On Thursday morning (Thanksgiving), I had my UHF HT on as I checked my email and went about my morning routine. There was a lot of activity on the .650, I noticed. First, there was a lot of "key ups" (where someone presses the mic button in but doesn't say anything), as if someone was steadily "ker-chunking" the machine. That's not too weird, but it usually doesn't go on for long. Every minute or so there was a hit along with a "roger beep", for about 15 minutes. Then the Portuguese started. Two guys were having a QSO on the local repeater in Portuguese. One of the callsigns was PU7MTH, which obviously isn't local. It went on for about ten minutes, then went back to irregular "key ups" with beeps and PU7MTH asking if anyone was there. KA0PQW (Matt) came on, but the Brazilian didn't come back to him. Matt commented aloud during a burst of beeps that "someone must've hooked up a tail-tracer", whatever that means.
It's not unusual to get international contacts on the local HandiHam repeater network. I've talked to a guy from Japan myself on the .450 machine. They come in through EchoLink, and it's one of the benefits of having a popular EchoLink conference server here.
But this was different. People from other countries are always are talking to locals, not to people in other countries. Why would two people in Brazil decide to use an EchoLink conference server in Minneapolis for a QSO? And who has 'roger beeps" on their computer's EchoLink? And what was with all of the "key ups"? It was mysterious, and it stayed on my mind.
As I have mentioned before, there are plans to set up a 10 meter FM repeater linked to the local HandiHam network. With the 10M band so active and open recently, Brazil wouldn't be excluded from reaching here. On Saturday, I was listening to 10M FM -- not transmitting, because that isn't allowed for Techs -- and I heard several Brazilian stations. They were even on the 29.660 frequency that the putative 10M HandiHam repeater would be on.
It suddenly occurred to me that I might have been hearing 10M FM traffic on Thanksgiving! I put my theory to the test by tuning my HF radio to 29.660 FM, and threw out my sign on the VHF .450 machine. It wasn't repeated over 10M. Still, it was possible that the receiver of the local 10M repeater was linked, but not the transmitter. I listened to see if any of the activity on the 10M FM frequency was being repeated on the HandiHam network. It wasn't.
Not knowing when to quit, I emailed N0BVE (Don). He's the guy who is working on the 10M/6M project, and who knows everything about the technical aspects of the network. The bottom line is that he confirmed, in no uncertain terms, that the 10 meter repeater is not connected, and that he's still looking for a transmitter site. Nice of him to get back to me so quickly, and he was quite polite about it, too.
No mysterious Brazilians have shown up since Thursday, so I guess that nobody knows what was going on.
It does make me wonder how this 10M FM repeater will work when the band "opens up". The local network could be dominated for hours by non-local activity during the day. I suppose that could be exciting, and there are other repeaters in town to use for local conversations. But the HandiHam network is the prime cross-band option in town. I mean, it's pretty much the only one. Still, having too much activity on a repeater would be a fun problem to have, and this solar cycle isn't going to last forever.
UPDATE: A recent conversation with KA0PQW (Matt) revealed that the situation was caused by a Brazilian repeater linking to the HandiHam network via EchoLink, along with a "tail-tracer" (or "tail-chaser"?) being used on the Brazilian end. It was ultimately shut down on the HandiHam end. Mystery solved.
Thanks to Matt and Don for not only solving this problem, but explaining it to me.
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