WIN10 HAM SHACK USB
OFFLINE WINDOWS HAM SHACK FOR SHTF ON THREE USB STICKS
One of the most important pieces of HF operations is the PC used for digital modes, there is really no getting around it, but how many of you KNOW you can restore/repair your OS without the internet? I certainly didn’t until now.
It’s one thing to think you can, it’s another to actually format your HD and know you can!
A little backstory to this experiment is that I was given an old Win8 “All in One” monitor/PC from work and thus made plans to get a persistent HAM Shack up by using it instead of my “daily driver” (a Surface Go 2 w/ Win10) which I have been having to move to the shack when wanting to operate on air.
The small laptop is easy enough to move back and forth, but it would be much nicer to have a dedicated computer in the shack if for nothing else, being able to keep JS8Call up and running 24/7.
When I went to put Win10 on the machine I found out that the free upgrade option was no longer being offered by Microsoft and that it would cost $100 to get a licensed copy, another $99 to have it installed at the local computer store.
Long story short, they talked me out of it when they said they had an i7-4600M at 2.89 Ghz ThinkPad with 16GB Ram, 1TB SSD Drive and Win10 Pro on it for $250.00… SOLD!
So now the ThinkPad is going to be my main HAM Shack computer, the Surface Go 2 will be my Field device with a Digirig and FT-817 or the G90 if I get the XPA-125B to work with the 5W Yaesu to work as a base unit capable of 100W output, allowing me to have 20W in the field with the G90 for reliable NVIS.
Since I had a fresh computer that was completely updated, the first order of business was to make a RECOVERY DRIVE for it before installing any software. Then I installed JS8Call and used the recovery drive to roll the image back to a preinstalled version to make sure the RECOVERY DRIVE worked offline.
I don’t know if it matters, but I made sure that Win10 was completely updated before making the RECOVERY DRIVE was created, the laptop was then “air-gaped” from the internet to see how well it would function in a grid-down scenario.
MY THREE USB BACKUP SOLUTION
This is the first attempt to have a complete Ham Shack on three USB devices, one for the OS (Operating system restore, Win10 Pro in this case) one for Win10 Updates and Drivers, and another with all the HAM software for operating digital in a grid down scenario.
Initially this was going to be a Linux Mint install, but several issues arose with using the HAM software on Mint again, the reason I left it for Win10 several years ago.
Linux Mint installs beautifully without the internet off a USB, but is nowhere near as nice when it comes to “just working” with HAM software as Win10 is.
INSTALLING WIN10 (USB1)
Since Win10 has been discontinued it important to get their .ISO file ASAP to make a bootable USB with. You can DOWNLOAD IT HERE , I suggest using the Media Creation Tool to make a bootable USB, over the .ISO and having to use another program to make the USB bootable.
I’m not 100% sure what the difference is. I’m not a computer geek by any means, just a poor end consumer trying to keep up, but I went with the Media Creation Tool
This will allow a fresh install on any box that has a license built in or a product key, usually built into the PC Chip’s bios.
Which is what I did. I then wiped the Win10 install on the Thinkpad and installed the base version of Win10 onto it from the USB made from the media maker.
UPDATING WIN10 (USB2)
The problem with any OS though is the constant updates to the base install and the need to recover them from an online source. That’s not an issue when the grid is up, but without the internet what are you going to do?
Enter Portable Update, a easy to use piece of free software to get all the updates needed on a USB to be used off grid.
UPDATING DRIVERS
Once the Win10 install is done and OS updates provided via Portable Update, the next issue is having the correct drivers for the hardware and software you will need to run.
There are a few methods to do this, but the simplest method and only one I found to work was a paid version ($49.95 for 6 months) of WinRiser as reviewed at TechPout.
It allows you to put it on several machines and I will likely keep it as an anti-virus and performance tool on my EDC computers after the initial 6 months is up, time will tell.
For the ease of a onetime use, I was not sorry I paid the $49.95 price tag though after having tried a few others.
COLLECTION OF SOFTWARE & DOCUMENTS (USB3)
Below is a tree view of Folders on the USB I used to create a backup for restoration in off-grid conditions. This is a 128GB drive and will be added to in the future.
├───DOCUMENTS
│ ├───CRITICAL DOCS SCANS
│ ├───HAM DOCS
│ │ └───SOI
│ ├───MAPS
│ │ ├───FREE TOPO MAPS
│ │ └───MY CUSTOM AO MAPS
│ └───PREP
├───HAM SOFTWARE
│ ├───ENCRYPTION
│ ├───FLDIGI
│ ├───FREQ PROGRAMMING
│ │ ├───CHIRP
│ │ ├───FT-70D ADMS-10 EXP
│ │ └───MCP-D700
│ ├───JS8CALL
│ ├───MODE ID
│ │ └───Digital Signals
│ ├───SDR
│ ├───SOUNDMODEM
│ ├───TIME SYNC
│ │ └───BKTimeSync
│ └───WSJTX
├───MISC SOFTWARE
│ ├───DIGIRIG DRIVERS
│ ├───LIBREOFFICE
│ ├───OBSIDIAN
IN CLOSING
The point of this post is not to be a “how to” on creating an offline HAM Shack, but to provide some food for thought concerning restoring a digital mode computer without internet access.
I hope it’s helped you to think about something we take for granted.