Australia

EchoLink CQ

BenLeave a comment

I’ve been using EchoLink well before smartphones where the only way I knew how to connect to a different station was via the radio. The internet wasn’t as extensive as it is now and you had to dial the node you wanted via the radio. You can still do this today but I don’t think anywhere near as many do it.

I always felt EchoLink was well ahead of its time. Started well before any digital radio was thought of. Connecting the world via the internet.

It was great to be able to talk to the UK or States while mobile on the way to work just using a small whip antenna on the car.

Given I’m in Australia, it can be difficult to remember when overseas nets are on, or what part of the world is awake and up for a chat and which ones are not. But EchoLink has a CQ feature.

Calling CQ

EchoLink had a CQ feature where you can call CQ and it will automatically connect to someone who is calling CQ also.

From the Stations screen select call CQ.

  • Then select your language.
  • Select the country, if you leave it as any, you will not limit your connection options
  • Select the node type, again, leave as any to start with
  • And you can skip recent if you want to.

Then press Call CQ

It will call CQ for a while searching for a connection that matches your settings. I find that sometimes it tries to connect to another node but can fail. This is perhaps because the connection drops out for whatever reason. Just try again.

The good thing about this option is you will get someone who is wanting to talk to someone just like you do!

What is your experience with EchoLink? What is your favourite nodes? Why don’t you put it in the comments below so we can all learn from your experiences.

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Diamond Antenna W-8010 and expanding it to all bands

BenLeave a comment

I purchased the Diamond W series W8010 antenna and quickly put it together. The instructions were a bit hard to read as it was exceedingly small. However, I found someone who did a video on how to put it together. (this is not my video)

To me, an antenna is far more important than the power you put out and the radio you own. You can make a fantastic contact on an extremely old radio on a good well positioned antenna. But if you have a bad antenna and a fantastic radio, you may find it a bit harder.

Tip when tuning

The above video, and instructions will tell you when tuning the antenna to cut the tuning wires to length. Instead, I folded the tuning wires back on themselves towards the centre of the antenna. You may need to fold back a little more than you would have cut off, but if you ever need to move the antenna, you will need to re-tune it and you cannot re-tune it if you have cut the tunning wires off already.

So, for my antenna, all I did was set up the antenna where the wires were greater than 30 degrees from each other, and then bend the tuning wires on themselves with electrical tape. For one of the bands, I took the tuning wires completely off.

As my antenna is on the roof, I had to adjust and climb down many times and check the radio before trying again. At one stage I got a helper who stayed in the shack, and I stayed on the roof. However me being on the roof affected the antenna, even if I wasn’t near it. One of the bands wouldn’t tune in, but when I was sure it was right, I went off the roof and then it worked fine without me on the roof. Maybe my antenna doesn’t like the site of me!

Review of W-8010

This W-8010 antenna is a good cheap antenna that does a decent job. It isn’t hard to install and put together and covers several bands once you get it up and going. I was expecting it to take a lot longer than it did. It doesn’t need a huge mast and if you have the space, can be installed so it doesn’t look too bad either.

I managed to get this antenna working on all bands as advertised except 80m. I am still trying to get this band to work. I understand the antenna is very narrow on this band when I purchased it, so I expected tuning to be difficult. Given the antenna is above the house on new tiles, I didn’t want to climb on the roof to many times, so I tried several times while tuning the other bands, but ended up giving it away. Each time I get on the roof I adjust it a little, then try again, but I have almost given up and sure it won’t work right across the band either. 80m is my main issue with this band.

Expanding the W-8010 antenna to WARC Bands

After tuning in the antenna, I wondered if I could modify it to also be usable on the WARC bands. It was a little frustrating hearing people talk on the other bands yet couldn’t talk to them as I didn’t have a resident antenna.

I found some coaxial cable on the footpath on my morning walk. It was against a power pole and looked like the same cable used for pay TV which was above me at the time. I had a closer look at it, and noticed it was RG66 which is 75-ohm, but also had a strong wire wrapped in next to the coax. So, using this wire, I could hang it and put all the strain on the wire, and not the coax. Better still it was free!

So how much do I need for which band I hear you ask, especially since I am using 75-ohm not 50-ohm coax?

To calculate the lengths, you need is easy. Just work out what frequency you want to use. Try one in the middle of the range of the band you want to use. Then with this frequency, use the following formula:

Dipole total length in meters: 143 / frequency in MHz

This total length in the above is from point to point, so you need to half that for both sides of the dipole. But before you cut, don’t only measure twice (as they say in the building industry), but cut it longer than you need. It is a lot easier to trim the ends off than stick the ends back on! As I said earlier, I was using RG66 75-ohm coax, so these measurements may not be exact. But it also depends on how your antenna is mounted. For me, I added about a metre to each length so when I was on the roof, I knew it was about a metre longer than it should be. Depending on the band and length, you may want to leave more or less on it.

I first got it all working at a height I could reach, as I got sick of climbing up the ladder hundreds of times. Once it worked, I put it to the height I wanted, but it needed to be re-tuned again. Ah! If I had cut the wire, guess what, I would have had fun trying to extend my coax on the roof! You can see below how I folded the wire back on itself. As mentioned, this coax is RG66 and has a wire next to it. You can see this small wire in the photo that isn’t folded back and it supporting the coax on the nail. Don’t worry, this wasn’t my final setup, I was still tuning when I took the photo. It is secured a lot better than this now.

I noticed a lot of birds sat on some of my wires that were almost horizontal, and I was concerned their weight might break the antenna. About the same time, we were throwing out our old trampoline, so I kept some of the springs and have used them after the insulator and the mounting point. This may give the antenna a few more years of life hopefully.

Hope you enjoyed this read. What is your experience with Dipole antennas? What tricks have you learnt? I have been making antennas for some years, but really don’t think I am an experienced antenna builder. Please add your comments below so we can all learn from you.

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  • Antennas
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  • Dipole Antenna for Portable Use – Make your own!
    A dipole antenna is a basic radio antenna made of two conductive elements fed at the center. It is typically a half-wavelength long and is widely used as a reference antenna in…

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  • Interference
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  • 6m and TV Channel 0
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Barefoot

BenLeave a comment

I’ve heard several amateur radio operators say they are running a Barefoot setup. But what does it mean?

It has nothing to do with what is or is not on your feet. But simply means transmitting without an amplifier.

While power helps, the best thing you can do to fix your signal is your antenna. It doesn’t matter how much power you put out if your antenna is facing the wrong way, or not tuned in correctly. If you are struggling to be heard and sure your radio is set up correctly, I would look at the antenna first.

Some operators think there are two types of radio setups, thoughts with amplifiers, and thoughts without. Some see using an amplifier as cheating. I am not sure I would go that far, but if you are putting out a thousand watts, then yes people will hear you, but this doesn’t help you hear them when they put out 100 watts.

So, are you a barefoot operator or not? Perhaps you are on some bands or radios, but not on others?

Why not leave a comment below.

Other things to see

HamAlert

BenLeave 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.

Australian DMR Repeaters

BenLeave 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#!

Further Reading

Enjoyed what you read, here is some more interesting articles on this site you may enjoy.

Basic Antenna Fundamentals

Ben1 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 FundamentalsDownload

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.

Antenna fun

The History of Ham Radio

Ben1 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 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 PDFDownload
Ham Radio History

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.

Other Reads

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

Ham Radio History

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

Power without Power

Ben4 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.

Other Reads

Below are some other posts I have done on a similar topic

Chirp

BenLeave 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.

Connecting Tip

Chirp can easily connect to your radio without needing to look at the device manager anymore. Have a look at this:

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.

Other Reads

Here are some other posts I have done on similar topics