THE MINUTEMAN HF MICRO KIT

A LOW COST DIGITAL SYSTEM THAT GETS THE MESSAGE THROUGH

WHY SHOULD MINUTEMEN CARE ABOUT HF COMMS?

The first question one should ask before getting into HF radio is “do I need it?”

Of course, the answer is going to be “it depends.”

Ask yourself the following.

• Do you want to be able to communicate with likeminded groups of operators across the United States that see the need for INTEL sharing during hard times when the normal channels are not available or are being manipulated?

• Do you want to gather news from outside the country when there is a media blackout? When Cuba was jamming the HF airwaves in such an attempt to deprive its citizens of outside news, weak signal digital modes like JS8Call were able to get through in spite of the jamming.

• Do you want to communicate in real-time keyboard to keyboard mode (texting) or by Vmail (both JS8Call and VaraAC support leaving messages) with family members 30-2000 miles away without any support infrastructure to rely on? Of course, you will need to build two kits or know a HAM they can get your message from.

Then this package might be just the ticket for you. For less than $500 you can have comms across the nation no matter what the circumstances are and with minimal power requirements.

DISCLAIMER

While the FCC does allow for use of this system in an Emergency, to practice on HF you need to have a General Class Amateur license to be legal. Buy the kit, set it up and work on getting your General at the same time.

MY CURRENT KIT

My current portable HF EMCOMM KIT is based on the Yaesu FT-817 and my Microsoft Surface Go2 laptop that is normally connected to the HAMshack FT-891 24/7 as shown below.

Wanting to have redundancy in the laptop area and be able to power it from 12VDC like the Surface Go2, I started looking at the cheaper Evolve iii Maestro Win10 machines for running HAM software, then I decided to go with a completely new setup for redundancy in a smaller, lighter package.

THE PROPOSED BUILD

My HAM buddy Drew at The Terminal Element channel was the inspiration for my selection of the (tr)uSDX transmitter as I’ve watched him make amazing JS8Call contacts with me using it and he seems impressed with it.

Since I’m going to be learning as I go (and hopefully picking Drew’s brain) about creating my “Contingency Kit” for HF Digital comms very much like the one in the video, I thought I would do a series of posts on the process for others to follow along with or to find after the fact.

This series will take anyone without any radio skills and give them the equipment and skills to make contacts across the United States with Five (5) watts of power using JS8Call and VaraAC on the tr(uSDX) radio.

PARTS LIST

The complete system will come in at around $450.00 if you have nothing to start with, below are the products to consider for the build.

RADIO

• tr usdx transceiver 5-Band usdx Multimode QRP Assembled with case by PE1NNZ and DL2MAN

• https://dl2man.de/where-to-buy-trusdx/ (buy from one of these only, lots of fakes)

USB GPS DONGLE

• VK-162 USB GPS Dongle - Remote Mount USB - External GPS Navigation Dongle - Supports Stratux, Raspberry Pi, Google Earth, Windows, Linux

• HiLetgo VK172 G-Mouse USB GPS/GLONASS USB GPS Receiver for Windows 10/8/7/VISTA/XP

DUMMY LOAD

• BECEN 10W BNC Male Connector Dummy Load, 50 Ohm,DC-3GHz

USB STICKS

• Gorilla Drive: 3.0 Ruggedized 64GB USB Flash Drive (Single)

DIGIRIG

• Digirig Mobile - Digital Modes Interface for Amateur Radio

• Digirig Mobile Cable uSDX, (tr) uSDX radios

• Digirig Coiled Shielded USB-A to USB-C Cable with Ferrites

POWER

• LISEN 95W USB C Fast Car Charger, Dual Port PD 65W Car Charger USB C Fast Charging, Cigarette Lighter Adapter All Metal Fast Charger USB C for iPhone 16 Pro Max 15 14 iPad Samsung Galaxy, Black

PROPOSED CURRICULUM

1. Learn how to create two Master USB drives for system backups and keep them synchronized.

2. Learn how to make a Ventoy install USB with Win10.iso on it to allow re/installing the complete system OFF GRID.

3. Wipe the laptop and use previously created USBs to make a virgin copy that is de-bloated for an “Air-Gapped” comms use only system. Keeping it air-gapped means no worry of viruses, no constant updates. I have ran my Surface Go2 this way for the last year.

4. Download & Install OFFLINE

   1. JS8Call

   2. JS8Spotter

   3. Vara HF

   4. VaraAC

   5. BktimeSync

5. Walk through software settings for the tr(uSDX) radio.

   1. JS8Call

   2. JS8Spotter

   3. Vara HF

   4. VaraAC

   5. BktimeSync for GPS

6. Field deployment

   1. Powering the setup

   2. Setting the system clock

   3. Setting the antenna

   4. Using JS8Call & VaraAC to check messages and leave messages with a second party.

Stay tuned for future posts here on this post as they will not be posted to the front page only to this post.

Or subscribe and they will hit your inbox as they are made.

I expect it will be a few weeks before I have the new kit and can start the build.

If you have suggestions, leave a comment.

SERIES POSTS

---

---