K3CAN

Not much of a post here, but I figured I share an issue I've encountered with my Google Pixel 8 Pro.

A few weeks ago, my Pixel phone started reporting "no connection" and prompting to "insert SIM card."  I first tired removing the SIM card and cleaning it with some IPA, and then doing some common "fixes", such as resetting the network settings and toggling airplane mode on and off.  I did find that rebooting the phone entirely would remedy the problem temporarily, but that it would return hours or even mere minutes later.

I then began trying more drastic measures... I first requested an eSIM from my carrier. I thought that perhaps the SIM reader may have been physically damaged in some way, and thought that an eSIM might be the solution. Bizarrely, my carrier insisted that only iPhones support eSIMs and refused to provide me with an eSIM code to use, even after I explained that the Pixel phones do, in fact, support eSIMs (and have supported them even before Apple hardware did).  I was considering changing carriers, anyway, so I figured this was a good time to finally switch.  I signed up with a new carrier and received my new eSIM code right away.

I was expecting that I had finally found the solution to the problem, and was quite disappointed when a few hours after switching, I was greeted by the same "insert SIM" messages and lack of service.  

Now that it was clearly not a SIM issue, I started digging a little deeper. Enabling ADB, I was able to pull system logs from the phone via logcat. I found that there appeared to be a number of errors surrounding the cellular modem, which I suspect are responsible for the sudden connectivity issues. 

Here are the logs:

11-19 06:52:23.274 24777 24784 I modem_svc: State Monitor: Modem state changed from BOOTING to OFFLINE
11-19 06:52:23.287   949  1017 I modem_ml_svc: Poll timeout. interval=3000
11-19 06:52:23.288   949  1017 I modem_ml_svc: Modem state changed from 3 to 0
11-19 06:52:26.278 24777 24784 I modem_svc: Poll timeout. interval=3000
11-19 06:52:26.278 24777 24784 I modem_svc: State Monitor: Modem state changed from OFFLINE to BOOTING
11-19 06:52:26.290   949  1017 I modem_ml_svc: Poll timeout. interval=3000
11-19 06:52:26.290   949  1017 I modem_ml_svc: Modem state changed from 0 to 3
11-19 06:52:29.282 24777 24784 I modem_svc: Poll timeout. interval=500
11-19 06:52:29.294   949  1017 I modem_ml_svc: Poll timeout. interval=3000
11-19 06:52:32.288 24777 24784 I modem_svc: Poll timeout. interval=500
11-19 06:52:32.298   949  1017 I modem_ml_svc: Poll timeout. interval=3000
11-19 06:52:34.816  1089  1089 I cbd     : Picking unzipped modem image from /mnt/vendor/modem_img/images/default//modem.bin
11-19 06:52:34.816  1089  1089 I cbd     : Binary type specified path /mnt/vendor/modem_img/images/default//modem.bin is selected
11-19 06:52:34.811     1     1 W /system/bin/init: type=1107 audit(0.0:10975): uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=u:r:init:s0 msg='avc:  denied  { set } for property=telephony.ril.modem_bin_status pid=425 uid=0 gid=0 scontext=u:r:vendor_init:s0 tcontext=u:object_r:default_prop:s0 tclass=property_service permissive=0' bug=b/315104235
11-19 06:52:34.819  1089  1089 I cbd     : BIN(/mnt/vendor/modem_img/images/default//modem.bin) opened (fd 0)
11-19 06:52:34.819   425   425 W libc    : Unable to set property "telephony.ril.modem_bin_status" to "4": PROP_ERROR_PERMISSION_DENIED (0x18)
11-19 06:52:34.820  1089  1089 I cbd     : CP binary file = /mnt/vendor/modem_img/images/default//modem.bin
11-19 06:52:34.820  1089  1089 I cbd     : CP REPLAY file = /mnt/vendor/modem_userdata/replay_region.bin
11-19 06:52:34.821  1089  1089 I cbd     : BIN(/mnt/vendor/modem_img/images/default//modem.bin) opened (fd 4)
11-19 06:52:34.823     1     1 W /system/bin/init: type=1107 audit(0.0:10976): uid=0 auid=4294967295 ses=4294967295 subj=u:r:init:s0 msg='avc:  denied  { set } for property=telephony.ril.modem_bin_status pid=425 uid=0 gid=0 scontext=u:r:vendor_init:s0 tcontext=u:object_r:default_prop:s0 tclass=property_service permissive=0' bug=b/315104235
11-19 06:52:34.827   425   425 W libc    : Unable to set property "telephony.ril.modem_bin_status" to "4": PROP_ERROR_PERMISSION_DENIED (0x18)

What you see above just kept repeating.

I don't know very much about Android specifically, but I don't think I should be seeing system processes returning permission errors.  I recall from back in the Nexus days, that the radio images usually had their own separate partition, so I briefly looked into whether I could reflash the radio partition, but I didn't see any factory images available. Perhaps that's not how the devices function any more.

In any case, I ultimately decided that it might just be easier to contact Pixel Support, since my phone is still under warranty.
I chatted with a support agent for a couple minutes and explained my problem and the troubleshooting steps I had tried. Not long after, I had a replacement unit ordered. I received confirmation from FedEx the next day that I had an overnight delivery inbound.  

This isn't the first time that I've had unsolvable issues with a Google phone. In fact, my Nexus 6P, Pixel 7 Pro and my current Pixel 8 Pro will have all been replaced at least once now. The only Google phone that never had an issue was my Pixel 5, which ironically I believe was also the cheapest. That said, Pixel Support has generally been helpful and willing to send a replacement device without much fuss. Their Advanced Exchange program even allows several weeks to transfer things to the replacement device before the old device needs to be sent back. 

I really wish that Essential had made a sequel to the PH1, as that was an excellent phone with a very clean version of Android. In some ways, the PinePhone feels like a bit of a spiritual successor, though, particularly with its expandability potential.   Maybe it'll finally be a viable alternative to the Pixel line for someone who refuses to touch another Samsung phone.     

After being subjected to numerous mean glares from the wife and accusations of "breaking the internet", I think I've got it all configured now...

Ironically, the more "exotic" configuration, like the multiple VPN and VLAN interfaces were pretty simple to set up and worked without much fuss. The part that had me pulling my hair and banging my head against the desk was just trying to get the wifi working on 2.4GHz and 5GHz at the same time... Something wireless routers have been doing flawlessly for over a decade. After enough troubleshooting, googling, and experimenting, though, I had a working router.

I installed AdGuardHome for dns and ad blocking, but kept dnsmasq for DHCP and local rDNS/PRT requests. dsnmasq's DHCP options directs all clients to AGH, and AGH fowards any PTR requests it recessives to dsnmasq.

Next, I installed a Crowdsec bouncer and linked it to my Local Crowdsec Engine. Now, when a scenario is triggered, instead of banning the offending address at the server, it will be blocked at the edge router level instead. 

Lastly I installed and configured SQM (Smart Queue Management), which controls the flow of traffic through the router to the WAN interface. Without this management, the WAN interface buffer can get "bogged down" with heavy traffic loads and cause other devices to experience high latency or even lose their connection entirely. SQM performs automatic network scheduling, active queue management, traffic shaping, rate limiting, and QoS prioritization.

For a comparison, I used waveform to test latency under load.

Before SQM:

====== RESULTS SUMMARY ====== 	
Bufferbloat Grade	C
	
====== RESULTS SUMMARY ====== 	
Mean Unloaded Latency (ms)	51.34
Increase In Mean Latency During Download Test (ms)	76.01
Increase In Mean During Upload Test (ms)	8.69

After SQM:

====== RESULTS SUMMARY ====== 	
Bufferbloat Grade	A
	
====== RESULTS SUMMARY ====== 	
Mean Unloaded Latency (ms)	38.92
Increase In Mean Latency During Download Test (ms)	12.75
Increase In Mean During Upload Test (ms)	1.5

I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the results!
Going from a grade C with a 76 ms increase to a grade A with only a 12.75ms is a pretty substantial difference. This does increase the load on the CPU, but with the BPI R3s quad core processor, I expect that I'll still have plenty of overhead.

Overall, I think I'm happy with the configuration and the BPI R3 itself.

Part 1 is here.

Now that the router is assembled, the next step is to decide where to flash the firmware. As I mentioned in the last post, this device offers a handful of options. Firmware can be flashed to the NOR, NAND, eMMC, or simply run from the SD card. From what I've read, it's not possible to boot from an m.2 card, though. That option is only for mass storage.

After a bit of reading, my decision was ultimately to install to all four!  Sort of...

^{The DIP switches and the leads connecting to the UART}

My plan is to install a "clean" OpenWRT image to both the NOR and NAND.  The NAND image will be fully configured into a working image, and then copied to the eMMC. The eMMC will then be the primary boot device going forward.  If there's a problem with the primary image in the future, I would then have a cascading series of recovery images available. At the flip of a switch, I can revert to the known working image in the NAND, and if that fails, then I can fallback to the perfectly clean image in the NOR.

..And I do mean "at the flip of a switch". Due to the way that the bootable storage options are connected, only 2 of the 4 can be accessed at a time. Switching between NOR/NAND and SD/eMMC requires powering off the BPI and toggling a series of 4 dip switches, as seen on the official graphic below:

Switches A and B determine which device the BPI will attempt to boot from. Switch C sets whether the NOR or NAND will be connected and switch D does  the same for the SD and eMMC. To copy a image from the SD card to the NOR, for example, switch D must be high (1) to access the SD card, and switch C must be low (0) to access the NOR.  Since switches A and B set the boot device independent of which devices are actually connected, it would seem that you could set them to an impossible state to render the device unbootable, like 1110, or 1001. 

To accomplish my desired install state, I had to first write the OpenWRT image to the SD card on a PC, and then insert it into the RPI. With the the switches to 1101, I could write the image from the SD card to the NOR, then flip the switches (with the BPI powered off) to 1111 to copy the image to the NAND. Lastly, I can remove the SD card and reboot with the switches in 1010 to boot from the NAND. Then I'll configure the BPI into my fully configured state. This is the step I'm currently working on. I have it about 80% configured, but will need to actually install it in my network before I can complete and test the remaining 20%.  Once it is installed, tested, and fully configured, I'll  copy the NAND to eMMC, before finally setting the switches to 0110 and booting from the eMMC for ongoing use.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a good opportunity to take my network offline to install the new router, so the last bit of configuration might need to wait a little while...

I posted a while back about online amateur radio logging (here) and wanted to do a follow up on some of the client software I've been using to log contacts and sync to both LOTW and QRZ.

I used to use CQRLOG, which is still a great logger, but it is primarily intended to be installed directly on the PC you're logging from. If you want to view QSOs or add a new entry, you need to have access to that PC.
For greater flexibility, there are now self-hosted server-based logging platforms which allow access from any device with a web browser and internet access, such as Wavelog and Cloudlog. I'm going to refer to Wavelog throughout this post, but the features are similar between them both Wavelog and Cloudlog (the former being a fork of the latter). 

Wavelog is a PHP application intended for a LAMP stack, although it actually works on a variety of systems: more on that at the end.

To start, here's a quick screenshot of the QSO entry, on both desktop and mobile:

At a glance, you can see all of the details of the station as soon as you enter the callsign. If the station has a QRZ profile, it will even display their profile photo!

Once you start building your logs, Wavelog can create a number of reports and analytics based on your logbooks, such as:

Or band usage:

It can also track progress towards awards, such as:

One of the features that I particularly enjoy is that you can upload QSL cards into your logbook, attached to the QSO entry: 

It can also automatically retrieve eQSL cards, as well!  As I mentioned before, Wavelog can sync entries to LOTW, QRZ, eQSL and more, and will show you the confirmation status for each.

If you happen to use Gridtracker, it can log directly to Wavelog. There is also a small helper application which will allow you to log directly from wsjtx and automatically sync your qso entry page to your radio via FLRig (freq, band, etc).

I've been running a Cloudlog server for both myself and my father until about a month or two ago when I switched to Wavelog. The migration from one to the other was fairly straight forward, and the Wavelog wiki provides instructions.  I'm running Wavelog on an Nginx webserver with a MariaDB backend, but there is also a Docker image if you want something simpler.  I did test Cloudlog on a lighttpd server, as well, and encountered no problems.  

So far, I'm happy to report that Wavelog has been quite reliable. The only downtime I've encountered is when I've accidentally broken the webserver itself, and that's certainly not the fault of Wavelog.

If you're looking to try a new logging solution, Wavelog would get a strong recommendation from me.

Check it out at Wavelog.org

Logging amateur radio activity has been around about as long as amateur radio itself. At one time, it was required that all amateur stations kept a log of their activity. Now, it's no longer required, but it is still a very common practice.
Many people enjoy trying to contact a variety of different geographical areas, such as each of the United States, various different countries, or specific zones or grids. The easiest way to keep track of this is with a station log, particularly a modern online logbook.
There are a number of different online log books, but they generally have the same core features. They record your contacts, confirm your contacts, and track awards.

The first part is simple. You enter the station you contacted, the time of the contact, and the frequency or band. The system saves this info and you can review it from any web browser. Many logs will also let you record a little info about yourself, and show you the info added by other users.

The second part, confirmation, is done by cross referencing your log book with the other station's log book. So if I entered into my log that I contacted VE3XYY on 10 Jun, at 17:45, on 40m, the online system will then check the log of VE3XYY to see if he recorded the contact as well. If both stations recorded it, then it's considered "confirmed," commonly called a "QSL."  It's important to note that in order for this confirmation to happen, both stations need to be using the same online log.

Lastly, many online log books also offer an award system. Common awards are "Worked all States," "Worked all Zones," and "DXCC." To earn an award, you must meet the criteria with confirmed contacts. To earn "Worked all States," for example, you must have a confirmed contact with an operator in each of the 50 United States. This is where choosing the right logbook becomes important; because only confirmed contacts count towards these awards, choosing a popular logbook increases the chances that the other station is using the same log, and thus allows for a confirmed contact.   

The three most common online logs seem to be ARRL's Log Book of the World, QRZ.com, and eQSL.

Personally, eQSL is my least favorite. Personally, eQSL is my least favorite. I find the outdated interface to be confusing. While I enjoy the esthetic (see my webpage), it doesn't make for an easy logging experience. eQSL does go a little beyond just recording your logs, though, as the website also allows trading of "electronic QSL cards."  This is fun, but it requires a subscription fee if you want to use a custom card or apply for awards.

The Logbook of the World (LOTW) is the ARRL's official online logbook.  Rather than allowing you to enter contacts directly, it requires you to install a program on your computer, as well as submitting a copy of your FCC license. This is done to prevent fake accounts, but the hassle may also discourage some operators from using the service. I have heard that this system is particularly difficult for operators in other countries, so it may not be a good choice if you intend to make a lot of long distance contacts. LOTW also has an outdated-looking interface. Luckily, since you're required to use a program on your computer to submit contacts, you don't have to actually visit the webpage very often.

QRZ.com is my personal favorite. It has the added bonus of also accepting confirmations made by the Logbook of the World, so it greatly increases your chances of getting a confirmation on a contact. It also has the most modern looking interface of the three, allowing you add and review entries directly on the website, create and view profile pages, and even post messages in an online community. Here's my page. I also believe this is the only site of the three that doesn't charge a fee to apply for awards. It has a full API, as well, so you sync logs from a variety of desktop applications.

You don't have to choose only one, and there are many others out there as well, such a clublog, hamqth, hrdlog, and hamlog. Choosing a popular one is you best chance at receiving "confirmed" contacts, but if you're just logging for your own record, then simply choose the one you find most comfortable.

73!

I've been using a "Gaming" PC headset as a pair of radio headphones since I purchased the headset some time ago, but it's always bothered me that I couldn't use the headset's microphone with my FT-897...
Then I found N1GY's simple schematics for a PC Headset to Yaesu Adaptor! After purchasing a new soldering iron (actually, two; don't Amazon if you're sleep deprived), I snagged the few components I needed from some scrap circuit boards and set to work.
Here's my end result. I used a small enclosure purchased from Radio Shack (before they went out of business), and added a simple red button as a PTT.

It's seems to work quite well, although I needed to reset all of my gain settings. I've also found that a hands-free headset, combined with VOX transmitting, makes for a lovely and simple ham radio experience. My hands are free to type, or I can just lay back and make contacts. Speaking of typing, I plan to cover my logging software and logbooks in a future post.