Category Archives: Ohio Section Journal

Articles published in the Ohio Section Journal available at arrl-ohio.org

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – April 2023 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

For my January article, when I saw KE8VIY’s presentation demonstrating receiving and processing ADS-B aircraft broadcasts using SDRs, it inspired me to explore mine again. I’ve had a request or two to cover them here in the OSJ. There was also discussion about them after my recent presentation for Cuyahoga County ARES.

Software defined radio, or SDR, is a technology that replaces analog components such as mixers, filters, amplifiers, and detectors by implementing them in software. Like most communication systems, an antenna receives the signal passing it to the RF hardware. RF hardware, on receivers especially, is a wide-band VFO with a typical range from a couple MHz up to about 2 GHz. The IF, or baseband, is sampled by an analog-to-digital converter converting the signal to bits. Software is used to control frequency range received and process the digitized signal. Signal processing is often handled by a PC, smartphone, or tablet. However, some have powerful on-board processing. The processed signal is then handed over to the sound interface for listening with ordinary speakers or headphones.

Signal processing could be as simple as selecting AM or FM and listening to an analog radio station. Processing could include a chain software to further process a received signal. Examples would be to decode digital modulation, such as P25 or DMR, then pass human intelligible audio to the sound interface. Other processing may turn received data into text in cases such as ADS-B, POCSAG (pagers), APRS, and packet reception.

Most common are SDR receivers. There are transceivers, like the HackRF One, and many ham radio offerings. Probably the most well-known vendor is Flex Radio because they’ve been doing government work and have been in the ham radio market for a long time. Other ham offerings include Elad, Xiegu, and the big-name radio manufacturers like ICOM, Kenwood, and Yaesu.

I’ve used the “RTL-SDR” for about ten years. These use the low-cost Realtek RTL2832 chipset and commonly sold under the name “NooElec R820T SDR & DVB-T NESDR mini.” Originally designed for DVB-T reception (European digital broadcast TV standard), it was found these could be hacked into a general 3 MHz wideband receiver. These were a focus of my series of articles called “Dongle Bits” published in 2015.

NooElec RTL-SDR dongle (nooelec.com)

NooElec SDRs were inexpensive at $20 each. At that price, I bought a bunch. A pair were almost always in use on my main desktop PC for trunked radio decoding of the statewide MARCS and regional GCRCN radio systems. A couple were in the shack for playing around doing radio things and another couple were in the travel bag mostly for trunked radio decoding while traveling.

A problem with early NooElec SDRs, they were not frequency stable. “Warm-up” time was needed in order to stabilize frequency reception. Sounds like tube radios. Some recommended 45 minutes to an hour for them to warmup. Seemed excessive. I didn’t see much change after about 15 minutes.

PPM offsets for my dongles ranged from the lower 40’s to upper 50’s. When these dongles are used (as intended) to receive an 8 MHz (or so) wide DVB-T broadcast, a couple PPM isn’t going to make a huge difference. Receiving a 12.5 kHz wide P25 signal, 50 PPM will put the receiver on a different frequency.

If I heard police or fire sirens and wanted to fire up Unitrunker with the RTL-SDR dongles, it would be 2-3 minutes before signals could be decoded intelligibly. It would take that long for the dongle to warm up enough to fall within range of its determined PPM. I lived with adjusting PPM/offsets because ten years ago, I was too cheap to buy the TXCO controlled dongles.

Since whenever I started with RTL-SDRs, a number of mine have gotten destroyed over the years. One shattered when I dropped it after Dayton a number of years ago. Another was no longer detected when plugged in. Most recently, one had some kind of firmware corruption which caused the device ID to change making it no longer recognized by drivers.

RTL-SDR blog v3 dongle (rtl-sdr.com)

After Guy’s talk on ADS-B, I went and looked at the prices of RTL-SDR dongles. The price of TXCO controlled dongles had fell to $33. These are quality ones released by the RTL-SDR Blog site available through Amazon. TXCO were $60+ ten years ago when I went the cheap route. TXCO RTL-SDR dongles have an oscillator to stabilize the tuner to within one or two PPM. I bought a round of frequency stable dongles to replace the RIP ones and remaining working dongles. Another advantage to these RTL-SDR.com dongles, they come with an SMA connector as opposed to the MCX connector on the NooElec dongles. SMA is a standard antenna connector used by many ham radio manufactures for handhelds.

TXCO dongles are worth it. Since they’re much lower in price than they used to be, there’s no reason to screw around with ones that don’t have a stable receiver. Now, starting Unitrunker it takes seconds to start decoding P25 signals. Product description indicates there is passive cooling. I will say they do get quite warm.

Some programs I’ve been mentioning throughout: Unitrunker is a program for decoding trunked radio protocols through discriminator (tap) audio or an SDR. It can decode APCO P25, EDACS 4800/9600, Motorola Type II, and MPT1327 systems. One device monitors the control channel, another device is sent to receive voice traffic on other frequencies. Unitrunker can’t decode voice traffic itself. Another program, such as DSDPlus, decodes voice frames.

DSDPlus (often stylized DSD+) decodes multiple digital audio formats including P25 Phase 1, ProVoice, X2-TDMA, DMR/MotoTRBO, NXDN, and D-STAR (no audio). At one point, DSD did decode D-STAR voice frames because I played with it on a D-STAR net and the net controls were quite impressed. Maybe it was an addon or beta that never became part of a final release. I remember compiling it in CygWin, a Linux terminal on Windows before Windows had WSL. DSDPlus offered a “Fastlane” program which afforded more frequent updates and faster access to new features for a small donation.

Both programs have not had releases in years. Unitrunker’s last release was in 2017 and DSD’s last official release was in 2015 – with the last Fastlane update in early 2020. Unitrunker has, what I call an “eternal beta,” version available in a Google Group. I haven’t seen any reference to that Group except in the Radio Reference forum. One must be accepted to the group in order to access the download. When I played with the beta a few years ago, I had problems decoding the MARCS system which I didn’t have using the latest available 1.0.33.6 legacy version.

Another program I started using which does the job of Unitrunker, DSDPlus, some recording & streaming addons is called sdrtrunk. It has a really nice feature set. Though, I think it’s really setup to be a different program than Unitrunker. It was overwhelming first listening to a radio system.

Different talkgroups were coming out of the left and right channels, it doesn’t follow conversations on successive transmissions, displayed talkgroup labels use the Radio Reference Alpha Tag, not Description tags which Unitrunker uses. When a transmission on a talkgroup ends, Unitrunker will linger for subsequent transmissions on the same talkgroup. If there are no more keyups on that talkgroup within a few seconds, it will move on to another active talkgroup. Sdrtrunk will immediately jump to another active talkgroup when a transmission completes – making it hard to follow back-and-forth conversations. It seems like only talkgroups of interest should be loaded and not a whole statewide system. Alpha Tags are shortened descriptions intended for radio displays versus the full Description of a talkgroup. Both are fields in the Radio Reference database. An example of an Alpha Tag is “18-CCAN” which is short for “Community Care Ambulance – Cuyahoga,” the description. Description means a whole lot more to me about the agency. I didn’t find system technical details such as peer sites listed in the program.

sdrtrunk (github.com/DSheirer/sdrtrunk)

One thing I did notice right away, the decoder built into sdrtrunk is much better than DSDPlus. I’ve heard no garbled transmissions. Whatever they are doing to auto adjust for PPM and to decode voice frames works much better. I still like Unitrunker and it’s recommended in the Radio Reference forum for system mapping. If I can figure out these issues, sdrtrunk seems like a better option especially since it is multiplatform and more of an all-in-one solution.

I posted a number of projects using RTL-SDRs on my site over the years, including ones for receiving ADS-B, APRS, and P25 trunked radio. There have been minor software changes to Unitrunker in later versions, but it still works.

Coming up on May the 4th be with you, Technical Specialist Jason – N8EI will be giving a presentation on the GAP Titan vertical antenna. The Lancaster and Fairfield County Amateur Radio Club – K8QIK will be hosting the meeting at the Fairfield County EMA building. Jason will be there virtually but stop by if you’re in the area. Jason has many excellent presentations including ones already presented for the Ohio Section.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – March 2023 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

Time is running out! No, not on some great offer but to complete station evaluations – if you were grandfathered and still haven’t completed one. I’ve covered this topic previously describing two different ways and methodologies for tackling this requirement. First using the exemption formula and math, second demonstrating online calculators and “worst case scenarios.” This time I’ll use available data for my station.

Remember:

  • Any station built or modified (change in power, antenna, operating band/s, moving the antenna, changing the antenna, etc.) requires an evaluation to be performed at that time
  • Stations built before May 3, 2021 (and not modified) have until May 2023 to perform an evaluation
  • FCC exposure rules haven’t changed
  • Hams are no longer categorically excluded from performing evaluations
  • Nothing is submitted to the FCC. Calculations only need to be available when a station inspection is performed.
  • Calculations for HTs are the responsibility of the manufacturer

A guided walkthrough calculator created by our own Technical Specialist Jason – N8EI is available on his site. The ARRL provides an online RF Exposure Calculator with detailed instructions. A Station Evaluation Worksheet is an alternative option to taking screenshots and printing online calculator results.

Information needed:

  • Power at Antenna:
    • Determined by coax length, type of feedline, loss per 100 feet, and power into the line. Power out of the radio, less feedline loss, before antenna gain.
    • A Coax Cable Loss Calculator can help answer this question (same one on the ARRL instruction page)
  • Mode duty cycle: while transmitting
    • FM, AM, RTTY, AFSK, FSK, etc. are 100% (on all the time)
    • SSB and CW are typically less than 50%
  • Transmit duty cycle: time transmitting vs receiving
    • Example: typically transmit for 3 minutes, then listen for 5
    • Might have to time some conversations or do rough estimation. Modes like FT8, JT65, JT9, etc. are timed with defined TX/RX windows.
    • SSB is likely to be a fraction of the time transmitting as more time is spent listening (or hams should spend more time listening, LoL).
  • Antenna Gain:
    • Use the gain rating in dBi from the manufacturer
    • Gain in dBi = gain in dBd + 2.15 dB
    • Gain in dBd = gain in dBi – 2.15 dB
    • Or round up to 2.2 dB for easier calculations
    • When the manufacturer lists gain in dB, it can generally be assumed this is dBd
    • Check the Antenna Gain Instructions for typical examples of antennas and gain
  • Operating Frequency: frequencies transmitted
  • Controlled/uncontrolled:
    • Controlled assumes the ham and their family know about radiation and the ham has informed family members to use caution
    • Uncontrolled is any unknowing person passing by an antenna installation
    • Uncontrolled provides a greater amount of safe distance between humans and antennas

On to my station…

Antenna #1 – HF: G5RV antenna, digital operations

  • Coax attenuation per 100/ft:
    • 0.3dB @ 5MHz
    • 0.6dB @ 10MHz
    • 1.0dB @ 30MHz
    • 1.3dB @ 50MHz
    • 2.2dB @ 144MHz
    • 4.5dB @ 400MHz
  • Using the Coax Cable Loss Calculator:
    • dB Loss Of Cable Per 100 Ft. At The Desired Operating Frequency. In HF calculations, I used the lesser loss value which slightly increases the safe distance in my calculations. Example: calculating 7 MHz, used 5 MHz rating of 0.3 dB.
    • Length of Cable in Feet: 144
    • Power into Cable in Watts (out of the radio): 40
    • Gain of Antenna in dBd is not important here as it’s used to calculate antenna ERP and not needed
    • Result: Power out of Cable in Watts, rounded
  • Using the RF Exposure Calculator:
    • Power at Antenna, from the coax cable loss calculator
    • Mode duty cycle: digital or FM, 100%. Another mode is SSB but it will have a lower mode duty cycle.
    • Transmit duty cycle: 1 min transmit / 1 min receive – duty cycle for FT8, mode I operate most of the time
    • Antenna Gain (dBi): gain instructions page indicates a G5RV type antenna has 1.0dBi however, 20M is rated at 6.0dB. dBi = dB + 2.2.
    • Operating Frequency (MHz): frequencies operated listed in MHz, rounded to the nearest MHz
    • Results: un/controlled minimum safe distance in feet, rounded

Antenna #2 & 3 – UHF/VHF: omni antenna, FM operations

  • Coax attenuation per 100/ft: same as above
  • Using the Coax Cable Loss Calculator:
    • dB Loss Of Cable Per 100 Ft. At The Desired Operating Frequency
    • Length of Cable in Feet: 30
    • Power into Cable in Watts (out of the radio): 50
    • Gain of Antenna in dBd is not important here as it’s used to calculate antenna ERP and not needed
    • Result: Power out of Cable in Watts, rounded
  • Using the RF Exposure Calculator:
    • Power at Antenna, from the coax cable loss calculator
    • Mode duty cycle: FM, 100%
    • Transmit duty cycle: 1 min transmit / 2 min receive – I would say worst-case for a rag chew net
    • Antenna Gain (dBi): antenna specifications rate the antenna as 3.0dBi
    • Operating Frequency (MHz): frequencies operated listed in MHz, rounded to the nearest MHz
    • Results: un/controlled minimum safe distance in feet, rounded
Antenna Power at Antenna (watts) Mode duty cycle Transmit duty cycle (TX/RX minutes) Antenna Gain (dBi) Operating Frequency (MHz) Uncontrolled environment – Minimum Safe Distance (feet)
#1 – HF: G5RV 26 100% 1/1 3.2 53 5.5
#1 – HF: G5RV 33 100% 1/1 3.2 28 5.7
#1 – HF: G5RV 33 100% 1/1 3.2 24 4.9
#1 – HF: G5RV 33 100% 1/1 3.2 21 4.3
#1 – HF: G5RV 33 100% 1/1 3.2 18 3.7
#1 – HF: G5RV 33 100% 1/1 8.2 14 5.1
#1 – HF: G5RV 36 100% 1/1 3.2 7 1.5
#1 – HF: G5RV 36 100% 1/1 3.2 3.5 0.7
#2 – UHF/VHF: dual band 43 100% 1/2 3.0 148 5.6
#2 – UHF/VHF: dual band 37 100% 1/2 3.0 450 4.2
#3 – UHF/VHF: dual band 43 100% 1/2 3.0 148 5.6
#3 – UHF/VHF: dual band 37 100% 1/2 3.0 450 4.2

Each compliant antenna/band combination is marked green, meaning actual distance exceeds the minimum safe distance for an uncontrolled environment in that situation. Overall rating: station is compliant.

It’s fairly easy to complete an evaluation following the detailed instructions and walkthroughs. The most time consuming for my shack was looking up antenna and coax specifications. I had documented coax lengths when setting up the shack.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – February 2023 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

I finally did it. What would that be? Over the Christmas holiday, during my time-off, I cleaned and organized the shack. Unseasonably warm weather at the end of December made this job much easier. I don’t know how many years I’ve been threatening to do this. PC problems kicked off the whole cleaning process and I (finally) upgraded to Windows 10. N8SY pointed out: shouldn’t you be upgrading to Windows 11? Yeah, no.

Dust, dead bugs, miscellaneous parts from various projects, all the baggies, twist ties, and boxes are all cleaned up. Using small stackable plastic containers with lids (available at the local superstore) organized computer parts, Raspberry Pi parts, radio cables/accessories, and keep parts of a project together. Some time ago, bought a Power over Ethernet (PoE) network switch from a co-worker. Finally set that up and it’s now powering my Cisco phone used for Hamshack Hotline, Hams over IP, and AmateurWire. In addition, gained more Ethernet ports as those were in short supply.

Parts of the shack were reconfigured. I wanted a spare/second power supply. Astron stopped making their desktop switching supplies with analog meters. I found an SS-30M with analog meters on QRZ and purchased it from a local ham. That supply will be used to power network radios for AllStar Link and Wires-X. An old laptop is put back into service running the Wires-X node, full time. Wires-X was previously running on the same PC I use for operating and I didn’t want to keep that one running all the time.

I did much soul searching in regard to the shack PC. It is coming up on 10 years old. A Micro-ATX PC, Intel Core i5 4th generation (they’re up to 12th gen), 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD, and Windows 7. Due to family commitments and as a result of the shack being declared a disaster (by me), I wasn’t operating much the last 2-3 years. Most of 2022, I operated Winlink making few other contacts.

My intention was to get some operating time over the holidays and didn’t plan to spend that much time redoing things. While operating, quickly remembered ongoing problems with the PC. Cluttered with apps I was testing or no longer used, miscellaneous documents from net reports or drills – these were the least of my problems.

Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny (Lenovo)

It had serious audio issues. As someone who operates mostly digital on the HF bands, this is incredibly annoying. The Windows audio subsystem, at times, simply failed to start where a red X would be shown over the speaker icon in the system tray. This prevented any audio program from functioning. Rebooting once (or twice) would clear that issue. Random receive cycles in WSJT-X (FT8) would not decode any stations. RX cycles before would decode fine, a number following would also be fine. The waterfall looked OK (not distorted). However, at seemingly random times, there would be 0 decodes. I started to pray that a fresh install would clear these issues.

In recent years, I’ve been using smaller desktop form factor computers. Not needing to replace poor included motherboard peripherals (other than graphics cards, separate issue), NVMe M.2 storage (very fast solid-state drive), and use of USB devices, I don’t need many full sized PCs. Included motherboard peripherals, like sound and Ethernet, are very good and don’t need to be substituted with expansion cards as was the case 20 years ago. M.2 SSD storage comes in a very small form factor: 22mm x 30, 42, 60, 80, or 120mm with read/write speeds of 7,000-7,500 MBps. Good 2TB NVMe M.2 storage devices are available for $150.

IBM had an excellent reputation for producing solid hardware. That soured a little when they were sold to Lenovo. I’ve had good luck with Lenovo devices at work compared to other vendors. Lenovo’s ThinkCentre PC line are enterprise orientated machines offering mid-to-high specifications. Even though older models have reached end-of-life, Lenovo still releases BIOS updates. In comparison, most vendors release a new motherboard followed by maybe a handful of BIOS updates during its lifecycle. Continued BIOS updates address compatibility problems and patch exploits. I’m impressed their end-of-life PCs are still updated.

M.2 Solid Sate Drive – 22mm x 80mm (Wikipedia)

I looked at and purchased “renewed” Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny PCs from Amazon, an M900 & M910Q. Amazon renewed are pre-owned and refurbished PCs resold to keep E-waste down. There are condition guidelines published by Amazon. However, as I found out, quality is left to third-party sellers and varies greatly.

This form factor measures 1.36″ x 7.20″ x 7.05″ weighing in at 1.3 lbs. (M900). Renewed M900 specs: Intel Core i5 6600T, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512G SSD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and Windows 10 Pro 64 for $422 (purchased late 2021). M910Q: Intel Core i7-6700T, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, DisplayPort, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows 10 Pro was $349 (purchased mid-2022). They’ve come down quite a bit and are now $180 and $274 respectively.

While you get the chassis, motherboard, and CPU (presumably) from Lenovo, everything else is stripped from these renewed PCs. M900 had ADATA SSD and RAM, though a fairly well-known discount name they’re not OEM parts. The M910Q came with a “KingFast” M.2 SSD. That’s right, just KingFast – no model number. The M900 came with a Lenovo branded power supply while the M910Q came with an aftermarket supply that makes an audible sequel when powered. I suspect generates interference, too.

I’ve had issues restoring disk images to the KingFast drive – Acronis complains it can’t read the drive at times. Both included a keyboard and mouse but they are no-name junk. These ThinkCentre’s likely came with Wi-Fi cards from the manufacturer. Those cards are removed and substituted with USB dongles. While I am not using nor did I test any of the dongles, USB dongles for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are generally bad only working acceptably at short ranges. Additionally, I cannot tell original configurations of these machines because service tags and serial numbers are removed.

Initially purchased these for Homelab projects (virtual machine hosts) and situations where I need a physical Windows machine when a virtual machine wouldn’t cut it. Thought these might be a good replacement for the shack PC. After using them and seeing the poor choice of components, wouldn’t trust these for much of anything. If one desired to go the route of renewed PCs, I would invest in known good replacement parts which adds to the cost. Additionally, the CPUs were only two generations newer than my existing PC. I scrapped the idea of using these or similar “renewed” PCs for my shack.

Beelink SEi8 Mini PC (Beelink)

What about new? Brand new machines like these would be great solutions in a car, camper, mobile shack, or boat due to their small form factor. With regard to USB, I need a minimum of six USB ports. While USB specifications and devices are supposed to be compatible, in practice this is rarely the case. To avoid headaches, I require USB cables controlling essential and important components (SignaLink, CI-V, mixers) be plugged directly into USB ports on the motherboard. I only use USB hubs for things I don’t consider essential (radio/scanner programming cables, RTL-SDR dongles). ThinkCentre Tiny PCs have 4 USBs in the back and 2 in the front. That number isn’t going to work for when I want to use additional devices.

I looked at Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) offering and mini PCs from BeeLink. They too did not have a sufficient number of USB ports. Using more than one small form-factor PC would be another idea. Unfortunately, don’t have room for another monitor and keyboard. If I ever found a quality keyboard, video, and mouse switch (KVM, or just the K and M), it may solve that. Also, power sources in the shack are becoming scarce. Not to mention current economic issues like higher prices, supply chain issues, shortages, and limited stock. I decided against a new PC until I discover better options or will revisit this when the economy rebounds. HA!

Deciding to keep the same PC, it was wiped and Windows 10 – LTSC installed. No hardware upgrades were performed. There wasn’t much debate for staying with Windows or going to Linux. Programs I use run natively on Windows, such as: radio programmers, scanner programmers, Winlink, Vara, Ham Radio Deluxe, and GridTracker.

Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) is designed to keep the same functionality while not changing operating system features over time. LTSC is a decrapified version of consumer Windows 10, and it’s from Microsoft. It has none of the advertising. No Microsoft Store. No Cortana (virtual assistant). Telemetry still exists based on configuration screens. I used Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor to disable telemetry. A Pi-Hole, or similar, can block tracking at the network level. Consumer support for Windows 10 ends in 2025, LTSC is supported until 2027. Note: people confuse LTSC with the IoT version of Windows 10. This is probably a Microsoft branding issue. They are not the same.

An LTSC license is expensive at $210, or more. Though I did see a China based seller listing them for $19!!? – Caveat Emptor. I purchased through CDW. I’m willing to pay for bloat to be stripped from my Windows operating system. If you don’t want to play the license, that version can be found by doing some digging. I tried a number of the ways to remove bloatware in consumer versions of Windows 10 with programs and random scrips found online in the past. Removed crap often returns as part of “feature updates.” Windows 11 does not yet have an LTSC version and the reason I did not upgrade directly to 11, possibly released later this year.

A clean install of Windows 10 resolved my audio issues and my WSJT-X decode issues are gone as well. On Windows 7, switching between or launching applications would cause hesitation in applications that were running in the background. Opening the browser would cause digital programs to stop transmitting for example. That too is gone in Windows 10. I am happy with the results post upgrade.

Allow apps to access your microphone for ham radio sound card programs

There are some important settings to note in Windows 10 related to ham radio sound card programs. I’m overzealous turning off access to things that don’t need access. Most everything in Settings ? Privacy I have turned off. Doing so prevented ham radio sound card programs from functioning correctly. Programs such as: Echolink, Fldigi, DM780, FreeDV, WSJT-X, Vara, etc., etc., etc. Operating ham radio sound card programs in Windows 10 (and likely 11), Microphone access must remain enabled. Even though none of those programs are listed as accessing the microphone. While labeled Microphone, this setting prevents programs from accessing all sound input devices. These are input devices listed under the Recording tab in Sounds. Programs like SDRs use output from one program as input for TX, a double whammy.

  1. Close any programs using sound devices
  2. Go to Start -> Settings -> Privacy (Privacy & security in Windows 11) -> Microphone
  3. Set “Allow apps to access your microphone” to enabled/on
  4. Re-open programs that were using audio devices and sources

Sound card digital programs will now work. If there are still issues, move on to troubleshooting audio levels and verify correct audio sources are chosen in the respective program’s settings.

In Windows 7 and my guide for settings levels when using ham radio sound card audio programs, I recommended setting levels to 50%, or half. Some pointed out manufacturers indicated to choose the decibel scale, not the percentage scale I was referring. None of the references said why users should use that scale over percentage. After all, the slider didn’t change switching between the two scales.

After doing some digging and testing, figured it out. Different versions of Windows use different scales – even for the exact same audio device. The 50% setting will likely be different between Windows 7 and Windows 10.

Used my SignaLink to obtain these dB ranges:

  • Windows 7 – speaker (transmit audio): -128.0 dB to 0.0 dB
  • Windows 7 – microphone (radio receive audio): -192.0 dB to +30.0 dB
  • Windows 10 – speaker (transmit audio): -128.0 dB to 0.0 dB
  • Windows 10 – microphone (radio receive audio): -96.0 dB to +30.0 dB
Different scales for a SignaLink USB microphone device on Windows 7
Different scales for a SignaLink USB microphone device on Windows 10

In this case, speaker ranges are identical with -10.5 dB being 50% for both operating system versions. However, microphone input at 50% on Windows 7 is +24.0 dB. On Windows 10, +24.0 dB is roughly 96%. A wide variation and I noticed the level difference right away. Understanding this helped me translate my audio settings from Windows 7 to 10. I did find a Microsoft Learning document explaining Default Audio Volume Settings pointing out the differences in different versions of Windows.

I am very happy the shack is no longer a DMZ. My sound card digital programs are working again and I have a clean desktop install – for now, lol. Haven’t yet been consistently operating due to work and family commitments. When you do find me on the air, I’ll be (likely) logging contacts for Volunteers On The Air.

I would like to formally welcome the newest member of the Technical Specialists group, Ronald – NQ8W. He comes to us with a number of ETA International certifications in electronics, computers, and wireless communication. Ron is a former Master Electrician with degree in Mechanical Drafting. He obtained his GROL and has Emergency Communication certifications. When I talked with Ron a while ago, he was very pleased with the work of our Technical Specialists and wanted to give back with his skills. Welcome to the group!

Speaking of the Specialists. Earlier this month, I was invited to be the guest speaker at the Cuyahoga County ARES meeting. The topic: me, the Ohio Section Technical Coordinator. Not long before I was appointed Technical Specialist, I had no idea there was a technical organization at the section level. After being appointed TC, a group in Columbus asked for me to speak about ‘what does the TC do?’ Out of that came an opportunity to educate hams about the ARRL Field Organization and the work of our Technical Specialists. I had a great time at the Cuyahoga ARES meeting. There was plenty of discussion on technical topics and RFI stories (I cover troubleshooting techniques) after the presentation. If your group would like to know more about the technical and experimentation side of the Ohio Section, send me an E-mail.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – January 2023 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

I’ve traveled for work to our other facilities and taken advantage of training related travel. We were thinking I would have more travel opportunities. However, due to business need, sequestered to our homes for 2 years, and the freaking economy – it hasn’t happened. I had the opportunity to attend a work conference earlier this month and it gave me ideas to promote ham radio.

Work conferences are an opportunity to attend sessions and talks to gain skills, education, knowledge, keep current with industry trends, and network with others. If you’ve been to forums at Dayton, work conferences are 2/3/4 days of forums focused on an industry or segment. These could be: sales, information technology, manufacturing, human resources, C-Suite topics, project management, or general trends – like how work-from-home has changed and challenged work in the last 3 years. Similar to indoor vendors at Dayton, companies will sponsor booths with giveaways, swag, and maybe an opportunity to find a new job.

A number of co-workers and myself attended a conference called CodeMash in Sandusky at the Kalahari Resort (near Cedar Point if you’ve never been). This year was CodeMash 10000 (binary for 16). It was my first time at this conference. The conference is developer (programmer) focused but had tracks for information security, data, and career development. There were fun things to do including board games, laser tag, a maker space, evening events including casino night, and access to the resort’s indoor waterpark. The full conference runs four days in two halves. The first two days are called the “Pre-Compiler” consisting of two four-hour sessions per day. These are deep dive table-top exercises, discussions, and hands-on labs. Second two days are more byte-sized (see what I did there?) one-hour talks.

For work-related conferences, travel and accommodations are often paid for by the employer because these are training and educational sessions related to employment, job description, or a particular project. The employer hopes attendees return with new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking.

Depending on conference, cost can be way above beyond one’s means to attend on their own. CodeMash tries to be reasonable allowing individuals to attend at their own expense, if desired. A full 4-day ticket is between $800-$1,100 and the 2-day between $400-$550. Booking rooms through the conference at Kalahari offers discounted rates over normal nightly rates, though attendees can opt to stay at near-by hotels to be more economical. Kids have their own events called KidzMash, free with a registered adult.

Presenters for this conference are chosen by submitting abstracts to the CodeMash committee. If chosen, presenters get a free ticket to the conference as compensation for presenting. Sponsored sessions are hosted by companies sponsoring the event – these are listed as such and were on the last day. Presenters can plug their business and/or employer as their company is likely covering remaining costs. At least one presenter said they were there on their own dime as their employer “didn’t see the benefit” – and yet their lab session was standing room only.

Intro to Docker session. I’m way in the back row on the right. Twitter: @OtherDevOpsGene

I figured I wouldn’t have much time to play radio as the schedule was pretty grueling with breakfast at 7 am and sessions wrapped up around 5 pm each day – not including evening activities. In the past, I’ll bring at least one radio, a mobile radio if I’m driving and know I’ll
have extra time. Though I was driving and staying at the resort for this conference, I brought an HT, hotspot, and a couple RTL-SDR dongles because I like monitoring the Ohio MARCS-IP public service system. I was not expecting to have ham radio interaction during the conference.

First day of the conference at breakfast, this guy sits down at my table. It looks like he’s got a Yaesu Fusion radio with a whip antenna. I asked him “ham radio?” He says “yep, you?” “Oh yeah.” Talked with Dan – AD8FY about ham activities and his experiences as a pilot. He informed me there was an unofficial UHF simplex frequency and there would be a number of hams at the conference. This did surprise me as I wasn’t expecting it but again, first time. Feeling pretty good about the conference and some connection to ham radio.

During one of the Pre-Complier sessions, learned there was a Slack instance for the conference. Slack is an instant messaging platform available on just about every device. Slack started out as a professional communications platform (like Microsoft Teams or Google Chat) but became accepted as a community platform for things such as this conference. In addition to messaging, Slack can do VoIP calls, video calls, file sharing, and text messaging in channels (like a conference room) or to individual users. A feature I like is persistent messaging allowing people to see prior messages after joining. For example, I joined the Slack instance on the second day of the conference but I was able to see messages from the previous day. This is different from other chat services which only show messages sent after one has joined the channel.

Guy – KE8VIY SDR live demo, receiving ADS-B broadcasts

CodeMash’s Slack had many different channels: events taking place during the conference, discussions around hotel reservations, and water park. Announcements – changes, cancellations, updates, and general information. General discussions. Major cities had channels for attendees from those areas to network, such as #cleveland. Pre-Complier portion of the conference had a channel for presenters to post their slide-decks and labs. Slides channel for presenters from the second-half of the conference. Hobby channels included beer, wine, music jam sessions, and ham radio. Oh, really?

KE8VIY asked to have a #ham-radio Slack channel. Ten people conversed about radio and when they were monitoring the simplex frequency. Call signs seen: WX8TOM, WX8NRD, KD8NCF, KE8VIY, and myself. I found out later KD8NCF gave a presentation at the conference on Real-Time Web Applications.

Thursday afternoon, while heading to an afternoon one-hour session, saw this guy (that’s his name too) outside one of the conference rooms pointing an antenna around. Figured he was doing Wi-Fi hunting or something. He too had a HT with him. This was Guy – KE8VIY. He was preparing for his presentation later that afternoon using software-defined radio to decode ADS-B (aircraft broadcasts). Though he was unsure there would be any aircraft to track as all flights were grounded earlier due to a possible cyber-attack.

I told him I would be attending his presentation. Knowing a ham was doing this session helped swing my decision in his favor because there was another equally interesting session on another hobby of mine, homelabbing. That decision paid off because not only was Guy’s presentation excellent, it got the wheels turning on more ways to promote ham radio. “Tracking Aircraft with Redis & Software-Defined Radio” (GitHub repo) was the presentation.

I’ve never used Redis. Reading up on it, the technology works mostly in-memory as a structured data store, often as a caching service (session, page, message queue) or key-value database. According to Wikipedia, Twitter uses Redis and Redis is offered by the big-name cloud providers AWS, Azure, and Alibaba.

Guy’s slides were professionally done and visually appealing. Coupled with the slides, his personality, humor, and live demos, (if I didn’t know anything about it) he made ham radio seem fun and interesting. He stated he is a new ham and excited about what he’s been able to do processing radio signals. The audience was highly engaged asking questions and feedback was positive from hams that saw the presentation.

Most maybe thinking: you don’t need a license to receive ADS-B, how is this related to ham radio? That’s the tie-in. He worked in history of digital signals, formats, and all the things rooted in ham radio: Morse Code, RTTY, and APRS. Then demonstrated how he used a modern technology platform and a radio to capture and process digital signals, all at a developer conference. Well done!

There are a lot of slides in his deck. Due to the one-hour time limit, the first 30 slides and some diagrams were covered. He utilized Dump1090 for turning signals into raw data. Then used Redis (also his employer) to process, store, and make data available to consumers.

These things fit my thinking of how ham radio should be promoted. Promoting to kids is admirable and exposing them to activities early in life is a great way to maybe hook them later in life. Credit to my parents because ham radio was one of those activities and it happened to stick. Though, I seem to be the exception rather than the norm. There are other things my parents had me join in school that didn’t stick and I really don’t miss those activities. A way kids get their license is part of a school program or curriculum. How many carry on and renew their license after 10 years is up? Retention needs work. Chances are better if family members are active and involved.

Guy – KE8VIY SDR live demo, ADS-B broadcasts shown on a map

I have been a huge fan of initiatives by the ARRL and clubs to use Makerspaces as a way to breathe new life into the hobby. Makers are like-minded people whom like to learn, create, and invent as does the experimentation side of ham radio.

Gainfully employed individuals would be my next target audience – you know, if I were on a committee. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-45-year-olds – those looking to keep themselves busy – whether they’re single, don’t yet have a family, or had their kids graduate college. These individuals have disposable income for equipment and time that can be devoted to learning and operating.

A conference like CodeMash is a near perfect match for promoting ham radio to technically minded individuals, including kids. Not having any statistical data, I would say the median age was probably mid-30’s, early 40’s. Obviously, there were younger and older individuals. With few exceptions from my interactions, participants were gainfully employed as their companies were picking up the tab for them to attend the conference. There were an estimated 1,400 attendees at this year’s conference. (attendance was still down from previous years, close to half). That’s 1,400 technical people, a great audience to promote ham radio.

Does a conference you attend offer a communications platform like Slack? Ask for a ham radio group to be created. Post a simplex frequency for general chit-chat. Maybe organize a meetup during meal time or after events that day to network with other hams. Maybe non-licensed people will drop into the channel or drop in at the meetup. Maybe they’ll get bit by the bug and be looking for an Elmer.

Think about current job responsibilities, technologies or services your company provides. Guy, in the spirit of ham radio, took an existing technology, re-purposed it to receive signals and turn the data into events, maps, and an API (application programming interface, used for integrating with other applications) from aircraft broadcasts.

How can a technology you’re created, are familiar with, maintain, or work with become an interesting presentation that ties in ham radio? Figure that out and maybe you’ll get a free ticket to a conference with the employer picking up the tab for travel expenses!

I brainstormed examples using technologies seen at the conference to do radio related things:

  • Real-time data processors like Kafka for mapping propagation
  • Networking skills and technology to improve resiliency and security of mesh networks
  • Table-top-exercise to recover from a disaster. Assume all existing connection and authentication methods are non-existent.
  • Receive signal data from a distributed radio network
  • APIs to administer digital systems with many connections
  • Automate test-cases and frequent software updates with GitHub pipelines
  • Incident response to handle compromises of repositories or stolen credentials
  • Docker & Kubernettes to build simple, easily deployable applications
  • Can the “cloud” fit the general directive of not relying on other technology? How to handle and recover from outages?
  • Designing web apps to replace multi-platform applications
  • Write the next white-paper
  • Create technical documentation standards

Development work isn’t part of my daily responsibilities since I changed jobs a number of years ago. Initially wasn’t too sure about the conference. In reality, I learned a lot about technologies I hadn’t yet explored on my own. Ham radio connections made it a much better experience and hope to attend next year. Let me know if you’ve done something to promote ham radio in a similar conference-type setting to like-minded (non-ham) individuals or used modern technology platforms to improve and better ham radio.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

NOTE: an article written by Bob – K8MD on a portable operation during a work trip was included in the printed edition. That is available by the full edition links at the top of this post.

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – December 2022 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

I’ve been the Webmaster for a handful of ham radio sites since about 2005 (excluding my own personal site). Dale’s Tales for December 2022 really hit home. That’s how I became webmaster for most of those sites. Complaining about the accuracy and timeliness (lack-there-of) on posting information to the club’s site. It is the way people interested in the club or a prospective ham radio operator – first interact with the club. If the site hasn’t been updated in years, newsletters aren’t current, hey the autopatch hasn’t worked in 20 years but still detailed on the site, I’m moving on to the next club’s site. Consider it the first impression the club makes on a new or prospective club member. Much like a job interview, first impressions count.

While I’m not here to talk about keeping websites updated – though every club and organization should, I’m here to talk about a related topic: SPAM.

Also referred to as “junk mail” they are unsolicited messages, usually sent in bulk. The name Spam came from a Monty Python skit about the canned product of the same name.

If you’ve ever put an E-mail address out onto the Internet, you know the barrage of spam messages inevitably received. Plain text E-mails are harvested by bots that scour pages on the Internet, looking for: username@somedomain.com. One day, that address will be harvested too. Once collected, they’re used by spammers directly or sold to spammers by data miners. The receiving end sees endless messages about dating sites, vitamins, Black Friday deals and the like. These messages are easy to spot. Most are caught by spam filters. Ones that make it through feel like a personal space violation.

Webmasters, such as myself, use techniques to minimize that harvesting. Those include contact forms and captchas where the user fills out a form with their name, callsign, subject, whom they want to contact, and message. Captchas are those things where you have to click all the images containing a crosswalk, select all images with boats, or type some words. This, along with monitoring interactions with the captcha dialog provides a confidence level the submission is by a real human being (not a bot) before the message can be sent. Another technique is to encode E-mail address in a method not recognizable to a bot. When a user clicks the link, the result returned to a browser is a usable E-mail address. Some Content Management Systems (CMS) handle this automatically or with the assistance of a plugin. QRZ requires a user to be logged in to see E-mail addresses, saying a bot wouldn’t have a QRZ account. I use a substitution method on my personal site making the user complete two relatively simple tasks:

Callsign@a-r-r-l.net (callsign found elsewhere, remove dashes)
SPAM (Hormel Foods)

Another variation uses: K8JTK(@)arrl(dot)net. When a bot harvests the address above, the spam message is sent to a domain that doesn’t exist (a-r-r-l.net). A real ham would know what a callsign looks like. They substitute my callsign for “Callsign” and remove the dashes in the domain name, voilà.

Those techniques are good for keeping E-mail harvesting spam bots at bay on web pages. PDFs, such as club newsletters, are still an issue because there is no easy way to mask E-mail addresses. All this falls apart when humans are paid to bypass techniques put in place to stop the machines from harvesting. Spammers have gotten very creative. Not only harvesting E-mail addresses but techniques used to reel people in.

Most of the ones I receive that make it through look like the message below. Achieving the result of my site linking to crap commercial site legitimizes the commercial site. This leads to additional traffic and improved search result ranking for the commercial site. Search engines take into consideration the legitimacy of a site by how many other sites it considers reputable, are linking to that other site. Don’t fall for these! I have [redacted] parts of the message to not give press to these spammers and scammers.

Subject: jeffreykopcak.com
From: [redacted, company name] 
Date: 8/18/21, 6:43 PM
To: Jeffrey < [redacted, another E-mail address] >

Hi Jeffrey,

I hope you're doing well! I came across your page and noticed you included some information about security resources and password protection:

https://www.jeffreykopcak.com/posts/

I thought you may be interested in a guide our team created on ways to protect your family and home with the internet:

https://www. [redacted, company name commercial site] .com/blog/harnessing-the-internet-to-keep-your-family-and-home-safe

With the rise of smart home technology, tracking devices and general online communication, the need to have access to high-speed internet and increased safety precautions is more important than ever. We wanted to help provide more information on steps families can take to improve their security.

Our guide includes

Tips on Surveillance Systems and Securing Your Internet Connection

Using the Internet to Stay Safe

Alternative Internet Resources

Would you consider adding our resource to your page that I listed above to help spread awareness on online safety?

I look forward to hearing your thoughts when you have a chance to take a look!

Gratefully,

Jess

Jess [redacted, last name]
Communications Coordinator at [redacted, company name]
info @ [redacted, company name] .com

First sign this is a scam, I didn’t ask for or solicit this type of content. Second, the link they refer to on my site is a listing of all postings I’ve made to my site. They don’t reference a specific post meaning they didn’t read anything. Their search terms landed on my “all posts” page. References to “security resources” and “password protection” were likely OSJ articles I wrote. Third, I’ve looked at some of these provided links (on a VPN of course), the information is generic garbage containing basic information and often links to their other garbage posts.

If I’m in a mood, I’ll E-mail them back saying ‘sponsored content is $300K/per link/per year.’ No takers, lol.

This is one of the best I’ve seen:

Subject: [redacted, ham club webmaster's name] and [redacted, ham club president's name], [redacted, ham club name]
From: Stacey [redacted, last name] <s[redacted, last name] @ [redacted, their club] .org>
To: [redacted, E-mail addresses]
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:58:48

[redacted, names of ham club officials],

My name is Stacey [redacted, last name] and on behalf of the [redacted, their club name] for Girls, I wanted to let the [redacted, ham club name] know your web page was a big help to our club! This one - [redacted, ham club web page]

For the month of December, our club is exploring the history of innovations in science and technology with a 'famous inventors and inventions' lesson. The girls are currently learning about the history of the radio, including early broadcasting techniques and amateur radio, and how it impacted society. Your web page led us to some great information on amateur radio to incorporate into our lessons, so the girls requested I reach out and let you know :)

As a thank you, I wanted to pass along this reading on the history of the car radio our member Nicole found. It's a fantastic timeline of radio and audio systems throughout the years, covering the early stages for military use and evolving into the radio we know today with the invention of the vacuum tube. The additional reading on historical broadcasting and the golden age of early radio was really neat for the kids to learn about too. This is it... https://www. [redacted, commercial website] .com/articles/the-history-of-the-car-radio/

Nicole was very excited to share it with you! She thought it would make a wonderful addition. Will you let me know if you're able to include it for her? I know Nicole would be delighted to see she could help! (We meet Thursday evening, if you can add it by then!) She's really enjoyed working on this project and is even in the works to get her HAM license! Looking forward to hearing from you!

Wishing you a very Happy Holidays,
Mrs. [redacted, last name]
https:// [redacted, their club] .org

There weren’t the usual red flags. It’s well written. Their club could be completely legitimate. It’s about kids (won’t somebody please think of the children!) and they gave a name to their member, Nicole, to humanize her. They mention ham radio a couple different times meaning they read the site or the person writing this has familiarly with the subject.

(homestarrunner.com)

Red flags: The E-mail address this message was sent to, I’ve never used anywhere. The person harvesting E-mails strung together some text. They did not even grab the E-mail address that I use on that site. One could have surmised the text they saw equated to an E-mail address. As it turns out, they guessed correctly. Second, the ‘commercial website’ is an auto title loan agency and the content of the article is not well detailed. But I could enter to win prizes in their holiday giveaway! I am not spamming the club’s visitors with links to a loan agency. If I saw links like these on another club’s site, I’m not joining. Third, the implication of a deadline or sense of urgency (by Thursday evening). This is the same way people get scammed by those calls where ‘there is a warrant out for your arrest and you must pay $X00 now or the sheriff will arrest you in 10 minutes.’ I ain’t buying it! DELETE!

If I had to guess, assuming their “club” is completely legitimate, in an attempt to raise some cash, they are involved in soliciting traffic for commercial sites. They get paid by the number of sites that post the URL driving traffic to that site and/or increase that site’s’ search ranking. Their campaign deadline was Friday and the reason for the urgency getting links posted by Thursday evening. Did I mention I could enter to win 30+ prizes in their holiday giveaway?

I write about this to bring awareness to the rest of the ham radio webmasters and club officials. These solicitations come across looking legitimate. Do not get taken by or caught up in these scams. If these links have been posted to the club’s site, remove them like yesterday. The club isn’t asking for these solicitations, posting them can’t be beneficial to the organization.

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year! 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – November 2022 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

Even though it happens once a month, Windows Updates are a pain. On “Patch Tuesday,” the second Tuesday of each month, Windows users hold their breath. Will my machine come back from the brink? Sometimes issues are bad enough where updates are released “out of cycle” or “out of band” meaning at other times during the month. This month was one example. An update caused more issues requiring a follow up patch to be released after 11/8. Depending on the operating system used, the pain came in different ways.

Performing a Windows 7 fresh install today, Windows Update will not work. It’s broken. The way updates were released and authenticated changed drastically from Service Pack 1 to the point Windows 7 went end-of-life. This installation procedure brings Windows Update to a working state, if you need to build a Windows 7 machine for some reason. Note: since Windows 7 has completely reached end-of-life, Microsoft is not releasing updates and it is recommended to use a supported operating system. Once you get past that, checking for updates 87.5 times and applying the 8,392 updates for the next 6 hours was always fun.

Windows 10 has streamlined updates where there aren’t nearly as many updates on a fresh install and the process doesn’t take nearly as long. Due to users putting off or just not applying updates on older versions of Windows, updates and reboots are now forced on users. Forced to the point where users claimed their machines rebooted while they were actively using it, loosing hours of work. Instead of the user choosing when to apply updates or do a reboot, they implemented a band-aid allowing the user to set when they’re likely to be using the computer. This does not help as options are severely limited. Then there’s the quality of updates. Crashes, Blue Screens of Death (BSOD), broken functionality, missing documents and files, printing problems, hardware and device issues are regular occurrences.

I heard on a podcast once, speaking of a botched Windows 10 update which removed ‘old files’ from users documents and pictures folders. Beta users reported the exact problem to Microsoft before the problem became widespread. The commentator made the remark that Microsoft’s attitude was: only a small number of users reported the problem, we’re not going further investigate or solve the problem. When Microsoft rolled out the update to all Windows users, the ‘small number of users’ became a very large angry mob of users. Microsoft didn’t invest the time to resolve, what they thought to be, a fringe case and resulted in a lot of negative press.

As hams, we often have Windows machines at remote locations (towers, buildings, club houses, shacks). Whether these are running Echolink, Winlink Express, Wires-X, or some other service that requires a Windows machine. An Echolink node can be run on a Linux-based solutions such as AllStar or SVX Link. Wires-X and RMS Express require Windows.

The out-of-control nature of forcing Windows Updates and reboots cases grief for the owner, admin, or Technical Committee. The machine will be left at a site logged in and running desired applications. When Windows Updates happen, often a reboot is required and the machine automatically reboots. If the admins follow good security practice and set a password for the account, after rebooting the machine will stop at the logon screen. Prompting someone to enter the correct password. While waiting for a log on, the service provided by the machine will remain offline until the program can be restarted. Nodes will be offline for any local users wanting to access those resources or remote users wanting to connect into the node.

Windows automatic updates disabled

The developer could create a Windows Service which are background programs able to start at boot. Services are not allowed to interact with the desktop since Windows Vista. Changing settings would be a problem if the program can’t interact with the desktop. Doing automatic logon isn’t a great option, even if the machine locks automatically after a minute. Need access to the machine? Just reboot it. Automatic logon would only be viable if the machine is secured in a locked cabinet or room.

Clubs have reached out and I’ve provided options for gaining control of Windows Update. One way is to disable Windows Update until someone is available to run updates manually. Disabling automatic updates will allow services to remain available while providing the flexibility of doing updates when an admin is available.

Disabling updates does not mean ‘never run updates.’ This is to control when updates happen and have scheduled downtimes. An admin must remember to run updates on a regular schedule – during a club meeting or site visit, for example. Not updating the system can have consequences including the network connection being disabled due to machine compromise in situations where the machine is on the site’s shared Internet, a corporate network, or school’s Internet connection.

The first place I search when looking for Windows suggestions, tips, and tricks is TenForums as they have good tutorials. There are SevenForums and ElevenForum for the respective OS versions. There one will find a tutorial How to Enable or Disable Automatic Updates for Windows Update in Windows 10. Windows 10 Home has no built-in way to disable automatic updates and requires a program like Wu10Man to manage settings. The program is open source.

The second option in the post is for clubs running Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise editions. In these versions there is a built-in way of disabling updates by way of the Local Group Policy Editor. No additional software required, my favorite.

  1. To open the Local Group Policy Editor, start by pressing the [Windows key] + [R]
  2. For Open, enter: gpedit.msc
  3. Click OK

  4. In the Local Group Policy Editor left pane, navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
  5. On the right pane, double-click Configure Automatic Updates

  6. To disable automatic updates, select Disabled
  7. Click OK
  8. Close the Local Group Policy Editor

For other configuration options of Automatic Updates, see steps 5 & 6 in option #2.

Going into Start -> Settings -> Update & Security, Windows Update will say in red “Some settings managed by your organization” and “Your organization has turned off automatic updates.” Though “Last Checked” will show a recent time, it will say “You’re up to date” regardless if updates are available for the system or not.

To manually update Windows, click Check for updates in that same Settings window. Windows Update will begin by checking for updates. Then download and install available updates.

Leave plenty of time for updates to finish. Reboot when required. Log on, apply other program updates, and restart necessary programs. Programs that should start after log on can be added to Startup Items. Machines with Solid-State Drives will apply updates in about a half-hour. Spinning drives, especially slower ones (4200/5400 RPM), will take much longer to apply. SSD and MVMe drives will apply updates quicker due to their much faster read/write speeds. Gain control over Windows Updates to gain control of nodes and services going down randomly until the Tech Committee can arrive on site.

Running Windows Update manually

WTWW, a shortwave station run by hams, gained a following in the community for carrying ham radio related content – original programming, simulcasted live shows, and podcasts. As of November 9, 2022, it has gone silent. According to a report by Amateur Radio Newsline, “Ted Randall, WB8PUM, cited difficulties in meeting the station’s ongoing expenses. Based in Lebanon, Tennessee, WTWW provided a wide range of programming at 5.83 MHz along with music and amateur-radio content at 5.085 MHz.”

The station went on the air in 2010. The flagship show “QSO Radio Show” broadcast live from Hamvention for many years going back to the Hara Arena days. The station ceased transmissions on shortwave but has plans to remain online with broadcasts available on their website. They hope followers make the transition from shortwave to web content.

I discovered another service like Hamshack Hotline and Hams Over IP, called AmateurWire. It was started around the same time as Hams Over IP. AmateurWire is available for general amateur use. In correspondence with the administrator, Roger – KE8LCM, this is an experiment for him learning how to run a VoIP service.

My direct extension on AmateurWire is 1140 if you would like to reach me. There is a trunk between AmateurWire and the Hams Over IP service, meaning users of each service can dial users on the other service. To reach a Hams Over IP user from AmateurWire, prefix the Hams Over IP extension number with 304. My DVMIS extension is 9004 which has links to Hamshack Hotline, Hams Over IP, and 12 other ham radio networks.

‘Tis the season for Santa nets! Get children, grandchildren, and neighborhood kiddos in touch with Santa! The Santa Net is held every evening between Thanksgiving and Christmas on 3.916 MHz at 8:00PM eastern time.

If HF is not available, the DoDropIn Echolink conference is hosting the Santa Watch Net on Christmas Eve! It begins at 6:00PM eastern on the 24th and runs about 4 hours.

Based in Colorado, and available on Echolink, is Santa on the Air. It runs now through December 9th. Times vary, see their QRZ post.

Third party traffic is always on the nice list for all Santa nets!

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – October 2022 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

Two years ago, I wrote an article for the OSJ dealing with “cyber hygiene” – practices and precautions users take to keep their data safe and secure from outside attacks. I didn’t rehash it last October since most of the article was still relevant. For this year’s “Cyber Security Month,” it’s time for an update. I still encourage everyone to re-read that article in the October 2020 OSJ or on my website as 95% of it is still best-practice for normal people.

The browser is still one of the most utilized pieces of software in modern computing and one of the most attacked. Users hanging on to Internet Explorer are finding it harder and harder to visit modern sites as new encryption standards are recognized and made industry standard. Using an End of Life browser, users are seeing a lot of “This page can’t be displayed” because it doesn’t support current methods of protecting communication.

Brave browser (brave.com)

Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Opera remain good choices. Brave browser is a good alternative if you don’t want to use a native Google browser. It’s based on the Chromium project for those who want a privacy-focused browser. Before jumping to Brave, some things to be aware of before you have a jarring first impression. There are ads – mostly for cryptocurrency. Why recommend an ad supported browser for crypto-what? Unlike Chrome, which makes money on user’s data, Brave pays the bills with safe ads (opposed to malicious ones that would infect your computer). They can be turned off. If ads in a browser are not your cup of tea, there are plenty of other browser options but note Brave took top spot for privacy in terms of phoning home:

Used "out of the box" with its default settings Brave is by far the most private of the browsers studied. We did not find any use of identifiers allowing tracking of IP address over time, and no sharing of the details of web pages visited with backend servers (Leith).

Pi-Hole and 3rd party DNS services, such as Quad 9, are good options for blocking ads, tracking, annoyances, and malicious content at the network level. To go a step further and block unwanted social media, games, messaging apps, dating sites, or streaming services or entire categories of sites, freemium services like NextDNS and AdGuard offer additional blocking options. Advanced features including newly registered domain blocking, typo-squatting domain blocking (domains registered by squatters taking advantage of type-o’s made when users are inputting a site’s URL), parked domains, and entire top-level domain blocking go above Pi-Hole and other free services.

Free tier gives you a limited number of DNS queries. With devices that freak out when they can’t phone home or heck, the cloud providers used by my workplace, you’ll blow through the free tier quickly. With a yearly plan, the price is around $1.75/month. OpenDNS has a completely free tier with basic blocking. Their blocking of services and categories is also a premium option.

Note devices with hard coded or manually entered DNS for other services (such as the popular Google DNS 8.8.8.8) will bypass these protections. A router/firewall with the ability to intercept and re-direct traffic (also called internal port-forward or inside NAT) will stop requests from reaching other DNS services and redirect them to the service of choice.

KeePassXC interface (keepassxc.org)

LastPass, in 2021, decided to make their free tier limited to a device of a single type. Mobile or desktop, not both. To sync between both, a premium account was needed. Granted $3/month isn’t a huge amount (you can give up one coffee), users opted for a service called Bitwarden. It is an open-source password manager offering unlimited devices for free and a family account for $3.33/month with unlimited sharing. An option that appeals to me is the self-hosted option where you are in-control of your data.

KeePass remains a strong choice for managing password databases, especially offline. I recently moved to a fork called KeePassXC. Its lineage came from KeePass in that KeePassX was a fork of KeePass, KeePassXC is a fork of KeePassX. It too is free, open source, and databases are compatible between KeePass and XC if you want to try or use both. I like KeePassXC better due to its cross-platform support and TOTP/2FA integration.

Beyond my 2020 article, I would like to address the issue of administering devices remotely. In particular, devices we leave at remote sites or have in “the cloud.” Whether that is an AllStar node, EchoLink/SVX, Wires-X, router, controller, mesh node, or digital mode reflector. Though I’m writing this in the context of ham radio devices, this applies to anything – including devices on home networks. I hate the idea of devices, which provide services to a very small group, being available to anyone on the Internet. It’s dumb, terrible security practice, hygiene, and there are better options.

‘Well, my device is password protected!’ Most don’t change the default password on their device. Ones that do many have purchased from a dud company that ignores vulnerabilities for 3 years that, in theory, would allow anyone access to their camera, Wyze.

For clarification, I’m not taking the ports needed for normal user access to the AllStar/Wires-X/EchoLink/reflector/whatever. I’m specifically talking about the ports needed for administrative access. Ones such as SSH and remote desktop. Admins that figured out OpenVPN or WireGuard tunnels or ones that only have local access to admin services, you’re good.

With common admin services open to the Internet, check the logs. Internet miscreants are trying common username and password combinations. Not to mention probes not seen in logs like fingerprinting to figure out which outdated version is running and looking up exploits against that version. Once they get in, they will configure that device to be a cryptocurrency miner (making money for the bad guy), another device in their bot army used for attacking other victims, figuring what other devices they can get into, not to mention backdoors allowing them access at any time. When this happens, that device can no longer be trusted.

Fail2Ban is a popular option that only slows down attackers, doesn’t provide distributed brute-force attack protection, and is not available on Windows. Doesn’t solve the issue of unnecessarily exposing admin services to the Internet. Changing ports is not secure, often called security through obscurity – which is not security. A quick scan of the IP address will reveal the new port. SSH keys with PasswordAuthentication set to “no” is about as good of protection as you can get when wide-open access is needed.

ZeroTier and Talescale are an easy-to-use middle ground between the options of wide-open access and creating your own VPN connections. Both services create secure connections to just about any device including: Windows, MacOS, Android, iOS, Linux (including Raspberry Pi), BSD, and some Network Attached Storage devices. The device reaches out to a central server or peer, establishing a private connection. Permitted users are then able to establish connections with that device. A club might have five administrators, all five would have provisioned accounts for access to their club’s remote site devices.

These services are freemium and proprietary (not open-source) but they do have self-hosted options. Once the service is up and running, close the administration service ports in the router. Configure the device to only accept connections for admin services on the ZeroTier or Talescale interfaces.

For web services, such as status pages or dashboards running on devices at remote sites, something to consider is a reverse proxy as an additional layer of protection. Normally: install and configure the device with a web server stack, install a dashboard or status page, port forward 80 & 443, then hand out an IP address to users or provide link on the club’s webpage to that device, maybe using a DNS/dynamic DNS entry. You’re off and running. The device remains exposed to the Internet. Miscreants could send random junk attempting to bypass authentication or flood the connection with bogus data, denying legitimate users’ access (denial of service).

A reverse proxy works by being the point at which users access the site. Cloudflare is one such reverse proxy service and offers a free tier for personal/hobby sites. The proxy inspects traffic to determine if it is legitimate. Legitimate traffic is allowed to pass onto the server. Illegitimate traffic is dropped and never seen by the server, protecting it from possible malicious traffic. An additional benefit is the real IP address of the server or device, at a site or at home, is not easily determined, making the device less unlikely to be exploited.

(cloudflare.com)

This protects the device in a different way from that of a private link or VPN like ZeroTier or OpenVPN. The web site is still accessible to anyone on the internet. Having visitor’s setup private links or VPNs for commonly accessible web services is not practical and not something a majority of users will not opt into freely.

The Cuyahoga Amateur Radio Society (CARS) asked for one of our technical presentations at their meeting on October 11th. I was able to give a presentation put together by Technical Specialist, Bob – K8MD, on DMR. He was out-of-town but I was able to give his presentation. There was plenty of questions and good discussion after the presentation. I brought one of my hotspots and a DMR radio to demonstrate the AmateurLogic.TV Sound Check Net on my multimode system. The net got started about when the meeting wrapped up which was perfect timing. If your club is interested in this or another technical topic, let me know!

I heard from many hams that found my Hamshack Hotline tip useful in last month’s OSJ, including ones outside our section. Yes, they are reading THE OHIO Section Journal =) Some updates: even long after the DNS entry was removed, phones apparently cached the IP address. Some reported their phone still had green lights though the admin interface contained the old DNS entry. With this information, the phone will likely remain working until rebooted. Additionally, as suspected, other domains were seen. Replacing hhux.wizworks.net with hhux.hamshackhotline.com also worked. Some replaced the entire string with only hamshackhotline.com, leaving off subdomains like hhus (as was shown) or hhux. This won’t work either. The subdomain must remain intact.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – September 2022 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

I was cleaning out my E-mail inbox, apparently no one else does this, and came across a request from a couple years ago. Mike – AB8MW contacted me wanting to know if it was possible to run multiple copies of Fldigi at one time. The scenario would be one copy for HF and one for VHF/UHF. For example: an EmComm event where they might want to monitor HF frequencies in addition to local VHF/UHF using a single PC.

Starting multiple copies of Fldigi & Flmsg will open multiple windows. Regardless of how many windows can be opened, all use the same user configuration directory to store settings. Mike wanted Fldigi to retain settings for each use. Settings such as soundcard inputs/outputs and rig control (if used). One radio might be using a SignaLink/RIGblaster/other soundcard interface and have no rig control. Another radio maybe using virtual audio cables (typical for SDR radios) and Hamlib for rig control. When multiple Fldigi & Flmsg windows use the same settings directory, last window closed wins. When the program is restarted, those settings are loaded. Additional Fldigi & Flmsg windows have to be configured all over again. Not convenient, especially with many uses on a single PC, in a pinch, or during a real operating event.

Why would someone want to run multiple copies (or instances) of Fldigi programs? Some operators use HF and VHF/UHF differently, including sound interfaces and rig controls. Instead of switching around configurations depending on band, have two instances configured, one for each radio. Other reasons could be a single all-band all-mode radio is used but have very different operating styles, personalities, or users – like in a club setting. Operating styles could be EmComm and contesting, or using different macros. Monitoring multiple repeaters or multiple HF frequencies during an EmComm exercise would be desired or any combination of these examples. Creating separate instances will allow each to have its own configuration settings.

Keeping separate settings is very doable, but it takes some work. There are additional issues when adding Flmsg (or other Fldigi programs) to the mix as one would use for NBEMS. Flmsg & Fldigi use a local IP port (often referred to as a “socket”) to facilitate communications between programs. The default IP and port for Flmsg to Fldigi is 127.0.0.1:7362. 127.0.0.1, also referred to as loopback or localhost, is a reserved IP address. This IP address is used by programs to communicate with other programs and services running on the same system. In Flmsg, when the operator hits AutoSend, it’s a crapshoot which Fldigi window will transmit the message when multiple windows are open. A message intended for VHF could go out over the HF radio. Not good, as that causes unnecessary confusion to other stations. Each pairing of Fldigi & Flmsg needs a unique set of IP ports.

According to the author of the Fldigi suite, Dave – W1HKJ, port/socket parameters for Fldigi, Flarq, Flmsg and Flamp are specified on the command line. Other TCP ports are configured in the Fldigi Configuration options under Misc -> TCP-IP sessions. There is some overlap between command line options and graphical interface options including KISS, ARQ, and XML settings.

When AB8MW originally contacted me, we worked out the configuration details over E-mail and he was going to get it working. I, of course, said ‘I am going to write this up’ and never did. That is until I came across those messages and finally sat down to document a procedure. My procedure outlines changes needed to run multiple instances in a NBEMS operational situation for both Fldigi and Flmsg. This might be useful for those participating in the upcoming October SET. This will also work for Fldigi instances without the use of Flmsg. The posting is on my site: Running multiple instances of Fldigi and Flmsg.

My write up labels one instance for “HF,” a second instance for “VHF/UHF.” There is no limit on how many instances can be created. I’ve heard stations using as many as six. The problem becomes manageability. When a setting is to be changed universally, it has to be done independently for each separate instance. When a new version is installed, shortcuts must be updated manually.

Multiple copies of Fldigi & Flmsg transmitting messages independently

My process creates separate directories for both Fldigi and Flmsg to save their settings. Copying of existing configuration settings is accomplished, if desired. Then creating and customizing shortcuts to use specific configuration directories. Finally, making unique configuration changes for each instance.

Running multiple instances of Fldigi programs is completely doable. It takes a little effort to configure the directories, IP ports, and settings. Once configured, clicking AutoSend in Flmsg will send that message to the paired Fldigi instance. I even show how to send messages received on HF to the VHF instance and vice-versa. No more guessing if it will go out over the correct radio!

If you were an early adopter of Hamshack Hotline and no longer have a green light for the HH extension, you probably need to make a configuration change. Another symptom, when the phone is rebooted, the phone gets stuck on “Checking DNS” and never moves past that screen.

Back when HH first started, the domain name wizworks.net was set by HH in the configuration file loaded onto everyone’s phones. The US server was hhus.wizworks.net. Since then, they transitioned to using the domain hamshackhotline.com, where the US server was changed to: hhus.hamshackhotline.com. The hhus.wizworks.net DNS record has been removed and is now invalid (NXDOMAIN). If a HH configured phone or device has stopped working around the end of August, check the registration domain.

  • In a web browser, go to:
    http://<IP Address of phone>/admin/advanced/
  • Click the “Ext 1” tab – or whichever extension Hamshack Hotline is configured
  • Under “Proxy and Registration” look for: (1) Proxy & (2) Outbound Proxy
  • If they show: hhus.wizworks.net, change both to:
    hhus.hamshackhotline.com
  • Click Submit All Changes
Cisco SPA phone configuration changes for Hamshack Hotline

The phone will reboot and be back online again after about 60 seconds. Verify the Hamshack Hotline extension is now green. Green means the phone was able to register successfully with the Hamshack Hotline server. If that doesn’t work, having trouble, or not sure, open a ticket with the Hamshack Hotline Help Desk.

I discovered this issue after powering down the shack due to storms. When I powered the phone back on, it stayed on the “Checking DNS” screen. I figured something fried during power off or the power supply was dying. There was no change after changing network cables and power sources.

I found the phone was getting an IP address by looking at my router/firewall and seeing an IP address handed out by DHCP. This meant it was accessing the network and I could do a packet capture. Packet captures capture network data for analysis and troubleshooting. These shed light on network problems such as DNS issues, firewall blocked traffic, packet size/MTU, retransmissions, etc. A capture won’t show problems with the application itself because it just looks like regular traffic/packets on the wire. Captures are often run on routers or firewalls as they are passing the traffic to and from the Internet or other networks. A switch with ‘port mirroring’ can send copies of data to a separate Ethernet port. A device connected to the mirror port, such as a PC with Wireshark, captures the traffic.

For my phone not finishing its boot, I identified the issue immediately in the capture. The phone was requesting the record for hhus.wizworks.net. The DNS server responded with “no such name.” That means the DNS record for hhus.wizworks.net, which ties the name to an IP address, does not exist. It was removed, as my phone worked previously.

Packet capture: first line is the DNS query for hhus.wizworks.net. Second line is the response “no such name”

Since my phone had an IP address, I could access its web-based configuration making the changes above. I probably could have guessed the new domain name. However, I was even luckier. I setup Hamshack Hotline on my softphone a couple of months earlier and their documentation had the new server name. Simply changing domains from “wizworks.net” to “hamshackhotline.com” was the only change I made.

A while back they told everyone to re-provision their devices. I thought I did. Thinking later, I probably didn’t because I configured additional extensions on my phone. Either way, making that change resolved my issue and my phone is operational once again.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – August 2022 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

When it comes to digital communications, especially in the Ohio Section, efforts have been focused on DMR. Repeaters are pricier than other digital modes. An abundance of end-user devices available from a variety of vendors, at fairly inexpensive prices, is a winner for users. DMR, being a commercial standard, was adopted to ham radio. Those that have not spent time to understand how a codeplug works and how to modify them ‘are just a bunch of appliance operators’ is a common argument. To link the majority of Ohio’s DMR repeaters, a network had to be chosen. Ohio standardized on Brandmeister.

What is BrandMeister? “BrandMaster/BrandMeister is an operating software for Master servers participating in a worldwide infrastructure network of amateur radio digital voice systems.” Stating that amateurs can and do use it for D-STAR and Wires-X, its main focus and selling points are related to DMR linking.

In the early days of DMR in ham radio, networks were setup identical to their commercial system counterparts. Repeaters had certain talk groups on specific time slots. Limited to 16 talk groups because that’s how many channels were available on the radio’s selector knob. Owners had little to no options for customizing talkgroup offerings. For example, if you were in eastern Ohio, a repeater might have Indiana statewide whether you wanted it or not. There were no such things as hotspots, at least as hams know and understand them. Like most new things, early adaptors did this for fun and no one really knew if DMR would take off and be accepted by the masses.

Three things helped DMR take off in ham radio: cheap radios, hotspots, and Brandmeister. Brandmeister turned commercially implemented DMR networks on their heads. Made it more like ham radio. A repeater owner could put any talkgroup on any time slot. Any user could make private calls to other users on any timeslot. Even make up a talkgroup number, hit transmit, and if another user was on that same talkgroup number, communication happened automatically. Later, simultaneous data messages and APRS were implemented. Being able to use ham developed gear, like the DV4mini and OpenSpot devices, was a huge draw. Hams familiar with commercial implementations of DMR were questioning ‘how could Brandmeister pull this off without causing chaos in the ham radio streets?’ Especially the ‘pick your own talkgroup number.’

With the explosion in popularity came use and abuse. Brandmeister had to start making decisions and decided to follow the strictest definitions of standards. You can still make up your own talkgroup but it is generally frowned upon. DV4Mini sticks were banned due to poor software – this was reversed after G4KLX wrote compatible software. There was a hissy fit Brandmeister threw about using DMR IDs starting with 1. Everybody and their mother, brother, and daughter requested talkgroups. No more 5-digit talkgroup numbers are assigned. Bridging to other digital modes, networks, and analog systems is verboten, explicitly forbidden on world-wide, regionals, and statewide talkgroups. Brandmeister considers 3, 4, and 5-digit talkgroup IDs under their control, as defined by the MCC numbering standard. 6-digit repeater IDs or 7-digit user IDs, the assigned owner can do whatever they want as Brandmeister sees themselves as “guests” for those IDs. There are more do’s and don’ts in the BM USA wiki.

For a good long time, development and, I would argue, interest by the development team was stagnant. There were long standing issues with many parts of the system, including the online audio web portal, Hoseline. For years it would not work correctly, had long audio delays or no audio at all, or the URL would simply be unavailable. Around June 2021, a new and much improved Hoseline appeared. Featuring a new and modern interface with the ability to monitor multiple talkgroups at a time.

Improvements in the name of security were made later the same year. Each Brandmeister hotspot user needed to generate a “hotspot password” for each DMR ID. This change impacted every Brandmeister user. I was contacted well into 2022 about users whom were unaware of this change.

Not-so-well-known changes affected some misconfigured hotspots and users of DVSwitch and MMDVM bridging. Master servers started checking parameters such as RXFrequency and TXFrequency in MMDVM. If the device was a hotspot, Brandmeister logic said if those two fields are not the same value, the device it must not be a hotspot because hotspots are simplex. If a hotspot (or DVSwitch/MMDVM Bridge) had RX Frequency not equal to TX Frequency, the device would be blocked from transmitting because it was deemed misconfigured. In order to work, they both had to be the same. Also, if either parameter was 0 – as in no RF output, such as an Internet link – also no work-y.

It’s their network and I really want to like them. Their decisions are making it hard for sysadmins to continue using Brandmeister. Communication regarding nearly all back-end changes have been poor to nonexistent. Changes affecting all users are publicized, even though a good percentage hit me up months later saying ‘all of a sudden my hotspot doesn’t work anymore.’ Sure, some changes might only “affect a small number of users,” post something in the groups.io. Instead admins are left to figure out, on their own, why the Brandmeister link is not functioning without being aware of changes on their end. Something about not peeving off your users, which they seem to be doing a lot lately. I get that they’ve had to make hard decisions and many policies are a result of the users whom abuse the system. Brandmeister probably received pressure from other network and talkgroup owners who want to quash analog cross linking. When the Brandmeister network was originally a ‘do-anything network,’ it’s not easy when they start pulling-back on those abilities.

August 19th, a major code upgrade was rolled out which implemented additional changes paving the way for better dashboard integrations, APIs, and hopefully more new features. If you setup your hotspots or applications with a Brandmeister API key prior to August 19, 2022, new keys are required. I was able to generate Brandmeister API v2 keys for Pi-Star: 4.1.6 / Dashboard: 20220819 and OpenSpot3 with firmware v62.

I was not able to save the API v2 key on an original OpenSpot (1) with the latest firmware available (0142). I was seeing the error message “Couldn’t save API key (Bad Request).” According to the support forums, they won’t be getting support for v2 either. New keys are supported on the 2, 3, and 4 OpenSpot models. If you had previously generated a v1 API key, it will continue to work for as long as Brandmeister allows.

I do not know if previous versions of Pi-STAR have been updated to support v2 API keys. To update a Pi-STAR to the latest revision, backup the existing configuration, download v4.1.4 on the Pi-Star site, flash to a new or the existing SD card. When configured, run update/upgrade and repeat, from the Configuration -> Expert option, until there are no more updates for both tasks. Pi-STAR cannot be upgraded version-to-version through the updater/upgrader.

Go to Configuration -> Expert -> under Full Edit, BM API. If you have an apikey entered these need to be updated, specifically apikeys that are 128-characters. It will look something like:

MWaztB3EcHWBEW@D$2gb89Y2kvvE4leSr.33Gey74d0IYVSKU58YGMSFmPHD.Q1fECUkIcj7E4leSr.33Getkjshdf987ywe2irligr908SFIdlsfkj08934sasdlveg

The 128-character API keys will continue to work for an undetermined amount of time. Follow the Brandmeister blog post to generate updated API keys. If you don’t have an apikey entered and don’t want one, you don’t need to do anything.

What alternatives are there to Brandmeister? Networks such as DMR+ and FreeDMR are popular in Europe/UK. HBLink reflectors are available but only offer a few select talkgroups. TGIF is a smaller DMR network implementation. They do not have many restrictions on device configuration. Though TGIF does have an “Ohio” talkgroup, it’s not the same everyone knows and loves on Brandmeister. As an admin, TGIF is much easier to work with. Running a linking system that has links to Brandmeister, TGIF, and HBLink, users don’t use alternative options, even though they complain about Brandmeister. Brandmeister is what they know and love. They won’t venture out to use other, more stable options, therefore remaining appliance operators.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – July 2022 edition

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above.  Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).

  • Go to www.arrl.org and click the Login button.
  • Login
  • When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name.  Click your Name.  This will take you to the “My Account” page.
  • On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
  • To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
  • Check the box next to “Division and Section News.”  If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
  • Click Save
  • There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.”  You’re all set!

Now without further ado…


Read the full edition at:

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey gang,

Seven operators activated Special Event Station W8B on July 16, 2022. Operating team consisted of: Technical Specialist Bob – K8MD – Bird employee and mastermind in planning the event, K8FH – Fred, K8TV – Ken, KC8NZJ – Mat, NF8O – Dave, KE8BKI – Stephanie, and K8JTK. This Special Event commemorated 80 years of Bird Electronic Corporation and 70 years of the Model 43 Wattmeter.

In 1940, J. Raymond Bird developed a way to quickly and accurately measure forward and reflected power in coax transmission lines. In April 1942, Bird Engineering Company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio. According to an old sign on their website, the original location was on E. 38th street. Later, the company renamed to Bird Electronics Corporation. After securing important contracts in the late 1950’s, they located to their current facility in Solon, Ohio. Bird was instrumental in the Mercury and Apollo space programs during the 1960’s, supplying radio-tracking equipment and loads for equipment testing. Today, Bird manufactures and packages test equipment, signal boosters, analyzers, and recording equipment.

70 years of the Bird 43 Wattmeter (Bird)

In 1953, the Bird 43 RF Wattmeter was introduced and quickly became the industry-standard tool for RF power measurement. A staple in many ham shacks, the Bird 43 is popular in commercial and broadcast industries as well. During the 1970’s, Bird provided critical and affordable test equipment to ham radio operators during emergencies which helped Bird become a household name. The 43 is popular because it can measure a wide range of frequencies, 450 kHz to 2.7 GHz between 100 mW to 10 kW, using plug-in elements. These elements are commonly referred to as “slugs.” The meter is an insertion-type, meaning placed in-line of the transmission line, measuring forward and reflected power.

Started out as a dreary, rainy morning. When I left my QTH, the sun was starting to make an appearance. Rain held off for us to operate 7 hours before another round was on its way. Three portable stations were operational. Two HF by K8MD and K8FH, and one VHF/UHF by K8TV. The HF antennas were portable turnstile dipoles with a fabricated or Spiderbeam center mast. These are quickly deployable and go up in about 20 minutes. The VHF/UHF was a commercial antenna on a fabricated mast that rose just above one of the unloading docks.

K8FH on CW and K8TV on VHF/UHF

Plan was to be on the air by 1000 local. Setup went quick and W8B was operational around 0900 testing the equipment with a few initial contacts. We operated from the outdoor employee patio of Bird. Operators were treated to a tour of the factory by K8MD. It was nothing short of impressive. In order to test manufactured products, there are high power broadcast transmitters for dummy load testing and plenty of test equipment that any ham would love to have in their shack. Most products, including the 43, are made, tested, and shipped from the Solon, Ohio location.

K8MD, Katie Wright, Dana Svilar, Terry Grant, and NF8O

After the tour, we met executives Katie Wright – Director of Strategic Development, Dana Svilar – Manager of Marketing Communications, and CEO Terry Grant. They were interested to see the setup and how the event was progressing. We explained and demonstrated the digital station. Sideband contacts were made and they heard from hams that own a Bird 43.

The bands weren’t the best to start out. On 40m, we’re logging contacts. Then, like a light-switch, there was nothing, including on FT8. Katie was trying to coordinate a contact with N1KSC, Kennedy Space Center Amateur Radio Club, with some close friends of hers. For a good while, they were hearing us 59 but we did not copy them at all. Right about noon, K8MD finally established contact. There was still plenty of QSB but he got them in the log. Katie even got on the radio to say a few words during the exchange!

K8TV operated the VHF/UHF station. He was making contacts on repeaters in Lorain (close to 40 miles at our 1100 ft elevation) and surrounding counties, including making simplex contacts. K8FH operated the CW station. NF8O made quite a number of sideband contacts in the afternoon despite the up-and-down band conditions. K8MD, KC8NZJ, and myself operated FT8 throughout the day.

Bird graciously bought us lunch from a local pizzeria and we received swag for coming out and playing radio. We operated until 1600, a little past that on the digital station, and started to strike the equipment. We were on the road home around 1700.

164 contacts were made: CW: 5, SSB: 37, FM: 26, FT8: 96. Thanks to K8MD who planned the event. Bird Electronic Corporation for allowing us to operate from their facility and their hospitality. If you made contact with W8B, you will receive a QSL card, designed by Dana, as a thank you.

Striking the last antenna for W8B: KC8NZJ, K8TV, KE8BKI, K8FH, and NF8O

One of the many things on my ham radio “do-more-with” list is AREDN mesh. I have a MikroTik RouterBOARD hAP ac lite node I setup some time ago. I haven’t done much with it due to not having any real way to get a high-profile node and no other nodes are around me. It’s been running in the shack with a tunnel to W8ERW & Sandusky ARES. I haven’t advanced much on “now what?” after the initial exercise of flashing a node with AREDN’s firmware.

If you have an AREDN node and haven’t updated in the last few months, start planning an upgrade. AREDN implemented many projects which have made considerable improvements to the firmware. The original Broadband-Hamnet was written in Perl and AREDN continued to build on and maintain Perl code. A conversion from Perl to the Lua programming language has been completed. This conversion recovered a lot of memory by removing large Perl libraries. Nodes will now run code optimized for embedded devices. Memory saved by the conversion means the tunnel package and iperf3 (speed testing) are now bundled with the base firmware. Previously, both had to be installed manually after each upgrade.

Upgrades and selecting the correct firmware should be much easier too. Nightly builds are available for testing new features or tweaks in the firmware. Though, “nightlies” as they are called, are pre-alpha releases. According to the project, theirs are pretty stable. This doesn’t mean they should be installed on production nodes in hard-to-reach places in case something goes sideways.

Link Quality Management has been added to help optimize networks and drop links that cause network problems. Nodes with poor SNR, too far away, or prone to many retransmissions can be dropped automatically. These cause poor performance for nodes without those issues. An example: a high-profile node has to account for all connected nodes. If a node 40 miles away from its location its connected, it must wait for acknowledgments from all connected nodes. Should that node 40 miles away not be able to receive messages or messages can’t be delivered back to the high-profile node, this degrades speed and performance significantly. The high-profile node must wait for responses and possibly keep retransmitting the same message to that node until a response is received. LQM will drop nodes that do not meet quality criteria. This feature is turned off by default, unless it was configured previously.

These updates, network design basics, and demo of the next generation user interface are covered in a recent LAXNORTHEAST meeting. That meeting is available on YouTube featuring AREDN representative Orv – W6BI. He deployed the mesh backbone in Ventura and western Los Angeles Counties. His presentation isn’t introductory but is beneficial for those who have setup and maintain a node.

A radio that covers ALL ham radio voice digital modes? Reality or vaporware? Projects, like the DV4 Mobile, have been vaporware. Taking a swing at the market this time is the Connect Systems CS800D PLUS. It claims: to store 520,000 contacts and 64,000 channels, have the ability to do DMR, FUSION, DSTAR, P25 and NXDN, make its own code plug on the fly, and many more features yet to come. Consider me intrigued. OK, it doesn’t do most of this out-of-the-box. Essentially the CS800D PLUS is the CS800D today, a DMR and analog dual-band mobile radio. Features will be added ‘without the manufacture’s cooperation’ and ‘firmware will be done by the Amateur community.’ Not really sure how that is going to work since the existing firmware isn’t open sourced, documented, or have documented hooks/APIs. Additionally, the “all digital modes” comes via a “co-processor or your laptop to allow you to add digital modes not currently in the radio.”

I have the CS800D but purchased one of these anyway to see if this actually comes to fruition, especially the ‘all the digital modes’ part. If not, it or my 800D will appear on the used market! I envision this radio will utilize a NW Digital Radio DV3000 or DVMEGA DVstick on a Raspberry Pi or computer using a serial connection between the radio and computing device. This would provide off-radio encoding/decoding of digital modulation and analog frames. No working proof of concepts or documented working setups have been posted as of this writing. Posted documents mostly show how to convert codeplugs between the CS800D and CS800D PLUS. Firmware for the CS800D PLUS is not backwards comparable with a CS800D, according to Connect Systems. The CPS will work with both radios but the firmware is not compatible due to CPU and memory differences.

openSPOT 4 (openSpot)

Flying under my radar was the release of the SharkRF openSPOT 4. After reading up, it’s another incremental release. What’s new in the 4? Improved battery life (up to 30 hours), multi-core CPU, new WiFi module, and split into two offerings: openSPOT 4 and openSPOT 4 Pro. That’s it, near as I can tell. It’s probably due to chip shortages, but the openSPOT 4 is available now where as the openSPOT 4 Pro is due to ship again August 20th.

What’s the difference between the 4 and 4 Pro? Hardware cross mode capability and price. The openSPOT 4 rings in a € 249.00 ($254.14 USD) and the 4 PRO at € 319.00 ($325.59 USD, both conversions as of this writing). First introduced in the openSPOT 3, SharkRF hotspots are the only ones with the ability to cross mode D-STAR with DMR, C4FM, and NXDN networks. The 4 does not have the capability to cross mode D-STAR with other networks, the 4 Pro does have this capability. As with other openSPOT releases, the release of the OS4 end-of-life’s the previous model. The openSPOT 3 will probably get some firmware updates here-and-there but don’t expect many more based on past experience. I liked the openSPOT 3 for what it was. The 4’s are another pass for me because this release that doesn’t offer much more features than my openSPOT 3.

Nearly as soon as the OSJ went to publish last month, the wording about DroidStar no longer being available for iOS was removed. It appears the issues of concern were resolved. DroidStar is back in TestFlight and I heard from iOS users that it was working for them again.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK