s0lesurviv0r

QRP and Hiking Loadout in 2023

Introduction

I try to change my loadout when I find a better configuration or change my operating style. This happens pretty frequently and it appears that I may publish my loadout annually. The major changes this year have been using Winlink and moving to Southern California.

Changes

• Switched QRP rig from Elecraft KX2 to Lab599 TX-500. I did so as I operate in heavier conditions that put my KX2 at risk. The TX-500 is more durable, and the only water resistant QRP rig for consumers
• Switch from the Baofeng UV-5R to the Yaesu FT-65R. The primary reason was that digital modes didn't work so well with the Baofeng's slow VOX trigger. My need for VHF Winlink have been the primary driver for this
• Since I moved to Southern California from Northern California I have less trees to work with. Therefore I removed the throw weight and instead use the SOTABeams carbon fiber 6m mast to support my wire antennas
• I still use the EFHW but I carry the OCF dipole more often becau

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My Portable Station Requirements

Over the years I've developed some requirements for my portable and mobile stations. I operate in a variety of conditions (e.g. weather, time, elevation, etc). In tougher environments I don't want to waste time fiddling with my rig, antenna, or computer. I either want to make the needed contacts in as short a time as possible or maximize my time on the air. In short I prefer to have a tactical setup. The requirements I'm presenting are based on personal experiences with a variety of gear and conditions. Additionally, I'll provide my reasoning for each requirement.

Radio

I don't have too many requirements for a rig. Most important is having multiband HF capability. Honestly 40m/20/15/10m is good enough to use JS8Call, Winlink, WSJT-X, and FlDigi.

My second most important is having a radio with USB sound card and CAT control. This makes it incredibly easy to setup and teardown, both in terms of having a single cable to plug into my computer and making it easy to reproduc

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Amateur Radio Linux Machine Provisioning

IN PROGRESS - Still working out a few bugs and filling in a few details

These are some notes I use for configuring my amateur radio Linux machines. The base operating system is Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. This is not a comprehensive guide, just a quick reference for myself and others to install commonly used amateur radio applications on a Linux machine. Please don't blindly copy and paste these into your terminal without understanding what they do. I will include links in the reference section for more detailed newbie instructions.

Overview

The system that these instructions intends to build is a Linux system using the Ubuntu distribution. The goal is to use as much open source software as possible. I think currently all the amateur radio software used in this guide is open source. Additionally, the software chosen provides a good cross-section of capabilities needed for emcomm, as well as for more recreational activities. Here's a list of software and the capabilit

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Ubuntu 22.04 on a Surface Laptop 4

There's a few gotchas I've discovered trying to get Ubuntu running on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4. These steps assume an external keyboard was connected to the device and Ubuntu was installed already. These steps will install all drivers needed so the Surface Laptop 4 can operate with it's built-in keyboard. This isn't intended to be a complete guide, just a cheat-sheet for me or anyone else.

Disable iommu

sudo nano /etc/default/grub to edit the grub configuration

Add the following under the other GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX lines:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="amd_iommu=off iommu=off"

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Decentralization for Disasters

Introduction

I was fortunate enough to grow up without a dependence on the internet and cell phones. We still used paper maps, driving directions printed from Yahoo, memorized phone numbers, had physical books, and had local meet up spots. I have nothing against the shift to digitizing these functions but I feel the current approach is very risky.

Nearly all the aforementioned functions have been turned into apps. Contact books to Facebook (yes many people don't even have their friends phone numbers), maps and driving directions to Google and Apple maps, and books/knowledge to a variety of apps/websites and Wikipedia. Again, the apps are not necessarily the problem. Quite the contrary considering I carry a laptop and cell phone. I should actually have a level of redundancy I didn't enjoy before digitization. However, the key problem in today's digital ecosystem is that "apps" are engineered with the assumption that devices are "always connected". This isn't really a noti

s0lesurviv0r

QRP and Hiking Loadout in 2022

Introduction

This is a follow-up to my original QRP Hiking and Go Bag post. The guiding principles remain the same but some specifics have changed. This post details those changes. Though I continue to use this pack for Summits On The Air and as a general go bag, I may swap certain components in and out depending on the operating conditions.

Changes

• Switched to a real backpacking pack. These work better at distributing the weight across my body. I found my other pack put too much strain on my shoulders
• Switched to using OSMAnd+ for offline maps on my phone. I did this because the application was open source
• I ditched the external battery, opting for all devices using their own batteries. This was already a theme regardless of my choice. The Garmin InReach, phone, flashlight, etc already use their own batteries. This pack is designed for 24 hours so internal batteries will suffice. In an emergency I will always grab my battery box and solar panel
• Everything ex

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My Mobile/Portable Multiband Dipole

Overview

I've recently received a lot of question regarding my portable self supporting dipole after having a photo of my station appear in the June 2021 edition of QST magazine. I submitted the photo in addition to my logs for the 2020 ARRL Sweepstakes Phone contest.

Here is the original I submitted. I was operating at Santa Teresa County Park in San Jose, CA.

Here's the dipole at the same park on a different day. I made RTTY contacts with stations in Finland and the Philippines.

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My End Fed Half Wave Antenna (EFHW) for QRP/Backpack

Overview

After trying a variety of backpack-able antennas over the last year, I've settled on two types. The first of which is the off-center fed dipole (OCF). I used one for winter field day and operated several bands without a tuner. Since I had the extra time, and I was going to be in my operating location for the entire weekend, I placed the OCF between two trees. It's a great antenna but there's another I prefer over all others for backpack-able and portable ops. This antenna is the end-fed half wave (EFHW). The primary reason I pick this antenna is the ease of deployment. All I have to do is get the paracord over a tree and pull up one side to make it slope down diagonally.

The EFHW can operate on multiple bands without a tuner. I have several EFHW, one of which is a commercially built one from HyEndFed which supports 40m/20m/15m/10m with 100 watts, again, all without a tuner. Weight is the most crucial when I'm operating just out of my backpa

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Publishing a Hugo sire to IPFS

Introduction

If you're not familiar with the Interplanetary File System (IPFS) I highly encourage you to look at their site. IPFS aims to be the distributed peer-to-peer web. Files and web pages can be shared on multiple machines, starting with the one you share the content with. Additionally, user's can "pin" files and web pages on their local IPFS nodes to then further share them with others. This is as opposed to a centralized web where a webpage is served from a central source.

Having the ability to share my content (this Hugo site) with others in a distributed fashion, where others can even cache offline versions of this content, was the main motivator to put my site onto IPFS. There are many more interesting and ground breaking features of IPFS but this article only showcases the basic case of putting a statically generated Hugo site onto IPFS.

Terminology

To stay consistent, I'll document the terms I'll use and what they mean.

s0lesurviv0r

Thoughts on Ham Radio Software

Introduction

I wanted to take some time to discuss my thoughts on amateur radio software. I've noticed a few troubling patterns that I worry may hinder development and adoption of particular applications and protocols. Particularly, I wanted to share my philosophy of adopting open source ham radio applications at all costs, ensuring the tools I train on, and recommend, can live on.

Software

I've spend a majority of my life writing code. Whether it was growing up, in college, or as a professional. I've written software across domains and industries, including some ad-hoc toolsfor amateur radio in my spare time.

I've come to understand that software is rarely static, it's living and breathing. A great application will see itself live past the system it was intended to run on. New operating systems, and versions of operating systems, dependent libraries, etc, will change over the course of an application's life. For a enterprise application, developers update their app