Australia – VK3TBS

HamAlert

April 27, 2023April 29, 2023BenLeave a comment

It has been a while since I have completed another update, but I have a lot in the making. A broken finger has kept me quiet!

HamAlert is an app for both iPhone and Google devices that alerts you as to when a desired station appears on the DX cluster, the Beacon Network, SOTAwatch, POTA or PSK Reporter. It saves you from checking them all manually.

You can receive different types of alerts including:

DXCC (both actual and callsign home DXCC)
Callsign
IOTA group reference
SOTA summit reference
WWFF/POTA division/reference
CQ zone
Continent
Band
Mode
Time and days of week
Source
Spotter callsign and DXCC

Just download the app from the App Store or google play, create an account, then set what alerts or triggers you want.

Press the three lines up the top left and select triggers. Then press plus to add one. The interface is mostly web based but works well within the app.

My first trigger was using my call sign under any conditions and alert via app

You can easily add more triggers. Select a condition and an Action on what you want the app to do when it meats the desired condition. You can also add in a comment to help you with each trigger.

Once you are done, simply press Done down the bottom of the screen.

Limitations

Limitations menu limits how many times you will be triggered. For example you may want to set a trigger to only alert you once an hour or day.

More information is available on their website at https://hamalert.org/about which even had a forum you can join or add comments about the app.

How do you find this app? Would value your comments below.

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Australian DMR Repeaters

February 3, 2020May 14, 2020BenLeave a comment

There are several DMR networks around the world, and more and more start all the time. The Australian DMR network currently covers the entire country and is for Australian residents only.

It can often be hard to find which DMR repeaters are online, offline and where they are, especially if you travel a bit like me.

Here is a few links that may be of some use. Please let me know if these links no longer work.

A map of all DMR repeaters around Australia is available here.

If you want to check the status of these above repeaters, have a look at this page. It shows which ones are currently online, or offline.

Online repeater map is a great page showing all repeaters around Australia. It is well worth the look at if you are traveling or are going to be in Australia. https://www.onlinerepeatermap.com/

Another way is via the DMR database. If you put the start of the repeater call sign in the middle repeater section it will list the repeaters in your area. For example, all repeaters in my area start with VK3, so I put in VK3 in the middle callsign box and selected begins with and got a list of registered repeaters. This will work all over the world. https://www.radioid.net/database/search#!

Basic Antenna Fundamentals

November 23, 2019May 14, 2020Ben1 Comment

A good friend of mine, Mike VK5ZC, put the information below together and asked me to put it on my web site. He has spent a lot of time putting it together with pictures and videos, so I encourage you to have a good read.

Topics include:

What is an antenna
Antennas types and general usage
Video of Antenna Propagation
The Antenna Mechanism
Antenna Resonance & Bandwidth
“Q” factor
Directional patterns of antennas
Video of Antenna Directivity
Gain of Antennas
Impedance matching
Vertical & Horizontal Polarization
Balun basics, Unun & Ugly Balun
SWR and Video
Coaxial cables and feed lines
The Velocity factor
Plugs and Connectors

Open the PDF document here:

The Basic Antenna Fundamentals Download

So what did you think of this document? Please leave your comments below.

Mike also wrote a document that has the full history of Amateur Radio. You can read that here.

Want to read something similar:

If you enjoyed that read, here is some more posts we have on this site.

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There are several DMR networks around the world, and more and more start all the time. The Australian DMR network currently covers the entire country…
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Basic Antenna Fundamentals
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BlueDV Windows 10 GD-77
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Chirp
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DROID-Star
After talking to a friend just to the north of me, he told me about the app DROID-Star for Android. As I only have apple…
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Mini Keyboard Options
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ProScan and ProScan Client
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ProScan and ProScan Client Update
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Software Defined Radio (SDR)
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The History of Ham Radio

November 23, 2019May 14, 2020Ben1 Comment

Topics include:

What is Ham Radio
Introduction Video
The Circuits
The Components
The Early Pioneers
Who Invented the first radio
The Amplifier
Modulation
Introduction to SSB
Pre-WWI
Between the Wars
During WWII
Post War
Licensing
Call Signs
Types of Radios

Open the PDF document here:

History of Ham Radio PDF Download

What did you think of this document. Please leave a comment below.

Mike also wrote a document Antenna’s which is also a fantastic read. You can read that here.

Welcome to the site

FeaturedLeave a comment

Hi there from Down Under, Melbourne Australia. Thank you for visiting my radio web site. Below is what items by category is available on this web site.

Thanks again for visiting. This web site is still being built, so don’t forget to Follow us to get updates as they come. You can do this by the Follow Us box.

I also have a travel web site, so if you are interested in Australia at all, I highly recommend you visit it. One of our biggest trips was a 5 week holiday through outback Australia. We traveled through outback Australia to see why these remote locations are there, how they started, and what are they doing today. These locations are some of the most remote places in the world. This trip has an amazing amount of Australia’s information, pictures, maps and video’s and I guarantee you will learn something even if you are an Australian or been there before. See the Northern Australia trip via the link below. https://sangsteradventures.wordpress.com/

Hope to hear you on the air sometime soon!

73’s from VK3TBS, Ben, Melbourne Australia

amateur radio

Solar Data & Propagation

Iphone won’t download photos

by Ben

amateur radio

Australian DMR Repeaters

by Ben

GD-77

Upgrade to OpenGD77

amateur radio

The Radio Box

by Ben

amateur radio

WizNet DMR

by Ben

Android

Mini Keyboard Options

by Ben

amateur radio

Orion Push to Talk

by Ben

amateur radio

Using an Android TV Box for Ham Radio

by Ben

Camping & Outback Ideas

Power without Power

by Ben

CHIRP Software

Chirp

by Ben

Firmware Update

Updating GD-77 Firmware

by Ben

GD-77

My Radio Diddity GD-77

by Ben

Power without Power

August 23, 2019May 14, 2020Ben4 Comments

In 2019 my family and I went on a five week trip through outback Australia to some of the remotest parts. We had no access to power, reception, food or water for days. We took what we had.

Here is a cheap way to have power without having power, a rather inexpensive way to do it. I took this short video in outback Northern Territory in the top end of Australia.

Chirp

August 12, 2019May 14, 2020BenLeave a comment

CHIRP is a free, open-source tool for programming your amateur radio. It supports a large number of manufacturers and models, as well as provides a way to interface with multiple data sources and formats.

Supported Radios

Supported radios can be found on their web site at https://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home. This list is updated as the software is updated.

Download Chirp

Chirp can be downloaded from the following web site. Should things stop to work or connect to outside web sites, it probably is because you don’t have the latest version. You do NOT need to uninstall an existing version of CHIRP before installing a newer one. Just install the new one and it will replace the existing copy. If you already have an old copy on your PC, make sure you close it first, otherwise you will get an error while installing.

https://trac.chirp.danplanet.com/chirp_daily/LATEST/

Update Chirp

On opening Chirp, it will tell you if an update is available. Simply click on the link, download the latest version that is appropriate to your platform, and then once the file has downloaded, run the file. It will update your software. No need to un-install the old one, and it seems all the settings, such as file locations, stay in the new version.

Known Issues

Chirp list all their known issues online which is great. You can see the current list here:

https://chirp.danplanet.com/issues?page=13&per_page=100&set_filter=ewezetzft&sort=tracker%2Cstatus%2Cpriority

Download from Radio

I think the first step is to first download what is currently on the radio. This will give you a starting point which can be saved should your upload not work. At the very least doing this will allow you to check communication between your PC and radio works, and you will have a file that you can look at to see how it was programmed.

To do this, go to the Radio menu and click on Download from Radio or Ctrl-D. This will give you a small dialog box where you can select the Com Port, radio and model. Your model of radio may not exactly be on the list, so you may need to do some work to see which one to select as an alternative. For example, I have a Baofeng GT-3TP, but it is not on the list, so I have to select the BF-F8HP model.

You can then either edit what you have and then upload it back to the radio, or start from scratch. If you want to start from scratch, you may want to see what Query Data sources are available first.

If you have trouble connecting your computer to your radio, then first make sure it is connected correctly and all the way into the radio. If this doesn’t fix it, go to Windows Device Manager then right click and select properties. If error code 43 comes up, then right click on it and uninstall. Then from the Action menu, scan for updated devices.

Query Data Source

Chirp can can sync your radio with the repeaters listed on several different sites. This will save you a lot of time getting the latest frequencies, offsets, and tone squelches etc. These sites can be found on the Radio menu, Query Data Source, then you can see a list of them.

I usually use the RepeaterBook option and then from this you can select political or proximity depending on what you want to do. If you select proximity it will put the repeaters in distance and band order, not frequency, however you can change this prior to uploading to your radio.

For me, once I have selected proximity, I sort the list in order of frequency, however this doesn’t change their location channel.

Then select the Frequencies you don’t want in your radio, for example, the ones on bands your radio does not use. Right click and select delete, and move all memories up. You may need to sort again in order of frequency; however, this doesn’t change their location channel.

I then export the tab to a csv file.

I then open the CSV file in Excel and sort in the order I want, frequency. Be sure to re-number the location numbers once in the correct order. MAKE SURE COLUMN K = FM. Make sure you remove any comments in column O & R. You can also add any additional frequencies you want to.

Open the CSV exported file, now you will see the locations are in order of Frequency as set above. You can still make any changes required and save or save as which will update the CSV file.

I will add notes here on how to program your radio soon.

My Radio Diddity GD-77

July 24, 2019April 28, 2021BenLeave a comment

Starting in digital can be a little overwhelming to start with, no matter how many years you have had your licence. I even had a digital scanner for many years prior to starting in the digital world of Amateur Radio.

After working out what digital radio is, what you can do on it and how it worked, I then started researching what equipment was required.

According to other reviews at the time I was looking, many people claimed that the RadioDitty GD-77 was the best value for money.

After a month or so of using the RadioDitty GD-77 through repeaters, I purchased an OpenSpot2. I did a lot of research prior to this, and had settled on the OpenSpot1, however when I went to purchase it, only the OpenSpot2 details. It happened to be the week it was launched, so there were no reviews available at the time.

Currently my digital setup is very simple, it just has:

One hand held radio, the Radio Ditty GD-77, this came with charger, USB cable and remote microphone
OpenSpot2 Hotspot. This came with a power cable.

With this simple setup I am able to talk the world via

The BrandMeister network
The Australian VK-DMR network
Other DMR networks around the world, eg New Zealand, Canada etc
YSF Reflectors
C4FM
NXDN Reflectors
SharkRF servers

The above is just to name a few networks. Each of the above networks range from a few Talk Groups, to thousands upon thousands of them from all over the world.

In 2019, my family went for a huge five week trip through outback Australia. We went to some of the most remote parts of the world. We had to carry a lot of water, food and supplies. We also had to carry extra battery power to charge fridges etc. I would have liked to have taken a HF radio with us given the outback probably didn’t have a lot of interference, however we simply didn’t have enough room, or power.

Instead we took a very simple setup, my GD-77, my openspot2 and a small battery back that ran my openspot and mobile phone. Even without power, I was able to talk the world with a little mobile reception or wifi.

Many people have many radio’s for different networks, making it hard to keep updated, and obviously cost a lot. My digital setup costed far less than it costed me to get on 2m/70cm many years ago. And did I mention, this radio also does analogue, so yes, you can use this radio on 2m and 70cm simplex or via the repeaters and no one will know you are actually talking on a digital radio.

The only down site is it is a little hard to program and navigate the channels. The radio is built for commercial operations, and not really for amateur radio, however it can be done. Commercial operations usually have a small number of talk groups or repeaters/frequencies, where as amateur radio uses a lot. However once you nut it out, it isn’t really that hard.

You might want to upgrade to the OpenGD-77 though as it is a lot easier. I show you how to do that here.

Limitations

Further Reading

Open the PDF document here:

Want to read something similar:

Open the PDF document here:

Other Reads

Other Reads

Supported Radios

Download Chirp

Update Chirp

Known Issues

Download from Radio

Query Data Source

Other Reads

Other things to read