Loose Notes 1/24/16

  I've been unable to access my outdoor antennae until recently, due to the cold weather. The door to the balcony froze shut, which meant that I couldn't set up any of my Yagi beams or swap my exterior whip for other bands. Fortunately, the whip that was outside when the cold snap hit was reasonably good on 2M, and I've been able to operate my 5W APRS beacon. Other than that, I've been limited to indoor antennae until this past Friday... so mostly it's been DMR or local UHF for me. On top of that, the battery for my Nexus 7 tablet is at the end of its useful life, and that's what makes my APRS beacon work. It now takes two days to charge it for every one day of use. A replacement is on the way, and I'll have my beacon back on the air soon.

Satellite

• Those six Chinese SSB satellites (XW-2A - XW-2F) are still having trouble. 2B and 2D only have their CW beacon working, and nobody's heard from 2E in weeks. XW-2A generally has a good morning and evening pass locally, with about half of the 4-5 daily passes being too low for anything but an "egg-beater" antenna with a good horizon to work. XW-2C doesn't have many high passes (mostly below 30 degrees), but you'll have about four passes a day (about ten minutes each) if you can work with the lower angle. Remember, these are not FM satellites -- SSB, CW, RTTY, or PSK only. 

 

DMR

• The third local DMR repeater (443.425+) is scheduled to go on-air today (1/24) sometime before noon. N0YNT (Matt) has said that he expects a straightforward installation. The site in Oakdale has hosted an analogue UHF repeater on that frequency for several years, so he basically just has to swap the analogue machine for the digital. Hopefully, there are enough DMR operators with updated code-plugs out that way to test the new repeater's coverage. 

• Per an on-air QSO with K0LAV (Paul), I've learned that a two-metre DMR repeater might be coming on the scene this year. Paul envisions a more limited array of talk-group options than the current UHF network, and a dedicated time-slot for local operation. With TS1 devoted solely to local traffic, TS2 would offer three state-wide TGs: Virginia, Pennsylvania, and D.C. Since all DMR rigs are monoband, you'd need a second radio to access both networks, but there's a significant faction of local operators that don't much care for UHF and this could be just the development to spur wider adoption of the mode. There are currently no plans to link this VHF DMR repeater with the other local UHF DMR repeaters.

• Minnesota has been gaining new DMR operators fairly quickly, judging by the additions to the DMR-MARC database. It seems as if we are adding at least two a week, as far as IDs go. Getting a DMR ID is one of the first steps to getting on the air, so this is a decent indicator of the mode's adoption. Code-plugs for several different models and makes are available, and you'll need the programming software and a cable to program your radio and add your ID to the code-plug.  

• The local DMR network (K4USD) has added a few new regional talk-groups recently: Mid-Atlantic, South-west, Mountain, and Southern Plains. These are all PTT TGs, meaning that you need to key up on the talk-group first to get the repeater to connect to it. A few new state-wide talk-groups were also added a couple of weeks ago: Maryland, D.C, and Pennsylvania. Make sure that your radio has the most current code-plug so that you can access these new (PTT) state-wide TGs. 

• We can always use help maintaining code-plugs. With three repeaters now, and more different models than ever being supported, it's a big job to keep all of the code-plugs up-to-date. Essentially, you would need to add any new TG to the contacts, create a channel (just copy and paste an existing channel and edit it), add the channel to an existing scan list and zone, and do this for all three repeaters (copy/paste, and edit the frequency). You can also add any new DMR IDs to the contact list (name, callsign, ID). If this is too "technical" for you, then help out your fellow operators with programming their radios to get them on the air or keep their radio updated. 

 

APRS 

• I've noticed that some of the old reliable digipeaters and gateways have stopped working and no longer receive. The KG0QR-1 gateway in southern MN hasn't received any packets in well over a month, and no longer transmits. It's basically just an icon maintained over the internet. The WR0P digipeater near Cambridge is now just an RF beacon, and hasn't received any packets in nearly a year. In the north metro, the TX I-Gate KD0RVY-1 hasn't received nor transmitted anything in three months. The N0DZQ-10 TX gateway has also just been nothing more than an icon for the past three weeks. 

• The WB0MPE-7 digipeater outside of Rochester is now back on the air. Now if we can just get a gateway set up in the Rochester area, things would look a lot better to the south. 

• The N0HOY-10 digipeater is back on the air, after a few days of down-time.

• The (sorely-needed) RX-only gateway west of Hibbing, K8IRC, has gone dark. Northern MN is another area with a lot of digipeaters and few gateways. The Hibbing N0AGX-12 TX gateway has handled over 23K packets so far this month, and the Knife River KC0MKS-1 I-Gate has handled over 34K. Up in the far NE corner of the State, the KB0BDN-10 gateway has handled over 10K packets. Somebody in Duluth, Grand Rapids, or Bemidji really needs to step up and operate an RX-only Raspberry Pi gateway to reduce the load. You can't just keep throwing digipeaters on the air without something to actually gate the packets. There are four digipeaters around Duluth alone, and not a single I-Gate. 

• By comparison, the W0YC-5 gateway in Minneapolis, with a much greater population density, handles over 37K packets a month. The N0AGI-5 gateway handles over 27K packets each month. Even the N0FKB RX-only gateway gates over 10K packets. We gate our own traffic. That's as it should be.

FM repeaters 

• The MARA 444.800+ (114.8 PL) is back on the air, after being down for a couple of weeks. Per K0LAV (Paul), the board connections on the old Micor repeater had become oxidised. A little TLC in the form of spraying De-Oxit brought the machine back to life earlier today (1/24). 

• The 146.730- (114.8 PL) in Forest Lake is also back on the air, courtesy of K0LAV. The repeater itself needed replacement in this case. Currently, the AllStar service hasn't been restored, but there's a possibility of this machine being linked to the 146.610- (141.3 PL) in Isle in the future using AllStar. 

• I've been watching the new 444.875+ (114.8 PL) repeater in Spring Lake Park for a while now. N8AGJ (Rock) set this up at his home, and coverage appears to be spotty and favouring the west and south-west. It comes in quite well here in Plymouth (about ten miles away), but operators in nearby Mounds View (for example) have had difficulty getting in. My impression is that the machine transmits better than it receives. It takes at least ten watts for me to "ker-chunk" it, but it comes back S9. If you can access the .875, consider posting a propagation report to RepeaterBook to give the local amateur community a better idea of this new machine's real-world coverage. 

• The 442.175+ (114.8 PL) Fusion repeater in Prior Lake is switching over to digital-only operation this week-end. It's nice that there's a sufficient System Fusion user base in the metro to make something like this viable, and it seems to be the vision for the future, at least locally. We could use a few more analogue repeaters with WIRES-X (HRI-200) implemented to continue to give analogue users access to the growing SF network as the trend to digital-only goes forward. I'm no Fusion expert, but I understand that supporting the hybrid (analogue and digital) model puts significant limitations on the digital potential of Fusion repeaters. The 223.900- and 145.230- repeaters currently "translate" analogue traffic to SF digital format. KE0NA (Dave) is looking at an RPi solution that would allow operation of the HRI-200 (WIRES-X) box without the necessity of a dedicated PC, and this could be an easy way for several more analogue repeaters to help ease the switch to digital-only Fusion in the metro. 

• I'm not exactly sure of the details, and the club website is devoid of any mention, but it seems as if the TCFMC 444.100+ repeater has some kind of a remote base connected to the internet. I've been hearing operators from the East Coast on the "dot one" morning roundtable, along with vague mentions of the capability. Apparently this remote base also provides access to HF, too. I've been unofficially invited to "stay the hell off" all of the TCFMC repeaters for years now, due to (honest and accurate) blog posts putting the TCFMC in an unflattering light, so I'm unable to confirm or glean any more information about this development. Still, it sounds like an excellent and novel idea. It's even better because the TCFMC EchoLink node hasn't been logged on for years now, so this remote base (or whatever it really is) is the only way to open up the club's resources to the rest of the world.