Raspberry Pi bareback LF/MF/HF/VHF CW (Morse code) transmitter Makes a very simple Morse Code transmitter from your RasberryPi by connecting GPIO port 4 to Antenna (and LPF). Operates on LF, MF, HF and VHF bands from 0 to 250 MHz. Compatible with the original Raspberry Pi, the Raspberry Pi 2/3, and the Pi Zero. ****** Installation / update: ****** Simple instructions (see BUILD file for more information): sudo apt-get install git git clone https://github.com/JamesP6000/PiCW.git cd PiCW make Note that compiling takes about 60 seconds on the RPi v1! Install to /usr/local/bin: sudo make install Uninstall: sudo make uninstall ****** Example usage: ****** Brief help screen ./PiCW --help Send the Morse code message "TEST DE N9NNN" on carrier frequency 10.140 MHz using the default rate of 20 WPM: sudo ./PiCW --freq 10.140e6 TEST DE N9NNN Transmit an endless series of dits at 60 WPM. Can be used to measure the worst case frequency domain performance of the transmitter. sudo ./PiCW --freq 10.140e6 --ditdit --wpm 60 Transmit a continuous tone at 10.140 MHz sudo ./PiCW --freq 10.140e6 --test-tone ****** "PiCW --help" output: ****** Usage: PiCW [options] "text to send in Morse code" Options: -h --help Print out this help screen. -f --freq f Specify the frequency to be used for the transmission. -w --wpm w Specify the transmission speed in Words Per Minute (default 20 WPM). -p --ppm ppm Known PPM correction to 19.2MHz RPi nominal crystal frequency. -s --self-calibration Call NTP periodically to obtain the PPM error of the crystal (default). -n --no-self-cal Do not use NTP to correct frequency error of RPi crystal. -d --ditdit Transmit an endless series of dits. Can be used to measure TX spectrum. -t --test-tone Continuously transmit a test tone at the requested frequency. ****** Radio licensing / RF: ****** In order to transmit legally, a HAM Radio License is REQUIRED for running this experiment. The output is a square wave so a low pass filter is REQUIRED. Connect a low-pass filter (via decoupling C) to GPIO4 (GPCLK0) and a ground pin of your Raspberry Pi, then connect an antenna to the LPF. The GPIO4 and GND pins are found on header P1 pin 7 and 9 respectively, the pin closest to P1 label is pin 1 and its 3rd and 4th neighbour is pin 7 and 9 respectively. See this link for pin layout: http://elinux.org/RPi_Low-level_peripherals Examples of low-pass filters can be found here: http://www.qrp-labs.com/LPF http://www.qrp-labs.com/ULPF http://www.gqrp.com/harmonic_filters.pdf TAPR makes a very nice shield for the Raspberry Pi that is pre-assembled, performs the appropriate filtering for the 20m band, and also increases the power output to 100mW (+20dBm)! Just connect your antenna and you're good-to-go! https://www.tapr.org/kits_20M-wspr-pi.html The expected power output is 10mW (+10dBm) in a 50 Ohm load. This looks neglible, but when connected to a simple dipole antenna this may result in reception reports ranging up to several thousands of kilometers. As the Raspberry Pi does not attenuate ripple and noise components from the 5V USB power supply, it is RECOMMENDED to use a regulated supply that has sufficient ripple supression. Supply ripple might be seen as mixing products centered around the transmit carrier typically at 100/120Hz. DO NOT expose GPIO4 to voltages or currents that are above the specified Absolute Maximum limits. GPIO4 outputs a digital clock in 3V3 logic, with a maximum current of 16mA. As there is no current protection available and a DC component of 1.6V, DO NOT short-circuit or place a resistive (dummy) load straight on the GPIO4 pin, as it may draw too much current. Instead, use a decoupling capacitor to remove DC component when connecting the output to dummy loads, transformers, antennas, etc. DO NOT expose GPIO4 to electro- static voltages or voltages exceeding the 0 to 3.3V logic range. Connecting an antenna directly to GPIO4 may damage your RPi due to transient voltages such as lightning or static buildup as well as RF from other transmitters operating into nearby antennas. Therefore it is RECOMMENDED to add some form of isolation, e.g. by using a RF transformer, a simple buffer/driver/PA stage, two schottky small signal diodes back to back. In transmitting Morse code, the CW carrier must be turned on and off. To avoid abruptly turning the carrier on and off, the drive strength of the GPIO pin used for transmission is gradually increased from 0 to 16ma with the idea being that this will reduce the frequency spurs created. Specifically, the current is increased up to maximum current by following the shape of a raised cosine curve. Furthermore, a random amount of time domain jitter is added to the turn on and turn off ramps to again reduce the spurs created by the turn on/ off transients. ****** Calibration: ****** As of 2017-02, NTP calibration is enabled by default and produces a frequency error of about 0.1 PPM after the Pi has temperature stabilized and the NTP loop has converged. Frequency calibration is HIGHLY recommended to ensure that your transmissions lie within the CW band you are targetting. NTP calibration: NTP automatically tracks and calculates a PPM frequency correction. If your Pi is connected to the internet and you are running NTP, you can use the --self-calibration option to have PiCW periodically querry NTP for the latest frequency correction. Some residual frequency error may still be present due to delays in the NTP measurement loop. This method works best if your Pi has been on for a long time, the crystal's temperature has stabilized, and the NTP control loop has converged. AM calibration: A practical way to calibrate is to tune the transmitter on the same frequency of a medium wave AM broadcast station. Keep tuning until you zero beat (the constant audio tone disappears when the transmitter is exactly on the same frequency as the broadcast station), and determine the frequency difference with the broadcast station. This is the frequency error that can be applied for correction while tuning on a WSPR frequency. Suppose your local AM radio station is at 780kHz. Use the --test-tone option to produce different tones around 780kHz (eg 780100 Hz) until you can successfully zero beat the AM station. If the zero beat tone specified on the command line is F, calculate the PPM correction required as: ppm=(F/780000-1)*1e6 In the future, specify this value as the argument to the --ppm option on the command line. ****** PWM Peripheral: ****** The code uses the RPi PWM peripheral to time the frequency transitions of the output clock. This peripheral is also used by the RPi sound system and hence any sound events that occur during transmission will interfere with CW transmissions. Sound can be permanently disabled by editing /etc/modules and commenting out the snd-bcm2835 device. ****** Reference documentation: ****** http://www.raspberrypi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/BCM2835-ARM-Peripherals.pdf http://www.scribd.com/doc/127599939/BCM2835-Audio-clocks http://www.scribd.com/doc/101830961/GPIO-Pads-Control2 https://github.com/mgottschlag/vctools/blob/master/vcdb/cm.yaml https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vm/pagemap.txt ****** History/Credits: ****** Credits go to Oliver Mattos and Oskar Weigl who implemented PiFM based on the idea of exploiting RPi DPLL as FM transmitter. http://www.icrobotics.co.uk/wiki/index.php/Turning_the_Raspberry_Pi_Into_an_FM_Transmitter Dan MD1CLV combined this effort with WSPR encoding algorithm from F8CHK, resulting in WsprryPi a WSPR beacon for LF and MF bands. https://github.com/DanAnkers/WsprryPi Guido PE1NNZ extended this effort with DMA based PWM modulation of fractional divider that was part of PiFM, allowing to operate the WSPR beacon also on HF and VHF bands. In addition time-synchronisation and double amount of power output was implemented. https://github.com/threeme3/WsprryPi James Peroulas AB0JP added several command line options, a makefile, improved frequency generation precision, and a self calibration feature where the code attempts to derrive frequency calibration information from an installed NTP deamon. https://github.com/JamesP6000/WsprryPi Michael Tatarinov for adding a patch to get PPM info directly from the kernel. James Peroulas AB0JP created PiCW. https://github.com/JamesP6000/PiCW Retzler András (HA7ILM) for the massive changes that were required to incorporate the mailbox code so that the RPi2 and RPi3 could be supported.