competition broadcast promotion for the radio station I was working at, using just a computer in the era of reel-to-reel tape and razor blades. My station manager couldn't quite put his finger on what was different, but with hindsight it represented a landslide change in how radio stations have operated since. Mind you, I'm not saying that I was the first, just the first in that particular radio station.

In many ways computing is an abstract effort. When asked, I like to express it as designing something intangible in an imaginary world using an made up language and getting paid real money to make it happen, well, numbers in my bank account at least.

Within that context, amateur radio is slowly beginning to reap the rewards that come from the exponential growth in home computing power. While the majority of humanity might use the vast amount of CPU cycles to scroll through cat videos online, that access to processing power allows us to do other things as well.

For example, right now I'm playing with the dataset that represents all the WSPR spots since March of 2008. As of now there are around four billion rows of contacts, containing data points like a time-stamp, the transmitter, the receiver, the signal strength, location, direction, and more.

As part of that investigation I went looking for documents containing the words "RStudio" and "maidenhead", so I could consider creating a map in my statistical tool that allowed me to represent my dataset. In making that search I discovered a thesis by a mathematician who was using the reverse beacon network in an attempt to predict which station could hear which transmitter at what time.

In reading the thesis, which I opened because I was looking for an example on how to convert a maidenhead locator into geo-spacial data types in R, a popular statistics platform, I discovered that the author didn't appear to have much, if any, amateur knowledge or experience, but they approached their task, attempting to predict as a mathematician what we in our community call propagation, based on a public dataset, downloaded straight from the reverse beacon network, created by amateurs like you and I.

This interaction between science and the amateur community isn't new. Sometimes it's driven by science, other times it's driven by amateur radio. There's a team exploring the ionospheric prediction models that we've used for decades, popularly referred to as VOACAP or Voice of America Coverage Analysis Program, based on multiple evolutions of empirical models of the ionosphere that were first developed in the 1960's, headed by both a scientist and an amateur, Chris KL3WX.

With the advent of WSPR and the associated data collection some experiments have started to compare the reality of propagation as logged by WSPR to the predicted propagation as modelled by VOACAP. One such experiment happened in 2018 where Chris and his team at HAARP, the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program, set out to make transmissions at specific times and frequencies, using the amateur community logging of WSPR spots to compare their transmissions to the predictions.

Interestingly they did not match. Just think about that for a moment. The tool we love and use all across our community, VOACAP, doesn't match the reality of propagation.

My own playing with WSPR data is driven by the very same thing that I use to be a better contester, a burning curiosity in all things. My VOACAP prediction experience has been poor to date. Setting up my own WSPR beacon is the first step in attempting to discover what my actual propagation looks like, but in doing so, it's also a possible contribution to the wider challenges of predicting propagation based on a dataset with four billion spots. One such approach might be to create an ionospheric prediction map based on actual data and compare that to the models as well as the published space weather maps and combining these efforts into a machine learning project which might give us the next generation of ionospheric prediction tools, but only time will tell.

No doubt I will have to learn more about statistics and machine learning than I expect, but then, that's half the fun.

So, next time you think of amateur radio as being limited to valves, transistors, soldering, antennas and rag chewing on HF, consider that there might be other aspects to this hobby that you have not yet considered.

What other research are you aware of that relates to amateur radio?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

The art of troubleshooting the digital world. Apr 24, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

The lure of digital modes and the opportunities they bring are enough to tempt some amateurs to begin a journey into integrating their radio and computer to make a new world come to life. This isn't without pain or challenge, but the outcomes are so enticing that many embark on this adventure every day.

As a person who has made this trip it's heart warming to see the joy writ large on the face of an amateur who makes their first FT8 contact on a home brew wire dipole rigged together on a Sunday afternoon to take advantage of the latest opening on the 10m band.

On the flip side, it's heart breaking to see an amateur falter at the first hurdle, attempting to make their computer talk to their radio and giving up because it just won't work. At first this attitude bewildered me in a community of experimenters, but over time I've come to understand that sometimes an analogue approach isn't suited to the digital world. There isn't really a place where you can attach your multimeter and see why the serial connection isn't working, nor is there any universal document that can walk you through how to set things up.

So, for you, if you're in a place where you've all but given up, let me see if I can find words to encourage you to keep trying. I'll skip the propaganda about going digital and move straight to making it work.

This might come as a surprise, but in the digital world, things are built in complex layers of interdependence. Said in another way, using an analogy, to turn on a light you need flick a switch, which depends on power to the switch, which depends on power from the fuse box, which depends on power from the street, which depends on power from the substation and so-on.

If you flick the switch and the light stays off, you need to figure out which part of the chain failed. Did it fail at the bulb or at the substation? If the street is dark, do you need to check the fuse box or the bulb? That's not to say that either, or even both, can also be faulty, but there's no point in checking until the street has power.

From a fault finding perspective, the number of variables that you have control over, in the case of a light bulb not switching on, is strictly limited. You can control the bulb and the fuse and in most cases that's about it, the rest of the chain is outside your direct control.

In attempting to make a computer talk to a radio you can be forgiven in thinking that the level of complexity associated with such a trivial task is just as direct and straightforward. Unfortunately, you'd be wrong. It's not your fault. A popular slogan "Plug and Play" made people think that computers were easy to use and control.

The truth is a far darker reality. One of the hidden sources of frustration in the digital world is the extreme level of complexity. In our quest to standardise and simplify we have built a fragile Jenga tower of software that can collapse at any point. Most of the time this is completely invisible but that doesn't cause it to be any less real. Computers are simple, but only if you control the environment. And when I say control, I mean take ownership of each change.

Updating the operating system? Installing a new application? Adding a new peripheral? Changing location? All these things, innocuous as they might seem, can fundamentally alter the behaviour of your environment.

As an example, consider the location of your device. Let's say that you changed the location of your computer, either physically or via a preference. All of a sudden your Wi-Fi network stops working. The one that you used for years. Turns out that changing location changed the Wi-Fi driver to stop using a particular channel, not permitted in your new location. If you're curious, this happened to me last week.

The point being that troubleshooting is about controlling change in that fragile environment.

So, when you're trying to figure out how to make your serial connection work, you need to stop fiddling with everything all at once and change one thing at a time. Discovering the layers of dependency makes this difficult at times, but not impossible.

For example, a working serial connection requires that both ends are physically connected, speaking the same language at the same speed. That depends on the radio being correctly configured, but it also depends on the computer having the right drivers installed. It also depends on the software you're using being configured correctly to talk to the right serial device and the operating system giving your software permission to do so. It depends on the software using the right radio mode and it depends on the radio being switched on.

Now, imagine the serial connection "not working".

Do you check the radio mode before you check if the radio is turned on?

What about the physical connection?

When you're troubleshooting, you cannot just look at the error message on the screen and follow that path. You need to ensure that all the underlying things are working first. You don't check the bulb until there's light in the street. Same thing. No need to worry about the error until you've discovered that the radio is on, the cable connected correctly, the driver installed correctly, the speeds set right and the mode configured properly. If and only if that's all correct, then look at the error.

This becomes harder if it worked yesterday. What changed between then and now? Did your operating system do an update? Did your radio forget its settings? Did the cat jump on your desk and dislodge a cable overnight? Is there an earth fault that caused the serial connection to cease working?

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you cannot find the problem.

At that point you need to take a step back and think about how to prove that something is working in the way that you think it is. Multimeter to a light bulb to check continuity - style. In the case of a serial connection, what can you use to test the link if your favourite tool doesn't work or stopped working suddenly?

I've said this before, but it bears repeating, since it's not obvious.

Troubleshooting is all about discovering and controlling change.

Pick one thing to test, prove that it's correct, then pick the next. Eventually you'll come across a "Duh" moment. Don't sweat it, we've all been there. Now do it again!

What's your best troubleshooting moment?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

How far can you go? Apr 17, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Antennas and propagation are the two single most discussed topics in our hobby, that and how an FT8 contact isn't real. Not a day goes by without some conversation about what antenna is the best one and by how much? In my opinion it's a futile effort made all the worse by so called experts explaining in undeniable gobbledegook, or sometimes even using science, just how any particular antenna is a compromise.

The truth is that most conductive materials radiate to more or lesser degree. Sometimes there is enough of that to make it outside your backyard into the antenna of a fellow hobbyist. To make a point, as is my wont, over the past months I've been conducting an experiment. It's the first in a series all related to antennas and propagation. As has been said, the difference between fiddling and science, is writing it down, so this is me writing it down.

I'm using the tools available to me to explore the various attributes of my station and how it affects what's possible. I will observe that this is within the dynamic nature of the environment, so the solar cycle, solar events, thunderstorms and noise are making an impact. No doubt I'll create a visualisation that links some of those extra variables, but for now I'm just noting that these external events affect what I'm doing.

You might recall that I took delivery of a WSPR beacon a few months ago. If you're unfamiliar, WSPR or Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, is a tool that allows a station to transmit a time synchronised signal on a specific frequency, so other stations can look for, and attempt to decode it. Think of it as a timed Morse code signal and you'll have a pretty close understanding of what it does.

The beacon I purchased was a 200 milliwatt, ZachTek 80To10 desktop transmitter, built by Harry, SM7PNV. It can operate on all the HF bands I'm licensed for and can run all day, every day. It's time-synchronised using a supplied GPS antenna and powered by a Micro USB cable. It's currently connected to my vertical antenna.

That vertical antenna is a homebrew helically wound whip, tuned for the 40m band, clamped to the side of my metal patio roof. It's fed by an SGC-237 antenna coupler which is held by magnets to the roof. A 75 Ohm, RG6 quad shield coax cable, about 20m long, left over from my satellite dish installation days, is connected via several adaptors and coax switches to the beacon.

This is not a fancy set-up by any stretch of the imagination, but it's my station and what I use to get on air to make noise and that's the whole point of this exercise. You might recall that one of the reasons I want to learn Morse is so I can hear an NCDXF beacon and know which one I'm hearing on my own station. In many ways, this is a different way to approach the same problem.

Said plainly, "How do I determine what propagation is like for me, right now, on my own gear?"

There are countless tools available, from the Voice of America VOACAP propagation prediction, through the graphs and charts on clublog.org to the Space Weather Services run by the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia.

All of these tools have one thing in common, they don't use your own gear.

Unsurprisingly, you're likely to wonder what it is that I can achieve with a mere 200 milliwatt transmitter and a vertical. Turns out, quite a lot. As of right now, my WSPR beacon has been heard multiple times over the past three months in the Canary Islands, over 15 thousand kilometres away. The Watts per Kilometre calculation puts that at over 76 thousand kilometres per Watt, not bad for a little amateur station located in the middle of a residential suburb. Did I mention that this was on the 10m band?

I was asked if I would put a pin in my DXCC map, tracking the countries for each of these WSPR reports and my answer to that is "No". This is not a contact, this is a propagation ping. I suppose that I could, if I really wanted to argue the point, which I don't, use a pin if I had a reciprocal report from the other station within a set period of time, but that's not why I'm doing this. The purpose of this exercise is to discover what my station is capable of, what propagation is like, how it changes over time, how uniform my radiation pattern is and how much of the globe can hear my signal.

One observation to make is that much of the West Coast of the United States is a similar distance away from me, but so far there are no reports from that continent. As a quick and dirty test, I'm using my Yaesu radio and 5 Watts for the next day to see if this is an edge case, or if there is something else going on. For example, my house has a peak metal roof, to the West of my antenna. Is it possible that it's affecting the radiation pattern, or is there something else going on, like the neighbour's house that sits to the East?

For all I know the noise floor in the Canary Islands is significantly better than anywhere in the USA, but only time will tell.

I've recently taken delivery of a multi-band vertical antenna which I'm planning to use to replace my current vertical. The main reason being that my antenna coupler cannot tune with 200 milliwatts and to do band-hopping I'd have to re-tune manually each time, not something that is sustainable 24 hours a day.

No doubt that change will bring other discoveries, but then, I'm keeping track.

The intent of all of this is that you can experiment with your own station, test ideas, trial a set-up, keep a log and discover new things that your station presents to you. Amateur Radio is never just about one thing, it's always a dozen different things, all at the same time.

What are you going to discover next?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

After the chaos ... building the ideal shack Apr 10, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

One of the first questions a new amateur asks is "Which radio should I buy?" It's a topic I've discussed at length and the answer "It depends." is unhelpful without doing more research, but after you've done the work, you'll be able to answer it for yourself.

A question that is just as important, but not asked nearly enough, frankly, I've not heard it in the decade I've been part of this community, is: "How should I build my shack?" The answer is just as useful, "It depends."

So, let's explore what precisely your shack design depends on. Let me start with pointing out that I'm not here to give you answers, you can watch hundreds of YouTube videos, read a gazillion web-pages and get no closer than discover how others have answered this question. It wasn't until recently that I understood that it was a question at all, but airing my frustration at the level of dysfunction of my shack unearthed it and in attempting to answer my own question, I started to explore the landscape.

As with choosing a first radio, one of the very first answers you need for yourself about the ideal shack is: "What do you want to use it for?"

That in and of itself is not enough. I had an answer for that, I want to operate my weekly net, I want to do casual HF contesting, have a beacon running and have space for experimentation. It wasn't until Ben VK6NCB suggested that I dedicate a single radio to the weekly net and the contesting and use the other for experimentation, that I discovered that this wasn't going to work for me.

I want to be able to use both my radios at the same time, in a so-called Single Operator Two Radio setup, or SO2R. This will allow me to extend the boundaries of my comfort zone and in doing so, will give me plenty of new things to learn.

So, the question: "What do you want to use your shack for?" is probably the single most important thing you need to discover. If you're like me, the obvious answer is: "Everything!", but reality soon sets in and you might start to create an actual list of things that you want to do. Prompted by Ben's suggestion, I was able to articulate for the very first time something that I didn't want to do. I didn't want to set a radio aside for experimentation. So when you're considering what you want to achieve, also think about what you don't want.

For example, I have no interest in using the 6 meter band at this time. Not because it's a bad band, far from it, it's because I'm not permitted to use it with my current license. Same for the 23 cm band. This means that I don't have to find ways of making my shack accommodate those two bands. My current license permits me access to precisely six bands and the station I'm building only needs to access those bands at the moment. That brings me to the next question for the ideal shack design.

"How long do you expect the layout to last?"

For example, are you going to build a new building for your shack, for the next 50 years, or is it something that's going to last for the weekend? Is your shack going to be moved, or is it something a little more permanent? Are you going to change your needs and should you incorporate some of that into your design, or are you perfectly happy with what you're doing today? You have to remember, this is your shack, not mine, not your friends, yours. It means that it needs to accommodate what you want.

The next question, boring as it might be, "How much money are you going to spend?"

Building a whole new shack out of a catalogue is perfectly fine, but you might discover that the gear you have today is ample to get your shack started. You might leave space for a different piece of kit, or you might decide that the shack needs changing when a new shiny piece of equipment arrives in a nondescript brown box.

Some other things to consider are, "What operating actually looks like?"

I've seen shack videos that look like a tour through a radio museum with more radios than I have keys on my keyboard, sometimes all connected, other times, just stored on shelves to look at.

Are you going to have more than one radio operating at the same time and if so, how are you planning to control them? How many antennas are connected to this shack and how do you track which antenna is connected to which radio?

What are you going to do about power? Does everything run on mains power, or are you going to build a 13.8 Volt supply for all your gear?

Where are you planning to put computer screens, what about keyboard, mouse, Morse key and antenna switching controls? In other words, "What do the ergonomics of your shack look like?"

Remember, there is no right answer. The answer you come up with is yours and yours alone. Look at things that work for you and take note of things that make you wince when you see it in another shack somewhere. That's not to say that you should be dismissive, rather, use the opportunity to ask the shack owner why they made that choice. Who knows, it might cover something you hadn't considered yet.

So, what does your ideal shack look like?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

In the beginning there was chaos... Apr 03, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Over the weekend I learnt to my chagrin that my shack was not ready for the contest I decided to participate in for an hour. Truth be told, it was probably me who wasn't ready, but I'm going to blame my shack, since it can't argue and besides this is my story.

It started off with turning on the HF radio. That involved turning off my 10m WSPR beacon which is transmitting its little heart out 24 hours a day into the one vertical antenna it shares with my HF radio.

Turning off the beacon was simple enough, reach into the mass of cable and dig out the USB power lead that plugs into the beacon. Then follow the antenna coax to the correct switch. Whoops, that's the GPS coax, the other one, there's the switch, now switching it to the HF radio.

Why didn't the sound change, actually, come to think of it, what sound? Hmm, the audio is going into, nothing, actually, it's going into the audio mixer that's turned off. Turn that on. Then audio at last, nope. Hmm, oh wait, the audio needs to go from the HF radio, not the VHF radio that's configured to do some audio spectrum recording. Turn off the Raspberry Pi at the same time, since there's no more audio going into that and who needs more potential noise? Locate the two audio plugs that go into the radio audio adaptor, disconnect the Pi audio, connect the radio audio, now, which one is the microphone?

Now I've got it all plugged in, still no audio. Hmm, two of the mixer channels are muted. Turn on one, radio goes into TX, that's not good. Turn it off, radio stops transmitting, sigh of relief. Turn on the other channel, finally hear some squeaky sounds. Ahha, it's coming from the headset.

Don the headset, now I've got glorious mono in my brain. Test the microphone, nothing. Hmm, ah the switch on the microphone lead. Now I've got RX and TX going. Yay, victory!

Now turn on the computer so I can do some logging. Fire up my trusty, wait, which tool? The one I normally use for casual contesting hasn't seen a new version since the author became a silent key, no idea if the rules for this contest are still current, fire up the next one, that needs a brand new configuration file, but that means reading the manual and I've got more important things to do.

Try another one, Yes, that's got the rules ready to go. No idea if the rules are current, but at least there's no configuration file to contend with.

At this point I'm two hours into my one hour contesting window and I have to stop. Haven't even tuned the antenna and I'm already out of time.

Hmm, this shack is rigged.

Wonder who I should blame for that?

Some days all good intentions come together. Other days they don't. There's always the next contest.

Lessons learnt, my shack needs a serious rethink on how best to set it up so I can operate daily, experiment and accommodate a casual contest. Looks like I'm off to the hardware store for some brackets and my documentation clearly needs updating, actually, truthfully, needs writing.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Planning for an emergency... Mar 27, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Identifying the problem is the first step in fixing it and with that I want to talk about emergencies. One of the very first things I was told about our amateur radio community was that we're here for when emergencies happen. Our purpose is to communicate, so in a crisis, we can assist by supplying communication to the situation.

I've talked about some of this before. Preparedness in the way of on-air training by contesting, in getting gear ready and even exercises for when this occurs. There are amateur clubs dedicated to putting up repeaters for just such an eventuality.

Recently there was a local news item about radio amateurs banding together, sending gear to fellow amateurs who were hit by severe flooding that wiped out their shack and with it their ability to communicate.

Another event was a friend who lost a big chunk of his shack when his basement flooded.

Across Australia and in other parts of the world in recent times we've been witness to the most devastating fires that destroyed entire towns and communities, taking with it infrastructure, communications, not to mention stock, local flora and fauna and entire wildlife ecosystems, bringing some to extinction levels.

The destruction doesn't end there. War and famine, drought, cyclones, hurricanes or typhoons, snow storms, heatwaves and the like.

All those situations can to greater or lesser degree benefit from amateur radio communications, either for amateurs affected, or for the community at large.

I started considering what would actually be required to be useful in such a situation. Could you be prepared for anything, or are you required to pick and choose? What does "being prepared" actually look like and what steps can you take once it's happening?

I asked myself if sending radio gear to amateurs who are affected by floods is the most effective way to actually help, or would it be better to pass the hat around and send the proceeds to their bank account?

Should you as an amateur drive into an emergency area and start communicating, or are there better ways to help?

There are local amateur radio emergency service groups under various names in different countries, some of which are highly effective, others much less so.

One attempt I made was to join the local volunteer state emergency services. For several reasons that didn't work out for me, but it remains a viable option for some.

Joining those types of groups gives you a framework, but does it actually answer the underlying question, that of effectiveness?

I have a drawer full of emergency service training manuals, each more dense than the next, but very little of it relates to the amateur radio. Many pages are dedicated to search and rescue, staying alert, first aid, keeping alive, hand signals, log books, mapping and the like.

I am left wondering why we as a community, with a proud century of activity, having one of the main principles as emergency communication appear to have such a poor track record of actually considering what dealing with an emergency looks like and what your own individual place could be in that situation.

We document our radios, antennas, power supplies, contacts, circuit board designs, contesting procedures and all the rest of it, but we don't seem to do the same for emergencies.

Why is that?

In my opinion, it's time to document emergency amateur radio and if you have already started, get in touch.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Why do we communicate? Mar 20, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

The art of amateur radio is many things to many people. For me it's a technological challenge, a learning, a way to broaden my experience, a way to be technically active away from my consultancy. The place that amateur radio takes in your life might be the same, or it might be completely different, as varied as the people I've encountered since I became an amateur.

People from all walks of life with different experiences and vastly different stories. Truth be told, in the decade that I've been an amateur, I've spoken to and met people from more diverse backgrounds than in the forty years before that. I make that statement as a person who migrated across the globe twice, travelled through a dozen or so countries, stood on stage in front of thousands of people, taught countless classes and as a radio broadcaster interviewed people from all over the planet.

From paraplegic to quadriplegics, from people with terminal diseases to people struggling with their identity, from astronomers to astrologers, from train drivers to truck drivers, from mariners to motorcyclists, from working to retired, from healthy to hospitalised, from local to remote, from energetic to sedentary, from happy to sad, from connected to isolated and everything in between.

As a host of a weekly net for new and returning amateurs I've begun to notice that some people are falling away, either sitting on the side because they feel that they have nothing to contribute, or stopping communication altogether.

It occurred to me that for some people amateur radio is the only way that they connect to the world around them. It's the only way for them to meet people who are different, who walk a different path, who tell a different story. It's also sometimes the only thing that makes them get out of bed.

In a world where we're all busy, dealing with the realities of daily life, trying hard to figure out what our place is in that experience and trying hard not to lose your identity while you're attempting this, it's easy to overlook the amateur you didn't hear from for a week or a month.

I know that for several of my new friends, amateur radio kept them alive for longer and made them smile more often and made their life a little easier, even if several of them have become a Silent Key since I counted them as my friend.

When one of the main activities of our hobby is communication, it seems appropriate to take a moment to consider what that looks like from the other person's perspective. What might it be like to be acknowledged, to be validated as a human, to see them and their life, to speak with them, even if only briefly, and to take a moment out of our own busy existence and answer that CQ, or respond to a question, or smile with a fellow amateur.

There is another aspect to this, one which I've not actually seen in the amateur community. Perhaps I've been too busy to notice, but it appears that the venerable telephone circle, the idea that one person calls the next person on the list, who then calls the next and so-on. If the last person doesn't get a call within a set time, they call the list backwards and discover who is not answering their phone. It's an effective way for people to regularly talk to each other and it's an excellent way to make sure that everyone is OK.

In our own community of amateurs we can do the very same thing. Hosting a net is one way, having a daily commuter chat is another, but when you do this, take a moment to consider who didn't check in and see what they're up to.

It's fascinating to me that we're a hobby that's primarily made of old men, yet we haven't actually embraced our own ageing process as part of the experience. Sure there is a need to encourage new people into the hobby, but that's not the entire story. We should be so lucky as to speak with our friends on a regular basis, to check-in with each other and to make sure that we're all getting our daily dose of RF.

So, ask yourself how the community around you is doing and how you might take a moment to check-in with those not so near, but just as dear to you.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Introduction to the terms of contesting Mar 13, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

One of my favourite activities is contesting. Essentially it's a time-limited activation of your station for the purposes of testing your skill and station against other participants. Contests are controlled by rules as varied as the amateur community itself.

That said, there are common terms and concepts and if you're not familiar with them, they can lead to confusion and disappointment when you inadvertently break a rule and see your hard work vanish into thin air.

I will note that what I'm discussing here is not universally true, so read the rules for each contest you participate in, something you should already be doing since rules are refined over time and it's rare to keep the same rules between years.

A contest starts and stops at a specific time, often expressed in UTC, or Universal Coordinated Time. You should know what your local timezone is in relation to UTC and take into account any variations like Summer and Winter time. Any contacts made outside these times don't count and you cannot log these against the contest.

Each contact or QSO is awarded a set number of points. It might be scored based on mode, band, power, time and sometimes distance. To encourage specific types of contacts, some might attract a score of zero. This does not mean that the contact is useless, which I'll get to shortly.

Your score is the sum of all the points you make for each contact. I will mention that contest logging software can track this to make your life easier, although it comes at the price of requiring a computer.

Sometimes a prohibited contact attracts penalties. Prohibited, as-in, by the rules of that contest. For example, some allow you to contact the same station more than once, others allow this only if you do it on a different band.

Speaking of bands. It's not permitted to make contest contacts on the WARC bands. In 1979, the World Administrative Radio Conference allocated the 30m, 17m and 12m bands for amateur use. These are not used for contesting. To avoid a contest, you can use those bands, but truth be told, you should try to use all the bands, even during contests, since it will help you operate your station in adverse conditions, something worth practising.

Many contests allocate additional scoring based on state, country, DXCC entity, CQ or ITU zone, prefix, or all of these together.

Both the CQ and ITU zones represent regions of the world. The CQ zones are managed by CQ Magazine and the ITU zones are managed by the International Telecommunications Union. A zone is represented by a number.

The DXCC is a system that tracks individual countries across the globe. If you make contact with 100 of these places, you've achieved your DX Century and you join the DX Century Club, or DXCC.

Consider a contact with me. You'd have a contact with VK6FLAB. It would also be a contact with the VK6 prefix, the VK DXCC entity, CQ zone 29 and ITU zone 58. If that's not enough, it would also be a contact with OC-001, the IOTA or Islands On The Air designation for Australia.

This is useful because for some contests these extra features represent points, often significant ones, generally referred to as a "multiplier".

To calculate your score, tally up all your contact points, then count all the features, CQ Zones, the ITU Zones, DXCC entities, states, countries, etc. and multiply your score with that count. If you contact 10 callsigns and get one point for each, you have 10 points. If in doing so you contact five contest features, you end up with an overall score of 50 points.

Often contests have different categories and rules for transmitter power level, the number of transmitters and the number of operators.

Definitions for these vary. High Power might be 400 Watts in Australia, but 1500 Watts in the United States. QRP or very low power might be 10 Watts in one contest, but 5 in another, so check.

Some contests have an assisted category where you're permitted to use tools like the DX Cluster where other stations alert you online to their presence on a particular frequency.

There is a concept of an overlay, where how long you've held your license, your age, working portable, battery operated, using a wire antenna or mobile, groups you with others doing the same thing. This means that you could be a rookie, youth, portable, battery, wire antenna, single assisted operator, all at the same time. It often pays to consider who else is in a particular group and make your claims accordingly.

If you're contesting with more than one person, a Multi station, there are rules for that too. Sometimes this includes the amount of land a contest station is permitted to use.

If you're a Multi-Single station, you might be permitted to use one transmitted signal on one band during any 10 minute period.

A Multi-Two might be permitted to use two simultaneous transmitted signals, but they must be on two different bands.

A Multi-Multi may activate all six contest bands at the same time, but only use one transmitter per band.

Some contests have a Short Wave Listener or SWL category, where you log all stations heard. There is also the concept of a check-log, where you log all your contacts, submit them, but don't enter the contest itself. You might have worked stations during the contest, but not according to the rules, because you might be aiming to get your DXCC. Submitting your log will help the contest organisers check other entries and validate the scores of the stations you contacted.

This might all be daunting, but if you read the rules of a contest and you're not sure, every contest manager I've ever spoken to is more than happy to help you understand what's allowed and what isn't.

One tip. Contesting is as much about the rules that are written as it is about the rules that are not. If you find a gap in the rules, and it doesn't go against the spirit of the contest, you're absolutely encouraged to use that to your advantage. If you do, you'll quickly discover why the rules change so often.

Preparation is everything!

I'm Onno VKFLAB

It beeps! Mar 06, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

After weeks of attempting to get some noise, any noise out of my PlutoSDR I have finally cracked it. Not sure if cracked it refers to my sanity or the outcome, but beeping was heard from the Pluto on my radio, so I'm doing victory laps around the house, all conquering hero type affair, complete with whooping and hand waving.

In the end it all came down to serendipity and truth be told, I know it beeps, I've heard it beep, it does so on a predictable frequency, but why it exactly works is still a mystery that has yet to be discovered since the documentation I have isn't sharing and the example code I have contradicts what I'm seeing.

For context, a PlutoSDR, or Pluto, is a very capable software defined radio, perfect for experimentation. I've talked about it before in the context of using it as a receiver.

My most recent efforts involved coaxing my Pluto out of a corner after it sat there sulking for weeks. Turns out that not only was my USB power lead broken, which caused the blinken lights to stay off. When I finally figured that out, I discovered that one of the two wireless dongles I'd purchased together was Dead On Arrival. After a frustrating morning with the manufacturer who wouldn't take my word for it that swapping out the two identical units would not require installing the driver, something about Windows Device Manager on my Linux computer, I went back to the store who happily swapped out the faulty device on the spot. Mind you, the Pluto still isn't talking to my wireless network, but at least it's not the dongle anymore.

I plugged the Pluto into the back of my main workstation and discovered to my surprise that in addition to showing up as a thumb-drive, which I knew about, it also turned up as a network device, which I didn't know about.

It's been a while since I powered this up to play, so I updated the firmware which fixed some annoying issues and started to explore.

The aim of my quest was to create a proof of concept beep from the command-line on the Pluto.

If you're not familiar with this. The Pluto is running a flavour of Linux. You can connect to its command-line and run commands from inside the hardware.

This is important because for most radios, of both the analogue and software kind, you generate the information somewhere, like Morse Code, a WSPR signal, your voice, what-ever and then you send that to the radio. On an analogue radio it's likely to go across an audio cable of some sort and if you have a software defined radio, it's likely to travel from your computer across a USB or network cable to the radio to get processed.

This is different in that there is no such signal coming across the USB link. The link is used as a network cable to ssh into the radio where you can generate whatever you want. In my case Morse. If you're not familiar with ssh, think of it as a keyboard connection to a remote computer.

My script, hacked together as it is, more on that shortly, takes a string, like say "CQ DE VK6FLAB" and processes that character by character. It converts each into the equivalent Morse code dits and dahs and then uses those to turn on a test tone for an appropriate amount of time.

So, to send "CQ", the script changes that into -.-. --.- and then turns on the transmitter for three units, off for one, on for one, off for one, on for three, off for one, etc.

This is Morse code at its very simplest, the software equivalent of holding down a Morse key for the correct amount of time and then releasing it.

I disparagingly called it hacked together, because it's using the in-built busybox command shell that comes with the Pluto. If you're familiar, the actual shell is called ash, or Almquist shell. It's strictly limited in functionality, no arrays, minimal redirection, all very basic. Perfect for what I want to do, but not so much if you want to write software.

After working around the lack of arrays, one of the things that caused me the most problems was to discover just how to setup the Pluto to actually do this. I found a couple of examples online that pretended to work, claimed to be doing what they said they were, but nothing was heard on my local analogue radio. At one point I heard clicks, but no beeping.

After spending literally hours testing, scanning up and down the radio dial with my Yaesu FT-857d, I stumbled on a tone that stopped when my test script stopped. I started the script again and the tone came back. When it ended, the tone stopped again. I finally had a relationship between a tone on the PlutoSDR and the frequency on my radio.

So, with all manner of funky offsets in my code, subject to me understanding the how and what of them, I can now beep to my hearts content. Of course I've shared my efforts on github, cunningly called Pluto Beacon.

Have a look and tell me what I did wrong.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

What happens when you plug it in? Feb 27, 2022

Show notes

Foundations of Amateur Radio

The other day I took delivery of a shiny new circuit board populated with components and connectors. Knowing me, you'd assume that I'd been the recipient of some kind of software defined radio gadget and you'd be right.

One of the connectors was a micro USB socket, intended to be used to plug the hardware into a computer and to drive the circuit board.

The board came to me by way of a friend who saw it online, waxed lyrical about it and for less than $35, who could begrudge this exploration into a new toy?

Once it arrived, it sat on my shelf for a few weeks, enticingly packed in an anti-static bag, transparent enough to see the device inside, taunting me to open it up, plug it in and have some fun.

Today I opened it up and started researching my new gadget. It didn't come with any user manual, no URL, no model number, but it did have a callsign on it, so I started there. I'll note that I'm not going to repeat that callsign here for a number of reasons, which I'll get to.

My exploration discovered a site where this device was being sold. It also unearthed several international amateur radio forums describing what appeared to be this device, including circuit diagrams and specifications.

What I found harder to discover was software.

It appears that I have a clone of a device that may still be manufactured, or not, I cannot tell. I found some example code on github for the original hardware, but it seemed to require other libraries, but didn't actually specify those anywhere.

I opened up an online translation tool and started translating some of the wording on the circuit board in an attempt to discover just what information was written on the board.

The wording was clearly from a different culture, a different perspective and while it claims to come from a maker space that appears to promote women, it also contained a militaristic phrase which caused me to pause.

In that moment I came to a sudden and abrupt realisation.

How do I know what this piece of hardware actually does?

How do I know if when I plug it into the first available USB socket on my computer, it won't install anything nefarious, start connecting to the internet and start doing something unexpected? There's enough hardware on the circuit board to do that and even if the labels on the components tell me that they are a specific integrated circuit, how do I know that it actually is that chip?

The chips on this circuit appear to have a lot more connectivity than a simple receiver might warrant. One has 40 pins, the other 32. If the label is accurate, the data sheet for one of the chips indicates that it includes an 8-bit micro controller among its various functions.

I'll admit that I'm coming from an IT security background at this and you are free to argue that I'm being paranoid, but does that make me wrong?

I know that I don't know enough about this particular board or its origins that for now it's going to remain inside its anti-static bag, taunting me with the possibilities of the connectors it offers, but until I know more about the provenance of this gadget, it's going nowhere near any of my computers.

If you have suggestions on how to proceed, don't be shy. I did briefly consider plugging it into a Pi, but how would I know if it updated the firmware, forever compromising that Pi?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this board does any of this. My point is around discovering if it does, or not, one way or another.

No doubt some might think I'm overly suspicious and there is truth in that, but in my profession it pays to be vigilant. The underlying issue is that of validation. There's anti-virus software available to deal with malicious code, but how do you do such a thing for malicious hardware?

Again, I'm not saying that this circuit board is doing anything other than being a USB connected receiver, but how would you know? How would you verify that? And how do we in the amateur community weed out the nefarious tools from the legitimate ones?

I'll leave you with one thought. When was the last time you plugged your phone into a free charger on the bus or at the airport? How do you know that your phone wasn't hacked?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected