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Anytone AT-D878UV / AT-D578UV wishlist

July 23, 2023/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

This is my wishlist for features / fixes for the Anytone AT-D878UV and AT-D587UV DMR radios. Comments, additions and suggestions are welcome, contact me on sm0rgm@helander.se. Maybe the Anytone people will read it 😉 I will submit it through my dealer as well, for them to forward to the Anytone developers.

In the analog APRS message, add the possibility to enter a code which will be replaced by the radio’s current frequency, mode etc so people who sees my APRS packet knows what frequency I am listening on, for example %QRV1 will be replaced by the frequency, mode etc receiver 1 is set to. And %QRV2 will be the corresponding for receiver 2 in my radio. For example, if receiver 1 is set to 434.650 MHz DMR, CC04, TS2 the analog APRS will become “434.650 CC01 TS2”. And if it is set to for example 145.600 MHz FM it would become “145.600 FM”.
Make APRS Voice Alert work. The problem is that CTCSS filtering is done before AX.25 APRS decoding. Turn them around, so AX.25 APRS decoding is done before CTCSS filtering. Doing that, Voice Alert would work well on the Anytone since you can select no CTCSS for the APRS transmission but select CTCSS, both TX and RX for the APRS monitoring channel, which also will be used when you press PTT to make a voice alert. (Today, if I set CTCSS RX filter to 136.5 Hz in europe or 100 Hz in US, no APRS will be received at all.)
Scanning. When scanning and the scan stops on a channel with traffic, it would be very nice if the radio stayed on that channel when pressing exit to stop scan. Now it goes back the the channel that was selected when scanning started and I have to manually go to the channel with traffic. Also a quick press on the PTT should stop the scanning on the current channel.
Roaming. Please bring back so the radio displays which channel it is roaming on. This was the case in early firmwares but disappeared, so now it just displays the channel that was selected when roaming was started. Which means that on a roaming channel, I have no idea which repeater I am using or even which band I am transmitting on. Useless! I know there was a problem if there were more than one channel in the roaming zone with the same freqency, CC etc, the first one in the list matching was displayed even if it was the wrong one. Still, this is better than now knowing at all.

Analog vs digital APRS

July 2, 2023/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

There is actually no such thing as “analog” APRS. The traditional APRS over AX.25 on 144.800 MHz (or 145.390 MHz in other parts of the word) is actually defined as a digital mode.

However, Anytone has a possibility in their radios choose wether to send APRS over AX.25 or as position data over the DMR channel. This settings can be found in MENU -> APRS -> Upload Type, “A -Aprs” for APRS over AX.25 or “D – Aprs” for using the DMR. In Anytone they call these modes “Analog APRS” and “Digital APRS”.

APRS over AX.25 – “analog” APRS

In this mode positions are transmitted on a simplex channel (144.800 MHz in IARU region 1) and can be received by anyone in range. The packets can be repeated by digitpeaters (WIDE1 for local “fill in” digitpeaters and WIDE2 for wide coverage digipeaters). If the packet hits a digitpeater with an I-gate it is transported into the APRS-IS system and can be seen in aprs.fi.

The traditional APRS over AX.25 packet radio has many more functions than just position reporting, such as telemetry, weather reports, messaging etc etc. If your radio is capable of receiving APRS you can also see other hams in the area (position, distance, direction etc).

APRS over DMR – “digital” APRS

In this mode, the radio uses the built in function in the DMR specfication to transmit position data. When this position data reaches the Brandmeister servers it is converted to APRS and fed into the APRS-IS system and can be seen on aprs.fi.

APRS over DMR is limited to only position data so if your goal is to just show up on aprs.fi, this can be the mode of choice for you. You miss out on all other features of APRS when using DMR or “digital” APRS.

If you look at the APRS menu on the Anytone for example, the APRS SMS function is only availible for “Analog APRS”.

APRS SMS only in — APRS SMS not availible in “Digital APRS” (over DMR)

For me, I choose the “old school” APRS over AX.25 all days in the week 🙂

APRS (packet radio) – FM wide or FM narrow?

June 24, 2023/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

Looking at many how-to guides for the Anytone AT-D878UV / AT-D578UV and APRS, it can be hard to determine if APRS should be transmitted as FM (20 kHz bandwidth) or FM narrow (12 kHz bandwidth). Some guides show WIDE while others show NARROW.

The answer is clear in the IARU region 1 VHF band plan – APRS on 144.800 MHz should be transmitted using FM narrow.

Anytone AT-D878UV analog APRS TX not working

Anytone AT-D878UV analog APRS transmissions not working

June 17, 2023/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

My analog APRS transmissions with the AT-D878UV was not received by any other stations. The problem was that when the codeplug is created (using New in the CPS), the values for Transmit delay and Prewave Time is set to 0 (zero) for APRS and this will not work (probably to battery saving as this is not a problem with the AT-D578UV for example, which will work with much lower values for Transmit Delay and Prewave Time).

Solution:

In the CPS -> APRS -> set Transmit Delay to 600 ms and Prewave time to 600 ms.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnyTone/comments/han0y5/aprs_problems_the_solution_anytone_atd878uv/

Ana Aprs Tx should be set to “Narrow” according to IARU region 1 bandplan.

What is Transmit Delay and Prewave Time?

I’ve tried to find an explanation to these values online but haven’t found anything closer than “it controls the time after activating the transmitter until data is being sent”. So I tried setting each value, one at a time to it’s maximum and this is what I think it does:

Transmit Delay: The radio starts transmitting a packet but it sounds like it waits “Transmit Delay” milliseconds before it starts transmitting any valuebla data. During this time my guess it is filling the packet with zeroes.
Prewave Time: The radio pulls the PTT but waits “Prewave Time” milliseconds before it starts to send the packet. During this time, the radio just sends carrier.

If I set the Prewave Time too high, my receiver will not receive and decode the packet. I’ve experimented with values for Prewave Time with different values and between 80-600 ms it seems to be working.

Stefan Helander

TigerTronics TigerTrak TM-1 configuration under Windows 10

June 15, 2023/0 Comments/in Amateur radio, Radio/by Stefan Helander

This little APRS-tracker from the late 90’s or early 00’s is a neat little device, however pretty old. It uses an external GPS receiver (via RS232) and connects to a radio, like a HT for example.

According to the manual, the configuration utility runs under Windows 95 or 98 (yes, indeed old stuff). I have a TM-1 lying in a box collecting dust so I figured that I should fire it up and see if I could use it for something fun (today APRS is gaining some attention again since many new radios has analog APRS rx and tx build in, like the Anytones).

It turned out that it worked fine under Windows 10. I used an USB to RS232 adapter. In the device manager, find the COMx-port adapter, under Properties -> Port -> Advanced, I had to select COM1 to COM4 since the old software just supports these ports.

I installed it and right clicked on the program file for the TigerTrak configuration utility and selected Compatibility -> Win 95 (not shure if this is needed but I did it anyway).

To connect the TM-1 to the configuration utility, first start the utility. With the TM-1 connected to the serial port (straight cable), power it on while holding PWR and MODE simultaneusly. The software should indicate CONNECTED and the LOCK led on the TM-1 should go green.

As special path 1 i used WIDE1-1 and special path 2 WIDE2-2. This will cause packets received by a WIDE digitpeater to repeated two hops. If that is overkill (like in an urban area with many digipeaters) you could use WIDE2-1 to limit it to one WIDE hop instead.

Nowadays there is a specific TOCALL for TigerTrak units: APTIGR

CloudLog gives ‘Access denied’

January 24, 2023/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

Checking to web server logs reveals:

Got error 'Access to the script '/var/www/XXX/web/logbook' has been denied (see security.limit_extensions)'

The URL of the logbook showed https://DOMAIN/index.php/logbook

Solution

Add the following to php.ini for the site:

cgi.fix_pathinfo=1

HP EliteDesk 800 G1 running on 12 volts DC

Running HP EliteDesk 800 G1 USDT on 13.8 volts DC

November 5, 2022/0 Comments/in Amateur radio, Hardware, Radio/by Stefan Helander

I got a HP EliteDesk 800 G1 USDT Ultra Slim Desktop computer for my ham schack. This is a small computer running on an external power supply just lika a laptop. It turned out to be the major source of RFI in my ham schack.

I suspected the power supply was the culrpit as those are switched ones and thought it might be possible to run the computer directly on my 13.8 VDC power supply that I use for my radios. The only voltages used in a computer is 12 and 5 volts, so there is probably a voltage regulator on the power input that regulates the voltage down from the 19 volts DC that the power supply outputs. Will it also run on 13.8 VDC?

It works!

It turned out it works fine, no resistor needed. This might vary from model to model, but the HP EliteDesk 800 G1 USDT it works by directly connecting power good to the positive. This (image below) is the cable I now use to run my computer directly on 13.8 VDC. Black lead is negative, white is positive and blue is power good.

On 20 meters (14 MHz) my noise floor dropped from S5 to S0-A1!

IC-706 noise level on 20 m when running computer directly on 12 VDC — IC-706 noise level on 20 m (14 MHz) when running computer directly on 13.8 VDC

Anytone D578UV CPS Tools -> Firmware update doesn’t work

July 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

I had problems with the CPS software version 1.16 when trying to update the firmware. The window when selecting Tools -> Firmware just didn’t open. It turns out the software seems really buggy.

Solution: When CPS is running, open a File Explorer and go to “C:\Program Files (x86)\Anytone\D578UV_1.16\” and double click on UpdateQX_Firmware_Update.exe.

The window will now open and you can continue with the firmware update.

Thanks to Ronny/SM7IKJ who gave me to the solution.

Anytone D878UV/D587UV last call TG empty

Anytone D878UV/D578UV last call talkgroup empty

July 9, 2022/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

After doing some updates of my Anytone D878UV and D578UV DMR radios I had an annoying problem where the talkgroup field was empty in the last call list as well as in the last call “ticker” scrolling by on top of the screen, just showing an empty “TG:”.

It turned out the problem was caused by the digital contact list that I had generated on radioid.net. I had generated the list with the “TG” checked which generates a contact list including all Brandmeister talk groups. Seems very practical but the problem is that the name field for the talk groups are empty and it seems that Anytone has priority to display the talkgroup info from digital contact list, if it exists, above the info from the talk groups list.

Solution was to generate the digital contact list from radioid.net without checking the TG.

Radioid.net digital contact list generator without the TG checked

My experience with HyEndFed 8 band antenna – bend it like Beckham…

July 6, 2022/0 Comments/in Amateur radio/by Stefan Helander

In an earlier post I described my experiences with the HyEndFed 5 band antenna but for several reasons I decided to quickly replace it with the 8 band version for 10/12/15/17/20/30/40/80 meters.

The reasons for this was, for one thing, that I soon discovered that I was missing the WARC bands for different reasons. One of them is contests. Contests are fun – when you are participating. When not, it makes the bands very hard to use. You will have a hard time finding non contest stations and sometimes I just switched the radio off, waiting for the contest to be over. The WARC bands are contest free and became my go to bands during contests.

Another reason for replacing the 5 band antenna was that it is rated for 200 watts SSB PEP. Nothing more than that is mentioned on their website when it comes to power. It was when unpacking the antenna, reading the instructions, I realized this means 30 watts limit for CW and DIGI-modes. It would have been very nice to mention this on the website as well. I am doing about 98% of my QSO:s in CW and I like to be able to use my rig’s full 100 watts of power.

The third reason I initially choose the 5 band antenna was it’s length – 23 meters. This is just about the size I can fit in on my property. But at the time considering a new antenna, I realized that endfed half waves (EFHW) actually doesn’t have to be installed in a straight line. Bend it like Beckham 🙂 It can be installed in an angle for example. The radiation pattern will of course suffer but they still work. The 8 band antenna is 40 meters long, so to fit it in, I must install it in an angle.

So I decided to replace it with the 1 kW model of HyEndFed 8 band antenna. I used the same fur tree as a fixing point, but insted of having the end at the tree, I now has a bend. I selected the 1 kW model to be able to cope with my 100 watts CW. The model chosen was the one with aluminium plate and strand relief on the plate.

My 8 band efhw 40 meters long, installed in an angle

I can use the antenna on most bands without a tuner but I do actually use my ICOM AT-180 on most bands to get the SWR down to as close as 1:1. With the AT-180 it actually also tunes on 160 meters but my QRM levels on that band are so high so I haven’t tried it in a QSO yet.

It have worked all other bands with the antenna I am quite happy with it, and considering it is a multiband antenna I think it is a very good compromise.