Install Wsprdaemon

1.4.1: Installing OpenSSH to your PC

Optional but recommended

Now once you have OpenSSH installed enter the following command.

It Will then print the following

or with the equivilent filepath on MacOS or Linux to the directory located at ~/.ssh (Note that a . prefix indicated the directory or file is hidden)

The terminal will output something along these lines.

Now type in the following line replacing the path with the path that was listed above on this line Your public key has been saved in C:\Users\Jeremy/.ssh/test.pub

Now copy or take note of the output for use later which will look something like this

Now create a GitHub Account

Once you have created your account go to settings and the tab labeled SSH and GPG keys

Now click the button that says New SSH key

Title it SDR server or something else that can identify the key. Leave the key type as Authentication Key

Under the text box labeled key, enter the line you copied earlier that begins with ssh-ed25519

Then press Add SSH key

Now go back to the SDR server and select the [ Import SSH Key ] option.

Now enter the GitHub username you created (note this is not your email, it is a username you created without spaces)

If you go to your profile it will be under your name as subtext.

Then select Done

You should get a notification with something along the following. Select Yes

This has now preconfigured SSH for the installation.

2.1.1 Network-Manager Terminal UI [nmtui]

The following is the configuration to setup and activate a WPA-2 Enterprise connection, however, depending on your network or personal prefrences it may be easier to use the Terminal User Interface version of network-manager. I will not explain this one as going over the interface is a bit harder to do using text but it may be easier to understand how to use this interface as it is very similar to the one used in the Operating System set up screen from Part 1.

Launch Network-Manager TUI

Otherwise, I recommend following the next steps, which describe using the Network-Manager Command Line Interface.

2.1.2 Network-Manager Command Line Interface [nmcli]

The output should contain a few lines including lo, enp1s0, wlo1, or similar.

Look for the item starting with w which may be wlo0, wlo1, wlan0, wlan1, or similar. This is the Wi-Fi card device ID.

Then enter the following, replacing wlo1 with the Wi-Fi card ID that was on your system, and NJITsecure with the SSID of your Wi-Fi network. (SSID just being the name of the network when it shows up in settings on your computer or phone)

This will open a new shell to edit the network config.

Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD with the username and password you use to login to your network.

Wait a few seconds, then you should get an output stating the connection was successful.

Press any button to go back to the command line. Then, enter quit to exit the configuration shell.

You should now be connected to the Wi-Fi.

If you would also like to add Ethernet as a backup do the following.

Read this document if you have never used vi/vim before. Neovim Guide

Then, edit the text to change the line that says managed=false to managed=true.

Save and quit, then run...

To restart the system.

After logging back in...

Now enter,

This should list the different network devices on your system including one with the type ethernet

In my case this was enp1s0

Then enter,

replacing enp1s0 with your ethernet device ID.

Now you should have both the Ethernet and Wi-Fi as connected wireless interfaces.

2.4.1: Configuring Wsprdaemon

If you are not comfortable with using vim, I would recommend downloading the configuration template from the Wsprdaemon GitHub

Then, editing it in notepad, or textedit on MacOS. (Make sure you are editing it as plaintext)

I used the configuration listed below, however, since I created this documentation before the official documentation I do not know what the official recommendations will be, so HamSCI will likely release a better config in the future.

If you know what you are doing I recommend going through the config template and creating the config yourself as there are, many more features we are not going to use as they are not relevant for the HamSCI PSWS application.

(You can also copy this into notepad/textedit to use if you prefer as well)

On the line SIGNAL_LEVEL_UPLOAD_ID="<Your Callsign>", replace the <Your Callsign> part inside the Quotes with your FCC registered Callsign. If you do not have one as far as I understand it if you are part of a university you can use the callsign registered to your university, or if none at all a short nickname. As we are not transmitting any signals we are not required to have a FCC registered amateur radio licence, however, I am not sure what HamSCI would prefer.

Do the same on the lines here,

As for the <Your Grid> section enter your callsign or address into this website https://levinecentral.com/ham/grid_square.php which will give you a grid square that refers to your global coordinates like FN20vp for NJIT in Newark, NJ.

2.4.2: Setting Up PSWS Account

For these two sections GRAPE_PSWS_ID="<Your Station ID>_<Your Instrument ID>" and GRAPE_PSWS_TOKEN="<TokenFromPSWSsite>", you need to make an account at Personal Space Weather Station Central Control System website. Then create a station in the Station Tab and click the Add New Station button.

Add the station nickname which if you have a FCC callsign, should contain your callsign. If you are a larger organization id recomend adding that as well, eg. NJIT-K2MFF is the nickname for the system we created at NJIT.

Then add the Grid Square which is the same one we added to the configuration file earlier.

Elevation we can get from a barometer if you have one, or the compass app on iPhone will show your altitude, however, I am not sure how accurate it is, so I recommend using a barometer if you have one.

Antenna 1 and Antenna 2, is as far as I understand where you specify what type of antennas you have installed at your site.

The last part is entering your address and contact info.

Then select the View My Stations button under the Stations tab, then take note of the Station ID.

Then select the station, and take note of the Token. (This is the secret key for the server identification and authentication which is why I redacted mine)

Then, select Add New Instrument.

Add a nickname for the Instrument, I named mine RX-888 MK II - Beelink Mini PC to show what SDR I am using, and what the server computer is.

Date instrument added is I believe the date that the server is operational and data coming from the server is accurate, as for example our server was setup and sending data but was not actually connected to our antenna yet, so the data is not good.

Nickname is not required but if you have multiple of the same instruments this will allow you to identify which is which.

Serial number is optional and up to the person installing to add to.

Status is entered to identify if the station is operational or inactive, even if it is connected to the network and sending data.

Instrument Type is where you select the type of radio being used, for the Wsprdaemon we are using a rx888.

Then, add the instrument and take note of the instrument ID.

2.4.3: Finishing the Configuration File

Now go back to the config file and change the GRAPE_PSWS_ID="<Your Station ID>_<Your Instrument ID>" line to the numbers you added.

For example with NJIT's system GRAPE_PSWS_ID="S000194_190".

Then, add the token on the GRAPE_PSWS_TOKEN="<TokenFromPSWSsite>" line. Which will look something like this GRAPE_PSWS_TOKEN="t1q8kx36f18kz8c6g5k9" (Note this is not my token)

The configuration file should look something like this,

Once you have your configuration written, if you would like to directly edit the existing template configuration you can use,

But if you would rather copy and paste your configuration file from your computer to the server I would use the following commands which removes the premade template and the next one allows you to create a fresh one.

This should delete the old template and open a fresh file to edit, now copy the configuration text file on your computer and in vim on the server enter insert mode by pressing i and either do CtrlShiftV, or on MacOS ⌘ CmdV. (right-clicking then selecting paste will also work)

This should paste the whole configuration file into the server. If you messed up somewhere you can quit without saving by going into normal mode by pressing escape entering :q! then, try again with nvim ~/wsprdaemon/wsprdaemon.conf then perform the steps again

Otherwise, go into normal mode with escape as well and enter :wq to save and exit the editor.

Once you have saved the configuration file run these commands again.

This will start installing a lot of packages and will take quite a while. Once it is done it should say something like "ka9q-radio added your user to the radio group, log out and log back in to save changes"

Or it may error out mentionioning something about "Update_ini_file_section_variable /etc/radio ....." if this happens attempt to run ./wsprdaemon.sh -V again.

If the error occurs again, reboot the computer with

This will restart the server and should end the ssh session, wait a few minutes then re-run this command on your computer to reconnect. (If using SSH)

Then log back in, and run ./wsprdaemon.sh -V again.

Now at some point you should get a prompt saying that the RX888 MkII is not attached to a USB port.

2.4.4: Setting the GPS clock speed

When you get this message, plug in the RX888 to one of the USB 3.0/Super Speed ports (Blue USB ports), and make sure the GPS clock is connected to the RX-888 SMA input, and plug the GPS clock USB port into one of the USB ports on the beelink.

Now run move back to the home directory by entering,

and run the following command.

now these,

then run this to list some of the devices plugged into the computer. (Keyboards will show up if they are plugged in, if not it will probably only show the GPS clock)

now take note of how many /dev/hidraw devices there are.

now run this command, replacing .../hidraw0/... with ones from your list.

You know you have the correct device if it outputs something similar to this,

If it does not, try again but use a different hidraw number.

Once you identify the correct device number, run this command replacing the /dev/hidraw0 with what ever number you found was correct.

Once you run this command, the LED on the GPS device should blink rapidly a few times, if this happens the command was sent correctly. This sets the clock to 27MHz output which is the required frequency for the RX-888.

2.4.4: Setting up the PSWS

Now run

Now, you should not get any more errors but you should get a prompt asking Enter file in which to save the key (/home/wsprdaemon/.ssh/id_ed25519):

When you get here, press Enter 3 or 4 times, including when it asks for a passphrase, however, do not click enter if it asks for a Password to login to an account through ssh.

If you are lucky it will ask you for an SSH password to log into the PSWS server, however, on the current release as of writing this there is a bug that is not correctly setting up auto logon for the PSWS server at the University of Alabama. If this does happen, put in the PSWS Token you put in the wsprdaemon config earlier which is the password to the server. Eg. GRAPE_PSWS_TOKEN="t1q8kx36f18kz8c6g5k9" But just the part in quotes.

If this did not happen go to the next section. Otherwise, skip the next section.

2.4.4: Setting up the PSWS (continued)

Now run the following commands

Run cd wsprdaemon and ./wsprdaemon.sh -V one more time, and you should get the version number printed out into the console.

Once this happens we can start wsprdaemon,

Now run,

To start wsprdaemon and add it as a login item to start when the server turns on.

Then run this to initialize the PSWS recording,

Once you can type again, the server should be running. You can confirm this by running this command.

You should get an output like this.

And if you go to a browser on your computer you should be able to type in this url http://hostname:8081/ replacing hostname with your server's hostname (the name that is after the @ in wsprdaemon@hostname on your server's prompt eg. http://njit-bl-1:8081/ in my case)

Which should bring you to this interactive web page running locally on the server allowing you to view the signals it is decoding.

Your server should also now show up as active on the PSWS Website

Typing into the command line on the server

Will list out the available commands part of wsprdaemon to manage the server.