USING RASPBERRY Pi on MOTOROLA RADIOS

For many years hams have been using Motorola commercial radios modified for amateur radio use. Since the commercial changeover to narrow-b

and some years ago a great deal of the now unusable commercial equipment is now available to the amateur community with Africa(specifically east and central Africa ). One of the sticking points of using these radios has been the programming which required access to the software and more importantly a computer and hardware that was able to do it. It was widely accepted that you would need an old slow computer with a dedicated ser

ial port to do this and trying anything else either did not work or was very finicky. Most would either not have the software or proper hardware. Because of this,i have tried to implemented a novel approach that should work consistently using a Raspberry Pi for all my east and central africa people, the hamvoip software, and a couple of inexpensive cables. This works on the hamvoip Archlinux installation and can be used in conjunction with a running Allstar system in fact I have used a node on the same server while I was programming without any problems. This also could add the ability to program a radio at a remote site without being there.

The ham voip programming package uses dosbox a program t

o simulate MSDOS. The Raspberry Pi is an excellent platform to do this as it is readily available and provides a consistent environment to run the code. Because it was not desirable to install the entire graphics package in the hamvoip installation, which would be necessary to run DOSBOX directly on the Pi, we instead do X11 forwarding to an X11 server where the program is displayed. The Motorola programming packages run under this MSDOS environment. All timings and configurations have been preset and so far have worked with all tested radios. Be aware that this uses a supplied custom compiled dosbox which works with the FTDI controller to supply the required custom baudrates that the Motorola radios require.

You could remotely program a radio at a distant site using these methods.Some users may want to use a dedicated non-Allstar Pi to do the programming. It is cheap enough to dedicate another Pi. You can disable the loading of Allstar by commenting the “/usr/local/etc/rc.allstar” line in /etc/rc.local. Putting a # at the beginning of this line comments it. In addition you can disable the Admin menu by commenting the “exec /usr/local/sbin/admin.sh” line in /root/.bash_profile. It is the last line in the file. Reboot after making these changes. When you login to your programming Pi you will now go directly to the Linux prompt where you can type “dosbox”

The application works equally well on a Pi2 although noticeably slower. A good use for your old Pi2’s.

Felt like sharing to uplift the lives of my people as we strive day in day out to make our EMEA region better……The next tech revolution is coming from my mother continent.

Author:Samwel Kariuki

14th Nov 2019

Enabling Kenya’s Clean Energy Drive

Building information modeling needs to support Kenya’s ambitious clean energy development plans to position the nation as a leading global player in major energy infrastructure projects across Africa.

Kenya’s energy sector is undergoing a radical transformation driven by policies engendered by the country’s vision 2030 and the big 4 agendas at hand. Although we are still in our nascent stages in

renewable energy installations, Kenya is accelerating its shift to more efficient and less polluting power technologies, such as nuclear hopefully by 2024. This domestic transition is also underway with a view to export markets for energy technology, as we aim to stamp our authority on the global energy sector.

Drive for Efficiency, Reliability, and Stability

Giant hydro projects like the gitaru, kindaruma and kiambere are relatively well known even outside of Kenya, but to deliver that nationalmandate; we need to see many renewable energy projects being built. Now, projects are also increasingly being focused on expanding Kenya’s clean energy capacity by enabling other types of low-emission energy production. One key technology that can support variable output renewables like wind and solar is pumped storage hydropower. Pumped storage forms a major plank of Kenya’s future energy complex because it is able to respond to variations in supply and demand in just a few seconds.

Demands for Efficient Design

Large infrastructure projects and the growing complexity of modern, more distributed, and variable energy networks is evidently placing increasing demands  on us the designers and developers of energy infrastructure.  Building information modeling (BIM) is a relatively new concept to the energy industry here in Kenya that can make a dramatic impact on such developments. BIM methodology is an intelligent model-based process that integrates all relevant information required for planning, design, construction, and operation.

Efficiency is an important aspect in the industry, with Kenyan power producers looking for ways to cut costs. Using a BIM approach will cut down capital costs as well as reduce design and construction times, helping these Kenyan power producers meet their goals. While major engineering projects like large hydropower installations can benefit from BIM, more distributed renewable energy generation projects can also take advantage of the benefits it offers. And, although increasing power demand will see far more thermal capacity built in Kenya over the coming decade, efficiency and specific outputs ofemissions like NOx and SOx per unit of energy produced will likely improve through the deployment of combined heat and power (CHP) and technologies such as supercritical and ultra-supercritical steam condition power plants. While modern thermal plants are incredibly efficient and much cleaner than their predecessors, combined heat and power applications are the most energy efficient and therefore produce the maximum usable energy for each kilogramme of pollution emitted. As Kenyan engineers, there needs to bring real effort in boosting the use of CHP energy technologies as a result.

**Find attached 2017-2037 Kenya’s Power Development Plans.**