I attended Pacificon this year. My primary role was in the MMDVM booth answering questions about the MMDVM Project. I also learned about some interesting products and projects. This is the goal of this post, to share these things with you.

MMDVM

In the MMDVM booth we were showing some new and existing hardware.

Semtech SX1255

All current MMDVM hotspots use the Analog Devices ADF7021 RF chip. This chip has worked well for the project so far, but there are a couple of issues. This chip has been flagged as end-of-life. The other issue is around how it works. It is a digital mode only chip, meaning it doesn’t support analog FM nor does is support more complex modes like Tetra.

The SX1255 is an I/Q style chip and is full duplex. This will allow a standard hotspot to support analog and other, more complex, digital modes. At Pacificon we were showing this chip producing various wave forms on a spectrum analyzer. Which was fairly significant since we only had about a week between receiving the board and Pacificon.

This was shown as a prototype, but work is already underway to design the new Pi HAT board.

Transcoder

The transcoder is something we talked about as an idea last year. This year we showed both the prototype hardware and a likely candidate for the final hardware.

The transcoder project will allow you to plug in a flash drive sized device into one of the USB ports on a Raspberry Pi 3/4/5 based hotspot and get any mode to any mode transcoding. For example, if you are using a Fusion radio you can use a DGID to select which mode your signal gets transcoded to and where that transmission will go.

You could configure DGID 1 to connect with D-STAR Reflector 01C, or DGID 2 for DMR talkgroup 91. Other modes will have similar capabilities.

MQTT

We also showed an MQTT demonstration. In this case we showed a hotspot with no display and an M5Stack connected by Wi-Fi as the display. This is just one of the many ways MQTT can be used going forward.

Meshtastic

There was a Meshtastic booth at Pacificon this year, but there was no one at the booth when I went to talk with them. On the Pacificon page, there were instructions showing how to configure your Meshtastic device for the show. This allowed everyone to chat while there. I think this is something all hamfests should do. https://www.pacificon.org/events/meshtastic

STIV.com

Stiv Ostenberg, K9STV was at the show. I listened to his talk last year and he started an interesting project. He created a web page of resources for the new, lapsed, or frustrated ham. On it he lists nets, clubs, mail lists, and videos. The intent is to make it easy for hams to find clubs in their area and to join in on nets. He also has resources that might help a new ham get started.

He also created what he calls the MasterHam Project. Here there is a large collection of resources a ham might find interesting (like cheat sheets, radio programming instructions, links for software, and more).

If you think a page like this would be helpful for the hams in your area, take the bull by the horns and make it happen. That is what Stiv did, he didn’t as permission, didn’t wait to coordinate anything, he just did it. I think we need more of that in the ham community. https://stiv.com

Open.Space

Open.Space was created by an ex-Starlink employee. Using his knowledge of phased array antennas he is creating a series of antenna modules that can be used for everything from local communications to Earth-Moon-Earth communications.

His panels operate in the C-Band (4.9 to 6gHz). The smallest panel has four antennas, the medium sized antenna has 72 antennas, and the largest is 240 antennas. The larger antennas have the 4-antenna modules mounted in a frame to create the larger arrays. They have an interesting way of distributing power without having to make connected to each 4-antenna unit.

Use cases they talked about include repeater backhaul, EME, and radio astronomy. They also mentioned operation of this band is included in the Tech license…so any ham can take advantage of it. https://open.space/

Buddipole

I was sitting next to the Buddipole booth and learned a lot by overhearing the various conversations. And there were a couple of things I thought were interesting.

The first interesting thing is their Masterworks tripod. Initially, this looked like a regular, albeit beefy, tripod. But, it has a trick up it’s sleeve. Inside the collar at the top of the tripod is a worm gear assembly that will rotate the mast using the included crank handle. This is great for their BuddiHex antenna.

This is great on its own, but they were also showing an upcoming product. A motorized rotator that can be mount on the tripod instead of the crank. This is a small unit that is incredibly quiet. You operate it using a phone app and they have some interesting features in the app.

The rotator has an electronic compass module that orients the rotator, so you don’t have to worry about pointing things in a specific direction during setup. Beyond that, the app allows you to do things like selecting a continent or a grid square and it will auto-aim the antenna for you.

The other new product being shown is the VHF version of the BuddiHex antenna. This antenna covers 2m-12m and is about half the size of the HF version. https://www.buddipole.com/

Drone Scan 3D

This company sells a two part unit that couples a drone mounted receiver with a PTT switch on the ground. This allows you to fly the drone around the antenna at different heights to collect signal strength readings. When done collecting readings you will be able to see both the horizontal and vertical radiation pattern of your antenna.

The include a roll of transformer wire and instructions for creating loop antennas for different bands. https://www.ebay.com/itm/146873523871

Long Island CW Club

I spent some time talking with this group about how their approach differs from CW Ops. They claim to use a more friendly approach and work to get people on the air with CW sooner…before they are fully fluent with CW. The idea is to show people they are probably do better than they think they can. I know a lot of people have done well with them in the past.

They do ask that you become a member, mostly to help them pay their Zoom bill. It is $30/yr or $90 for a lifetime membership. Seems like a good deal to me. https://longislandcwclub.org/

Zero Retries

If you aren’t getting the Zero Retries newsletter I suggest you do. At the show I was able to sit down with Steve and his wife Tina. Steve has broad interests and likes to write about them, his weekly newsletter does a good job of covering the amateur community. He is very interested in using hilltop repeaters for more than voice. He’s like them to handle data and voice at the same time. Check his newsletter for more. https://www.zeroretries.org/

AREDN and Ha-Low

There is a 2017 standard for Wi-Fi that supports mesh networking on 900mHz. Ha-Low is also know as 802.11ah. While this is an older standard, hardware has just recently started to show up. AREDN has jumped on this and now supports several radios to expand their network. 900mHz, when compared to 2.4gHz and 5.4gHz, is better able to penetrate buildings and foliage, it also has a 1 mile line-of-site range. This equipment is small and can be used to move data from one place to another at good speeds (300-500 mb/s). It can be used portable or mobile as well as fixed. I think it opens a lot of possibilities. Oh, and the hardware is not expensive. https://wcaredn.ca/next_steps/halow

Closing

That is about it for my reflections on Pacificon 2025. I wasn’t able to attend any seminars this time, hopefully next year. My next hamfest will probably be Yuma (https://www.yumahamfest.com/).