KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

Olivia

Interesting stuff from Mastodon: Olivia website, SDRs all over the world, Pico-based Palm Pilot

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I’ve recently given up Twitter for Mastodon, which bills itself as a “free and open-source, self-hosted, and federated social network service.” I have a lot fewer followers than I do on Twitter, but the followers that I do have are certainly more engaging. So much so, I don’t think that I’m going back.

There are plenty of servers out there that will let you join Mastodon for free. I’m on a server set up by a radio amateur: mastodon.radio. You can find me there as @[email protected].

Here are some interesting things I’ve found on Mastodon.

Website promotes Olivia

I found several posts on Mastodon relating to Olivia, so I thought I’d check it out. I downloaded fldigi, and with the help of the Olivia Digital Mode on HF website, I’ve actually made some Olivia contacts. The website seems to be the brainchild of NW7US. On the website, you’ll find this presentation that he gave on Olivia to the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society:

I’ve been having fun operating Olivia, and I think you will, too.

 

World of Receivers and Transmitters

The World of Receivers and Transmitters links you to more than 1,200 software-defined radios around the world. For example, I just accessed and an SDR in Caligari, Italy and listed to a UA2 station work an SV5 station on 40-meter CW. There are SDR radios all over the world.

I think that the next time I see myself spotted on RBN in Europe, I’m going to sign in to one of the receivers in say France or Germany and see how well that receiver can hear me. It should bring a whole new dimension to my HF operating.

Palm Pilot Reborn

The rePalm is being powered by a Raspbery Pi Pico.

I used to have a Palm Pilot, which back in the 1990s was billed as a “personal digital assistant.” Basically, it was supposed to do all the things that a smart phone does now without the phone functionality. I thought it was pretty hot stuff.

A fellow named Dmitry has now brought back the Palm Pilot, but now it’s being powered by a Raspberry Pi Pico. You can find all the information on how to create your own Palm Pilot on the rePalm web page.

 

 

Random noise: My first Olivia contact, antenna efficiency, Straight Key Night

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My first Olivia contact

An Olivia 8/250 signal on an SDR waterfall.

I just made my first Olivia contact. The biggest hurdle was getting fldigi to work with my IC-7610. When I first ran fldigi, it received just fine, but I couldn’t get it to transmit. One of the problems was that, for some reason, there’s no official fldigi RigCAT XML file for the IC-7610, despite it being a very popular radio. 

Fortunately, I was able to find a couple of web pages that helped me get fldigi set up properly:

Thanks, guys, and thanks to M1GEO for coming up with a RigCAT XML file that works.

For more information on Olivia, go to the Olivia Digital Mode on HF web page. It has a bunch of information that will help you get started include a list of frequencies, links to videos by NW7US, and a link to join the Olivia Discord.

Antenna efficiency

On the X-6100 mailing list—as on many amateur radio mailing lists—there’s a discussion about the best antenna to use for portable operation. I like my 66-ft. doublet. I’ve had good success with it, and I have to believe that it’s more efficient than loaded verticals and end-fed antennas. I said as much on the list.

Of course, I can’t verify that. Not only am I not an antenna guru, there’s really no instrument that can measure antenna efficiency. Maybe some measurements could be made with a field strength meter to determine relative antenna efficiencies. Anyone have any thoughts on that?

Straight Key Night 2023

I’ve never been a big straight key guy, but even so, I dug out my J-45 key (a J-37 mounted on a leg clamp, see above) and hooked it up to the radio last night. The first contact I made was with SP7ASJ, which was nice. I made another contact before I decided to call it quits. I had intended  to make a couple more today, but I just never got around to it.