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This has been documented plenty of times across the web, but I recently had cause to make a small modification to mine, which necessitated the lid coming off. A perfect opportunity then to take a photo and post it on the website. I built this one back in 2019 and it made a noticeable difference to my noise levels, as well as giving peace of mind that I was doing the right thing.
What modification did I make? I just replaced the 4-gang strip hanging off the output with a Belkin surge-protected item - the BSV400.
You can get all the details, component list and theory at Ian's website here: https://gm3sek.com/2019/10/11/clean-up-your-shack-2019.
Berni M0XYF
Update
I've had some feedback from Adrian M0TCD, which was enlightening and useful:
"I don't like the way the input and output leads run so close together in your mains filter as it could allow interference to cross between them. You could put the filter on the left and the fair-rite on the right to overcome this."
Which, after checking against the original design, is a mistake on my part, so I'll be fixing that sometime in the near future!
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Administration
A little bit of clarification before we start.
This guide is for Windows 10 and 11 users only (and will almost immediately go out of date, I'm sure). The software you need is free and can be downloaded from the FlexRadio website here:
https://www.flexradio.com/ssdr
Scroll down until you find the section entitled 'SSDR for Windows' and select 'Download Latest V3 Release' which at the time of writing is V3.4.21.
Click the 'DOWNLOAD 3.x.xx SOFTWARE' button on the right.
Once the download is complete, find the file on your computer, scan it for viruses if you feel the need, then execute it from wherever Windows stashed it, probably your Downloads folder. I'm not going to baby you through the install - it's not anything out of the ordinary.
If you find any of the included screenshots below too small to read, you can click on them to be shown a full-sized version in a new window.
The power to the radio is controlled by a separate phone app. Most committee members have access to this primary on/off facility. Before you can access the radio remotely, it needs to be powered up. If you see no 'Available' radios once you've successfully logged in, please contact somebody to do that for you. In theory, the radio can be turned on and made available for use 24/7/365, although it does power-cycle daily in the middle of the night for licence compliance, security and stability reasons.
Get Your Excuses in Early
This was a difficult article to write. I wanted to make it foolproof, and therefore not miss out any basic steps, yet stop it from becoming a monster read which would bore the pants off of everyone. I hope I've managed to pitch it at the right level, but if I've failed then I apologise. It is however going to be fairly long.
If it's too basic, then all you've wasted is your time. If it's too complicated, then please just take your time and ask questions direct to my email address if required. If I've made any errors or I've missed crucial bits out, then please let me know and I'll make corrections. If it doesn't cover other bits you need to know, then once you've got the basics, just go and experiment - it's the best way to learn. If you're really desperate, then there's always the manual! 😄
I've tried to keep the screenshots consistent from one step to the next, but I had to go backwards and forwards several times, so don't take it too literally.
Before you Start SmartSDR
I recommend that you plug in your microphone device, whatever that may be. I find a USB headset with built-in boom mic to work well, but you may want to use earbuds with built in microphones, or a desktop mic and separate speakers. Your choice. Also your choice whether you go for USB connectivity, Bluetooth or 3.5mm audio jack.
Time to Get Connected
Once installed you'll see three icons on your desktop.
You can ignore the CAT and DAX icons for the purpose of this walkthrough. You won't need them, but you will see the CAT and DAX sub-applications pop-up anyway, rather annoyingly.
Double-click SmartSDR, and on your first execution, you should see this:
You can close the CAT and DAX windows. Likewise whenever else they pop up upon starting SmartSDR (the 'settings' icon at the bottom of these windows controls this unruly behaviour).
Now click the SmartSDR 'Log In' button to hopefully see this:
.
I'm not going to include the login details here for obvious reasons, but you can get them from any responsible member - if you can find such a person 😝
It's the ''protonmail' address and password you'll need.
Once you've obtained and entered them, go ahead and click 'Log In' to hopefully see this:
Where you should click the 'Save' button to be taken to the Flex entry gateway, that looks like this:
Right, it's getting exciting now. Click 'Connect' and be ever so slightly patient, before seeing the main screen:
Well done making it this far.
Now You Have Some Work To Do
There is some individual customisation and setup work which you must complete if we are all going to live in harmony. Please do not skip these steps.
Firstly, to get any noise out of the thing, you'll need to click the PC Audio button top right. It'll light up in pale blue, as do all the buttons once 'pressed'. Adjust your PC/laptop speaker/headphones/headset audio levels to comfortable setting(s).
Now navigate to the very bottom of the window. Under 'STATION' you'll see whatever your windows 'System Name' is currently set to. As any other logged-in user will see this too, please set it to your name and callsign, so that other users can tell who you are: Just click in the box directly and type away.
One more item of housekeeping before you can start twiddling radio knobs. You must set up your own microphone profile. This is absolutely crucial. Every time you subsequently log in, you must check that your own microphone profile is selected, otherwise there will be some very shouty people on the radio with you.
You only have to set it up once, but you must also select it every time you log in if it's not already selected.
This is how you set it up. Go up to the menu bar where it says 'Profiles' (top left). Click it and then select 'Create MIC Profile...'.
You will then see this screen:
Select the 'Microphone' tab at the top, if it's not already selected (it should be) and then type your callsign followed by a very short description of the microphone you're using. You should set up a profile in this way for each different microphone you want to use with SmartSDR, but just add the current mic for now. Click 'Create' and you're done.
Now cast your gaze over to the right hand side of the screen and make sure your freshly added mic profile is selected in the 'Phone/CW' module - the one that looks like this:
Also select 'PC' from the audio input dropdown underneath it, as shown above. You should have a microphone icon in the Windows System Tray to indicate that SmartSDR has access to your current microphone. You may also want (or need) to go and fiddle with the Windows 'Microphone' or indeed 'Sounds' settings if you enjoy that sort of thing. You can do all that by either left or right clicking the microphone and speaker icons down there in the Tray, but hopefully everything will work OK without messing about with all that. Ultimately, you may want to go and adjust the microphone input level in the 'Sounds' control panel settings for Windows. Don't freak out at the myriad of virtual input and output devices that SmartSDR installed in there. They won't do any harm.
More Bugs than "I'm a Celebrity..."
SmartSDR for Windows does have a few 'bugs'. One of them is that it sometimes refuses to recognise that your microphone is even connected. If when you go to transmit (a bit later in this tutorial) you get nothing but a flat line on the spectrum display and no output, try shutting down SmartSDR and restarting it. Maybe more than once. Just like we had to do back in the 1980's. You should also check that the DAX button isn't pressed.
Nearly there. Promise. You will be glad to hear that the rest of the tutorial is radio-operating in nature, and not computer or admin-centric.
First off, take a look at the 'Receive' box, which is probably down near the bottom right (you may need to scroll to find it - you can also drag & drop the relative modules up and down in the right hand panel). Always check to see that you have the correct antenna selected. You basically always want 'ANT1' for both settings (highlighted in red and blue).
In this box you can also click the Frequency and change it to whatever you choose. Likewise the Mode, as well as many other controls you'll be familiar with such as bandwidth, filtering, noise blanking, RIT/XIT, tuning steps and so on. Set those basic parameters as you see fit, and then let's get onto the...
Antenna Tuning Unit
Happily, our Flex is blessed with an internal tuner, which is really very good. Swing your focus up to the top right of the screen where you'll see the 'Transmit' module. Firstly, make sure that the 'MEM' button is always on - i.e. is pale blue in colour. Like most modern tuners, the memory will retain the ATU settings for just about every frequency it's ever been tuned for. The Flex will protect you from transmitting out of band, so all you have to do now is to swerve all the other operators!
Just above the TUNE/MOX/ATU/MEM buttons are the power levels and the traditional-looking RF Power/SWR meters. Set the 'Tune Power' to around 10W and the main Tx 'RF Power' level to whatever you want. The full 100W seems to be beneficial most of the time, due to the slightly unfavourable location of the club shack. The ATU button has three 'States'. When lit, the button, along with the illuminated 'Success' indicator, means that it's already tuned. Click the ATU button once and it turns grey - meaning the tuner is turned off or 'Byp'(assed).
Click it again - it will become active once more, and will perform a 'Tune' operation by switching the radio into transmit, at which point EVERYTHING seems to light up like a Christmas tree. Don't panic - just wait for it to do it's thing and return to receive, hopefully with a 'Success' message and a decent SWR:
If you want to re-check the 'tune' at any point, you can hit the 'TUNE' button (it's a persistent switch - i.e. manually click to turn on, manually click again to turn off).
Here's what it'll look like during that process:
The 'MOX' button operates just like the 'TUNE' button. Click on/Click off - it's not auto-release like some software implemented 'PTT' type switches where you have to hold it on. Obviously this is where your microphone becomes active and you're on the air.
Right, that's a long article, and I'm sure you're all exhausted if you made it all the way down here.
Wrap Up
Deep breath, I just wanted to mention that you can also set the antenna selection, frequency, mode and much more on the slice flag - the thing that looks like a flag at the top of your frequency marker on the spectrum display - in a similar way to how you set them in the 'Receive' module on the right hand side:
I'm not going to discuss 'slices' or any of the other hundreds of settings and buttons. If you press something and the world becomes unrecognisable, try shutting everything down and then starting it up again. Hopefully it'll reset itself. If that doesn't work, blame the cat for walking across your keyboard before reaching out for help.
Any of the regular Flex users will be glad to advise you at any time. Don't be afraid to play about, or to ask for help when you hit a brick wall.
Enjoy your radio.
Regards,
Berni M0XYF
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As I mentioned in Alex's article on his Arduino GPS project, I had played around with this a while back, so I thought I'd dig it out, re-test it and get a photo.
Not much more to say - it does the same as Alex's, but it's in a much smaller package - the USB connector you can see below is USB-C, to give you an idea of actual size.
The microcontroller is the Seeeduino Xiao. Give them a look over if you need a small device. They are cheap and fairly powerful, employing the SAMD21 processor and can be had for around £7.
I've also used them in my LoRa devices, and incorporated the same GPS module as above. These are both 868MHz RFM95 transceivers and use the DIYcon Droplet Shield.
All that non-SMD top-side soldering is by my own fair hand. I was listening to Adrian after all :)
Berni M0XYF
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After Santa had dropped off some project components from AliExpress, or wherever he gets them, I find myself with an exciting backlog of things to fiddle with during the wet and windy nights. Many, many projects in fact.
I wanted a remote power switch for my radio gear, so that on the odd occasion I want to use my Yaesu remotely, I don't have to leave the PSU turned on - in exactly the same way the club shack power-switching works. Fortunately, I don't need a switch for the radio itself, as the Yaesu remote software and LAN hardware handles that, and I'll add an antenna relay at a later date.
I also wanted a plug-in mains power meter, so that I can test all the heavily-laden 13A sockets in my home. Apparently, one of the best buys is the budget Keweisi AC300 meter. Mr Christmas supplied me the 20A version, and it needed to go into an enclosure for safety reasons, as it's mains powered and I have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to remembering not to touch dangerous stuff.
You can see where this is going. I decided to combine the two mini-projects into one, so that once I've finished my analysis of where the money is disappearing in various parts of the house, it can live in my 'shack', performing switching duties as well as monitoring power usage there in the future. This room is probably the worst offender in terms of 'unnecessary but nice-to-have' electrical equipment that is powered-on continually.
I managed to pick up a NOS expensive Spelsberg TK PS Polystyrene IP66 enclosure from eBay for a tenner. It's a little bit too large, but it was a bargain.
The lid, after Dremel surgery to exactly accommodate the sockets and digital meter, leaving the maximum material and therefore strength in the box...
I got the same Sonoff 4 channel switch (model 4CHPROR3) that Phil used in the club controller, because I was told it was simple and reliable, and that has been my experience too - plus I also have the relevant app already installed on my phone to operate the MSARS Flex. Also shown is the Keweisi 'Digital Fuel Gauge' model KWS-ACS300 (20A).
Two cheap MK single DP sockets and some 1.5mm2 cable from TL Carr Electrical Supplies in Burgess Hill, plus a couple of Wago 221 connectors, and we're off and running.
Switched socket with neon: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/MB2657DP.html
Mains cable: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/CA1dot5F3.html
I'm not going to walk you through all the tedious details, but the instructions supplied with both the switch and the meter are of course painfully mangled from Chinese, though are understandable after some head-scratching. Top tips here are to use your common sense when wiring the mains cables, to make sure that when it comes to pairing the Sonoff switch that you only attempt to connect it to a 2.4GHz WiFi point and not a 5GHz one, and to remember to connect the supplied temperature probe to the meter if you require temperature measurement, though mine is just sealed in the box and so won't be accurate.
Here is the inside of the lid after fitting and wiring the sockets:
As you can see from the wiring diagram on the rear of the meter, it's easy-peasy, though someone will likely tell me that I've violated any number of IEEE standards.
Likewise the Sonoff switch, which comes after the meter in my configuration:
Note the use of the amazing Wago connectors to bring together the common neutral and live connection points (the earth connection bypasses both the meter and the switch and goes directly to the sockets). Wago 221 connectors are the best thing since, well, ANY kind of bread. Just get some. Way too many years went by before I discovered these.
And so after a triple-check of my wiring and screw-tightening, the lid goes on and it's time to test, by literally putting the kettle on.
I was impressed with the quality of all the components, apart from the terrible MK Base 13A plug on the other end of the cable, which seemed to be made of the nastiest and most brittle plastic known to man, as the cable grip shattered into fine shards when I tried to pass the cable through it. I won't be buying any more of those! The sockets are decent enough though.
The menu button on the meter switches between Power Factor and Kwh, as well as (press and hold) to reset the energy usage and elapsed time indicator (which thankfully aren't reset on power-down).
If you want to know about anything I've omitted, you can always give me a shout.
Interestingly, I note that there is an RF remote control available (though I can't find one for sale anywhere). More interestingly, it operates on 433.92MHz. If I do ever find an original remote control, I'll definitely be pointing it at my HackRF One.
Onto the next one. Will the wife ever get her dining table back?
Berni M0XYF
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That's a ridiculous title for an article. Of course it won't, but ChatGPT is far and away the greatest manifestation of a publicly accessible, AI-centric Chatbot that I've ever come across, though I'm sure there are a sprinkling of top secret lab-bound projects that would challenge its abilities.
Many of us Earthlings working in or contributing to sectors which could be perceived in some way as 'manual' in nature (and I realise that term will be grossly offensive to most of those people - for which I apologise) are probably safe for now, but many of the rest of us will surely increasingly struggle to find any relevance in the AI-dominated near future.
I've been experimenting with the ChatGPT engine for a couple of weeks now, and accepting its limitations going in, it's everything it's cracked up to be. Amongst other things, it can write high quality conversational-style articles, so from now on I'll let it write all the stuff for the website!
It was initially trained on a very large yet supposedly diverse and representative dataset, but unlike cheap toys like Alexa (which isn't actually much more than a voice controlled search engine) ChatGPT doesn't just go off trawling the internet for answers to your questions. Oh no. It has a proper crack at trying to use its pseudo-intelligence and finite database to deliver a human-like response which betters the efforts of all previous attempts by such 'machines'.
Panic ye not though. It's not currently self-learning or self-teaching, so it's not going to re-boot one morning and find that it's become some kind of all-powerful sentient super-being. Not just yet.
I encourage you all to go and have a play. On the face of it, it can answer sensibly structured questions pretty well, and will gladly (bless its cotton socks) have another stab should you be displeased with the initial results. It will remember previous questions and answers, so you can use a follow-up approach to do this such as 'make your answer more technical and specific' or 'adjust your answer to prioritise a younger audience and expand it to 200 words' for example.
In one of my tests, I asked it to write something on how ChatGPT could help in our hobby. Here's what it had to say:
As an amateur radio operator, you are no stranger to the technical aspects of this hobby. You know that communication protocols play a crucial role in enabling reliable and efficient communication over the airwaves. And you may be interested to learn that ChatGPT, a natural language processing technology developed by OpenAI, could potentially be used to advance digital communication protocols in amateur radio.
ChatGPT has the ability to understand and generate human-like text, making it a valuable tool for a variety of applications. One way it could be used in amateur radio is to develop more advanced messaging systems that use digital communication protocols. These systems could potentially allow for faster, more reliable communication between ham radio operators, especially in emergency situations when traditional forms of communication may be disrupted.
Another potential application of ChatGPT in amateur radio is the development of intelligent assistants that can help users learn more about the technical aspects of the hobby. For example, these assistants could be programmed to provide users with information about different digital communication protocols, such as AX.25, APRS, and D-STAR, as well as the benefits and limitations of each protocol.
Overall, ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the world of amateur radio by enabling the development of more advanced communication tools and intelligent assistants. As this technology continues to advance, it's likely that we'll see even more innovative uses for it in the world of ham radio. So if you're a tech-savvy amateur radio operator, be sure to keep an eye on ChatGPT and other advanced technologies as they continue to shape the future of this exciting hobby.
Passable as human output, wouldn't you say? If we forgive its propensity for the word 'protocol'. Completely machine generated.
What had me scoffing and denouncing though was its apparent ability to write meaningful computer code given the highest-level specifications and requirements. But by tweaking the way you ask it to perform these tasks, you can get ready-to-run programs that actually do what you want!
I had to pick my jaw up off the floor several times, as I generated, compiled, executed, error-checked and verified snippets of code for various projects I'm currently working on, and they were insanely accurate and complete. Easily fooled, if you wanted to prove a point (such as if you were a software developer pushing for a pay rise), but a massive progression for the hobbyists and back-bedroom developers.
Give it a go, if your job's secure enough!
Berni M0XYF
