KD0TLS: license number update 1/2024

  Just a brief follow-up on my previous post concerning declining amateur license numbers. 

 In January, we lost 660 amateur licenses nationally. 255 were Technicians, and 151 were Generals. That makes 14.7k fewer licenses than we had at the end of 2022. 

 Minnesota lost another 16 licenses in January. We gained 6 Generals, and 2 Extra. We lost 20 Technicians and 5 Advanced licenses. Since the end of September, we've lost 81 total licenses. 

 So far in February, the national total has declined a further 241 licenses, and MN has gained seven: 3 Techs, 3 Generals, 1 Extra. 

 For comparison, California (the state with the largest ham population) lost 264 total licenses in January 2024, and an additional 116 so far this month. January saw 193 fewer Technicians, 39 Generals, and 15 Extra in CA. 

So far in February 2024, CA has lost 7 more Extras and 16 Generals, and 88 Technicians.

KD0TLS: metro update 2/4/24

  Things haven't changed much since last month's metro area infrastructure update. The fringes of the south metro continue to be limited to only baseline APRS coverage. That baseline coverage would be provided by the big W0YC-5 gateway at the University of Minnesota, the big Medina digipeater W0PZT-1, and (to a lesser extent) the big gateway in Faribault (N0QVC-1). 

 Compounding this gap, the Robbinsdale digipeater K0YTH-13 went off-air again on Friday (2/2). This station does a fair job of covering places in the south metro -- such as Burnsville -- when it is in operation. Low-power APRS stations in other parts of the metro also face some difficulty in reaching the network when K0YTH-13 is down. Typically, this digipeater struggles in the winter months, though it's been unseasonably warm lately. 

 Other than that: 

• KD0VJS, the 5W digi operating out of Lino Lakes in Anoka County, seems to have gone off-air overnight. 

• KN0U-10, the RX-only gateway near Woodbury, has been down for nearly a month now. 

• K0BEN-10, the local-coverage TX gateway near Richfield, seems to be back in operation. It doesn't show up on the maps, or send regular RF IDs, but it's gating packets again. 

• N0KFB-1 has changed to N0KFB-4. This Mounds View gateway/digi sports new hardware, and covers the north metro into the southern part of Anoka County. It leverages the big N0HOY-10 digipeater to gate packets from St. Cloud out to western WI. 

• KF0JXO-10 is a small-scale RX-only gateway near Macalester College in St. Paul. It has apparently "gone deaf", and hasn't gated any packets for nearly a week, though it maintains a connection with the -IS.

 Let's take our monthly look at the maps. 

Metro messageable stations 2/4

Metro infrastructure 2/4

 As always, you can click on these maps to see a larger version. 

 On the fringe 

 KC0FXY-2 is a TX gateway located between Hastings and Red Wing. It's been a little erratic of late, but it's back in action and covering the south-east metro quite well. It also provides fill-in coverage in the east metro. 

 The digipeater and gateway pair in Delano -- WI00-10 and W0WYL-13 -- are starting to provide coverage to the western edge of the metro. Rather than any station upgrades, I think increased APRS activity in the area is responsible for this. 

 K1LEO-10 in Rockford (northwest fringe of the metro), has upgraded this gateway/digi to 100W TX power and added a new high-gain antenna. We are now seeing direct fill-in coverage across the north metro. But K1LEO-1 also leverages the Medina digipeater (W0PZT-1) and the Litchfield digipeater (KC0CAP-1) to reach a very wide area. 

 Also in the northwest fringe, W0ANM-2 has added continuous coverage of I-94 from Maple Grove out to Monticello. It's direct coverage also reaches out to Elk River on MN-169. And it's also doing a great job handling packets from the Elk River digipeater N0OQA. 

 Altogether, with Maple Grove gateway W0MHR-1 serving as the anchor for the north-west metro, the north-west has improved by leaps and bounds over last year. It may be time to consider a digipeater in Becker to create a solid RF link between St. Cloud and the metro, since we now have the gateways in place to service it. 

 Expansion needs 

 A modest RX-only gateway in Anoka would help to solidify the southern edge of Anoka County, and provide a foundation for future small-scale digipeaters. 

 A TX gateway in Waconia would really improve reliability in the south-west fringes and provide RF-based messaging and services to an area that currently is lacking. 

 A small-scale digipeater in Eagan would improve reliability in an area that has really increased its APRS activity lately. 

 We still need a modest TX gateway on the eastern edge of the metro, between Stillwater and Afton, to cover I-94 reliably and allow RF-based messaging out to the border. 

 By "modest" and "small-scale" I mean stations running 10W or less with a unity-gain antenna less than 30 feet off the ground. This would be the typical home station, and is more realistic than waiting for a 50W station with a 100-foot tower to appear. 

 Obviously, we need another gateway in the south metro. Burnsville would be ideal. But we need something long-term to anchor that part of the metro, rather than yet another station that fades away after two weeks.