Loose Notes 11/27/15

  There are a few interesting things going on, and I've been on the air enough to find out about them. So, let's just get right to it. 

Local Repeaters 

• Per N0YNT (Matt), he and NH7CY (Jason) are doing a site survey in Dayton for a new DMR repeater. Jason has had a third (30W) machine sitting around looking for a site, and I strongly suspect that this is the same one that currently hosts the 444.450+ (D023N) Fusion repeater. A new listing has shown up on RepeaterBook for a DMR repeater in testing on 442.850+, and it's sited in Dayton under the callsign KA0KMJ (John). Connecting the dots, I'd guess that the site survey went well and we can look forward to another DMR repeater coming on the air before very long.

• And it seems as if the 444.450+ repeater is currently down. Thanks to N0NCO (Joe) for confirming it. EDIT: Per AD0MI in the comments, this repeater is actually on-air, but apparently not reaching into the metro from it's new site and with its current configuration.

• Speaking of KA0KMJ, the 444.450+, and the Dayton site, I missed mentioning that the 444.450 machine has changed hands. The .450 Fusion repeater is now operated (officially) by AD0MI (Pete) KE0ATF (Steve). Judging by the performance of the 444.450 repeater, the site's coverage is very good to the north, and about average in every other direction. I've been able to get in to the .450 fairly well from 15 miles south using an indoor whip, so I'd expect that the DMR 442.825 repeater will have similar coverage. Meanwhile, the 444.450 machine is slated to move north to Zimmerman and be replaced by a 70W Fusion repeater on 443.250+ (D023N) at the same Dayton site. 

• The 444.975+ (114.8 PL) repeater in Ramsey has apparently switched over to System Fusion and sports an (actually working) EchoLink node (9975) under K0MSP-L. I'm unable to bring this repeater up from 15 miles away, even though it's very close to the Dayton site, so I can't confirm if it's on-air or not. Either way, it looks as if the north-west metro has some serious System Fusion coverage going on. EDIT: Using a seven-element Yagi and 20W, I was able to "ker-chunk" the .975 machine for a noisy S4. So I can confirm that it's on the air.

•  The Minneapolis 145.370- (107.2 PL) has changed it's tone squelch over to 107.2 from 118.8 Hz. I never understood why that machine had a different PL tone for receive anyway. Update your radios accordingly. 

• There's a new UHF repeater in testing on 443.875+ (114.8 PL), sited in Spring Lake Park. There are already several UHF machines within a half-dozen miles of the site, so I hope that some niche is being appealed to or some linking going on. We have a whole lot of "under-utilised" UHF capacity out there as it is.  

• RepeaterBook is wondering if the UHF 442.525+ D-Star repeater in Anoka is on the air or not. Also wondering if the 442.925+ Fusion machine in Crown is "on-air". If you know the answer, update the listing. I don't have a D-Star rig, and I've not been able to bring up the .925 in Crown for years -- but it's about 28 miles away from me. 

• There's a new UHF Fusion repeater in Mankato that's just come on the air on 442.825+ (136.5 PL). It looks like it's the first Fusion repeater, and the fourth UHF repeater, in a town that only has one VHF repeater to brag about. Count me as the first to suggest that this new repeater would link very nicely with the 442.175+ (114.8 PL) Fusion repeater in Prior Lake for more continuous UHF coverage of the challenging terrain in that area. 

• The MARA 444.800+ (114.8 PL) was down for a bit, but is now back on the air. 

DMR 

• I've worked up a new code-plug for the Connect Systems CS-750 and CS-800 radios. KC0BBK (Galen) picked up a CS-800 mobile rig to get more power than his TYT MD-380 could give him, and I naively thought that I could just convert the CS-700 code-plug for him. Not so. The CS-700 isn't made any more, and the software for the CS-750 and CS-800 isn't compatible with the old code-plugs. It had to be done, so I overhauled the entire thing. It now runs DMR on the Minneapolis 442.425, the St. Paul 442.025, and the Ellendale 442.025 repeaters. In addition, it's set up to work every UHF analogue repeater in the State (plus a few on the borders). It looks as if I finished it just in time to re-work it again for the new 442.850 repeater. That's how it goes, I guess. If you've been considering the CS-750 HT ($239) or the 45W CS-800 mobile ($280), know that you'll have a nice code-plug to get you on the air right away. 

•  The new 442.850+ DMR repeater will probably occupy a lot of the spare time of the two guys that manage the entire metro DMR network: NH7CY (Jason) and N0YNT (Matt). Still, there are plans to move the 442.025+ (currently down) to the St. Paul campus -- which should result in a big increase in east metro coverage. And, there's been talk of changing the frequency pair that the 442.425+ repeater currently operates on to deal with the de-sensing caused by the proximity to the central MARA receive site. This would undoubtedly require a fair amount of work to accomplish, but -- if successful -- it would mean that weaker signals could access the repeater. This would have the effect of expanding coverage significantly. There's a lot of potential for major improvements in the metro DMR scene, but it'll take time to develop. The addition of a third repeater at a decent site should mean continuous coverage at 5W for a lot of the metro. A 30W repeater isn't exactly a power-house, but that's what is providing the current coverage, and it has a very good range for UHF. Realistically, somebody will probably come across a spare UHF PA at some point, besides. And RX pre-amps aren't a daunting expense, either.

• I've also heard rumours of the St. Cloud-based DARC considering the addition of a modest DMR repeater to their stable of digital machines. If this pans out, and the Ellendale 442.025+ ever comes on-air, we could have an actual network that would make the MN State-wide talk-group (TG 3127) viable. 

• I picked up a battery eliminator for my CS-700 DMR HT, and it's made operation a lot easier for me. I plug it in to a cheap 2A power supply that came with an electric pump for an air mattress, and I no longer have to worry about the battery dying during a QSO or making sure that a backup battery is charged at all times. And I can leave the radio monitoring without concern for running down the charge, or use it in my car. It was Jerry Wanger, of Connect systems, who told me about it. I contacted him to suggest that CS offer some kind of external power solution for their HTs, and he pointed me to EBay. $25 is about twice what something like this costs for other radios, but it doesn't get hot like the cheap eliminators do, either. If you own (or plan to get) a CS-700 or CS-750 HT, I'd recommend picking one of these up. The power cable comes out of the side, so the radio can still stand up when plugged in. You can leave your radio scanning and avoid coming up with a dead battery when you need to talk on it. 

• Just wanted to add that Bridgecom makes a $200 DMR monoband HT with a 2000 mAh battery. There are no local code-plugs available for this brand, so it's definitely a "roll your own" proposition.

 

APRS 

• The N0QHM-1 TX I-Gate has been in operation long enough to get a fairly good idea of its direct coverage. Records of gated packets show that the gateway directly receives packets through Edina, Bloomington, and Burnsville. Coverage drops off the south right where N9MEC takes over, which works out well. From there, the N0AGI-5 gateway and the Faribault digipeater take over. It's interesting that the coverage of the N0QHM-1 machine doesn't improve much when you include digipeaters, so this makes it a nice local coverage solution. 

• Another new RX-only I-Gate just came on-air in the past few days. K0UWC is operating in Bloomington, and is already gating packets. It's still too early to make definitive statements about its coverage, but it looks as if it mostly fills in the south-west. 

• And it looks as if the short-lived N0GEF-7 I-Gate is down for the count.

Satellite 

• Things still aren't looking great for the new Chinese SSB satellites. XW-2A, B, C, and D are still only operating as CW beacons. XW-2E hasn't been heard from in days. Only XW-2F (435.34 up, 145.99 down) seems to be actually working as a transponder. The metro gets three or four decent passes from this satellite every day.

• The Fox 1-A (AO-85) FM satellite is now officially in service for amateur use and out of testing. The results aren't exactly breathtaking. AMSAT lists a number of caveats about AO-85 here. Basically, the audio level sounds low (due to filtering), but the signal from the satellite is strong. The transmitter drifts, and the receiver has a hard time detecting the 67.0 Hz PL tone used to activate the repeater. When AMSAT has to remind hams that the primary purpose of the satellite isn't amateur radio, that's a discouraging sign. With such a good downlink signal, it would be worth your while to listen to 145.980 using your standard antenna. Good local passes (up to fifteen minutes long!) happen twice a day in the early morning between 5 and 8 AM. Check here to find out exact times for your location and choose AO-85 from the drop-down. Don't forget to subtract five hours to adjust for UTC. Good listening!