The Amazing Web and thank God for Firefighters

During the recent fire scare we of course turned on the TV and found it useless for information. When the news finally came on they would show a weather map and a bunch of arrows showing wind direction and the smoke plume which of course covered about 4 counties and was NO indication of where the hell the fire was so whats a mother to do?



RadioReference.com is a websitre local radio feeds across the country. The feeds are not always active but in my case the feed was active and I was able to listen to the fire and rescue traffic in real time, not through some blow dryed dork on TV waving his arms and saying words with no content


I live about half a mile from I-95 out in the forest. I live on the East side of 95. On the east side its fairly well populated with farms and orange groves and in a couple of miles you run into the intra coastal water way. Beyond that is the blue Atlantic and nothing till the coast of Africa. To the west its soon becomes just acres and acres of uninhabited forest to the St Johns River.

As you can see I live just east of the start of a double bend in I-95 so if I can find I-95 on a map I can find my house.

The biggest problem I had was trying to figure out where the fire was. I live in north Brevard county and just north is Volusia county The counties share a boarder all the way to the St Johns River It turns out the fire was as much west of me as north so it was converging from 2 directions


The green dot at the bottom is my place. This map was not available till today so to try and figure out where the fire was I found this resource

Noaa firedetect



This satellite measures smoke plumes updated every 3 hours and it allows you to see where the fire is. I was able to drill down to a 10 sq mile area. I didn't save a screen shot of the fire but basically I could see every source within the map above. There were about 25 individual sources in the fire zone. This Map was invaluable to me, as there are really only 2 roads out of my QTH and with this data I was able to make a plan and a back up plan about which way to go if the need arose.

Another invaluable resource was the traffic cam network on trafficland There are a number of web cam networks, another is 511 but with this I was able to monitor the fire visually. There are cameras every mile and I could see if fire was on both sides of the interstate of on just one and how far north and south was the fire


By knowing where my little jog in the road was I could call up cams up and down the road and see what was happening




I could also monitor US 1 SR46 intersection and see if traffic was being diverted, a sure sign things were getting worse


In 1998 there was much worse wild fire than this. In that year there was close to a million acres of FL that was on fire. In that fire I had burned spots in my yard and a pumper truck next to my house protecting me., We had a local radio station a 5kw daytimer that stayed on throughout the fire and people called in and gave reports so we knew what was happening. This year the station was off the air and all I got on AM radio was reruns of Michael Savage BLEH!!! BUT with the advent of all this information I was able to a very large extent to be apprised of what was going on around me all the time. I was able to call up my neighbors and discuss evac contingencies etc and have some idea of how bad things really were. If all I had was the blow dryed dork on channel 35 to rely on I would have been sunk

73

Missing the Bullet and Frequency Entry

This is what it looked like out my bedroom window Monday night

Well ARS W9OY is still standing. As of 2 days ago I was not sure if it was going to stand or be burnt to the ground. My property was in the area of the recent "Iron Horse" fire in central FL. The fire burned to within about a mile of my property. The fire all told burned about 16K acres and at present is only 25% under control, fortunately I live in that 25%. I pre-evacuated all my records and important stuff and had the family down to a 5 minute evacuation but fortunately I didn't have to pull the trigger. I've been in a couple of these types of fire and basically the fire can be viewed as a huge mass of thermal energy that moves with the speed of the wind, and no pip squeak with a garden hose is going to do anything to combat the thermal mass. The thermal mass is essentially a chunky gas, and as such its temperature is unlimited on the upside. Point being when the call comes LEAVE.

I'm going to start a series on frequency entry for Flex radios. You may say "well that's pretty obvious just point and shoot" and for sure that is one method to get frequency data into the radio, but the radio is far more powerful than that.

Today there are a host of programs that interface with the Flex. At my station I always have DX lab suite and CW Skimmer loaded. I am a 99% CW op so I virtually never use point and shoot to enter freq data. I enter freq data from Skimmer. The reason being Skimmer centers my CW signals exactly to coincide with my side tone, and I use very narrow 12hz filters ALL THE TIME. Occasionally I will use a digital program like Ham Radio Deluxe or WinWarbler as the thing that controls my radio's frequency. If I am contesting I typically use the band map in N1MM to control my search and pounce operations. Part of what has been missing is the ability to control other functions of PSDR beside the frequency while PSDR is out of focus and another program window is in focus. To address that issue there has been under development for about 2 years a piece of hardware that lets you address up to 15 commands in PSDR and communicates with PSDR via DDUTIL.

This piece of hardware has a multi-function Knob which has its own switch, and 3 other switches. The switches can address up to 9 functions and the knob can address up to 6 functions. It is in my mind a tremendous advancement in the ergonomics of the radio, and it is the fulfillment of the promise that the radio is amenable to other people developing useful products to improve the radio's performance. I will get into the Knob and its development in a future blog post, as it is quite extensive in its capabilities. The reason I include it under frequency entry is it most definitely is a welcome hardware addition to the available modes of frequency entry.

Also working with Steve we have refined the usability of CW Skimmer in a pile up. Skimmer has the ability to I/O on two different serial ports called Radio 1 and Radio 2. What we did was develop a way so that VFO A data comes I/O on the Radio 1 port and VBO B or VFO TX data comes I/O on the Radio 2 port. What this means is you can use Skimmer to control your transmit VFO when you are in a pileup simply by clicking around on the Skimmer waterfall. I have found this to be an EXTREMELY effective way to work DX, and I will go through a tutorial on how to set this up as well.

First an overview of the native way to get frequency data into PSDR:

Here is a shot of the PSDR console I use every day


There normal methods to change freq are to "grab" the panadapter:



To get the little hand make sure the cursors are off, and left click the mouse. Moving the mouse left and right moves the freq down and up.

Next is the vaunted Point and Shoot method


to get here you first right click the panadapter to bring up the yellow cross hairs, and then move the cross hairs to the freq you desire to occupy and left click the mouse. BAM you are on Freq


Note the change in VFO A's freq

To change the transmit freq in cursor mode you right click again and red cursors pop up




Left click and VFO B (typically your transmit VFO when you are split) and shades of Emeril (BAM that is) VFO B is on a new freq. This is very useful for moving around in pileups especially if you don't use other software to control freq.

Another method is to use the mouse wheel like a tuning knob. When used in conjunction with the Freq Steps in the VFO area of the console


If you click the - or + it changes the freq step from 1hz to 10mhz in 14 step size variations

In addition you can highlight one or the other of the VFO's and either use the mouse to raise and lower and digit or you can keyboard entry the freq directly.


In Diversity mode the display looks like this



Notice a new display is under VFO A. I call this VFO TX . In this mode there are three independent processes that are active Receiver 1 is in the VFO A slot, Receiver B is in the VFO B slot, and TX is in VFO TX slot. In the case of the diversity mode VFO A and VFO B are slaved. The yellow cursor changes both receive VFO's and



note 14.013 goes to 14.009


The red cursor changes VFO TX


If VFO A and B are not synced then the yellow cursor in the correct panadapter field will independently change VFO A or B


In the next installment I will look at CAT commands and Frequency control. CAT commands are the heart of remotely controlling PSDR. Over the course of the last decade the CAT command set has grown from a very basic Kenwood set to a highly specialized set of extremely powerful commands.

I'm going to label these posts "frequency entry" for easy cataloging of this series

73

DU1IST

A couple of days ago I was complaining about the Japanese wall of RF and today it's just the opposite. I flipped on the radio after brewing my Latte and there was DU1IST extremely loud on 40 M


I tried to hit the screen capture at the peak of his signal strength but after about 5 tries I settled. He was peaking a true S9 (-73 dBm) on my meter and my noise was down around -118 dBm this morning, meaning he was a 45 dB out of my noise!! Wow! Most state side KW stations are in this strength category. He was working people on freq as opposed to split. I gave him 2 calls and he was in the log. Here is a shot of the path:


9200 miles. This was not a terminator shot like with the XU station the other day. We are both still in darkness. His signal was so good I didn't even bother with diversity mode. I just saw XU7ACY spotted on 80M so I'm going to set up on 80 and wait for the gray line again and we will see

73

DX frustration

What's wrong with this picture? This morning I have a late start at my surgery center, but I'm a creature of habit. I rolled out of bed made my Latte and arrived at the operating position here at W9OY at the usual time. Generally I have to leave for work before the gray line hits, but today I was able to catch the gray line.

I checked Spot collector (my DX cluster program), double clicked XU7ACY and in 1 second I was listening to XU7ACY on 40M. I hit F4 on my keyboard and BINGO I was in diversity mode. I hit F1 and my RX2 diversity antenna automatically tuned itself to 40M thanks to the Macro, look Ma no hands. I set the yellow dot on the big green bulls eye for best signal to noise. My line noise was gone this morning. The noise gods had smiled and relented. My noise level was down around -120dBm, no noise blankers needed. The XU was 8 or 10 dB out of the noise, weak but Q5. The AGC-T was set so the AGC was not taking down the XU's signal. The amp was fired up, idling, waiting for the command to turn 2500W of raw AC into 1500W of pure RF delight and fling it into the ionosphere. Ready to crack that XU7 with a bolt right between the ears. I'm poised, my new N3ZN paddle ready to rock and roll between my finger tips. The new supercharged CW engine in PSDR is tuned to a gnat hair of perfection. The terminator is flying over my head and he is peaking!! he is peaking!! Just as I'm about to bag him, I listen one last instant to the pileup

WHAT?????

He's running JA's

73

One down One to go

This is a picture taken in my back yard 27 miles down range, speed 2900 mph. It was 2 seconds from being canceled.

73

Macro-me

I know, I know, its supposed to be macrame but this is all about making my radio reflect ME and my operating habits.

Hot off the presses (many thanks to Bob K5KDN and Steve K5FR) I was delivered a new psdr.exe and a new DDUTIL with a couple of new CAT commands exposed and developed in each. I can now turn on and turn off 2 different versions of Diversity with a push of a single button.


The above set up is how I normally run diversity. Here is the sequence to go from a normal one receiver console to dual diversity split operation

Turn on RX2
Sync VFO
Turn on split
Set TX vfo freq to the correct freq and band (done either with a red cross hairs or by the mouse in the TX vfo window)
Call up the Diversity form (green bullseye)
Enable diversity
Make sure my antennas are set to RX1=ant 2, RX2=ant1, and TX=ant 2.
Make sure that the filters are set to the same bandwidth
Make sure Noise blankers are turned on or off according to the noise situation (some times I got it sometimes I don't)
Make sure the preamp in both RX's are the same (diversity works best with antennas that have similar outputs. My antennas are similiar, but I could also use the preamp to balance 2 antennas of dissimilar outputs like a small loop and a big vertical.)

If by then the DX is still on the band, proceed to try and make a contact.

Today I just hit F4 on my keyboard and fine tune the exact TX freq I want to transmit on and go.

To go back to a one receiver setup requires:

Click off the green bullseye
click off split
click off VFO sync
click off RX2

Today I just hit F5 on the keyboard and voila'



I also have a macro that turns on diversity without the split function activated (F3) I choose this when the DX is on the same freq as my transmit freq.


Here are the sequences that I include in the macro field of DDUTIL to do this magic

(note DDUTIL has to be the window in focus for the macros to work from the keyboard. You can also make them work by pushing the button in the macro tab in ddutil with the mouse or by clicking the correct button in the mini-window)
(note the semicolon at the end of the command if you don't add the semicolon the command won't be processed)

ZZRS1; turns on RX2 ZZRS0; turns off RX2
ZZSP1; turns on split ZZSP0; turns off split
ZZDF1; turns on the diversity green bullseye ZZDF0; turns it off
ZZDE1; enables diversity ZZDE0; disables diversity (this allows you to make a macro that turns diversity off and on without loosing the bullseye or the position you have tuned on the bullseye)
ZZSY1; turns on VFO sync ZZSY0; turns it off
DDDV1; syncs mode and filter bandwidth DDDV0; removes this (this is a command internal to DDUTIL instead of a PSDR CAT command)
ZZOA 0,1,2,3,4 sets various antennas on RX1 eg ZZOA2; sets RX1 to ant 2
ZZOB 0,1,5,6 various ants to RX2 0=n/c 1=ant 1 5= RX2, 6=rx1tap ZZOB1; means RX2= ant 1
ZZOC 1,2,3 sets the transmitter output antenna ZZOC2; is ant2 on transamit
DDVA; is a DDUTIL macro that sets the contents of VFOa into the TX VFO
DDVB; sets VFOb into the TX VFO register

So here are the final macros I now use

F3=Diversity1 ZZRS1;ZZSP0;ZZSY1;DDDV1;ZZOA2;ZZOB1;ZZOC2;ZZDF1;ZZDE1;
this one does not split the TX vfo

F4=Diversity 2 ZZRS1;ZZDF1;ZZDE1;ZZSP1;ZZSY1;DDDV1;ZZOA2;ZZOB1;ZZOC2;DDVA;
this one does split the TX vfo and loads VFOA into TX VFO

F5=Diversity Off ZZDE0;ZZDF0;DDDV0;ZZSP0;ZZSY0;ZZRS0;
This one shuts things down but leaves the antennas connected in diversity mode

One thing to watch is to have filters of the same bandwidth in the same grid positions in both receivers. RX2 has only 7 filter positions beside the variables and the radio needs both filters to be in the same topology Look at the picture for the 12hz filter in each receiver and this will make sense.



This is a shot of my DDUTIL macro tab containing the above sequences. It is extremely easy to make these macros work and do extensive changes to the radio. For example I could have added a command to turn on amp relay #2 to the macro to energize my linear amp that resides in the antenna 2 line and turn off the amp relay on ant 1 to make sure I don't blow out the 200W remote tuner in the antenna 1 line, or I could add a macro command that would set the power to the amp on antenna 2, if I was using an amp that requires less than full output drive. You can also set up VHF UHF macros etc. etc. I haven't seen the macro that brews the Latte yet but I know its there somewhere.

This version of PSDR I am using is not yet released but I presume these commands will be in the next version of PSDR and DDUTIL for general consumption

It works great. There are some issues with command sequencing that you have to play with, but this sequence works for Macro-ME

I wanted to give a second shot at some kind of macro tutorial, and I think this is complicated enough to show the power of macros yet easy enough to follow.

In addition Bob K5KDN brought out some commands that turn on and off the noise blankers and preamp in RX2 so you can have one touch NB or one touch preamp off and on. The preamp issue actually does enter into the diversity arena since diversity works best with antennas that have similar outputs. So if you have a dipole and a crummy loop you can turn off the preamp to the RX connected to the dipole and turn on the preamp to the RX connected to the crummy loop and try to balance things.

The PSDR cat command dictionary is here but this was last revised on Feb 8 2011 so a couple commands are missing but is to be updated soon

The DDUTIL internal macro command page is here

This radio is WAY too much fun

Stay "tuned" for even more new developments!!!

73

CW!!!

I've been playing with the new 2.0.19RC1 PSDR release candidate from Flex. On the CW front it is fantastic, and if you have any interest in CW I hope you download it and give it a whirl. On its surface it looks like any other version of PSDR but underneath the hood, the CW code was completely ripped out of the radio, and at each stage from the keyjack to RF out it was optimized. Some aspects were moved into firmware. I don't know the exact details, but whatever they did I like!! I normally use and external keyer which is inputed into the radio over a serial port in the computer, but in the original version I tested (2.0.18) this mode of input was broken so I was forced to use the internal keyer. The keying of the internal keyer was fabulous. I was able to take the TR turnaround to less than 5 ms

There have been several knocks to PSDR over the years as a CW radio. If you used the internal keyer there was variability of timing on some of the elements, there were pops and clicks, and there were first dits being cut off, and above all there were complaints of lag. When I first bought a SDR-1000 it was almost unusable as a CW radio for DXing because of the lag. All of that has been eliminated in this version. In addition the radio can do QSK up to about 39 wpm. At 40 wpm it automatically switches to semi-breakin. I ran the radio down to 5ms TR turnaround. The relays are rated to 4ms.

Here is an audio recording of some of what 2.0.19 sounds like. When I set the TR turn around to 5 ms if you listen closely to the background you can hear the relay switching with each character transmitted. This relay sound is NOT part of the audio or RF, but is due to my recording technique which uses a microphone. The set up is a pair of headphones placed on top of an Elecraft K-1 which I use as an external off the air receiver. The K-1 has no antenna. I set the K-1 so the agc was not hard limiting by running 4 watts. You can hear receiver noise in the background. I set PSDR to worse case lag, 48khz audio bandwidth with 512 buffers. CW in DSP was set to 4096 on CW RX and 512 on CW TX. With these settings the filters are at their sharpest but if there is lag to be heard it is also at its worst.

I run first the external keyer (K1EL winkey USB) into PSDR via a usb to serial port converter. I use RTS and as a buffer I use a 2n3904 PNP transistor. The transistor is driven through a several hundred ohm resistor on the base. I have found this to be the cheapest and most effective way to get a CW signal into the radio over the years. I normally work semi-breakin with the TR turnaround set to 60ms. This is how the radio is set up during the first part of the test. Next I switch to the internal keyer, and its behavior is virtually identical to my K1EL keyer. I play the sidetone from the radio then add the received signal from the K1. The K1 is the higher pitched tone. Next is the internal keyer at 60ms TR turnaound. Next I set the radio to 5 ms turnaround and go back and forth between external and internal keyers increasing the speed on each keyer My K1EL is set for a top speed of 45 wpm the internal keyer can go to 60 wpm

2.0.19 audio

I also created an example of how the radio sounds when transmitting on top of a station to simulate QSK. For this demonstration no animals were killed and QRM was caused. I merely set the radio to zero watts output and transmitted over another station on 40M I sent random characters over the other station and my sidetone is slightly louder and slightly lower in pitch than the CW station. If you listen closely to the background you can hear the relay but this is not part of the audio just my recording technique.

2.0.19qsk demo

The release candidate is downloadable on the Flex website down the page to the left.

So there ya go!! Hope you have some fun with the new CW aspect of the radio. I certainly am having a blast..

73