Loose Notes 9/26/15

   Just a few items related to what's been going on over the past week. 

• China has put four amateur satellites with SSB/CW transponders into orbit. Pass predictions for the XW-2A, XW-2B, XW-2E, and XW-2F can be found here. Locally, it looks as if the best we can expect are 11-minute passes. XW-2A has good passes in the early morning and roughly around 9 PM. XW-2E has passes somewhere around 8 AM and 7 PM. Really, there's not a big variation between the best passes of all four birds locally. They all tend to fall within an hour or two of each other. For each of the four, there are about six passes each day, but only two are high enough to even consider working. Remember, these aren't FM satellites and you will need a VHF/UHF rig capable of doing SSB/CW/digital to use them. For some reason, they only have an expected life of one year. 

•  The FM satellite Fox 1-A will be launched in less than two weeks (Oct. 8). Still no word on when the FM EO-80 will be turned on. In a few more months, two additional FM sats will launch (Fox 1-C and 1-D). There's still time to pick up that "eggbeater" antenna or Arrow/Elk portable beam. 

• Last Sunday, I had one of those nifty tropo adventures. With just a mag-mount whip on my balcony (and 50W), I reached the Red Wing 147.300- (no PL) repeater around 9 PM for a chat with KC5SAM (Virginia) and KD0LYL (Art). Virginia even graciously sent me a QSL card. 

• I'm not sure if it's tropo ducting or some improvement on the repeater, but this week I've been able to bring up the UHF Hugo 443.050+ (118.8 PL) easily with S8 or S9 using my whip. Just last month, I needed a six-element Yagi (carefully aimed) for a chat with N0SBU (George).  EDIT: In a brief QSO with George on the new 147.315 repeater, I learned that nothing has changed on his .050 machine. I also am now unable to bring it up. Must have been tropo. 

• For the past two nights, I've been able to bring up the 147.240+ (146.2 PL) machine in Ogilvie, as well as the 145.230- (146.2 PL) repeater in Duxbury. Though there's a repeater in Mankato on 147.240 + with a 136.5 PL, I can't get into it usually. Still, I can hear the Mankato machine while I'm on the Ogilvie repeater. Both are around 60+ miles away in opposite directions from me. The Duxbury repeater is on the same pair as N0BVE's WIRES-X hub (which uses a 114.8 PL), so it's hard to tell which repeater any traffic is on. 

• Just today I was finally able to bring up the new 147.315+ (91.5 PL) repeater in North Branch. It boasts a 40 mile coverage radius, and that would put me on the fringe here in Plymouth. Yet, I "ker-chunked" it for an S3 return using my exterior mag-mount whip. The .315 also has an APRS object that notes it's part of the MAGIC network. EDIT: Per N0SBU (George), I was not getting in readably with 50W into the whip.

• This week, I ran into KE0CRW (Greg) on the Maple Plain 147.000 repeater. He had just got a full-powered FT-7900 for his base rig, and we decided to test it out. Unfortunately, tropo ducting was non-existent that evening and we could only reach local repeaters. Since meeting Greg back in February (when he just got his licence), he's moved up from an HT with a duck, to an HT with a ground-plane, and now to a 'real' FM station. 

• After an antenna failure last weekend, N0BVE (Don) has set up a brand-new eight-bay commercial antenna on the site for the 145.450- (no PL) repeater in Minnetonka this week. If you've had trouble reaching the VHF side of the HandiHam network previously, try it now with this new antenna. I've noticed that I get in better with my 10W mobile now, and the .450 is now absolutely full-scale at home here in Plymouth. 

• A few more local repeaters now have APRS objects, joining the 442.075 and 147.090 on the map. Over the past few weeks, MARA's 146.850 object has disappeared. The .075 and .090 are RF beacons, however, while the four new additions are internet-based. Those repeaters would be the 443.575+ (114.8 PL) in NE Minneapolis, the 444.050+ (114.8 PL) in St. Paul, the 443.050+ (118.8 PL) in Hugo, and the 145.170- (100.0 PL) machine in St. Paul. All of these are associated with the MAGIC repeater network. N0GOI (Terry) has a master plan to link all of these repeaters at some point.

• Speaking of APRS, there's a new I-Gate that just appeared a day or so ago near Wyoming. N0DZQ claims a range of only 3 miles, but it's very near 35W and should prove very useful for mobile stations. Other than that, we've neither gained nor lost anything in the network this week.  EDIT: Today, the N0DZQ gateway has moved south several miles. I'm currently trying to contact N0DZQ (John) to clarify things.

• For the time being anyway, the same WIRES-X hub found on N0BVE's (Don) 145.230- repeater is also available on the KA0KMJ (John) 444.450+ repeater in Dayton. This hub links well over a dozen repeaters in scattered parts of the country (and England) together. The 444.450 has very good coverage to the north, while the 145.230 is in Chaska. This means that a whole lot more of the metro's operators now have access to the biggest of the WIRES-X linked networks, and the relatively high level of activity found there. 

• Per on on-air conversation with KE0NA (Dave) this morning, I learned that he now has one of the new TYT MD-380 DMR hand-held radios. We tested it out on the "Local 2" talk-group, and it sounded pretty good. Dave is currently working on a code-plug for the radio, which should make the MD-380 even more attractive for anyone thinking about trying out DMR. The $165 monoband would just need Dave's code-plug loaded (much like you would load a programming file of repeaters into any other other HT) to immediately access the international network and local channels.