Zero Retries 0149

Zero Retries is an independent newsletter promoting technological innovation that is occurring in Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio as (literally) a license to experiment with and learn about radio technology. Now in its third year of publication, with 1500+ subscribers.

About Zero Retries

Steve Stroh N8GNJ, Editor

Jack Stroh, Late Night Assistant Editor Emeritus

In this issue:

• Request To Send

• Good Presentation on CATS

• Jam-Resistant American Radio Keeps Ukraine’s Long-Range Drones Flying

• ZR > BEACON

  • AREDN Release 3.24.4.0

  • Quansheng UV-K5 TRX VHF UHF (HF RX) Mod Ready

  • Hackaday - Reverse Engineering the Quansheng Hardware

  • Expansion of the Masters Communications DRA “M” Series of Amateur Radio Audio Interfaces

  • A Whole Bunch Of New Designs

  • DoD Officials Gear Up for Spectrum Sharing ‘Moonshot’

  • IPv6 for the Remotely Interested

  • 50 Years Later, This Apollo-Era Antenna Still Talks to Voyager 2

• Join the Fun on Amateur Radio

• Closing The Channel

Web version of this issue - https://www.zeroretries.org/p/zero-retries-0149

Request To Send

Commentary by Editor Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Paid Subscribers Update

My thanks to Andrew Herrington KG5JNC for becoming a Paid Subscriber to Zero Retries this past week!

My thanks to Prefers to Remain Anonymous 29 for becoming a Paid Subscriber to Zero Retries this past week!

Financial support is a real vote of confidence for continuing to publish Zero Retries.

Major Conference Countdowns

• Hamvention 2024 in Xenia, Ohio, USA on 2024-05-17 thru 19, in 03 weeks!
• HAM RADIO 2024 in Friedrichshafen, Germany on 2024-06-28 thru 30, in 06 weeks!
• JARL Ham Fair 2024 in Tokyo, Japan on 2024-08-24 and 25, in 17 weeks!

See other events at the Zero Retries Guide to Zero Retries Interesting Conferences.

Presentation at LinuxFest Northwest on Saturday 2024-04-27

I will be a presenter at LinuxFest Northwest (LFNW) 2024 tomorrow (Saturday) at 14:30 - 15:30 in room DMC 140 at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham, Washington USA. The subject of my presentation is on the schedule as “Amateur Radio and Linux”, but it was supposed to be (and will be):

Amateur Radio and Open Source (Not Just Linux)

My presentation will be a cursory overview of Amateur Radio activities and highlight a number of significant open source projects and what techies can do to experiment… hack around… beyond what’s possible / allowed with low-power unlicensed systems such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and LoRa / Meshtastic. I’m just trying to get the techies at LinuxFest to understand that Amateur Radio in the 2020s is technical, fun, and you can learn a heck of a lot about radio technology with Amateur Radio.

LFNW is a favorite of techies in Western Washington and Southwest British Columbia, and even draws from Portland, Oregon which is a six hour drive away. It’s one of the reasons that I became so familiar and fond of Bellingham when it came time to decide on a place to relocate when we decided to leave the Seattle metro area.

Please look for the Zero Retries hat and say Hi!

Presentation at RATPAC on 2024-05-08

I will be the presenter at the Wednesday session of RATPAC (Radio Amateur Training Planning and Activities Committee) videoconference training series on 2024-05-08.

The topic of my presentation will be:

Tracking technological innovation in Amateur Radio - the Zero Retries newsletter

Mostly I want to use this presentation to highlight some of the more interesting technological innovation that’s underway in the 2020s.

Go to the RATPAC page and scroll down for the link for my presentation.

Compensation for Favorable Mention in Zero Retries? Nope.

A Zero Retries reader mentioned not too long ago that “You must be getting all kinds of free stuff for the nice mentions of products in Zero Retries”.

Actually… no.

To date, I’ve accepted two (pretty minor) “freebie” products and a generous donation of several radios modified for data use from Tadd Torborg KA2DEW. When I actually do use those (and perhaps future) “freebie” products and write about them in Zero Retries, I’ll disclose that those items were donated.

First, I don’t ask. I don’t want there to be an expectation (or a suspicion) of paying for mentions in Zero Retries. Unless otherwise noted, I pay full price for the products that I want to experiment with and use.

Second, small vendors of Zero Retries Interesting products in the Amateur Radio market have thin profit margins as is without giving away free stuff. I get it - it’s a struggle for small vendors to stay in the Amateur Radio market. Just like optional paid subscriptions are a “signal” to Zero Retries that the content has value, my purchases to small businesses in the Amateur Radio market, like recently to Zum Radio, KiwiSDR, and RPC Electronics is a signal to them that their products are useful and valuable.

In the meantime…

Next week will be a bit of travel to finally meet Pseudostaffer Orv Beach W6BI in Vancouver, British Columbia.

73,

Steve N8GNJ

Good Presentation on CATS

By Steve Stroh N8GNJ

Stephen Downward VE9QLE did a presentation on Communication and Telemetry System (CATS) to Radio Activities Training Planning and Activities Committee (RATPAC) weekly videoconference.

CATS is a new Amateur Radio data communications system that’s somewhat modeled on Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS). CATS is a “clean sheet of paper” rethinking of the paradigms underlaying APRS and that VE9QLE has launched CATS is testimony to the culture of technological innovation that Amateur Radio continues to experiment with new technology and paradigms like CATS.