Amateur radio station

G0FQB

Golf Zero Foxtrot Quebec Bravo

Simulated waterfall

Pete's station in Derbyshire. HF, DMR and digital modes on the air, and software and hardware projects on the bench.

Operator
Pete
QTH
Matlock, Derbyshire
Locator
IO93
DMR ID
2343621
Club
SOARC

Conditions

Snapshot
Solar flux
121SFI
Sunspot number
99
K index
3
Unsettled
A index
11
Solar wind
417km/s
Noise floor
S2-S3

HF bands, day and night

  • Good
  • Fair
  • Poor
  • No forecast

UK amateur HF allocations in MHz, log scale. 60m is drawn at its outer limits and takes the 80m to 40m forecast.

By band group

BandsDayNight

Planetary Kp, 3-hour values

  • Observed
  • Estimated or forecast
Kp values as a table

Solar figures and band conditions from N0NBH at hamqsl.com. Kp from NOAA SWPC. Times are UTC.

Projects

LiveGB3MBA

GB3MBA Meteor Zoo

Built around GB3MBA, the UK meteor beacon at Sherwood Observatory. The beacon sends a circularly polarised signal straight up on 50.408 MHz, and receivers around the country pick up the echoes from meteor trails.

  • 50.408 MHz
  • IO93JC
  • Meteor scatter
Open the Meteor Zoo
LiveGB3MBA

GB3MBA status page

A public page showing how the GB3MBA meteor network is performing, from the Sherwood receiving sites.

  • Public
  • Beacon status
View network results
Details to addSoftware

FreeDMR activity applet

A small applet that shows who is active on FreeDMR right now.

  • FreeDMR
  • DMR
LiveClub

SOARC globe

A live 3D globe built for the Sherwood Observatory Amateur Radio Club, showing activity from FreeDMR, PSK Reporter and the Reverse Beacon Network.

  • SOARC
  • PSK Reporter
  • RBN
Open the globe
BuiltSoftware

AnyTone D878UVII programmer

A desktop programming app for the AnyTone AT-D878UVII handheld. Next is support for the Uniden UBC125XLT scanner, using the documented BC125AT serial protocol and its plain ASCII commands (PRG, CIN, GLG, EPG).

  • DMR codeplugs
  • Scan lists
  • UBC125XLT planned
BuiltHome

Local smart plug control

Tuya and SmartLife smart plugs driven directly from a Raspberry Pi 5 with TinyTuya, using local keys extracted for 25 devices.

  • Raspberry Pi 5
  • TinyTuya
  • Python

Blog

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Station

HF
Icom IC-7610 SDR transceiver; Yaesu FTX-1 with MAT-1F external tuner
VHF/UHF
Icom IC-9700 (2m, 70cm and 23cm, all mode)
Handhelds
Yaesu FT3D, Icom ID-52E, AnyTone 878UV
Hotspots
MMDVM on a Pi Zero W, SharkRF openSPOT4
Receive
Mini SDR v3
Nets
SOARC nets, TG2348 on FreeDMR

Bench notes

  • Common-mode choke for the FTX-1: mix 31 ferrite covers 80m to 10m.
  • FTX-1 sub-band switching fault traced to an unplugged mic asserting PTT.
  • Looking into VLF propagation and a SuperSID receiver build.
  • Watched asteroid 1997 NC1 on its close flyby with a Seestar smart telescope.