Category Archives: RadioAfición

Sobre mis experimentos y mi hobby como Radioaficionado

Compiling FLRig for raspbian/Ubuntu

  • Download the source code http://www.w1hkj.com/files/flrig/
  • untar the source code
  • cd flrig*/
  • sudo apt-get install checkinstall libxft-dev fltk1.3
  • ./configure
  • make -j4
  • sudo checkinstall

That’s it!

Compiling WSJT-X for armbian

This small tutorial will show you how to build and install wsjt-x for your ARMBIAN. In my case I have an OrangePI PC board and armbian buster desktop. But this tuto should work for any other board. It should also work for any other Linux and architecture. E.g.: raspios, debian, ubuntu, etc.

I followed this tutorial for Linux Mint:

http://kb4lhp.blogspot.com/2018/12/recipe-for-building-and-installing-new.html

Lets start by installing some requirements:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall texinfo gfortran libfftw3-dev qt5-default qttools5-dev qttools5-dev-tools libqt5svg5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev asciidoctor libqt5serialport5-dev libqt5multimedia5 docbook-xsl xsltproc libxml2-utils dpkg cmake libusb-dev libusb-1.0 libudev-dev

Then download the latest tgz from https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx.html ex;

wget https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/wsjtx-2.2.2.tgz 

Lets extract the contents of this package and cd into the directory:

tar zxf wsjtx-2.2.2.tgz
cd wsjtx-2.2.2

And then, lets configure and build wsjtx:

cmake -DWSJT_SKIP_MANPAGES=ON -DWSJT_GENERATE_DOCS=OFF .
cmake --build .

This process will take time depending on how fast is your CPU. After it finished, we will invoke the next command in order for it to build the .deb package. Pay attention you will have to modify option number 10:

sudo checkinstall

This package will be built according to these values: 

0 -  Maintainer: [ [email protected] ]
1 -  Summary: [ WSJT-X version 2.2.2 compiled by HC6PE ]
2 -  Name:    [ wsjtx ]
3 -  Version: [ 2.2.2 ]
4 -  Release: [ 1 ]
5 -  License: [ GPL ]
6 -  Group:   [ checkinstall ]
7 -  Architecture: [ armhf ]
8 -  Source location: [ wsjtx-2.2.2 ]
9 -  Alternate source location: [  ]
10 - Requires: [ libqt5multimedia5 ]
11 - Provides: [ wsjtx ]
12 - Conflicts: [  ]
13 - Replaces: [  ]
Enter a number to change any of them or press ENTER to continue: 

in here you enter “10” and add “libqt5multimedia5” (without the quotes). Then just continue and it will build the .deb:


Done. The new package has been installed and saved to
/home/radio/wsjtx-2.2.2/wsjtx_2.2.2-1_armhf.deb

Lets install it!

radio@pisdr:~$ sudo dpkg -i ~/wsjtx-2.2.2/wsjtx_2.2.2-1_armhf.deb
(Reading database … 112570 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack …/wsjtx_2.2.2-1_armhf.deb …
Unpacking wsjtx (2.2.2-1) over (2.2.2-1) …
Setting up wsjtx (2.2.2-1) …
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) …

And… it works! Check the version, in my case it is 2.2.2, the same I compiled and installed.

HC6PE: Primer HC6 en figurar en la lista DXCC de la ARRL

Luego de un tiempo planificando y verificando el proceso, a finales de Julio del 2020 decidí enviar mi aplicación electrónica para formar parte del DX Century Club de la ARRL (http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings)

El DXCC se otorga a quien haya mostrado, probado, contactos con al menos 100 o más entidades diferentes (le llaman países y fueron definidos hace años sus condiciones http://www.arrl.org/desoto).

En mi caso, aunque tenía más de 150 entidades confirmadas decidí aplicar con lo necesario y no con las ~150 que tenía a la fecha.

Luego de analizar las listas de galardonados a la fecha, veo que hay varios colegas de otras zonas del Ecuador en diversas categorías pero no encuentro ningún colega de la zona 6 de Ecuador (HC6) esto es: he sido el primero en aplicar y obtener esta certificación en la zona 6 del país.

Estas listas pueden ser obtenidas de http://www.arrl.org/dxcc-standings

Al momento figuro con mi indicativo actual HC6PE en las listas:

Categoría mixta (http://www.arrl.org/system/dxcc/view/DXCC-MIXED-20200822-A4.pdf)

Categoría 20m http://www.arrl.org/system/dxcc/view/DXCC-20M-20200822-A4.pdf

y Categoría Digitales http://www.arrl.org/system/dxcc/view/DXCC-RTTY-20200822-A4.pdf

El certificado físico entiendo ya me lo han enviado desde Estados Unidos y seguramente demorará seguramente algunas semanas en llegar a mis manos. Tan pronto lo tenga, buscaré escanearlo para publicarlo por esta vía.

How to upload to e-qsl from Linux shell

So, for example: you are using WSJT-X and would like to automatically upload your new contacts from your Linux to EQSL.

WSJT-X store its logs in ~/.local/share/WSJT-X/wsjtx_log.adi

I have created a small script to check if wsjtx_log.adi has been modified, extract the last 2 QSO from the file to a temporary file and upload that file to eQSL, here is how:

git clone https://github.com/hc6pe/adifupload.git
cd adifupload
chmod +x adifupload.sh

Edif adifupload.sh and change ADIFILE, EQSLUSER and EQSLPASS to suit your needs:

vi ~/adifupload/adifupload.sh
....
#Where is your .adi file located? 
#Specify the full path (change YOURUSERNAME):
ADIFILE="/home/YOURUSERNAME/.local/share/WSJT-X/wsjtx_log.adi"
#your eQSL username. Use CAPS altough I think
# lowercase will work as well
EQSLUSER="N0CALL"
#your EQSL password.
EQSLPASS="not-my-pass"
...

And add a crontab task to start adifupload.sh on every reboot (change YOURUSERNAME to your user’s home dir):

crontab -e
@reboot /home/YOURUSERNAME/adifupload/adifupload.sh

Now, the script will start on your next reboot. And keep started checking if your ADIFILE has changed, if it notice it has changed, then it will upload the last 2 lines of the files (just in case it missed the previous upload).

Of course, if you have “massaged” the logfile, for example updating some QSO info (date, time, band, etc), this script will not upload the changed QSOs unless it is one of the last 2 lines.

So I suggest, from time to time, to do a full upload of your adif file by signing into eQSL.cc and do a manual upload. This way you may catch any missing to upload QSO.

¿Cuántos radioaficionados hay en Ecuador? (Versión Cuarentena)

Esta es una versión actualizada de mi post del 2010 (https://ernestoperez.com/2010/12/cuantos-radioaficionados-hay-en-ecuador/) a Abril 2020, versión de la cuarentena de la pandemia del COVID19).

Desde hace varios años ARCOTEL actualiza con bastante frecuencia la lista de radioaficionados en Ecuador.

El último listado lo podemos observar aquí https://www.arcotel.gob.ec/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/14.1-Lista-Radioaficionados_Feb-2020.xlsx

En el post anterior, donde analizamos el último listado publicado allá por el 2008 teníamos 1269 Radioaficionados.

Actualmente, con corte de Enero del 2020, tenemos 870 Radioaficionados. Este cambio puede deberse a que alrededor del 2013 se trabajó en modificaciones de un nuevo reglamento que, entre sus muchas características, está aquella de que ya un radioaficionado no retiene su licencia (credencial le llamaban) eternamente sino que se define un periodo de tiempo luego de que expira la licencia para que puedan renovar. De lo contrario este indicativo pasa a estar disponible para quien lo solicite.

Actualizando la tabla de aquel post con las cantidades de radioaficionados en el 2020 tenemos

Provincia20082020Variación
Azuay10555-50
Bolivar02+2
Cañar02+2
Carchi06+6
Chimborazo424-38
Cotopaxi5816-42
El Oro73-4
Esmeraldas021+21
Orellana000
Galapagos89+1
Guayas251277+26
Imbabura3421-13
Loja3212997
Los Rios63-3
Manabi12699-27
Morona Santiago000
Napo000
Pastaza184-14
Pichincha457168-289
Santa Elena4+4
Santo Domingo de los Colorados1+1
Sucumbios000
Tungurahua12546-79
Zamora000
Ecuador1269870-399

Veamos algunas curiosidades:

  1. Hay 399 radioaficionados menos que en el 2008. Pero: ¿esto puede deberse a que simplemente ya no se registran como radioaficionados a quienes no han renovado su licencia luego de 2 años? Podría ser.
  2. También puede deberse a que a nivel mundial ha disminuido el interés, ya el que usaba el hobby para hablar y hablar, ahora quizá use whatsapp, por ejemplo. Ahora quien gusta de la radio es porque le gusta la parte técnica, los nuevos modos, etc.
  3. Cantidad por categoría:
    • Generales: 376 RA (43.22%)
    • Técnicos: 491 = RA (56.44%)
    • Internacional: 3 RA (0.34%)
  4. Hay un número grande de técnicos, que seguramente en pocos años formarán parte de las estadísticas de los Generales.
  5. Las provincias con más de 100 aficionados son
    • Pichincha: 168
    • Guayas: 277
    • Loja 129
  6. Estas 3 provincias totalizan 574 que es el 65.97% del total de radioaficionados.
  7. Con la información del 2008 más del 83% de los RA estaban en 5 provincias con más de 100 radioaficionados. Hoy está un poco más distribuído entre provincias.
  8. En el oriente propiamente dicho hay 4 radioaficionados, todos en Pastaza. En el resto de las provincias del oriente 0.
  9. En Galápagos hay 9, un incremento de 1 respecto al 2008.
  10. Provincias que en el 2008 no tenían radioaficionados reportados y hoy tienen: Bolívar (Hola Henry!), Cañar, Carchi, Esmeraldas (de 0 a 21!!). Además de Santa Elena y Santo Domingo que son provincias nuevas formadas en este lapso de tiempo.
  11. De los 399 radioaficionados menos entre el 2008 y 2020, Pichincha es la que reporta la caída más pronunciada: 289 menos. El 72.43% de la disminución está en esta provincia.
  12. Antes éramos 3 o 4 en modos digitales. Al día de hoy hay un gran número de radioaficionados ecuatorianos en modos digitales, bien!

Hay algunos datos por revisar en el XLS, por ejemplo me llama la atención de que algunas zonas no coinciden con la provincia (noto, por ejemplo, que hay HC1 en Galápagos, o HC5 en Bolívar) quizá tengan una razón de estar así o quizá ha sido un error al actualizar el XLS, etc. En todo caso me guié por el nombre de las provincias que aparece reportado en el XLS.

Aunque sugeriría a ARCOTEL que revise el numeral para que coincida con las provincias. El reglamento es claro sobre el uso del numeral de acuerdo a la provincia.

Hay dos provincias con nombres curiosos: La provincia de “Ambato” y la provincia de “Cuenca”. En este caso sí asigné los valores a las provincias de Azuay (para Cuenca) y Tungurahua (para Ambato).

Toda esta información se saca del pdf de la ARCOTEL, si los números no coinciden con lo que otros radioaficionados conocen, sugeriría lo reporten a ARCOTEL.

Why did you learn Morse code?

learnt morse because it intrigued me…

Extract of my history on how I started in Radio:

One day, back in… 1984, 1985 maybe… when I was 10 or 11 years old, while walking around my home city Camagüey/Cuba (300000 hab), I saw thru a windows a room full of telegraph keys, it was a semi-military organization’s office named SEPMI that used to teach parachuting, how to shoot, swimming, telegraphy and maybe several other (semi)military related activities for civilians. So I asked my mother what were those thingies screwed to the tables? She told me it was an ancient way of sending telegrams, and told me that Agramonte, the chief or person in charge of the local post office was a telegraphist himself, that he used to send telegrams for the local post office. As she worked in the same company with him, we went to where Agramonte, and he was more than happy to talk with me about quite unknown things of telegraphy like dots and dashes, the correct way to hold the key and move the wrist.

Agramonte told me how was his work back in the 40’s and 50’s, etc., how he used to transmit at around 40wpm and write directly the telegram using a typing machine.. how it evolved in the then modern teletypes, he was even smart enough to read the teletype tape directly. Do you remember that teletype stripe with 5 holes in a colum representing a letter? I think it was kind of a baudot code. Well he was able to read directly from that punched tape and I was like “WOOOOOW”!!

Well, he then showed me what they used for sending telegrams, what a vertical key is (and other types of key), and showed me some sort of artifact that made sounds when he pressed the key. TACK tack tack, TACK.. or something, it was not dit/dashes but TACKs. It has a coil and some sort of metal bar above and the coil circuit got activated by the keypress and the metal bar slammed on the coil. Well, he gave me an old vertical key as a gift, a key I still have… someday I will polish it because it needs it. I used that key when I started in radio as CL7PE… I screwed that key to a thick piece of wood and glued a rectangle of the inner tube of a car tire to the bottom to minimize the key to “walk” around the table when using it and it still like this as of today.

I then learnt the code, I went to the SEPMI to learn and also Isidro, a friend of my parents, soldered and prepared for me a small CPO so I could practice at home with myself.

My experience with JT-65/JT-9 modes

Well, I’ve been using JT65 and JT9 modes (I will reffer them as JT65 from now on) for more than 3 years now and I would like to share some experiences on using these modes in order to help fellow hams to join them.

The main points to take care in order to work JT65 are:

  • A very accurate time.
  • An adecuate audio input to the program. Too much audio will overload the audio card and distort the results. Too little audio will avoid the audio card to detect the signals.
  • A rig capable of being activated via VOX or via CAT.

I currently own two rigs capable of work JT65:

  • A Kenwood TS430S and
  • A Flex-1500 (5w QRP) on steroids with a HardRock 50 power amp.

Regarding the TS-430s I connect the rig by using a tigertronics USB, this is a USB sound card that connects to the audio input and output of my transceiver and my computer. The computer sees it as a USB sound card and microphone. The TS430s gets activated via PTT when my tigertronics USB gets some signal injected from my program to its microphone.

By using my kenwood ts430s I can not use CAT, so I can not change frequencies, oh also I can not work in split mode, it means my rig is tuned to a single frequency and I must manually change it whenever I change bands. By not being able to work split, I can not work JT9 at the same time I work JT65 (JT9 is +2khz above the JT65 frequency).

As you can see, the kenwood rig is quite old, and even with the inconveniences I have stated before I can work and I have worked tons of stations in JT65/JT9 (and of course CW, PSK31, etc).

Regarding my Flex-1500:

It is a SDR radio I bought 5 years ago, when I re-started in radio. It is a 5W QRP transceiver I can control from my computer. It is, I can change bands from the program (PowerSDR) and tune AGC, powerlevels, filters, etc from it.

It has several “BUTs”:

  1. It has not an internal ATU, so changing bands has to be manually done in order to use an external tunner.
  2. It has only 5watts. I really love QRP but from time to time love to use some extra “punch”.
  3. A powerfull PC capable of processing the signals from my SDR radio. SDR is not for weak proccessor PCs… you actually need quite a powerfull one, if possible core2duo and UP.

I solved issues 1 and 2 by building a HardRock-50 with the ATU kit. It took me, I don’t know, maybe 6 hours to finish building with the help of my daughter (she loves picking resistors, and holding the PCB and so on).

I connected the HR-50 and the flex-1500 via a serial port cable and now my flex-1500 “informs” the HR-50 when PTT is pushed. The band changes are being issued from the WSJT-x program via a program called DDUtil to the HR-50 and to the Flex-1500.

This is because CAT was conceived a 2 ways communication. It is: when I change bands from my WSJT-x program, it only communicates to a single CAT device. However I need to inform two: my power amp and my flex-1500 radio. DDUtil helps you with this. It acts as a CAT device, receives the band change command, and replicate that command to my two devices (flex-1500 and hr-50).

This way I can change bands and keep myself busy in 20m and 10m usually.

Oh, yes, BTW, I operate my shack somehow remotedly. Instead of standing in front of my shack 24×7, I installed a VNC server to my shack PC and I can control it from my laptop anywhere Im at home: bed, dinner table, watching a baseball game, etc.

Here is a video of a QSO with a fellow ham in France.

DP0GVN – Antártida Alemana

Bueno, no todos los días se habla con la antártida. Hoy me levanté y me conecté a la PC de la radio via VNC, habían unos cuantos japoneses a la vista, uno que otro americano. Pero casi todo apuntaba al oeste. Demasiada limpia la banda.

En fin, llamé CQ un par de veces y de repente me llama un indicativo con un prefijo que no había trabajado antes. DP0GVN. Hum , es alemán, qué raro si europa no se estaba oyendo ahora.

Bueno, le respondí y me fui a qrz.com a ver quién era. Y apareció esto:

Selection_079

Al momento opera el comandante de la base Neumayer que es radioaficionado.

Vaya, no es que sea la última estación del planeta (aunque sí un poco aislada), pero es agradable contactar con la antártida. Creo que hablé hace un tiempo con un ruso o un americano que estaba en la antártida, debo revisar.

dp0gvn-antartica-1

starting EchoLink ELProxy from a screen session

so, you setted up an echolink proxy and want to start it everytime the server starts? Quite easy, for sure!

simply add this to /etc/rc.local:

screen -dmS el su – echolink -c “java -jar EchoLinkProxy.jar”

This will open an screen and detach from it after it starts. Convert to use echolink (su – echolink) and invoke java from within this echolink user.

This is it.