I’ve recently built another AllStarLink node to compliment my personal 70cm band SHARI node as I thought since I have a full duplex dual band handheld it would be great to have another node that I could connect to FreeStar or HUBNet at the same time as monitoring the Matrix node.
Rather than build another personal node I decided this time I would build a public node, obtain a callsign from the RSGB and make it available to the HAM’s locally on the 2m band.
Initially I thought I may be able to use my old Retevis RT85 handheld and AIOC board for the 2m node but, after a little testing it soon became apparent that it overheats during long overs (which are common on AllStarLink) and so, I needed to find another solution.
AIOC connected to the Retevis RT85.
Chatting about this in the main Matrix HAM Radio roomSteve, M0XVT sent me a message saying he had an old Key KM-4000 converted PMR radio that had been reprogrammed for the 2m band that he was looking to sell and that it might be ideal for the new node. Wasting no time, we came to an agreement and I was soon the proud owner of a converted PMR transceiver.
Key KM4000 2m Band PMR Radio
The KM4000 transceiver has a standard output of 15w, 10w more than I needed for the gateway and so I had to reduce the output. A quick search on the internet and I found the Thames Valley Repeater Group website that had all the information required to turn down the output.
I also had to reprogramme channel 1 to the frequency and CTCSS tone allocated to me by the RSGB so that in the event of a power outage when the radio came back on it automatically jumps to channel 1 which would be correctly setup for operation.
Unfortunately the software for programming the radio is only available for windows and so I had to build a virtual machine running windows 10 to be able to reprogramme the radio.
Once this was done I rewired the AIOC USB audio device to work with the KM4000 radio and built the AllStarLink node on a spare RaspberryPi 4.
For an antenna I made a simple end fed vertical dipole from some RG58 coax and mounted it 8m up on one of my Spiderpoles in the garden. Running a coax feed out to the antenna I did some tests into the Parrot to get the audio levels setup and checked that the DTMF codes were interpreted correctly and that the node switched connections without error.
MB7IBW Internet Gateway hardware at the M0AWS QTH
Once this was done I had a few test conversations with stations on the Matrix node and FreeStar to ensure all was fine and then set the gateway status to “Operational” on the RSGB website.
This worked fine for a while with myself and some local stations using the node regularly but, then the hot weather arrived and things started to overheat. The transceiver was getting incredibly hot in the 30c+ summer temperatures and the power supply was also running extremely hot and so I decided to add some cooling.
Cooling the PSU was simple, it has a perforated top panel to which I strapped a cooling fan. This worked great and brought the temperature of the PSU down considerably.
The radio wasn’t so easy to cool. It has a solid case cover top and bottom and so cooling wasn’t going to be a simple affair.
I decided to remove the covers and drill some holes into them to allow airflow through the unit and strapped a fan to the top cover to pull the hot air out. This worked well however, on both transmit and receive I now had a warbling sound on the audio that was caused by the motor of the fan when powered up.
I found that lifting the fan up away from the case of the radio the warbling audio disappeared and things were back to normal and so, I decided to design a cooling tube to fit to the top of the radio to allow full airflow from the fan but, with the fan raised up away from the radio to resolve the audio problem.
Jumping into my CAD software I quickly designed a cooling tower to fit on the top of the radio that would allow the fan to sit far enough away from the radio so as to not affect the audio whilst at the same time pulling the hot air out of the radio and drawing cooler air in through the bottom of the case.
The cooler worked great with the radio staying cool to the touch and no longer overheating and reducing O/P power.
It’s amazing how much dust and dirt is in the air from all the farming activities going on at the end of our garden and how much of it is sucked in by the cooling fan. Regular cleaning is a must!
The MB7IBW Internet Gateway has been on air since mid June 2026 and has worked well. It spends most of its time connected to either FreeStar or HUBNet with connections to the Matrix Node when we have our nets.
Details on Frequency, CTCSS etc can be found under the MB7IBW menu above.
Sadly the initial interest from local HAMs has now wained and I am mostly the only user of the gateway. I was hoping more people would use it and bring some life to the 2m band, I guess time will tell.
It’s been a fun project and was interesting to go through the callsign allocation process with the RSGB representative. It was much easier than I thought it would be.
I now have all the parts to build another Internet Gateway for the 4m band. Hopefully that may attract some more interest. It’s certainly worth a try!
Yesterday morning I ventured up onto the 20m band and to my surprise, found that the band was open to inter-G, unusually short skip for the 20m band.
Wanting to take advantage of the conditions I kicked off with a QSO with David, MI0AIH in Cookstown Northern Ireland. With 59+ signals both ways, it was like being on 40/60/80m with a crystal clear path between us.
Next was GB0BBF operating POTA GB-0619, again 59 both ways and a really easy contact.
My third contact was with Aled, MW0UPH who was parked up in his car on a hill in North Wales. The path between us was incredibly good. With 59 signals both ways and an FM like arm chair copy, we chatted for a few minutes making the most of the short skip.
Aled very kindly made a quick video of our conversation and sent a copy over to me to watch. It’s always nice to hear what you sound like on the other end.
M0AWS as heard by MW0UPH on the 20m Band
Unfortunately I didn’t think to make a video of the conversation at my end but, it was exactly the same, crystal clear arm chair copy, just like a 2m FM contact.
It was great fun working UK stations on a band that I would normally only ever hear EU and DX stations. It was interesting to note that Inter-G on 40m was really poor at the same time.
I’m sure there are many radio amateurs around the world today who have an old handheld radio sat on the shelf that works perfectly but, has been replaced by a new, shiny, all singing, all dancing model that gets used on a daily basis. I for one have fallen into this trap with the recent purchase of a very nice Wouxun KG-UV9K full duplex 2m and 70cm handheld.
On my shelf there is a cheap Retevis RT85 that gave sterling service for a number of years and even today is ready to continue that service, if only I had a need?
Well now I do!
Currently I have an AllStarLink node running on a RaspberryPi 3b connected to a SHARI device that operates on the 70cm band. This node works great and gives me the ability to chat with people all over the world from my trusty handheld. It does of course also give me access to the weekly Matrix AllStarLink Net that happens on our Matrix node ( 642332 ) every Thursday evening at 20:00 UK time, a great way of bringing the Matrix HAM Radio community together regardless of propagation.
For some time I’ve been wanting to bring another AllStarLink node online so that I can have a connection to HUBNET/FreeNet whilst keeping my current node connected to the Matrix node for our regular daily chats. Since my new Wouxun handheld is a full duplex unit it makes sense to bring a new node up on the 2m band as I can then monitor both at the same time easily. I do have a spare SHARI node however, it’s a UHF only unit and I don’t want another node on the 70cm band. This is where the old Retevis RT85 comes in to play.
The AIOC board really is tiny but, beautifully put together. The four large solder pads on the top and more on the underside are positioned such that the TRS plug solder lugs line up perfectly for soldering. Attempting to do this by hand would be impossible as it’s critical that the spacing between the two connectors matches that of the spacing of the sockets on the radio.
AIOC Solder Jig.
Searching online I found a very handy soldering jig on Github that enables you to hold both the TRS connectors and AIOC board in the perfect position for soldering.
Downloading the .STL file I quickly printed off a solder jig on my Bambu Lab A1 Combo 3D printer and fitted the components into place ready for soldering.
Fitting TRS connectors into the AIOC solder jigFitting AIOC board into the solder jig.
Everything fitted rather snugly into the jig and I soon had the board and connectors soldered together. Test fitting to my Retevis RT85 I found the TRS plugs lined up perfectly and it slid into the sockets with ease.
I then thought about designing a case for the AIOC board so that the bare circuit was nicely protected but, quickly searched online and found that NA6D has already designed a case and made the .STL available publicly for download on Printable.com. I quickly grabbed a copy of the file and punted it off to my 3D printer to get to work on.
3D print NA6D AIOC case.
Once the print was complete I fitted the AIOC board and snapped it together ready for testing.
Fitting the AIOC into the 3D printed case.AIOC case with 2 x TRS connectors in place.AIOC case USB-C view
Now that the AIOC was production ready I moved on to getting the latest version of AllStarLink onto my RaspberryPi 4 that I had taken out of my RadioBerry based shortwave receiver that I am going to upgrade to a Hermes Lite 2 in a later project. The RaspberryPi 4 is perfect for AllStarLink 3, a 64bit app and operating system.
Using the RaspberryPi Imager I pulled the image down onto an SD card and slipped it into my Pi4. ( Instructions on how to do this are on the AllStarLink website here )
Booting the Pi4 for the first time I found that it went through a number of reboot and configuration cycles before it was ready for use.
AIOC connected to the Retevis RT85.AIOC connected to the Retevis RT85.
Once ready I went through all the normal configuration of the Pi4 namely, static IP assignment, timezone config, security, port forwarding etc etc.
Having configured an AllStarLink node for myself and only just a few days ago for another HAM I was pretty familiar with the setup. Wanting to make sure there were no “gotcha’s” I also watched a couple of KM9G’s videos on Youtube to make sure I wasn’t missing anything.
Using the asl-menu command line app as user root I set about configuring Asterisk to work with the AIOC board. Much to my frustration I could not get Asterisk to recognise the AIOC board as an available sound device. I checked and double checked all the settings ensuring that I had selected “AIOC” in the available devices menu but found that Asterisk constantly errored saying it could not find the selected audio device. This went on for a whole day without success and so, I decided to put it to one side and come back to it later, a method I found that often worked.
A couple of days later I revisited the problem and had decided to take a different approach. Rather than continue going through the asl-menu app I decided to drop down to a lower level and go through the asterisk config files in the /etc/asterisk directory.
It wasn’t long before I found a file called res_usbradio.conf. Inside this file was the config for the AIOC board however, it was all commented out which meant it was disabled.
I’m guessing here but, I imagine this is what should get enabled when selecting AIOC in the available devices menu in the asl-menu command line app but, for some reason it doesn’t happen.
[general]
;usb_devices = 1209:7388 ;comma delimited list of usb
;descriptors to allow.
;format vvvv:pppp in hexadecimal
;vvvv=vendor id, pppp=product id
;
;1209:7388 = AIOC (all in one cable)
Above is the disabled configuration which is easily edited to enable the AIOC device as shown below.
[general]
usb_devices = 1209:7388 ;comma delimited list of usb
;descriptors to allow.
;format vvvv:pppp in hexadecimal
;vvvv=vendor id, pppp=product id
;
1209:7388 = AIOC (all in one cable)
Once the updated file had been saved and I restarted Asterisk using systemctl the AIOC burst into life and Asterisk recognised it immediately. The Retevis RT85 switched between TX and RX and I was ready to check out the audio.
Setting the volume levels for both RX and TX via the command line tuning app I connected the node to my already existing node. Sure enough the two nodes connected without error and I was able to send and receive audio between them via the AllStarLink net.
Connecting the new node to the parrot I checked the audio levels to ensure it sounded ok and then connected it to the Matrix node where I had a brief chat with Ben, M8TKK.
All that is left to do now is to 3D print a case for the Pi4 so that it isn’t left naked and at risk of being shorted out on conductive surfaces and it’ll be ready for service.
I also plan to build another AllStarLink node using a 4m band handheld and another AIOC board and then will apply for MB7Ixx callsigns for the two new nodes. This will hopefully help to bring some life to the 2m/4m bands locally and introduce HAM’s both to the weekly Matrix Net and HUBNet/FreeStar via AllStarLink.
I had a fun day on the radio yesterday. It started with the Matrix QO-100 Satellite Impromptu Net at 16:00 BST on 10489.873Mhz. A net that started off as an impromptu event that over the last couple of years has become a weekly staple. Hardly impromptu at all but, we liked the name and so stuck with it.
During the Impromptu net I noticed that my 2m radio was burbling away in the background and that a lot of European repeaters were coming through so, as soon as the net had finished I quickly switched over to my trusty Wouxun KG-UV980PL and started tuning around the 2m band.
2m was alive with repeaters from France, Belgium, The Netherlands and the UK, often beating against each other on the same frequency.
Being near the East Coast and closer to Belgium than I am to many parts of the UK I jumped onto the ON0WV repeater in Bruges. Being S9+ with me I called a few times but, no one came back to me so, I moved on.
Tuning across my Norwich Repeater memory slot I heard two French stations chatting, it was obvious they weren’t on GB3NB as the bell between overs was not the normal chime.
I quickly opened RepeaterBook on my iPhone and searched for repeaters on the same frequency, there are many!
Eventually I worked out that it was ON0HT so I quickly set about loading the repeater settings into the next available radio memory channel. I loaded a few others from The Netherlands at the same time as I was hearing more than normal from that part of the world.
2 French Operators on the ON0HT repeater in Belgium close to the French border.
Having the correct settings in place for the repeater I was now able to call in and have chat with the two stations.
Jean-Claude F5JOX and Didier F6DKO were surprised to hear an English station call in but, were most welcoming. We had a chat for a few minutes exchanging details and commenting on the great conditions. Sadly the conversation was eventually brought to an end as there were so many repeaters on the same frequency it became impossible for me to hear them clearly so, I gave them 73 and went tuning around.
The 2m band was absolutely full of UK and EU repeaters with many beating against each other on the same frequency. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was more of a split between the UK repeater frequencies and the EU allocation. Would certainly make it easier to use the EU repeaters in lift conditions.
Later in the evening Roger G8VLR, Steve M0XVT and I were having one of our Impromptu Nets on the 60m band. Often there are others from the Matrix that join in too but, on this occasion there were just the 3 of us.
I’m acutely aware that we often have listeners to our on air chats as I quite often get emails from SWL’s and licenced HAMs commenting on how much they enjoy our conversations. Yesterday evening was no exception as it turns out that we were once again attracting listeners albeit, unbeknown to us at the time.
Later in the evening Alan, G1SQB sent me a message via the Matrix with a YouTube link to a recording of us on the 60m band from that very same evening made by @KevinOReillyswl.
Yes, that’s yours truly waffling on about satellites as normal.
Kevin O’Reilly is clearly a very active SWL as he has many interesting videos on his Youtube Channel that are worth a look.
I must confess that I’ve never heard of the MLITE-880 receiver before but, after running a search I found it to be quite a popular radio in the SWL community.
There’s a very good review on swling.com that’s worth a read.
The short video above shows it to be a surprisingly good shortwave receiver in a very compact, portable package that’s ideal for listening whilst out and about on camping trips or other outdoor activities.
A big thanks to Kevin O’Reilly for posting the video and letting us see how we sound on the other end.
Checking the ISS pass data I could see it was going to be a good pass for me to listen and so I setup my Wouxun KG-UV980P quad bander on 145.800Mhz to see if I could hear Jack.
Having only a Diamond V2000 vertical antenna, I don’t have the best station for satellite communications however, it has worked well in the past.
Sure enough, as the ISS approached the UK from the South West and reached 2deg above the horizon the signal started coming through. Below is the video I took of the pass.
I ended the video at 6min and 35sec as I thought I’d lost the satellite as it was out to the East over Russia and blocked by farm buildings near my QTH however, once I stopped videoing I remembered to move the VFO down 5Khz and sure enough I was able to hear the ISS right up until the point that Jack signed and ended the QSO.
I really should try to see if I can get some QSO’s via the ISS FM Repeater as the received signal really is very good. Whether the transmitted signal would be as good remains to be seen.
For some time I’ve wanted a full duplex 2m/70cm handheld so I could have a go at working the LEO FM satellites during the summer months from the garden.
Searching through all the handhelds available today I came across the Wouxun KG-UV9K dual band, full duplex VHF/UHF radio.
Since I already own a Wouxun KG-UV980PL Quad bander (6/4/2m & 70cm) I’m familiar with the menu system and the very good build quality so I decided to research it further.
Wouxun KG-UV9K Full Duplex Handheld
Looking at the spec for the handheld it does everything I want and more whilst being reasonably priced.
Jumping onto the Martin Lynch and Sons website I found there were two listings, the radio on its own or the “Pro Pack”.
The radio on its own was £79.00 but, the Pro Pack was only £20 more at £99.00 and came with every option available for the handheld including a programming cable, 2 batteries and a rather nice carry case.
Wouxun KG-UV9K Pro Pack
The full specification and other details for the “Pro Pack” can be found on the ML&S website but, here’s a brief summary:
Pro pack contains:
KG-UV9K Transceiver with 2 antennas
Two batteries Two belt-clips Software and transfer data Cable Fast charger dock and Power Supply Hand speaker mic Battery eliminator Manual Wrist strap Leather case In-car charger SMA-SO239 adaptor Hands-Free kit
Like my Wouxun quad bander the handheld can also be configured as a cross-band repeater, something I’ve not yet found a use for but an interesting feature. Of course being a full duplex radio with two receivers you can listen to signals on 2m and 70cm simultaneously or transmit on one and listen on the other, a feature I’ve wanted for LEO satellite operations.
The radio is really easy to programme using CHIRP and easy to setup via the very logical menu layout. The hand held has a good solid feel to it and I’ve found the battery lasts a good 3-4 days even though I use it to chat with other stations via my AllStarLink node most mornings and the radio is left monitoring all day.
The larger of the two supplied antennas works extremely well having a relatively good gain. I can now easily get into my two local repeaters on 2m & 70cm from within the house, something I’ve never been able to do with my old Retevis RT85 even with a high gain antenna on it.
The receivers in the UV9K are head and shoulders better than that of the Retevis RT85, I’m hearing signals much stronger now and can even get into repeaters that I’ve never even heard on the old Retevis handheld.
The display on the Wouxun is bright and easy to read, even in bright sunshine which is great as I plan to use it outside a lot during the summer months.
The supplied speaker mic gets good unsolicited audio reports on transmit and has clear audio on receive with plenty of volume. The speaker mic doesn’t have any radio control buttons on it sadly, something I really like about the Wouxun UV980PL quad bander as you can control every aspect of the radio without touching the front panel. Would be a nice upgrade for the handheld if it every became available.
Overall I’m really impressed with the Wouxun UV9K Pro Pack. The radio performs very well, comes with every optional extra available and is a bargain at just £99.00.
If you’re looking for a full duplex handheld radio then I recommend you grab the Pro Pack before the offer ends.
I’ve not been on the radio much over the last few weeks as I’ve had my head down other radio related rabbit holes.
One of the rabbit holes is a Node-Red project to make my online logs a little more interactive. For sometime now my logs have been displayed on my website as nicely formatted, searchable HTML pages however, they don’t really allow the viewer (myself included) to see the global coverage of all the contacts so, I decided to write a Node-Red flow that would do just that.
M0AWS Interactive Log Flow
The flow itself isn’t too complicated and basically consists of reading in the individual ADIF formatted log files, processing the data and then sending the data in the correct format to the map node for display.
I’ve had to write a few functions to handle the processing of the ADIF formatted data but, these aren’t particularly complex and are fairly easy to understand even if like me, you’re not a Javascript programmer.
The flow is working perfectly however, I’m in the process of reworking the format generic payload function to reduce the amount of code and make it more efficient.
M0AWS SSB / CW / FreeDV Interactive Log World Map
M0AWS Interactive Log Map Layers Menu
The flow generates two maps, one for voice / CW /Satellite contacts and the other for WSJT-X FT4/8 contacts. Every pin on the map is colour coded by band with satellite contacts being denoted by a satellite icon.
Each pin / icon on the map is clickable and reveals the data of the QSO being displayed.
In the top right-hand corner of the map there is a drop down layermenu that allows the viewer to filter by band thus reducing the number of icons on the screen at any one time.
Seeing the data presented on a map really brings my logs alive. An example of this is that I had no idea I’d worked so many stations in India on the QO-100 Satellite.
The small icons in the pins show a microphone for SSB/FM/FreeDV contacts and a downwards pointing triangle in a box for CW contacts. Sadly I couldn’t find a Morse key icon in the collection available.
M0AWS filtered view of QO-100 Satellite contacts
I only use FT4/8 for testing new antenna designs however, it’s interesting to see the global coverage accomplished with this weak signal mode.
M0AWS WSJT-X FT4/8 Interactive Log World Map
Once I’ve finished rewriting the format generic payload function I will make the flow available for download here so that others can also create an interactive view of their radio logs.
If you want to have a look at the maps and try them out for yourself, they are available under the Logs menu above.
This Node-Red instance is running in a virtual machine (VM) on a 16GB RAM RaspberryPi 5 that is also running a number of other VMs at the same time so, it’s safe to say it’s not heavy on CPU and will run on the older Pi4 as well.
I recently decided to look into a 2m/70cm FM radio for the shack for use on the local 2m/70cm repeaters and was considering the offerings from Yaesu and Icom however, the Wouxun KG UV-980PL caught my eye as it is a quad band, full duplex radio. Not knowing much about Wouxun radios I had to do some research to get an idea of what it’s like. Generally the radio gets very good reviews and most mention the excellent build quality.
There are two versions of the 980P radio, the 980PL that offers 6/4/2m and 70cm bands and the 980P that offers 10/6/2m and 70cm. The 4m is a band I’ve been wanting to try for some time and the 980PL with it’s 4m band coverage became even more appealing.
Wouxun KG UV-980PL Quad Band FM Duplex Transceiver
I decided to take a trip down to Martin Lynch and Sons (MLANDS), a good 2 hours or more drive for me, so that I could get hands on with the radios that I had been looking at.
I invited Alan, G1SQB along for the ride and a day out playing with radios as he lives 3 miles away and we often chat on air.
Arriving at the store we grabbed a hot brew and set about playing with the great selection of radios on display.
I initially looked at the Icom IC-2730E, a dual band full duplex transceiver that has been around for about 10 years and has good reviews. As expected the build quality is excellent and very easy to use. I found I was soon able to set up memories etc via the front panel controls. The only draw back is that it isn’t supported by the CHIRP programming software that I use. Other than that it certainly meets all the requirements for a 2m/70cm FM transceiver
Icom IC-2730E FM Duplex Transceiver
Next I moved on to the offerings from Yaesu including the FTM-500DE 2m/70cm transceiver. The colour screen is very nice and the menu system very easy to use however, the price is getting on for close to double that of the other radios and it doesn’t really offer anything more that interests me since I’m only looking for an analog radio.
Yaesu FTM-500DR dual band FM Transceiver
Sadly there wasn’t a Wouxun UV-980PL out on display and so I had to persuade the salesman to get one out of stock for me to play with. Unpacking the radio I was surprised at how good the build quality is, it really is comparable to the other radios that I had been looking at.
The Wouxun menu system is fairly easy to use once you’ve looked at the manual and got to grips the abbreviations used. The big plus is that this radio is CHIRP compatible with an optional programming cable (£19) and so loading the memories with repeaters etc will be extremely easy.
The Wouxun has dual receivers built in with a quad-plexer so, you can transmit on one band whilst listening to another band on the other receiver. One thing to note is that the 1st receiver covers all the bands, 6/4/2m and 70cm however, the 2nd receiver only covers 2m and 70cm so, it’s not possible to receive 4m and 6m at the same time. The radio also only has one antenna connection on the rear, would had been great if it had one connector for each receiver.
The really good thing about the Wouxun UV-980PL is that it comes with everything you will need, apart from the programming cable!
After much tinkering I decided to purchase the Wouxun KG UV-980PL, a Diamond V2000 6/2m and 70cm antenna plus 20m of Hyperflex-13 coax cable and connectors.
In the box you’ll find two mounting options for the removable head. There is a short connecting cable for use when the head is mounted directly on the radio body and a 5m long connecting cable for mounting the head remotely. This is really useful as I wanted to mount the head on a mic boom arm so that it’s easily accessible and didn’t clutter the desk space in the shack.
Wouxun KG UV-980PL head mounted on a Mic boom arm
Since the radio also comes with the mobile mount I’ve fixed the radio body on the wall behind the PC monitor out the way. This setup has proven to be extremely good as I can see what’s happening on the display at a glance and easily grab the mic if called.
Programming the radio memories is extremely quick and easy using CHIRP. I had the local repeaters and my AllStarLink node frequencies and offsets uploaded to the radio in no time at all and was soon on air.
Programming the memories on the Wouxun UV-980PL using CHIRP
The microphone that comes with the radio is extremely good. You can operate most of the controls on the radio directly from the mic with ease and it has a good feel in the hand. Audio reports have also been very good and there’s no need to change it.
I’ve not yet got the new Diamond V2000 antenna erected but, I’ve been using the radio with my homebrew 2m/70cm end fed vertical dipole and my 4m band end fed vertical dipole and am getting excellent results. I can access all the local repeaters using the lowest power output setting and only have to use the medium/high setting for the repeaters that are further afield.
On the 4m band the radio performs well and I’ve been surprised at the distances I’ve been able to cover even though my 4m antenna is only 6-7m above the ground currently.
A few days after I got the new Wouxun radio there was an ARISS event whereby a group of Girl Guides would be talking to Astronaut Sunita Williams aboard the ISS. This was a great opportunity to test the receive capability of the radio and so I setup ready for the pass. Using just my simple 2m/70cm end fed vertical dipole I got great reception as can be heard in the video below.
Overall I’m extremely pleased with the Wouxun KG UV-980PL quad band radio and considering it’s much cheaper than the offerings from the main radio manufacturers it’s well built and performs extremely well. If you’re looking for a simple, analog FM radio for 6/4/2m/70cms then you can’t beat it!
Following this a number of girl guides posed questions which were very quickly answered as the ISS passed overhead.
Using my new Wouxun UV-980PL and simple end-fed vertical dipole I got a great signal from the ISS HAM radio station and was able to receive the ISS side of the conversation as the space station approached the N/W Coast of Spain until it eventually dropped below the horizon out of site nearing East Russia.
Below is a short video clip with audio showing the clarity of reception. The ISS peaked at an S9 signal, it was a perfect pass for the special event.
I’m hoping to put up a better antenna for 2/4/6m & 70cm in the next few days so that I can start joining the local nets on these bands and perhaps get contacts through a few more of the FM Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
I’ll also be writing a full article on the Wouxun KG UV-980PL in the very near future, so if this radio is of interest to you then watch this space.
Please note: This build is now deprecated and will no longer work. Please use the new AllStarLink 3 build process as documented on the AllStarLink website.
We’ve recently added a new room to the Matrix HAM Radio Space for Digital Voice modes as this was an area of interest that didn’t really fit into any of the other rooms.
The new Digital Voice room has attracted a lot of attention from members, with a lot of the focus being on the AllStarLink system. Michael, DK1MI built an AllStarLink node in the cloud for us all to use for Matrix Nets and so I decided I had to get in on the fun.
Jumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface Front Panel ViewJumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface Rear ViewJumbospot SHARI SA818 Amateur Radio AllStarLink Radio Interface stripped down View
The two USB connectors on the SHARI device are position such that they plug into two of the available 4 USB ports on the RaspberryPi without the need for cables. This keeps the whole solution together in one neat package.
Before you start you will need to obtain a node number and secret (password) from the AllStarLink Portal. To get this you will need to provide proof to the AllStarLink administrators that you are a licensed Amateur Radio (HAM) operator. This is done by uploading a copy of the first page of your HAM licence to the website for the admin team to check. This can take 24hrs to be completed so make sure you get this all done before trying to build your node. You cannot build a node successfully without a node number and secret.
Of course you will also need a transceiver that can operate on the 438.800Mhz frequency or other frequency of your choice on the 2m or 70cm HAM band.
You will also need to open port 4569 on your internet router and setup port forwarding to the IP Address that you will be using on your RaspberryPi node. It’s important to use a static IP Address on your RaspberryPi.
There are quite a few different Linux based operating system (O/S) images that are available for the RaspberryPi devices that have been specifically tailored for the AllStarLink node and include all the necessary software and library packages out the box.
Once downloaded you need to burn the ISO image onto a suitable SD card for your RaspberryPi. I use BalenaEtcher as it’s extremely quick and reliable at burning ISO images to SD cards.
Of course if you are a hardline Linux command line junkie you can always use dd to create the SD card.
Once you’ve got your O/S onto your SD card, slot it into your RaspberryPi making sure your SHARI device is connected to the two USB ports and then power it up. Make sure you have a good PSU for the RaspberryPi as the two devices together draw around 3A of current during the transmit cycle. (I use a 3.6A PSU from Amazon).
The default login for the Raspbian O/S is shown below. Login via SSH and configure your RaspberryPi for your local network. It’s important to use a static IP Address configured either directly on the RaspberryPi or via DHCP in your router.
Next you need to change directory into the asterisk config file directory using the command shown below:
cd /etc/asterisk
In this directory you will find all the default config files that come as part of the distro. For this build we’re not going to use them and so we need to move them out of the way ready for a set of config files that have already been configured correctly.
Using the following commands create a new directory, move into that new directory and then move all the unwanted configuration files into it:
mkdir ORIGINAL-CONF-FILES
cd ./ORIGINAL-CONF-FILES
mv ../*.conf ./
ls -la
cd ../
You should now be back in the /etc/asterisk directory which will now be empty apart from the custom directory which we left in place.
You now need to copy the correctly configured configuration files into the /etc/asterisk directory. Start by downloading the zip file containing the new configuration files
Download removed as deprecated.
Once downloaded, copy the .zip file into the repeater users home directory (/home/repeater) using either scp on the Linux command line or if using Windows you can use the FileZilla Client in SFTP mode using the login details above.
Once you have the .zip file in the repeater user’s home directory you need to copy the file into the /etc/asterisk directory as user root:
Next as user root, change directory into the /etc/asterisk directory and unzip the .zip file:
cd /etc/asterisk
unzip ./AllStarLink-Config-v3.zip
Once the file is unzipped you will have a directory called AllStarLink-Config in the /etc/asterisk directory. You now need to cd into the directory, copy all the files out of it into the /etc/asterisk directory leaving a copy in the AllStarLink-Config directory for future reference:
cd /etc/asterisk/AllStarLink-Config
cp ./* /etc/asterisk
cd /etc/asterisk
You now need to move a couple of files into the repeater users home directory using the following commands:
The gpioBASH script and configuration details were supplied by Mark, G1INU in the Digital Voice room on the Matrix. It adds the COS light functionality to the setup. The COS light will now light every time the SA818 hears RF on the input.
The next thing you need to do is configure the SA818 radio device in the SHARI. The script I used was originally from https://wiki.fm-funknetz.de/doku.php?id=fm-funknetz:technik:shari-sa818 all I’ve done is change the entries to switch off CTCSS and change the frequency to 438.800Mhz. Configuring the SA818 is done by running the SA818-running.pyPython programme that you moved into the repeater user home directory. Making sure you are still user root, run the following commands:
cd /home/repeater
./SA818-running.py
At this point your SHARI SA818 device will be configured to operate on 438.800Mhz and CTCSS will be disabled.
If you want to change the frequency or enable and set a CTCSS tone to access the node you will need to edit the Python programme using your favourite text editor and change the entries accordingly. Once changed rerun the program as shown above and your SHARI will be reconfigured to your new settings.
Next you need to move the allmon.ini.php file into the correct directory so that it enables access to the Allstar Monitor web page on the device so that you can manage connecting/disconnecting nodes. Use the following commands as user root to achieve this:
The allmon.ini.php file needs to have your node name entered into it to work correctly. As user root, change directory and edit the file using your favourite editor.
cd /var/www/html/allmon2
Using your text editor, search for the line starting [XXXXX] and change the XXXXX to your node number. Save the change and exit the file.
At this point you are almost complete, all that is left to do is add your node number and node secret into the appropriate configuration files in the /etc/asterisk directory.
Since I am a Linux command line junkie I use vi to edit all the configuration files on the command line as user root, but you can use any editor of your choice.
cd /etc/asterisk
Start with the extensions.conf file. Search for the line starting with NODE = and delete the XXXXX entry and insert your node number. Save the file and exit it.
Next you need to edit the iax.conf file. This time search for the line starting with register= and change the XXXXX for your node number and the YYYYYYYYYYYY for your node secret. Be careful not to accidentally delete any other characters in the lines otherwise it will corrupt the configuration file.
In the same file search for the two lines that start with secret = and change the YYYYYYYYYYYY for your node secret. Once you have changed both of the secret entries, save and exit the file.
The final file to edit is the rpt.conf file. Once again open the file using your favourite editor and search for the line starting with XXXXX = radio@127.0.0.1:4569/XXXXX, change the XXXXX entries for your node number making sure not to delete any other characters next to the XXXXX entries.
Further down in the same file there is a line that starts with [XXXXX], once again change the XXXXX for your node number making sure to keep the square brackets at each end of the node number as you edit it.
Finally move down to the very bottom of the file and find the two lines that start with /home/repeater/gpio, once again change the XXXXX entries for your node number.
The final thing to change in the rpt.conf file is to replace my callsign with your own callsign so that the node identifies itself correctly. Scroll through the file until you find the two lines shown below, delete M0AWS and add your own callsign instead making sure you keep all the spaces between words as shown below.
idrecording = |i DE M0AWS
idtalkover = |i DE M0AWS
Once this is done, save and exit the file. At this point your node should be fully configured and will only require a reboot to get it working.
As user root, reboot your raspi using the reboot command.
reboot
Once your raspi comes back online, login using SSH as user repeater and then become root user using the sudo command detailed above.
You now need to create the admin user password for the Allstar Monitor web page on the device. This is done using the following commands as user root:
cd /var/www/html/allmon2
htpasswd -c .htpasswd admin
You will be asked to enter a password twice for the admin user. Make sure you make a note of this user/password as you will need it to login to the web page.
Finally check that the controlpanel.ini.php file is in the /var/www/html/allmon2 directory:
ls -la /var/www/html/allmon2/controlpanel.ini.php
If the file isn’t shown in the directory, enter the following commands to create the file in the correct place as user root and then exit the SSH session:
cd /var/www/html/allmon2
cp ./controlpanel.ini.txt ./controlpanel.ini.php
cd
exit
Once this is done your configuration is complete, logout from the terminal session by entering exit once more and your SSH session will terminate.
Using your favourite web browser enter the IP Address of your raspi into the URL bar as shown below:
http://<Your-Raspi-IP>/allmon2
Note: remove the <> from the URL once you have entered the required information.
Once this is done you should be presented with your node control panel as shown below.
First visit to the AllStar Monitor Web Page
Login using Admin and the password you set above and you are now ready to start using your node.
It’s a good idea to connect to node 55553 which is a parrot test node to check your audio levels. You can do this by entering the node into the field at the top left and pressing the connect button.
M0AWS AllStarLink Node 61928 connected to 55553 Parrot
Once connected, tune your radio to 438.800Mhz FM and transmit a test message using your callsign and test123, or something similar. The parrot will then play your recording back to you so that you can hear how you sound. It will also comment on your audio level as to whether it is OK or not.
You are now connected to AllStarLink network and have the world at your finger tips. Below is a small list of nodes in the UK, Australia and America to get you started chatting with other HAMs via your node.
57881 Matrix HAM Radio Space AllStarLink Node (Hosted by Dk1MI)
55553 ASL Parrot for testing
41522 M0HOY HUBNet Manchester, UK
60349 VK6CIA 439.275 Perth, Western Australia
51077 VK6SEG South West Hub B Albany WA
2167 M0JKT FreeSTAR UK HUB 2 freestar.network
53573 NWAG NW AllStar Group Lancashire, UK
27339 East Coast Hub Wilmington NC USA
M0AWS AllStarLink Node 61928 sitting on the equipment rack
Thanks to Michael, DK1MI for building and hosting the Matrix HAM Radio Space AllStarLink Node (57881) and getting us all started in the world of AllStarLink!
We hope to be having regular Matrix Net’s on the node soon for all Matrix members and visitors. We’ll organise days/times via the Digital Voice room.
More soon …
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