HamClock Hits Home

Posted on May 17, 2025 by robert

A friend of mine, Scott WX1X, often messes around with ham related projects like radios from QRPlabs, or keeping is SWAN 500 on the air.  Several times on our club’s HF net, he has mentioned messing around with HamClock, something I was vaguely aware of.

Time is not my friend, as I have little to spare, and while it was tempting to take one of the several Raspberry Pi sets I have laying around doing nothing, and convert it into a HamClock, I did some digging to see if there was a turn-key solution out there.  That lead me to a company in Oregon called Inovato, which was selling a device called the QUADRA4K.  It appears to be a commercial product designed for Kiosk-like applications, with a HDMI output that can run up to 4K, built-in WiFi, and hardwired Ethernet plus a couple of USB-A ports.  But the best feature was that it was already setup to run HamClock out of the box.

There are two ways of setting up the device, one is to purchase it with a cheap keyboard/ USB dongle ($10), which is what I did, and the other is to simply plug the $49 QUADRA4K into a hardwired ethernet connection.  The second would be much faster, but it did not work when I tried it.  I had to plug in the keyboard and HDMI display.  Once I did that, I was able to see the desktop and start the setup program running.  As soon as I entered my callsign, the unit prompted me to allow it to update the firmware (to version 4.17), which I did.  At that point, the ethernet connection came to life, and I no longer needed the keyboard or HDMI display.

After entering my grid square, I was off to the races, and could see HamClock on my HDMI display,  or on any computer on my network, by going to the correct URL.

I was curious to see if there was a power consumption difference between having the HDMI display attached, or not.  Indeed there is, as the CPU runs about 10 degrees cooler without the HDMI display (121F vs 135F).  Without the HDMI display the QUADRA4K consumes about 1.7 watts of power.  Adding the display increases the power consumption to 2.0 watts.  (By the way, if you boot up the QUADRA4K without a HDMI display, plugging one in later will require a reboot to get things going again).

Posted in HamClock | Leave a comment

Have we passed the peak of Cycle 25?

Posted on May 13, 2025 by robert

The above graph from NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center certainly hints that we are now on the downward slope of Cycle 25.  Things will continue to be grand until the sunspot number slips below 100, which shouldn’t happen until about 2027.  And, of course, the initial predictions for Cycle 25 were wildly off to begin with.

We shall see!

Posted in Solar Cycles | Leave a comment

POTA Antenna Shootout

Posted on April 10, 2025 by robert

A friend of mine, Jim Sammons KA1ZOU and I had an article published in the May 2025 QST (pp 58-60).  Our club, Newport County Radio Club, with about 150 members, had a fair number interested in Parks on the Air activations.  There were almost as many different antenna configurations used as there were people.  We decided to get together and have an “Antenna Shootout” to see if we could understand which antennas worked the best.

I will leave folks to read the article (linked above) for the details, but we setup multiple stations, each running 100 watts and sending identical test messages out at the same time.  The Reverse Beacon Network gathered information on the spots received, including distance and signal strength, which became the basis of determining the “winner”.  Of course that term is somewhat subjective, as one might be more concerned with the signal strength, or perhaps the ease at which the antenna is set up.

Being lazy, I was more interested in a reasonable performance but minimal effort, and my simple mag-mount Hamstick came in third place.  The best performing antenna was a full 1/4 wave whip on 20-meters (17′ feet), which is what I have been using ever since.

 

Posted in Antennas, ARRL, Portable, POTA, Projects | Tagged | Leave a comment

Why My K4D Stopped Transmitting Digital Modes

Posted on March 25, 2025 by robert

Because I use a dedicated computer for my radio gear, it is very rare for me to ever have issues.  Once something works, it tends to stay working.  Imagine my surprise yesterday, when I decided to check out FT8 and found it was no longer transmitting.

A quick check of the program setup didn’t reveal anything obvious, so I checked a couple of other digital mode programs (WinWarbler from DXLabs and WinLink on HF).  All had similar issue (working a couple of weeks ago, but no longer transmitting).

That pretty much left two possibilities, a windows update messing with the mixer settings, and the K4D itself.  I pulled up the windows mixer tool and it  was clear that wasn’t the issue – I could see the modulation on the level meter.

I’ve had a K4D for a few years now, and it has been pretty much flawless, but that was my last culprit.  Apparently one of the recent software updates (adding remote capabilities) wound up resetting the audio source and levels for digital modes.

Pressing the TX button, then LINE IN button, showed that the SOUND CARD level was set to zero.  Using WSJT-X’s TUNE button to generate some tones and put the rig into transmit, I adjusted the SOUND CARD level until the ALC level was at 5 (last segment flickering).  That required a level of 41 as you can see above.  I checked WinWarbler, and it was generating the correct ALC action for PSK31 as well.

Posted in Digital Mode, K4D | Leave a comment

Success Sat & WinLink During WFD

Posted on February 19, 2025 by robert

My club, Newport County Radio Club, runs a pretty effective Winter Field Day each year.  While we may have left “multipliers” on the table in prior years, we usually have the highest QSO count for Category 1O (one transmitter, outdoors) in the country.  This year we maxed out the possible multipliers and had a comparable number of contacts.

My job was to send/receive Winlink messages via RF link from the site, and to make a Linear and FM Satellite Contact.  Fortunately things worked out well for both items.

Yours truly shown at Glen Park waiting for a satellite pass. I use an Arrow crossed beam, and an IC-9700. Contacts were made using RS-44 and the ISS Cross-band repeater.

As I was driving away from Glen Park, I took this photo of the beam that was erected in the snowy field (triband beam, plus 6-meter beam, and a support for a multi-band dipole. It pretty much sums up WFD; cold and isolated, but still a thing of beauty.

Posted in WFD | Leave a comment

Usual workup for WFD Satellites

Posted on January 21, 2025 by robert

Winter Field Day is this coming weekend, and it offers a total of SIX multipliers for making at least one CW/SSB and one FM satellite contact.  In addition another ONE multiplier can be achieved by sending/receiving a message via WinLink while at WFD.  I run the WB4SON-10 gateway on 145.050 MHz and it is an easy shot from our WFD location in Portsmouth RI.

If the gods of the ISS are willing (repeater not turned off for a EVA or other activity) and the stars align, I should be good to go for SEVEN multipliers.  There will be good passes of RS44 and the ISS starting at 1:56pm local time on Sunday.

My thanks to the following who helped me test my radio out this afternoon:

N4QWF RS-44, KB8CR ISS, W4NEG ISS, K0LB ISS, N8HI ISS, N5ACR ISS

JO-97 and MO-122 were also calibrated (Great downlink signals but nobody responding to CQ)

Posted in ISS, JO-97, MO-122, RS-44, Satellite, WFD | Leave a comment

40+ Years in the ARRL

Posted on January 18, 2025 by robert

I received a 40th year pin and certificate from the ARRL (not to be picky, but I think I first joined the ARRL in 1980, so that would be 44 years).  In any event it has been a long time.  I became a Life Member of the ARRL about a decade ago and continue to support them annually through the Diamond Club.

Posted in ARRL | Leave a comment

First POTA Award for 2025

Posted on January 9, 2025 by robert

There is ALWAYS something to do with Parks On The Air

Posted in From the OM | Leave a comment

Operator-to-Operator Award With AB9CA

Posted on December 11, 2024 by robert

Dave AB9CA is another one of those POTA operators who always seems to be on the road and on the air.  I usually hear him multiple times a day.  I finally completed a Operator-to-Operator award with Dave earlier this month.

Posted in Awards, Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment

QRP Labs QMX+ Received

Posted on December 8, 2024 by robert

I’ve been very impressed with the evolution of QRP Labs and their fine single and multi-band QRP rigs.  I’ve built many of them.  Their latest venture is the QMX+, which is a 160m to 6m CW and Digital radio (they are talking of adding SSB in a future software revision).  They changed the form-factor this time, and rather than jam everything into a micro-sized box, they’ve opened things up, which makes assembly MUCH easier, and allows space for future features.

Posted in CW, Digital Mode, QMX+, QRP, QRP Labs | Leave a comment