Demonstrating the VK5TM Noise Canceller on 20m Michael Carey 2019-01-16 | Here I am using the VK5TM Noise Canceller on 20. You can see how it can effectively reduce the amount of QRM affecting weak received signals. In this video, the noise antenna is a small whip behind the desk in my shack.I plan on experimenting with other kinds of noise antennas.
TX & RX LEDs on the VK5REX D-Star Repeatrer Michael Carey 2018-07-15 | A short video showing the Transmit and Receive LEDs operating on the VK5REX D-Star Repeater.These are controlled by the Transmit Enable and Receive Enable lines on the rear RJ45 socket using a replacement drop in board designed by N5EBW.While I believe this board hasn't been in production for many years, It wouldn't be very hard to build up a simple add on board with a handful of components to do similar thing.I didn't want to drill any holes in the front panel of my D-Star repeater so I positioned the LEDs so the shine onto the USB sockets. 73Michael.VK5ZEA
QSO with Paul VK5PAS - November 12th 2016 Michael Carey 2016-11-14 | I was out at Fishery Bay with my Son exploring the rock pools at low tide. I couldn't resist turning on the HF radio while away from all the urban HF noise.A quick tune around 40m found Paul VK5PAS who had activated the Gunbower National Park VKFF-0740.
Initial tests with G4KLX MMDVM during the Canadian D-Star Net. Michael Carey 2016-07-09 | I've had a KI6ZUM MMDVM board for a while... I thought it was about time I got things into gear!I'm transforming my old home-brew D-Star repeater into a MMDVM equipped Digital Voice repeater... initially on D-Star, but eventually a DMR repeater on the BrandMeister network.
More FreeDV! Michael Carey 2016-05-07 | Part of the VK5ARG FreeDV broadcast of the WIA news on Sunday morning. 1st May 2016
Decoding RTTY on the IC-7100 Michael Carey 2016-04-30 | The Icom IC-7100 radio can decode and display RTTY on screen with no attached computer... a very handy feature.Here you can see Karl VK2KM calling CQ. I cannot receive the replying station, but you can see VK2KM "talking" to IV3AEB.
RF noise generated by switchmode wall wart power supply. Michael Carey 2016-04-22 | In an effort to rid my home of nasty RF noise generating devices... I found a culprit in my own shack!During a recent power failure I was amazed at how quiet HF can be. I was determined to make sure I was a good RF citizen and sanitize (as much as possible) my own impact on the RF spectrum!In general, I find most "ordinary" people are unaware of the RF noise that both cheap/poorly designed and well engineered electronic equipment spew out. I'm so glad that Plasma TV technology was overtaken by LCD, they were a blight on the RF spectrum!
Checking into the Canadian D-Star Net Michael Carey 2016-04-08 | Sorry for the wind noise! On Saturday 2nd April I took my son and father (VK5RF) out in the Lincoln National Park.We went along the Sleaford to Wanna 4WD track. This popular track is a combination of sand and rough limestone country. We stopped many times to check out the amazing scenery.During this time, the Canadian D-Star Net was underway (Friday night in Canada/USA). When we arrived at the Wanna end of the track, it was almost time for international check ins.The D-Star repeater was not moving the S meter at all, but the D-Star audio decoded perfectly. The VK5REX D-Star repeater was around 20km (~12 miles) away from me.After this video was taken, I fired up the HF radio and made some great contacts on 40 meters.
Power outage... zero HF noise! Michael Carey 2016-03-29 | During a power failure I thought I would see how quiet HF can be.My shack has a battery backup system to keep all the 12V DC equipment going during power failures.
Power is back... and so is HF noise. Michael Carey 2016-03-29 | The obsession with everyone (me included) to surround themselves with crappy, poorly designed electronics creates a nightmare for urban HF radio operators.
FreeDV WIA Broadcast preamble Michael Carey 2016-01-24 | There was another test transmission of the weekly WIA Broadcast using FreeDV on Sunday 24th January 2016.This is the preamble that was sent prior to the broadcast at 0900, in both SSB and then FreeDV.
FreeDV WIA Broadcast Jan 17th 2016 Michael Carey 2016-01-17 | There was another test transmission of the weekly WIA Broadcast on the morning of Jan 17th 2016.I was able to decode the broadcast perfectly on my Rowetel SM1000 SmartMic and the FreeDV software running on my shack computer.Here I am selecting Waterfall, Spectrum and Scatter views on the FreeDV software
FreeDV WIA Broadcast Jan 17th 2016 Michael Carey 2016-01-16 | There was another test transmission of the weekly WIA Broadcast on the morning of Jan 17th 2016.I was able to decode the broadcast perfectly on my Rowetel SM1000 SmartMic and the FreeDV software running on my shack computer.
Talking to Leigh VK2KRR via the VK5RAC 2m repeater Michael Carey 2015-10-13 | On the morning on October 13th 2015, Leigh VK2KRR was finally able to have a QSO with me via the VK5RAC 2m repeater at Pillaworta Hill.VK5RAC is around 40km away from me... and around 1020km (634 miles) away from VK2KRR at The Rock in Southern New South Wales.I've also been spotting Leigh's 70cm 10W (40 dBm) WSPR transmissions from my home in recent days.
Peter VK3YE pedestrian mobile on 40m Michael Carey 2015-09-19 | I had a quick QSO with Peter VK3YE this morning. Peter was strolling in Port Philip Bay with a centre loaded vertical antenna and I was parked right next to Boston Bay in Port Lincoln.A beautiful day to be out and about playing with ham radio!And yes... My IC-F7000 control head is filthy dirty! :-)
Atop The Old Mill at Port Lincoln Michael Carey 2015-09-14 | Blue skies, low 20s (C), not a breath of wind.
Listening to VK100ANZAC transmitting on FreeDV 700B, 3634.5 KHz. Michael Carey 2015-09-13 | AREG (Amateur Radio Experimenters Group) set up a special event station using the open source FreeDV/codec 2 digital voice mode. This was during the weekend of 12th-13th September 2015. The callsign VK100ANZAC was used by the special event station.This video shows how FreeDV 700B sounds with a very low signal to noise ratio. The modem tones were just barely audible over the background electrical noise I have on 80m.
Quick test of the SM1000 Michael Carey 2015-05-17 | My first test of my new (two days old!) SM1000 Smart Microphone with embedded Codec2. This is a direct connection from the audio out of the SM1000 into my shack PC sound card. I'm running FreeDV 0.96.6 on Windows XP.
Driving down North Block! Michael Carey 2015-03-07 | I recently did a service visit to the SAGRN radio site at North Block on Lower Eyre Peninsula. One of my clients uses the SAGRN tower for their radio system.North Block rises 371 metres above the surrounding countryside. You can see South Block to the left and Marble Range to the right.The access track is VERY steep in places and the front wheel drive work car struggles quite a bit to make it to the top! It is amazing how capable a car can be when it does not belong to you!I would probably not attempt this without a four wheel drive after it has been raining!
TWiT NYE 2015 local view! Michael Carey 2015-01-03 | This is a special "behind the scenes" look at our (my wife and I) appearance on the "24 hours of 2015" special event show on the TWiT (This Week in Tech) network. This was at midnight our time (UTC +1030).I set up a camera in the corner of the office. Excuse the mess and the Homer Simpson clock being wrong!
TWiT NYE 2015 Michael Carey 2015-01-03 | My wife Anele and I were honoured to appear on the special "This Week in Tech's 24 hours of 2015" show to represent the South Australian time zone (UTC +1030).Thanks to Leo Laporte and all the crew at the TWiT Brickhouse. It was a fantastic event and money raised was donated to UNICEF. This clip was cut from hour 3 of the show. The event was cut into hour long segments, they can be found at twit.tv
Listening to VK5ABN on 40m. Michael Carey 2014-12-28 | I fired up the Icom RS-BA1 software on my laptop computer and had a quick tune around 40m. I found a few stations having a QSO on 7.105 MHz. Berndt VK5ABN had an amazing signal from the Adelaide Hills, around 250km to the East of me.It's fun being able to operate my IC-7100 from anywhere I have an internet connection.
Static electricity is in the air! Michael Carey 2014-10-05 | I was prudent in my disconnection of coax cables while there was local lightning activity. October 6th 2014.Enough static electricity was building up on my Icom Discone antenna to arc across the end of the N connector.If you listen carefully you can hear the corona discharge building before the arc strikes!
Using MobaXterm with the Raspberry Pi Michael Carey 2014-07-27 | I've never plugged a monitor, keyboard or mouse into any of my Raspberry Pi computers! All my interaction has been done via an SSH session. When first setting up Raspbian with "sudo raspi-config", I disable the "boot to desktop option"... I figured the less the CPU has to do... the better! I use the free version of MobaXterm to connect to and interact with my Linux based devices/computers... including my Raspberry Pis.MobaXterm also initiates a SFTP session (over SSH using SCP) and has a built in X Server for X11 forwarding. X11 allows me to view Linux GUI programs via MobaXterm on my Windows PCs.
DV-MEGA Raspberry Pi Radio Michael Carey 2014-07-22 | Here I show you one of my newer D-Star "toys"... the DV-MEGA Raspberry Pi Radio!Created by Guus van Dooren PE1PLM it's a small PCB that plugs into the GPIO connector on a Raspberry Pi computer and works with the G4KLX D-Star Repeater software.The Raspberry Pi Radio uses an Analog Devices AD7021 transceiver. The DVAP Dongle(s) and PapaSys Rasp Pi 7021 project also use this chip.
D-Star to Analog with the NWDR AMBE3000 board Michael Carey 2014-07-05 | In this video you can see how I created a simple D-Star to Analog audio bridge using the G4KLX Dummy Repeater and ircDDB Gateway software running on a Windows XP PC together with a DMK Engineering URI (USB Radio Interface). The Dummy Repeater emulates the G4KLX D-Star Repeater software and allows you to talk directly to the ircDDB Gateway from your PC... or an analog FM radio using the URI. the G4KLX software supports the URI directly making for easy interfacing to a traditional analog FM radio.I'm also using the North West Digital Radio DV3000 AMBE board. The DV3000 is plugged into a Raspberry Pi and I'm running the AMBE server software which allows the G4KLX Dummy Repeater to access the AMBE chip across my home network. The Dummy Repeater will also work with the blue DV Dongle as well.I'm not sure why the speaker volume on the URI output went to zero while I was talking... I'll have to do some investigation into that!I would not recommend you using a setup like this to connect to a Dplus reflector or gateway. Connecting non D-Star sources to Dplus reflectors is frowned upon. I did test it with my own D-Star repeater, VK5REX and it worked perfectly.
ircDDB Remote Android app Michael Carey 2014-05-10 | A quick video showing how the PD7L ircDDB Remote app can be used to control the G4KLX ircDDB Gateway software from an Android smartphone or tablet. *Note* In the video when talking about the password, you CAN use more than five characters... I use a five character password for my own convenience. I don't open the ircDDB Gateway remote feature to the internet.
Talking to Tom VK5FTRG on 40m Michael Carey 2014-04-20 | On Saturday 19th April I had a quick QSO with Tom VK5FTRG on 40m. Tom had activated the Tantanoola Caves Conservation Park. I was in my Hilux at Fishery Bay, South of Port Lincoln. Virtually zero RF noise on HF down here and the views are spectacular too!
Listening to Sahji VU3WIJ on 20m. Michael Carey 2013-12-07 | I was at Farm Beach on the West Coast of Eyre Peninsula on Nov 30th operating on 20m, a LONG way away from the nearest power line. I was listening to Sahji VU3WIJ on 14.2255 MHz when I realised how much noise my Garmin GPSMAP 60CS makes on HF!!Some Mix31 ferrites on the power cabled tamed the noise a little.
Radio Australia Digital Test Transmission on 7410 kHz 0850 UTC 9th June 2013 Michael Carey 2013-06-09 | This video shows the reception of a digital test transmission from Radio Australia using the fldigi software, a Tigertronics SignaLink SL1+ and Soundblaster USB "sound card".For this test transmission I had the radio in AM mode rather than USB. Radio Australia "disappeared" minutes after this test broadcast, not sure if this was conditions or they pulled the plug.7410 kHz 0850 UTC 9th June 2013Radio is a Kenwood TS-50Antenna is a Moonraker 29W 29' whip with Codan 4023 auto coupler
Radio Australia Digital Test Transmission on 11695kHz 2150 UTC 8th June 2013 Michael Carey 2013-06-09 | This video shows the reception of a digital test transmission from Radio Australia using the fldigi software, a Tigertronics SignaLink SL1+ and Soundblaster USB "sound card".Unlike my previous attempt at 0850 UTC, this was a lot harder to copy. Signal was down and there was a pulsing interference that competed with the MFSK tones although the MFSK modulation was surprisingly robust. The other broadcast frequency of 21740 kHz was a no go.11695 kHz 2150 UTC 8th June 2013Radio is a Kenwood TS-50Antenna is a Moonraker 29W 29' whip with Codan 4023 auto coupler
Radio Australia Digital Test Transmission on 7410 kHz 0850 UTC 8th June 2013 Michael Carey 2013-06-08 | This video shows the reception of a digital test transmission from Radio Australia using the fldigi software, a Tigertronics SignaLink SL1+ and Soundblaster USB "sound card".7410 kHz 0850 UTC 8th June 2013Radio is a Kenwood TS-50Antenna is a Moonraker 29W 29' whip with Codan 4023 auto coupler
G4KLX D-Star software running on an Odroid-X board Michael Carey 2013-06-05 | I've had my Odroid-X board (from HardKernel in S.Korea) for almost a year... I've had it before I had a Raspberry Pi. So it was about time I attempted to use it with the G4KLX D-Star software! The Odroid-X is like a Raspberry Pi on steroids! My board is using the Linaro OS.I used the DL5DI installation/config scripts (thanks Hans) to get the software up and running. I used the same technique I use with the Raspberry Pi, doing everything via a remote SSH connection. It works, but it's not 100% just yet. At this time I have not been able to get the repeater software (dvapnoded) starting on boot, it will only start with the force-reload option. Nothing like a little challenge!In this video I am linked to REF012 A and you can hear Al KK6AL and Rob AA6RA talking about the forthcoming DV-RPTR V3.0 board.
Portable D-Star HotSpot in action Michael Carey 2013-04-29 | Following on from my previous video I am further along in my drive back to Port Lincoln on Highway A1 just out of Port Augusta. I love the country here... so different to what I see at home.The Ohio D-Star net on XRF038 A is just winding up. The portable D-Star HotSpot is working perfectly!
Portable D-Star Hot Spot in action at Port Augusta. Michael Carey 2013-04-22 | While driving across the top of Spencer Gulf at Port Augusta I am listening to the Ohio Wide D-Star Net on XRF038 A. I checked in as I was approaching Port Augusta. My Raspberry Pi powered portable D-Star Hot Spot is on the passenger seat and worked (almost) perfectly while I was away from more traditional D-Star repeaters. The Icom IC-2820H on low power had no problem communicating with the DVAP Dongle!I really need an external antenna for my Huawei 3G USB stick to help it function in fringe phone areas. I had it on the end of a USB extension cable slung over the passenger seat head rest.
Noise on HF caused by Ethernet network switch activity Michael Carey 2013-04-08 | This is the nasty noise I hear on HF. While this video shows the noise on 20m, it appears up and down the bands. It seems to be caused by my Ethernet network switch/home network. I normally use a Linksys SR2016 Gigabit switch but I've tried different vendors network switches and the noise pattern persists. In this video I remotely switch the power to a borrowed Netgear 10/100 switch and you can hear the noise vanish!My next "plan of attack" to help mitigate this noise is to fit Mix 43 ferrite cores on the Cat5 Ethernet cables at the network closet patch panel. If this does help with reducing the noise generated by my own equipment, I will still probably have issues with neighbours network hardware.
VK5RAC 70cm Repeater Installation Michael Carey 2013-03-03 | On Sunday 3rd March 2013 I installed the 439.850 MHz FM repeater at the Pillaworta Hill site. Originally located closer to Port Lincoln under the callsign VK5RPL, this repeater has been a solid performer over the last 10 years. The antenna is an RF Industries UHF folded dipole antenna mounted a metre short of the top of the tower. The feeder cable is Andrew LDF4-50
FreeDV on HF Michael Carey 2013-01-06 | A short video demonstrating the audio quality from the FreeDV software which uses Codec2. A transmitted FreeDV signal uses around 1.1 KHz of bandwidth.In this video we can hear VK4HIA on 14.236 MHz
Portable D-Star Hot Spot (almost) complete! Michael Carey 2012-12-10 | It's been a couple of months in the making... my Portable D-Star Hot Spot is almost complete!The aluminium mounting plates have been powder coated to match the Desert Tan Pelican 1200 case, my Raspberry Pi is now protected in a case, some of the short right angle USB cables have arrived from eBay vendors and the 5V switchmode power supply has been completed. Running on 12V the D-Star HotSpot draws around 600 mA.Possible future upgrades might include a 70cm DVAP Dongle and an internal Li-Ion battery pack for fully portable operation.The G4KLX ircDDB Gateway & Repeater software has proven itself to be quite robust, surviving many brute force "pull the plug" Raspberry Pi shut downs. SD Cards are cheap enough to keep a few on hand just in case the operational one becomes corrupted. I have also saved my working config files so I can easily re-install the software if needed.Hans DL5DI has provided a fantastic service by both setting up and maintaining an apt software repository to make installing the G4KLX software on the Raspberry Pi a lot easier. Hans' config scripts help with setting up the software after installation.
At the Tod Reservoir listening to the Tuesday night PapaSys D-Star net Michael Carey 2012-12-01 | I found this video on my computer, I forgot all about it. Wednesday afternoon March 28 (my time). I spent the day with the boss at the Tod Reservoir installing UHF telemetry antennas. Of course, I took my D-Star ID-91AD radio and was able to check into my favourite D-Star nets during the day. Most of the time I was in line-of-sight to the VK5REX B D-Star repeater which was around 27km from where we were. In this video you can see me driving across the clay core earth reservoir wall while listening to the action on REF012 B. I must admit it was a little freaky working above and next to that live electrical switch gear at the pumping station!!Apologies for the shaky video!
Portable D-Star HotSpot Update Video Michael Carey 2012-11-19 | A quick progress video on my portable D-Star HotSpot project. Mounting locations for all the parts have been determined, I've made an aluminium base plate and a small mounting platform for the DVAP Dongle/s. I am still waiting for some right-angle Mini USB leads to arrive from eBay vendors to make connecting all individual components a bit easier. I was hoping to fit a small battery inside the case... possibly a small Lithium Ion pack under where the DVAP Dongle will be placed. It's all coming together nicely!
Raspberry Pi, ircDDB Gateway, DVAP Dongle & 3G internet connection Michael Carey 2012-10-26 | Another quick video showing my Raspberry Pi running the ircDDB Gateway / DVAP Node D-Star Hot Spot. This time I am using a 3G internet connection via a Mikrotik/Routerboard RB/751U together with a Huawei E173 USB dongle.I decided against plugging the 3G USB dongle directly into the Raspberry Pi. The dedicated router increases flexibility and security, I can easily use the internet connection for other devices. One thing I did not mention in the video is that I can connect via a L2TP VPN into the router and get direct access to the Raspberry Pi from another internet connection. The G4KLX remote control software will then allow full control of the hot spot.Apologies for the grainy video... next time I will get more lighting in place.
DV-RPTR + AMBE Board working with a Motorola MCS2000 radio Michael Carey 2012-10-19 | Using the DV-RPTR board together with the AMBE vocoder board as a D-Star "front end" for a Motorola MCS2000 radio. Once configured with the Control Center software, the DV-RPTR board can be unplugged from the host computer and will operate in standalone mode. A display can also be added to the DV-RPTR board to show incoming callsign and short message data.Both simplex and operation through the VK5REX 70cm D-Star repeater is demonstrated. VK5REX B is currently operating with a homebrew RF deck using two Motorola MCS2000 radios.Many thanks to Mark VK3EME who was kind enough to answer my CQ via the DCS014 B reflector.
Raspberry Pi running G4KLX ircDDB Gateway software Michael Carey 2012-10-19 | A quick video featuring my Raspberry Pi running the G4KLX ircDDB Gateway and DVAP Node D-Star software. For RF I am using a DVAP Dongle. Others have been using a GMSK DV Node Adapter board, the DV-RPTR Board and even the G4KLX Sound Card based repeater. I like the DVAP in this situation because it is nice and compact!Both software packages (gateway and repeater) are configured to auto start on boot.During the video I connect up to Dplus REF012 C during the PapaSys Thursday Night D-Star Roundtable to show the setup operating. The G4KLX ircDDBGateway software responds to the familiar linking and unlinking commands in the URCall field, plus can also be controlled with DTMF tones.My longer term plans for my Raspberry Pi D-Star HotSpot is to jam it all into a small transportable case (possibly something like a Pelican case) with a Mikrotik router using a 3G USB Dongle for internet connectivity. This way I can quickly set up a D-Star HotSpot away from home and away from a more traditional D-Star repeater/gateway.
VK5REX B Home Brew D-Star repeater in operation! Michael Carey 2012-07-21 | On Saturday morning 21st July I installed my home brew 70cm D-Star repeater in the rack at the VK5REX D-Star repeater site. Like the VK5REX C 2m repeater I built, this repeater plugs directly into the Icom ID-RP2C D-Star Controller, replacing the existing ID-RP4000V RF hardwarePreliminary tests show that it is working VERY well. It handled the Canadian D-Star net perfectly, the transmit radio remained warm to the touch after an hour of high duty-cycle transmit. I have left the extra 1 MHz wide bandpass filter and ARR preamp out of the receive chain for now... I'll see how the receiver performs "barefoot" before deciding whether to add these filter and preamp.
Home Brew Motorola Based D-Star Repeater VK5REX B Michael Carey 2012-07-14 | This is my latest D-Star repeater project. This repeater is intended to stand in for the existing Icom based ID-RP4000V RF hardware at the VK5REX repeater site. I need to do some modifications & maintenance on the Icom gear and this home-brew repeater is intended keep me on the air. But who knows... if it ends up working out better than the Icom repeater, it might remain at the repeater site permanently!
SGC-237 SmartTuner Failure Michael Carey 2012-07-07 | After my SGC-237 antenna tuner stopped working on 80m, I thought I would pull it apart to investigate.The rattle I heard when I removed it from my vehicle gave me some idea that it was a physical problem... when I opened it up, this was confirmed!I found the largest inductor had broken away from the PCB... something that I could potentially fix. This tuner is installed on my 4x4 vehicle and is subjected to quite a bit of off road use with the associated shocks and vibrations.There appears to be a very small "smear" of silicone sealant across one end of the large inductor... maybe 5mm of cross section (1/4") holding it to the PCB.What disturbed me more was that NONE of the other inductors were physically bonded to the PCB with silicone sealant and they were free to vibrate (and potentially fail as well).There is also a small RF transformer with very fine wires that is also free-floating, on closeer inspection there is evidence that this WAS secured with a small amount of silicone, but like the large inductor probably not enough for the mass of the component. I'm amazed that this had not broken away from the PCB as well, the connections are still intact. I feel this to be an unacceptable manufacturing slip-up on a product that is designed to be rugged and versatile. My SGC-237 has worked very well in the past, I am pleased with how it operates with my Icom IC-F7000 commercial HF... now that I have opened it up, I am not at all happy with the internal construction practices.My SGC-237 should be repairable... and I will be securing the "loose" components with neutral cure silicone. It will be better than new!
Horus 27... receiving telemetry. Michael Carey 2012-05-27 | A quick follow up video showing my IC-706mk2G radio hearing the Horus 27 HAB telemetry. As before, a lack of the right cable made it impossible to decode the telemetry.
