Demo Ideas
These are ideas for giving a ham radio demo with Debian packages, either for a talk or operating a table at an event.
License required? |
Topic |
Packages |
Hardware requirement |
N |
FM radio (music) |
gqrx-sdr rtl-sdr |
RTL-SDR dongle + small antenna |
For transmit |
Ham 2m or 70cm band |
gqrx-sdr rtl-sdr |
RTL-SDR dongle + small antenna |
N |
Shortwave broadcast (AM) |
gqrx-sdr rtl-sdr |
|
For transmit |
Ham HF/shortwave (SSB) |
gqrx-sdr rtl-sdr |
|
N |
Aircraft beacons (ADS-B) |
What to bring
- pre-install all Debian Hams Pure Blend packages?
- a couple of USB sticks with the Debian Hams Live image, to run on borrowed laptops so you don't have to leave your own laptop at the booth
- Kensington lock cables to secure equipment
consider attaching a Kensington lock anchor to radios that don't have the security slot already
- spare laptop to leave at the booth
- rigs with detachable microphones, so you can remove the microphone when no licensed ham is at the booth
use ?PowerPole for DC power at the booth, it is also used as a standard now by groups like WICEN, RACES and RAYNET-UK
fit your equipment with Anderson PowerPole 15, 30 or 45 Amp plugs
power distributors / splitters with Anderson PowerPole 15, 30 or 45 Amp outputs. ?PowerPole 15, 30, 45 or 75 could be used as an input.
fused patch leads from car battery terminal clamps to ?PowerPole 45 or 75
- spare blade fuses
- multimeter or another device to detect undervoltage
- car battery or linear PSU
- RTL-SDR dongles
- Ham-it-up or similar up-convertor
- portable Antenna Tuning Unit (ATU), e.g. MFJ-971
- shortwave / HF wire antenna
- string for attaching the antenna
- various RF patch leads with SMA, PL-259 and N type connections
- portable VHF/UHF antenna, e.g. small discone
- handheld transceiver
- mobile/portable transceivers, e.g. Yaesu FT-857D
- banners with your callsign and/or Debian Hams logo
See Daniel Pocock's blog building an antenna and receiving ham and shortwave stations for a more detailed list of components and links to purchase them.