Category: software

Information about Ham Radio software

FT8 with WebSDR as receiver

I’ve experimented using a WebSDR.org receiver for FT8, while using my own antenna for transmitting. Reason for this is the S9++ QRN I have on the 160-meter band. The set-up is quite easy. I’m using a Mac Mini in the shack, but it has a Windows 10 Bootcamp partition for regular Ham Radio software. Install …

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Icom IC-9700 firmware update v1.10

Icom just released new firmware for the IC-9700. The version is bumped from v1.06 to v1.10 and should fix the ‘drift problem’ which some experience. Icom also added a new function: The 10 MHz ref. input can now be used to permanently sync the external 10 MHz source to the internal oscillator, instead of only …

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The FT8 farmer

Did I already mention rule 1 till 3 if you transmit in digimodes? 1. Check your ALC 2. Check your ALC 3. Check your ALC Don’t be a farmer spreading out harmics on the complete spectrum like the guy below. Your ALC shout *not* come in red. Or even better: not giving a bar at …

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Pluto SDR hack: Add a 2nd CPU core

The Pluto SDR is easily ‘hacked’ to extend the frequency range from 325-4000 MHz to 70-6000 MHz as described earlier. Another hack is to enable the 2nd CPU core on the ADALM Pluto. After logging in to the unit, ‘cat /proc/cpuinfo’ shows only one core. Now enter ‘fw_setenv maxcpus’ in the console and reboot the …

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Icom IC-9700 and N1MM+

The problem with new transceivers is the lack of support for drivers in programs like Ham Radio Deluxe, WSJT-X (OmniRig), N1MM+ and MicroHam drivers. Just to name some programs I juse often. After playing around I found a way using the IC-9700 with N1MM+ by emulating an IC-7300 wich has about the same architecture. All …

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Icom IC-9700 and WSJT-X

The problem with new transceivers is the lack of support for drivers in programs like Ham Radio Deluxe, WSJT-X (OmniRig), N1MM+ and MicroHam drivers. Just to name some programs I juse often. After playing around I found a way using the IC-9700 with WSJT-X by emulating an IC-7300 wich has about the same architecture. My …

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WSJT-X: Error Loading LotW Users Data

When startin WSJT-X v2.0, an error is shown saying: “Error Loading LotW Users Data”. Dit is due to Windows systems not hndling Intermediate CA’s correctly when retrieving the LotW user data file thats been served from a secured website. The solution is simple. Start WSJT-X and click on file -> Open log directory. Than, manually …

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23cm receiver PI6NOS

I’ve build an extra 23cm receiver for the regional 23cm repeater system PI6NOS in Hilversum. Building was quite straightforward. Just take a Raspberry Pi, an RTL-SDR stick and connect it to an antenna (using a band-pass filter not to overload the RTL-stick with crap). The repeater system is based on an svxlink controller so just …

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N1MM+ and Icom IC-7300 Waterfall

The developers of N1MM+ software released a new build Amongst bugfixes there is one new feature to mention. Waterfall support for the Icom IC-7300. Read more on the N1MM Logger+ Facebook page or the documentation page on the website. https://www.facebook.com/N1MMLogger/posts/1353285571407733

Programming Baofeng UV-5R

I’ve ordered a Baofeng UV-5R to do some experiments using a Raspberry Pi to encode an audio stream. Today I ran against some issues programming the device. Using a Wouxun cable which has the same pin lay-out as the Baofeng (Kenwood compatible) and installing the latest driver the problem was that when reading out the …

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New website: Hamnieuws.nl

(Dutch only). De afgelopen dagen ben ik bezig geweest met de lancering van hamnieuws.nl, een website die een overzicht moet geven van verschillende nieuwsbronnen voor de Nederlandse zendamateur. Dit kunnen special event stations zijn, nieuws van Agentschap Telecom of van de verenigingen. Ik ben deze website begonnen omdat er eigenlijk nog geen soort initiatief is. …

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Combine HRD and Cloudlog

In my last post I mentioned migrating the Ham Radio Deluxe database from Access to MySQL. The next step would be to replicate the table from my desktop to the server in the datacenter. Browsing around in GitHub today I noticed a nice project: Cloudlog. Tough the application isn’t being developed the last year, one …

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Moved HRD database to MySQL

Last week I’ve moved the Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) database from the internal Access to a MySQL database. Since more and more QSO’s are being logged Access became quite slow. Since a MySQL server was already running on my servers in the datacenter switching to MySQL was a logical step. To transfer the database from …

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Nice tool: JT-alert

Today I’ve installed a nice new tool for all JT-65 users: JT-alert, created by VK3AMA. This tool is an plug-in for the JT65-HF package and will alert you when new DXCC or unconfirmed DXCC are received. It can load the data from Ham Radio Deluxe (including the new Beta of version 6) and will play …

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Omnirig and the Icom IC-9100

Many software uses Omnirig as gateway to ket their software communicate to the transceiver via regular CAT-commands. Among others, CW-Skimmer is one of them. Unfortunately the Icom IC-9100 isn’t supported yet and OmniRig had no possibility to enter the serial details via a GUI. Instead, for each transceiver a configuration file is needed. I use CW-Skimmer as …

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