Ham Radio / Off-grid communication

888Flux said:
SNR is too faulty of a metric after testing, and going with bit error rate actually works much better (basically what your suggestio,n was). After the CRC passes you just re-encode all of the data through the polar encoder and measure against the received hard decision bits. I was worried it would be too expensive to do this but it works with very few problems.
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Good to hear that idea worked out! Can't wait for release.
3Y0K has been running for a few days now. Wish I documented it more, but in the early days there was quite a bit of chaos on FT8. Loads of pirate stations, people stepping on each other. Sadly, I either couldn't hear them yet or have been too busy to try that. They say they'll depart the island by about March 18th. Not sure I'll be able to get them in time. Anybody else tried?
 
Blue Miaplacidus said:
mumble
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Mumble is good. One of my first projects was remote access to my Retevis VHF/UHF set on the local repeater + vox so I could remotely join the regular meet-ups via Mumble when I was not in this state.

It was very crude but worked somewhat pleasantly. (The vox was quite lazy though)

888Flux said:
SNR is too faulty of a metric after testing
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SNR is given straight by Ahmet's modem IIRC ?
 
NortelNutworks said:
I wonder if something like a Signalink USB would work better with its built in keying circuit.
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For normal use, yes. But for remote, piped through Mumble, vox was my choice as I didn't have means of relaying the PTT information remotely. I didn't test a lot of vox functions but all chinese ones are lazy as hell. Don't know much about the others.
 
So, this is a departure from the above conversations, but we've discussed CW above and as a newbie to that mode I have a few questions:
  • Have any of y'all used a mini-iambic key on a thigh-holster while diving and if so, how long did it take you to master listening and transmitting while driving?
  • It seems like there should be a good software solution to transmitting and decoding CW via software, like with FT8. Is there any that y'all have used or have heard are good? I need to explore my X6200's CW modes more but I believe it has some tools built in for canned messages and decoding on screen.
  • Is there a similar solution for HT's, like incorporating a digirig or bluetooth KISS control to transmit CW on VHF, UHF, or to really annoy GMRS users? I've solved using my phone for winlink email and FT8 for my HT, Mobile, and HF radio so I'm wanting to continue abusing this device interface an eventually be able to do POTA via phone or laptop.
  • USB-C keyboards. Are there any good ones out there?
All this to say, I'm not wanting to avoid learning CW I just want to have another mode I can access for the bicentenial even this year. If you're not aware, if you collect a contact from every state you get a little award from the ARRL, and if you do so on SSB, CW, and a digital mode (I think they lump RTTY, FT8, and others together but I'd have to double check) you get an extra special award.
 
CNX: Discovery Drive – An ESP32-S3-based azimuth/elevation rotator for satellite dishes and SDR antennas (Crowdfunding)
KrakenRF, the team behind the KrakenSDR, has designed the Discovery Drive ESP32-S3-based, low-cost, fully weatherproof, automatic azimuth/elevation (Az/El) antenna rotator for their Discovery Dish or other directional antennas, such as Yagis and Wi-Fi grids, weighing up to 5kg.
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The Discovery Drive is currently crowdfunding on Crowd Supply for $699 with free worldwide shipping. The kit includes the Discovery Drive rotator unit, a 6-meter USB-A-to-USB-C cable, a 6-meter 12V DC extension cable, a DC barrel splitter, mast-mounting brackets and bolts, a Wi-Fi antenna, a temporary compass shelf for alignment, a crossbar/antenna mounting bracket, and a 12V universal power supply. Shipping is estimated to begin in August 2026.
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The Mass Shooter Ron Soye said:
CNX: Discovery Drive – An ESP32-S3-based azimuth/elevation rotator for satellite dishes and SDR antennas (Crowdfunding)
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Reminds me a lot of the AntRunner rotator https://www.tindie.com/products/johnnywu/the-antrunner-rotator/

The PoE thing is really cool and it looks like you could fit some serious hardware on it. Wish it was more affordable though.
WanderingFarmer said:
USB-C keyboards. Are there any good ones out there?
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Are you looking for a wireless USB-c keyboard? Or what type of keyboard? something like this?
1773497793875.png
 
Not sure if this has been discussed, but the Baofeng DM32UV can do 256 bit DMR encryption at a seriously impressive price point and with much improved signal quality/supriousness/etc over their previous slop.
Would be very useful post-habbening methinks...
Since this thread contains "real HAMs" and by extension the "FCC police" people, I'm sorry FCC. I won't do it again.
 
Nefarious Elliot said:
Not sure if this has been discussed, but the Baofeng DM32UV can do 256 bit DMR encryption at a seriously impressive price point and with much improved signal quality/supriousness/etc over their previous slop.
Would be very useful post-habbening methinks...
Since this thread contains "real HAMs" and by extension the "FCC police" people, I'm sorry FCC. I won't do it again.
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Well you're clearly only intending to use it in a shielded environment with <5uW leakage, right?
 
Nefarious Elliot said:
Snce this thread contains "real HAMs" and by extension the "FCC police" people, I'm sorry FCC. I won't do it again.
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This is how you've chosen to end your life. Under a mountain of angry letters from the FCC threatening a fine. Enjoy prison stlacker.

888Flux said:
Are you looking for a wireless USB-c keyboard? Or what type of keyboard? something like this?
View attachment 8699819
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Either! The X6200 let's you type messages and it'll translate it into CW for you. It'll also decode CW and display as text pretty well too. The biggest drawback is all I have are old dell 100% keyboards that are wired and I gotta carry a USB A to C adapter. I'd like to get something small and easily portable for my POTA kit.

Ideally I'd not depend on the Bluetooth connection. That can be finicky with multiple devices. I might look into an app that let's my phone operate as a Bluetooth keyboard though, if that even exist.
 
Nefarious Elliot said:
Not sure if this has been discussed, but the Baofeng DM32UV can do 256 bit DMR encryption at a seriously impressive price point and with much improved signal quality/supriousness/etc over their previous slop.
Would be very useful post-habbening methinks...
Since this thread contains "real HAMs" and by extension the "FCC police" people, I'm sorry FCC. I won't do it again.
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Many Tytera DMR products like the TYT MD-UV390 and TYT MD-UV990 also support AES-256 encryption

That said, there is no way to audit the implementation of such in their firmware without extracting the blob and going through it yourself. You are betting your luck on a Chinese manufacturers competency. While I do like the Tytera brand and they have great quality for their handhelds compared to most Chinese manufacturers I still wouldn't trust something like that where it may be critical.

The best "SHTF" comms setup for voice is any analog radio, set to the lowest bandwidth, with the lowest amount of power that can facilitate communications between you and the people you need to talk to. Also with the highest amount of directionality (Yagi's are a good investment)

The radio is probably the least important part of the equation. Knowing what to say and how to say in the shortest amount of time is far better and works with any piece of equipment.


A future project I plan to work on is a local whisper.cpp speech to text model running on a Radxa Zero SBC that transcribes audio when a PTT mic is activated into text, and then sends it as data rather than voice. The incoming messages would then be played back using text to speech and also optionally shown on the E-ink display (they are great as they use negligible power, and emit no light).

It would be able to work over any medium, and DMR radios that already have data burst / SMS capability with KISS support would work well. But I'm also eyeing 2.4 GHz LoRa with S2X180 boards.


A voice message could be compacted down to a less than a second on air with routing capabilities, and it could even be sent under the noise floor.

The most difficult part of the project would be the form factor and power consumption. whisper.cpp's smallest model uses a full gig of memory.

Transcrption errors could be mitigated by using biases towards a predefined dictionary, like the phonetic alphabet and decoder tuning t,hat whisper.cpp supports out of the box.
 
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888Flux said:
That said, there is no way to audit the implementation of such in their firmware without extracting the blob and going through it yourself. You are betting your luck on a Chinese manufacturers competency.
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I've seen comments from people who did and indicated it was good, if that counts for anything.
 
WanderingFarmer said:
Well if you can fit it into a .50 cal ammo can with a battery you can bolt on a solar panel on the side and fix a BNC or PL-259 connector on the lid. Ventilation might be an issue but if its intermittent use it might be alright.
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The idea is something you would wear that you run to a PTT mic like this
1773933136898.png

(or similar) and then runs to both a headset / earpiece and radio. This video is what gave me the idea:

Btw, I forgot to answer the question about the USB-C keyboard. Here's the one I use for my Xiegu X6100:

I use it wired instead of wireless with a USB C to USB C cable + ferrite choke to reduce noise.
 
888Flux said:
Knowing what to say and how to say in the shortest amount of time is far better and works with any piece of equipment.
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Can't you use text over dmr for little itty bitty data transmissions? Though this requires... texting. I think there's also a way to send a voice recording digitally on a lot of radios, if you have a lot to say.
 
It arrived. Now to get it setup.
sdr.jpg
ETA;
Ah man this is really fucking cool. Also, the little guy is getting pretty warm. Before I even plugged it in to a sacrificial laptop I popped off the case to inspect the board and everything looks good and the solder is clean, it has a nice big thick 2mm thermal pad. Should I ziptie a little 40mm fan to it?
 
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Incredibly based. Welcome to the club!

Blue Miaplacidus said:
Should I ziptie a little 40mm fan to it?
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There are really no temperature sensitive components inside besides the TXCO which has very little drift,. My V3 runs hot but has lasted years of continuous use and is currently connected to a Pi and a magloop right now. What you should really buy is a USB hub or USB extension cable for it though
1773967708485.png
From the FAQ on the V3, but same applies to the V4.

You could of course mod it with a fan but I dunno if it's neccesary. The case itself is also part of the heat sink.
 
Blue Miaplacidus said:
Good shout, such a simple solution that I totally retard-brained and did not even consider. Now I have my antenna mounted about 11 meters up on my roof, what a difference.
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Nice, yeah that should work much better. There are a lot less issues when using SDR's over a USB hub or extension cable.


I made a quick video demo for modem73 that explains the modem's parameters and how to get on the air. Still working on the ARQ chat / file transfer piece, release SOON ™️

 
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