Random Wire Review: Issue 119
Workaround for AllStarLink transmit audio issue. Fixed WIRES-X Portable Digital Node problem. Replaced SIP phones. Restored network after breaking the network card. New travel router.
Contents
0. Welcome!
1. AllStarLink audio issue: update
2. Trouble with WIRES-X Portable Digital Node
2.1 Portable Digital Node stopped transmitting
2.2 Lots of learnings with WIRES-X
2.3 Remote control of the WIRES-X PDN
2.4 Configure Remote Desktop Connection for WIRES-X
2.5 You can also use a VNC
2.6 Entering your location in WIRES-X
2.7 Use a parrot to test your WIRES-X audio
2.8 WIRES-X on a handheld
3. SIP phone replacements
3.1 Choosing a different phone
3.2 Look and feel
3.3 What could be better?
4. SkywarnPlus installed on ASL 3 node
5. Network broken (at work this time)
5.1 I fried my Ethernet card
5.2 Use a PoE splitter to protect equipment
6. Safer USB connections
6.1 Preventing physical damage to my USB-C ports
6.2 Preventing “juice jacking”
7. New travel router
7.1 Background on travel router uses
7.2 TP-Link AX1500 replaces reliable AC750 router
7.3 Device appearance and ports
7.4 VPN with the AX1500
7.5 Conclusion
8. Miscellaneous
8.1 Temperature of hotspots and nodes
8.2 Cup of Radio is no more
8.3 Traveling
8.4 The danger of VOX
9. Closing
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
0. Welcome!
Welcome to the Random Wire Review issue 119. This issue is published a week before I leave for several days in Salt Lake City, Utah. (No, I’m not going skiing.) I’ll be there at a national conference for conservation districts. Since I’ll be tied up with preparing for the trip, then participating in the meeting, then getting home and settling back into a normal pattern, I’m not sure if issue 120 will make it out the door on Valentine’s Day, February 14. I will strive to meet that date, even though the content in issue 120 will likely be a bit light.
It is also “silly season” for me, which is code talk for: the Legislature is in town. My team is tracking legislation that affects our nonprofit association members, preparing testimony, seeking support for some bills and arguing against others. It’s a very busy time.
Now let me stop thinking about that and get back to radio topics! In issue 119, several computing topics intersect with amateur radio topics.
I provide a bit more information about the AllStarLink transmit audio issue along with a link to a workaround. This is a software (operating system) issue that affects transmit audio quality on AllStarLink.
If you have run a WIRES-X Portable Digital Node, you may find my troubles (and fix) for a WIRES-X audio transmit problem to be of interest. The problem was not with the node but how I was accessing it.
I have successfully replaced my two Cisco SIP phones with Polycom SIP phones. I like the Polycom’s. I use the SIP phones for my Hamshack Hotline number and to connect to AllStarLink nodes.
A Power-over-Ethernet connection may have fried my desktop PC’s Ethernet card. I’ve fixed this, and along the way, found an inexpensive way to protect a machine that may not be capable of handling a PoE connection.
I am testing some magnetic USB-C charge-and-data connectors. These make it easier to connect to USB-C ports and help prevent damage when someone trips over your charging cable. I find it also makes it easier to connect and disconnect my phone in my vehicle.
I also picked up a new travel router that I’m excited to test on my trip to Salt Lake City.

The image above is a teaser for my comment near the end of this newsletter titled The Danger of VOX. It’s a very short story of my moment of poor operating practice that caused interference with a net. It was a painful, teachable moment and a good reminder to remember how I set up my radio/device!
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
1. AllStarLink audio issue: update
The audio issues reported in issue 118 affect installations on X86-64 (often abbreviated as AMD64) platforms, not on ARM4 platforms. All of my installations are AMD64, meaning I’m using PCs and servers based on Intel and AMD processors.
(Post publication update: this has changed. Now there is evidence that Raspberry Pi platforms are also affected. Stay tuned, folks!)
A workaround was published the same day Random Wire Review issue 118 was published. I’ve tested the workaround and it does pull the software back to an earlier version that doesn’t exhibit the reported transmit audio distortion problem.
To test this a bit further, on one of my nodes I then ran apt update && apt upgrade to see if the update/upgrade dance would undo the rollback, but it didn’t. Two packages were held back from being upgraded, so it seems safe to continue updating your AMD64 nodes while the audio problem gets figured out.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
2. Trouble with WIRES-X PDN
TL;DR: It turns out that remotely controlling a WIRES-X Portable Digital Node (without the HRI-200 device) is possible with one adjustment to the audio settings in the Remote Desktop Connection app. (RDC is only available for Windows Pro editions.) This is an edge case that is likely uncommon in most setups.
2.1 Portable Digital Node stopped transmitting
It is so great to have a Yaesu System Fusion (YSF) repeater running in the community served by my hometown amateur radio club. A big thank you to Jeff W7NEE, who stood up the repeater, linking it to the wider world through WIRES-X, DMR, and AllStarLink. The best part for me is being able to hear my radio friends when I’m far away, and to join in their discussions. They are a great group of people.
And so it was particularly disturbing when my WIRES-X Portable Digital Node stopped transmitting audio. Was the correct port selected? Yes. Any audio interface errors? No, everything looked fine. Nevertheless, my transmit audio wasn’t getting out. I could still participate on the W7NEE repeater through DMR, my YSF hotspot, and with AllStarLink, but much of the reason I implemented the WIRES-X PDN was to be able to easily communicate with my hometown folks, so I’ve been digging into figuring out the problem.
The malfunctioning PDN was running on a Dell OptiPlex 3050 Micro PC. I wondered if an operating system update might have messed things up, so I uninstalled WIRES-X, rebooted, and then installed and configured a fresh WIRES-X instance. That did not solve the problem.
I even wondered if a Windows bug affecting audio might have been causing the problem, but later found that this was not the culprit.
Rather than spend a lot of time figuring out the problem, I decided to move the node back to my home server (Lenovo ThinkStation P520) where it had been working well some months ago. This time, when I keyed up, LOCAL switched to INTERNET and my call sign did not turn green. So: still not working right.
2.2 Lots of learnings with WIRES-X
My WIRES-X Portable Digital Node (PDN) could receive transmissions but would not transmit my audio. I could hear, but my transmissions were not heard.
At first, I reinstalled the software. That did not fix the problem. Then I moved the node to a different computer. Still the same. Then I swapped in my other FTM-300DR (after removing it from the pickup truck). No change.
And then I went through a complete uninstall (removed WIRES-X and the Prolific driver), rebooted, reinstalled the driver, rebooted, reinstalled WIRES-X, rebooted, and then tested. No change.
Time to take a break and think this through. What changed to make the node stop working? Nothing, I thought…for a while. Then I remembered replacing my failed network switch. I wondered if maybe the IP address of the computer running WIRES-X had changed, and if so, that might mean that the port forwards that WIRES-X needs to work correctly wouldn’t work.
Sure enough, the IP address was different. I changed the port forwards in my router, rebooted the computer, and gave things a few minutes to sync up. Now the WIRES-X software seemed to be working better, but the WIRES-X software couldn’t find the audio interface.
I did the usual: unplug and replug the audio cables and the USB cable. I moved them around to different ports. Nothing seemed to work. At this point, I was getting tired and frustrated again, so I took some time away from the problem.
2.3 Remote control of the WIRES-X PDN
Two days later, I came back to this issue a bit fresher.
I routinely operate other computers using the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) application on my Windows 11 Pro computer. That is how I had been operating my WIRES-X Portable Digital Node, too, but it stopped working correctly after I reinstalled the software. As you can read above, I jumped through a lot of hoops trying to figure out why the node was not working correctly.
As I visited with Jeff W7NEE about this, he mentioned that it sounded like an audio conflict of some kind. I thought to myself that this could not be the problem because it was working fine before I made some changes, but Jeff’s thought kept surfacing as I tried to work the problem. I realized I had been using my tried-and-true method of connecting with RDC to manage the PDN that wasn’t working right, so maybe I should test by starting the WIRES-X software directly on the computer where it is installed instead of remoting into it. When I did, the node immediately worked fine.
I went through a few iterations of this to test it, but logging in and managing the node directly from the host computer seemed to work reliably. The solved the problem but still left me wanting to better understand the problem and wanting to manage the node remotely.
I looked at my RDC application settings for remotely accessing the computer with WIRES-X on it. There is an audio setting in the RDC application! I found that it was set to play audio from the remote computer (the one hosting the WIRES-X node) on my local computer (my laptop). Once I changed that to play audio on the remote computer, I was able to use RDC from my local computer to start WIRES-X on the remote computer, the audio device on the WIRES-X computer was found, and my transmissions weren’t stuck on local: they went out to the other station(s).
2.4 Configure Remote Desktop Connection for WIRES-X
Here’s how to make Remote Desktop Connection work correctly with a WIRES-X node on another computer in your network. Start the Remote Desktop Connection application and at the bottom of the application pop-up display, select the Show Options link. That will open a screen with several tabs. Select the Local Resources tab. In the Remote audio section, click the Settings button:
This opens the audio settings screen. The default seems to be to play audio on the remote computer locally. That looks like this:
Instead, select Play on remote computer and click the OK button. Now when you remote into the computer hosting your WIRES-X node and start WIRES-X, it should find the audio device and you should be able to use the radio to make and take calls.
2.5 You can also use a VNC
If you use a different operating system on your local computer (not the WIRES-X computer), you can probably use a VNC application to connect. I tested Remote Ripple, a VNC viewer by the TightVNC folks. Remote Ripple is available for Windows, Mac, Android, iPhone, and iPad.
You install Remote Ripple on the machine you will use to reach the machine running WIRES-X. It’s a two-step process: first install the Remote Ripple viewer on your local machine, and then install the TightVNC Server package on the computer where WIRES-X is running. I accepted the defaults when installing TightVNC Server and set a password for my sessions.
After doing so, entering the IP address of the computer where WIRES-X is running brought up a login popup. I entered the password I had just set and that took me to the login screen for my remote Windows machine. After logging in, I was able to start and use WIRES-X normally.
Remote Ripple and TightVNC aren’t the only remote solutions available but I’ve not tested any other remote viewing/control programs. Please be aware of security considerations if you choose to open the TightVNC port to the outside world. Since you’ll need physical access to the WIRES-X radio, I imagine that remote administration of a WIRES-X node is really only of interest within a local network.
2.6 Entering your location in WIRES-X
A small hint while you are configuring WIRES-X the first time. During the setup of WIRES-X on my server, I had to specify the latitude and longitude of my location. There is a handy street address to lat/long converter available at https://www.latlong.net/. It works very well.
However, that service gives you decimal lat long values and WIRES-X wants the location in degrees-minutes-seconds (called DMS format). You can paste your decimal lag longs into the form at https://www.latlong.net/lat-long-dms.html to convert decimal values to DMS format.
2.7 Use a parrot to test your WIRES-X audio
The last thing I want to do is key up in a net and find out my audio is not working correctly. I have found only one parrot for WIRES-X. It’s at DTMF 41619 in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, UK. Once I fixed my transmission problem, the parrot worked fine for me.
2.8 WIRES-X on a handheld
I haven’t done this yet, but one of these days, I’d like to set up my Yaesu FT5D to operate on WIRES-X. That would make a convenient travel companion. The WIRES-X software would run on my laptop and with the right cable, my FT5D would be my microphone and speaker. Small, light, and digital voice quality. Sounds like a winner to me.
UPDATE: DX Engineering promptly shipped the SCU-57 cable kit. It arrived just before issue 119 was published. Yaesu has not yet approved my new registration for my FT5DR radio so until that comes through, this remains a work in progress. Since I expect to be sitting in a hotel room while using the FT5DR in WIRES-X PDN mode, I also ordered a speaker-microphone for the radio. That will be a bit more comfortable to use instead of lifting the radio every time I wish to transmit.
As I contemplate this setup, I think it might be simpler to pack up my Yaesu System Fusion hotspot and the FT5DR or FT3DR handheld when I travel. The challenge with a hotspot in a hotel room is often connecting it to the hotel network (which can be highly variable in connection quality). However, with my new travel router, that should become much easier. I can either pre-set the wifi on the hotspot to work with the travel router, or connect the hotspot to the travel router via Ethernet cable.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
3. SIP phone replacements
TL;DR: I replaced my first SIP phones with newer Polycom phones. Like the Cisco phones they replaced, the Polycom phones are configured via a local web page. The phones look and sound great. I have both working with my Hamshack Hotline number and my voip.ms phone number. I can also access some of my AllStarLink nodes through my Portland phone.
My first SIP phone was a Cisco SPA303. I bought it to use with my Hamshack Hotline number. It has been reliable since day one. The SPA303 phone only has capacity for three lines and I have at least five, so I later added a Cisco SPA525Gphone to my suite of SIP phones. I figured the SPA525G — with a sidecar attached — would have all the capacity I would ever need. Unfortunately, my unit randomly reboots several times a day.
I thought the problem with the SPA525G was my Power-over-Ethernet switch, but even after replacing the switch twice, the phone would still randomly reboot. This told me it was time to try a different phone, and perhaps even a different brand.
3.1 Choosing a different phone
The small project I undertook to help a subscriber with the Snom D710 phone prompted me to look at SIP phones from other manufacturers. I have Yealink phones in my work office, and while they provide great audio, I have found them pretty complicated to configure. They seem to be aimed at enterprise customers.
The configuration for the Cisco phones seems a bit more logical to me. I also have a few devices (not phones) by Polycom and have been pleased with their build quality and audio, so for this iteration, I chose Polycom.
I need the phone to work with my Hamshack Hotline number. I also wanted to balance the ability to expand my phone capacity with affordability. I chose the Polycom VVX 401 phone. The VVX 401 is a supported endpoint for the Hamshack Hotline service, should work with my voip.ms phone numbers, and a sidecar is available for it. With a capacity of 12 lines, plus a contact directory, I probably won’t need to add a sidecar. At $35 per phone, the Polycom is certainly affordable.
3.2 Look and feel
The design of the Cisco phones feels dated…because they are older SIP phones (the SPA500 series was released in August 2009). The gray plastic case looks a bit industrial in character. While I don’t mind that, I also want to have my personal phone on my work desk look a bit more stylish.
The Polycom was released in October 2018. The styling is modern, a discreet black color with silver accents. It looks nice and it blends in with my Yealink work phone. The color screen displays information clearly enough that I don’t need my reading glasses.
The handset on the Cisco phones feels very traditional: rounded surfaces, and a balanced wishbone-like shape in which the mouthpiece and the earpiece are sized alike. The Polycom handset is subtly narrower at the mouthpiece end and wider at the earpiece. It also doesn’t have as much arc to the back of the handset, compared to the Cisco. It feels comfortable and looks good. Both handsets have a bit of subtle, welcome texture.
Where the Cisco SPA525G phone shines is the illuminated line buttons. If they are active and working, they glow green. They also present orange and red colors for certain conditions. The Polycom line buttons are black and not illuminated unless the line is active, so if the phone is in a dark place, the buttons may be a bit difficult to use.
3.3 What could be better?
My only three four criticisms of the Polycom VVX 401 phone are:
The black line buttons on a black background can be hard to see.
The inability to copy one line to another line location in the phone configuration web page.
The strange behavior where if a line is reset to default settings, all of the lines I configured after that line then disappear from the phone display. For example, I deleted an AllStarLink node on Line 2 and suddenly lines 3, 4, and 5 disappeared.
The inability to copy the local directory from one phone and import it into another phone.
Nevertheless, I like how the Polycom VVX 401 looks and sounds, so I’m keeping this model around for a while.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
4. SkywarnPlus installed on ASL 3
This could not have been easier. I watched Freddie Mac’s very helpful YouTube video on installing SkywarnPlus (by Mason Nelson) on AllStarLink 3 (this is Freddie’s updated video):
I found my county code in Mason Nelson’s GitHub repo at https://github.com/Mason10198/SkywarnPlus/blob/main/CountyCodes.md
It went perfectly for me, a far cry from the first time I did this. I spend most of my time in the northern part of Oregon’s famous Willamette Valley where we actually do get small tornadoes from time to time. We also get wind storms, ice storms, lighting, and oh yes: we aren’t too far from an active volcano!
SkywarnPlus is a handy tool and I appreciate having access to it.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
5. Network broken (at work this time)
5.1 I fried my Ethernet card
This one stumped me for a while. My desktop computer at work stopped connecting to my router. WiFi worked, but wired Ethernet did not. I checked for updates on all devices and found everything was current.
I replaced the Ethernet cable. No joy. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. I had connectivity on the LAN but not outside the LAN, i.e., no internet.
When I tried a USB-to-Ethernet adapter, internet access was restored.
At this point, I logged into the router to check things on that end but could not get in, because I had previously restricted access to only my IP address. That took a while to work around.
When I finally looked in the Device Manager, I found the Ethernet card had been disabled by the system. I re-enabled it and Device Manager reported it was good…but it wasn’t. Conclusion: somehow, I fried the Ethernet port on the PC!
The resolve this, I ordered a new PCIe adapter card (a different brand than what failed). It was easy to install and worked as soon as I rebooted the PC.
It could be that the Ethernet on my HP desktop PC doesn’t comply with 802.3af/at. (By the way, there are more 802.3 standards than you might imagine. Wikipedia lists a bunch.) The behavior I observed with the Ethernet port failure fits my supposition that the port wasn’t designed to handle PoE current.
5.2 Use a PoE splitter to protect equipment
If you want to enter the world of PoE switches, there is an interesting and inexpensive way to prevent such damage: use a PoE splitter. A splitter takes the incoming data-plus-power and separates the data lines and the power lines. You need to be careful of the amount of juice your switch puts out and how your splitter handles it, but imagine a few likely scenarios:
Power a Raspberry Pi device with your Ethernet cable. The splitter gives you an Ethernet plug to go into the port on the Pi, and a power cable that can be configured in many ways. Finding one with a microUSB or USB-C plug is not hard.
You may be able to power a Dell Wyse 3040 thin client if your switch supports the newer 802.3at standard. The two power schemes for the 3040 are 5 volts at 3 amps (so 15 watts) and 12 volts at 2 amps (so 24 watts); both situations fit within the 802.3at standard but only the 5 volt machine fits the older 802.3af standard.
I did put a PoE splitter ahead of the Ethernet card port. It can’t hurt. When I read the specs for the Ethernet card, it doesn’t mention 802.3af or 802.3at standards, so preventing current from reaching the port is a good idea. If you find yourself using Ethernet while traveling, carrying a simple, cheap splitter is probably good insurance.
And this works. A splitter is now part of my standard travel kit because one doesn’t know what’s behind the Ethernet port in the hotel wall. My laptop at home is connected to a PoE line, but I don’t need PoE to the laptop. Providing another layer of protection against errant power over PoE is a simple and cheap thing to do.
By the way, if you are looking for reviews of switches, routers, and other home server devices, check out ServeTheHome. Although the reviews are aimed at IT professionals, most of the content is well explained, making it fairly easy to understand.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
6. Safer USB connections
6.1 Preventing physical damage to my USB-C ports
I travel, and sometimes that means I’m in a crowded meeting room with lots of foot traffic going by. Not a problem until I unroll my charging cord and plug it in. Then it seems like a guarantee that someone will walk through it. The jerk of the cord on the USB charging port of my laptop can be damaging, not just to the cord but also to the USB-C port on the laptop!
Fear not, fellow road warriors. I have adopted magnetic USB-C couplers. These are pricey little things but the peace of mind they give me is indeed priceless.
I’ve been using these magnetic adapters for about a month and have found them to be easy and reliable. At $29, they are a bit expensive, but I note that Amazon has a 30% off coupon for this package right now:
These are available in four styles: elbow, flat, right angle, and straight. I bought straight adapters.
I also bought some extra USB-C port inserts. At just $10, some of these spares have found homes in other devices:
I bought two packages of the magnetic adapters, meaning I have four ends that go onto USB-C cables and four matching port inserts. I’m using one adapter for the charging port on my ThinkPad X1 laptop and another one on my car phone charger. It is especially convenient in the car because connecting and disconnecting the phone is now easier, and that means I’m less likely to damage the phone port when I’m rushing.
These adapters work for data and power. A bit pricey, yes, but I worry much less about damaging my USB-C ports now.
6.2 Preventing “juice jacking”
What in the world is “juice jacking,” you ask. Says the FCC:
…be aware that juicing up your electronic device at free USB port charging stations, such as those found in airports and hotel lobbies, might have unfortunate consequences. You could become a victim of "juice jacking," yet another cyber-theft tactic. Cybersecurity experts warn that bad actors can load malware onto public USB charging stations to maliciously access electronic devices while they are being charged. Malware installed through a corrupted USB port can lock a device or export personal data and passwords directly to the perpetrator.
Normally when I travel, I carry a small USB power bank with me to top up my phone when needed. Sometimes, though, the power bank battery gets depleted or I can’t find it, and in those cases, I’m on the hunt for a powered USB port. This behavior could expose me to juice jacking.
I’ve added a couple of small devices into my travel kit. These things block the USB data lines but allow power through. That means when charging from an unknown source, I make sure I put one of these adapters in-line between the power source and my device. Simple, cheap, and effective.
Sometimes I’ll also carry a small multi-outlet extension cord. It has some USB ports on it I can use for charging without worrying about a bad actor compromising my device and data via an altered USB port.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
7. New travel router
7.1 Background on travel router uses
I generally use a travel router when I’m in a hotel for a couple of reasons. Why use a travel router? I like that it helps insulate me a bit more from whatever everyone else is doing on the hotel network. The big reason, though, is convenience. Once I have the travel router it authenticated to the hotel’s captive portal, the rest of my devices only have to authenticate to the travel router. Since all of my devices have already authenticated to the travel router, that means I don’t have to authenticate each time I pick up a different device. How many internet-hungry devices do I travel with? Probably too many:
Laptop computer (sometimes two)
iPad mini
Kindle or Fire tablet
Smartphones (two: one for work, one personal)
SHARI AllStarLink node
Yaesu System Fusion hotspot (sometimes)
If my wife is with me, add another tablet and smartphone to the mix.
7.2 TP-Link AX1500 replaces reliable AC750 router
For the past two-and-a-half years, I’ve been using a TP-Link AC750 Nano Travel Router. While I keep trying different travel routers by GL.iNET, most of them are just more difficult to use (for me) than the TP-Link. Thus, even though the TP-Link is more limited in the scope of services it provides, it’s been my go-to travel router.
What I bought in preparation for my next trip for $50 is the TP-Link AX1500 Travel Router:
It offers more than the AC750: better WiFi, USB-C, an app, and a couple of Ethernet ports (one of which I can use for devices like my SHARI node or YSF hotspot) while in a hotel. If you couldn’t tell, I’m looking forward to using the AX1500 in my travel kit!
7.3 Device appearance and ports
The device is about the size of my hand:
One of the attractions for me to this particular router is the two Ethernet ports on the back:
According to the manual, when operating in hotspot mode (like I do in a hotel with the hotel wifi connection) the LAN and WAN ports both function as LAN ports. That means I can connect two of my devices to the router with Ethernet cables.
The plastic case of the AX1500 router gets slightly warm to the touch when powered on. The temperature doesn’t seem to vary much while operating, i.e., I didn’t feel a significant change in temperature when I subjected the router to load. When the router is operating normally, a constant blue LED light shows in the front panel:
7.4 VPN with the AX1500
The setup process was similar to other TP-Link routers, meaning there are setup screens that walk you through the configuration you choose. I then enabled the VPN client on the router and configured three different services:
NordVPN
AzireVPN
ProtonVPN
Interestingly, I could not get the AzireVPN configuration to save on the router. It kept complaining about an invalid IP address format so I’ve reached out to AzireVPN support for help on this.
Meanwhile, I tested the speed for the Nord and Proton services. NordVPN is OpenVPN only. While ProtonVPN can be set up for OpenVPN or WireGuard, I chose WireGuard to get the best speed. The “no travel router” option in the table below is my Xfinity connection at home with my laptop connected directly to my GL.iNET Flint 2 router with CAT6 Ethernet cable.
As expected, the AX1500 without a VPN connection is significantly slower than my very fast home connection. ProtonVPN with a WireGuard configuration is significantly slower on downloads but about the same as having no VPN for uploads. NordVPN with an OpenVPN configuration is half as fast as the WireGuard connection in both directions.
I conclude that the AX1500 without a VPN tunnel is plenty fast enough for the hotel networks I encounter. I can handle a Zoom videoconference call at those speeds. The ProtonVPN connection is probably good enough for a Zoom call. I don’t think I would try the NordVPN connection with Zoom.
7.5 Conclusion
By now you may have realized that I like messing with this kind of stuff. If you don’t like to fiddle with technology while traveling, think carefully before going down the travel router rabbit hole. There are a multitude of pros and cons to using a travel router and on those rare occasions when I can’t get my router to talk to the hotel network, I find it incredibly frustrating. In a hotel, it always takes at least a few minutes to set up the router, connect my phone or laptop to the hotel network, then connect the router to the network and make sure it is working correctly. Once set up, though, it is a great convenience.
When you find a router that works for you, that’s the one to use. The AX1500 — like the AC750 before it — seems like one of those “just right” devices: not too simple, not too complex, but just right. I can use VPN and have two Ethernet ports for the devices I’d rather not have connected by wifi.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
8. Miscellaneous
8.1 Temperature of hotspots and nodes
Recently, I glanced at a few of my nodes and noticed some temperature differences that might be worth discussing. Although I present temperature values below, this is more qualitative than quantitative as I did not test under various load conditions.
The following temperatures are for some of my hotspots and nodes at idle:
Yaesu System Fusion hotspot (home built): CPU 106°F / 41°C
This is a home-built hotspot with a Nextion display and no built-in active cooling, running WPSD software
The computer is a Raspberry Pi 3B+ in a C4Labs case
To help it stay cool, it sits on top of a 5V muffin fan running at the lowest setting
If I turn the fan off, the temperature after five minutes is 115°F / 46°C and after ten minutes is 120°F / 49°C
SHARI PiZero node: CPU 116°F / 47°C
This is the tiny little unit from Kits4Hams with no active cooling built in and no ventilation holes in the case
The case is aluminum with plastic end caps
I have it sitting on an aluminum block to moderate heat build up
If I remove it from the aluminum block, the temperature after five minutes is 118°F / 48°C and after ten minutes is the same
If I put the aluminum block on top of the node case, I see little difference from the “base” value of 116°F / 47°C
AllStarLink node: CPU 82°F / 28°C
This is running on a Dell OptiPlex 7050 micro computer with active cooling
The operating system is Debian 12 Linux
Yaesu System Fusion hotspot (AliExpress): CPU 110°F / 43°C
This has a Nextion display and runs Pi-Star 4.2.1
There is no active cooling but I have the node standing on edge to present the largest cooling surface to the surrounding air
The case is metal with a good number of perforations for ventilation
My point is simply that CPU temperatures vary widely. The load on the system, whether there is passive or active cooling, and other factors are in play. I lean toward trying to keep my CPUs cool, at least relative to their maximum temperature rating. It can’t hurt.
After reflecting on these temperature values a bit, I cracked open the SHARI node to see if there are good locations to mill ventilation holes in the aluminum case. It looks like it would be much easier to drill a few holes in each end cap. These appear to be 3D-printed plastic. I think a few holes in each end couldn’t hurt and might help the heat escape from inside the case.
8.2 Cup of Radio is no more
I found that trying to duplicate content in two different hosting systems was just too much for my busy lifestyle. As of January 28, 2025, I’ll no longer be feeding the cupofradio.com site. I’m letting the premium WordPress.com instance die, too.
8.3 Traveling
Protecting my USB connections and my laptop are timely topics for me because early in February, I’ll be spending nearly a week in Salt Lake City. I also carry an assortment of cables and adapters, and a small travel router to give me another layer between the hotel network and my machines.
One advantage of the travel router is simply convenience. By setting it up to operate on the hotel network, I can connect several devices to it but to the hotel network, it looks like a single device. I find the connection tends to persist over several days, so I can use my phone, laptop, and Kindle without authenticating on the hotel network daily.
I expect I’ll also take along a hotspot configured for Yaesu System Fusion and Yaesu handheld radio, plus I can use AllStarLink via DVSwitch Mobile on my smartphone. I’ll catch some Kansas City Wide nets when I can, and try to participate in one or two of the Colorado Digital nets. In particular, the Digital Learning Net is always chock full of great information and deep expertise on everything about digital radio.
8.4 The danger of VOX
I made a “bad operator” mistake the other day. I had set one of my nodes that I access through my SIP phone to VOX (more: what is VOX) so that I would not have to fumble around with keying *99 to transmit and # to stop transmitting. The next day, I connected to an AllStarLink weather net to listen in. My spouse asked me a question from across the room and I responded…with the microphone unmuted, and the node set to voice operated transmit (VOX).
A moment later I heard the net control operator talking about “interference from some guy talking to his wife” and realized: it was me. Sigh. I emailed the net control operator and apologized and fortunately, he was very gracious. No more VOX for me, or if I do enable VOX again, there will be sticky note on the phone!
I am feeling very chagrined because I never want to be known as a bad operator.
.-. .- -. -.. --- -- / .-- .. .-. . / .-. . ...- .. . .-- / -... -.-- / -.- .--- --... -
9. Closing
Time to tie a ribbon around this newsletter and get it ready to send along to more than 1,300 subscribers. (That blows my mind.) It’s silly season in my work life with the state legislature in town and a substantial revenue deficit in the state budget. That situation affects my nonprofit association members so I am staying very busy, supporting funding and legislation needed for my members to serve their communities. My travel to Salt Lake City for an annual national conference is related to work and this conference is always packed full of smart people and great information. Life is busy and busy is good!
Coming up in issue 120 will be an explanation of setting up a Yaesu FT5DR handheld for WIRES-X use, “on the road” with the TP-Link AX1500 router, a few new features in the WPSD hotspot software, real time satellite tracking, a new/old computer, how to send SMS messages with APRS, and a new phone app that identifies constellations in the night sky when I point my phone camera upward.
Again, another shout out to Jeff W7NEE for his patience and help as I worked my way toward a solution to my WIRES-X transmit problem. Jeff exemplifies the spirit of amateur radio: always learning, always helping.
73,
Tom - Another great issue of TRWR with lots of interesting and actionable info! Thanks very much for the recommendation of the Polycom VVX 401 that's compatible with Hamshack Hotline. I decided to get back online with HH and your recommendation was timely. I acquired a few surplus Cisco VOIP phones that I like the style of, but they're not HH compatible. I'll try to put them to use using an Asterisk PBX on a Raspberry Pi. As for the use of travel routers, I'm convinced that one use of hotel Wi-Fi a year ago was the cause of a theft incident in one of our accounts. I haven't yet invested in a VPN as I use my phone (and unlimited data plan) in hotspot mode. For travel season 2025 when I'll be using Amateur Radio over Internet devices (need Ethernet), it's probably prudent to get a VPN plan and set up the travel router for using that. Thanks also for the pointer to the magnetic USB-C connectors - that is indeed a relief. My first MacBook Air had a magnetic power connector which worked great, but my current MBA has USB-C. With the amount of power that can be transferred via USB-C, I'd feel better about using them if those products were available from a better-known brand such as Apple, Belkin, or Anker. But good to hear your personal recommendation after using them in the real world.