Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 10/28/2021

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The audio archive of this net can best be followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.

We had another interesting net tonight with 6 check-ins plus net control Ken, KA6KEN. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Communications were scratchy tonight depending on which repeater check-ins were coming in on so some troubleshooting ensued.
  • Trying to use an Alinco radio as TNC for Winlink and VARA packet modes.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 10/21/2021

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The audio archive of this net can best be followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.

We had another interesting net tonight with 6 check-ins plus net control Dave, AI6VX. Tonight’s topics included:

  • What back up power options does the group incorporate for communications when commercial or local power is out?
  • Solar power options.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 10/14/2021

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The audio archive of this net can best be followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.

We had another interesting net tonight with 7 check-ins plus net control Frank, K6FLD. Tonight’s topics included:

  • Why is my SWR high on 70 cm with a Discone antenna?
  • Eric, KG6WXC’s PTT foot switch made with an old Rigblaster setup.
  • Need a way to use a mixer of sorts to use the same microphone and foot switch with all radios in my shack.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

General Club Meeting – October 15, 2021

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Several people have asked about FT8 in recent months, so we thought we would do an introductory presentation to explain what it is and how it works. FT8 is a fast paced digital mode for HF and it works even when most other modes don’t. It’s high sensitivity to weak signals makes it a favorite mode for many of us without amplifiers and big beam  antennas. It typically takes about 35 watts and a modest dipole or wire antenna and you can easily make contacts world wide. Many hams do quite well with QRP rigs and simple wire antennas.

Next month is also our annual election month. So, this meeting we will be submitting the slate of candidates chosen by the nominating committee. We’ll also open up nominations from the membership. It is not yet determined if we will be able to have an in-person meeting in November, so we are making plans for online voting like we did last year. If we do have an in-person meeting, we’ll use a combination of regular ballot voting and online voting for those who choose not to attend.

For those to you interested in the PowerPoint presentation it can be downloaded here:  https://www.sbarc.org/Downloads/wsjtx_and_ft-8.pptx

Post expires at 11:59pm on Friday October 15th, 2021 but will still be available in the archives.

Technical Mentoring and Elmering Net – 10/7/2021

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The audio archive of this net can best be followed by downloading the .mp3 file for the appropriate date here and listening with the media player of your choice. You can move the progress slider forward or backward to the subject of interest to you.

We had another interesting net tonight with 8 check-ins plus net control Brian, K6BPM. Tonight’s topics included:

  • How to get started with amateur radio Satellite/ISS communications. (Maybe start at www.amsat.org) Sign up for ISS passes over your location on NASA’s website.
  • AllStar Asterisk nodes/HamVoip.

Tune in to the SBARC TM&E Net every Thursday at 8:00 PM local (2000 Hrs) and see what interesting ham radio questions might arise or ask some of your own! All club members and visitors are encouraged to check in to the net each week.

How I Unbricked a Nanostation M2

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How I Unbricked a Nanostation M2

Ryan Elliott / AI6NE

Most of this is taken from this webpage

http://www.fusionnetwork.us/index.php/articles/general‐ tutorials/how‐to‐recover‐a‐bricked‐ubiquiti‐nanostation2‐or‐picostation2/ and https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=69631

  1. First off, make sure your network adapter and Ethernet cables are working properly.
  2. You’ll need a TFTP program. Windows has a built‐in TFTP console. Look online to know about their NERC compliance software and how to enable or find it or download one.
  3. Download firmware version XM.v5.5.11.28002.150723.1344.bin from the internet. I have a copy if you need it. Email me at ai6ne@sbarc.com.
  4. Remove Ubiquity label from lower part of the back of the body. I used a heat gun to soften the adhesive, then a razor blade to pick the corners to start peeling it back.I did not fully remove it, just peeled it back enough to remove the screw under the label. Remove the screw.
  5. Insert a flathead screwdriver or putty knife between the case and the sleeve at the base of the electronics.The circuit card is attached to the sleeve. There are two small plastic pins on either side of the screw you just removed. You need to push in the sleeve and push out the case until the sleeve can be pulled out of the case. Then, slide out the sleeve and circuit card.

  6. Attach jumpers from a 3.3V FTDI USB to Serial interface to the upper header (closest to the LEDs) on the back of the circuit card. Use the pinout below:
    • HSIN connects to FTDI TX pin
    • HSOUT connects to FTDI RX pin
    • GND connects to FTDI GND pin
  7. Start a terminal emulator. I used PuTTY. Set serial speed to 115200. Other places say 9600. If one speed doesn’t work try the other. Settings are as below.
    • Baud Rate: 9600 or 115200
    • Data Bits: 8
    • Stop Bits: 1
    • Parity: None
    • Flow Control: None
  8. Set network adapter per below:
    • IP Address: 192.168.1.22* (* the last digit can be 0‐255 as long as it’s not 20)
    • Netmask : 255.255.255.0
    • Preferred DNS server: 192.168.1.20
  9. Power up node. When you see anything on the terminal emulator, start pressing any key to interrupt the bootloader. Some say Ctrl‐C. Any key worked for me. Do this until you get a “ar7240>” prompt (or similar) on the emulator.
  10. Type “urescue ‐f ‐e” and hit enter. It’ll set default IP to 192.168.1.20 and a few other things, then show “Waiting for connection: /” while it awaits new firmware. The “/” character will spin.
  11. Open your TFTP program (or use tftp from a DOS prompt). Put firmware version XM.v5.5.11.28002.150723.1344.bin to 192.168.1.20. Window’s internal TFTP program is shown below.
  12. When done, power down the node then power it up again while interrupting the bootloader as in step 9.
  13. Type “urescue” (no ‐e and ‐f this time) and hit enter. Put firmware version XM.v5.5.11.28002.150723.1344.bin to 192.168.1.20 again using your TRTP method.
  14. Open web browser and go to 192.168.1.20. Login to the Ubiquity software using “ubnt” as both username and password to check you can.
  15. Run the AREDN U‐Boot Tester (download here: http://www.aredn.org/sites/default/files/sites/default/files/pictures/user‐K5DLQ/AREDN%20U‐ Boot%20Test%20v1.1.4.0%20setup.exe)
  16. If all is “GOOD” and “GOOD” you’re ready to upgrade to AREDN.
  17. Continue with normal AREDN installation as shown here: http://www.aredn.org/content/uploading‐ firmware‐ubiquiti. The default username and password is “ubnt” for both for the Ubiquity firmware.
  18. Once you upgrade the firmware to AREDN the default username is “root” and the password is “hsmm”.