KD5FMU

Episode 543 – Fred McGuire – KD5FMU

Fred “Freddy” McGuire, KD5FMU, discovered amateur radio almost by accident while serving as a deputy sheriff in rural eastern Oklahoma, where his department needed better communications on a limited budget. Amateur radio, along with linking technologies such as EchoLink and later AllStarLink, offered possible solutions and opened the door to a much larger interest in the hobby. Freddy embraced amateur radio, shares what he learns through his Ham Radio Crusader YouTube channel, and is always willing to lend a hand or speak at a local hamfest. KD5FMU is my QSO Today.

Show Notes

Transcript

Listen to Podcast

People

Freddy McGuire, KD5FMU YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@HamRadioCrusader
Doug Crompton, WA3DSP — Developer of the HamVoIP AllStarLink software distribution; past QSO Today guest — https://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/wa3dsp
Jason Johnston, KC5HWB — Creator of the “Ham Radio 2.0” amateur radio YouTube channel — https://www.youtube.com/@HamRadio2

Clubs & Organizations

Tulsa Amateur Radio Club (TARC/W5IAS) — Oldest amateur radio club in Oklahoma, founded 1924 — https://w5ias.com/
Tulsa Repeater Organization — Non-profit club maintaining a shared amateur radio repeater system in Tulsa — http://www.tulsahamradio.org/
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) — Foundation funding amateur radio and digital communication projects, incl. AllStarLink 3 — https://www.ardc.net/

Equipment & Manufacturers

Kenwood TS-440S — HF all-mode amateur transceiver, 160–10 meters, 100W output — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzkLBBwVM6s
Yaesu DR-2X — Dual-band C4FM/FM digital-analog repeater used for AllStarLink node integration — https://systemfusion.yaesu.com/dr-2x-2/
Baofeng — Chinese manufacturer of low-cost handheld amateur radios used in AllStarLink node builds — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baofeng_(company)
Raspberry Pi — Single-board computer commonly used to run AllStarLink/HamVoIP nodes — https://www.raspberrypi.com/
G5RV antenna — Multiband HF wire antenna invented by Louis Varney, G5RV — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G5RV_antenna
Ham Radio Outlet — Amateur radio equipment retailer; Plano, TX location visited to buy a Yaesu HF rig — https://www.hamradio.com/

Software, Modes & Networks

AllStarLink (ASL/ASL3) — VoIP-linked amateur radio repeater and node network based on Asterisk — https://www.allstarlink.org/
HamVoIP — Raspberry Pi-based AllStarLink software distribution maintained by Doug Crompton — https://hamvoip.org/
EchoLink — VoIP-based amateur radio linking system connecting radios via the Internet — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EchoLink
Meshtastic — Open-source LoRa-based off-grid mesh messaging platform — https://meshtastic.org/
MeshCore — LoRa-based off-grid mesh communications platform, an alternative to Meshtastic — https://meshcore.io/
FT8 — Popular weak-signal HF digital operating mode developed for WSJT-X — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FT8

The RSS Feed for all audio content from QSO today is available from here.

Please join our QSO Today community by pressing the button below. It is the best way to suggest guests and topics, and provide feedback to Eric, 4Z1UG.