scottyau

So the Brisbane Amateur Radio Club (BARC) that I joined has been playing with a few different digital modes - and one of them is Digital Mobile Radio or DMR.  The club's page on DMR has some information on how they got started, the radio most members have bought (Retevis RT3S) and there is also a page with code plugs configured with local repeaters to help get people going. The RT3S is a pretty cool little HT for $80-90.  It's UHF/VHF, has GPS, APRS (TX only) and DMR support - and it runs OpenGD77 - an opensource firmware that a number of club members have flashed their HT with. This all looked pretty cool - so last week I ordered an RT3S off the Retevis eBay store and it showed up a few days later.  I opted for the pack with the programming cable:   The radio itself is built pretty well with my only complaint being it doesn't have USB-C (or any direct DC) source of charging.  You need to stick it in the dock that it comes with.  I'll continue to l...

 So I saw Jim W6LG post a video on YouTube about a cool little HamClock kit from inovato based on a small Quadra PC.  Watching the video - it looked like quite a cool little addition to the shack.  Reading the comments on the video and having a look at the product page I learned HamClock is a standalone open source application that will run on a multitude of platforms.   I love ordering new hardware as much (maybe more?) than the average nerd, however I reaslied I have a drawer full of Raspberry Pi's and other single board computers.  Given the low hardware specs required for this I figured I'd dig out a Raspberry Pi 3 and give it a go.  While HamClock once running does offer up a remote view/screen, I really liked the idea of having a little dedicated screen on my bench with this display.  I did some googling and came across what looked like the perfect little option -  Freenove 7 Inch Touchscreen for Raspberry Pi, 800x480 Pixel IPS Disp...

 So back in April 2022 I got my Foundation Amateur Radio Licence .  The world was still doing a lot of things online - and I actually did my test as well as my "practical" component over Zoom.  I passed both, and submitted my paper work and shortly after I was licenced and ready to get on the air. At the time there were a couple of us all in Australia / VK but in different locations that got our licences.  I bought a Baofeng UV-10R from AliExpress .  I got the package with the extra aerials and programming cable.  The battery has USB-C charging too.   It was a pretty inexpensive way to get into the hobby.  I used CHIRP to program in a list of local UHF/VHF repeaters and started trying to listen in to some local nets and the WIA Sunday morning news broadcast down here in Australia.  I had some success.  I managed to receive from a few different repeaters - however transmitting was far more hit and miss.  I played with a few ot...