Congratulations to Dave and Michael

Bob KN4HH

Congratulations to Michael Walker, VA3MW and Dave DeCoons, WO2X for winning the September 2021 QST Cover Plaque Award Node Red for Ham Radio.

You have made tremendous contributions to the effort which I have personally benefited from.

73, Bob, KN4HH

David Decoons, wo2x

Hi Bob. Thanks!

Node Red is a blast. I am also receiving the ARRL Hudson Division Technical Achievement award this weekend in addition to the cover plaque for the article.

I’ve been helping others around the world, making friends in the process :-)

73

Dave wo2x

Mike-VA3MW

Thanks Bob

I am honoured to be working Dave on this who actually did about 98% of the work on that article. I am humbled.

73

KD0RC

Great job! It is so cool to get an article published in QST. It is out of this world cool to get a Cover Plaque Award!!

David Decoons, wo2x

Len,

you should do an article for the Teensy Maestro. That is a very cool project! That would really be great in QEX. I’d vote for it :-) You’ve put quite a bit of effort into it and the latest front panel looks great.

The fact that Flex exposed an API for us to be able to further our experimentation has made it fun.

A lot of people do not realize my start in Node Red started while laying in a hospital bed looking for a way to be able to turn equipment on & off remotely. My radio locked up at 1 a.m. one night when I couldn’t sleep. Called my wife to reset it. She was NOT happy, especially since she needed to get up at 5:30 a.m. for work.

Enter Andreas, N6NU who was doing Node Red to graphically control his SteppIR and he had a basic interface to the Flex. Andreas got Mike involved and Mike wrote a flow for his KPA500 amp. I took their info and started to adapt it to my needs.

It has really taken off and some larger contest stations are looking at Node Red for ways to help simplify control during contests. Antenna selection, stack control, etc. with contest stations doing multi/single and multi/multi remote due to the pandemic, Node Red fills the need to integrate various equipment to a single web based dashboard. It is relatively inexpensive and versatile.

One thing I have done recently is integrate the Stream Deck with Node Red and also leverage Mark, W3II’s FRStack. FRStack handles the Stream Deck to radio commands and Node Red handles the Stream Deck to rotor, amp, tuner, and power distribution control. I can use the Stream Deck plugged in a laptop when remote from the station.

There are a lot of good articles in QST and QEX. I enjoy looking at how hams come up with solutions to various problems to make their operating more enjoyable.

This is the nice thing about the hobby. Something for everybody.

73

Dave wo2x

KD0RC

Thanks Dave, I appreciate that thought. Well, I submitted an article on the TeensyMaestro and got a pretty rude rejection letter from QST. I have had things published and things rejected by QST in the past, but I have never seen such a poorly presented rejection before. I think it is a reflection of the ARRL being a large (ish) corporation.

In the meantime, I did a presentation to our local club (Boulder Amateur Radio Club) about the TeensyMaestro and posted a video of it out on YouTube. Hopefully, that will stimulate some interest in lieu of the QST or QEX article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgxz7fvicRo