Category: Blog

QRP Radio Fun

At some point over the winter, I started reading Thomas’s posts at QRPer.com. It may have been after I listened to one of his guest appearances on Ham Radio Workbench.

Long story short, last week I got a new Xiegu X6100 from Radioddity. I’ve been playing with it and a MFJ-1984LP EFHW antenna in the front yard for a few days now, and it’s been a hoot to chase POTA activators using only 5W. It’s definitely something I can do for 5 (let’s be serious, more like 15) minutes at a time in between other things.

Some early notes, maybe to follow up on in the future:

  • There are at least two groups.io lists for this radio, either of which might help you find an answer to a question. Please note that if you haven’t bought the radio yet, stay away from posts before Spring 2022–the early adopters had some issues that no longer apply.
  • The thin poly line used by arborists can burn when you release it from your hand, maybe use gloves when tossing (or get a lighter throw bag).
  • My antenna is allegedly good for a bunch of bands, but I’m also not sure how the tuner will tell me that it can’t tune.
  • The detent in the main tuning knob is either too small for my finger, or the whole knob is too small. I tend to just roll my finger around the edge to spin fast.
  • The manual is useful to expand out the menu item names, but you need to know a bit about radios to know what they actually mean.
  • Some weird “birdies” that swoop in from the sides, on some bands. See notes in the groups.io posts.
  • CW decode doesn’t always work, but you may have to toggle between CW and CWR by pressing the mode button. Or it’s random chance that I got it to work.
  • My attic fan dipole, although it covers everything from 40m to 10m bands, is not very sensitive on receive at all (or more likely is catching too much noise from inside the house). Yesterday I could see stations all over 20m when operating outside on the X6100, but only a few of them inside on the IC-7300 (which should have better receive in general).
    • I don’t think this is because of bad coax, but it could be. I made some notes on my Mastodon account (that I need to write down somewhere else) about testing the IC-7300 with the EFHW and checking the noise floor.

Ham Radio Infrastructure Projects

There are probably more complete and better lists out there, but maybe I can list some off the top of my head.

  • APRS digipeater/iGate
  • Winlink gateway
  • WSPR beacon
  • JS8Call forwarder
    • or is this just everyone running the program?
  • CW Skimmer for Reverse Beacon Network
  • VHF/UHF repeater
    • and repeater network
  • TARPN/AREDN/Broadband Hamnet node
    • I list these together because it seems to depend on the year who is gaining and who is losing ground. Maybe we need to make them interoperable?

These are mainly hardware solutions to get signals and data farther, faster, and in and out of the Internet. Ideas on the software side might be:

  • Standardized packet or digital queries to get information
    • news
    • weather (see Winlink)
    • equipment setup help (???, although I’ve seen talk of Wikipedia access)
    • disaster support (where to get food, water, shelter, etc. after a disaster in the area, although perhaps this fits broadcast best if local broadcast hasn’t been effected)
    • APRS-style location information, without the overhead of APRS
      • E.g., what if I could query a local computer using touch tones to get local information?

What are some other ways to contribute the “infrastructure” of ham radio, to help it remain resilient (and stay fun)?

#hamradio #amateurradio

East Grand Forks: Childcare in the News

Making childcare more available in East Grand Forks has popped up a few times recently. Not sure if this is part of a trend that will accomplish something in the long run, but nice to note.

Mayor Steve Gander proclaimed April 4 will be Childcare Provider Appreciation Day in East Grand Forks, allowing an opportunity to recognize childcare providers. “I urge all citizens to thank and encourage childcare providers for their important work,” Gander said.

Grand Forks Herald, 15 Mar 2022

According to the Exponent, there was an event at Valley Golf Course for the announced day.

And of course it must be something of a deal if the newspaper is writing editorials about it:

Our view: The child care crisis in the Dakotas and Minnesota is bad for business
To us, the growing trouble with child care is among the biggest contributors to the Great Resignation in the Dakotas and Minnesota. It’s why we hope state lawmakers, governors and decision-makers continue to seek landmark solutions.

Grand Forks Herald, 01 Jan 2022

Some info on how short we are (hopefully the growth from January to March does not continue):

“Child care.” East Grand Forks is about 100 child care “slots” short of where it should be, according to Gorte. The city is looking for ways to lure new daycares to town or help existing ones expand via the Rural Child Care Innovation Program, which is run by nonprofit First Children’s Finance and funded jointly by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Michigan Department of Education.

Grand Forks Herald, 31 Jan 2022

“People who are not participating in the labor force have to have access to childcare so they can participate in the labor force,” Kiddoo said.

Paul Gorte, economic development director in East Grand Forks, said the city needs to add more than 200 spots for pre-kindergarten children. Kiddoo said Thief River Falls, where Northland also has a campus, needs to add a similar number of spots.

Grand Forks Herald, 30 Mar 2022

On 14 Mar, the East Grand Forks school district sent out a survey (via ParentVUE) about childcare and notice of a town hall about it:

Good Afternoon, please use the link below to participate in a survey about the child care needs of East Grand Forks. Availability of high-quality childcare is cucial for East Grand Forks to grow and thrive. East Grand Forks needs approximately 200 childcare slots, especially infant and toddler care, to meet our current needs. Help guide our work on this improtant issue by completing a survey and attending a town hall meeeting on April 25th.

Parent Survey:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/parentegf

Town Hall: https://eastgrandforkstownhall.eventbrite.com

Here’s the Town Hall info from the link:

You’re invited to take part in the discussion and solutions at the town hall!
About this event

Child care is an economic driver for rural communities across the United States but many communities are facing shortages of high quality child care. First Children’s Finance’s Rural Child Care Innovation Program is an innovative community engagement process designed to address the challenges of child care in rural America.

East Grand Forks has a shortage of approximately 210 full-time child care slots. A shortage of this magnitude has a dramatic impact on families and the local economy. To address this challenge, a core team from East Grand Forks has come together to lead the process of investigating why there is a shortage of care in the area. The Town Hall meeting is the opportunity to develop solutions to address this child care challenge for our community.

Child care needs to be accessible, of high quality, and profitable for the child care provider. As a community, we can work together to make this a reality.

**DINNER PROVIDED**

Hopefully we can see this community of about 8,000 people come together and get things figured out. I’m not directly involved in organizing any of this, but as a working parent who has had to look for quality childcare in the last several years, I appreciate all the efforts.

Frost-Keysor Genealogy

I had to write this all out to email it to the keepers of the Genealogy of the Abial Frost Family website, so I might as well post it here in case someone finds it from another angle and has information.

I’m looking for a connection to the Frost family and hoping someone might be able to give me some guidance on my wife’s side of the family.

Looking over the newsletters and this site, I don’t think she is a descendant of Abial Frost, but there are references to the Hadley, NY area that I think are intriguing.

My wife is descended from an Elizabeth Frost, who married Clark Keysor Sr., father of Civil War Union Captain Clark Keysor of Mankato, MN. We don’t have direct familial knowledge of the line this far back, but Capt. Keysor’s early life is documented in both “Mankato: It’s First Fifty Years..” (1903) and “History of Blue Earth County…” (Hughes, 1901). I’ve copied some text below:

Captain Keysor was born in Luzerne, Warren county, New York, May 24, 1826, and was among the five children of Clark and Elizabeth (Frost) Keysor. The father followed the lumbering business until his death, which occurred in New York state in 1830. Survived by the widow, she eventually came to Mankato [MN] and died here in 1877 at an advanced age. Their son, Clark, Jr., received a common-school education in New York state and grew to manhood upon a farm, early gaining a thorough knowledge of agricultural pursuits. (Hughes, 1901)

KEYSOR, Capt. Clark–Born in Luzerne, Warren County, New York, May 24th, 1826, a son of Clark and Elizabeth (Frost) Keysor. His grandparents on his father’s side were natives of Germany, who landed in New York City about the end of the 18th century, were the grandmother died, leaving the Captain’s father an infant, who, being adopted by a family named Wells, was brought up in New York State, where he died in 1830. After his father’s death, Capt. Keysor made his home with his grandfather Frost, in the town of Hadley, New York, working on a farm and attending the country school until he was sixteen years of age. He then started out for himself, finding employment first in a saw mill at Luzerne, and the following winter in a lumber camp. (Mankato, 1903)

Elizabeth Frost Keysor did move to Mankato and died there. She may have remarried to a Noyes after Clark Sr’s death, but I am having a hard time finding documentation. There are two markers that bear her name in Glenwood Cemetery in Mankato.

Looking through the newsletters, I see mention of Uncle Elijah, who lived in Hadley around that time and had a daughter named Lizzie. This is noted in the Frost Genealogy (1912); Elijah is individual #8.

I’d appreciate any sources documenting the Frost-Keysor connection if there is one. Thanks for any ideas.

Matt

P.S. My wife’s tree is online, the direct link to Elizabeth Frost is here: https://mattbk.com/webtrees/index.php?route=%2Fwebtrees%2Ftree%2FFinstad%2Findividual%2FI782%2FElizabeth-Frost

Uploading big files to Castopod on YuNoHost

Find PHP version being used:

> matt@example:/etc/php$ tail ynh_app_version
> castopod:8.0

Update `memory_limit` in `sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini`

Restarted PHP 8 service, getting `504 Gateway Time-out nginx` now. Progress?

Then set `client_max_body_size` in here to 700 rather than 600:
`matt@example:/etc/nginx/conf.d/castopod.example.net.d$ sudo nano castopod.conf`

Then set `max_execution_time` to 90 at `sudo nano /etc/php/8.0/fpm/php.ini`

Restart nginx and PHP services (I used https://example.net/yunohost/admin/#/services).

WSJT-X Setup on macOS

I may add to these notes, but a key one was to make sure to give WSJT-X access to the microphone, even when using a USB cable to control the rig. Thanks to K3DCW for the tip.

I presume that you have a checkmark in the box labeled “PortAudio” next to the USB Audio CODEC device selectors. If so, then the only other thing that I can think of is that you haven’t given macOS permission to access your “microphone.” Many of these programs see/treat that USB Audio CODEC as a microphone input and failing to give it access to your “microphone” will cause it to not hear a thing. Go to the Security & Privacy pane and make sure that Fldigi has access to the microphone.

I also have iShowU Audio Capture installed (for OBS screen recording), which I thought might have been the problem. Here are my current working audio settings (Audio Midi Setup).

The rest of the settings described here work out well for connecting the IC-7300 and my MacBook Pro.

To get the gain right in the software, I used the RF Gain knob on the IC-7300. There is a way to adjust this in the settings but I can’t find it at the moment. It’s the ACC/USB AF Output Level setting under MENU>SET>Connectors (make sure you scroll up and down the menu items as needed). All suggestions are to get the bar in WSJT or JTDX to about 30 dB.

Labeling minimum and maximum values on a fill color guide in #rstats #ggplot2

This took me a while to understand, and even though I think this should be built in somewhere, I ended up with the following function:

# Function to show min and max values on fill color bars.
# Inspiration from https://stackoverflow.com/a/60732101/2152245
# original_func should be something like "scales::breaks_pretty(3)"
breaks_min_max <- function(original_func) {
    function(x) {
        original_result <- original_func(x)
        breaks <- c(min(x),
                  original_result,
                  max(x))
breaks_sort <- sort(breaks)
# If values are too close, drop one of them
close <- diff(breaks_sort) < 1
breaks_sort <- breaks_sort[!close]
breaks_sort
    }
}

Note the very rough method of determining when labels will be too close together. This would need to be modified if working with negative numbers or values that are all decimals.

In use:

ggplot(mtcars,
aes(x = mpg,
y = disp,
color = qsec)) +
geom_point(size = 5) +
scale_color_continuous(breaks = breaks_min_max(scales::breaks_pretty(4)))

Result:

Update 2021-09-28:

If you have a log scale, this will also work if you use breaks_log(). Example below. This seems to be sensitive to the number of breaks you set; for the example below, 4 doesn’t work (the top and bottom values aren’t labeled), but 6 does.

ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = mpg, y = disp, color = qsec)) +
geom_point(size = 5) +
scale_color_continuous(trans = "log10",
breaks = breaks_min_max(scales::breaks_log(6)))

List of #APRS Projects (and interesting alternatives)

I’ve expanded my search beyond what I introduced in APRS tracker/viewer build concept. Here I will attempt to organize projects some other folks have put together.

This has been sitting in draft mode for several weeks, but I’m pushing it out now and hoping to add more as I learn.

Bulk Convert your Dire Wolf logs to GPX

Dire Wolf won’t let you save both a daily and single log file of packets received, but if you log daily with LOGDIR, you can write a script that bundles up all the log files and then produces a GPX file of the output. This is useful if you want an idea of the area your digipeater or iGate is covering without trusting to aprs.fi or aprsdirect.com, which only provide the actual path taken and drop duplicate iGated packets.

Simple script for Linux:

#!/bin/bash
# merge log files
sed 1d *.log > log_merged.csv
# convert to gpx
log2gpx log_merged.csv > log_merged.gpx

(sed tip from Linux.com means you don’t need Python or similar)

Make it executable:

chmod +x merge_and_gpx.sh

Run or schedule in cron:

./merge_and_gpx.sh

APRS tracker/viewer build concept

Writing this on the fly and hope to add links later.

I’ve been into APRS lately, which tends to yield project ideas. There are small trackers put there that aren’t cheap, cheaper trackers that aren’t small, and none of them do all of what you might want.

At an event (e.g., an endurance race in a remote location), you want everyone to know as much as possible. We’ve tried satellite tracking on racers to various success, but when the race course has little mobile data and barely SMS (if anything), satellites don’t help race directors very much.

Having enough amateur radio volunteers to set up a real net is the dream, but in absence, what else can we do? Enter APRS.

Build idea here is for an easy-to-install vehicle (staff and volunteer) tracker that lets everyone see other where other people are. A limited number of hams would enter data and send messages or bulletins, and the rest would be passive; not pushing buttons on the radio, but having access to received data.

Quick concept and then I’m done:

  • Raspberry Pi Zero running Dire Wolf as a TNC.
    • Will need USB port, maybe not the Zero?
  • Cheap 2m radio, ideally mobile rather than HT so powering is easy. Doesn’t need any features!
  • Custom cable to run the radio and sound in/out.
  • USB sound card.
  • APRSdroid pr APRSfi phone app.

See where im going? Need to run numbers on cost, because it’s adding up in my head.