Sharing some stuff I've learned... (Click below for full article)

Upgrade Abarth Uconnect 5" to 7" to get CarPlay

Posted: 24-July-2023

Upgrading the radio in the car while maintaining a stock appearance.

Let's Talk Aviation

Posted: 9-June-2023

Aviation related content at that nice intersection of HAM, IT and Aviation.

Aussie Broadband Framed Route with Mikrotik Router

Posted: 21-May-2023

How to actually use an Aussie Broadband Framed Route given that they don't provide any support or documentation on it.

Avoiding Items Made in China

Posted: 20-Apr-2023

Finding electronics that are not made in China these days is quite hard - but not impossible. This article has some links to resources that can help you add a bit of diversity to your geographic sourcing.

Yikes! How to properly apply a 3-2-1 Backup Strategy

Posted: 13-Feb-2023

The classic 3-2-1 Backup Strategy (have 3 copies across 2 different media types with 1 off-site) needs a bit of clarification when using a NAS. Copies and different media shared inside the NAS leave you vulnerable to NAS failure - that's pretty obvious, but the solution cannot rely on a backup disk attached inside the NAS, you must use at least an external USB device attached to the NAS (if not something connected via a network). Read all the gory detail in this article. Long story short - “A single disk in a Synology box (connected via SATA internally) can never be read outside a Synology box … doesn’t matter if it’s JBOD, Basic, SHR, RAID… doesn’t matter if it’s formatted BTRFS or ext4."

Expat HAMing in the USA

Posted: 06-Nov-2022

Did you know… that Australian Citizens (who also happen to be US Citizens) cannot operate a HAM radio under reciprocal arrangements within the US? Read here about my voyage through the bureaucracy to legally hit the PTT button while on a trip to the US.

Dialling it up to YottaHz

Posted: 31-Oct-2022

On a recent Outback trip, I brought along a device that can detect things well above my normal HAM gear… up into the YottaHz range!

Why isn't my Baofeng FM Radio Working?

Posted: 13-Aug-2022

I noticed that the more recent clone Baofengs are missing the FM Radio feature (as in - FM broadcast radio from 65-108MHz). The CALL button still lets you get to the FM Radio mode and you can try tuning the frequencies but you can't actually hear anything. Click here for why…

Digitising PAL / NTSC / SECAM media

Posted: 10-Aug-2022

I recently completed the digitising / copying of a large collection of analog video media to avoid further deterioration and potential loss of playback capability once the playback equipment is no longer available. The article contains a simple set of tools and methods I used, mostly for my own reference but might be of help to others.

Malahit DSP2 Tips and Tricks

Posted: 8-Jul-2022

The purpose of this article is to just collect a few things that I have found particularly useful and to save having to look them up again.

Aussie Broadband Framed Route configuration Posted: 14-Mar-2022

If you need an extra public IP address from Aussie Broadband, they will give it to you via a Framed Route. This method is poorly documented. I've created a PPPoE server to implement it and have written it up here. (You can't host things like SDRs attached to physical antennas in the cloud and it's nice to segregate it)

CHIRP on macOS and Code Signing

Posted: 28-Feb-2022

For some reason and only on some of my Macs, I need to fix a code signing issue when installing CHIRP. Not sure why it only affects some of my devices some of the time, but just leaving this here more as a reminder of how to do it.

Retevis RT3S on a Mac or Linux PC

Posted: 26-Feb-2022

The Retevis RT3S requires Customer Programming Software (CPS) to provide an interface between the computer and the DMR radio. Retevis only officially supports Windows devices but there are several options for Mac and Linux users. Click here to learn more.

Kenwood TM-V71A with SignaLink for Digital Modes

Posted: 18-Feb-2022

Is it possible to listen to DMR with a SignaLink? What's the best way to connect a SignaLink to a Kenwood TM-V71A?

Click here to find out more - such as the undocumented settings in the radio that are only accessible by the MCP software; or some of the very poorly documented surprises on the DIN "Data" port.

Using Windows Software on a Mac (Intel or Apple Silicon)

Posted: 18-Feb-2022

Want to use a very specialised piece of Windows software on a Mac? It's not as hard or expensive as you think. You can even use a modern M1 (Apple Silicon) Mac. Click here to find out about how I use WINE to run Windows software without a VM and without emulation.