My 30m QRSS Grabber is Back Online

Finally, my 30m QRSS Grabber is back online. It has been off for about three years, lacking the bits and pieces that make it all work easily (and maybe my lack of trying :-(

My QRSS Grabber URL is at:

http://qsl.net/wa0uwh/grabber/

A link to the Grabber is provided on the right of my blog.

If you do not know what QRSS is all about, check out:

http://www.ka7oei.com/qrss1.html

and 

http://www.weaksignals.com/

Several things all had to come together for me to attempt to re-establish my Web 30m QRSS Grabber.

• I recently learned; for a donation QSL.NET is providing web space to Amateurs for Ham Radio related topics (this may be old news to some, but not to me).
• A new ARGO program is being beta tested and copies available for use. A new capability included an FTP client for capture transfer to a server.  A beta copy can be downloaded from here.

Establishing an online QRSS Grabber has never been easier.

1. Establish an QSL.NET Web and FTP account (takes a few days)
2. Build a few simple web pages
3. Run ARGO, schedule a grab and transfer to your QSL.NET account
4. Publish your web page, Let the QRSS Compendium Owner know your URL, GRID and capt file name.
5. Set back and watch the fun

Note: I understand that with a little more difficulty, a Grabber can be established using the Spectrum Lab Program ( I just have not yet found all of the needed magic).

So, now anytime I am not activity Transmitting, I will be providing a Northwest QRSS Capture Service for the MEPT QRSS Knights.

Join the QRSS Knights, and have some fun, if you have spare receiver time available.

( Hopefully, this time my grabber will be up more, than down ;-)

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UPDATE
Jeff - KO7M took up the challenge, and has put up his own KO7M Grabber, the more the better.

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UPDATE

Due to the new Beta ARGO getting lost while attempting to transfer grabs to QSL.NET my QRSS Grabber is DOWN, again! More investigations is needed to proceed. While testing, the Grabber will be up, but mostly down.

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QRSS Beacon

Initial QRSS Project Success

My QRSS Beacon Project is a success (see previous post), it is transmitting FSK on 30m with about 43uW. The onboard K1EL Keyer still needs to be programmed with a Standard Messages, and put into the real Beacon mode - but that will come later. The Keyer works now to send interactive FSK.

QRSS 30m Beacon

The thing that this project adds to my "Family of Marker and Beacons", is message programmability and interactive FSK demo use.

The following capture is from my local QRSS Grabber, the "SEA" message was shorter than my call and was easier to setup for this initial test. SEA is designator for the Seattle Airport. Note: for QRSS each "dit" is sent for 3 seconds - as shown this three letter message is about 50 seconds - but very-very low bandwidth.

The initial Short Term Stability,

and Frequency Shift - Looks Acceptable

The completed demonstration station, with a Key, is as follows. In normal use, the transmitter alone will occupy the inside of a tube, which is used as the center insulator of a 30m Dipole. See the results of my previous experiment.

A 30m FSK Transmitter

The silly (very short) vertical antenna (seen in the close up) provides some coupling and load for demonstrations.

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More QR Code

Here are just a "few" QR-Codes that I found via Google, they are apparently everywhere, if you know where to look.

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&expIds=17259,17315,23628,23670,25834,26328,26569,26751,26762&sugexp=ldymls&tok=wJPNdc6pYq78MMGEUwH2Bw&xhr=t&q=qr+code&cp=2&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=pSSgTOTxMZSisQOYrP3VAQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=7&sqi=2&ved=0CFsQsAQwBg&biw=1059&bih=705

All of the above very long URL is contained in the following QR-Code image.

The Above URL

The reason that I started noticing QR-Codes, is because QR-Codes are the method of choice for sharing data; contacts, URLs, Apps, and more, between the Android Smart Phones. One phone displays the QR-Code, the second scans the first phone's display and decodes the results , effectively transferring information.

Using a "Bar Code App", any QR-Code can be decoded, regardless of  it size, location, and display device, assuming that it can be seen via phone camera. The image can be on a small stamp, or the side of a blimp - if it can be photographed, it can be decoded. Apparently, QR-Codes are used extensively in Japan, on everything from small products, to large Billboards and Neon signs.

If you have an Android Smart Phone, you too can easily read the above code and jump to the web page. Note; maybe other phones can do the same thing? For Android, see the app:

http://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.reader

There is a Google Chrome Plugin that coverts any URL line to a QR-Code, which makes it easy to share an arbitrary page to a phone. Other online apps can be used to decode QR-Codes for any PC.

https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/bcfddoencoiedfjgepnlhcpfikgaogdg

So, . . what does this have anything to do with Ham Radio? . . . Well, a lot, . . . as my new HTC Android Phone also contains several good Ham Radio Apps;  like EchoLink,  Exam Test Questions, APRS, CW Trainer, GPS Maping and a lot more. Oh, by the way, it can also receive and place phone calls  :-)  !!!

This mode of image communication may have a place in Ham Radio. Maybe a new form of QRSS or MEPT??


Update, yes it has now been done, See:

http://www.swharden.com/blog/2010-11-11-deciphering-qr-code-from-radio-spectrograph/

I plan on creating a QR-Code image for the back of my van, but so far, I have not thought of a good choice for content :-)

So, who will be the first to decode the secret word in the QR-Code of my previous post ???

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Update


Link to some QR Code history (thanks to, Colin - G6AVK):

http://www.adams1.com/stack.html

-- Home Page: https://WA0UWH.blogspot.com