This is going to change as I expand my skills!
Status: Active
I have two hotspots using Rasberry Pi 2 W with MMDVM hat, running WPSD, one of which is connected to YSF, the other to DMR/D-Star.
It's great for global digital contact.
I've configured the dashboard colours to match my Autotask PSA dashboard, because why not!
Status: Active
I picked up this PSU on eBay and happily it looks brand new apart from the rear posts being slightly bent, probably from being bumped in transit.
This one should hopefully be future-proof for such times as my shack grows.
Status: Active
My SWR meter is a cheap-and-cheerful Surecom SW-102.
Does the job, is battery-powered and portable. Mine is the SO239 type.
Status: Active
Shortly after getting my Foundation and my callsign, I went back to the homebrew 1/4 wave antenna to do some testing.
I put my SWR meter inline and on the 440MHz (70cm) I got 1.02:1, and on 144MHz (2m) I got 1.04:1.
Happy with this, and no adjustments made, I went to temporarily mount it outside the office. It was a bit of a windy evening, and suddenly the wind caught a tree and the branch gently snapped off two of the radials!! :D
At that point I thought, if it's that susceptible to breaking, there's no point putting it up on the roof, so I ordered a Diamond X-30...
The X-30 is loft-mounted and the RG213 is run inside down to the shack. SWR is 1.01:1 on both 70cm and 2m.
Status: Retired
For my first antenna I decided I wanted to learn about some of the theory behind transmitting and receiving (Project post here).
I chose a 1/4 wave ground plane antenna as it's compact and there are lots of online help and how-to articles.
I purchased a 100mm square 4mm thick piece of aluminium, 4 x 1m long 4mm aluminium rods and a 4mm x 500mm copper pipe with 2mm bore.
I used an old outdoor junction box for the insulating upright to house the copper driven element, and an SO239 connector.
I cut the aluminium rods to 600mm to give some room to trim down, and assembled the antenna. I put hot glue round the soldered part of the SO239 for some weather protection.
I have RG213 Mil-spec coax terminated with PL259 connectors as I'm going to be getting a cheap mobile unit like an AnyTone AT-778UV.
I hooked it up to my DM-1701 and put it on top of a 10ft pole for testing. Receiving signals was good and a marked improvement over the long whip antenna I had. At this stage however, I was not yet licenced so listening was as far as I could go.
Status: Active
This is a great little handheld which allows me to do 2m/70cm and DMR with I think 8W of power.
Once you get your head around the zones, channels, talk groups etc, it's a powerful device with a lot of functionality. It has a bluetooth PTT so you can hook up to the car bluetooth or a headset for example, stick the PTT on the steering wheel or gear stick and work hands-free.
It's worth noting that the radio has the Baofeng-style SMA connection, so I have a female SMA to BNC converter screwed into the radio, giving a good stable connector, and then I use a short right-angled BNC to PL239 lead to then connect to the antenna SO239.
Status: Active
I bought this used from Martin Lynch. It feels really solid and has a great display. I got it mainly to expand my digital sphere into D-Star, but also as people comment on the quality, which I cannot dispute in any way. It's a great unit.
I did the standard practice of purchasing the RT Systems programming software which makes things a lot easier. I was able to selectively download repeater/reflector lists.
If I have any gripe, it's the fact it is USB micro, but apparently the new Plus verison is USB C. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things; you can plug it into USB and charge it, and it connects to the PC for data transfer/programming and for apps like Doozy.
I 3D-printed a Klickfast clip for it to use in the car.
Status: Backup
Is this a K5 (99) or a K6? Who knows. Probably the same thing...
Getting this to experiment with it. £19 is a good price.
Job 1 - get that orange knob taken off and sprayed black...
Status: Active
I got this to use at home with the YSF hotspot. I've not figured out all the functions yet but it seems ok. Odd to program it with the button presses and battery removal!
Status: Active
I just picked this up used from Martin Lynch & Sons. It's only been a few minutes but really enjoying it. I'm listening to IoW Net at the moment and the quality is markedly better than on my previous AnyTone D578.
I purchased the RT Systems programming software and copied the channels from my FT5DE to save time.
I mounted the body where the old AnyTone D578 was, and ran a network cable for the head unit. Fitted the head unit on a small Heath Robinson bulkhead on the desk, to lift the phone and lamp up and make room for the radio and hotspots.
