Quansheng on John Flinchbaugh KD3EE

RX with Disconnected Antennas

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

K3IR/145.230MHz for the Morning Grind was clear, but low power (S3-S5) on the Quansheng and TH-9800 base. It turns out that both antennas were disconnected at the window for overnight storms.

Scanning Amtrak

Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

While waiting for the train in Exton, PA, I looked up Amtrak frequencies for the Keystone corridor and found they’re mostly all 160MHz-161MHz, so I scanned there. I didn’t hear train traffic in the time, but I heard Chester County emergency dispatch on 160.185MHz. I can also hear it at home with an outside antenna.

RFI in the Car

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was out mobile, but I couldn’t check-in to the 985 Workbench. I had a weak signal, and I got a boost in interference when car powered off. It was mostly through the mobile antenna/coax, and it was enough to drown out W3GMS. I confirmed with spectrum analyzer on UV-K5.

I also had my AllStar 3 node but it wouldn’t connect either. The node connected to my phone hotspot fine, and it got an IP and all that. I could use the web interface or DTMF, but DTMF was flaky/slow. While debugging, I connected to the parrot node (55553) fine, but I only got “connection failed” from W3GMS (53085). I connected to W3GMS fine from home network the next morning.

car on

car off

AX.25

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I discovering some ax.25 packet radio floating around on 145.010MHz. I connected my Btech APRS audio cable from computer headphone/mic to the Quansheng, and piped the audio into multimon:

$ pw-record --channels 1 --rate 22050 - | multimon-ng -t raw -a afsk1200 /dev/stdin

Here’s some of the traffic I decode:

  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to ID-0 UI^ pid=F0
  TheNet X-1J4  (PINEGV)
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm W3AVP-5 to ID-0 via AA3RG-7 UI^ pid=F0
  W3AVP Packet System - FN10xc
  W3AVP-5: New Holland Chat
  W3AVP-10: Winlink Gateway
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to ID-0 UI^ pid=F0
  YORKPA:W3HZU  Connect W3HZU-1 BBS & W3HZU-11 CHAT
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3OGS-7 DISC+
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3OGS-7 UA-
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR5-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm N3DWB-0 to QRZ-0 via KA3TKW-0,PINEGV-0 UI^ pid=F0
  N3DWB JONESTOWN FN10SJ
  N3DWB-1 Mailbox
  AFSK1200: fm N3DWB-1 to MBX-0 via KA3TKW-0,PINEGV-0 UI^ pid=F0
  Mail for: None
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR5-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-0 to N3FUD-7 RR4-
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3UOO-7 UA-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 SABM+
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 SABM+
  AFSK1200: fm WA3USG-1 to W3HZU-1 via KA3TKW-0 UA-
  AFSK1200: fm WA3USG-1 to W3HZU-1 via KA3TKW-0 I00^ pid=F0
  [KPC3P-8.3-HM$]
  95529 BYTES AVAILABLE
  THERE IS 1 MESSAGE NUMBERED 13
  ENTER COMMAND:  B,J,K,L,R,S, or Help >
  AFSK1200: fm AA3RG-7 to N3FUD-7 RR5-
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 I10+ pid=F0
  [BPQ-6.0.24.33-IHJM$]
  AFSK1200: fm W3HZU-1 to WA3USG-1 via KA3TKW-0 I10+ pid=F0
  [BPQ-6.0.24.33-IHJM$]

I need to find a terminal program for Android (BPQ Term?), and read more about the anatomy of an ax25 packet.

Fixing the Spectrum Graph on F4HWN

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There was a bug for a while in F4HWN 3.9 on the Quansheng radios. The spectrum analyzer graph was too narrow when number of bars exceded 128. I’d easily run into the problem when I set the scan range to 144.000MHz to 148.000MHz, and activate the spectrum analyzer.

I dug into the code a bit and fixed it, so now it scales for large and small ranges.

I submitted a pull request to the project, and it was accepted and merged to be included in the F4HWN 4.0 release. Until that release, I’ll be running my custom build.

I also made a change to allow me to map the spectrum analyzer to a programmable side button like AubsUK had, but I’m no longer convinced it’s worth the limited code space it would consume in the binary.

spectrum analyzer working

Next Firmware: F4HWN

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Problem: AUBSUK multiple scan list

The scan lists aren’t combining correctly on AUBSUK firmware. It’s skipping entries based on ordering. I realized I was missing most of simplex channels, but seeing the GMRS channels, when I enabled my “simplex” scan list in combo with primary repeaters. There’s an existing issue logged, but it’s hard to describe and to reproduce, I think.

Trying the Next Firmware, F4HWN 3.7

F4HWN is available on GitHub. I loaded it on both radios in place of AUBSUK to see how I get along. I’ve found a few features I really like:

Scan on start: if it’s scanning when I switch it off, it’ll scanning when switched on.
3 scan lists: 1, 2, 3, 123, 0, all
- they don’t recombine as freely, but I have:
  - simplex, repeaters, satellites on 1
  - GMRS on 3
scan is just as fast as others, so we’ll see if it’s tolerable.
“main only” display is nice, much easier to read.
spectrum analyzer with scan range, but I can’t assign it to a button.
- Fn-5 is only way to activate it.

I think the S-meter is calibrated much differently from AUBSUK, and other firmwares I’ve loaded, calibration for VHF/UHF vs HF, The S-meter seems to read higher than I expect with lots of S9+.

The spectrum analyzer with a range seems wonky at times: it may be scanning the entire range, but the graph doesn’t seem all there. I noticed it with the scan of 144MHz-148MHz.

Yagi Pole Upgrade

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I added some sections to the flag pole to reach 37 feet, and I increased elements on the home-made yagi from 2 elements to 4 elements. Upon adding elements, I needed to stretch the driven element a couple millimeters longer to tune it. In testing, I’m seeing about -100 RSSI listening to W3GMS on a Quansheng. It was about -105 RSSI when mounted lower and only 2 elements.

Yagi upgrade

F4HWN 3.3

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I loaded F4HWN 3.3 onto my UV-K5 to have a look. It only has 3 scan lists, and it’s awkward to cycle through them. I found starting the spectrum analyzer to be cumbersome as well, since i couldn’t attach it to a long-press of a button. The single VFO view is pretty nice; it puts lots of nice info on the screen, and it’s big. Ultimately, I went right back to AubsUK for the scan features.

Bug Scanning on Aubs 00.07

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I have my UV-K5 and UV-K6 running aubs 00.07 firmware. I added a simplex frequency (446.100MHz) to use as with my local cross-band repeater in position 110. I added the new channel to scan list 1.

Upon powering on the radio, I could scan lists 1 (local repeaters) and 4 (satellites) together. When I press the up arrow to advance off an active channel, the scan would now skip list 1, and go right to 4, and continue to skip list 1. Before I realized it was happening, I thought the day was super quiet.

I dropping the repeater frequency from scan list 1, and the scanning behaved correctly. I tried removing another channel from scan list 1, and reintroducing channel 110 to the list, but that didn’t fix it, so it’s not an issue with the count.

Much of scan list 1 is lower in the channels, so I moved my new repeater frequency from channel 110 to position 30, right after all my other simplex channels. That seems to work fine, so that’s how I’m leaving it.

I may need to try some more things and figure out a reproduction to file a bug on the project:

Is it something about the frequency of 460.100?
Or is channel 110 the problem?
Would another frequency in that spot be a problem?
Are there other channels that would trigger the issue?

Tape Measure Yagi

Sun, 16 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There are easy instructions to build your own yagi on Instructables. I had just picked up some hose clamps and had the other necessary pieces: a broken tape measure and some 3/4-inch schedule 40 PVC and connectors; so I was ready to build.

The wiring on mine is held in place by the clamps and banana clip adapter. I always like those for prototyping. As directed, I tuned the antenna by moving radiators in and out and measuring with the NanoVNA.

The antenna is noticeably directional, so I can use it to find directions of signals. The S-meter and dB signal strength numbers on AUBS firmware make it easy to evaluate strength and direction.

I transmitted with it to the K3IR repeater as a test during a net.

Aubs Firmware

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’m trying out the Aubs 00.07 firmware on my Quansheng radios. It’s based on the latest egzumer, and so far has kept up-to-date, and it has its own plugin for Chirp.

It has some really cool features for scanning:

scan on start, a feature I requested of egzumer, but was denied by egzumer.
10 scan lists. I organized mine as:
- 1 = local repeaters and popular simplex
- 2 = all simplex, Ham and GMRS
- 3 = non-local repeaters and other listening
- 4 = satellites
press * to lockout a frequency from scan.
fast scan like egzumer
frequency spectrum analyzer, but no memory spectrum analyzer like nunu.

This is my daily driver now on both my radios.

Spectrum Analyzer for Travel

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 15:49:26 -0400

I drove out to West Chester yesterday, but I’ve not bothered looking up and adding repeaters for the area. Instead, I could set the spectrum analyzer on the UV-K6 (or K5) to scan the 145MHz-148MHz, stepping on 5.00kHz, and I had a pretty good picture of any repeaters to hear out there.

Once I heard something, I could pop open RepeaterBook on my phone and see what it was, but it saved me lots of trouble programming anything into the radio ahead of time to not necessarily need it.

Egzumer on UV-K5

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I installed a new firmware, egzumer, on my Quansheng UV-K5. The firmware has some handy features:

It displays name and frequency at once
It leaves the backlight on all the time at a lower level

Quansheng Firmware Updates

Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I flashed minor updates to the UV-K5 using Chromium and https://whosmatt.github.io/uvmod/. This got me the following features:

RSSI meter
Mic boost
Better menu strings
18mhz-1300mhz for receive
Backlight on for longer