I have a couple generic versions of these boards (pictured below) that are often unresponsive when the Raspberry Pi is first powered on, and therefore don’t work until the Pi is power cycled a few times, or the board is physically removed and reconnected to the Pi.

The easiest way to force these to be responsive without having to power cycle them is to use the Raspberry Pi GPIO to strobe the reset pin for the board. It’s pin 40 on the Pi header, which maps to GPIO 21. The following command will reset it:

pinctrl set 21 op dl && pinctrl set 21 op dh 

You can automate this. Here’s an example systemd unit to start the DVMProject‘s dvmhost

[Unit]
Description=DVMProject Host Radio Service
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service]
User=root
Type=forking
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c "pinctrl set 21 op dl && pinctrl set 21 op dh && /path/to/dvmhost/binary/dvmhost -c /path/to/config.yml"
Restart=on-abnormal

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

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This was occurring because I was printing too fast, not giving the filament on the previous layer time to cool before placing the next layer on top.

In my slicer, PrusaSlicer, I changed Filament Settings -> Cooling -> Cooling Thresholds -> Slow down if layer print time is below to 15 seconds – this ensures that each layer takes a minimum of 15 seconds to complete. The result was a near-perfect benchy.

The post 3D Printing – PETG – Poor/Drooping Layers appeared first on AD8G.

After some Googling, I tried to run glxgears to test the performance.  Under the Ubuntu distribution, I was able to get about 200-300fps.  The application would not even start under the EL distribution.

It turns out this was due to a missing driver package – mesa-dri-drivers.  To install this package and resolve the issue, run:

<xmp>dnf install mesa-dri-drivers</xmp>

I’m now able to get great performance:

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Our Role

GEARS – the Geauga Emergency Amateur Radio Service – provides volunteers who participate in a variety of roles. Three GEARS members (myself included) serve on the festival committee to help organize and run the event. During the event, we fill several roles: We help ensure safety of a crosswalk that crosses a major US route with a speed limit of 55mph. We help manage the parking areas to ensure efficient use of the space. We work with the Sheriff’s Office to provide traffic control during the pumpkin roll and parade – both of which require shutdown of the intersection of a US route and a state route. I assisted with the audio systems on the grounds. We provide additional security cameras for the festival security team.

Our partner club, the Geauga Amateur Radio Association, sponsors an outreach table at the event to evangelize amateur radio and show off some of our capabilities. Special thanks to Dale K8DOB for setting up and manning the table.

Trailer and Mobile Repeater

Technology-wise, we deploy our communications trailer, pictured below. Our trailer has two dispatch positions, although we do not run a formal net as this is a small event. The trailer also contains a built-in UHF repeater. It is attached to an antenna on a mast which easily covers the entire festival. The trailer also carries a portable repeater that can replace the built-in repeater if it fails or supplement it for additional channel capacity. Special thanks to Andy KD8UAI, Mike KC8LJO, Bill W8BBL for helping with setup.

Data Connectivity

We use point-to-point microwave (5.1-5.8 GHz) data networking (not Mesh) to feed IP camera video back to the trailer. This helps us maintain situational awareness. These cameras record 24×7 for security purposes. In this installation, the cables were a little messy, but it’s a temporary installation and they got the job done. We use the excellent Blue Iris software as our camera viewing/recording solution. Almost all of our network equipment is Mikrotik – it’s inexpensive and reliable.

Lots of Fun

This is a really fun event – it’s fairly laid-back, but amateur radio has come to play an important role in its success. Our volunteers really enjoy working at this event, the pancake breakfasts in the morning certainly help!

For more information on GEARS, visit https://ohiogears.org. For more information on the Geauga Amateur Radio Association, visit https://geaugaara.org.

Videos from Previous Years

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I eventually went into device manager and found a “Generic USB Hub” device with a yellow exclamation point. I uninstalled the device and then scanned for hardware changes, and it recognized the cooler again. Problem solved!

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LEARA‘s 146.76 repeater is a complicated machine, and necessarily so. We want to provide a wide coverage area that’s easily accessible to mobile users. We accomplish this by having a powerful transmitter (180 watts). The transmitter is connected to a high-gain antenna that’s high up on a tall tower. The tower is located on a moderately-high hill. That’s why users can hear the repeater from mobile and fixed stations in several counties. But that’s only part of the picture.

Big Mouth, No Ears?

A repeater is not useful if far away users can hear it but can’t get in. The question becomes: How do we ensure the repeater isn’t an “alligator” – with a big mouth and small ears? We enhance the receive coverage by using several receivers spread out over the repeater’s coverage area. These receivers are basically cross-band repeaters: They receive signals on 146.16 and re-transmit them on individual UHF link frequencies. At the main site, we have receivers for each of these link frequencies. Those receivers feed into a voting comparator (“voter”). The voter selects the remote input with the best signal (more on how voters work in a future article). That audio is then passed to the equalizer. The equalizer is connected to the repeater controller, which processes it and then passes it to the transmitter.

Making it Sound Great

Our goal is to make the repeater sound as close to simplex as we possibly can.

So what does all this voting and remote input stuff have to do with the audio equalizer? It’s simple: The audio changes slightly and loses fidelity as it goes through each of the steps above (remote receiver, remote link transmitter, link receiver, voting comparator, controller). Each of those devices does some audio processing. The resulting audio tends to be lacking in the sub-1000Hz frequency range, which makes it sound “empty.” We compensate for this by amplifying the 250-1000Hz range (we do also amplify the higher range, but to a lesser extent). This tends to “bring back” the lower frequency range and makes the audio more satisfactory.

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We are very sorry but BLF is not coming back, period. Throwing more money at CPU to run blinky lights is not a good use of donor money and does not scale well. It’s just not going to happen, so will everyone quit griping about it and just move on and use your sidecars for speed dials?

We are working on a more efficient method of presenting sustem state in the form of a dashboard -and this will scale far better than BLF. We are asking folks to be patient as it will happen.

At HH, our primary mission is call quality and reliability. Blinky lights are not part of that. Please just get over it. We made the best possible decision in the best interest of quality and scalability. We’re not going to keep beating this dead horse.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/hamshack/permalink/2829130870636313/

Here’s a statement from their Facebook page:

The result of this change is that all speed dial buttons configured to use BLF will now be permanently lit solid amber, and some might find that annoying. Here’s how to disable BLF for those buttons but keep them as speed dials.

Log In

First, log in to your phone. You’ll need to know the IP address. Just put the IP address in your web browser and you’ll see something like the following. Note: I only own an SPA525G2, so that is what I’ll be demonstrating.

Next, click “Admin Login” – then click “Advanced” – you should now see all the tabs.

Line Buttons

If you have BLF configured on any of the line buttons – e.g., not the Attendant Console (“sidecar”), click the Phone tab. Here is my line button 4:

Your extended function may look different – it may not have “cp” and it may not have “vid=” in it:

fnc=blf+sd;ext=301@$PROXY;sub=301@$PROXY

You’ll want to at least remove the blf+ portion, but you should also remove the “sub=” portion as well, so it will now look like this:

fnc=sd;ext=301@$PROXY

Then scroll all the way to the bottom, click “Save All Changes.” Your phone may reboot, and voila – no more amber light.

Attendant Console (“sidecar”)

If you have a sidecar, it’s a similar procedure to above, except you’ll click on the “Att Console” tab at the top. Remove the blf+ text (again make sure to include the plus sign), then click “Save All Changes.”

Conclusion

Personally, I really enjoyed the BLF functionality on Hamshack Hotline, I found it to be useful in a few scenarios. Although they are working on a web-based alternative, it’s not going to be nearly as convenient. Having a set of dedicated BLF lights on my desk at all time was a great way to see what’s going on at a glance.

Perhaps some day, the Asterisk folks will come up with a way to make BLF less CPU-intensive, which might allow Hamshack Hotline to eventually bring this feature back.

At the same time, something I always say about my repeaters applies to Hamshack Hotline: It’s not a public utility.

Donate to Hamshack Hotline here.

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You can read Paul Gilbert KE5ZW’s announcement here.

I was rather vocal about the deficiencies of Connect. It is my opinion that it did not meet the needs of some local ARES organizations – some counties here in Ohio loved it, while others had to maintain a separate system to track information that Connect couldn’t. Suggestions on improving the system were largely ignored by the league. I do not know how many membership dollars were spent on this application, but I am glad the League has made a course correction here. Perhaps this is a sign of good things to come!

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Amateur radio licensing was previously free-of-charge (aside from the nominal fee that some Volunteer Examiner teams charged).

Wiggle Room

The original Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) had the fees at $50, but after the comment period, the FCC changed course and reduced them to $35 because they agree that amateur radio licensing is mostly automated.

Talk to Congress

The FCC also notes that while they heard many comments that amateur radio should be exempted from fees because of our public service activities, technical innovations and the like, they state:

While we agree that participation in the Amateur Radio Service offers important public interest benefits, that determination does not alter our obligation under RAY BAUM’s Act to adopt cost-based fees for processing applications regarding nonexempt service.

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf

I read this as their way of telling us “if you don’t like it, get Congress to change the law.”

Not an Emergency Radio Service

This paragraph stood out to me:

While we are very much aware of these laudable and important services amateur radio licensees provide to the American public, we do not agree that amateur radio licenses fit within the section 8(d)(1)(B) exemption Congress provided.63 These specific exemptions do not apply to the amateur radio personal licenses. Emergency communications, for example, are voluntary and are not required by our rules.64 Further, there is no indication that most or all amateurs solely use their license for emergency communications; even the section of our rules allowing certain amateur operators to broadcast civil defense communications limit such authorization to periods of local, regional or national civil emergencies.65 As we have noted previously, “[w]hile the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communications service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications, is one of the underlying principles of the amateur service, the amateur service is not an emergency radio service.“

https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/FCC-20-184A1.pdf

My intepretation of this is while emergency communications is part of the mission of the amateur radio service, it is not the only reason it exists. No amateur is required to perform emergency communications, that is entirely voluntary. Therefore, amateur radio is not considered an “emergency radio service” – note the distinction between “emergency communications” and “emergency radio service.”

Thoughts

Here’s my hot take on this – note that my opinion is subject to change: I’m fine with this. Our licenses last ten years, that makes it cost $3.50 per year. I think I can swing that, and accordingly I would guess that just about all hams can as well. I will be happy to help other hams as best I can if they truly can’t afford the fee.

I’d also like to point out that the rationale behind this seems sound to me – they have determined what it costs them to process applications and set the fees accordingly. I try to avoid politics on my site, but it’s refreshing to see a government agency trying to avoid operating at a deficit.

Conclusion

This is by no means comprehensive coverage of the new rules, the details are available in the full text. What are your thoughts on the topic? I would like to hear your comments!

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