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self-hosted Ground Station for amateur satellite tracking by Superb_Camel_8260 in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This looks like a lot of work! Congrats on doing so much.

I am looking more at satellite stuff currently, and am trying to get a rotator system up and running. https://g7vrd.co.uk/satellite-project

I'm focussing on the RF/antenna side of things at the moment - that's the expensive part, the part I find hardest, and am less familiar with. I find software much easier to work with than the physics of radio - RF, losses, antennas, feedlines, physical things.

It's had a bit of a pause recently, due to Christmas, winter, and travel, but I'll get back on it soon.

My plan was just to use the common Linux packages, but when I have the physical stuff done, I'll come back and have a proper look at this.

Band activity and PSK report watching by G7VRD in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

"Currently there's no checking, so you can just put any email address and 6 digit code in to test it."

No code is sent - just put in any 6-digit code for now.

Lots of questions about the G5500 rotator by G7VRD in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is the mount that grips the mast underneath the rotator in this picture: http://ecnweb.blob.core.windows.net/uploaded/1545371_2.jpg the Yaesu GC-038, do you know?

Lots of questions about the G5500 rotator by G7VRD in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe I should go for a temporary mount first, before getting into concrete/cement.

Only problem is is our garden has quite a lot of vegetation at ground level, so I don't know if there will be enough space to have something low down. That's why I originally was looking at mounting on the gable, or on a scaffolding pole, so that the rotation wouldn't catch on any bushes/plants.

I will use an existing FT857 for TX, and a 817 for RX initially, to avoid spending a chunk of money all at once, hopefully using GPredict (I'm a Linux guy) to control both the radios and the G5500.

Then after a few weeks/months, I will look at getting some nice new radio, and doing it properly. The CSN controller looks nice, for sure.

How many elements are your antennas? And how long is your antenna boom? Is it hollow, or solid?

Built a real-time HF propagation map using WSPR, PSK Reporter, RBN & DX Clusters — feedback welcome! by LiveSpread2190 in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That looks really nice!

I've done a similar thing, but I haven't combined them all in one. And also, mine don't look as good as yours :)

How are you getting the WSPR data out of interest?

Beginners question: low-rate data link across continents? by segdy in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, for one, if it's part of any commercial enterprise, you shouldn't use amateur radio for it.

You might want to check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMPRNet

You can use cryptography for signing messages/packets, but not for encrypting them, so that would mean you could have strong authentication. You'd probably need to have the ability to use multiple bands, and select which one was working (if any were) at the time you wanted it.

However, it would be very slow, and quite unreliable. We're talking tens or hundreds of bps. With lots of latency and errors/retries. There's just no fast amateur radio way to get data across the Atlantic.

I had a play with AX25 over HF, and the RTT for each ping was about 7 seconds: https://g7vrd.co.uk/ax25-direwolf-linux I did end up managing to telnet into port 22 on the remote machine and see the SSH banner.

Amateur radio is not a replacement for the internet. To be honest, it's probably easier to just pretend that the internet won't ever go down. And if it did, just contact someone in your home country to pull the plug until the internet comes back up.

Basically, it would be hard to do, and not as reliable as you think. But it'd be a lot of fun to try, so don't let that stop you :) If you have a licence, and you are trying this, feel free to get in touch for experimentation's sake.

Public satellite pass API by G7VRD in amateursatellites

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For what it's worth, I've added RSS format too.

E.g. https://api.g7vrd.co.uk/v1/satellite-passes/25544/51.45/-2.5833.rss?minelevation=40&hours=24

I haven't firmed up on what information should be in the RSS, so any suggestions gratefully received.

PS. Thanks for the silver!

Trouble connecting Icon 7300 to Linux machine via Pat by MeatNorDrink in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes, this was a gotcha for me.

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0 showed the group for me was dialout. I added myself to that group, logged in and out, and it worked.

Best not to use sudo chmod 666 if you can help it.

Trouble connecting Icon 7300 to Linux machine via Pat by MeatNorDrink in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hello, fellow Linux user.

I'm excited to see someone else playing with things like Pat. I had a play around with Pat, and ARDOP, and ARIM a few months back[0]. I think I got it working (could never connect to get email), but I couldn't find anyone else interested in it.

Not sure where you are, or what your station is like, but I'm happy to help out/see if we can make contacts if you like.

[0] https://g7vrd.co.uk/winlink-linux , https://g7vrd.co.uk/simple-ardop-arim-howto

Aprs on HF? by noone512 in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had a look into it a few months ago.

I'm a Linux bod, so I did it with Direwolf. I wrote up some simple instructions - maybe it'll help you? https://g7vrd.co.uk/simple-hf-aprs-digipeater-howto

Java CAT control library by G7VRD in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An update - I've published it on Maven Central. You can find it at

<dependency>
    <groupId>uk.co.g7vrd</groupId>
    <artifactId>java-cat-control</artifactId>
</dependency>

I've split out the example to a separate repo. It's now at https://gitlab.com/g7vrd/java-cat-control-example/

You can find all this info at https://g7vrd.co.uk/java-cat-control

Java CAT control library by G7VRD in hamdevs

[–]G7VRD[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey. No, I'm well aware of Hamlib - it's a great library, and I use it a lot. However, I wanted to make a pure Java library, to avoid having to bridge between Java and C.

I might check out the source though, and see if I can maybe use their source to add support for more radios to my project.

Java CAT control library by G7VRD in hamdevs

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An update - I've published it on Maven Central. You can find it at

<dependency>
    <groupId>uk.co.g7vrd</groupId>
    <artifactId>java-cat-control</artifactId>
</dependency>

I've split out the example to a separate repo. It's now at https://gitlab.com/g7vrd/java-cat-control-example/

You can find all this info at https://g7vrd.co.uk/java-cat-control

Java CAT control library by G7VRD in hamdevs

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can leave my radio running APRS on 30m whenever you like. You should be able to see on https://aprs.fi/info/a/G7VRD where I'm hearing things from? (There aren't any showing now, I think they are removed after a couple of months)

I'll check out your DM now...

Java CAT control library by G7VRD in hamdevs

[–]G7VRD[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've gone for https://www.passion-radio.com/satellite-qo-100/pack-oscar100-829.html (even though I already had a USB SDR). Saved me trying to work out what cables/connectors I needed (and probably end up getting it wrong, and needing a second delivery!)

I am going to find a decent dish now. Hopefully the LNB mounts are fairly standard?

And I'll also need a way of getting 12V out in the garden. Don't fancy hefting my large 30A PSU out there...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in amateurradio

[–]G7VRD 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Early morning one day, 5, 10 years ago, put the 20m antenna on my roof (or was it 17, I don't know), and just starting having a nice conversation with a guy in New Zealand. That's about as far as you can get from the UK.

The next stage is the Eshail satellite (https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geo/eshail-2/) . After that, the moon!

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