G4CTP's Amateur Radio Hints and Tips

FT8 and similar modes require the PC clock (Windows, MacOS, Pi, etc) to be accurate within 2 seconds - and ideally better than that. I have found that Windows 10 and Raspberry Pi seem to be capable of doing this themselves without further intervention, but my MacOS clock can drift out by a few seconds. The solution is to periodically synchronise the clock to an NTP server, via a scheduled cron job. These instructions worked for me: Set the time on an Apple Mac running macOS Mojave for FT8/WSPR | QSO365 ...except that the first part of the instructions required a "sudo" in front of the command: sudo sntp -sS pool.ntp.org

Having got D-Star working via a local repeater, how about using a hotspot? It is pretty straightforward to activate. Firstly, turn on D-STAR in the MMDVM Host Configuration: Next, set your callsign and registered D-STAR password in the D-Star Configuration section. "B" is the suffix for a 70cm hotspot, and "G" because you are an internet gateway. You can set a default reflector, although I find this is of limited value (discussed later). I have left Time Announcements, Callsign Routing and D-Plus turned off mainly because I don't really understand them! Something for future experimentation. On the IC-705, now is the time to program in your hotspot as a digital repeater. Got to Menu / DV Memory / Repeater List - and choose an empty Repeater Group. Name this "Pi-Star" (or "hotspot", or whatever you prefer), and within the Group create a single entry as follows: Type: DV Repeater Name: Pi-Star (or whatever you prefer) Sub Name: Pi-Star (or whate...

Although my preferred digital mode is DMR, I thought it would be fun to try D-STAR as well. There are plenty of instructions and videos out there, so I'll keep this one brief. Step one is to register your callsign with the D-STAR Gateway system:  D-STAR Gateway System (dstargateway.org) Actually I'm not entirely certain what you can and can't do if you haven't yet registered, but it seems like a good idea! Next, configure the IC-705 with your D-STAR settings. These can be found in: Menu / Set / My Station / My Call Sign. Put your callsign before the slash and any additional info (such as "P" if portable) after it. Or you could use the field after the slash to identify your rig, especially if you have more than one. Mine is set to "G4CTP   /705". Menu / Set / My Station / TX Message. Use this for additional info sent with your transmission. Mine is set to "Russell IO91RG". It is very useful to load the IC-705 memory with repeater channels. A...

I've been having a lot of fun with FT8 on the IC-705, on HF, VHF and UHF. However, the "rubber stamp" exchange on FT8 is a bit limiting, so I thought I'd try out JS8 mode. To get started, visit the JS8Call official site , and watch the video there. Unfortunately the IC-705 isn't yet supported on the pre-built releases, although it is possible to pretend it is an IC-7600 and change the CI-V setting on the rig (so that it "pretends" to be an IC-7600). I didn't fancy doing that as it would probably stop other things from working - such as WSJT-X and wfview - so instead I did my own build on Raspberry Pi so that I could have native IC-705 support. The steps I took were: Download and build the latest Hamlib from the GitHub source:  Release Hamlib 4.4 · Hamlib/Hamlib · GitHub . There are instructions for doing the build here:  Setup Raspberry Pi for Ham-Radio (dl1gkk.com)  - about a third of the way down the page. Download and build JS8Call. There are some...