What’s the difference between using an HRI-200 and directly connecting to the radio? 1. It is the only option for connecting a repeater to WiRES-X.2. It uses UDP communications sent directly to the Room. So network communications are very efficient.PDN uses TCP instead of UDP. (Why use UDP? UDP is simple. If anything gets lost, it is dropped. Good for real-time communications. If a packet is missed with TCP, it will keep retrying up to a limit which is not Read more…
Author: K9EQ
When a WiRES-X node keeps going online then offline, this type of problem is almost always the result of a networking issue. A networking problem will occur and will wack out the HRI-200 software. Once the software has been wacked out, it will continue to cycle in and out of whatever room it is connected to. Restarting the WiRES-X software usually solves the problem. Router problems:1. Turn off UPnP. It should never be used!!!!!!2. Turn off all quality of service Read more…
If you’re having problems with USB problems when using WiRES-X with or without other programs, read on. The WiRES-X software is pretty good at identifying the HRI-200 vs. connecting directly to the radio. Windows, however, is very bad at managing USB ports. The WiRES-X software makes two USB connections: One as a virtual COM port and the other as a sound device. Windows is also very bad at managing sound devices. Virtual COM ports can be identified by the port Read more…
What’s best, crimping or soldering. Should you use crimping? How is a good crimp done. Below are references that address these questions. Wikipedia Entry Crimping vs Soldering Advantages and Disadvantages Good and Bad RF Crimp Connections ARRL Instructions for Crimping RF Connectors How to Make a Quality Crimp More on Making a Quality Crimp (technical) Molex Crimping Manual (technical) TE Systems Crimp Chart Notes on crimping: It is always best to have the right tools. Make sure you use the Read more…
It has really been bugging me. I’ve never been able to get a 0.96″ OLED to work on my Pi-star hotspots. The 1.3″ works okay. Why not the 0.96″. Here’s why: The 1.3″ screen uses the SSD1306 controller. Adafruit uses this controller on all their OLED screens. The (cheap) Chineese OLED screens use an older SSD1106 controller. Raspberry Pi uses the Adafruit OLED driver software, so Pi-star does also. Naturally Adafruit has no desire to support the SSD1106 as they Read more…
The HamOperator YSF Reflector is currently supporting MNWis, US Kentucky, and America-Link. A test reflector runs at US K9EQ. A project has been going on at the HamOperator to improve the YSF Reflector software. Why do this? The original software is very basic and offers very little capability and control. It also creates a HUGE problem when trying to bridge YSF hotspots to WiRES-X rooms because it just passes the data along with no filtering. That means whatever garbage gets Read more…
A problem exits with YSF/MMDVM hotspots bridging to WiRES-X rooms. Here’s what happens. A user has a hotspot and accesses it using a Fusion HT. They use the WiRES-X control mode to change the hotspot to different YSF Reflectors. Let’s say the user wants to access MNWis (Room #21,493): They enter the number of the YSF Reflector, “US MNWis 21493”, which is 37,624. The hotspot switches to US MNWis 21493 which is bridged to WiRES-X Room # 21,493. The user Read more…
How can computers be “old stuff”? We’ll see….. The Home First Computers This week we take a look at three pioneers in the computer business: From 1975 MITS’ catalog featuring the Altair 8800 computer. (0.6 MB) From the 1977 Southwest Technical Products catalog with their 6800-based computer. (5 MB) From 1978 The Commodore PET catalog (0.5 MB) From 1979 The Texas Instruments TI-99 (1.2 MB) And from 1980 Ohio Scientific catalog with their products. (7 MB) How far we have Read more…
Techniques and Projects Here is a variety of new old stuff that focuses on electronics and radio techniques and projects. 1958 From Popular Electronics magazine, The Experimenter’s Handbook (15 MB) 1965 Again from Popular Electronics, The Experimenter’s Handbook (8 MB) 1973 Electronics Theory Handbook (4 MB) 1973 Understanding Electronic Circuits (7 MB) Handbook, Dictionary, and FixIt For the New Old Stuff for this week, we present some reference materials. The 1936 ARRL Handbook 14th Edition (54 MB) The 1944 Allied Read more…
All About FM This week we have a couple of documents from the early 1940’s explaining FM. At this time FM was very, very new. It had the benefit of reducing the noise one would hear on AM. A lot of work went into convincing the world that FM was the way of the future. 1941-All about FM (3 MB)1941-GE FM Primer (4 MB) AM Broadcast Transmitters Some classic (and one BIG) broadcast transmitters. Raytheon RA-250 Popular with 250 watt Read more…