Looks like we had an honourable mention on the Brandmeister top talkers list. While it’s my callsign, this is the busy VK6-HUB group that has put this here. This is a screenshot from BM’s Top Activity app.
https://www.brandmeisteractivity.live/
I’ve been working on a fail over system for my hosted services. Getting this working means that I am no longer locked into my internet provider for a static public IP. Instead the IP of the VPS is used.
In this case I have setup OPNsense on a VPS hosted by Binary Lane (although any VPS with an external IP would work). My OPNsense box at home connects to the VPS via OpenVPN (P2P). Then a bunch of routing and firewall rules take care of the rest.
A setup of gateways with priorities covers off on the dual WAN on the home router side.
See attached for a high quality scan of the Instruction Book/User Manual for the Fordson Dexta.
I found this impossible to find, so ended up buying a copy from England. The print is dated 1960 and is the “Export Copy”. All pages are included in my scan and have been manually cropped so no information is missing.
Enjoy!
Had an issue with my ~2002 Cox New Generation ride on lawn mower. These Australian made ride on mowers are renowned for their robustness and easy repair with basic tools. But, they are not particularly well designed/engineered in all areas and have had their fair share of issues.
This model has a weak point in the plastic steering box. The box is a 2:1 and angle drive in one. The output of the box drives a square shaft. The output is a glass fibre reinforced plastic gear with a slot cut in it and a hose clamp to tighten to the shaft. This is a terrible idea and the system was dropped quickly from later model revisions.
Not being able to easily get parts for this mower anymore given its age (and not to mention that a replacement gear would likely fail again anyway) I decided to modify the output gear using an old socket, couple of large washers, and a few bolts.
Cox Part Numbers for the steering box.
| 13354 | GEAR,BEVEL,WHEEL,SLOTTED (CROWN/OUTPUT) |
| 13355 | GEAR,BEVEL,PINION |
This week in amateur radio I finally put the finishing touches on my 2015 VK5JST (Jim) VHF Aerial Analyser.
Originally I purchased this kit from Adelaide Hills Amateur Radio Society (AHARS) in 2015. But life and work got in the way and I have taken this long to get around to putting it together.
The kit was easy to assemble, setup and test using Jim’s instructions. All parts were included with clear instructions and diagrams. Here is a scan of the instructions that came with my kit:
The AA works very well and will be a mainstay in my kit for years to come.
A new improved version of the AA from Jim is now available for a very modest price including shipping – see the link below.
For those just starting out in the hobby, this bit of kit is an excellent way to get started in electronics with a project that will prove to be a very useful tool for building and testing antennas. Even with limited skills in soldering etc, if you have a good soldering iron, take your time and follow Jim’s instructions, you will have no issues.
Here are some details on setting up an automated recording system for AllStar Link nodes. The ground work for this has been done in app_rpt, but this script will assist in publishing the recordings making them more accessible.
The original script was from Joshua Nolton (KG5EBI) – Self Proclaimed Engineer on youtube.
Joshua’s post is here: https://dvswitch.groups.io/g/allstarlink/topic/recording_your_qso_s_as_an/32389801
I have modified his script to not cut off any currently recording transmissions and also to sort the recordings in to day, month and year.
The script can be added to cron to automate everything.
Firstly watch and follow the instructions in the above video, using the modified script below instead. Note that my script location and name may be different to the ones used in the video and you also need to install lsof.
You need to do the following:
You will need to install the following:
Bash Script:
#!/bin/bash
#This script can be safely added to cron to run every minute. It will not copy and convert the currently recording file as it checks to see if each .WAV is in use by using lsof.
#Required programs:
#lsof, rsync, ffmpeg. i.e. run "apt install lsof rsync ffmpeg"
#Set your node number here:
node=42688
cd /var/log/asterisk/recording/$node
for i in *.WAV;
do name=`echo "$i" | cut -d'.' -f1`
echo "$name"
if [ -z "$(lsof "$name".WAV)" ]
then
ffmpeg -i "$i" -codec:a libmp3lame -filter:a loudnorm -qscale:a 2 "${name}.mp3"
mkdir -p "/var/www/html/library/`date -d now +%Y`/`date -d now +%m - %B`/`date -d now +%d - %A`"
rsync -avP ./"$name".mp3 "/var/www/html/library/`date -d now +%Y`/`date -d now +%m - %B`/`date -d now +%d - %A`"
rm ./"$name".*
rm *.txt
else
sleep 1
fi
doneYour root crontab can have the following added to automate the whole process. Of course change the script location and name as required. This will run the script every minute.
* * * * * /var/log/asterisk/recording/encodepost.sh 
I’ve just built a basic node for use at my home QTH here in Kununurra. The node is made up of:
In and around Kununurra the node seems to give good coverage to about 5km from town.
The WIA National News and VK6 NewsWest will be broadcast on Sundays at 0900 and 1900.
The node will be connected to the VK6-Hub (42732) most of the time, so give me a call!
This week I have setup a windows VM on my server to run RMS Trimode fro the Winlink network. This setup is running for several HF bands. Details can be seen here.
About 12 months ago (2018) I decommissioned my FreeNAS based file server in preference of a Synology DS918+. While this device has been fantastic, and I do recommend it, it’s a bit boring and not fitting my theme of DIY and putting retro hardware to good use.
The main considerations for this build are:
So here is a sneak peak of the project while I wait for the remainder of the parts to arrive.
Parts List
Continuing the retro theme, all the working parts are second hand and out dated from their usual intended purpose. Although in this build the parts are still reliability new, this is for power consumption, performance and reliability and also for certain feature sets on the CPU.
The board was chosen because it was relatively cheap to purchase with a CPU included. The CPU for its instruction set and very low power consumption. New PSU to help protect the nice hardware. Drives because they will be carried over from my old NAS. The Case for style, to show off the hardware, drive capacity (more than 10x 3.5″) and overall quality. And lastly the Cooler as they are quiet and long lasting.
The first PC projects for the site. The aim is to setup a Dual Slot 1 Celeron as a router. I’m not sure if the performance will be enough for my 50Mb VDSL connection, so will have to wait and see.
The Slot 1 Celeron does require some modification to work with SMP (Symmetric Multi- Processing). CPU Central have details on this modification here.
The plan is to try and run OPNsense on the machine and use it as a gateway/firewall for my VDSL connection. Failing that, Windows NT and some retro gaming!
All the retro parts will be wrapped in a nice new case from Corsair and powered by a Corsair Rm550x (overkill, but I wanted a quality PSU to protect the hardware).
Parts List:
