Loose Notes 12/13/14

A few scattered observations this weekend:

• A tip of the hat to KA0KMJ (John), an MGRC member, for letting me know that their Maple Plain 147.000+ (no PL) repeater actually has tone squelch implemented. Now I don't have to hear all of the intermod when I go into Minneapolis and want to use the Maple Plain machine. John further explained that the decision to go without an input PL tone was made to accommodate operators in the area with old two-metre rigs that can't "do" CTCSS. Also, per John, the Robbinsdale UHF 444.775+ (114.8 PL) is sponsored by the MGRC (though the listing says otherwise), and the marginal 443.700+ machine in Maple Grove is not the Club's only foray into UHF.

•  I had a brief chat on that same 147.000+ repeater this afternoon with a mobile ham (callsign mangled). He was heading down to Texas, and had a 5W Yaesu HT and a mag-mount antenna on the van. I found it ironic that he told me that he couldn't get into the Maple Plain machine from his home in Howard Lake, but that he was reaching the repeater from near Northfield while mobile talking to me. The 147.000 seems to have really good "ears". I also had a long conversation with WA0ZDE (Rick) shortly after that using my 9W Leixen with an indoor mag-mount antenna on the opposite side of the building from Maple Plain. I've always liked the 147.000, though activity is definitely low.

•  KE0NA (Dave) is working on The Aggrandizer 223.900- (100.0 PL) repeater today, adding a receive pre-amp. The repeater transmits with okay coverage out to Plymouth, but doesn't hear people trying to get into it well enough for mobile use yet. Give the upgraded machine a try.  

• I had a long chat with N0GOI (Terry) last night on the 444.050+ (114.8 PL) machine. Work is nearly complete on the VHF and UHF repeaters in Foreston, and they are both on the air. Terry always has some exciting plans, and it's interesting to talk to him. The two Foreston machines will be linked (cross-band), but this link will have the ability to be disabled for SkyWarn -- with the UHF machine handling the normal local traffic. UHF is a "tough sell" in the rural areas, but cross-band operation will allow those willing to try it out the chance to still keep in contact with the VHF users. There are also some potential plans to implement the Raspberry Pi RF link boards that N0YNT (Matt) and N0BFG (Ryan) are currently experimenting with. That's "down the road", of course, and the controllers still need to be upgraded or modified to work with the linking scheme. 

• Terry also told me that the UHF 443.575+ (114.8 PL) repeater in NE Minneapolis -- operated by KD0WIL (Eric) -- has been upgraded to a 60W MSF-5000. It took 15W to "ker-chunk" the .575 from here in Plymouth, but it came back with an S7 signal once I got in. This is a repeater operating out of Eric's house in Northeast, so reaching Plymouth is pretty good. At some point, I understand that it will be linked into the MAGIC system to boost their eastern UHF coverage. Eric is also trying to implement EchoLink on the repeater, but no word on what his near-term objective is for a link. 

•  It turns out the 224.500- (114.8 PL) repeater just needed a re-tuning of the duplexer to get into working shape, per N0FKM (Dan). The machine isn't up to Dan's standards yet, but once it is, he'll be exploring cross-band links to at least one of his other (five) repeaters.

• With the ten-metre contest going this weekend, I tried the webSDR receiver in Louisiana for a listen on the 'action'. Though this receiver is primarily for the propagation beacon sub-band, I was quite surprised to find a whole lot of phone activity in the lower section of the band reserved for CW and digital modes. I heard nothing but American phone stations over the course of an hour in this sub-band -- at least the part covered by the webSDR receiver. Wow, that's some HF "elite" we have. Can't even follow the band plan. Any phone contacts made below 28.300 on the band should be disqualified for the purposes of the contest. Why would anyone even try digital modes with these bozos stomping all over the sub-band? I guess that contesters really are better operators than the rest of us.