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2m FSQ Beacon

Sounding beacon for FSQ digital mode on 2m band

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Found someone else's 2m FSQ beacon project on a web page and thought I'd try to build one myself. Using Si5351A Breakout Board from Adafruit, an 8W PA and LP filter.

So it turns out there are a bunch more digital modes that this beacon can transmit. Digging into the original project by Etherkit here, there's a related link that shows Hellschreiber. Checking out Etherkits' github page shows two Arduino libraries:

The JTEncode library offers JT65, JT9, JT4, or WSPR as well as FSQ at 2, 3, 4.5 and 6 baud. Looks like most of my heavy lifting is done on the Arduino side. Which is great I can repurpose the beacon depending on the sketch I load onto it. I haven't played much with the weak signal modes yet, it's on my TODO, but I'm trying to limit myself to a defined set of projects I can realistically complete rather than go down many tangents.

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 1.05 MB - 04/15/2017 at 02:13

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fsq-transmitting.png

It's alive!

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 367.01 kB - 04/15/2017 at 01:47

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IMG_20170414_114614.jpg

Veroboard with the RF Amp module connected.

JPEG Image - 1.29 MB - 04/14/2017 at 01:50

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IMG_20170414_114621.jpg

Arduino and clock generator on veroboard.

JPEG Image - 1.37 MB - 04/14/2017 at 01:50

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IMG_20170409_160654.jpg

Each section connected on breadboard for prototype.

JPEG Image - 1.10 MB - 04/09/2017 at 06:16

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  • Fldigi Python API and Unkind Demo Gods

    Scott Bragg05/04/2017 at 07:43 0 comments

    Two bits of news.

    I've recently gotten around to querying fldigi using the pyfldigi Python module. This needs Python3 since it makes use of xmlrpc.client which I could not find on Python2. If you take a look at the project source on Github in the reast-presentation directory I have a Jupyter notebook of me trying out some fldigi commands connecting to localhost (again I couldn't get it to bind to anything but).

    However it looks like fldigi.text.get_rx_data() always returned b'' which was strange. Then I thought the FSQ I was sending out the Arduino beacon was wrong somehow which is why the decodes were not getting into the RX window to be 'get'ed by the API. So a bit of a brick wall there but I will persevere.

    Update: I was told that MY callsign needs to have a CRC added to it and perhaps if that is not correct then the decodes are not happening.

    The other bit of news is that I gave a short presentation at the REAST club rooms on Wednesday 3rd May. I've added the slides and Jupyter notebooks from that presentation to the source repo.

  • Configuring the Headless Pi

    Scott Bragg04/30/2017 at 05:34 0 comments

    In the past I've always attached a keyboard and mouse and HDMI monitor to the Pi to configure it initially. But here is how to configure an SDCard so it is headless, running SSH and connecting to your wifi network:

    • dd the Raspbian image to the microSD card
    • Re-insert the microSD card on your Linux laptop or desktop PC, it should automount the boot and linux partitions on the card
    • cd /media/USERNAME/boot
      • The USERNAME is your username
    • touch ssh
    • cd /media/USERNAME/02133478634982/
      • The number above is the partition uuid, check the output from df -h for a clue
    • cd etc wpa_supplicant
    • wpa_passphrase YOURSSID "yourpassword" >> wpa_supplicant.conf

    Then you can unmount the microsd card and put it in your Pi and it will boot up and put itself on your wifi network. I usually run an nmap ping scan (sudo nmap -sP SUBNET/24) to find out what new Raspberry Pi's have appeared on the network, and then add it's MAC address as a static DHCP IP address.

    You can then ssh to your newly minted Pi and run sudo raspi-config to do things such as

    • Change the hostname
    • Set your default locale (eg en_AU.UTF-8) and timezone
    • Expand the file system to take the rest of the microsd
    • Enable the VNC server (you will need to download RealVNC connect to connect to it as encryption is turned on - don't know how to turn this off).
    • Set your HDMI default resolution to something higher than the default, eg 1024x768 - this will allow the VNC server to also be this resolution

  • Raspbian, FlDigi and GQRX

    Scott Bragg04/30/2017 at 05:18 0 comments

    The version of fldigi on Raspbian Jessie is too old and does not have FSQ mode. You need to download it from here and compile it:

    • sudo apt-get build-dep fldigi
    • ./configure
    • make
    • make install

    In addition to being an old version, GQRX in the Raspbian repos also did not work. However there is a binary installer that can be found here.

    To connect these two up, you will need a loopback sound device. Add a line with 'snd-aloop' to /etc/modules

  • Too Much Power!

    Scott Bragg04/15/2017 at 13:06 0 comments

    So the minikits amp is 8W nominal output, 5W safe with a 5mW input. Looking at the I2C code for the clock generator, I can set 2mA output, on a 3.3v device that makes roughly 16mW power. I need to attenuate that input into the amplifier or I will overdrive it and overheat it.

    The minikit does have spot on it to put a pi-attenuator. I calculate I need to attenuate by 6dB, so 1/4 of the power or 4mW input.

    We calculated a pi-attenuator with 150R resistors on in parallel connected by a 39R resistor should give roughly 6dB attenuation. Now I need to find these in my boxes of bits!

    You can see the calculation using this online RF Pi Attenuator Calculator

  • Receiving FSQ using fldigi and gqrx

    Scott Bragg04/15/2017 at 02:16 0 comments

    On the receiving side of the project, I'm going to use GQRX and FLDIGI. These are GUI apps so I will need to run a remote window manager on the Pi, but will give me superior diagnostic control. FLDIGI has a SDK that I can script up with a serial connection to the Arduino for TX and RX control.

    To get FLDIGI to use the GQRX USB demod as output, you need to create a loopback sound device. This is as simle as

    modprobe snd-aloop
    

    And then selecting the loopback sound device in GQRX. Then in FLDIGI use the first Loopback sound device as the capture device.

  • WTF Serial

    Scott Bragg04/15/2017 at 01:50 0 comments

    I wrote an Arduino sketch to transmit FSQ messages and have the serial port tell me what it's doing.

    It didn't work.

    The program would hang on first initialising the SI5351.

    Remove the "Serial" lines from the code. It works. WTF.

    I wonder if this is a bug with this old Arduino Nano or something worse.

    Might try to use SoftwareSerial on some other pins.

  • Transferred to veroboard

    Scott Bragg04/14/2017 at 01:50 0 comments

    On the Arduino Nano, pin A4 is SDA and pin A5 is SCL for the I2C bus.

    Today I moved the prototype from breadboard to veroboard. So there's a new photo.

    I'll have to add more to the veroboard so I cut it big so I can add:

    • TX/RX from UART to R-Pi
    • Voltage regulator to take 12v in and give 3.3/5v out to power the Arduino Vin.

  • I2C Issues

    Scott Bragg04/09/2017 at 06:15 0 comments

    Originally I was going to use an RFDuino to control the clock generator. I backed the RFDuinos a few years ago in the crowd funding campaign but never used them as I generally needed more IO or something else wasn't right. Turns out the same thing again. The RFDuino uses pins 5 and 6 for I2C. I wired it up but found the I2C bus unstable. It would constantly reset. I had a sketch that would set a frequency and every 10 seconds query the Si5351 for it's top register.

    Hello
    SYS_INIT: 1  LOL_A: 0  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 0  REVID: 1
    SYS_INIT: 0  LOL_A: 0  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 0  REVID: 3
    SYS_INIT: 0  LOL_A: 0  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 0  REVID: 3
    SYS_INIT: 1  LOL_A: 1  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 1  REVID: 1
    

    Looking at the RFDuino spec, it doesn't have a voltage regulator but accepts 1.8-3.6v. I was powering off USB but using the 3V and the GPIO pins are 0.7 * Vdd so I think the clock generator was resetting constantly.

    Going back out to the shed I found an OLD Arduino Nano (so old it has a mini-USB port on it) but it worked fine and was able to run the Adafruit Si5351 library and see a signal at my test frequency at 145.225MHz, and the update of the register was working well too:

    Hello
    SYS_INIT: 1  LOL_A: 1  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 1  REVID: 1
    SYS_INIT: 0  LOL_A: 0  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 0  REVID: 3
    SYS_INIT: 0  LOL_A: 0  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 0  REVID: 3
    SYS_INIT: 0  LOL_A: 0  LOL_B: 0  LOS: 0  REVID: 3
    
    On to the next task.

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Jason Milldrum wrote 07/21/2017 at 16:37 point

Hi Scott, really glad you found my libraries useful. I wanted to let you know that I also sell a Si5351 Breakout Board, and I have one with a TCXO reference oscillator, which would be perfect for 2 meter usage because of the stability it provides. I will also be rolling out a new feature soon, where each of my Si5351A Breakout Boards will have a frequency calibration report included, so that you don't have to worry about measuring that yourself. Thanks!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Scott Bragg wrote 04/07/2017 at 04:26 point

Possible future work: use the other 2 clock generators to transmit beacons on other bands, eg HF (7104kHz)

  Are you sure? yes | no

Scott Bragg wrote 04/07/2017 at 04:25 point

Possible future work: plug Arduino into Raspberry Pi with RTL-SDR, running fldigi and use the API for fldigi to receive FSQ and use the Arduino to transmit automatic responses to FSQ triggers.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Scott Bragg wrote 04/07/2017 at 04:23 point

The parts were chosen because I could order them easily with cheap shipping. Originally I was just going to use a low pass filter for 2m band but found an amplifier with 2m filter by the same kit seller for not much more. Since I live 50km from my radio club rooms I think I should be able to receive an 8W amplified signal.

  Are you sure? yes | no

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