That Radio From My Bucket List - The Elecraft KX3

Elecraft KX3 - Compact Transceiver

http://www.elecraft.com/KX3/kx3.htm

I've got a thing for Elecraft... I might as well admit I'm a bit of a fan boy. I've always wanted one and my interest increased when they released the KX3 a few years ago. It was small but rugged, loaded with state of the art features, and I really really wanted one.

This spring Elecraft released the even more compact KX2, but it wasn't just the size that attracted me to the KX3 it was the features, and while the KX2 is smaller and less expensive it just didn't have all the features that I wanted like the KX3.

Elecraft KX2 - Ultra Compact HF Transceiver

About a month ago I started to clean house in the Ham Shack and I was able to sell some extra and duplicate items through Radio Amateur Swap Canada. An older HF radio, a couple tuners, a mobile VHF radio, and a few other odds and ends. I even cleaned up some older PC's under my work bench and sold those as well. Before long the money was adding up and I realized I was getting close to a goal, I finally had made enough to order a KX3. 

One of the great things about Elecraft is that they still build radios in kit form. Their kits are really just assembly kits since all the circuit boards and soldering work is already done. But you can save a hundred dollars or more buying their kit versions and doing that final assembly yourself. It also gives you a better understanding of the radios parts and pieces if you ever want to perform some upgrades down the line. And trust me, I will perform some future upgrades as I can afford them. Most notably the Auto Tuner upgrade, the Dual-Band Roofing Filter, and maybe even the 2m Module to add VHF support as well.

Right now I get to play the waiting game while my kit is shipped from California. Fingers crossed it gets here safe, secure, and fast (hi hi). Until then I have the manuals to read.

73

Root Canal X-Ray

After more than two weeks and 4 trips to the dentist chair I think we're done (crossed fingers).

Another 'new' experience that I'm not eager to repeat the dreaded Root Canal.

Thanks to my Dentist Dr. Dale (VE7OWE, what a great callsign for a dentist!) and Dr Leung the Endodontist.

Fun with Wires-X

Last night VE7XNY (Tracy) and myself spent the evening playing around with Wires-X for the first time. We were each based at our own QTH and we setup Wires-X nodes in analog mode.

To build a Wires-X node each of us needed the following.

• Radio with built in data port that supported 1200/9600 baud packet.
• Wires-X HRI-200 Linking kit (modem)
• Windows 7/8/10 PC with min 2GHz CPU, 2GB Ram, and a spare USB 2.0+ port
• A suitable VHF or UHF antenna for the node radio.
• A handheld or additional radio used to locally talk into our node.

Once you purchase and receive your Wires-X nothing can be done prior to the registration of your modem online which can take 24-48 hours on a weekday, longer over a weekend. In my case it took almost 2 weeks :(

Apparently my 'new' Wires-X from a respected online dealer had already been registered to another person and it took two weeks of emailing back and forth before the old registration was removed from Yaseu's system and my new registration was completed.

Establishing the connection between the HRI-200 and a computer is quick and simple, requiring only a single USB cable and a software download. Installing the software and driver BEFORE plugging the Wires-X into your PC is required. Connection from the Wires-X to the node radio is simple with a provided DIN cable. Always use the Radio 1 port for a single radio node, I've read that the Radio 1 port is also the only one that supports an analog radio.

Opening ports in my home router was not as simple as advertised. My brand new router did not support the Wires-X software's ability to automatically create port forwarding rules using UPNP. I tried 2 other routers that had with similar results. So instead I went to work creating manual port forwarding rules and assigning the PC a static IP. This also did not work?

Finally I just had to put that PC into a DMZ on the router for things to work. This is not my preferred option since only a single DMZ is allowed in your router and I like to keep that free in case other issues with devices arise later.  [UPDATE] I was finally able to set a range or ports into a single new rule and that worked only after committing the changes and rebooting the router. I've never had to reboot this router after adding/changing port forwarding rules, but in this case I did.

As you can from the diagram Wires-X bridges many technologies and supports lots of radios.

• We started simple with an analog FM radio for the node, which allows ANY other analog FM radio to use that node.
• You could build a digital node using a compatible System Fusion (C4FM) radio for the node radio, which would then allow other Fusion radios to operate into that node digitally. When going all digital you are limited to the number of supported radios, but tons of digital features are now available.
• You can also add Wires-x to a Repeater.
• Once connected to the Wires-X universe with either technology, basic voice conversation can occur between everyone, even across the different technologies. 

Once our Wires-X nodes were operational we spent the evening talking back and forth while setting up additional features in the software and balancing our audio input and output so our sound quality was a good as possible.

Wires-X works on a system of user Node ID's and Room's. When you receive your Wires-X registration you receive two unique numbers, one for each.

• Your personal Node ID can be found in the global master Node list and any one person can connect to your node directly. This operates like a phone call. Two people directly connected to each other having a QSO.
• Setting up your own Room is optional but this is how you can open your node to a larger group. With a room enabled in the Wires-X software your room is now advertised on a second global Room list and groups larger than just one can join your room. You'll see all persons in your room via the software and a group QSO can occur. As you can imagine Rooms in Wires-X operate like Reflectors in D-Star. Rooms would be suitable for operating Net's or other group type discussions. 

You can create a digital QSL card for sharing when others connect to your ID or your Room.

 

I guess my next decision is if I should invest in going entirely C4FM digital. The entry point for a compatible node radio would be the Yaesu FTM-100DR. Once that radio is connected to Wires-X I would have a fully digital node. To talk into that node I would need another fully digital Yaesu mobile or handheld.

Yaesu FTM100-DR $450.00 CAD

 

Yaesu FT1XDR - $425.00 CAD

Yaesu FTM-400XDR $870.00 CAD

Yaesu FT-2DR $575.00 CAD

It was rather impulsive, but it seems to be working

Just over a week ago I launched a website. https://raswap.ca


It was a totally impulsive move on my part. I had visited Amateur Radio Swap and Shop sites in Canada and 99% of them were local or regional sites operated mostly by ham clubs.There were also a few major sources of used amateur gear mostly based out of the US (eHam and eBay). What I wasn't seeing were many Canadian sites serving the Canadian Amateur Radio community from coast to coast.

This is nothing against either the smaller Swap  & shop sites or the American sites. It was just a matter of seeing a niche and trying to fill it.

Plus, the problems with cross border shopping are pretty obvious to everyone who does it regularly.

• Currency conversion (our Canadian dollar is not very strong at this time).
• The risk of buying or selling across borders (we loose a lot of our legal protections if something goes wrong).
• Customs and Duty fees (the mystery charge, will the CBSA randomly add $50 or more to your shipping charges).

Thus Radio Amateur Swap Canada was created.

After a week online I'm so pleased with the response. It's not perfect, there are some bugs still to work out. But traffic, memberships, and ads are growing daily.

The positive feedback has been overwhelming and the few negative emails seem to confirm that this is the Internet and there will always be that 1%. 

I purchased the domain, hosting, and ssl certificate for one year, so we'll see where it goes over the next 12 months. Like anything I can spend more money for more bells and whistles, but it's a free service, how much do I really want to pay out of pocket to keep it going. Are there ways to make some money on the site? Sure, I could do a couple things, but I'm in no rush, I think the site would need to be very popular before I need to go down that road.

Making Room For Something New

It's been over 5 years since I received my Amateur Radio license and callsign. All that time I've been in an acquisition mode. If I could afford it I bought it, if someone was giving it away I likely took it.

Now I'm surrounded with 'stuff' and it's time to say goodbye to some of it. The items replaced by newer toys, or the items that I maybe have 2 or more of.

Tonight I started creating ad's in the local swap and shop, adios and I hope you find a new home.

Yaesu FT-2400

MFJ-948 Deluxe Versa Tuner II

Back In Time Addition

Thanks to Bert VE7OLR I have some new additions to the shack today.

Bert is soon to be part of our family and he knew that I was active in Amateur Radio. Unfortunately he's no longer active so he gifted me some of the gear he purchased around the mid 90s.

The highlight was this Yaesu FT-530 dual band handheld.

It is very popular with Satellite enthusiasts due to the following features.

• Capable of tuning the satellite VHF & UHF sub-bands.
• Capable of transmitting sub-audible or CTCSS tones.
• Will transmit a tone in full duplex mode.
• Full duplex across bands.
• Cross band memory storage. The ability to store frequencies from different bands into a memory channel. It makes tuning for Doppler frequency shifts much easier.
• Power output of 5 watts. The FT-530 does this with a 12v battery pack or ext 12v supply.

So far the original battery pack is holding a charge but I'll likely need to order a new one, I really like the idea of the larger 12v pack. W&W Manufacturing Company out of New York offers a 12 v 2300 mAh NiMH battery pack for $55.00. They also offer a 7.2 v @ 2700 mAh NiMH battery pack. At the 2 watts radio output that pack might last a week!

New Toys

Thanks to a sale of another radio from my collection and some birthday gift cash I had a little shopping spree today at Radio World Canada (radioworld.ca).

The new mobile will be installed in my car to replace on old but well served Yaesu analog unit.


The new radio is the latest System Fusion unit from Yaesu, the FTM-3200DR.

FTM-3200DR
144MHz 65W C4FM/FM Single Band Digital Mobile Transceiver
Rugged & Compact 2m Digital Mobile with Front Speaker

Radio Features:- 65W of Solid RF Power within a Compact Footprint
- Modulation Modes: C4FM Digital (V/D Mode, VFR Mode*, DFR Mode), FM Analog
- AMS (Automatic Mode Select) Function Automatically Recognizes the Signal as C4FM Digital or Conventional FM
- Loud and Crystal Clear Front Panel Speaker with 3W of Audio Output
- Digital GM (Group Monitor) Function
- Bright Multi-Colored LED Mode/Status Indicator Vibrantly Shows the Transceivers' Status
- Illuminated Microphone with Direct Frequency Entry
- 220 Memory Channels with Alpha-Numeric Tags (Maximum 8 Characters)
- DSQ (Digital Squelch Code) Signaling Feature
- CTCSS and DCS Encode/Decode with Split Tone and DCS Encode-Only Capability
- Expanded Receiver Coverage: 136-174 MHz
- High Stability ±2.5 ppm TCXO Included

*1 VFR Mode could not be manually selected as communication mode. When receiving the VFR Mode signal from other transceivers, the AMS automatically switches to
the VFR Mode as transmission mode. ("AUTO" must be selected from among the optional AMS function operations "TX Manual," "TX FM FIX," "TX DN FIX," or "AUTO.")

*2 FTM-3200D does not support connectivity to HRI-200 as a WiRES-X Node Station nor accessibility to a Digital WiRES-X Node Station as a client.
(FTM-3200D allows operators to access to an Analog WiRES-X Node Station as a client.)

Specifications:Frequency Ranges: RX 136 - 174 MHz (specified performance, Amateur bands only) TX 144 - 148 MHz (Amateur bands only)
Circuit Type: Double-Conversion Superheterodyne
Modulation Type: F3E, F7W
RF Power Output: 65 W/30 W/5 W
Channels: 220
Case Size(W x H x D): 6.1" x 1.7" x 6.1" (154 x 43 x 155 mm) w/o Knobs
Weight (Approx.): 2.86 lbs (1.3 kg)
Warranty: 3 Years

To compliment this new rig is a programming kit from RT Systems complete with the software and USB programming cable.

 

To finish off the order was the latest version of the Wires-X interface from Yaesu the HRI-200.

The Wires-X is for testing with the local club NORAC (http://norac.bc.ca) who has two new DR-X1 System Fusion repeaters waiting for deployment.

Now I'm Chillin' With Gas

I've got a 26 year old 5th wheel trailer. I've had it for 3 years now and there are many things that I have needed to maintain or repair on it. We bought it cheap, so we thought we knew what we were getting ourselves into.

The fridge has been my biggest challenge since day one. When we first bought the trailer we took it straight to an RV dealer because we wanted it checked out for safety and to make sure that key systems were working. They said the fridge was totally dead and they just happened to have almost the same model for sale used ($$$). Scared by the price we just took it back home and packed it full of blocks of ice and used it like an ice chest on our first few trips that summer.

The second year I started troubleshooting and right away discovered that almost every wire in the back was plugged into the wrong place, I found a service manual online and started putting wires back into the right places, replacing fuses, and then eventually two circuit boards I found online until I got the electric side working. After that we could camp anywhere that we could plug in, that felt like such an upgrade from the ice blocks.

This year I wanted to see if I could get the gas side of the fridge working and totally expected that I might have to go searching for another part somewhere online. Today I started troubleshooting and vowed that I would start at the beginning, go slow, and troubleshoot each part. Well 3-4 steps into the process I found a problem and spent a few minutes trying different things until BAM it started working. Now I have a dual mode fridge again. So damn pleased with myself :)

Now going back to the beginning of the story about the RV dealer, the eager offer of another overpriced used fridge, and the jumbling of ALL the wires in the back. Well guess what was keeping the gas side of the fridge from working? Would you believe two wires on the gas valve were reversed? Propane was getting to the valve, but the valve was electronically closed because the wires were reversed. No marking on the wires indicated which contact was correct so I had missed this during my initial rewiring session of a few years ago. Come on, it's VERY FISHY when every single wire on the back of this fridge has been in the wrong place since that visit to the RV place.

To be fair, I did need to replace two cracked and broken circuit boards. And I had no prior experience in servicing a fridge (let alone a gas/electric one). But with a service manual, a little help from a different RV service tech, the internet, and long winters to think about my next move before the next RV season comes around (ha ha).

Well I think I'm gonna go camping in a week or two :) 
And this time we are going off the grid, solar for the lights and propane for the fridge.

UPDATE #1 - 'Poor Hams' Wooden Antenna Mast

Original Wooden Antenna Mast Blog Post

My little video from 4 years ago showing the wooden antenna tilt-over mast that I built for $200 is nearing the 10,000 views mark on YouTube. Who would have known that it would have grabbed that much interest.

Well it still standing strong with no signs of wear and tear. Currently it's holding up one end of a an 80m OCF Dipole antenna. Prior to that it was one corner of an 80m Horizontal Loop.

If I could 'upgrade' my design (pdf link below) I may have spent a few bucks more on pressure treated lumber, and I might have shortened or reinforced the very top 6' which is just a single 2x4. Over time that's the only part of the mast that has twisted and bent just a few degrees off straight.

PDF Drawing and Materials List

https://www.dropbox.com/s/w0oztz4hpvyptwh/Mast%20Design.pdf?dl=0

Watch the video and help me reach 10,000 views :)

Latest Shack Upgrade - Audio Mixer

Just in time for Field Day 2016 I finally got my little mixer installed so I could bring all of the audio inputs from multiple radios into a single source.

The Behringer 1002FX is a tiny 10 line mixer with a mix of input options in both stereo and mono. Currently I'm mixing the outputs from about 5-6 radios into this and then pushing one output to my shack speakers. It gives me a little EQ adjust-ability on each line and a master output level. I probably won't use the built-in effects processor, but it will be nice to have extra outputs to secondary devices like headphones and maybe a digital recorder.

The photo below is dark but I also crafted a wooden stand that lifted the rear of the mixer about 4-5 inches off the desk and provided a much better viewing angle of the dials and controls. Some quick matte black paint and it looks like they belong together.

NORAC Field Day BBQ 2016

Kelly and I hosted a BBQ for the North Okanagan Radio Amateur Club this past weekend. The club decided to take a break from a full Field Day operation and go with a social BBQ instead. I was happy with the turnout, and the weather behaved as well.

Thanks to all who came by over the 7 hour period.

Excitement in D-Star Increases with New Compatible Devices

NW Digital Radio DV3000 Add-On Board

I've hear it on D-Star a lot these days "it seems to be really taking off lately... lots of new users on the air, and online".

Well part of that excitement might be because of some new USB device announcements.
It looks like the DV Dongle and DVAP Dongle from Internet Labs have some competition

NW Digital Radio has just released their ThumbDV ($119) and DV3000 ($99)

ThumbDV Dongle from NW Digital Radio

 Designed to operate across multiple digital platforms as well as multiple devices.

Do you want to play with D-Star on your personal computer or laptop? The ThumbDV would be an excellent choice. Maybe to want to build yourself and D-Star Hotspot with a Raspberry PI, then grab yourself a DV3000 and plug them directly together for another solution.

An open platform radio from NW Digital Radio will support USB ports and internal add-on pins so that either of these new products can be plugged into the radio to add additional digital mode support.

Here's some specs on both products:
• The new DVSI AMBE3000 Chip
• USB 2.0 Low Power (<100ma br="">• FTDI FT230XS
• Windows, Linux, OS X support
• UART Packet Interface
• 230.4 kbaud
 
D-STAR Open Source Applications:
• ircddbgateway
• Analog Bridge (DummyRepeater)
• dvtool file converter
• Bi-directional analog to AMBE
• WinDV
• UDRX Support for D-STAR DV,
Check the website for availability
 
AMBE HW Vocoder For:
• DMR*
• dPMR*
• Yaesu Fusion
• P25 Phase 2
 
No SW Support for these protocols at this time
 
The DV3000U adds D-STAR DV capability to your computer or laptop. Allowing you to get on the D-STAR network without a radio. The FTDI USB to serial converter has preinstalled driver support for Windows and Linux. Mac OS X is available from FTDI. The DV3000U is sold as a tested unit with applications software offered by others. The DV3000U provides a Packet UART interface at 230.4 kbaud via the FTDI 230XS. Audio Data is sent as 16 bits pcm at 8kHz sampling rate. The AMBE Vocoder returns a 3600 bps compressed stream with FEC (Forward Error Correction) which is muxed with 1200 bps of ancillary digital data by the D-STAR protocol to produce a 4800 bps D-STAR DV stream. LEDs show Transmit and Receive.

Matrix Solutions & Moencomm have just announced the new Star*DV USB Dongle ($129)

Star*DV by Matrix Solutions and MoenComm

With the latest AMBE 3000 chip AND a built-in "sound card" codec for speaker/mikes. Not just an AMBE device! This also has a codec and speaker/mike connector. Introductory Price just $129

• D-Star compatible QSOs without a D-Star radio
• Use a PC with internet, plug into the USB port
• Codec and connector for speaker/mike
• Also available now: the new SDV app for Windows, Desktop Linux and the Raspberry Pi
• Works with G4KLX ircDDBGateway to establish links to REF/XRF/DCS reflectors, ircDDB callsign routing or CCS callsign routing. 

Supports either a speaker/mike plugged into the Star*DV, or the PC's soundcard and speakers/microphone.

SDV will optionally work with a GMSK Modem - have QSOs in the shack without a D-Star radio while providing your own Hotspot for outside and mobile access to the D-Star network.

SDV on Windows and Linux Desktop has a great graphical interface -- supports DPRS maps, callsign and user message display, and easy linking and unlinking

SDV on the Pi uses an optional LCD plate with 5 control buttons for linking and configuration -- you can run the Pi headless if you want and still see callsigns, do linking

• Available in White or Black 
• Order the USB cable in your choice of different lengths and colors (does not come with Star*DV)
• Inexpensive speaker/mikes available
• LCDs for the PI (built, not a kit), monochrome and not expensive - coming soon

Remote Access & Monitoring of a FreeStar Hotspot

Now that I've setup a couple D-Star compatible hotspots I've got some additional tips and tricks to share if anyones interested.

Both of the hotspots I was involved with are running the FreeStar* software http://www.va3uv.com/freestar.htm.

FreeStar runs on Debian linux, which can operate on various computer platforms. Personally I've been using BeagleBone Black's, but you also can use a Raspberry Pi, both are micro singleboard computers designed for hobbyists, projects, etc. Priced at around $50 each, these are affordable, and much much smaller then dedicating an old PC to the job.

Once your FreeStar hotspot is up and running you're probably already using two seperate tools to manage it.

• The dashboard webpage generated by FreeStar from your browser.
• An SSH client like PuTTY for a remote command line interface into the Debian OS

This article will provide some additonal enhancements and/or tools that you may find interesting.

Access from the outside.

If you've followed VA3UV Ramesh's excellant install guides for FreeStar you've already completed some/all of these mandatory first steps. If not, go back and do it, these are essential requirements.

- Change the default password in your Debian operating system. The 'root' account is the most powerful account in the Linux OS, securing it with a very very good password is a MUST. Be smart, use letters, numbers, special characters, capitals, lowercase, etc. The longer the password, the more secure.


- Setup your hotspot on a internal static IP address within your network.


- Change your SSH service to run on a non-standard port (the default is 22) for example use 222 or 220.

- Setup port forwarding rules in your router. All these rules should reference the static IP that you've assigned to your hotspot.

TCP 5088 for the web dashboard
TCP xxx for SSH (insert your unique non-default SSH port)
UDP 20001

UDP 30001
UDP 4000

With these steps completed you should now be able to reach your hotspot dashboard & SSH from the internet. To test it use a website like WhatIsMyIP.com to find out what your external (internet) IP address is. Use that IP instead of the internal one to try and view the dashboard page

Examples

• LAN URL - http://192.168.1.10:5088
• Internet URL - http://96.50.241.59:5088

Dynamic DNS 

(DDNS) is a service where your external (internet) IP address is resolved into a simpler to use domain name like ve7hsp.ham-radio-op.net.

Most D-Star hot spots will be setup in people homes / shacks. Your internet connection is provided by a local ISP and your external dynamic IP address will be automatically changed on some schedule. Becasue of these random changes to your outside IP address you may loose access to your hotspot from the outside if you don't have some way of knowing when these address changes occur.

DDNS services like DynDNS.com work by letting you pick out a custom domain name from a selection of options. You'll then run a small app on one of the desktop computers within your home to routinely check what your outside IP address is, and relay any changes back to the DDNS servers.

The DDNS update software doesn't have to run on your hotspot, any computer within the same home network that's turned on all the time (or almost all the time) will do. If you're comfortable with the Linux OS you can run a DDNS daemon on your hotspot, but I'll let you figure that out on your own. Personally I have a Windows system on 24/7 so I just run the updater in the background on that machine.  

DDNS services are available for free from companies like 

• https://www.dnsdynamic.org/
• http://www.noip.com/free

I mentioned DynDNS earlier specifically because one of their registered domains is...

ham-radio-op.net

Even though they are a paid service, I thought it was cool to able to register the domain

(mycallsign).ham-radio-op.net 

That's really easy to remember.

So in summary, with a DDNS service setup you'll never need to know what your current external IP address is, even if it changes. You'll also be able to use a custom domain name (like other internet websites) instead of knowing the IP address. With the new domain being a constant you can bookmark your dashboard in your favorite browser, and create a saved profile in PuTTY for SSH.

Remote Monitoring

So, if you've been following the steps so far...

• Your SSH is secured with a non-standard port and strong password
• Your internet router has all the open ports required to the outside (the internet)
• You've setup a Dynamic DNS service so you don't need to know your external IP address, and you have a handy to remember domain name to use instead.

Now you can open a web browser from anywhere on the internet and see your hotspot dashboard. You can also share your dashboard page with fellow ham's, very handy when wondering if they are on D-Star and where ("oh hey, he's linked to Reflector 1 Charlie right now, I'll link there as well and see if I can reach him").

You can now install an SSH client on another PC/laptop and control the hotspot from the road, work, or while on vacation.

Personally I've been playing around with doing all of this from my smartphone as well.

On Android I installed the JuiceSSH app (free) and now I have an SSH client on the phone.

I added the JuiceSSH Performance Monitor plugin (free) and I can monitor the hotspot from anywhere.

73

Aaren - VA7AEJ