| Last Week |
Monday, 2nd April |
Tuesday, 3rd April |
I've been consulting, by e-mail, with the maker of a range of add-on interface goodies for the various amateur radio kit I own, and wish to control and/or programme by computer. This is hardware - software is a whole different can of worms. One step at a time...
Neil, G4ZLP, makes this range of kit, and I've been working out which bits I need. It amounts to an interface box, which effectively contains 2 USB serial ports, and an isolating interface for your computer's soundcard - plus sundry custom cables to connect it to your rig-of-choice. Which amounts to any one (at a time) of the FT817 portable; the FT8900 mobile rig; the Kenwood TH-D7, Icom IC-R5 and Icom IC-Q7 handhelds, and the Icom PCR1000 wideband receiver.
I got the bulb holder panel for Jane's car, and - eventually - managed to fit it. There were 2 main problems. First, the wiring harness on the bulb holder assembly terminates in a 4-way connector, and 2 single ways, separately. Finding the 4-way connector was... difficult. It was hidden behind the electric aerial motor, behind a small hinged panel in the trim. I had to loosen the motor to get at the connector.
Then the whole thing just pulled out. The replacement required threading in with the aid of a piece of stiff wire (a wire coat hanger, straightened out) which was more difficult than it need have been, because the wires have to go through 2 holes in the bodywork, both of which are only just bigger than the connectors.
But it all went in, and I could refit the bulbs and test it. It worked, so that was a result. I'll have it all to do again, on the other side, next week. But that one should be easier - there's no electric aerial there.
Wednesday, 4th April |
Thursday, 5th April |
Two days of pain, attempting to keep a service running, despite major problems with the new software. We succeeded in not having black to air, but only just, by dint of much creative bullying of recalcitrant computers and their software - it's mostly the software. Oh, yes - and LTO-3 computer tapes and their drives aren't as reliable as the manufacturers would have you believe. We often have problems with recovery of programme packages from the LTO-3 based tape archive - typically one or more a day, most of which are soft failures, and respond to a retry. But there are occasional hard failures - such as today, when a tape got stuck in one of the archive drives. Now we can't recover material from that tape - which involves a delete-and-reingest cycle. And what we'll do when we no longer have a videotape archive to reingest from, I do not know.
I'm convinced that the kit is severely underpowered for the task we are asking of it, and not infrequently it just throws up it's hands in horror, and sulks. And when it sulks, we're running around, not quite like headless chickens, but it can be close.
Yesterday, I ordered the bits I alluded to on Tuesday, from Neil, G4ZLP, via his website. The total came to about UKP85, for the interface and most of the cables. I may need one or two more cables, but I hope not.
The interface box (a Digimaster USB Dual-channel Data + Audio interface) is known to work with the FT817, using Ham Radio Deluxe, and will programme (via a different lead) the FT8900 using Bob, G4HFQ's FTB8900 software, available from here. Other software and leads should allow programming of the handhelds, and Ham Radio Deluxe is supposed to control the PCR1000. I may need a generic USB-to-serial adaptor for that.
I also bought the interface cable to allow playing my portable music players through the Pioneer car stereo. UKP19.95 is a bit salty for a 6 inch lead with 2 phonos at one end, and the custom Pioneer IP-Bus connector at the other, but there's no real alternative - there is a homebrew bodge here, but I want reliability.
The lead came from Car Audio Direct, and delivery was effectively by return. Which is good. Now to test it - tomorrow.
I'll also need to charge the battery in Jane's car - there's enough there to crank the engine, but it's too flat to fire the ignition as well. And then we'll probably have an outing or two, since we're not going away for Easter.
Friday, 6th April |
Good Friday |
After a nice lie-in (there's no need to get up early today) I put Jane's car on charge - 2.5 amps to start with - and then went looking for the release keys for the Pioneer car radio. After not finding them, I toddled off to the local Halfords car spares shop to buy a set. But they had none in stock.
Back home I looked in my toolkit - and there they were. So pull the radio out of the dash, plug the IP-Bus adaptor into the back, add a phono-to-3.5mm jack lead, and try the iRiver.
And it didn't work - some distorted noise overlaying the radio output, which went away when I stopped the iRiver playback. Nor yet could I mute the radio. Katy retired this radio because she couldn't use her iPod with it, via the Pioneer CD-IB100 interface box. On the evidence, it's the radio that's at fault, not the interface. Rats! That's UKP20 plus post wasted. But at least I know where the radio release keys are now.
PC World (the UK computer store) are doing cheap offers on big USB hard discs - 400GB by Freecom for UKP84.95, or 320GB by Maxtor for UKP79.95. I got the 400GB Freecom disc, which I'll use as a cold backup for the various file archives on the network here. That is, I'll copy the files, and then put the disc is a safe place, maybe even off-site, switched off - hence "cold".
I got e-mail from Neil, G4ZLP, who advised that, if I want to do memory programming of the FT8900 mobile rig, I don't want his dual channel data plus audio interface, I want the single channel, and should he amend the order appropriately? Well, of course - there is no way I'm going to struggle through the front panel programming routine for more than about 2 of the UK repeaters (there are about 100 or so) and I need to do this, because otherwise I'll be limited to a few channels, unless I fiddle with the knobs on an ongoing basis - which is just Not On in a mobile environment.
And while we're talking about it, why are all UHF or multiband mobile aerials on sale in the UK cut for 440MHz or higher? We don't have an allocation there - ours ends at 440, although it used to extend up to 450MHz. Answer: probably because US amateurs use 440MHz mobile, and there are more of them, so the Japanese make their aerials to favour the US market. And if you're selling these things by the dozen gross, saving the mere inch or so of stainless steel rod by cutting the aerial for 440 instead of 430 is worth considerable do$h. I noticed this when I commissioned the FT8900, on seeing SWR of nearly 2:1 at the UK band centre. Tuning up to 439MHz improved the SWR to about 1.6:1. So I make no doubt that at about 445MHz there will be a minimum at about 1.2:1 or so SWR. This applies to the dual band stubby, the 50/144/430 tribander, and the 29/50/144/430 quad-bander. All show high SWR in the UK 430MHz band.
Jane's car still didn't start, even after charging the battery, and adding a can of petrol. There's something not right there, so it'll be a garage job - next week.
Saturday, 7th April |
Hopalong is booked in for Tuesday - but I'll need a tow to get him there. Looks like an AA call-out. Luckily, I have Homestart, so I can charge this to the AA card - if I can find the new card: renewal is in January each year, and I haven't needed it yet.
Sunday, 8th April |
Easter Sunday |
Two quiet days - the problem with Hopalong has put a crimp in our plans. But we've had the garden sorted out - just need to get the trimmings dumped - and the same people are back fixing the wood panelled fence that has blown over, due to the posts rotting and breaking. They'll then rebuild the dwarf wall around the front garden, which will see most of the exterior works complete.
BTW - I went for a contractor, rather than doing it ourselves, because I don't do gardening and Jane is too busy.
And very well it looks. too.
In the evening, we went out to a local pub restaurant. And very nice, too.
And my tame optician has written to remind me that my 3-yearly sight test is due.
Last, but by no means least - Debian GNULinux V4.0, codenamed "Etch" has been released. Only 21 months after Sarge, but Debian releases "When it's time", rather than on a fixed schedule. This is not to say that maintenance releases have not been made (6 of them to Sarge), and of course, you can always run apt-get to bring your machine up-to-date at any time. But formal releases are relatively infrequent.
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