“Start small, start now” is my mantra
When it comes to pushing through depression and burnout, taking a small step can help me to build momentum. When I decided to start camping, the first thing I did was try to replicate the field equipment I used in the military, and before long I had a shopping list that cost a thousand dollars. Thankfully, I haven’t purchased most of those items, and I have survived a few camping trips without most of them.
When I started looking into ham radio, Parks On The Air really grabbed my attention. I still haven’t made a VHF contact outside of the Cincinnati Metro area without the help of the Internet, so HF is still a far off dream. But, I am keen to up my Software Defined Radio game in the meantime. Starting small with minimal gear and building on it to add capability is how I take incremental steps toward my goal.
Before Linux, there was Unix. Unix had a unique mantra, which was “do only one thing, but do it very well.” Before graphical user interfaces like X-Windows, Unix was a command line, a blinking cursor where you typed in commands. These commands did just one thing, and their syntax (the way that you told them do things) could be very tricky, but if you figured out how to do it, you could connect these commands together to do things that would normally require writing a special program to accomplish.
Like Unix, ham radio and outdoor survival are about modularity: snapping small things together to produce steadily better results. As I try to grow my capability from 2m and 70cm (VHF/UHF) to include HF (160m to 10m) I am looking at the “Minimum Viable Setup” to start receiving HF signals. I started my ham radio journey with a Software Defined Radio, and I think that is where I am going to return.
My temptation is to give in to the voice of my inner goblin that wants shiny things. My ham radio goblin is obsessed with waterfall displays. The lowest point of entry for an HF radio with a nice waterfall display is the Icom IC-7300 which is still super expensive. I have decided to instead get an HF capable SDR and begin experimenting with antennas. Based on my research, the Airspy HF+ Discovery looks to be the top of the line. It’s also a 5th of the price of the 7300.
Of course, an SDR dongle isn’t a waterfall all by iteslf, it needs a computer with a display. I have a bunch of computers already, so until I am ready to go into the field with my SDR, the gear that I already have will do just fine. The Airspy also makes use of software called SPY Server for remotely accessing your SDR over a network. This software, combined with a cheap single board computer like the Raspberry Pi 3B, should allow me to use any device that runs an SDR app, such as a mini-PC, laptop, tablet or a mobile phone. If, in the future I decide to get into weak signal work on higher frequencies, I can add a second SDR that is better at those frequencies. The SDR+Pi combo is about $200, and if I get another pair (SDR+Pi) VHF, UHF, and SHF, I can view two waterfalls at the same time. In the future, when I finally do cough up the cash for an HF radio, I will already have the antenna and the waterfall problem handled.
I prefer to use the Raspberry Pi as a low-voltage server and connect to it with an app, rather than using the Pi as a workstation. I prefer the Pi over a dedicated workstation because the SD Card makes it simple to “dual boot” the Pi based on what I am doing. In my experience, Pi’s don’t have great USB bandwidth, laptops can’t provide much in terms if USB power (compared to a desktop PC) and the bulk of the computing requirement for an SDR is rendering the waterfall. Dedicating a Pi to run as a headless SDR server, and running SDR front end app on a more powerful client like a laptop allows me to balance battery power, CPU power, and USB bandwidth easily.
In conclusion, starting small means getting out with the minimal amount of equipment, which for me right now is just VHF/UHF, with plans to add HF via SDR. Starting now means getting out with the equipment that I have, which for me is an old laptop and a re-purposed Raspberry Pi.
When I receive my SDR, I will document the setup process here. Until the next adventure, KE8PRB out, 73,