Author Archives: Bob K0NR

Time to Change the Rules for Field Day

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I just finished writing about how Field Day can be “seasoned to taste”…adapted to your particular interests. Overall, I think the ARRL has done a good job of crafting Field Day rules that provide some incentives for certain types of operation and activities. Get On the Air (GOTA) station, the free VHF station, and Class F (EOC location) are examples of positive rule changes that have been made over the years.

Still, I think there is room for improvement:

  • Eliminate the point advantage for CW and Digital contacts Why does Field Day have a scoring scheme that favors a particular mode? That is, CW and Digital contacts count 2 points versus 1 point for Phone. If these modes have some kind of efficiency advantage, then let that be the reward.  If not, then why the scoring incentive? The point benefit makes no sense to me, so I would eliminate that 2X advantage.
  • More Points for VHF/UHF Field Day is supposed to be about operating under simulated emergency communications. However, most real life EmComm activity makes heavy use of FM VHF and UHF to get the job done.  I would increase the number of points awarded for contacts on 144 MHz and higher to 2 points per contact, to compensate for the natural shorter range of these frequencies.
  • Remove Restriction on 146.52 MHz Also to encourage VHF operating, I would eliminate the prohibition against using 146.52 MHz. No other calling frequency is restricted in this way.
  • Make the Contest 24 Hours Field Day is set up to run 27 hours as long as you don’t set up at the start of the contest. It seems that must clubs set up early and just operate the first 24 hours. I would just simplify the event and make it 24 hours.
  • Bonus Points for VHF Packet or APRS Modern traffic handling uses digital methods, so I would encourage this by offering 100 bonus points for either establishing a functioning APRS station or packet radio system.
  • Require Electronic Log Submission Come on, this is the 21st Century….paper logs should be eliminated and all logs should be submitted electronically.

Well, my VHF+ tendencies are showing. These are my suggestions—what do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

ARRL Field Day: Season to Taste

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The 2011 Field Day is over. I have to admit that I am a bit ambivalent about Field Day…I can take it or leave it. But I have always thought that one of the great things about Field Day is that it can be tuned to whatever interests you or your club. It can be a serious radio contest (well, almost); it can be an EmComm Drill, it can be a Radio Campout;  it can be a food fest, it can be a beer-drinking party. Insert your idea here.

Here’s how my Field Day played out this weekend. The plan was to escape to our cabin in the mountains and set up a temporary HF + VHF station powered by a gasoline generator (1 transmitter, Class B). I used a basic trap dipole on 40M/20M/15M, a 6M5X Yagi on 6 Meters and a 2M9 Yagi on 2 Meters. I was hoping for some decent propagation on 20 Meters and 15 Meters, if 6 Meters opened up that would be awesome.

An urgent matter popped up on Saturday which took priority for most of the day. I finally got on the air Saturday evening and was pleasantly surprised to find 15 Meters still open. I worked quite a few stations on 15 M SSB until the band faded, then I slipped over to 20 Meters. Later, I noticed that 6 Meters had some life in it, so I turned my attention to that band, working back into the southeast.

The next morning, I checked 6 Meters and it was open again to the east. I was cranking out the contacts on 6 Meters but occasionally flipped around to the other bands. It was interesting to compare the 6 Meter activity on Field Day to the June VHF QSO Party. The propagation and number of stations on the air were similar. The skill level of the Field Day crowd was noticeably lower, with more dupes and sloppy operating. (That would be Field Day as a training event.)

Band  Mode  QSOs    Pts
 7    LSB      6      6
 14   USB     37     37
 21   USB     92     92
 28   USB      1      1
 50   USB    273    273
 144  USB      3      3
 Total       412    412

As you can see from the score, Field Day turned into a second June VHF contest for me, with 273 QSOs on 6 Meters.

A great time was had by me. How was your Field Day?

73, Bob K0NR    1B CO

June VHF QSO Party — Awesome Conditions

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The ARRL June VHF QSO Party should be the most fun VHF event of the year, but sometimes the propagation works against us. You see, June is supposed to be the primo time for sporadic-e propagation in North America but the ionosphere doesn’t always get the memo. This year was an absolute blowout with 6 Meters open for most of the daytime hours of the weekend!

As I prepped for the contest, I told myself  “don’t worry too much about 50 MHz, try to fill in some more grids on 2 Meters.”  This might have been my subconscious mind preparing for a crappy weekend on 6 Meters. I did manage to acquire a new and improved 6 Meter Yagi antenna (M2 6M5X), which turned out to be a very nice improvement over the old 3-element Cushcraft that I have been carting across the state for decades. I had decided to ignore the other bands and focus on 2 Meters and 6 Meters.

Here’s the antenna array, consisting of a 2M9SSB (12.0 dBd gain, 14.5 foot boom, 9 elements) and the 6M5X (9.4 dBd gain, 18 foot boom, 5 elements):

I operated from our cabin up in the mountains, grid locator DM78av. I don’t have a permanent station installation but instead operate in a portable mode. That is to say, I strapped a mast onto the front deck and supported the antennas that way. These two antennas are a really good choice for a portable station…not real small but they can be moved around.

The FT-847 puts out 100 Watts on 6 Meters and (with an amplifier) achieves 170 Watts on 2 Meters.

On Saturday morning, 6 Meters was open to the southeast, before the contest started. I held back until the contest began and then jumped in. It was pretty much a blur after that…mostly working 50 MHz but I flipped back over to 2 meters to see who I could work there.

The final score is my personal best for the June event:

 

Band       QSOs X pt =  QSO pts.  X   Grids   =     Points
---------------------------------------------------------------
50         500    1      500           170           85000
144        28     1      28            13            364
---------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS     528           528           183           96624

 

After the contest, I sent my electronic log into the ARRL for the contest and then uploaded my log to the Logbook of the World. LoTW has had a slow start but they recently upgraded it to handle VHF grids and VUCC. So just a few hours after the contest, I uploaded my log and received over 75 QSOs confirmed! Wow, talk about instant gratification…this is how it should be. No waiting around a couple of years for the cards to show up. If you are not using LoTW, now is the time to get on board.

73, Bob K0NR

Want to Try Working the June VHF Contest?

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Here’s a reminder that the ARRL June VHF QSO Party (AKA The June Contest) is coming up next weekend. This is a great opportunity to have fun operating the VHF and higher bands.

Here’s some info I sent out to our local club (sorry, it is a little specific to our area but you may find it useful anyway).

The ARRL June VHF QSO Party is next weekend (June 11, 12), which is The Big One in terms of VHF events. This is the best opportunity to try out VHF contesting!

Here are some practical thoughts on how you might start:

When Should I get on the Air?
The contest runs from 1800 UTC Saturday to 0259 Monday, which translates to 1200 Noon Mountain time on Saturday to 9 PM Sunday. (By the way, you should keep your log in UTC. You can always find the correct UTC time by going here: http://time.gov/timezone.cgi?UTC/s/0/java )
You can operate any time during the contest but I’d suggest focusing on noon to 6 pm Mountain time on Saturday.

What if I only have FM equipment?
Many of our new Technician licensees only have a dualband FM radio, often an HT. This will limit your activity in the contest but it doesn’t count you out. My suggestion is to get on the air on Saturday afternoon and try to contact as many stations as you can on 147.555 MHz and 446.000 simplex (Stu W0STU suggested 446.100 MHz which is also fine.) Stu W0STU and Steve WG0AT will be doing a portable operation from the top of Mt Herman on Saturday afternoon and they will be active on FM. I am sure they will appreciate a contact and a bunch of the Scouts are likely to be on the air. Don’t just work Stu and Steve….talk to everyone that you can.
I will be up in the mountains west of South Park and will also be listening on FM. I will be more difficult to reach but not impossible. Take that as a challenge! (Hint: it helps if you have a yagi antenna pointed West.)

Where Should I Go?
For starters, you don’t have to go anywhere, you can operate from home. But Height Above Average Terrain matters, so you might consider finding a “high spot” to operate from. Obviously, Stu and Steve are thinking Mt Herman is an excellent spot (which it is). There are other peaks along the Rampart Range (Raspberry Mt, Sundance Mt, etc.) that are just as good. The highest spot that is easy to get to is Pikes Peak (duh) and there is a road to the top! And Mount Evans is another option, west of Denver. If you are going to be out running around doing errands on Saturday, you can operate mobile from the car. In fact, you might want to be a “rover” and make contacts from multiple grids.

What about 6 Meters?
Six meters is usually the most fun band in the June contest. Normally, things are pretty quiet on 50 MHz and you work just the locals. But then the band opens with sporadic-e propagation and you’re working Florida, Texas, Wisconsin, Washington, California, Canada….almost anywhere in North America. For this, you’ll really want a SSB radio that can operate on 50.125 MHz USB (calling frequency) and move up from there as the band gets busy. Even a modest antenna, like a simple dipole, can work on 6 Meters. So don’t think you need something fancy to get started. There may be FM activity as well, which would be on 52.525 MHz.

Set a Goal
The basic idea is to see how many stations you can work on each band. You can also set a goal such as trying to get the Worked Colorado Award  ( http://rmvhf.org/Certs/Award.html ) which is achieved by working 6 different grids on any VHF/UHF band.

What Else Do I need to Do?
Read the rules, which are available here: http://www.arrl.org/june-vhf-qso-party
Make sure you know your grid. The Monument area and all of metro Denver is in DM79. Colorado Springs and Pueblo are DM78. The dividing line runs east/west roughly at Black Forest and the USAFA stadium.

Here’s some more VHF information on my web site:

How To Work A VHF Contest

Getting Started on 2-Meter SSB

So You Want to Be a Rover

And don’t forget to have fun!!!!

73, Bob K0NR

 

Six Excellent Summertime Radio Activities

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Next weekend is Memorial Day in the US, which means it is time to get serious about summer activities.  Here’s what I am plugging into my calendar. You will note a clear emphasis on activities here in Colorado but most of these events are nationwide:

ARRL June VHF QSO Party (June 11-12) This is the best VHF/UHF/Microwave contest of the year, because we almost always have some nice openings on 50 MHz. I think of this as “VHF activity weekend” that happens to be a contest. My favorite amateur radio event of the year.

ARRL Field Day (June 25-26) This is arguably the most popular ham radio event in North America. The great thing about FD is that you can make it whatever you want it to be: make it a contest, use it for public relations, just go camping, etc.

CQ Worldwide VHF Contest (July 16-17) This is the only Real VHF Contest, since it is limited to the 6 Meter and 2 Meter bands. (The ARRL contests include the UHF and higher bands and the scoring emphasizes these bands.) We usually get some 6 Meter openings on this weekend, as well, making it a lot of fun.

Colorado 14er Event (August 7) The Premier Mountaintop Ham Radio Event, with a Colorado emphasis. The concept is simple: activate the 14,000 foot mountains and have fun working everyone you can.

Colorado QSO Party (Sept 3-4) A state QSO party focused on working stations in Colorado. There will be lots of mobile and portable operators out to activate Colorado counties. Contacts are valid on HF, VHF and higher.

Colorado FM Sprint (Sept 10) This FM-only contest runs concurrently with the ARRL September VHF QSO Party. The FM Sprint runs for 5 hours on Saturday afternoon, so it is another great opportunity for some mountaintop operating. The Sprint rules are compatible with the ARRL contest, so you can always work both of them!

I hope to work you during these events.

– 73, Bob K0NR

This Just In: 70 cm Band is Safe

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This just in: According to the New York Long Island ARRL Section, the threat to the 70 cm band has been resolved. That is to say (these are my words), rational thought has prevailed. The NLI web site says:

May 19, 2011, Massapequa Park, NY – A delegation of Amateur Radio operators from the Long Island / New York City area met this morning with Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY) to discuss his recent proposed legislation, HR 607, and its impact on Amateur Radio.

Congressman King said that he fully understands and appreciates the importance of Amateur Radio and the service it provides to the community, and that he would see to the modification of the bill so that the 420 – 440 MHz band would be excluded from the spectrum to be auctioned. The delegation included Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, ARRL Section Manager for New York City / Long Island (NLI), Peter Portanova, WB2OQQ, NLI Local Government Liaison (LGL), George Tranos, N2GA, NLI State Government Liaison (SGL), and Jim Mezey, W2KFV, NLI ARES Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC).

Read the full story at the NLI web site.

73, Bob K0NR

 

Radio Hams are Not First Responders

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It happened again. A disaster hits — this time a series of storms in the southeast— and the amateur radio community rises to the occasion to supply emergency communications. See
Tornadoes and Thunderstorms Keep Radio Amateurs Busy in Midwest, Southeast.

I’ve noticed that there is a tendency for some members of the amateur radio community to characterize this activity as a being a “first responder”. (Most recently: Amateur Radio Newsline, 6 May 2011)  This may make for a more exciting story about how amateur radio operators assist during a disaster, but I think it is just sloppy terminology. Here’s one definition of a first responder from dictionary.com:

first responder
–noun
a person who is certified to provide medical care in emergencies before more highly trained medical personnel arrive on the scene.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration (NHTSA) has a 342-page standard that describes the training required to be a First Responder.  Similarly, the wikipedia entry for Certified First Responder describes the skills necessary to be considered a First Responder. Most hams won’t even come close to meeting this level of training, unless they happen to have it for reasons other than ham radio.

Why does this matter? By telling radio hams they are “first responders”, it puts entirely the wrong emphasis on the Emergency Communications (EmComm) role. The EmComm role is, well, uh, providing emergency communications… in support of First Responders (Fire, Police, EMS)  and agencies that support First Responders (Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc.). Where hams can really make a difference is making sure effective communications are established when disaster occurs. The “I am a first responder” mindset can lead to some behavior that makes some radio amateurs look silly. The folks over at hamsexy.com have made a hobby out of ridiculing the so-called whackers that try to make ham radio into a lights-n-siren kind of operation. An even more serious issue is having radio hams engaging in dangerous activity without proper training.

Now, should radio hams get training on skills such as CPR and First Aid? Absolutely. Actually, everyone should have that training…you might find yourself in the situation of saving someone’s life. But don’t confuse that with being a trained First Responder.

That’s my opinion, what do you think?

– 73, Bob K0NR

P.S. I fully appreciate the role that ham radio volunteers play in providing emergency communications during disasters. It is real, important work.

Ham Radio Comes to TWiT Network

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Leo Laporte first caught my attention when he hosted the cable TV show, The Screen Savers, on ZDTV. He has a great way of talking about technology topics, using his own personal knowledge and leveraging his team of bright techies. Recently, he has been focused on creating the TWiT Network, named for the flagship netcast, This Week in Tech. (TWiT calls the shows netcasts, not podcasts.) Leo saw the opportunity that came with the technology shift to streaming audio and video over the internet as an alternative to conventional radio and TV broadcasting.

There are a number of ham radio podcasts out available, although many have struggled to stay current. The phenomenon of podfading is very real, since it is a real challenge to produce interesting content week after week, month after month. See my previous posts on ham radio podcasts here and here.

The TWiT network has been expanding, moving from audio to video technology. Loic Le Meur shot a very interesting video of Leo touring his new studio which is still under construction. This gives a good idea of where Leo is headed with TWiT.

I often wondered whether TWiT would try doing a ham radio netcast. According to this press release, the answer is YES.  Leo has tapped Bob Heil, well-known ham radio dude and founder of Heil Sound to lead HamNation. Leo recently interviewed Bob on the Triangulation show. (Watch this video, really good.) Bob Heil is an excellent choice for HamNation—he has the passion and knowledge of a real ham radio enthusiast. His first guest is scheduled to be legendary Joe Walsh, ham radio operator (WB6ACU) and screaming guitar player for the Eagles.

This could be a really good thing for the amateur radio hobby, so I wish them well.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Six Completely Useless Nerd Apps for the iPhone

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One of the main uses of an iPhone is to load completely useless apps that you can use to annoy your friends. As a service to the nerd techie community, I have reviewed all available most some of the free (or at least cheap) apps available for the iPhone platform and selected the top six useless but fun apps.

Here they are:

FreqCounter (Author: Tang Peng Lab, Cost: Free) A clever little app that displays the time domain waveform of the phone’s microphone audio, displays the sound level and calculates the frequency of the waveform. This is my favorite of the list.

Sound Check Tone Generator (Author: Joe Voelker, Cost: Free) A simple app that generates audio tones (just sine waves).

Tone Generator Pro (Author: Performance Audio, Cost: $0.99) This is a tone generator that can create sine waves, square waves, triangle waves and sawtooth waveforms. Also does white and pink noise and frequency sweeps.

Nerd Noise (Author: Brian Shumate, Cost: $1.99) This app produces some really important, but of course, useless sounds: computer modem tones, Morse code, RTTY, MFSK, telephone busy signal, dial tone, etc. This is a MUST HAVE for the true techie.

Piano Free (Author: Better Day Wireless, Cost: Free) One of those piano keyboard apps.

Cowbell (Author: CTS MobileSoft, Cost: Free) Makes a cowbell sound. Because you always need “more cowbell”!

Just to be clear, some of these apps might actually be useful. Or maybe not. Your mileage may vary.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Added 6 May 2011:

At no extra charge, I decided to add a 7th app:

SpectraSound (Author: Francois Guilleme, Cost: $1.99) This app shows the time domain waveform from the microphone plus the FFT spectrum of the signal. This is a fun way to look at the frequency content of an audio signal.

The Incomplete List of Ham Radio iPhone Apps

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It was time to upgrade my Verizon Wireless phone, so I decided to move to a smartphone. After pondering whether to go with Android or Apple, I finally settled on the iPhone 4. I still miss the The Real Keyboard on my old LG EnV3, as it is nearly impossible to type on a shrunken touchscreen. But then there’s those apps…

I have been trying out some of the ham radio related applications on the iPhone, so I thought I’d report out what I have found.

Here are a few utilities that I found. These apps doing something relatively simple:

CallBook (Author: Dog Park Software, Cost: $1.99) Simple ham radio callbook lookup that accesses the WM7D database (or QRZ and Ham Call databases if you are a subscriber).

Maidenhead Converter (Author: Donald Hays, Cost: Free) Handy app that displays your grid locator, uses maps and does lat/lon to grid locator conversions.

Q Codes Reference (Author: fiddlemeragged, Cost: Free) This app displays the definition of the common Q Signals (QRZ, QSL, QTH, …)

UTC Time (Author: Michael Wells, Cost: Free) A simple app that displays UTC time and local time.

Sunspot (Author: Jeff Smith, Cost: Free) A simple app that displays solar data from WWV.

Ham I Am (Author: Storke Brothers, Cost: Free) A handy app that covers some basic amateur radio reference material (Phonetic alphabet, Q Signals, Ham Jargon, Morse Code, RST System, etc.) Although I find the name to be silly, I like the app!

There are a few repeater directory apps out there:

QSL.FM Mobile (Author: Robert Abraham, Cost: $2.99) Geolocation repeater directory and call sign lookup.

iHAM Repeater Database (Author: Garry Gerossie, Cost: $4.99) Geolocation repeater directory. This seems to work a lot better than the QSL.FM app.

If you are an EchoLink user, then you’ll want this app:

EchoLink (Author: Synergenics, Cost: Free) The EchoLink app for the iPhone.

There are quite a few APRS apps out there. I have tried these:

iBCNU (Author: Luceon, Cost: $1.99) The first APRS app I was able to get running. It just turned on and worked. It integrates the aprs.fi mapping into the app, so it is easy to use. I recommend this one for most casual APRS users.

OpenAPRS (Author: Gregory Carter, Cost: $3.99) This APRS app integrates into the openaprs.net server. A bit more complicated to set up but looks to be more flexible, too. You might want to check out openaprs.net before buying this app.

PocketPacket (Author: Koomasi, Cost: $4.99) another APRS app. Seems to work fine but I find the previous 2 apps more useful. Note: This app can function as a packet modem connected to a transceiver (no internet required).

Ham Tracker (Author: Kram, Cost: $2.99) APRS app, works OK, uses external maps such as Google and aprs.fi. “Share” feature allows you to send an SMS or email with your location information.

Satellite tracking is another useful app for a smartphone:

ISS Lite (Author: Craig Vosburgh, Cost: Free) A free satellite tracking app for just the International Space Station

ProSat Satellite Tracker (Author: Craig Vosburgh, Cost: $9.99) This app is by the same author as ISS Lite, but is the full-featured “pro” version. Although it is a pricey compared to other apps, I recommend it.

Well, that’s what I have found so far. Any other suggestions?

– 73, Bob K0NR

This is an older posting, see my updated list here

Check the Box on Another Technician License Class

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We wrapped up another 2-day Technician License Class today. The original class roster was 24 but we had a number of people drop out due to a variety of issues (illness, unexpected family activities, etc.). Today, 16 people took the Technician Exam and 13 passed (81% success rate). We also had 2 people that already have their Tech license pass the General Exam.

The instructor team is Stu W0STU, Paul AA0K, Joyce K0JWW and me. We continue to be quite pleased with the 2-day format as a good balance between getting the student to pass the exam and equipping them with enough knowledge to get started in the hobby. We continue to tweak the course content but the general approach remains the same.

The next class is scheduled for October 15 and 22.

73, Bob K0NR

The HF Bands Are Back

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First, I need to admit that I am an HF slacker. My first love in ham radio has always been VHF and higher and I have always treated HF as something secondary. I am not sure why but if I figure it out, I will let you know.

Lately, my HF antenna (a powerful device that I refer to as The Dipole) has been laying on the ground. It seems the support rope broke months ago and I never found a reason to put the antenna back up. Like I said, I am an HF slacker.

Here’s my idea of having fun on HF: fire up my Yaesu FT-847, belching a mighty 100 Watts into some kind of simple antenna. Get on 20 Meters SSB and higher and work DX stations all over the world. Actually, I don’t like 20 Meters that much because it always seems to be filled with signals. I really, really like it when 15 Meters opens up because the band is big enough to allow lots of signals without that bloated feeling.

This is exactly what happened last weekend for the CQ WPX Contest. I was only able to operate about 4 hours, with the goal of having fun and working some DX. The propagation on 20 Meters and higher was excellent! It’s amazing what a few sunspots can do for propagation. The contest format is pretty cool, too, as everyone works everyone but with an emphasis on picking up callsign prefixes and countries. I made 100 QSOs, mostly on 15 Meters, with all continents and many different countries. That was a blast.

After I loaded my log into Logbook of the World, I got the instant gratification of seeing 27 of those QSOs confirmed this week. Not a bad percentage…with the emphasis on confirmed this week. I am really liking this.

The HF bands are back!

73, Bob K0NR

 

NIST Time

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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently launched a survey of time/frequency users. See the ARRL announcement here. This is a pretty simple survey asking about how you use WWV, WWVH, time.gov, etc. If you use these services, you should probably fill out the survey.

Along the way, I realized that NIST offers a time widget that can be embedded into a web site. It looks to be very handy and well done, so here it is:

I don’t know if I’ll keep this around or not, but I wanted to see if it would work 🙂

– 73, Bob K0NR

The Universal Reason

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As previously reported, I’ve been tuning up my APRS gear and have several stations (usually) on the air: K0NR home station, K0NR-1 Trout Creek Pass digi, K0NR-5 smartphone and K0NR-7 VX-8GR handheld.

Someone asked me “What’s the purpose of this APRS stuff, anyway?”

I wasn’t sure what to say, so I answered with…

The Universal Purpose of Amateur Radio:

To Have Fun Messing Around with Radios.

73, Bob K0NR

Yes, Band Plans Do Matter

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There was an interesting exchange on the AMSAT-BB email list last week. Dave KB5WIA noted a strange signal on the AO-51 satellite:

I just thought I'd relay a bit of QRM I observed on AO-51 on this
morning's 3/16/2011 1322z pass. The bird was totally quiet (just a
nice carrier) for the first 5 minutes of the pass, but then it sounded
like a repeater was getting into the sat uplink:

3/16  1327z:  "Connected, KD7xxx repeater."
3/16  1328z:  "KD7xxx repeater disconnected."
3/16  1328z:  "hey Stacy did I see you at the corner there by Wendys?"
3/16  1330z:  "...repeater in Middleton, Idaho."

I obscured the KD7 call sign to protect the guilty innocent. A little searching on the internet by some of the AMSAT folks revealed that there was an EchoLink station that matched the KD7 call sign.

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK wrote (again, I obscured the call signs):

And there is an Echolink system (KD7xxx-R).

What may be more interesting, after some Google searches,
is a series of references I saw where the KC0xxx-L system
had been linked to the KD7xxx-R system.
On http://www.echolink.org/logins.jsp now (1839 UTC), I saw
this for KC0xxx-L:

KC0xxx-L        Clay Cntr,KS 145.920 (1)        ON      01:27   367513

In the station description, it shows 145.920 along with the QTH
in Kansas.  This may be the system that's causing the QRM on
AO-51, and the other system is just linked to KC0xxx-L at that
time.

So it turns out that the KD7 call sign heard was linked to the KC0 EchoLink station which was operating on the uplink frequency of AO-51. George, KA3HSW, sent the KC0 operator an email and reported back that the KC0 station “has graciously changed frequencies.”

What can we learn from this?

  • Check the VHF band plans for your area before getting on the air. Be extra careful when setting up stations such as EchoLink or similar system that transmits frequently.
  • Be aware that there are amateur radio modes that you can interfere with even though you don’t hear anything on frequency. In the case of the AO-51 interference, the satellite hears the uplink frequency over a wide geography but never transmits on that frequency. The downlink is on the 70 cm band.
  • Note that the first call sign associated with the interference (KD7xxx) was not at fault. It would have been easy to jump on his case and chew him out for transmitting on the satellite uplink frequency. Showing good judgment, the satellite guys investigated further.
  • The issue was resolved by a polite (I assume) email to the offending radio amateur and he agreed to change the frequency of the EchoLink station. Nicely done.

So check the band plan for your area and follow it. And proceed with caution when interference does occur. It was a rookie error to put an EchoLink station in the satellite sub band and it was quickly resolved.

For more information on 2 Meter band usage, see this Choose your 2 Meter Frequency Wisely.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Reading the Fine Print in Part 97

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The ARRL just filed a Petition for Rule Making with the FCC concerning a specific modulation format called TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). This issue has been simmering in the community of repeater operators but I suspect that most hams have no idea what this is about. It so happens that the land mobile industry (most notably, Motorola) has developed a very efficient and cost-effective digital standard called DMR (Digital Mobile Radio). Motorola markets this technology under the name MOTOTRBO.

As often happens, some radio amateurs deployed this new Part 90 radio technology on the ham bands. Along the way, people started looking carefully at the emission designator that Motorola was using for MOTOTRBO and began to question whether it was allowed under Part 97. I won’t go into the gory details as it makes my head hurt :-). My brief look at this concluded that there is definitely an issue here but I am not completely convinced that DMR is illegal under Part 97. If you want to dig into this, read the petition in detail with a copy of Part 97 and a few aspirin in hand.

The ARRL probably did the right thing by requesting a very focused rule change which should remove any ambiguity from Part 97. (I know this will disappoint the arm-chair lawyers who make a so-called life out of debating these issues to death.) The ARRL also asked for an immediate temporary waiver from the FCC to allow for DMR operation while the rule making proceeds…another good move.

It is unfortunate that the FCC amateur rules were written in a way that (potentially) disallowed the use of the latest land mobile radio system. This is exactly what we don’t want to have happen in the Amateur Radio Service, as it should be a place for easy adoption of new technology. Future FCC rule making should keep this in mind, always erring on the side of flexibility.

– 73, Bob K0NR

Update on 25 Mar 2011:

The ARRL reports that the FCC is seeking comments on this petition, now designated RM-11625. Comments can be filed electronically here.

How Not to Elmer

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Just this past week, I read the following exchange on one of the many ham radio email lists I subscribe to:

Greetings Group,
I have a rat shack universal DC adapter for my charger. It is rated at 12 volt 500 mA. On the bottom of the [radio brand] charger it specifies 450 mA. My question here, is will it be ok to use the RS adapter without causing damage to the [radio brand] charger cradle?

One person replied with this:

500 ma is the maximum the dc adapter will put out. 450 is the minimum that the charger wants to have available. 450<500.  with 10% to spare.

Not to pick on you, [name], but is there any requirement these days to have a basic knowledge of electricity and/or radios to get a ham license?

The good news is that the second ham provided a helpful answer. The bad news is that he felt it necessary to slam the questioner due to his limited knowledge. (Actually, I didn’t think the question was that naive.) Fortunately, a large number of subscribers jumped in and assisted the questioner and chastised the grumpus.

The truth is that it doesn’t take that much effort and knowledge to get a ham radio Technician license. I think of it as a beginner’s permit. The license exam attempts to enforce a basic set of knowledge required to get on the air. After that, it is up to us to Elmer these newbies as they learn more. When someone asks a question, no matter how basic, that is a good thing — an opportunity for learning.

After all, I really like new ham radio operators —- I used to be one!

73, Bob K0NR

IWCE 2011

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This week I attended the International Wireless Communications Expo, a wireless radio conference centered on land mobile radio (LMR). While not an amateur radio event, it was three fun days totally immersed in radio technology. Being a professional show, not a hobby event, the emphasis was on modern and emerging technology in the industry. No boat anchor radios here.

Amateur radio often adopts and adapts technology from the LMR industry, especially for mobile operating on frequencies above 50 MHz. I guess we could call VHF FM amateur land mobile.

A few highlights from the show:

  • A large portion of LMR is Public Safety Radio: fire, police, ambulance, so emergency communications was inherent in many of the conference sessions.
  • There was quite a bit of analog FM equipment on display but LMR is clearly shifting to digital, with formats like APCO Project 25 leading the way. The FCC requirement to go narrowband by January 1, 2013.
  • Several vendors are familiar names in the amateur radio industry:  Kenwood, Vertex (Yaesu), ICOM and Alinco. Of course, Motorola had a major presence at the show.  I noticed that ICOM had a stack of amateur D-STAR equipment on display.
  • Historically, LMR radios covered only one band (VHF low, VHF high, UHF, 800 MHz), which matched the tendency for each organization to deploy channels in only one band. With an emphasis on interoperability, more organizations are finding the need to operate on multiple bands and the manufacturers are responding with multiband radios (see Motorola APX™ 7000, for example).
  • A number of radio manufacturers from China were present, generally with lower cost radios (Hytera, Kirisun).
  • The FCC recently announced that the frequency range known as Block D (two sections: 758–763 MHz and 788–793 MHz), dedicated to public safety broadband use, will use the LTE air interface standard. LTE is the dominate 4G mobile phone standard, just starting to be deployed. The conference had many sessions on the challenges of getting funding and actually making this work.
  • Since Block D will use LTE, it opens up the potential for public safety networks that also use commercial networks (e.g., Verizon) for extended coverage. These hybrid systems provide for tight control over the primary network while leveraging the infrastructure investments from commercial providers.
  • Quite a few sessions on the integration of IP-based networks into radio systems. The general trend is that the local “air interface” may be a specific radio technology (P25, LTE, …) but the network is always IP-based.

I was struck by the forward march of technology in the LMR industry. In the ham radio world, we often see strong opposition to adopting anything new. And we’re supposed to be the experimenters!

– 73, Bob K0NR