May 1, 2025: A typical amateur radio morning for me; AllStar node terminal enhancements; interfacing an amateur radio microphone with my PC; new Quadra4K HamClock; upgrading WPSD; and more!
- Hugo generates my w0chp.radio website; Sphinx generates the WPSD user manual.
- “File hashes for recent Pi-Star releases”. Uhm…those are for WPSD. Not Pi-Star. Heh.
- “An A-to-Z recipe would be helpful”. That is covered in the user manual - as it’s essentially the same process as installing from scratch.
Additionally, the user manual as well as the WPSD project, are community projects, where others really can and should help. I’m just one guy, and I don’t have enough consistent help. I can’t do this alone, and I pretty much do, unfortunately.
The more people want things and don’t contribute, the more it leads to project leader and developer burnout. I simply can’t keep up with the project coupled with all of the demands and wishlist items PLUS the support; All of which is free and open source. I need help :-)
I built all of this myself to scratch my itches. If people have itches, it sure would be nice if they scratched them and contributed rather than “wishing.”
Unfortunately, it’s unsustainable; and securing talented and consistent contributors and project volunteers/members is very challenging. Instead, the wishes continue. ;-)
WPSD is the only open source software for amateur radio digital voice of its kind with an official user manual, and I’m proud of it. But it needs others to help.
- Presets/memories: WPSD will remember all of your startup reflectors in every profile as well as your backup. “Admin —> YSF Manager”, etc. are for temporary, on-the-fly instantaneous changes and are not permanent. Permanent startup reflectors, etc. are saved in the configuration page which are also saved in profiles and backups.
- DVMEGA CAST: The WPSD project, or I, worked with DVMEGA personally to develop a custom disk image, which actually does support CAST memories and presets. This is due to the special mainboard and microprocessor in the unit itself. To do true presets and memories, that is a function that can really only be achieved by hardware and not hotspot software.
- Have you clicked the “Appearance” button at the top of the WPSD dashboard navbar? If not, you’ll be pleased. No need to look up hex codes or anything like that. Try it out. And for OLED users, you can completely shut the display off for true night mode operation in the Appearance page.
"File hashes for recent Pi-Star releases." Sigh. I've corrected that and I thank you for catching my error. I should know better than to be typing "Pi-Star" in content about WPSD. The caption is corrected *and* the ALT description is also corrected.
I do have wishes but little time. One of those wishes is: I wish I had more time! I did not intend to poke at you or your great contributions to the hobby. I'm not sure how I can help, but nevertheless, I'll ask: how can I help? I know a lot about HTML, PHP, content management systems, and I don't know a lot about coding. My nickname in one workplace was "he who breaks things" because I would try all kinds of things that the vendors didn't anticipate. (I confess this was fun.) WPSD is exceptionally valuable to our hobby so I don't want to see it wane because too few people contributed what they could to it.
And I'll try the Profiles again. It did not save the reflector I had set, but maybe that's because I had a permanent startup reflector set. I'll try that again. Thank you.
No worries, my brother. Always appreciate your evangelism. My hope is that all of us can work together to find lol more people to help the project to keep it going. Thank you for your endless contributions to the landscape and hobby.
Interesting issue as always Tom! You run rings around me about Amateur Radio over Internet! I always learn something new in each issue. I'm also a fan of the Cobalt Qube (I've acquired two of them) and they'll probably get a brain transplant of a Raspberry Pi 5 (if I live long enough to tackle such non-radio projects)... or by then perhaps Raspberry Pi 6 or 7. Also the Cobalt Raq's are similarly cute for a 1U rack mount unit.
I think https://www.solarspeed.net/ has the BlueOnyx package that can be installed on the RaQ 1U servers. The Qube boots from an EPROM but the RaQ (I'm stretching my memory here) boots from disk. Upgrading the Qube means flashing a new boot image to the EPROM and that is probably beyond me. But the Raq 1U servers should be upgradable. Of course, they were made for data centers, so don't expect them to be very quiet!
I like the RPi 5 thought for the Qube. I've been thinking a back plate could be made from PCB board for various connections, or just leave it open (or put a grill on it) for easier access to ports. Then power the front LED from one of the USB ports on the Pi.
The "PC board as an adapter plate" blew me away when I first saw it used years ago. Someone was refitting something like a Raspberry Pi into an older unit and wanted to preserve the appearance of the unit so didn't want to drill any new holes to mount the replacement units. He designed and ordered individual PCBs with the same mounting bolt holes as the original PCB, and smaller PCBs for the I/O connector slots. For example, put in a USB connector in place of a 25-pin DSUB serial connector. Ah, technology...
Errata and a call for help :)
- Hugo generates my w0chp.radio website; Sphinx generates the WPSD user manual.
- “File hashes for recent Pi-Star releases”. Uhm…those are for WPSD. Not Pi-Star. Heh.
- “An A-to-Z recipe would be helpful”. That is covered in the user manual - as it’s essentially the same process as installing from scratch.
Additionally, the user manual as well as the WPSD project, are community projects, where others really can and should help. I’m just one guy, and I don’t have enough consistent help. I can’t do this alone, and I pretty much do, unfortunately.
The more people want things and don’t contribute, the more it leads to project leader and developer burnout. I simply can’t keep up with the project coupled with all of the demands and wishlist items PLUS the support; All of which is free and open source. I need help :-)
I built all of this myself to scratch my itches. If people have itches, it sure would be nice if they scratched them and contributed rather than “wishing.”
Unfortunately, it’s unsustainable; and securing talented and consistent contributors and project volunteers/members is very challenging. Instead, the wishes continue. ;-)
WPSD is the only open source software for amateur radio digital voice of its kind with an official user manual, and I’m proud of it. But it needs others to help.
- Presets/memories: WPSD will remember all of your startup reflectors in every profile as well as your backup. “Admin —> YSF Manager”, etc. are for temporary, on-the-fly instantaneous changes and are not permanent. Permanent startup reflectors, etc. are saved in the configuration page which are also saved in profiles and backups.
- DVMEGA CAST: The WPSD project, or I, worked with DVMEGA personally to develop a custom disk image, which actually does support CAST memories and presets. This is due to the special mainboard and microprocessor in the unit itself. To do true presets and memories, that is a function that can really only be achieved by hardware and not hotspot software.
- Have you clicked the “Appearance” button at the top of the WPSD dashboard navbar? If not, you’ll be pleased. No need to look up hex codes or anything like that. Try it out. And for OLED users, you can completely shut the display off for true night mode operation in the Appearance page.
Last but not least! <https://w0chp.radio/articles/how-to-contribute-to-wpsd/>
73, W0CHP
"File hashes for recent Pi-Star releases." Sigh. I've corrected that and I thank you for catching my error. I should know better than to be typing "Pi-Star" in content about WPSD. The caption is corrected *and* the ALT description is also corrected.
I do have wishes but little time. One of those wishes is: I wish I had more time! I did not intend to poke at you or your great contributions to the hobby. I'm not sure how I can help, but nevertheless, I'll ask: how can I help? I know a lot about HTML, PHP, content management systems, and I don't know a lot about coding. My nickname in one workplace was "he who breaks things" because I would try all kinds of things that the vendors didn't anticipate. (I confess this was fun.) WPSD is exceptionally valuable to our hobby so I don't want to see it wane because too few people contributed what they could to it.
And I'll try the Profiles again. It did not save the reflector I had set, but maybe that's because I had a permanent startup reflector set. I'll try that again. Thank you.
No worries, my brother. Always appreciate your evangelism. My hope is that all of us can work together to find lol more people to help the project to keep it going. Thank you for your endless contributions to the landscape and hobby.
Interesting issue as always Tom! You run rings around me about Amateur Radio over Internet! I always learn something new in each issue. I'm also a fan of the Cobalt Qube (I've acquired two of them) and they'll probably get a brain transplant of a Raspberry Pi 5 (if I live long enough to tackle such non-radio projects)... or by then perhaps Raspberry Pi 6 or 7. Also the Cobalt Raq's are similarly cute for a 1U rack mount unit.
I think https://www.solarspeed.net/ has the BlueOnyx package that can be installed on the RaQ 1U servers. The Qube boots from an EPROM but the RaQ (I'm stretching my memory here) boots from disk. Upgrading the Qube means flashing a new boot image to the EPROM and that is probably beyond me. But the Raq 1U servers should be upgradable. Of course, they were made for data centers, so don't expect them to be very quiet!
I like the RPi 5 thought for the Qube. I've been thinking a back plate could be made from PCB board for various connections, or just leave it open (or put a grill on it) for easier access to ports. Then power the front LED from one of the USB ports on the Pi.
The "PC board as an adapter plate" blew me away when I first saw it used years ago. Someone was refitting something like a Raspberry Pi into an older unit and wanted to preserve the appearance of the unit so didn't want to drill any new holes to mount the replacement units. He designed and ordered individual PCBs with the same mounting bolt holes as the original PCB, and smaller PCBs for the I/O connector slots. For example, put in a USB connector in place of a 25-pin DSUB serial connector. Ah, technology...