Steve's Blog » Radios

Online scanner now working again

Steven Haigh — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:23:42 +0000

After quite a long period of being offline, the scanner is back online again. The version of VoiceChatter in use is 1.4.2 BETA – you’ll probably need to get the same version from the VoiceChatter website.

2 way radio update.

Steven Haigh — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:07:30 +0000

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about the 2 way radios in my car. I’ve spent a considerable amount of time (4 days in total!) reworking the entire boot of the car to tidy things up and make them much more presentable!

Here are some photos of the new setup.

There is still a little bit of tidying up of wiring etc – but it’s a very nice setup and leaves HEAPs of boot space available for every day usage.

Long time, no update.

Steven Haigh — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:40:11 +0000

I’ve been a bit slack lately in updating this site – things have been VERY busy. Aviation wise, I’ve passed all but one CPL examination – Performance and Planning. DeviceUpdate has hit over 420,000 app downloads and going strong with very little overall load on the mirror system or indexing system. Radio wise, I’ve done a little bit of work on a new online scanner and it’s now up and running about 95%.

All in all, I’m still very busy, but I haven’t fallen off the end of the world yet

Amateur Radio logbook now online.

Steven Haigh — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 12:28:27 +0000

After getting my foundation license, I figured it’d be nice to put my logbook online for contacts on the ham bands. So,�here it is.

Steve gets a foundation license!

Steven Haigh — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 23:47:27 +0000

After years of mucking around with radios and a stalled attempt to get an advanced amateur radio license, I got talked into taking the foundation license study/exam session run by Amateur Radio Victoria. The foundation license is a newish class of amateur radio license that allows the operator to use up to 10 watts transmitter power on:

3.5 – 3.7 MHz (80 metres)
7.0 – 7.3 MHz (40 metres)
21 – 21.45 MHz (15 metres)
28 – 29.7 MHz (10 metres)
144 – 148 MHz (2 metres)
430 – 450 MHz (70cm)

For those interested in starting out with radio communications, you should check out this course. It’s great for people with no previous experience, and a great way to get on air.

More microwave fun!

Steven Haigh — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:22:42 +0000

Ok, so if you haven’t figured this out already, I really like microwaves and other RF emitting devices. What I never thought of before however is how to measure the speed of light using a microwave.

Mr Hood (a friendly English physics teacher) shows us exactly how to do this in this article. Certainly a case of thinking outside the box

Icom PCR-1000 Scanner on Linux.

Steven Haigh — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:58:30 +0000

For a while now I’ve been hanging on to a working version of pcrd – the linux control program for Icom PCR-1000 scanners. This version will compile with the latest gcc based distributions and work on all known Linux distros. You can find it here. It seems to work well here – the only issue I encounter is sometimes getting the unit to turn on – however after that, it tunes fine for as long as it’s turned on.

If you do notice any problems with pcrd, feel free to let me know – I’ll see what I can do about them. I want to add DSP support, but I don’t have the needed details to do this as yet, so it’s on the todo list.

SRM9030 first impressions

Steven Haigh — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 00:45:09 +0000

Damn. I’ve been playing with radios for years, and I have to say, these units are sweet. I’ve been trying to think of things that can be improved on them, and failed. The radios can do free-input text messages between units, and even allow a lead-in delay for sending 1200/2400 baud FFSK data through standard analogue repeaters. Best of all? It actually works.

So lets see, it’s a Dual mode radio (Conventional/Trunking), 1000 channels, free form text messages, Voting, scanning, excellent RX sensitivity, great RX/TX audio, 25W output (selectable via software – no winding screws!). The actual unit is basically a huge DSP. I like it. Details of the units can be found here at TMC Radio’s site. I’m still looking for things to pick on the radios for – so I can submit feedback for improvement, but it’s not easy!

New Radios!

Steven Haigh — Sat, 15 Oct 2005 19:28:15 +0000

It’s been a busy last few weeks, so I thought I’d do a quick update before heading off to work (yes, working 7am on a Sunday should be illegal!). I’ve decided to splash out on the radio front and replace some of my aging PRM80 radios with new SRM9000 series units from TMC Radio. The specs on these units are great! They will even do radio to radio SMS messaging on simplex or duplex channels Should be a heap of fun to play with.

Crossband happyness and Wireless Meetings

Steven Haigh — Mon, 04 Jul 2005 03:23:42 +0000

I got my cable going – One interesting thing that I did find however is that the PRM8030 radios really don’t like being hooked together with modem boards installed! Radios would key up without any activity, and just stay transmitting a carrier until the cross band cable was removed. I did some mods to the cable to allow LEDs to show which radio is transmitting, as well as a switch to enable/disable the cross band mode. After a bit of trial and error, this now works! I also had to install a relay to stop the mic audio being cut out even when the cross band was off!

On the wireless front, I will be doing a presentation on OpenWRT running on Linksys WRT54GS hardware at the next Melbourne Wireless meeting. Showing off a captive portal I have made which authenticates valid financial members of the group, and then allows them to use the internet connection free of charge. Nifty! There will also be a presentation on OSPF routing and a demo of this working via wifi at the meeting.