Configuring your FT991A for Digital and Gotcha's

This post doesn't go into to much detail about HOW-TO configure your FT-991A for digital modes as this has been covered very well by Bob's (KR4DA) HOW-TO Guide for setting up FT-991A with FLDigi

This post is about those little things that I've encountered and how to I've corrected or overcome them

Features I'm encountered while using Digital Modes and how I addressed them.

Feature / Issuer

Description / Resolution

PTT works, but no Audio via FLdigi

I was a little stumped with this one, as all my digital mode applications (ie WSTJ-X, WSPR, MRP40, MMSSTV) would key-up and audio come via the radio fine (ie tune) except for FLDigi (which mind you had been working previously) . After reviewing the settings under MENU I found the little bugger. I'd for some reason recently change item "070 - DATA IN SELECT" to "MIC". When I changed it back to "REAR" all audio started working again via FLDigi.

Note: This post will continue to grow as and when I encounter more of these little gems :) 73 De VK4TMZ

Allowing Multiple Applications To Control your Rig(s) - Dealing with "Exclusive Serial Port Locking"

Until yesterday, when I finally decided to do a little review of my logging and rig control software, I'd been using DXLab Suite for Logging (DXKeeper), Rig Control (DXLab Commander).  WSJT-X was able to natively talk to "DXLab Commander" and setting up virtual "cat" under DxLab Commander  N1MM was able to also access VFO etc.  FLDigi was able to access DXCommander via a nice little bridging tool developed by N2AMG called "Fldigi-DxLabs Gateway". But it always annoyed me that I was not able to run RCForb (server) while DXCommander was running due to the serial port being exclusively locked.

So I remembered a little tools called "Omnirig" which I installed and quickly had WSTJ-X configured as it could natively integrate with it.  Next looking round the web for a new Logging application I came across "Log4OM" which also natively integrates with Omnirig and its a slick and easy to use UI as well as all the external logging (eSQL, QRZ.com, LoTW, ClubBook, HamQTH, etc).  As a bonus now that Omnirig was running a contest logging software I use "VK Contest Logger - VKCL" was able to also integrate with it too!.  However I was to quickly learn N1MM did not integrate with Omnirig nor did many of my other applications (PC-ALE, RCForb, MRP40 (CW RX/TX) etc) so back to square one kinda!.

So a little more googling, I saw reference to using to a little gem off a tool by Eterlogic called VSPE which offers "virtual serial port splitting".  The tool is free to download, and use but you will be reminded to purchase a "64-bit License" which I highly recommend for such a great little tool.

This tool appears to take care of the "exclusive serial port locking" by creating a "virtual serial port split" from the source serial port.

• Note: The only hassle I had is that RCForb needs to be started first, after that any and all applications work running at the same. I've not dug any further as to why RCForb has requires this but hey there's a work around.

Here is overview of my serial port topology / application integration:

Here is my VSPE config - "vpse_ft991a_virtual_split.vspe" which has both my FT-991A's serial ports (Enhanced / Standard) configured as "Virtual split".  Your ports may and will mostly differ but, the port settings will most likely be the same......

That's All Folks!   I hope this post helps you out to get all your applications that all want to talk and control the rigs working in harmony :)

73
Mark (de VK4TMZ)

Getting Your RTLSDR Online Using OpenWebRx

Over the Christmas break a few like minded folk including myself monitor and share each others HF/VHF comms of the Sydney To Hobart Yacht Race (S2H) via the internet.  This year we were missing someone to help cover the NSW south / mid coast. Searching the web I stumbled onto "SDR.HU" which has a heap of online KiwiSDRs plus a few RTLSDR online and free to access.  (Note: the KiwiSDR project has forked code from a project known as "OpenWebRx").

The KiwiSDRs allows a bandwidth of 30MHz which covers the HF spectrum and allow (depending on processing power) up to 4 concurrent users to each have a virtual RX and tune to any frequency within the 30MHz.  This is a fantastic feature as most other online receivers  either only a single user can tune the spectrum (ie GlobalTuners), or most of the Multi user WebSDR ones are fixed to a set of bands usually the Ham bands which means does not cover the 4483 / 6516 kHz which are the frequencies used during the S2H yacht race.

On the SDR.HU site there was about 6 online KiwiSDR's online located in (SA, VIC, NSW and TAS).  Fortunately 2 of the Kiwi had fairly good antennas connected and in good locations:

1. SDRTAS - Launceston, Tasmania
2. Tecsun Radios Australia - Goulburn NSW

The Tecsun KiwiSDR was fantastic and we had great coverage of the start of the race until the yachts got near Bass Strait / Tasmania were the Tasman KiwiSDR and our groups coverage took over.

For Christmas Santa had brought me a SDRPlay RSP2Pro and I loved the idea of this this online, so I took a look at what was involved and had it online fairly quickly.  This post is not about the SDRPlay and I'll cover that in another post.  This post is about getting your RTLSDR online.  You do not need to register it under SDR.HU if you wish to have it private, but why not! the more the merrier right!

Even thought you the bandwidth of the  RTLSDR is around 2.048 MHz (without too much stress on CPU or loss of quality) and  if like me you have more than one it can put each one online and provide coverage of  a single large or even multiple band segments.

There are many useful HOW-TOs out there that can get you quickly up and running such as:

1. Getting RTLSDR and OpenWebRx installed and running.
2. Compile and installign SoapySDR and SoapyRTLSDR libraries and utilities.
3. Compile and install RX_Tools and SoapySDR 

From the above sources of HOW-TOs I've put together a single script / set of commands that is needed to install the (Development Tools, OpenWebRx, Rx_Tools, SoapySDr, SoapRTLSDR etc)

Download - "install_openwebrx_rtlsdr.sh"

Testing RTLSDR device

Once you have installed the necessary libraries etc, you can now plug in your RTLSDR(s) .  The following are example commands to (find / probe) the RTLSDR dongles.

rtl_test -t

SoapySDRUtil --probe

SoapySDRUtil --find

If you do not successfully see your RTLSDR listed, then please go back over the HOW-TOs and my script to see where the error may have occurred or step omitted and apply corrective actions.

Setting up OpenWebRx

If you have used my install script there is a folder "~/sdr/openwebrx" which contains the OpenWebRX project.  You can copy / clone and rename as many of these folders as you need for each RTLSDR you wish to run.

I will not be going into any detail about each of the config items but I have included two versions of the config files that I use when running my 2 RTLSDRs on the same PC.

1. NooElec (see photo) - config_webrx.pl (configured to Monitor UHF Satellite and Repeater Output segments 436.9 - 439 MHz) 
2. UV_HF (see photo) - config_webrx.pl (Configured to Monitor VHF Marine Simplex 156-158 MHz)

(FYI: I actually originally wanted to monitor the whole UHF Ham Satellite and Repeater Ouput 435 - 439 MHz but the UV_HF seems a little deaf on UHF even with the RF gain set to 49.6, note to self get another SDR to replace the UV_HF. On another note and not to be greedy, but another RTLSDR (or SDRPlay) would nice to monitor the Maritime Repeater Output between 160-162 MHz)

What I will make note of is that in both config files the "rtl_sdr" and "rx_sdr" config sections are valid and working.  I do have them currently on "rx_sdr" as I like it better because unlike the "rtl_sdr" were I can only specific a device number via the "-d" option, the "rx_sdr" allows you to specify a query so in my case its the "serial number".  This means if I unplug one of the devices the correct devices will be found and the issue of the ordering device number changing does not come into play.

Helpful hint: Tor working out what waterfall max/min level values to use go via your browser hit the button to auto-adjust the via the browser debugger looks at the values stored in "waterfall_min_level" and "waterfall_max_level" and update your config file accordingly.

That's all folks!! Hope the above get you online and sharing your RTLSDRs!
73
Mark (VK4TMZ)

Setting up ALE^Stat to work with PCALE

ALE^Stat is a great tool that can monitor PC-ALE / MARS-ALES activity and will post events (ie "soundings" received) upto HFLink or relevant web portal.

Head over the PC ALE Support Site and download the latest version of "ALE^Stat".   Install was easy and the documentation and configuration is fairly straight forward.

What had me initially stumped, was where was the "telnet" config option under PC-ALE ?  Well I found it but for some reason its not document under the "PC-ALE User Manual" or even ALE^Stat documentation.

Open  PC-ALE and under "Configuration->SWALE"  put in your PC IP and port number (63023) and check the "Interace Enabled".  If "ALE^Stat" was running you will see that it will "connection".  Then any activity decoded my PCALE will be reported to HFLink assuming you have enabled HFLink Reporting and entered you HFLink details correctly.

Load the same QRG file you have used for PCALE under ALE^Stats "frequency" menu.  Then ensure you have ticked the frequency under HFLink column that you wish to report / upload events to HFLink.

Not much more to say here! Have fun

73!!
de VK4TMZ

Setting up PCALE with YEASU FT-991A

For the last week I've been trying to setup PC-ALE with Yaesu FT-991A and have managed to do so. However having the station running for last 2 days for extended periods (i.e from early morning to late at night) there doesn't appear to be too many "sounding" occurring where I can hear them at least.

Locally I've heard 1 VK station "VK2EHQ" a handful of times through the day and evening on different bands with good S/N reports.  I've just heard "YD0OXH8" there on 12m but due to a small misconfig on ALE^Stat it did not upload the report to HFLink.

So at this stage I'm probably not going to run it much longer but will keep eye on forums and the HFLink Portal.  For now though I thought I'd share with you how I setup PC-ALE to work with my Yaesu FT-991A.

Firstly head over to HFLink.net to sign up and where you can get access to download the following files

1. Download the latest PCALE Full Install

• Currently a file called "PCALEv108B1000TB3_2_FI.zip" is latest

2. Download the latest PCALE Update

• Currently a file called "PCALEv108B1000TB3_3_UD.zip" is latest and is required as this adds in the radio-type MMI-RADIO  interface which  allows you control the Yaeus FT991A as its not one of the radios currently supported.

3.  Download the latest version of the MMI-Radio library to support FT-991A

• Currently a files called "MMI-RADIO_FT-991_Library.zip" is latest. I'll described the couple of changes I made to the macros further down.

Follow the instructions for installing the full install and the update which are fairly straight forward and well documented.

At this time the FT991A is not available as under the standard / common available radio interfaces under PC-ALE. However as part of the patch they have introduced MMI-RADIO which allows you to define a set of macros to control your radio.  Thankfully the was a FT-991A MMI-RADIO library already implemented that I just had to change the channel macros.

So to install the FT-991A MMI-RADIO library, extract the  "MMI-RADIO_FT-991_Library.zip" files in under "C:\PC_ALE\MMI_RADIO"

Under the menu option "Configuration->MIL-STD 188-141 Options" set the following at minimum:

• Sounding to TWS Sound (if you wish to TX "Soundings")
• Set Radio-Type to "MMI-RADIO" this will tell PC-ALE to use the macros under "C:\PC_ALE\MMI_RADIO" how to control the radio.
• Under "Radio Port" - Set the Baud and setting as needed to match what you have set on the FT-991A.  For me I was  38400, 2, 8, N and make sure you select "Split VFO" (more on this later)
• Audio level - 
• TX - Manual says so that ALC is barely trigger.  I currently have sit so ALC ~ 50%
• RX - So the RX meter signal level was about half which for me was ~%50
• CAT  - Set to the "Enhanced Serial Port"
• PTT - Set to the "Standard Serial Port"
• BTW - to be resolved,  I had to uncheck "LBT - Look Before Talk" as for some reason it was detecting activity and not allowing "Sounding".

QRG - I utilised the "AUSTRALIA_NOCALSIGN_USBD_2014C.qrg" as this sets the channels to use "USB-D" mode.

Antenna Tuning - I was fortunate that my 1/4 WL 40m vertical antenna could be tuned by the Yaesu FT-991A built in ATU. Obviously you may have a broadband Antenna that does not require any tuning but either way all I'm going to say is for me I went through each of the channels and "tuned" them.  So as PC-ALE was scanning and then TX on any of the frequency the Freq was in memory so I did not need to have PC-ALE run any ATU steps.  But if you do then you may need to read up on the MMI-RADIO macros and add commands to the QSS_nn_CHANNEL macros etc etc

To operate the FT-991A in quiet mode while scanning, I put the radio into split-mode "manually" and as you say from the "Radio-Port" settings above we have told PC-ALE to operate via SPLIT VFO.  What this means is that while scanning the VFO A will be updated as the channel changes and upon needing to TX the VFO B will be set to match VFO via the MMI Radio Macros and then TX will take place.

MMI-Radio Changes for Me -

• The "MMI_RADIO__CHANNEL_nn"  and "MMI_RADIO_QSS_CHANNEL_nn" were not the frequencies for my region.  So I had to alter / create as necessary "MMI_RADIO_CHANNEL_nn" for each channel from the QRG file I was using.  Each frequency needs to have a corresponding macro file starting at 01.  Failure to have these sync'ed will mean you scanning and TX will on frequencies not matching the PC-ALE display.
• Obviously make sure there is a corresponding QSS channel macro
• In each of my QSS macros files I set the "preamp" to the desired level.

That's it!! Have fun with PC-ALE and your Yaesu FT-991A

73
de VK4TMZ

Choosing your Callsign

Here in Australia and I'm fairly sure else were round the world, when you apply for you amateur radio license you have the choice of letting ACMA auto allocate a callsign to you or you can pay a little extra and nominate a set of 3 callsigns that you'd like to use and based on availability.

So if you choose your own, what would you choose ?  what logic to you apply ?

The following is not exhaustive list by any stretch of the imagination, however was what I empoyed when coming up with my callsigns:

A. Status / Contesting - In Australia we have the 2 letter suffix which was is reserved for those who have obtained their advanced call VK$nn where $ is the Australian state/territory you are registering the call in  and XX is the 2 letter suffix.  After you have worked hard to obtain your advanced call then obtaining a 2 letter call clearly indicates you are advanced call were as the 3 letter callsign it not immediately clear.

As a little FYI the below is the Australian callsign format:

• VK$Fnnn - Foundation Call (4 letter call - large range of personalisation possible (ie FART, FAKE, FMAX etc )

• VK$Qnnn - Not allocated to reduce confusion with Q Codes

• VK$[H,L,M,N,P,V]nnn - Standard Call (3 letter call) - BTW the phrase "Hiring Lawyers May Not Prove Valuable" - is how I currently remember the standard call set !!)

• VK$[A-G,I-K,O,S-U,W-Z]nn - Advanced Call (3 letter call)

• VK$nn - Advanced Call (2 letter call)

• VK$Rnn- Repeater Callsign

• VK$RSn, VK$RTn - Beacon Callsign

A lot of advanced call operators prefer to have 2 (or more) callsigns and reserve the use of a 2 letter callsign for contesting etc especially in CW realm for more efficient sending of callsign. Then outside of contest use their 3 letter advanced call.

There are obviously a finite number of 2 letter callsign, and they do and are running out in some states. In my case there was only 6 two letter callsign available and they were reducing each day. So I err'ed on side of caution and did not just select set of 2 letter call as the sequence did not mean anything to me or suite me.

Many operators hold onto multiple callsign, especially callsigns belonging to ex-mates or club members as gesture of respect and ensuring the callsign get reallocated to a club member to ensure the callsign continues with in the club.
 

B. Initials - a fairly straight forward one that many operators are able to locate callsigns within their class of license that matches the initials of their name, family member(s),  or something other meaning to them.   In my case VK4TMZ (Tanya, Mark, Ziva) first initials of the Wife, myself and Daughter!!

C. Word, Phrase or Sound - The sequence of letters forms some funny word, phrase or sound (i.e. VK4FART,  VK4FWIT which is available, but I wonder if anyone would be willing to use it!!)

Logic / Sanity Check

The following are checks that to may consider when deciding if your callsign is going to be a good fit for you:

A. Sound - Does it role of the tongue, when responding and talking with others does the callsign flow.

B. Poor Condition Test - How would other operators go trying pull your callsign out under weak condition ?

C. CW - If your are intending on operating CW, are the sequence of character as DITs and DAHs clear and efficient ?  By this I mean is it easy to send and receive sending VK$HHH may not be the easiest for someone starting out in CW to send and receive.


Well that's all for now!!  and I hope this may have assisted in some little way to help narrow down and possible even select your callsign!!


73
de VK4TMZ

Introduction - de VK4TMZ

de VK4TMZ my name is Mark and I enjoy Amateur Radio (aka Ham Radio) and dabbling in with electronic. I've been into SWL since grade 8 back in 1990 when my English / Science  teacher introduced me to the world of radio.  Its taken me nearly 25 years of enjoying SWL and the fact I'd turned 40 yrs old I finally bit the bullet and start of 2017 I got my Foundation Call and the call sign VK4FMAX.   Within 5 months I then rose up the ranks to  my Advanced Call VK4TMZ so 2017 has been the year of the "radio" so to speak for me.

VK4TMZ Advice #0001  -  DO NOT WAIT 25 years to go for your radio license! Hook up with a local radio club and they will help you work you way into radio.

This blog site is a place were I can put some posts about my adventures into this funtastic (fun and fantastic) hobby of Radio (antennas projects, digital mode, software etc), Computers and Electronics.

Disclaimer!!
Hope you enjoy the content I put up, BUT!!! please keep in mind, I'm not responsible for any damage to self or equipment that my occur while following my blogs and attempting to reproduce the activities.

73!!
de VK4TMZ