SARA Reference Materials

Follow the links below for better understanding of things and to assist in your design efforts:

Electronic and Physical References

• SARA's Capacitor Reference ~ Disc / Monolythic Markings Guide and Basic Information.
• SARA's Electronics Reference ~ Basic Electronics Materials for Hams.
• SARA's Mathematics Reference ~ Fractional Equivalents and Formulas for Hams.
• SARA's Coaxial Cable Reference ~ Coaxial Cable Characteristics and Stubs.

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Zumspot Nextion Pi-Star

A couple of SARA members bought 'Zumspot / Nextion Pi-Star Kits' and we are sharing information and links for the setup here. Hamvention 2019 was a good time! Have more fun! Here are some papers and links to get moving with a ZUM spot / Nextion Display / Raspberry Pi 3B.

First, get this document: Ham Radio Outlet's ZUMSPOT 2.4 Nextion Startup Guide and follow their excellent directions, is is simple to get going.. The following links are 'cleaned' and re-shown below for reference.

Pi-Star is great software for digital voice hotspots and repeaters. It can handle DMR, D-STAR, and YSF, as well as P25, NXDN, POCSAG, and some cross modes when used with a multi-mode digital voice modem that supports those modes. Read about it in Playing with Pi-Star by KE0FHS, an additional paper on configuring and using Pi-Star.

• MMDVM Yahoo group: ~ MMDVM Yahoo.
• Pi-Star support Forum: ~ A UK Support Forum.
• Pi-Star Fackbook support group: ~ Pi-Star Facebook Group.
• Pi-Star Wiki: ~ Pi-Star Wiki.
• ZUM Radio Interface Facebook group: ~ ZUM of Facebook.

In general, members found the ZUM spot easy to use.

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Shiawassee County HSMM/BBHN

Highspeed Multimedia [HSMM] ~ Broadband Ham Network [BBHN] efforts are ongoing by individual members (not a 'club' sponsored activiity). Members provide the operating site networking for the club's Field Day activity. Usually three to six stations, each using a computer logging program on the 'linked system' for smooth operation. Networking details are captured here to assist members in keeping things coordinated for ease of setup.

• Shiawassee HSMM-BBHN Efforts ~ What we have been doing.
• Router Setup ~ Details on converting Linksys WRT54G to BBHN.
• Shiawassee HSMM Standard ~ Standards for Shiawassee County BBHN for better linking support.

SARA continues to utilize the BBHN hardware for Field Day logging and linking of the various station positions. It is a great way of keeping things synced up in the field. We have not continued to expand into a 'county-wide' emergency network even though we continue to discuss the topic. We will keep the topic open, but plan or removing some to the olderer data soon.

Raspberry Pi ~ RPi  Removal of Older RPi Material ~ Posted 09 Dec. 2018

NOTICE: We will be redoing the Raspberry Pi portion of this page in 2019. We have recieved zero direct comments on this contrent and the 'Web counter' is not showing many new hits (or repeat visitors). We will look at keeping some RPi content but we will remove the current content... if you find any value to what we have had posted please take the time to let us know what you might like to have going forward. Use the 'Web Site Contact' link in the footer of our web pages to state your wishes.

===== Older Data Links

Some club members are starting activities using Raspberry Pi 2 and status will be reported here as we have items to report. (starting December, 2015). These little computers are great around the home and radio shack for many little tasks - you should look carefully at what they can do for you. New hardware (RPi 3A+) and software (Raspian in 3 different versions) continue to be added (Nov-2018), keep checking back as the new features and tweaks may change what you want to do with the RPi. I know that the RPi environment has changed quite a lot over the four plus years I have been following (Dec-2018).

• SARA's Raspberry Pi Efforts    ~ A quick 'splash'/'flood' of information on the Raspberry Pi, Model 2, with lots of background reference links. Also, link to D-Star (using DV-3000) and the Raspberry Pi.
• SARA's Linux Starting Page    ~ A quick view of some really basic Linux.
• SARA's RPi Initial Boot    ~ A 'step-by-step' initial boot and look around of RPi.
• Raspberry Pi D-Star Setup Details ~ from Maryland D-Star Group.
• HSMM-RPi Setup GitHub ~ Using RPi as HSmm/Broadband-Hamnet Node.
• N8MDP's Setup DV Access Point Dongle on RPi ~ D-Star / Fusion / DMR Hotspot Setup.
• Genesee County ARC Presentation - April 2018 ~ Microcontroller/Microcomputer Presentation by WB8GUS.

===== end of older links

Some of the 'new look' links we are working with (2019) and will add any 'original' information we decide to keep:

• RPi Quickstart Guide ~ The Raspberry Pi organizations 'official' guide to get started learning RPi. Great for first time and begining users.
• RPi Projects ~ Many 'project' concepts and implementations.
• RPi Orgs Documentation ~ Documentation on the various RPis.
• RPi Forums ~ A place to voice your questions and expect answers to be provided.
• Index of RPI (MagPi) issues and RPi books (Free). ~ The complete pdf file downloads area for RPi topics (free). Includes Beginners books; Essentials "topic" - where topic is Bash (Command LIn), C, Camera, etc.;
• HackSpace Magazine Issues Page ~ Downloadable Issues of "HackSpace" magazines (Free).

That is a couple of years worth of reading on RPi...GREAT 'FREE Information"! Enjoy.

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Arduino / AD9850 / AD9851 / Si5351 Projects & References

• Arduino / AD9850 VFO Project {SARA page} ~ Take off from BITX-40 to a DDS VFO project.
• RPi / Arduino / Linux Tutorials - Top Tech Boys Site - Great Learning site for beginners.
• Adafruit Web Site - Projects and Tutorials (and purchase parts).

Amateur Packet Reporting System [APRS] Shiawassee County, MI and GPS

• APRS Beginners Guide ~ KC8ETW ~ Project to make small APRS Tracker Boxes.
• u-center Windows (GPS) ~ GPS Development / Evaluation Software.

Solar References

Solar influences to radio conditions is an area of study for amateur radio operators. We track and use the information in predicting radio paths. This area is meant to be a small reference to solar activity and information for hams..

• Current Solar Conditions ~ Near live conditions, Like the widget on SARA's opening home page.
• Solar Influences Data Center [SIDC] Site ~ Royal Observatory of Belgium includes World Data Center for sunspot index.
• NASA Sunspot Count (monthly values) - Data from Jan. 1749 through Apr. 2015 (in text format).
• PR2BA - PROBA2 Science Center ~ Sun Watcher images of the solar corona.
• NOAA Geomagnetic Indices Predictions (issued on Mondays) ~ Indice predictions (27 day) for radio flux, Planetary A and largest Kp index.
• Space Weather Prediction Center ~ NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
• Solar Activity & HF Propagation ~ NA5N's Presentation to Four Days in May (about 6 pages).
• The Sun, the Earth, and Near-Earth Space ~ Book by John A. Eddy on the Sun-Earth System. (pdf format).

 

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