Category: Construction

HamClock is not dead!

In order for your HamClock to work after June 2026, you must switch to a different backend server. Since my original post on the future of HamClock, a number of very talented people have been hard at work in examining the traffic to and from HamClocks and the host server and reproducing it. First of […]

My first ever RTTY contact

My QRZ page says “I started using RTTY with a Creed 444 teleprinter in the early 80s“. I thought it would be interesting to look back through my old paper logbooks and see if I could find my very first RTTY QSO. I spent a happy hour browsing through the logbook and it brought back […]

Replacing a rubbish foot switch

If you’ve got a headset or if you contest, you’ve almost certainly got a foot switch for your wireless, and the chances are that it looks something like this. I bought this years ago from Maplin for under a fiver and it’s been used as part of my station here, originally with my Heil headset, […]

I built a Stratum 1 NTP Time Server

This is something I’ve been considering doing for years and following a recent conversation with a good friend, I looked into it again and found this guide which was posted back in July 2023. In my box of stuff, I found I had a couple of GPS modules, one Adafruit and one of exactly the […]

How to set up a HamClock for your shack

Note: this entire process was tested and re-validated on the 30th May 2026 using a Raspberry Pi 4, the ‘recommended’ version of Raspberry Pi OS and HamClock 4.25. As from HamClock 4.24, there is no need to run any additional scripts because the backend is set automatically in the installer so I’ve removed all those […]

How to build a shack clock using a Raspberry Pi and a 7″ Touch Display.

Raspberry Pi shack clock

A few weeks ago I bought the official Raspberry Pi 7″ touchscreen display for a project which sadly didn’t work as intended, this left me with the unused display and a case. I started thinking about things I could use it for and settled on a shack clock. Long term readers of my site will […]

New aerial – I’ve decided!

After much research, I’ve decided what I’m going to replace the Hexbeam with. I’m aiming to put up a SteppIR UrbanBeam which will give me the same coverage as the Hexbeam with the addition of a folded dipole on 30m. At the same time, I’m going to replace all the coaxial cable with Messi & […]

Website updates complete and a few general news items

A couple of months ago, I started working on some upgrades to qso365 and I’m pleased to report that everything is now complete. The most obvious thing was the change of theme which controls how the website looks. The old theme was the original one I set up in 2010 and was starting to feel […]

How to enable cross band repeater on an Icom ID-5100E

Icom ID-5100 showing which diodes to remove to extend transmit and enable the cross band repeater

How to enable cross band repeater mode and extended transmit on the Icom ID-5100E

Rebuilding and raising my ADS-B receiver

Hexbeam with ADS-B aerial

Earlier this year I replaced my Hexbeam (with another Hexbeam) and I wrote about it on this site. There was a gap of a couple of weeks when I was between aerials and to take advantage of that, I temporarily moved my ADS-B receiver to a temporary stub mast, effectively raising it 7ft from the […]