hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2414.txt

Episode: 2414
Title: HPR2414: What's in my ham shack, part 1
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2414/hpr2414.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 02:32:01

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This is HBR episode 2,414 entitled What's in My Ham Shack, Part 1 and is part of the series
HAM Radio, QSK, it is hosted by MrX and is about 22 minutes long and carrying a clean
flag.
The summary is a description of what's in my Amateur Radio Shack.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by An Honest Host.com, get 15% discount on all
shared hosting with the offer code HBR15, that's HBR15.
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When I listen back to the audio, I realise that I've been yabbing on far too long and so I've
decided to split the show into two parts, I'm sure Ken will love that, so two shows
for the price of one.
So this is part 1.
Hello and welcome to Hacker Public Radio Audience.
My name is MrX and welcome to this podcast.
As usual I'll start by thanking the people at HBR for making this service available to
us all, it's really a wonderful service, it's HBR is created by the community for the
community and the people behind HBR have gone to a great deal of effort over the years
to try and simplify and streamline the whole process and it's really quite straightforward
so you must have something interesting you can contribute, I'll just hit a record
button on the microphone and give something a go away, right now this episode is something
that's kind of hastily been built together, it's what's in my ham shack and I think here
in UK we're more liable to call it, you could say amateur radio room that sounds a bit
too, a bit clumsy, it's funny a lot of barmatures here use the word shack but they wouldn't
call themselves a ham, they call themselves an amateur though maybe the public would call
us ham, maybe it's a snobbery thing I don't know just to buy the buy.
So any, obviously an amateur shack or ham shack can be, you know, it can be a massly
elaborate or it can be simple as having a handshake, a walkie-talkie sitting on top of
a table and that's it, so I just thought I'd talk you through the pieces of having some
of the bits and pieces of having my ham shack, it's not really a big part of my life
or hobbies these days but it's gained a bit more interest in recent times because I'm
a bit busy these days and it's a kind of hobby that you can pick up very quickly where
it is if you're coding something or doing something impetus, you need to concentrate
and focus on things and that's a bit more difficult if your time's a bit short anyhow
on with the show.
So the first piece of equipment is a stand, I'll talk about my hands, it's quite embarrassing
because I used to only have one handshake, I've now got flamin' four of the things, why
they're here within the four handshake, for a very, very long time I only had this one
handshake, it's a standard handshake, it says on the front, standard W, turbo, model
on the back it says model number C51OE, 14430 megahertz FM transceiver, so C51OE it says
on the front here, so I think it's for the American market, yeah I always get confused
with this, I think it's for the American market so the repeater settings are a bit wrong
for the UK but so lovely we need handshake, it's actually nice on the hand and it takes
back off and it's got three pen like batteries so it means you can, you know if you're never
stuck, batteries go flat, you can always buy a new set and you can rechargeables on it
which is what I use obviously, I hardly ever use a set handshake anymore, that's it on,
that's it off and then, you know, so after I got the handshake, there were quite cheap
handsets in the days, well, well, there were 120 pounds back then, there was a couple of
probably quite cheap and I was at a, and I'm actually doing a show and there was a, I'll
bring in by a junk sale if you like and somebody was selling a, one of the add-on kits it,
go with the standard, you could buy the two parts together but at the time I was too
to mean being your typical Scott, so I was just too mean to buy it but this was a very
good price and so I thought, oh a bargain, I must buy it, so I bought it and I fitted
that, it's called a power booster and the idea is that, I fitted a cigarette lighter
socket to it and I tied it and it walks up, this is far as it went, but the idea is
it's called a power booster and it's, it's like a metal block thing and it's just to give
you an idea, it's six inches, by six inches, ooh, by, one and a half inches, something
like that and it's got fins, it's got fins on it and there's a flick switch on the front
off on an LED with a power light, a power LED next to that and then I had a TX light
and a RX light, it's got a standard logo on the top, a VHF, UHF legend and a speaker
socket and on the back it's got a fan, so basically what it does is it amplifies both the
RF radio frequency and also the audio, so you just stick this thing under your seat and
then you take the cable that comes out the thing and it goes into a proprietary special cable
which plugs into the bottom of the handset and it cuts out the audio from the handset and
roots it through the box so that the audio will become as much louder if you plug a speaker
in and the RF, you know, the, the, the, your signal gets boosted as well because it's
only a one, one watt radio, the handset, like it's maybe 25, 30 watts or something like
that, so this thing and obviously there's a, I, I, I, I, I, I, an aerial socket on the
back, SO239 type things, so you can have an external ladle in your car, so that was
the idea of that, as I say, but I never actually used the flaming thing, so that was a waste
and when he wasn't it, and then, of course, what kicked off this recent interest in
amateur radio was I thought, well, at this handset, the standard handset, it's too good
to use, I finally used the thing, aww, yeah, so I bought, as you all know, we've sicked
the back teeth off of both in UV5R, don't worry, that says much, I'm going to say about
it, nothing else, I have a both in UV5R, that's all I'm going to say about it, I'm not
going to mention it again, honestly, the UV5R, right, so that's my second handset, the
both in UV5R, I won't mention it, right, the next handset I bought was, while I was
listening to some amateurs, they were talking about digital modes and whatnot, and there's
a new, there was a, I don't know, there was a new repeat, the range was improved, and
the, the, the office been working on it, the local people, and, and, and, and, and I,
interesting, I was listening on the news, the, and, but on the RSGB music, it's broadcasted
for Sunday, and the, I purchased a, I received a, a TVS, a DMR handset, I just got one here
if I just turned it on, oh, that's what that sounds like, and it's, DMR digital mobile
radio, I think that's what it stands for, I am, and no means an expert in any of this,
and so there's a lot of confusing terminology, when you first get into, certainly DMR radio,
I don't know about this other kind, that's, of course, other confusing thing you've got,
you've got whole slew of digital radio standards, you've got DMR, fusion, D-star, it's a whole
host of them, I only know about DMR, so obviously with the digital radio it, it takes the audio
signal, digitises it, sends it as 1s and 0s, to the other side and it is decoded and turned
back into, into audio, the, it's got a kind of unusual sound to it, was you kind of get
used to it first, it sounds a bit rough and ready, and then you think it's wonderful,
once you get, once you get your, as I say, once you get your digital ears, and you're
brinking as filters, the artifacts out, and, you know, when you have your, speaking to
a mobile station, there's no hiss and noise and crackle, so, if it's even hard, it's
quite hard to tell if the mobile is sometimes, so it's, it's quite an interesting mode,
as I say, about confusing terminology like code blogs, colour codes, top groups, slots or
this, nonsense, code blog, for example, that's just the programming file, why are they
helping to not use colour programming file, I've got a colour code blog, so that's, I'm
not going to go into any detail about, about all of that sort of stuff, as I say, if I
get a chance, I'll, I'll maybe insert a, a wee, an example of how digital audio sounds,
so every user, the thing about the DMR is that every user on the system has to apply for
a unique user ID number, and so you basically go into a website, and I think you've got
to send a copy of your, so you've got to send a copy of your, your, how much of a license,
um, because you've got to have an how much license to, to, to, to use it, you can listen,
but you can't transmit unless, to get, you need, you need that, to get that, you need
to get a, I use an ID, and you submit that, uh, with proof of your license, and then
they give you an ID, I've, I've got a, a number of bits and pieces with that, the, the,
the retrievus handset, I've got a, a, a mobile microphone, uh, kind of sometimes use it in
the car, I've got, um, a battery liminator, which, basically plugs into the cigarette
lighter, so that you can power it, uh, from the, from the car battery, and, um, the, the
retrievus, uh, RT3, which is what this handset is, is, um, there's a clone, there's a whole
number of them out there, uh, uh, for example, it's the same as the MD380, uh, that's the
generic, um, the handset that kicked all this DMR and Malarkey off, um, it's a very cheap
handset that was 90 pounds, all these clones were 90 pounds, whereas, um, until these came
out, the, you know, the DMR radios were a lot more expensive, so obviously these, kind
of handsets that are retrieved as MD380's are very, very popular, and, um, because of
the popularity, the, the, the, uh, the firmware was hacked, um, Travis Goodspeak, Goodspeak,
we're hearing something like that, the chap that did the, um, should have done a bit more
preparation, shouldn't have, um, he did the, um, uh, a hack for the firmware of these
radios, and, um, I had a go to installing that, and, uh, you can do it through a Raspberry
Pi, so I've got a Raspberry Pi with a, an image on it, and you clone a, I get a repository,
and then, uh, compile a software, and then write the, the firmware to the radio, uh, and
this gives a number of interesting features, um, you can, uh, uh, you can download, uh,
the whole, uh, user database of, uh, DMR IDs from the, um, DMR website, which is brand
master network, and, um, and then that way, whenever a station calls on your radio, it
can look at this huge database of, with all the IDs in it, and, uh, it can pop up on,
it, it, it pops up on the display, what the call sign is, and, uh, the, the user's location
and whatnot, so that's, that's very handy. Obviously, because there's new people joining
all the time, it does eventually go out to date, sort of thing, but then you can just update
the database again, just by running a week command on the command line, um, the, uh, hack
firmware also allows you to listen to private calls, as a, um, you get two modes of private
call in a group call, it's generally a group call, you're, you're, you're, you're speaking
up, um, you're using a group call mode, but, uh, private calls, for example, you might
be wanting to change, uh, settings on the repeater to, maybe to, to, to switch to another
reflector, um, a reflector's, a reflector is like just going into a different room, or
to, to, to access it, to speak to people from a different location, if you like, and
so to switch reflectors, um, when you switch the reflect, the, the, the, uh, repeater repeats
back to let you know that you've switched the repeater, I'll tell you what the number
of the repeater is. I think if the reflector is, think of it as like being off like a phone
number, so, you know, if, if I want to go to reflector, um, 4400, which is the UK reflector,
I've just punched that in, and the repeater would come back, um, reflector 4400, 440000, and,
um, you, um, but we don't, it would, it would, it would be a private call you were having
to the repeater, so none of the other people in the area would hear that unless you've
got the hack to firmware. It's not, it's not, um, encrypted, it's just a private call,
a person to a person, so that the radio's don't, don't receive it unless you've got the
hack to firmware, so that, that's, that's a benefit. Um, you can also, uh, log details,
uh, out to a computer, um, or a Raspberry Pi, I can experiment with that, so you can
see, uh, you could leave the radio on and, and it logs to the command line or to a file,
whatever, uh, details about stations that have been on the air with the timestamps and
call signs and all that stuff. I'm vaguely interested in, um, there's lots of other
wee bits and pieces that allows you to do, um, tweak the backlight brightness and work
and control over the buttons on the side and whatnot, but really, that's probably more
detail than you want to know. So the next handset I've got is, uh, a heightira handset is
a heightira PD365 tiny wee handset, um, and it's, it's really used, it's really a business,
handset, it's kind of used in the, probably mostly in the hospitality, so a business and whatnot,
one of that local amateurs call it, uh, calls it a, uh, a Fisher Price Radio, like a kids toy,
basically. Um, so, um, it's really small and dinky, uh, and in fact, that, that was a reason,
I purchased it because, um, it's about half the size of the retrievis and, you know,
I found the retrievis, I was working about with the retrievis, I couldn't club it to my back
pocket, it was just far too big and clumsy. So that's why I bought a second DMR handset, the,
the heightira PD365, it's, um, it's not as advanced as the retrievis and, uh, you can't hack it either,
um, but, uh, the size just makes it so convenient when you're going out at the place, um, so actually
prefer the heightira to the retrievis, um, it's, and I'm not one for snobbery or brands or,
all this stuff, but, you know, it's, it's twice, it's probably about twice the price of the
retrievis, about, um, and, uh, you know, it comes with nothing, even a programming lead cost
you 25 pounds, which is a bit ridiculous, really, uh, where you get everything all included in the
retrievis. Covert earpiece was, you know, 15, 20 pounds, something like that, so, but, um, to give you
an idea how robust this thing is, one of the armatures in the area accidentally ran over the top of
it with these, uh, car, um, then it was quite alarmed, obviously, only to discover that the thing
was just slightly scuffed, and that was as much damage it was caused, so, uh, I suspect if the
retrievis had been run over it would have been crushed, uh, so that's the difference between the,
the cheap Chinese models and the heightira one, but I mean, the retrievis is still working well and
showing no signs or signs of, um, failing anything, so it's great value that there's, uh,
the retrievis at 90 pounds, so that with my four handsets, the standard, the, the both thing,
UV fireworks, uh, to the wooden mansion again, the retrievis and the heightira.
Okay, this is an example of how, uh, I don't know, what do you have signs? Um,
the, um, the quality should be quite smooth and not too much, I just, because I'm quite close to the,
uh, the other videos, so, um, should be a good signal strip, but, um, you know, if you're in a
condition of where, uh, the signal is a bit weaker, you get more noise and it has, the cracker and
whatnot, uh, uh, the digital, we don't get it at all, and of course, if I release the, uh, transmit button,
here, you'll hear the, the squirrels kick, and you'll hear, uh, as it tap on keys, I'll just do that
a few times. And again, so that was a squirrel kicking in. Um, the next example I'll do, I'll use,
I'm going to give you an example of, uh, digital audio, uh, using, uh, digital, uh, DMR, and, uh, in
the middle of the broadcast, still here, I can have strange noise, that's one of the minor bugs
that the, um, the other team has, um, there's a bunch of radio, I thought, uh, just about a hundred
pounds, so, and, uh, I think it test their time, hold on to the signal, so we're a bit too long,
and their connection gives up, and you get this, you know, it's almost like an oscillation sort of,
um, the sound just continues, and finally cuts out. It doesn't harm too often, but every now and
again, um, it doesn't happen with, uh, the Hattila radio, uh, so it's a wee bug. I'm sure that's
done with a quite few wee bugs, and, uh, uh, they're retrieval, um, they're retrieval, which,
remember, they're retrieval's RT, these are same as M, D, F, E, there's a whole host of them,
that all, all of the same radio essentially just re-barged. Okay, that's probably enough for that
analogue audio, um, good stuff.
This is a test. I just think of an example of how, uh, DMR radio sounds, this is a tool of a radio,
as you can hear it, it's not 100%, um, fluid and smooth, and you can tell there's artifacts in it,
but, uh, it's quite readable, and, um, there's no noise, no hiss or crackle or anything like that,
so it's, it's actually, uh, it's actually quite good, um, it's fun. Um, I allow you to, uh, talk to,
other amateurs, um, all around the world, uh, from the comfort of phanharmonic here, just, uh,
we hands it, we can have this, uh, DMR using, um, a repeater, a local repeater, or, you can get
a hotspot, uh, which, um, connects to, um, uh, your, uh, broadband, or, or, uh, mobile phone,
and even to the internet and do it that way, um, so that's, hopefully that's enough to give you
that, I think that's about it then, I, uh, I hope you all enjoyed that, and I don't
bore the pants off you, why don't you contribute something yourself, if you've got, uh,
maybe you've got an amateur shacking, you can go through, um, like I did, or some other interesting
hobby, it must be something you can, uh, you can contribute with. Okay, that, that's it for this
episode, um, if you want to contact me, I can be contacted at MrX, at hpr, at googlemail.com,
that's MRX, AT, HPR, the at symbol, googlemail.com, so until next time, thank you, and goodbye.
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