gerryk.com

Wherein I write about things that interest me….

Mobile APRS with Icom IC7100 and mobilinkd

28,I;used to have a bunch of radios in my car; an IC7000 for HF, a Kenwood TM D710 for APRS/VHF/UHF and a Cleartone CM7 ex-PMR for 4m AM/FM. They were installed relatively stealthily, but when I came across the successor to the IC7000, the IC7100, I saw how I could aggregate all of this into a single radio. \nSo… long story short, I sold all the radios that were in the car and bought the;IC7100. Read more →

Flashing OpenWRT on TPlink 703n v1.7

I recently bought a TPLink WR703n as they are a nice, inexpensive, and very hackable little device. I have a few projects in mind for this, including playing with;Hak.5’s Wifi Pineapple. Pretty much all the hacks require flashing with OpenWRT. \n \nWhen I started my research, I discovered that some versions of the 703n can be bricked by OpenWRT. They are not actually fully bricked, as in completely unresponsive, but they boot with the LAN disabled, and therefore are uncontactable. Read more →

Chirp Files for Baofeng B5 and Wouxun UVD1P (4m version)

I have created image files for CHIRP for both the;Baofeng B5, VHF/UHF dual band HT, and the;Wouxun UVD1P 4m/2m dual Band HT;with the Irish repeater&internet gateway frequencies and where applicable, access tones. They also contain other frequencies that can be interesting to listen to, such as Marine VHF and PMR446. \nTo use them, you will need;CHIRP;and a;radio programming lead, and of course, the files, which can be downloaded from these links: \n \nBaofeng B5 CHIRP file \n \nWouxun UVD1P CHIRP file \n Read more →

Open Streetmaps Revisited

Since I wrote;this blogpost, some of the sites and information referenced has disappeared or become otherwise out of date. Here is an updated version: \n \nOne of the OSM contributors creates regular builds of GB and Ireland converted to Garmin .img format and makes them available for download from;here. The .img files are zipped, and the largest is >550MB, so you’ll need a 1GB SD Card or bigger. Other countries and larger areas are available from;here. Read more →

Open Streetmaps

Open StreetMaps is a worldwide collaborative effort to create a high quality, unencumbered street-level map of the world. When I first came across it, a few years ago, Co. Galway was almost unpopulated (with mapping), and Galway city extended as far as Moneenageesha. Things have changed, however. On;Marlow’s;suggestion, I downloaded a daily Garmin build of the Ireland map and installed it to SD card for use on my Nuvi. One of the OSM contributors creates regular builds converted to Garmin . Read more →

Asterisk Workshop at 091 Labs

I will be conducting an Asterisk workshop on Thursday evening, August 19, 2010 as a part of Irish HackerSpaces week.;The workshop will cover installation of Asterisk (as Trixbox), connection to a SIP trunk provider, connection to an IAX peer, set up of SIP clients and configuration of some of the many features Asterisk offers. We have selected Blueface as the trunk provider.; TOG, in Dublin have an Asterisk server set up already, so we have decided to peer with them. Read more →

New Galway Hackerspace

Galway has a new HackerSpace. Going by the name 091labs (from the dialling code for Galway, 091) a HackerSpace has recently become active in Galway in the West of Ireland. I have yet to visit, but am very excited that we finally have our very own HackerSpace…; Further details from the 091labs site:;http://091labs.com/;or their twwiter feed:;http://twitter.com/091labs I look forward to visiting the labs soon. Best of luck!! Read more →

APRS

APRS is often misunderstood to mean Automatic Position Reporting System, when, according to creator Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, it actually stands for Automatic Packet Reporting System. Some might maintain that the primary purpose of APRS is vehicle tracking and service position reporting, and, while this is not entirely untrue, it does sell short the possibilities of this excellent technology. \nThe more obvious purposes to which APRS could be put to include announcing services… obviously, being somewhat limited to the Amateur Radio community, services of interest to them would be the first choice. Read more →

WA1ZMS Transatlantic VHF Beacon gets Upgrade

The WA1ZMS Trans-Atlantic beacon/transmitter project has had a recent upgrade to its operation. Technical Description: QTH: FM07fm at 4200ft AMSL Antenna: 2 6ele yagi stack aimed at 60 degrees to Europe ERP: 7kw! From Brian Justin, WA1ZMS/4… A land mobile grade base station VHF exciter is used and the 25w driver PA is keyed for CW modulation. The exciter utilizes a 10MHz frequency reference with is derived from an HP-Z3801A GPS frequency standard. Read more →

The New Shack

Ok, there have been a few additions, changes, retirements and so in in the old shack. The current lineup is… VHF/UHF - Yaesu FT736R 4m - Philips FM1000 with PA4DEN 3.2 firmware HF - Icom IC756 PROIII HF Receiver - Drake 2B There’s a little story behind each of these rigs. The ones that make me most happy these days are the Drake 2B and the PROIII.; The Drake came about primarily through hearing Bill Meara going on about them on his podcast Soldersmoke. Read more →