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!
I’ve recently built a new AllStarLink (ASL) node for my MB7IBW gateway that I have recently brought up on air on the 2m band.
AllStarLink 3 has a lot of changes in it when compared to the previous version and this of course impacts my Node-Red Control Dashboard that I’ve been using to manage my first ASL node for well over a year now.
To build the node I used the RaspberryPi imager and added the AllStarlink 3 image as detailed on the allstarlink.org website.
Installing the system this way makes it pretty easy compared to previous installs but, it comes with some quirks which cause issues with Node-Red.
From the outset the plan has always been to have AllStartLink 3 and Node-Red running on the same Pi4 to keep it totally self contained. This was easy enough to achieve and works without issue.
Node-Red Control Dashboard for AllStarLink 3
Installing Node-Red onto a Pi4 is really easy and is fully documented on the Node-Red Website.
Once the AllStarLink 3 operating system was installed on my SD card, booted and operational I installed Node-Red. I soon realised that there were a few things I had to do before loading the Node-Red flow.
AllStarLink 3 no longer logs connect and disconnect messages in the connectlog like it did in AllStarLink 2. To get logging working again I had to create two new BASH scripts as detailed below and put them into /etc/asterisk/myscripts.
For the connect information I created the BASH script as detailed below.
Next I disabled the temporary filesystems that are used by default for the apache and asterisk logging as it’s useful to keep the apache logs for debugging and I needed the asterisk logs for the Node-Red dashboard.
Disabling the temporary file system is very easy to do, just edit the /etc/fstab and comment out the two lines as shown below.
# Comment out the next line for persistent Apache logs
#tmpfs /var/log/apache2 tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=0775,size=32M 0 0
# Comment out the next line for persistent Asterisk logs
#tmpfs /var/log/asterisk tmpfs defaults,noatime,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=0775,size=32M,uid=102,gid=106 0 0
# Note: These lines are wrapped, should be on 1 line in the /etc/fstab
Once the entries in the /etc/fstab were commented out I rebooted the Pi4 to get persistent filesystems.
The final thing that had to be done was to allow user repeater to use sudo without a password so that it could be used to perform reboot/shutdown/process restart as user root from within the dashboard.
# /etc/sudoers
# Allow repeater sudo without password
repeater ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
Once this was all done I imported the Node-Red flow, configured the SSH nodes with login credentials for the Pi4 (important to use the user repeater for SSH), clicked deploy and the dashboard was ready for use.
Node Red AllStarLink3 Control Dashboard Flow
I’ve been using the dashboard for a few weeks now and it’s running perfectly, without error.
If you want to build your own Node-Red Control Dashboard for your AllStarLink 3 node then, just download the flow using the button below and import it into your flow editor.
I’ve spent some time this afternoon modifying my Node-Red Dashboard for controlling AllStarLink nodes to work with the new AllStarLink version 3.
My original AllStarLink Control Dashboard was designed to work with AllStarLink 2 which I have running on an old RaspberryPi 3b on the 70cm band. The dashboard has worked reliably ever since deployment and is in use daily.
With the release of AllStarLink 3 and all the changes that it entails I’ve had to make a few changes to the dashboard flows in order to make it compatible with AllStarLink 3 nodes.
This entails not only flow changes but also the addition of two new bash scripts that are called by Asterisk to log connect and disconnect messages as they are not logged by default any more. (Seems a bit of a step backwards)
Node-Red AllStarLink Control Dashboard v3.0 for ASL3
The changes also entail disabling the temporary filesystems used by default in the new ASL3 build so that log files etc become persistent.
I’ll spend some time using the new dashboard to ensure it’s working correctly and then will release it into the wild for all those that are brave enough to move over to AllStarLink 3.
The articles I write for the blog are mostly technical but, I thought it was about time that I wrote this article as it’s been buzzing around inside my head for some time now.
So, what are the 5 things that I have found revolutionary in my shack that have brought new, exciting ideas and projects to life making amateur radio more enjoyable.
1: A RaspberryPi Single Board Computer
RaspberryPi 5 Single Board Computer
Ever since the first RaspberryPi Single Board Computer (SBC) was released I’ve been a huge fan. This little credit card sized number cruncher has been the base for so many projects, it has to be the first on my list.
The RaspberryPi SBC has been through a few iterations since its initial conception and is now powerful enough to take on most tasks that any radio HAM is going to throw at it.
So, what have I done with them?
Well I’ve used them to run Node-Red services for my many web app dashboards that control things like my QO-100 Satellite Ground Station, UPS power monitoring, Internet speed graphs, server and virtual machine monitoring, AllStarLink nodes, hosting websites, building an SDR shortwave receiver, running HAM Clock / Open HAM Clock, developing my own software, hosting virtual machines and a whole host of other fun and interesting things. I’m even writing this article using my RaspberryPi 500+ computer that is my daily desktop PC.
There are an endless number of things you can do with a RaspberryPi to bring new life and functionality to your radio hobby.
Want to get into Amateur TV? Want to decode digital modes real time? Want to track aircraft in the sky real time on a virtual radar screen? Want to search the shortwave bands for stations of interest? Want to host your own blog and website?
All these things and a lot more are easily within reach with a RaspberryPi.
The RaspberryPi is only limited by your imagination, the more imaginative you are the more your number crunching little friend will do.
2: A 3D Printer
Bambu Lab A1 Combo 3D Printer
Every HAM should have a 3D printer. These manufacturing marvels bring a new level of quality, design and simplicity to your HAM radio projects. I’ve found it incredibly useful since venturing into the rabbit hole that is 3D printing. When I think back to the weeks and months of my life I’ve spent making cabinets and boxes out of sheet metal, aluminium or wood for the numerous projects I’ve built over the years, a 3D printer would had made my life so much easier. 3D printing has revolutionised the making of things for the Amateur Radio home brewer.
There’s a multitude of useful things on websites like Printables, Thingiverse , Makerworld and others where you can just download the files and print high quality designs for all those things you’ve wanted to do but, don’t have the time or inclination to craft by hand.
The real satisfaction with 3D printing comes from designing your own things and making them. My first project was to design and print a fan cooling system for my Xiegu XPA125B amplifier.
From the factory the amp is passively cooled and doesn’t take long for the heat-sink to become saturated resulting in a high operating temperature. I was never happy with this and so was determined to resolve the problem.
Getting to grips with TinkerCAD was a bit of a vertical learning curve but, after a few mistakes and design mishaps I soon had it under my belt and pressed on with designing the cooler unit.
Designing the Xiegu XPA125b cooling system using tinkerCAD.
It’s not until you start designing and manufacturing things that you suddenly realise how much effort goes into them but, I persevered and over the period of about a week or so I had a perfectly fitting, operational cooling system that kept the amp super cool regardless of how long I waffled on for on the HF bands.
Once you’ve got your first design made you suddenly find yourself wanting to improve it and add things. In my case this was adding a Hermes Lite 2 holder to the top of the amp cooler and then a top shelf to hold my cross needle SWR and power meter.
Since then I’ve progressed massively with my designs and have even designed and printed things for other HAMs and family members, it’s totally addictive!
I can highly recommend the Bambu Lab A1 Combo (As shown above). It’s a quality piece of equipment that has operated faultlessly since purchase. Right now it’s printing a case for my RaspberryPi 4, just one of the many projects I’ve used it for since becoming a happy owner.
RaspberryPi 4 case from printables.com
Go on, release your inner creativity and treat yourself to a 3D printer, you won’t regret it and it’ll help you bring to life all of those radio projects you’ve dreamt of doing but, never got round to starting.
3: An AllStarLink Node
M0AW AllStarLink Node 61928 sitting on the equipment rack
Many people say that using VOIP over the internet isn’t real radio, I know because I used to be one of those people however, it has become an invaluable resource for keeping in touch with people all over the world.
Being part of an online HAM Radio Community it’s important that as a group we are able to talk to each other regardless of where we live, what bands we have access to and whether there is any propagation.
The AllStarLink (ASL) network gives global FM quality audio no matter where you are in the world. We use it daily for our breakfast net, general chatter throughout the day and even hold a weekly Matrix ASL Net on a Thursday evening.
Using our VHF/UHF handhelds (Real Radios!) and an easy to make AllStarLink Node we’re able to join in with the conversation regardless of propagation, licence type or distance, it really is great for bringing people together.
With devices like the SHARI and AIOC board now being readily available for minimal cost it really is very easy to get onto the AllStarLink network and talk to people even if you live in an antenna restricted location.
Why be alone when you can use the Matrix ASL node ( 642332 ) and join in the conversation.
4: Node-Red
M0AWS – Updated NodeRed QO-100 Dashboard with PTT button
Node-Red is a low-code programming tool for event-driven applications.
Node-RED’s goal is to enable anyone to build applications that collect, transform and visualise their data; building flows that can automate their world. Its low-code nature makes it accessible to users of any background, whether for home automation, industrial control systems or anything in between.
I’ve been using Node-Red for a number of years now and have developed a suite of web app’s that control and monitor just about every aspect of my Amateur Radio hobby and IT infrastructure.
Node-Red forms an integral part of my QO-100 Satellite Ground Station providing control of both the uplink and down link radios whilst synchronising the VFO’s, controlling filter selection and more, all from one simple to use interface using nothing more than a web browser.
It doesn’t stop there, my AllStarLink (ASL) nodes are also managed through a user friendly Node-Red Dashboard that removes all the need for technical know how and makes ASL node management as simple as clicking on a button to connect or disconnect to the many global networks.
Much of this functionality is achieved without writing a single line of code. If you can use a mouse, drag and drop objects on the screen you can develop Node-Red web app’s, it really is that easy.
M0AWS Interactive Log Flow
It doesn’t end there, Node-Red is great for presenting data in easy to digest formats.
Whether it be HAM Radio Log data presented on an interactive world map or monitoring of your server, RaspberryPi, virtual machine or UPS using gauges and graphs, this can all be achieved easily with nothing more than a mouse. There’s no need to spend hours writing thousands of lines of code, just drag and drop a few nodes onto the screen and join them up. You’ll be amazed how easy it is.
I believe every Amateur Radio enthusiast should have Node-Red available in their radio shack. It’s easy to install on your RaspberryPi 4 or 5, Linux or Windows PC and Apple Mac with the same great functionality available on all platforms.
Once you’ve developed your first web app you’ll suddenly find a million more ideas will come into your head and before you know it, you’ll be where I am today with Node-Red at the centre of your radio hobby.
5: A Hermes Lite 2 HF SDR Transceiver
For years I used black box HF radios from the big 3 manufacturers along with the odd radio from the smaller enterprises like TenTec but, they all had their foibles and there was often nothing I could do about it.
My last acquisition from the big 3 was a Yaesu FTDX10, a competent hybrid SDR radio with a good receiver however, the menu system is terrible, the button layout not much better and the user experience not as good as it could be. Of course the software is closed source so there is nothing you can do about it. The radio did its job but, it wasn’t fun to use, it wasn’t what I really wanted and it didn’t put a smile on my face.
I looked at moving to software defined radios (SDR) but, with prices in the many thousands of pounds bracket and the software being closed source I came to the conclusion that they wouldn’t give me what I really wanted either.
So what was it that I was searching for?
Thinking long and hard about it I came to the conclusion that what I really wanted was a radio that gave me the same satisfaction that OpenSource software has given me for decades, namely an HF radio that I have complete control over, from the hardware through to the software and everything in between.
I wanted something that I could tailor to my exact needs. Something that was built using open hardware and open software, something where if I wasn’t happy with it I could change it, improve it and do the things I wanted with it.
At this point my search for the ideal radio headed in a completely different direction.
Xiegu XPA125b Cooler with Hermes Lite 2 cradle – front view
The Hermes Lite 2 SDR HF Transceiver (HL2) has been around for a number of years. I was first introduced to it by Michael, DK1MI and then Roger, G8VLR via the Matrix. Both Michael and Roger use the HL2 on a regular basis and have often waxed lyrical about how good it is.
Being designed by radio amateurs for radio amateurs it’s based on an open architecture from the ground up. Being an OpenSource junky this really appealed to me and as I looked deeper into it from both a hardware and software point of view I soon realised that it had the potential to be exactly what I was looking for.
It wasn’t long before I found myself on the Makerfabs website placing an order for the HL2 mainboard, filter board, I/O board and case. A couple of weeks later it arrived and I dived head first into the SDR rabbit hole.
2 years later and the HL2 has become my main HF radio in the shack. Partnered with a Xiegu XPA125B amplifier and PiHPSDR software running on my Kubuntu Linux PC it is everything I have been looking for in an HF radio.
I’ve made modifications to the software to suit my operating style and needs with the user interface being exactly how I want it, no unnecessary buttons or knobs, just the controls that I use on a daily basis cleanly placed in a logical, easy to use layout, the way I want it.
My understanding of software defined radio and how it works has improved a hundred fold. Having access to the software and being able to go through the code and understand the architecture has been an interesting journey and one that has enhanced my radio enjoyment considerably. I now have a smile on my face every time I go on air.
Do I miss the FTDX10?
No, not in the slightest!
So, those are the 5 things that I feel have revolutionised my radio amateur hobby and made it a more enjoyable experience. I’m sure over time I will add to this list as I venture down future rabbit holes in our wonderful radio hobby.
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.
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 written an article on the blog for a while now mainly because I’ve not had anything interesting to write about.
Today that changed, as I had a fun little project to dive into.
Steve, M0XVT sent me his Pluto+ SDR transceiver after his rather unsuccessful attempt at updating the firmware. Long story short, he somehow managed to brick the Pluto+ rendering it completely useless.
Not having a Pluto+ myself I’ve never actually played with one before and so this was new and exciting. I have, however played with Steve’s LibreSDR which is a later iteration of the Pluto+ and so, I had an idea of what I was getting into.
Firstly, how do you know when you have bricked your Pluto+?
Fortunately the Pluto+ device is actually quite clever and will inform you when it is bricked. The first sign you will notice is that you can no longer connect to the device using a USB connection to the data socket. The second sign is that when you take the top off the case you’ll notice that the blue LED is off and the green LED is on constantly. These are both classic signs that the device is bricked and needs rescuing
So, how do we rescue a bricked Pluto+?
Firstly, disconnect all cables and power to the device, it needs to be in a powered down state. Next remove the top of the case completely.
Unlike the LibreSDR the Pluto+ doesn’t boot from SD card so, we have to tell it that we want to boot it from an SD card. This is done by shorting the 3v3 and SD-H pins together using a jumper as shown in the photo below. (Black Jumper)
Pluto+ 3v3 and SD-H pins shorted together by black jumper
I believe that the v1 version of the Pluto+ has 1.8v instead of 3.3v, if this is the case on your device just short the SD-H pin to the 1v8 pin instead.
Next we need to make sure that the URST pin is connected to the MIO46 pin as shown by the green jumper in the image above. I put the jumper into this position as I am going to be using firmware that has ethernet support built in. If you want to load the official firmware then you will need to connect the URST pin to the MIO52 pin instead.
Next we need to load the new firmware onto an appropriate SD card. I’m using the F5OEO firmware that has ethernet support with DHCP built in. You can get the firmware from this Github link.
Whilst the firmware is downloading, insert your SD card into your PC and format it using a FAT32 filesystem.
Once the firmware has downloaded, unzip the file and save the contents of the zip file to a directory. Using your favourite file manager or in the case of a Linux junkie like me, the command line, copy the contents of the sdimg folder into the root of the SD card.
Note: That’s copy of the contents of the sdimg folder, not the folder itself.
Make sure to eject your SD card safely before removing it from your PC to ensure you don’t corrupt the contents.
Insert the SD card into the Pluto+ (it’s still powered down at this point with the top off).
Plug the USB A end of the USB cable into your PC but, do not plug the micro USB end into the Pluto+ just yet!
Now this is the tricky part, you need to hold down the DFU Button on the Pluto+ PCB (It’s behind the professor image on the PCB) whilst inserting the micro-USB plug into the DATA port of the Pluto+.
Once you see that the green and blue LED lights come on permanently, let go of the DFU Button and let the Pluto+ boot from the SD card. A short while afterwards the green LED should start flashing, this means your Pluto+ is alive again and has booted from the SD card.
At this point it’s important not to unplug the USB cable and not to remove the SD card from the device, we’re only half way there!
After a little more time the Pluto+ will appear in your file manager as a drive called PlutoSDR, navigate to this drive using your favourite file manager.
At the same time, open another window in your file manager and navigate to the folder where you saved the files from the Zip file. In this directory you will see the following two files:
boot.frm
pluto.frm
Copy these two files from the directory where you saved them into the root of the PlutoSDR drive.
Once this is complete, eject the PlutoSDR drive safely.
The green LED will now start blinking, don’t do anything, just leave everything as it is and the device will now create a new boot image on it’s own built in storage.
This process will take about 5mins so, go grab a cold beer, glass of wine or anything else that takes your fancy, sit back and relax.
Eventually the green LED will stop flashing, wait another minute or so for the process to fully complete.
If the PlutoSDR drive has reappeared in your file manager, safely remove the drive from your file manager and unplug the micro USB connector from the Pluto+ powering it down.
It’s now important to remove the 3v3 to SD-H jumper as we no longer need to boot from SD card.
You can now refit the top cover and the 4 screws and put the case back together. Connect an ethernet cable and micro USB cable to the DATA port and wait.
After about 10-15 seconds the green LED should flash and your Pluto+ is now no longer bricked and ready for use once more.
You can SSH to your Pluto+ using the normal Linux SSH command logging in as root with a password of analog.
If you have PiHPSDR installed and compiled with the SOAPYSDR library and modules (See my article on how to do this easily) you can now start it and connect to your Pluto+ device as normal.
Steve’s rescued Pluto+ receiving a signal on the 70cm band
This same procedure can be used on Linux, Mac, Windows and RaspberryPi, it is not platform dependent.
If you want your Pluto+ to always boot from the SD card, you can leave the 3v3 pin connected to the SD-H pin permanently.
v2.0 comes with a bunch of new functionality that I think many will find useful. I’ve added a Manual Node Connect section that provides the functionality to enter a node number and connect to it, something I wanted to have from the outset but, saved for the second release.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Manual Node Connect View
I’ve also updated the the Hubs/Repeaters section so that it provides better global coverage of the AllStarLink network with new nodes in Australia, South Africa and the USA added to the default set.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Hubs/Repeaters View
In the Personal Nodes section of the app I’ve added my own node so, if you do download the app and use it, please connect to my node and say hello! I’d love to hear from people that are using the app and get your feedback.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Personal Nodes View
In the Test Nodes section there are now two parrot nodes for audio testing. iParrott is still my favourite however, I’ve also added the HubNet parrot as a second option.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Test Nodes View
There’s now a new ASL Information section that provides direct access to the network bubble map for your node, a keyed nodes list (Useful for finding nodes that are being used right now), an Active Nodes List and the Full Nodes List for the ASL network. Having access to this information means there really is no need to access Allmon/Supermon to find this information as it’s all available via the app.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Information View
Finally, the Manage Node section of the app also gets an update with the addition of a Disconnect All Nodes button. This comes in handy when you’re connected to a bunch of nodes and need to clear down quickly.
M0AWS AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 Manage Node View
As you can see there’s been quite a few changes to the app providing some new functionality whilst updating the previous version to make it even more useful. You can download the AllStarLink Control Dashboard v2.0 flow below.
To import the flow, open the Node-RED flow editor and import the flow from the burger menu. Once imported, double click the Get ASL Node Number node at the top of the flow, delete the credentials and then create new credentials for connecting to your RaspberryPi/SHARI AllStarLink node. Then go to each blue BigSSH Node in the flow and select your new credentials entry in the drop down list. Once this is done deploy the flow and you’re ready to go.
Note: If you have a v1.x version of the app already running you will need to either delete the flow or disable it by disabling all the trigger (inject) nodes and deploying so that the old and new apps aren’t trying to control the ASL node at the same time.
For more detailed information on how to deploy the app (v1.x/v2.0) from scratch please see my original article for the v1.0 deployment as it covers everything you will need to know.
Thanks to Steve, M0XVT for his help testing v2.0 of the AllStarLink Control Dashboard and getting it out into the wild so quickly.
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!
I’ve been working on squashing some bugs in my Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard with the help of Steve, M0XVT which has resulted in a new version of the flow now being available for download below.
If you’re reading this and aren’t too sure what it is all about then, have a look at my original article detailing the Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard that I developed and wrote about back in September 2024 and hopefully it’ll all make sense.
This new version of the flow resolves an issue whereby the dashboard used an incorrect node number for the node it connects to resulting in it not working unless a piece of code was changed. The update was a simple change to add a couple of nodes that connect to the RaspberryPi and read the Asterisk/AllStarLink node number from the asterisk configuration files at startup.
Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard v1.2 additional sub flow
I also fixed another bug whereby the buttons could show a false connect on a button when the user connects to another node via AllMon2/Supermon instead.
This flow no longer has the blue spare button as it now connects to a node in Melbourne Australia.
Node-RED AllStarLink Control Dashboard v1.2
You can download the new, v1.2 updated flow below and import it to your Node-RED flow editor using the standard import tool from the burger menu in the flow editor.
Huge thank you to Steve, M0XVT for his patience and testing skills during the debugging and testing of the fixes to the flow.
More soon …
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