Brad McConahay

The latest AES amateur radio catalog recently made its way into the “library” where I spotted the new TH-D72A portable rig with APRS.  I’ve had the aging Kenwood TH-D7AG with APRS for a number of years, but this newer rig also has GPS and *gasp* a USB port. I almost bought it.

The Davis Vantage Vue

I also happened across a compact weather station in the same catalog – the Davis Vantage Vue. I decided to buy it instead of the radio to replace my old Scientific Oregon WMR-968 station which was in a state of total disrepair.

Putting the new station together turned out to be easier than taking the old one apart. Besides being a huge spider convention, the bolts were so badly rusted onto the mast that I finally hammered all the old hardware off into pieces.

Despite the station’s low cost, connecting it to a USB port ends up adding an extra $150. That’s for the hardware adapter and a software package. A standalone Ethernet-connected version is also available for $250.  The WeatherLink software appears to be straight out of the Windows 95/98 era – good enough to confirm that the station’s data transfer is working, but that’s about it.

Weewx

I had used wx200d on Linux with the old WMR-968 station. It provided a reliable daemon along with everything needed to graph data, report to Weather Underground and CWOP, and send packets out over the local APRS network via RF on 144.39 MHz. I had to do some extra perl scripting to glue it all together, but that was part of the fun.

So, what was the new Swiss Army Knife for the Davis Vantage View on Linux to be? wview was the early frontrunner, but while installing it, I could feel the time-vacuum of dependencies and troubleshooting that a lot of Unix based projects turn into. While checking alternatives, I found a modest sounding package called weewx that was almost easy to overlook. It’s a well thought out system written in Python by Tom Keffer. I put it in place, set a few variables, installed the init.d script, and went on my way. It provides a comprehensive page of data that can be used in place or automatically FTP’d to a remote server. It reports to Weather Underground, CWOP (APRS-IS), and PWS Weather. It’s also well templated and object oriented – all very extensible in general.

APRS – Back to Radio

The only thing left to figure out was how to get it onto the local APRS ham radio network. I got my old Kenwood TH-D7AG working again, hooked it up to the server using a serial-to-USB adapter, and put it in standard TNC mode where it’s bypassing the built in APRS and simply receives regular TNC commands.

Since the CWOP routine in weewx already creates the same packet needed for APRS, it seemed a shame to rewrite anything. But having never worked in Python, my first instinct was to use my original perl script written for wx200d, and have it read directly from weewx’s SQLite database. Knowing this wasn’t the best way to do it, and having a recent interest in learning Python, I put a message on the weewx Google Groups forum and immediately received some great direction from Tom on how it might be best integrated into weewx. It only took a few hours after that to get it working. Although it will probably be obsolete by the next version of weewx, I made it available on github in case anybody else needs it.

Skycam

Okay, it’s actually more of a view-of-sky-somewhat-obstructed-by-trees-cam, but I really wanted to do a real time view of the sky this time. It’s the Foscam FI8918W wifi camera in an upstairs window. It has a built in web server that provides live images and video, and the ability to remotely pan and tilt from any Internet connected device. It also makes a nice way to continue watching a storm long after nearby lightning chases everybody inside.

The old weather station lasted three or four years – I hope this one will last as long or longer. It will definitely be easier to replace when the time comes.

- Brad N8QQ

I recently decided to replace my little portable shortwave radio, the Sangean ATS-505, with something better. My #1 requirement was to get something that didn’t have the “chuffing” problem. When using the tuning knob, the sound is muted between every frequency. My main use is to tune through the amateur radio bands, so chuffing is very annoying. Getting better sensitivity and a backlight color other than puke-green were secondary wishes.

After a lot of online research, I thought maybe the Sangean ATS-909 would do, but I would still need to do the anti-chuffing modification. Then I ran across RadioLabs and their “Super 909“. This is an ATS-909 with many great modifications. New filters, a better speaker, a blue backlight, increased sensitivity, anti-chuffing, and removal of the tuning knob detent for smooth tuning. There were several favorable reviews of the Super 909 version of the radio on eHam.net, so I pulled the trigger.

I labored a bit over whether or not to pay $100 more for the mods, but ended up deciding it would be worth it. Well, I was right. With regard to both sensitivity and audio quality, it outperforms the 505 by leaps and bounds. I could only hear the strongest signals with the 505 and a longwire. With the Super 909 and the telescoping whip, I hear so much more. And with a longwire or active antenna, it rivals my ham HF gear. Granted, this isn’t the best comparison – I wish I could hear the difference between it and an un-modded ATS-909. Speaking of which, they will mod your existing ATS-909 with these modifications if you already have one.

As odd as it sounds, my only complaint was the way they offered free ground shipping on the Super 909. They had it set up as the only shipping option. I would gladly have paid more to get the radio here more quickly. Since it was traveling from California to Ohio, it took almost two weeks to arrive. Very aggravating.

But I’ve been enjoying listening to the HF ham bands without having to go into the shack for several weeks now, and I’m damn happy. I highly recommend this modded version of the radio. Good job, RadioLabs!

On Thursday morning I was listening to the police scanner as it often makes for good background listening while working. All of a sudden there was a big police chase moving across Hamilton County that originated in southeast Indiana where suspects had just robbed an auto parts store. Anytime a chase crosses state lines it becomes a bigger deal than the average pursuit. The local TV stations were even breaking into regular programming at this point.

After a while, I noticed they were moving toward Golf Manor and getting very close to my mother-in-law’s house, the house where my wife grew up. Imagine the surprise when they said the suspects had just wrecked at the intersection where she lives. I called the wife at work, and she called her mom. It turns out that they wrecked into the telephone pole right in front of her house, and they had taped off her yard. What a way to wake up! The passenger was captured near the scene of the wreck with lots of cash, and the driver fled to an apartment complex a couple blocks away.

Almost all of the TV coverage was centered around the SWAT team who eventually arrested the second guy hours later. But WXIX Channel 19 did manage to show one quick clip of the wreck, which is the picture shown above. It looks like it was taken from my mother-in-law’s driveway, with the yellow police tape leading over toward either end of her house.

What are the odds?!

Here are a few links to the story…

WLWT Channel 5
WKRC Channel 12
Cincinnati Enquirer