If you are experiencing low or no power output….. 1. Replacing a blown final does not necessarily fix the problem that caused the blown final. Never replace a blown final in anything where you haven’t gone through and figured out if there was a reason the final blew. These are very rugged transistors that should last a very long time. 2. Some failures are related to heat, most are not. The DR repeaters have excellent cooling. Unless the Read more…
Author: K9EQ
The DR repeaters are calibrated in the middle of the band. For UHF that is 440.000 MHz. You may want to check the power output at that frequency as you are operating right at the band edge. While you’re at it, measure the Tx current. At the lower power output the current should be lower, otherwise it could indicate a problem. Under no circumstances should the Tx current be above 10 amps (I recommend a 10 amp fuse in the Read more…
What’s up with the FT-70 battery indicator? Why does it seem like the battery doesn’t last very log? The FT-70 doesn’t actually know the state of charge of the battery. It only knows the voltage – which can be misleading while the battery is being charged. The Battery Management Unit within the battery pack is responsible for managing the charging and discharging of the battery. While computers and smart phones generally use the BMU to display state of charge, I’ve Read more…
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…
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…