QRSS R & D Grabber -
G0FTD - Whitstable -
JO01MI
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NEWS
February 2019. My Raspberry Pi image YAPI (
Yet
Another
Pi
Image)
now includes a facility to send QRSS via pre-made audio files to your
SSB rig. Courtesy of Radovan OK1FCX. There is also some desktop
shortcuts to assist with creating a QRSSPIG RAMDISK as well as some
other useful stuff. Also an on screen keyboard and minor system
improvements have been made for minimalist systems. The link
for the Raspberry Pi image is
here.
December 2018. I made an attempt
at a group newletter for QRSS enthusiasts. My editing software
kept crashing, and I was not 100% happy with the results but despite
this everyone still like it (I am still baffled). Here it is -
74 Magazine
October 2018.
I started playng
with Raspberry Pi's this month. I had no real use for one but it seemed
like a few people wanted to use them for QRSS grabbers. So I bought one
and started to see how I could assist others with QRSS. I compiled
QRSSPIG from source and added it to Raspian, as well as WSJT-X,
image manipulation software for grab stacking, config files to get RTL
SDR dongles running, RTL dongle receiver software and some other stuff.
I also included drivers for those funky little TFT displays
available for as little as US$9 on Ebay. CHIRP memory programming
software is included, AVRDUDE for QRP Labs ATMEL firmware upgrades Grab
it while you can. It's 4Gb. I am hoping to make a little write up of
the Raspberry Pi on my
Google hosted site soon. The link
for the Raspberry Pi image is
here.
There
is no current grabber activity from me. This may change but I'm
concentrating on providing good QRSS signals instead on 3 bands. In
the meantime, this site will remain a simple site with a few links for
now. There may also be some occasionally useful files in the
other
directory that are of general purpose, and not QRSS related. I am a
regular user and collector of the numerous cheap
Chinese
VHF /
UHF handhelds. Some software for them is included here. I
might also
indulge in QRSS Grabber DXpeditions witha GPD Pocket PC and receiver in
the near future.
UPDATE
- August 2018.
I am experimenting with QRSSPig grabber software and it works very
well. I am conducting feasability tests for a 600m band grabber. QRSS
does not seems so prevalent on this band, existing grabbers are poor.
Over the coming months, especially winter time I shall see if
enthusiasm amongst the 600m band improves. If not then I wont
bother.
Radovan
OK1FCX,
a keen QRSS'er and software man has written a small
script file
for use with WGET. I have tested it on my Linux Mint 18.3 machine as a
once off an it seems to work. You need to right click the properties
and make it executable. The idea is to add it to a crontab and let it
run automatically. Both end user and QRSS grabber compendium operators
could adapt it accordingly. It also ensures that .jpg gets correctly
added to each filename, unlike my own wget script file, that adds a
serial number to each grab. Thanks Rad !
Possibly a new QRSS project ? I had an idea, the use of a syndicated QRSS grabber list for
lazy QRSS Grabber Compendium websites. It's NOT meant to be a be all
and end all solution, but only something to assist compendium websites
of some form of automated list, or manaually edited list to ensure that
grabber compendiums do not go out of date quickly. Other
ideas
include a simple RSS style feed for display on compendium sites, for
grabber news or propagation events. Further democratisation could be
multiple lists hosted by others and combined ? This stuff is up to
enterprising compendium website owners, I'm just an idea man and a list
maker ;-) We
need more compendium / list makers ! Our community relies upon only a
few people to run websites and lists and it is fragile. If an ISP or
site goes down, we have little back up. Please consider helping.
A new
experimental grabber compendium is being tested by Henry W6REK. This
compendium has a unique feature of combining the days grabs and turning
them into an animation. You can see the website here -
http://yak.net:7899/
General
QRSS synopsis 2018.Things
are looking very good for this part of the hobby. Despite the lack of
sunspots, developments are taking place with new grabber software such
as QRSSPig by Martin Herren for
Linux, an all band super grabber from Dave WA5DJJ
and LOTS of transmission activity from QRSS'ers. All this interest is
bucking the trend. You can follow the latest news over here Knights
QRSS group Dave
is hoping to provide grabbers for the Lowfer, Medfer and Hifer
community asap.
The
following text below comes from Eddie G3ZJO who has been working
with QSL.NET to make sure that grabber files are passed without undue
delay to the
outside world. So when you use your grabber software, e.g. Argo or QRSS
Pig, Lopora etc you MUST use the following filenames.
There
have been some changes at QSL.net recently. Your Grabs uploaded are
not being updated properly on your Grabber. This is due to
the
caching of all files on the Server. The team at QSL.net have come
up with a solution. The filenames used must have a special
EXCEPTION. This can't be done for individual files so we have agreed
a standard set which should prove adequate for all users. All
you
need to do is to change your image file name to one of the following in
the range :-
vlf1.jpg to vlf9.jpg
lf1.jpg to lf9.jpg
mf1.jpg to mf9.jpg
hf1.jpg to hf9.jpg
vhf1.jpg to vhf9.jpg
uhf1.jpg to uhf9.jpg
Also, here's a link to SEQUENCEDOWNLOADER
Handy for collecting all the screen grabs from various QRSS grabbers to
your hard disk. Select new, copy and
paste the link to the grabber picture and away you go !
An
alternative for both the Linux and Windows world is to use the WGET
command. WGET
SCRIPT
WGET
is included in just about every Linux distro - if not then download it.
There is a Windows verson available too. Life is easy with
WGET.
Please visit Scott Harden's
excellent grabber compendium here - Grabber compendium
Or pay a visit to my own QRSS and QRP dedicated site here - G0FTD's site