g7ufo.radio

CTR2-Dial

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 20:43:12 +0000

The radio silence this year has been mirrored by actual radio silence. My logbook shows a distinct lack of airtime, something I need to remedy soon! I completed my CWOps beginners course last month which was great. I’ll write about that separately though.

Other than starting to learn CW, I’ve been very busy with some 3D printing based projects. The TP-iii case has been very popular and was kindly reviewed by Thomas, K4SWL on qrper.com.

M5-Dial Battery Adapter Fitting Instructions

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 20:43:12 +0000

Remove the two screws from the back panel of M5 Dial

The orange clip can be stored safely as it will be replaced buy the battery adapter shortly.

Remove the STAMP S3A board

Insert an unpowered USB-C connector into the STAMP S3A board and carefully remove, ensuring you do not bend any pins.

A battery addon for the Lynovation CTR2-MIDI and CTR2-Micro

Fri, 06 Dec 2024 22:37:00 +0000

Back in the now distant memory which is the summer I ordered a CTR2-MIDI from Lynn at Lynovation.

Background from their website:

If you already use a radio controller app like Marcus Roskosch’s (DL8MRE) apps for iOS and MacOS, Remote Ham Radio to operate contest quality remote radios, Thetis for your Apache ANAN or Hermes-Lite 2, or SDR-Console on Windows, CTR2-MIDI will provide an 8 function tuning knob, 6 programmable function buttons, and a multi-purpose paddle input jack. It’s small, only 60mm x 60mm x 20mm (2-3/8″ square and 7/8″ high) not counting the knob. This unit supports USB and Bluetooth-LE MIDI and is specifically designed with hams in mind.

A case for the BaMaTech BaMaKeY TP-III

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 22:28:00 +0000

Learning CW has been on my TODO list for a while. This tends to be a very long list with no signs of shrinking. Admittedly, I’ve never been able to put enough consistent effort into making it ‘stick’.

During my last attempt a year ago, I purchased a Sonderedition BaMaKeY TP-III from BaMaTech. 2023’s colour was green (this years is blue). Its a fantastic key and I know its very popular for SOTA/POTA and portable ops.

RAKwireless Unity enclosure mounts

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been delving into the interesting world of Meshtastic of late, on the 868MHz as this is where most of the activity is in the north east of England.

Thankfully it looks like there is a now UK provider of RAKwireless components but prior to that I’ve been hitting up Aliexpress for the various boards.

While perusing I noticed a Solar Enclosure with integrated antenna which I thought I’d grab and try out. I like the idea of mounting a node up high and not having to worry about a power supply.

How I run Cloudlog

Sun, 24 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is one of the admittedly not too uncommon occasions in amateur radio where what I do for a living intersects with one of my hobbies. I’ve been working in ‘development and cloud infrastructure’ for a while now and tend to favour containers to run my workloads.

I’ve tried a few logging systems and Cloudlog is the one which I’ve settled on for the last two or three years. It’s an excellent piece of software and is under constant development by Peter, 2M0SQL and many contributors.

QO-100 on FlexRadio

Tue, 15 Aug 2023 22:14:57 +0000

I really like my FlexRadio! I had a 6400 for a year before an opportunity arose in 2022 to purchase a used 6700. I’m a MacOS user so I use the excellent SmartSDR from Marcus Roskosch with an Icom RC-28 controller and a Heil PR781 microphone. This setup has served me well on HF, even with my restricted antenna setup on those bands.

Since getting on to QO-100 I’ve used an Icom IC-9700 with my DX Patrol Full Duplex Groundstation (1.0) before building an SDR setup (Pluto+ and SG Labs amplifier).

DX Patrol Full Duplex Groundstation 1.5

Sun, 13 Aug 2023 10:03:12 +0000

I purchased my DX Patrol Full Duplex Groundstation (1.0) back in October 2022 when I was first getting set up on QO-100. I didn’t have much of an idea of how to do that so I went for a “all in one” setup. I used this with am IC-9700 for a while until I had the itch to build an SDR setup which I’ve used to date.

One of the things I’d noticed with my 1.0 Groundstation is that it tended to get a bit warm which triggered a warning on its screen (I’m no stranger to a long, rambling over). I’d dug out an old USB powered fan to ‘point’ at it which seemed to help with that.

Quick /P operation in North Yorkshire

Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

We have a static caravan in North Yorkshire, which is about a hour from the QTH. Less than 10 minutes car drive from there I can be sitting on top of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park which is POTA G-0003.

It’s not often I get the opportunity to disappear for a hour or so and set up a /P station but today was one of rare those days Accompanied by my eldest daughter who was keen to be on logbook duty we drove to IO94ML and chose a spot next to a solid road sign (262 metres above sea level).

Station Info

Tue, 30 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Me

Back in (around) 1993 I completed the Novice course and exam and was issued the callsign 2E1CJA. I spent most of my time on Packet radio and the local-ish 70cm repeaters (GB3NT, Newcastle (433.000MHz) and GB3DC, Sunderland (433.275MHz)). The 1 watt from my trusty Yaesu FT-708R did very well into a HB9CV antenna mounted on the roof of the house.

Eventually I decided to go for my (old style) B licence, as the club I attended were running courses. My dad (now M0BAR) had decided he may as well use the gear he was paying for so decided to get licenced too. I had to wait for a couple of months for the callsign G7UFO to be handed out but it was worth the wait.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

In 2024 I bought my first 3D printer and swiftly got to work designing things for all the various radio related things I had around the shack.

The first item I offered for sale was the case for the BaMaTeCh TP-III paddle. From there my offerings have expanded.

Here in the UK it’s normally a case of buying accessories for our gear from overseas and often paying more in postage than the thing we’re buying. My shop was set up to help with that.