My Raspberry Pi 7 inch touch screen with Pi 3B and small BT keyboard from Adafruit. I used the screen with tlf on ARRL field days 2020 and 2021 in Class E Home stations with emergency power (12 V battery). Fritz HB9CYX mentioned similar setup already.
Tip: Use [ALT]-[left_click] or [ALT]-[finger] to move windows around. They are too large for this display.
I received the tiny keyboard last Friday and it is possible to make QSOs with WSJT-X using touch screen and keyboard by tapping the call on screen and moving TX frequency with [SHIFT]-[tap] and [ALT]-[finger] to move windows, but I would not do that everyday. With regular keyboard and mouse no problems.
In /boot/config.txt
#ignore_lcd=1
lcd_rotate=2
73, Jaakko ac1bb/oh7bf
Edit: Pi and display seem to consume about 0.4 A from 13.9 V source (5 - 6 W) when running WSJT-X.
Hi
I am absolutely aware that a radioamateur can do whatever he wants within the bounderies of the regulations.
However this does not take away my deep concerns that over time SOTA and in extension other activities such as WWFF/GMA/WCA will largely become digital activities and that CW/SSB will become a minimal niche within SOTA.Please activators do not walk that path.Please do not make SOTA a 95% digital mode activity.
Do many activators really want to carry that to a summit? It’s a bit of fun on a drive on summit but I certainly wouldn’t want to carry it on a hill walk.
Hi Igno, The pi3b works fine in my experience and draws less power than a pi4.
I have run them side by side at home and used Conky to monitor performance. The pi4 takes it all in it’s stride but the pi3b manages fine.
Even Raspberry Pi Zero W seems to be usable in Fast Decode mode. Current draw from 13.9 V supply about 0.16 A using a separate HDMI display. Did not test VNC yet. Two random QSOs with this setup.
I was using RPi3 for FT8 at home for some time and in my experience it was too weak for anything beyond regular decode. Even in regular decode mode, it took RPi3 several seconds of next transmit period to complete the decode. RPi4 that I’m using now is fine even in deep decode mode, just make sure that you use proper CPU cooling as it gets hot fast under load.
In my experience 1280x720 is perfect resolution for 10’’ tablet. IMO any screen resolution below 1280x720 is too small as WSJT-X window won’t fit, especialy if you want to see the waterfall display. There are other programs that may fit, but I currently don’t use them. I tried JTDX and I found it more user friendly because its band activity display is much bigger. Using larger resolution, WSJT-X controls will be too small for comfortable work.
That said, I used FT8 on a couple of activations but got only a handful of contacts. For me not really worth the hassle but I’m not saying never again.
The ordered display is able to do 1024 x 600… will have to see which software will work with it.
Thanks Valdi for the hint! @Jaakko: the Pi Zero might be the next step once the existing solution is working. Thanks!
Reading the manual Decode button should illuminate three times for each pass in deep decode mode. It does that 2 - 3 times in my Pi 3b so I might be loosing some information in reception. Thanks for pointing that out.
Another question… need to bring 12-12,5V 2A down to 9V… 78S09 will not do as the difference input output needs to exceed 3V…and if the input voltage drops to 11,8 it will not fit.
Has anyone solved a similar problem?
The QDX needs 9V…
Managed to get the suggested circuit… @MM0FMF Thanks!
However, for those using it at its limits you will need a cooler. 2A should be fine without a cooler. .
Have a look at wfview which is a free remote control program for Icom radios. I originally used the RS-BA1 software but I’m now using wfview. It seems to work well. The advantage is no cable is needed between the tablet and radio.
73
John
It’s too late if anyone wants one as they are sold out with no known date when they will be back in stock but the QRP Labs QDX digital only transceiver looks attractive for pure digital activations only.
Regular Icelandic FT8 SOTA Activator TF3EK/P worked again today. Einar is usually workable on 20m FT8 as the skip distance suits Northern England. SNR +02 received -15 sent.
