I’ve been active on QO-100 for a few days now and I have to admit that I’m really pleased with the way the ground station is performing. I’m getting a good strong, quality signal into the satellite along with excellent audio reports from my Icom IC-705 and the standard fist mic.
I’m very pleased with the performance of the NooElec v5 SDR receiver that I’m now using in place of the Funcube Dongle Pro+ SDR receiver. Being able to see the entire bandwidth of the satellite transponder on the waterfall in the GQRX SDR software is a huge plus too.
M0AWS QO-100 Satellite Log map showing contacts as of 23/06/23
As can be seen on the map of contacts above, I’ve worked some interesting stations on some of the small islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The signals from these stations are incredibly strong on the satellite and an easy armchair copy.
DX of note are ZD7GWM on St. Helena Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, PP2RON and PY2WDX in Brazil, 8Q7QC on Naifaru Island in the Maldives, VU2DPN in Chennai India, 5H3SE/P in Tanzania Africa and 3B8BBI/P in Mauritius.
There are many EU stations on the satellite too and quite a few regular nets of German and French stations. I’ve not plucked up the courage to call into the nets yet, perhaps in the future.
There are a lot of very experienced satellite operators on QO-100 with a wealth of information to share. I’ve learnt a lot just from chatting with people with some conversations lasting well over 30mins, a rarity on the HAM bands today.
We also had our first Matrix QO-100 Net this week, an enjoyable hour of chat about all things radio and more. We have a growing community of Amateur Radio enthusiasts from around the world on the Matrix Chat Network with a broad spectrum of interests. If you fancy joining a dynamic community of radio enthusiasts then just click the link to download a chat client and join group.
I’ve been making a few improvements to my QO-100 Node Red Dashboard whilst waiting for the 2.4Ghz hardware to arrive. I’ve added the ability to split the RX and TX VFOs so that I can tune away from the TX frequency for working split stations or for tuning to slightly off frequency stations. I also added a series of tuning buttons to the top of the GQRX side of the dashboard to enable easy tuning using the trackball connected to my Kubuntu PC. This worked well but, I really missed having a real VFO knob like a conventional radio.
As I had a Griffin Powewrmate USB VFO from a previous SDR radio I added it to the flow as well so that I had a physical VFO knob for the SDR receiver. Details on how I got it working using evtest and a simple BASH script are in the Griffin Powermate article.
M0AWS QO-100 Node Red Dashboard Flow
The Node Red flow is looking a little busier with the addition of split mode and the Griffin Powermate USB VFO which has really enhanced the useability of the solution. It’s very impressive what can be achieved with Node Red with a little imagination. You really don’t need to be a heavy weight programmer to make things work.
M0AWS QO-100 Node Red Dashboard as of 07/06/23
I also put together some code to calculate the S Meter reading from the dBFS data the GQRX SDR software generates. It’s not 100% accurate but, it’s close enough to be useful.
On the IC-705 side of the Dashboard I also now display the 2.4Ghz uplink frequency so that it’s available for logging.
So with the QO-100 Dashboard ready to go live I have now started putting together the 2.4Ghz transmit path of the ground station. I have the 2.4Ghz transverter and matching 12w amplifier from DXPatrol, the IceCone Helix 2.4Ghz antenna from Nolle Engineering, some LMR-400-UF and connectors from Barenco and an appropriate water proof enclosure from Screwfix to fit all the kit into however, I’m now being held up by one simple little SMA male to SMA male connector that I need to connect the transverter and amp together.
M0AWS Waterproof enclosure from ScrewfixM0AWS Laying out the 2.4Ghz TX kit in the enclosureM0AWS LMR-400-UF coax from Barenco
The SMA connector has been ordered but, is taking a month of Sundays to arrive! Hopefully it’ll arrive soon and I’ll finally get on the QO-100 satellite and start enjoying the fun.
Over the years I’ve built many multi band vertical HF antennas including multi-element quarter wave verticals like the DXCommander configuration, multiple end fed vertical dipoles all on the same pole and a host of other configurations. As with all multi band antennas there’s always a compromise, on some bands it performs well and on others it doesn’t, it’s the nature of the beast.
For some time now I’ve been using a multi band vertical antenna that has over the last year performed incredibly well on all bands from 80m to 10m. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not perfect however, it has out performed every other multi band HF vertical I’ve tried to date even though it’s by far the simplest antenna design and according to the antenna modelling software I have it shouldn’t be as good as it is.
So what is this magical multi band HF vertical I speak of? Well it’s nothing more than a piece of wire 13.4m long taped up a 12.4m vertical Spiderpole with 1m of wire tucked down into the top of the Spiderpole.
Obviously this is not going to be resonant on any band without some sort of impedance matching circuit at the bottom of the wire. Originally this antenna was my end fed half wave vertical antenna for the 30m band that was fed via a 49:1 Unun. This antenna worked incredibly well on the 30m band allowing me to work DX globally with ease but, it was a single band antenna and I wanted a multi band solution.
I decided to remove the 49:1 Unun and replace it with a home brew LC circuit made up of a coil made from 5mm copper tubing and a large air spaced variable capacitor I had laying around from an old ATU project I built many moons ago.
This simple LC arrangement at the bottom of the wire worked incredibly well and tuned the wire from 80m to 10m with a perfect SWR on each band using nothing more than a ground rod and 4 x 12m radials. Performance was surprisingly good on all bands 80-10m giving me the ability to get some DX stations that I’ve never been able to hit before. The only drawback to this solution was the fact that I had to go out and manually tune the antenna every time I wanted to change band. Not so much of a problem in the summer but, in the winter in the pouring rain and howling wind it’s no fun at all. (I resolve this issue further down in the article!)
Multi Band Vertical HF Antenna using a 12.4m Heavy duty Spiderpole at the end of the garden
Performance on the HF bands is incredibly impressive with this antenna. Modelling it on EzNEC software it shouldn’t be that great on bands above 20m however, it seems to defy the modelling software as it performs amazingly well on 17m, 15m and 12m, better than any other vertical antenna I’ve made for those bands. How this can be I do not know, normally my antenna builds match closely what the modelling software shows but, in this instance it doesn’t and I’ve really no idea why.
Multi Band Vertical HF Antenna showing loop at top and wire tucked down into pole
Always wanting to put things into perspective here’s some details of the contacts I’ve made on each band showing how well this antenna has performed over the last year or so.
Firstly the 80m band, I’ve not used this band much over the winter months as I’ve got into the higher bands however, the map below shows all the stations worked on 80m using this antenna.
Stations worked on the 80m band from the M0AWS QTH
There are 51 contacts in total, not a big number by any means however, there are some good distances made with contacts into North America, South America and Indonesia. I’m sure I could had done better if I’d spent more time on this band, something to aim for next winter perhaps.
Next is the 60m band, a band I really like and have enjoyed over the winter months. The antenna performs incredibly well on this band even though we have very limited access to 60m here in the UK. With 288 contacts in the log with a good spread of distances I’m really pleased with how this antenna performs on this band.
Stations worked on the 60m band from the M0AWS QTH
Moving up in frequency the 40m band is the next one on the list, this is a great band and one that I’ve loved for many years. I’ve spent countless hours on CW on this band in the past and worked some great DX. The performance of this antenna on the 40m band is excellent, if I can hear the DX normally I can work them regardless of where in the world they are located. With 226 contacts in the log spread globally over the winter here in the northern hemisphere I have no complaints about performance of this antenna on the 40m band.
Stations worked on the 40m band from the M0AWS QTH
Moving up onto the 30m band I have to admit this is probably my favourite band of all. I’ve spent so many hours on CW working some of the best fists I have ever heard on the air I’ve grown to love this band not just for the DX available but, for the quality of operator found on this narrow piece of the RF spectrum. Needless to say since the antenna is a half wave on the 30m band performance is stunning, out performing any other 30m band antenna I have ever made. It’s even better than the 30m Delta Loop antenna that I built and used when I lived in France.
With 467 contacts in the log on the 30m band you can tell this is my goto band and one that offers access to some of the best DX in the world.
Stations worked on the 30m band from the M0AWS QTH
The 20m band is a band that I never really used until I moved back to the UK from France. Living in France I had acres of land and so I was very much into the low bands, 160m to 30m and never ventured above this part of the spectrum. Now living back in the U.K. with a typical U.K. sized garden the low bands are much more difficult to get onto and so my interests have moved up in frequency somewhat.
Getting onto the 20m band I was amazed at how easy it is to work DX stations compared to the low bands, it’s simply a case of if you can hear them you can work them, there’s no real challenge to be honest. Because of this the band is always super busy with people shouting over the top of each other to get the DX. Not to be put off, I’ve made a surprising 412 contacts on 20m covering the globe. This antenna works incredibly well on this band and you really don’t need anything else to work DX on 20m.
Stations worked on the 20m band from the M0AWS QTH
Next is the 17m band, one of the WARC bands that I’ve never really ventured onto until now. I have to admit I really like this band, when it’s open it’s normally open to the world all at the same time. With an almost undetectable background noise level you can hear the faintest of signal on this band. This is one of the bands that according to the EzNEC modelling software this antenna shouldn’t be any good on but, I have to say that it’s performance is beyond anything I ever imagined. I’ve worked my longest distance yet on this band and with this antenna, ZL4AS at 11776 miles, a distance I haven’t achieved yet on any other band. The 17m band really is a great band, I’d actually say it’s better than the 20m band even though there is considerably less spectrum available. With 220 contacts in the log it’s been a fun band to use.
Stations worked on the 17m band from the M0AWS QTH
Continuing the theme of the WARC bands, the 15m band is another one that I’ve only discovered in the last 12 months. It’s only now that I realise what I’ve missed out on due to my addiction to the low bands for so many years.
I’ve only made 76 contacts on the 15m band, not a lot at all really. This is mainly due to the fact that I get easily side tracked by the 17m and 30m bands most of the time and the radio VFO never gets as far as 21Mhz. Performance of the antenna is good on 15m, I would say not as good as on the 17m band but, it’s no slouch by any means.
As you can see on the map below, I may of only made 76 contacts on the 15m band but, they are spread right across the world proving that this antenna’s DX-ability on 21Mhz really is rather good.
Stations worked on the 15m band from the M0AWS QTH
Finally we arrive at the top of the WARC bands, the little 12m band. Once again this band is very much like the 17m band, super low background noise level, when it’s open you can work huge distances with very little power but, often there is quite deep QSB that can make getting that elusive DX a bit more challenging.
With only 66 contacts in the log once again I’ve not spent a huge amount of time on this band but, it hasn’t disappointed. With global coverage from this antenna on 12m once again I am astounded at how well it works. With software modelling saying it should be terrible on 24.9Mhz with nothing but super high angle radiation, it really shouldn’t be a good antenna for DXing on this upper WARC band but, it is and I have no idea as to why!
Stations worked on the 12m band from the M0AWS QTH
Finally we arrive at the 10m band, another band that I have never got into even though many refer to it as the magic band. This is the band that I’ve made the fewest contacts on, not because the antenna doesn’t work at the dizzy heights of 28Mhz but, because I hardly ever get the VFO dial past the lower bands due to the level of DX available. I really should make more effort to get the best out of the 10m band, especially now the summer is coming.
With a measly 19 contacts in the log I should be ashamed of myself for not doing more on this band as it is very often open and busy with traffic. Since I’ve not really used the antenna that much on the 10m band it’s hard to say how well it performs however, I have had contacts into North and South America and so it shows potential.
Stations worked on the 10m band from the M0AWS QTH
As you can see, the performance of this antenna is self evident from the log entries, it works superbly even though the modelling software says it shouldn’t above 14Mhz. This is now my main antenna here in the U.K. and I’ve only made one change to the initial setup and that is to add a CG3000 remote auto ATU to replace the home-brew LC tuning circuit.
CG3000 Remote Auto ATU housed in a plastic box
With the CG3000 auto ATU in place I no longer have to venture out into the cold, wet garden in the winter months to change band, it’s just a case of sending a continuous 10w signal into it and leaving it to tune in less than 2 seconds. The CG3000 is a Pi Network ATU so it handles both high and low impedance loads with ease. A Pi Network ATU is one of the best you can have, I’ve made my own in the past and had excellent results.
So in summary, 13.4m of wire vertically up a 12.4m pole with 4 x 12m radials, a ground rod and a CG3000 Auto ATU will give any HAM station the ability to work DX on all bands from 80m to 10m without ever having to leave the shack to tune it.
Since I got the CG3000 off of Ebay for a bargain £170 and the 12m heavy duty Spiderpole for under £100 the total cost of the antenna is considerably less than many commercial offerings available and yet performs as well if not better.
If you want to get this antenna onto the 160m band then you just need to add a small coil into the mix at the bottom of the wire to increase the inductance in circuit. The CG3000 will then happily tune the entire 160m band. It’s best to remove this coil though for all the other bands otherwise performance is reduced.
Please be aware that the performance of this antenna will not be anywhere near as good if you use the ATU in your radio at the end of a coax run. This is because the coax becomes part of the antenna and the radiation pattern is all but destroyed. You will be extremely disappointed if you use the antenna in this fashion. The ATU must be at the end of the wire and connected directly to ground and the radials to get the performance that I have experienced.
Finally, if you have an Icom IC-705 and AH-705 remote auto ATU you can use the AH-705 ATU in place of the CG3000, you will get the same results as I have with the CG3000.
I have used my AH-705/IC-705 combo quite a few times with this antenna with excellent results although, the big antenna can sometimes result in the receiver of the IC-705 getting overloaded especially on the lower bands. This is easily resolved by reducing the RF Gain on the radio.
Following on from my other Node Red exploits I’ve put together a flow that creates an interactive map of contacts that is generated from the WSJT-X ADI log file.
The flow is fairly straight forward and self explanatory so I won’t go into detail here but, will make a copy of the flow available for download at the end of this article.
Node Red Flow for processing the WSJT-X ADI Log file
The flow is incredibly quick at generating the map with all the pins on it, one for each station worked. The pins are colour coded, blue for FT8 and green for FT4. If you want to add other modes then just create a new colour entry in the Dynamic Icon Colour function.
The resultant map is fully interactive with each pin being clickable showing the QSO information in a tiny popup.
Node Red map generated from the WSJT-X ADI Log file
You can download the flow and try it yourself using the link below.
Following on from my previous article on Enhancing Digital modes with Node Red I’ve now got to a point where I have realtime decode information from the WSJT-X digital application being plotted on a Node Redworld map not just for CQ calls but, for stations in conversation too.
The flow has become somewhat more complex than it was originally as more and more functionality has been added. I have deliberately split out the flow process into more nodes than are really necessary so that the flow is easier to understand. Anyone from a programming background like myself will soon realise that a lot of the nodes could actually be combined into one big node however, the overall flow process wouldn’t be so easy to understand for the Node Red newcomer and would possibly put people off from trying it out.
Current WSJT-X Node Red flow
Above is a screenshot of the flow as it currently stands. It’s pretty easy to understand what is happening in the flow due to the fact that the processes are broken out into small, easy to digest blocks.
From the top down we connect to WSJT-X via UDP port 2237 and listen for the data stream. As the data is received it’s passed directly into the WSJT-X-Decode node that converts the information into a Node Red compatible format. The data is then filtered with only the information required being passed onto the next node. There are two outputs from the filter node as we require two different streams of information, namely “CQ” and “TX1” data. All the rest of the data from WSJT-X is ignored as it’s not required at this time.
The “Get freq & SNR + Others” node builds a decode message payload with all the correct data, in the right format ready to be passed on along the flow. This node also sets a number of parameters required by the map node to be able to control the display of the data.
The next node along is “Set msg.payload”, this brings together all the necessary data into a single message payload that is then worked on by all the nodes further along the flow.
The next 3 nodes perform the simple task of moving some of the data into the objects defined by the world map node, if the data isn’t moved into these specific objects the map will not plot anything.
Now we get onto the slightly more difficult bit that might put off those who aren’t from a programming background. The next 7 nodes are all javascript functions which I have created to perform tasks that cannot be done via the standard Node Red pallet.
At this point it’s worth noting that I’m not a javascript programmer, I’ve used Python, Rust, Go, C and many other languages during my 40 plus year career but, javascript has never been one of them. I’m sure any seasoned javascript programmer will most likely raise an eyebrow at my attempt at javascript programming but, you need to remember that I’m doing this in my retirement and my enthusiasm for learning yet another programming language has wained somewhat!
So, getting back to the flow, each javascript function does just one task each of which is as follows:
Set rx_time – Sets the time the data was received/processed
Remove RR73 in tx1 – Remove decodes where RR73 is in TX1 instead of a valid callsign
Set Dynamic Icon Colour – Sets the icon colour depending on what type of call is decoded
Maidenhead to LON/LAT – Converts Maidenhead locator codes into LAT/LON Coordinates
Calc Distance – Calculates the distance between “My QTH” and the DX station
Calc Bearing – Calculates the bearing/beam heading to the DX Station from “My QTH”
Generate Search URLs – Generates the URLs for QRZ and my own online log lookups
Editing the Calc Distance function with debug info in the far right panel
Once all the functions have run the resultant data set is forwarded on to the WSJT-X Stations Map node where it is plotted real time on a world map.
To view the map point your web browser at your PC running Node Red as follows:
http://radiopc.your.domain:1880/worldmap/
Or if you haven’t got a DNS setup at home then just use the IP Address of the PC instead:
http://192.168.100.10:1880/worldmap/
Don’t forget that for all of this to work you must configure WSJT-X to send data via UDP on port 2237 otherwise the flow won’t be able to connect and listen for the decode data.
You may have noticed that there are 3 other nodes that I haven’t mentioned yet. The two green greyed out nodes are Debug nodes that can be enabled when required to help see what is going on in the flow. These debug nodes will display data in the debug panel on the right of the flow editor screen when they are enabled, they are extremely useful for debugging!
The third is the blue My QTH node, this contains data pertaining to my QTH that is plotted on the map using an orange icon. You can easily edit this node to point to your QTH instead.
WSJT-X Node Red map showing orange icon denoting my QTH
Once the flow is deployed you’ll be surprised how quickly the data starts to be plotted on the map. Stations calling “CQ” are shown by Green icons and stations that are in a QSO with another station are denoted by the Red icons.
Each icon is clickable and will present all the information collected by WSJT-X for each station viewed.
WSJT-X Node Red World Map showing FT8 stations realtime on the 12m Band
The popup also has two clickable entries, one will take you to the qrz.com page for the station being viewed and the other will search my logs to see if I have worked that station already and if so it will open a new tab showing the information.
Node Red Function Editor showing the Generate Search URLs function
You can edit the “Generate Search URLs” node so that it points to your online logs search engine so that you can view your own log data instead of mine.
Below is a close up of the popups that are displayed when each icon on the map is clicked. The popups show the information collected from WSJT-X for each station plotted on the map.
Left – Green “CQ” Popup and Right – Red “TX1” in QSO popup
If you fancy trying this out for yourself but, don’t fancy creating all the nodes in the flow manually then I have made an export of the flow available for download. All you have to do is download the file, unzip it and then import it to Node Red and you’ll have everything built ready to play with.
Having just completed building my new radio shack I thought what better way to break it in than to do an all night radio session chasing the DX.
All nighters aren’t anything new for me, I did many an all night session low band DXing when we lived in France (F5VKM). Back then I had a massive cellar, part of which was a very well fitted out radio shack. With some very large antennas in our field out back I was truly spoilt with some great times on the 160m band in the dark winter months.
Now back in the UK and only just getting back into the hobby after a long break things are somewhat different. I now only have a typical small UK garden and only vertical antennas. Better than no antennas though!
The new radio shack is small compared to my super spacious setup in France but, it’s perfectly formed with all facilities.
For my over night radio session I decided to use my trusty Yaesu FTDX10, it has the best receiver I’ve ever used and is built to withstand the long haul operation.
Antenna wise I decided to use my 30m band EFHW vertical that can be tuned on most bands from 80m and upwards. I use a CG3000 remote auto tuner to match this antenna to the 50 ohm coax feed and it does a great job.
Being comfortably setup in the shack I tuned up on the 30m band and had a listen to see what shape the band was in.
Stations heard on 30m 10/11-07-22
Using FT8 I worked a bunch of European, Russian/Asiatic Russian stations with ease, the band was in fairly good shape albeit localised around Europe and Russia. Wanting to work stations a little further afield I decided to move up on to the higher bands. 12m is a band I really like but, always seem to miss when it’s open.
Tuning up on the 12m band using the same vertical that I was just using on the 30m band the FT8 section was packed with signals. At last, I’ve tuned up on the band when it’s open!
I suddenly noticed Bobby, VP8ADR down in the Falkland Islands in the WSJTX waterfall and gave him a call. He had a fair few people calling him and so I joined the list. In no time at all Bobby answered my call and we exchange SNR reports of -8dB both ways. This was surprising as later on one of the FT8 Facebook groups Bobby stated he was using 200w into a Hexbeam during our QSO, I was only using a measly 18w into my Vertical, I would had expected a much lower SNR report. Clearly Bobby’s setup was doing all the work!
Right after the QSO with Bobby I immediately went on to work PY7ZC, LU8YD, PY2ATI, LW6EQC, PY2EBD and PY2THO all in quick succession. With the Falklands, Brazil and Argentina in the log so soon it was looking like it was going to be a fun packed night.
Next up on the waterfall was 9Y4DG in Trinidad and Tobago and 8P6ET in Barbados, two really nice locations to get into the log and new ones on 12m for me.
Having worked all the DX I could hear on 12m and not wanting to just spend hours working endless European stations I tuned down onto the 17m band using the same vertical antenna. This antenna really does work well on bands it’s not designed for.
First 3 stations in the log on 17m were all from Japan, JR3NZC, JQ6RUP and JA5BDZ. With all 3 stations being well on the way to 6000 miles away this was a good start. The propagation strangely swung to the west and I got YV5DRN from Venezuela in the log.
Not seeing any other stations that I wanted to work I retuned back onto 30m again and found it was open to South America and the Caribbean.
In no time at all I had YV4CLF in Venezuela, HK2AQ in Colombia, NP4TX and NP3XF in Puerto Rico and PY7ZC in Brazil all in the log.
Being in complete darkness I decided to tune down on to the 60m band, one of my favourites, to see if there was much going on. Sure enough there were a few stations active on the limited space available.
First station worked was a new one for me FP/KV1J on St. Pierre and Miquelon Island just off the coast of New Foundland. I have to admit I had no idea where this little island was and confess to having to look it up on google maps.
I then went on to work a few East Coast USA stations all with good SNR reports for this time of year.
Stations heard on the 60m band 11-07-22
Having worked all the notable DX on 60m I tuned back onto the 17m which was now wide open to the world.
I stayed on this band for the rest of the night well into the morning grey line and beyond working some great DX including some new ones for me.
I worked many East Coast USA stations but, stations of note were 6Y5HN in Jamaica and AK6R, K6EU and K6EI in California on the West Coast USA. It’s rare for me to get into the West Coast USA for some reason.
UA0SDX in Irkutsk Siberia was also a nice one to get in the log. This is a town I was going to be riding my motorcycle through on my Mongolian trip before COVID19 and the war in Ukraine broke out and stopped the trip from happening. More information about my motorcycle adventures can be found on my Feralmoto website.
It was good to get an Ozzy call in the log too, VK6EI on the West Coast of Australia came in at a strong -15dB SNR giving me a surprising -14dB SNR report, incredible considering I was using just 22w into my vertical antenna.
Well after sunrise the DX was still pouring in and I worked KL7TC in Fairbanks Alaska, a new one for me that made me very happy as I’d been trying to get into Alaska for some time but, never seemed to time it right. Today was my day!
Another station I was really pleased to get into the log was V31MA. I’ve tried to get a QSO with this station many times but, have never succeeded until today. I called for about 20mins and eventually got a reply putting a huge smile on my face. -16dB SNR sent and -19dB SNR received, I was happy that I finally have Belize in the log.
The last station worked was RA0FF way over on the far East Coast of Russia, the complete opposite direction to Belize. Located in Yu-Sakhalinsk right on the Russian coast opposite Japan and at 5270 miles, this is my longest distance Russian station worked so far and one I was very happy to have in the log. I always get good take off towards Russia whether it be directly east or over the North Pole to the far eastern parts of the Siberian wilderness.
I had a great night chasing the DX on the HF bands and being retired didn’t have to worry about going to work after such a long night. I highly recommend that you try an all nighter at least once in your HAM radio career, you get the opportunity to work stations that you’d normally not hear during the day time hours.
You can see the full list of stations worked on the over nighter on my WSJTX Log page.
I’ve had a few messages of late asking how I generate my WSJT-X log web pages for my website. The answer is pretty simple, I use a little BASH script that I started writing some time back and have gradually improved over the last few months.
If you have a PC running Linux or a RaspberryPi running any of the normal Debian/Ubuntu/Redhat/Fedora based Linux distro’s that are available today then, this script should work just fine.
I originally wrote this program using Python but, a friend of mine bet me that I couldn’t write it in BASH and so, I took up the challenge and this is the result. It’s pretty simple and uses all the normal UNIX command line goodies like grep, sed and awk.
The script also uses WWL to calculate the distance between two Maidenhead locator grid squares and so it’s important to have it installed before running the script. (The script checks for it at runtime and will exit if it is not installed!). You can install WWL using your package manager on your Linux distro or from the command line directly. Details are in the READ-ME.txt file.
Screen grab from my M0AWS WSJT-X Log web page
It’s important that you READ the READ-ME.txt included in the zip file before trying to run any of the scripts included as it details the variables that you need to enter values for to make the script run on your PC/Server. (Example entries are in place as supplied).
The variables are mainly just paths to files on your system and whether you want distances calculated in miles or kilometres. Other than that there’s nothing else required for it to run.
I’ve also included details on how to run the script automatically from a crontab so that your webpage can be updated automatically every few minutes/hours etc.
The script also includes code to add a PNG map file into the generated webpage so that there is a graphical representation of all your QSOs. The map isn’t generated by the script (something I need to add in the coming few months) so you’ll need to generate it yourself and then add it to the website either via the crontab script included in the zip file or manually.
I use the QSOMap website to generate my map image files and then have them uploaded to my web server via the crontab script.
The script processes 100 entries per second on my web server (Headless virtual machine running Ubuntu Server 64bit Edition) and so should be pretty fast on most PCs. It will run somewhat slower on a RaspberryPi so be patient!
You can download the script and associated information using the button below.
I spent the evening/early morning trying some FT8 on the 40m band taking advantage of the grey line and night time propagation. It’s been a while since I’ve stayed up late to catch some DX on 40m and it brought back memories of the all nighters I used to do when I was on air as F5VKM in France.
The 40m band has always been one of my favourites, there’s always great DX to be had when the band is open and on the grey line the world really is your oyster.
I’ve always been a huge fan of CW on 40m, there are some great seasoned op’s on the band and it’s always a real pleasure to QSO with them on the key. This time I decided to see what could be achieved with FT8 and 22w of power from my Yaesu FTDX10, a combination that should give me global reach.
Setting up at just past 6pm on May 9th 2022 the band was already busy with European stations, lots of them! There was no room to squeeze in and call CQ, the FT8 section of the band was packed with signals filling the allocation completely with many calling over the top of each other.
I decided to take my normal stance of search and pounce to get the stations I want to work rather than just working the masses endlessly.
I initially worked a bunch of Russian stations ranging from 1200 to 2200 miles out, good distances were easily achievable even though we were still in full daylight.
My home-brew multi-band vertical antenna worked well on 40m
In amongst the throng of FT8 stations I spotted UN3P, Vladimir in Karaganda Kazakhstan, not a country I have worked a lot since getting back on air and at 3013 miles it’s a good distance to achieve on 40m whilst still in broad daylight.
I gave a call to his CQ and he came straight back with an SNR report of -20dB, I sent him a report of -12dB so there was some 8dB difference between us. Considering I was only using 22w of power in broad daylight I was happy with the report. Of course I’ve no idea how much power he was using but, my signal was 6.63mW/Mile, not the lowest I ever had but, not the biggest either.
I worked a bunch more RA9/UB9 stations in the 2000-3000 mile range and then started hearing the Australian stations on the early grey line. Initially their signals were suffering some deep QSB but, it wasn’t long until their signals were constant and stable.
All the stations that heard M0AWS 09/05/22 – 10/05/22 on 40m
Ian, VK3VDX in Victoria was the first station from Oz in the log at -19dB/-20dB, pretty even SNR reports. At 10451 miles it equates to 2.10mW/Mile.
Closely following was John, VK5PO in Mallala South Australia, much stronger signals this time at -10dB/-14dB, 2.19mW/mile over a total distance of 10028 miles.
VK5PO Mallala South Australia
As darkness replaced light the propagation swung west with east coast USA and Canadian stations dropping in to the East coast of the U.K.
John, VO1BE was the first north American station in the log with -1dB/+1dB SNR reports. To be +1dB in Canada with just 22w really is quite impressive. I’m guessing he has a very low background noise level.
I worked a bunch of East Coast USA stations and then PY2GZ popped up on the waterfall. From my QTH I have a clear view South East to South West across flat ground for miles and so it’s normally pretty easy to work stations in that zone and this evening was no different. First call was answered and -10dB/-17dB SNR reports were exchanged, 3.68mW/mile over 5965 miles.
My 14.81m tall home brew vertical works superbly on the 40m band with tuning handled by my CG3000 Remote Auto Tuner. This is actually my 30m band EFHW vertical antenna but, removing the 49:1 Unun and replacing it with the CG3000 has made this antenna much more versatile.
CG3000 Remote Auto Tuner connected to the 14.81m vertical antenna and ground system
The next station in the log was BG0BBB in Xinjiang China with -9dB/-18dB SNR reports exchanged. China is always a hard location for me to get into for some reason so, I was glad to get another Chinese HAM into the log.
BG0BBB Xinjiang China
As the propagation started to swing westerly I got 8P4JP in Bridgetown Barbados into the log. It took a few calls to get the exchange completed due to very deep QSB between us but, with some perseverance the contact was completed successfully and I had a new one in the log!
I continued to work a flurry of East Coast USA, Brazilian and Puerto Ricon stations one after the other until suddenly stations from the east started coming in again.
First from the east was Igor, 4L1FL from Tbilisi Georgia, another new one for me that somehow seems to escape me every time I come across Georgian stations on the bands.
4L1FL Tbilisi Georgia
UN7JO in Ust-Kamenogorsk Kazakhstan was loud with me at -5dB SNR although I only got -21dB SNR back, some 16dB difference across the path of 3386 Miles.
One station of particular interest was VY0MEL, Julien in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Northern Canada. This is the most northern Canadian station I’ve worked in a long time and it was great to get him in the log. His QRZ page is worth a read, he works at a mine in Nunavut on a 14 day rotation and so has a fair bit of time for HAM radio. Using just a dipole that is strung between two shipping containers and only 60cm above the snow in the centre he was a good signal at -19dB here in the U.K, especially considering he was still in broad daylight.
VY0MEL Rankin Inlet, Nunavut Northern Canada
Needless to say I had a fun filled evening/early morning on the 40m band, once again it didn’t disappoint and I got a couple of new countries in the log. I think the next late night will have to be a CW evening on 40m to see how well I do in comparison.
The full list of stations worked over 9th-10th May 2022 using FT8 on the 40m band can be viewed in my WSJT-X log in glorious technicolour with distances and mW/mile figures for every contact.
Map showing all FT4/FT8 stations worked up to 10/05/22 all bands
searchwsjtxlog v0.4 showing search for partial callsign
Being a UNIX/Linux command line guy I’m not a fan of a lot of these GUI based logging programs that are full of functionality I’ll never use. I currently have RumLogNG for the MacBook Pro but, I really don’t like it. It does many things I don’t need and not the things I really need when on air.
So I decided to write a bunch of command line based programs that do exactly what I want with minimal fuss. The first of these programs was adi2html, a simple program that converts the WSJT-X ADI log file into HTML so I can easily put it on my website.
I’ve now written a new program using the same BASH shell technique to allow me to search the WSJT-X log file quickly and easily whilst on air.
searchwsjtxlog is a simple little shell script that searches for either a full or partial callsign and presents the results instantly. I use this script a lot when working FT4/8 as I can see if I’ve worked a station before and on what bands easily and quickly.
The script works on Linux and MacOS Big Sur (Not got Monterey to test but, should work fine). If you find a bug please let me know and I’ll fix it as soon as possible.
Note: Since MacOS uses such an old version of the BASH it cannot handle spaces in the path to the wsjtx_log.adi file. On MacOS you’ll need to create a softlink to the file and then put the path to the soft link into the script for it to work properly. CD into the directory where you have saved the searchwsjtxlog.sh file and then run the following command:
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