Loose Notes 2/27/16

  There are just a few developments over the past week, and I want to get them updated early. 

FM Repeaters 

• RepeaterBook is inquiring if the 146.820- (no tone?) repeater in Fergus Falls in on-air or not. If you can confirm either way, update the listing. 

• We have a new cross-band link in the metro! The VHF 145.290- (114.8 PL) repeater in New Brighton is now linked to the UHF 444.750+ (114.8 PL) repeater in Columbia Heights. In previous on-air conversations with K0FCC (Dan), he's said that his plan is to link three bands together. Judging by the listing for the (currently down) 224.500- (114.8 PL), it looks as if the intention is to add 1.25M to this linking scheme. 

• I'm not sure what's happened to the 443.250+ (DCS 023N) repeater in Dayton lately. It used to come back with an S7 or S8 signal, but now it's only S4. 

• I've been wondering in the 443.000+ (114.8 PL) SNP repeater in Chaska is ever going to come back on-air. This was an interesting UHF machine that came back S9, and had a working auto-patch, but it's been down for a couple of weeks now (at least). 

Satellite 

•  With AO-85 (Fox 1-A) already in orbit and working, the next "bird" is scheduled to launch some time in January of next year (2017). This would be another FM satellite, Fox 1-B. Plans are already being made for Fox 1-E, which will be an SSB (linear transponder) satellite. 

• Though it was launched in mid-2014, the FM satellite EO-80 still hasn't had been activated for amateur use. 

DMR 

• Well, I was wrong about a new DMR repeater going up in Prior Lake. N0AGI (Nagi) did get a new 50W repeater and duplexer, but it isn't going up on the Prior Lake site. Rumour has it that the new repeater is in search of a site in the south metro, though. Testing has gone well.

• We're now up to 88 DMR IDs in Minnesota. Several new operators have been added in Faribault now that the 442.175+ has been moved there. Also, new operators have popped up in Ham Lake, Blaine, White Bear Lake, Bloomington, New Hope, Buffalo, Willmar and even Duluth.

• I just welcomed WA0CQG (Carl) this morning to DMR as his first contact. He had a very good signal into the Minneapolis 442.425+ repeater from Bloomington. 

• In a QSO with K0LAV (Paul) on the MARA 444.800+, I learned that Paul is now on DMR with a full-powered rig. He's still trying to navigate the code-plug, but I'm very confident that he'll be able to access the Oakdale 443.425+ machine. The Dayton 442.850+ is probably a safe bet, too, from his location. You really only need to be able to get in to one repeater. 

• Also, in that same QSO, Paul reiterated his plan to put a VHF DMR repeater on the air. It wouldn't be linked to the UHF network, but would serve as a standalone 100W power-house for local coverage on TS1 (Time Slot 1). A selected few talk-groups would be accessible on TS2, and these would likely be state-wide in nature (i.e. covering a single state, rather than world-wide or regional). All DMR rigs are monoband, so keep this in mind when shopping for a rig. You'll need a second rig to access this VHF repeater along with the UHF network, though you won't need a second DMR ID. There was no mention made of the planned site for Paul's new repeater, though the stated power level and narrow-band digital nature of the mode should provide metro-wide coverage. 

• Discussions will soon be starting on a potential re-arrangement of time-slots on (at least) three local repeaters: the Dayton 442.850, Oakdale 443.425, and Minneapolis 442.425. Currently, the calling channels are all on TS1, and everything else is on TS2. As local traffic increases, TS2 is starting to get locked up. Start thinking about clever options to move TGs off of TS2, and what you would like to see carried on TS1. It's good to start discussing this now, rather than at some future point where we have a serious problem. You can also submit your ideas here on the blog.  

APRS 

• It seems that almost as soon as I mentioned the KD0KZE gateway coming back on-air, it went down again for the week. 

• Southern Minnesota's KG0QR-1 gateway has now handled more than 6.2k packets this month! It's handling digipeated packets from Windom to Winona, all the way up to Ramsey. 

• The Mora 147.240+ (146.2 PL) repeater now has an APRS icon, courtesy of N0DZQ. 

• With the nicer weather, we're seeing a lot more aircraft equipped with APRS. Please remember to adjust your N-path when you do this, so that you aren't using digipeaters. You really don't need multiple bounces at high altitudes, and you are only causing unnecessary congestion. WIDE 1-1 is a considerate adjustment.                               

Loose Notes 2/20/16

  I'm going to attempt to catch up on another week's happenings in the metro amateur radio scene. Let's hope this works... 

FM repeaters 

• RepeaterBook questioned whether the 146.985- (no tone) in Hastings was on the air or not this week. This is a repeater that I haven't even ker-chunked in over a year, and I was always under the impression that it was in Inver Grove Heights instead of Hastings. Maybe it's moved. Either way, 25W into a three-element Yagi brought back a nearly full-scale signal. I updated the listing to show it as "on-air". 

•  The 224.500- (100.0 PL) 1.25M repeater in Columbia Heights has been down for a couple of weeks now. The 224.940- (100.0 PL) in New Brighton also seems to only be working infrequently. Of course, the TCRC's 224.540- (100.0 PL) machine has been down for several months now.

• Per N0AGI (Nagi), the System Fusion repeater that was formerly on 442.175+ will not be going back on the air. When a DMR repeater was installed on the same site, the idea was that the Fusion machine would move to a different site at some point. That isn't going to happen. The repeater was sold to another amateur operator to use as a testing platform. There's still a UHF Fusion machine in Burnsville (444.300+) and a VHF machine in Eden Prairie (146.880-), so that area still has coverage.

• Speaking of the 146.880- C4FM repeater, I've noticed that they dropped the CTCSS tone on the input. I've always wondered why this machine didn't use tone squelch to prevent analogue users from hearing digital traffic. Removing PL tones on a VHF repeater seems equally bewildering to me. 

•  There is still no word on the club website as to the apparent remote base linked to the TCFMC's 444.100+ (114.8 PL) repeater.

• The traffic on the morning drive-time "nets" (actually roundtables) has dropped off steeply over the past two weeks or so. I'll usually monitor the 146.850, 145.370, and 444.100 repeaters as I'm getting ready to for work, and I can't help but notice the declining activity. 

EchoLink 

• The EchoLink node on the 444.425+ (114.8 PL) has been down for over a week now, as N0YNT (Matt) is not in town to give it a kick. The node for the 224.660- (100.0 PL) repeater is back on, after several days of down-time. I haven't been able to connect to the node on the 145.290- (114.8 PL) repeater for over a week, though it shows up as "logged in". And the node for the 145.370- (107.2 PL) is now "listen only" -- which I've never seen on any other repeater. Of course, the TCFMC maintains it's perfect streak of leaving their node logged off for well over two years now, in spite of mentioning it on their website. 

DMR  

• Big news for the local DMR scene! Per N0AGI (Nagi), a fifth DMR repeater is going on-air in the metro -- perhaps this weekend. Running on 443.125+, it will be at the same site as the 442.175+ machine used to be (before it moved to Faribault). More info and photos are available here, but it will be a 50W machine with a six-cavity duplexer -- all brand-new gear. We already have a fairly decent idea of the coverage, since an identical 50W machine was operating at this same site for a couple of weeks. The plan is for the Faribault repeater to switch to an omni vertical antenna, which would cut down the coverage of the 442.175+ for the south metro considerably -- especially when the vegetation returns. The addition of this new repeater in Prior Lake will assure continuous coverage for the south metro when the Faribault repeater switches over to normal coverage. This means that the south-west and southern freeway approaches to the metro will, in all likelihood, be HT-mobile accessible. Coverage of the south-eastern approaches will probably require more power than a 5W HT can provide, but reception should be no problem in that part of town. This arrangement will leave the 442.175+ repeater in Faribault free reign to cover southern Minnesota, and probably reach to Mankato and Rochester with a full-powered rig. 

•  There is a new DMR website for you to check out: MNDMR.net. The twintrbo.com website remains alongside this new site. MNDMR.net will be the place to get updated code-plugs, get information about repeaters, coverage maps, and talk-groups offered. Discussions are carried out on this forum. 

• The Doers Co-op and the MN DMR Enthusiasts will have a booth at the upcoming Mid-winter Madness (March 12) in Buffalo. Stop in to check out DMR, APRS, and other nifty projects. You can also get your DMR radio programmed, too. A TYT MD-380 DMR HT will also be given away, courtesy of N0AGI. 

• I am now officially out of the DMR code-plug business. I've been maintaining the Connect Systems code-plugs for the metro network for some time now, and the vast majority of operators with CS rigs are now able to keep their own radios updated. Those that can't perform this task will simply need to learn, instead of scapegoating me. Writing and updating code-plugs is a tedious and thankless task as it is. When operators that have never even seen the Connect Systems software start telling me what's inside it, and demanding "proper" programming, then it's time for the Big Experts to take over. The latest CS code-plugs are still available, and they can be used as a template to build your own 'proper' version. I've written blog posts in the past giving instructions on how to edit various aspects of code-plugs: adding channels and editing scan lists and zones. I'll probably add another post in the future explaining how to add contacts. 

APRS 

• KE0CRW (Greg) has set up an RPi RX-only APRS gateway in Plymouth. KE0CRW-10 runs on DireWolf from Greg's home, and is still in the experimental stage. The metro really needs a gateway in this particular area, though it may not end up running full-time. The more people that gain the hands-on experience to create gateways and digipeaters, the more options that the local community has when key elements of the network fail.  

• Also, a new APRS gateway has appeared in Circle Pines. KD0KZE is now covering the north-east and north-central metro, with very good direct reception coverage. When you include digipeated packets, this gateway is handling traffic all the way to St. Cloud. I seem to remember that KD0KZE was in operation at some point in the past, but went off-air. The loss of the WR0P digipeater in Cambridge has reduced APRS coverage in the rural areas north of the metro, so seeing new gateways pop up on the northern edges of the metro is an encouraging sign. 

• N0DZQ is also back in action near Wyoming, MN. Previously, the machine had stopped receiving packets. It's now carrying the load for most of the traffic on 35W north of the metro, and even gating the N0HOY-10 digipeater in Arden Hills. Great to see this one back in the line-up! 

• Likewise with KG0QR-1 in southern Minnesota. It seemed to have gone quiet for quite a while, but is now back. While this gateway is a local coverage machine for directly-heard packets, it's crucial for gating the digipeater-heavy southern Minnesota packet traffic. It's handled over 4K packets so far this month! We could use a couple more like this one down there.        

                               

Loose Notes 2/12/16

  I'm just catching up on the developments over the past couple of weeks. Some interesting stuff has been going on, and a few minor developments are worthy of mention. 

FM Repeaters 

• Per K0UMM (Travis), the VHF SuperLink repeater on 147.015+ in Collegeville (near St. Cloud) is "sickly". Travis rang up the machine for a "noisy S1" from less than 13 miles away. More troubles for the crumbling SuperLink network. Even worse, he also noted that the 146.940- in Sauk Rapids is "off-air". No mention of these problems on the St. Cloud ARC's website, but it appears that they're raising money for a new repeater. No mention as to which repeater they are raising money to replace. 

• Near Albert Lea, the 146.880- (100.0 PL) wide-area two-metre repeater is back on the air. Also in that same area, the 443.525+ (100.0 PL) is reported as back on the air. 

• The 462.675+ GMRS repeater in Crystal is down. Per N0RVY (Steve), the transmitter has failed. No timetable for restoration at this point. 

DMR 

• The big news in the local DMR world is that N0AGI (Nagi) and N0BVE (Don) have moved the 442.175+ machine in Prior Lake to Faribault. More information can be found in Nagi's blog post on the subject. Don and Nagi were reportedly able to access the repeater continuously on the drive back to Prior Lake using an HT and an external mobile whip. The site in Faribault is much higher in elevation and the tower is higher than the (currently abandoned) site in Prior Lake. A Yagi is currently beaming the signal towards the metro, but that will switch over to an omni vertical in a few months. This move comes as a big surprise, but the Prior Lake site didn't really reach well north of the Minnesota River. It's possible that operators just south of the metro will have to upgrade their rigs and/or antennae once the repeater switches to a vertical -- especially as the leaves come in. 

APRS 

• W0YC-5, the major metro APRS gateway, was down for about two days last week. Fortunately, tropospheric conditions weren't overloading the metro with distant traffic, and we've gained adequate redundancy to handle these failures without collapsing. 

•  AE0MT-10 is back on the air as an RX-only I-Gate in Coon Rapids after an absence of just under two weeks.  

• Though the month of February is still young, two RX-only gateways have racked up impressive stats. KE0NA-11 in NE Minneapolis has gated over 1300 packets so far, while N0KFB in Mounds View has handled nearly 5000 in the same period. Both of these gateways are operated out of homes with rooftop antennae. It really can be done.             

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.

Loose Notes 1/16/16

  It's another week, and I'm summarising what's been going on in the metro amateur radio scene.  

FM Repeaters and DMR

• The 444.725+ (127.3 PL) in Dayton is no longer on the air, having been replaced by the 443.250+ (D023N DPL) Fusion repeater at that same site. 

• AD0MI (Pete) graciously explained the unusual linking arrangement of the new 443.250 machine to me this week. This NW metro UHF SF machine is linked by WIRES-X to several other repeaters to provide very wide coverage across bands. Not only is the UHF .250 linked to the power-house 444.525+ in Mounds View, it's also linked to another Fusion repeater in Zimmerman (444.450+) to provide rural access to the metro activity. What I didn't understand, though, was how the (currently analogue) 145.230- and 223.900- repeaters also functioned in this digital linking scheme. Pete cleared this up as follows: 

  If you transmit in FM into the 223.900 or 145.230, it will come out on 223.900 and 145.230 in FM, and on the .250, 450, and 525 in Fusion Digital.  If you transmit on the .250, .450, or .525 in Fusion digital, it will come out in digital on the other digital machines, and in FM on the .900 and .230.  If you transmit into the .250, .450, or .525 in FM, it remains local to that repeater only.  

•  So it would seem that UHF System Fusion operators in the rural north-west would be able to access metro 2M, 1.25M, and UHF repeaters through the Zimmerman 444.450+ machine. Metro analogue operators can communicate with System Fusion users through the 1.25M 223.900- or the 2M 145.230- repeaters, and participate in the Fusion-only nets. 

 

• The new 442.850+ DMR repeater went on-air in Dayton last week-end. It's an exciting development, as it expands the mode into the west and north-west metro. Local operators have been excited about the great coverage of this new machine, and have been testing it out. KE0NA (Dave) was one of the first to access it, though he had to use a beam to make the 17-mile trip from NE Minneapolis. I found that I was able to get in to the new repeater from ten miles away using an HT with a rubber duck at low power (one watt) indoors, and was able to get into it reliably around Plymouth using the same HT at 5W as a mobile with an external dual-band whip. KC0CAP (Dan) reports that he can get in to the repeater with an HT mobile from around Maple Plain (13 miles). The narrow-band digital nature of the mode allows signals that would be unreadable on analogue to be completely clear. As time goes on, we'll get a clearer picture of the practical coverage area of the new .850, but it looks impressive right now. 

• For those in the east metro, a new DMR repeater will go on-air in a few weeks that promises to cover St. Paul and as far north as Hugo. N0YNT (Matt) will soon be replacing his (currently down) UHF analogue repeater on 443.425+ with a DMR machine in Oakdale. Code-plugs have already been updated to accommodate the new addition to the network, so make sure that you get your radio updated in advance. This means that DMR will very soon have metro-wide coverage, as all three repeaters are linked. 

• Further down the road (perhaps in Spring) N0AGI (Nagi) is making plans to set up a power-house DMR repeater in Prior Lake that should bring the south metro into the network with quite reliable coverage, even using low power levels. It should easily reach to both 35W and 169, meaning that all major approaches to the metro will be covered by linked DMR access.

• Many local operators are contemplating taking advantage of the low prices on DMR HTs -- such as the TYT MD-380 -- to get into the rapidly-growing DMR network. Home operation with an HT within the metro is completely practical and reliable if you have an exterior antenna. Generally, if you can hear one of the DMR repeaters with your analogue radio at an S2 or S3 level, then 5W into an exterior whip, 1/4-wave ground-plane, or J-pole should allow you access to the network. I use an indoor three-element Yagi mounted on a photographic tripod. Mobile operation with an HT and exterior whip is fairly practical, with the limitation mostly being terrain and the quirkiness of UHF coverage in general. Portable operation with a rubber duck is certainly possible, but unreliable in a lot of areas -- as is the case with analogue UHF operation in those circumstances. 

• Also regarding DMR, I've been exploring the Hytera Reflector (TG 4639, TS2) on our local network. It's a link to the (otherwise incompatible) Hytera DMR network that allows world-wide contacts. Apparently, there's also some kind of RTL dongle that will allow internet (non-RF) access to the Hytera network. The Hytera Reflector seems to allow these operators limited access to the broader DMR network. Check your code-plug to make sure that this talk-group is included. 

• Those of you testing your coverage should be aware of the net-watch page for our local network. This will allow you to see your relative signal strength (RSSI) and percentage of packet loss. Judging by what I've been seeing, a signal of -122 dBm (with the smaller negative number indicating a stronger signal) will allow you access with very little packet loss. Packet loss of over 7% is generally not intelligible. When your signal is weak, packets will be lost and your transmission will be somewhat garbled and broken. Packet loss of less than 1% is almost unnoticeable.

APRS 

•  The big metro digipeater N0HOY-10 is back on the air, after being down most of the week. With its excellent site, it commonly re-transmits packets from the Faribault and Rochester digipeaters and other machines outside of the metro. 

• I'm not sure what's happened with the N0RUA-10 RX-only gateway, but it's suddenly expanding its coverage remarkably: 

       

• The new RPi gateway in Coon Rapids, AE0MT-10, has only been in business for a week. Still, it's covering Hwy 10 from 610 to Anoka pretty well.

• N0QHM-1 in Bloomington has disappeared after establishing itself as quite capable of handling the fill-in role in the south metro. EDIT: It looks as if N0QHM-1 is back on the air!

• The big Rochester digipeater WB0MPE-7 has gone down for about a week now, leaving W0MXW-3 with a heavier load than ever. 

• AE0RF-10 wasn't expected to stay on the air into the cold weather, but the RPi RX-only gateway in downtown Minneapolis is still gating packets in a challenging environment. 

• A new APRS icon has popped up for a 2M repeater in the western exurbs near Litchfield. 146.685- (71.9 PL) seems to be the W0CRC machine in Darwin, only with a different PL tone (previously 146.2). This machine was once linked to the Hutchinson 147.375+ (146.2 PL) using EchoLink, but these two nodes are most often down.

• Speaking of APRS icons for repeaters, N0AGI (Nagi) was kind enough to set up an icon for the new UHF DMR repeater in Dayton. Nagi also maintains icons for most of the repeaters in the HandiHam network.                

Loose Notes 11/14/15

   It's been another week, and I'm ready to tell you what I've found out over the course of the week. 

• The TCRC's 224.540- (100.0 PL) 1.25M repeater is back on the air! KE0NA (Dave) and I gave it a test spin on Friday night (11/14), and it's working well. I was able to work the repeater with 10W into a tri-band whip on my balcony for an S8/S9 signal from here in Plymouth, and Dave got a similar signal in NE Minneapolis. Word on the street is that the TCRC bought a brand-new Bridgecom BCR-220 repeater. The BCR-220 is a relatively new product in a market where gear for the 1.25M band can be hard to come by -- even old stuff. For about $1000, you get a 30W repeater (including power supply, free programming, and battery backup). It even has a built-in CW ID, so you don't need a controller for basic operation. I know that the TCRC had a 75W PA for their previous repeater, but I'm unaware if that's being used or if the new machine is running on its own 30W output. With the challenges that the 147.210 has been facing, this very likely makes the 224.540 machine the TCRC's most reliable and widest-coverage repeater. 

• N0YNT (Matt) and N0GOI (Terry) fixed the antenna at the Falcon Heights remote receive site for the 145.170- (100.0 PL) St. Paul repeater. Hopefully, it will pay off with improved coverage. I have a hard time reaching the .170 with my marginal antennae. 

• Per N0MWM (Mike), Connect Systems (CSI) is now (once again) selling the TYT MD-380 DMR HT for only $130 (including programming cable). KE0NA (Dave) has a code-plug for this radio here. You won't find a cheaper way to get into DMR (and the international network of repeaters) than this deal. 

• Per N0BVE (Don), his 443.000+ (100.0 PL) SNP repeater now has an auto-patch. It uses DTMF tones to bring the patch up (*) and down (#). Many years before I was licensed, I would hear hams on my scanner using auto-patches. I've never used one myself. The auto-patch has a five-minute limit, per an on-air QSO with KD0VSU (Randy). The repeater itself is at Don's home in Minnetonka, and it has a problem where the TX power drops down dramatically after it's used for a few minutes. It also seems to have a relatively brief time-out, so be aware of those facts if you use it.

• I'm not sure of all of the details, but it looks as if a System Fusion repeater on 443.250+ (023N DPL) will be replacing the current Fusion repeater on 444.450+ (023N DPL) in a couple of months. The .450 will be moving north to Zimmerman, and will be linked back to the metro with WIRES-X. The new .250 repeater will run 70W and be linked to the Zimmerman Fusion machine for continuous coverage. I guess that the NW suburbs won't be losing any UHF coverage after all.

 

APRS  

  A few things are happening with the local packet scene: 

• The AE0RF-10 RX-only gateway is no longer on the air, but AE0RF (Justin) is proposing that the Richfield Amateur Radio Club set up a similar RX-only gateway at their repeater site. This seems like a great potential development to me, because these gateways managed by individuals tend to come and go. The metro needs reliable redundancy in the network. It's really good to have people experimenting with gateways and digipeaters, because they have the know-how to put those nodes back into action when need arises. But we really need some elements of the network that are solid and don't disappear on a whim, because when the major gateways fail (like W0YC-5 did this summer) something needs to be there to fill the gap. 

•  It looks as if N0QHM -1 is back in Bloomington, only this time with a transmitting I-Gate instead of the previous RX-only node. In its short lifetime, it's already covering the south metro free-ways nicely. 

• The W0LKA-2 digipeater near Roseau has hung in there, and it remains the northern-most part of Minnesota's APRS network. On the other end of the State, KG0QR-1 has lasted a few weeks as a transmitting gateway with direct local coverage, but also gating other southern Minnesota digipeaters. 

• Minnesota still needs "something" (RX-only gateways, digipeaters, TX I-Gates) in Morris, Alexandria, Wadena, Park Rapids, Bemidji, and Detroit Lakes. Maybe you can help. 

• It looks as if N0RUA (Tony) is experimenting with a RX-only gateway in the Highland neighbourhood of St. Paul. It would be great to get the mobile packets from the surrounding freeways gated before they get tossed around by the local digipeaters. EDIT: It looks like Tony got N0RUA-10 to actually gate packets in RX-only mode.

• The big N0AGI-5 gateway/digipeater has moved from Minnetonka back to its old home in Prior Lake. Per N0AGI (Nagi), the time spent at N0BVE's (Don) tower was an "experiment", and he now has an RX pre-amp on the gateway to increase his (already substantial) coverage. 

 

Well, that's pretty much it. I'm going to set up my new Arrow satellite antenna for some 2M SSB/CW "action" and I'll be on FM tonight.                   

Loose Notes 8/16/15

  I had a great day on the air yesterday (8/15). Getting up early to take advantage of the tropo ducting, I spent an hour on two-metre SSB and CW with my tape-measure Yagi set up horizontally. Then I switched over to a vertical whip and tried the same thing, with the idea that I might not have been pointed in the best direction. Topping it off with some UHF SSB and CW, I called it quits after two hours as the propagation began to fade. No contacts were made, but I had a few near-misses. 

  Putting the Yagi in the vertical position, I moved over to FM. Even though the peak ducting was past, I reached a VHF repeater in Owatonna for a short contact with K0AJB (Kevin). Then I took advantage of the beam to work some local repeaters that are harder to reach from Plymouth -- such as the St. Paul VHF .120 -- where I ran into KC0FMI (Bob) and WW8A (Wayne). FM simplex was apparently dead at that point, but I did run into WE0K (Phil) in Columbia Heights later on the 146.52 calling frequency. I even put my six-element UHF Yagi up and managed to reach the Hugo .050 repeater and chat with N0SBU (George) himself. 

  Later in the evening, I ran into K0LAV (Paul) on the UHF .800 repeater. During the course of our conversation, the repeater just plain quit for several minutes. And, in another conversation with N0BID, it did the same thing. The 444.800+ hasn't been its old reliable self over the past year. 

  With all of that out of the way, let's look at some of the recent developments: 

• The Richfield 444.475+ (118.8 PL) repeater is back on the air, incarnated as a System Fusion machine. Though it putatively is linked full-time cross-band with the Richfield 145.390- repeater, I was only able to get traffic from the UHF side to repeat on the VHF side. As far as I could tell, nothing on the VHF machine gets re-transmitted to the UHF side.  

• N0BVE (Don) has resurrected a previously-mentioned project on his SNP 145.230- (114.8 PL) machine in Chaska. Formerly on 442.925+, the VHF .230 now hosts a WIRES-X link to a hub in Beaumont, TX. This hub, in turn, connects with dozens of other repeaters in the U.S. and even England. To me, it seems like the closest analogue equivalent to DMR. The Chaska repeater can be hard to reach -- it's only S7 here in Plymouth -- but it's an interesting experiment that I hope will stick around.  

• The latest rumours are that N0AGI (Nagi) is exploring the possibility of linking his 442.175+ (100.0 PL) System Fusion repeater in Prior Lake with the Minneapolis 444.425+ (114.8 PL) power-house machine.  While Nagi's UHF repeater has excellent coverage to the south and south-west (nearly to Mankato), topography has conspired against him to prevent any significant coverage to the north. If this works out, the coverage of both repeaters will greatly expand and the metro will see more continuous UHF coverage. 

• The 442.600+ repeater in Maplewood has been down for several weeks now, and the Dayton 444.450+ (114.8 PL) has, at least temporarily, joined the list of absent UHF machines in the metro. The UHF .450 is the only System Fusion repeater in the north-west metro.  EDIT: I've confirmed that the 444.450 is back on the air now.

• Looking at APRS, it seems as if KC0LDH has pulled the plug on his Becker I-Gate. Meanwhile, AE0EE-5 has appeared on a part-time basis in the Uptown area as an RPi gateway. N0HOY-10 has the icon for the digipeater in the proper place (rather than in Wisconsin) now. KD0RVY-1 is (hopefully) sticking around now as a much-needed I-Gate in the northern exurbs. Also, W0AZR-1 has recently popped up as a digipeater near Austin, MN. It's doing a great job covering I-90, working as a team with the gateway in Glenville. And K8IRC also just appeared as a gateway in northern MN between Coleraine and Hibbing. There are a lot of digipeaters up that way, but gateways are scarce, so it's always nice to see hams stepping up to the plate and filling the gap. 

• What else? The power-house 147.225+ (no PL) repeater near Brainerd has switched over to System Fusion. It's now the most northerly SF repeater in MN, and boasts a 50+ mile coverage radius. The 145.130- (no PL) is another SF machine just slightly further south, but is no slouch in coverage, either -- and it has an EchoLink node (233515). 

• We're less than two weeks away from the launch of the Fox-1A FM satellite (435.180 up, 145.980 down). Next year should see four more FM satellites launched, including three Chinese "birds". The number and quality of satellite passes should be amazing this time next year. As always, the time of local passes can be found here, so practice up on the SO-50 and be ready for the new opportunities.

Loose Notes 6/7/15

Yet another quick run-down on what's happened over the past week:

• The UHF 444.950+ (114.8 PL) repeater in White Bear Lake has experienced...something. I used to be able to reach this machine from my car, and even with an HT/stock duck indoors. This week, though, it takes a much better signal to even "ker-chunk" it. Even 5W with my exterior whip antenna is just ignored by the receiver. My 10W mobile has about 50/50 odds of "ker-chunking" the repeater now, when it used to be completely reliable driving around Plymouth.  It still seems be transmitting fine, as I get S9 here when I use sufficient power. The VHF .390 is working great, as always.

• The VHF repeater in Becker -- 147.345+ (85.4 PL) -- is also apparently down. This is a 600-foot powerhouse repeater that I've had QSOs on with under 10W, and now 50W into a beam results in only silence. 

• The VHF SNP HandiHam repeater on 145.230- (114.8 PL) is also performing much worse over the past week. Usually it came in here at least S6 with the exterior whip, but now it's barely above the noise floor at S3.

• The MGRC's feeble 443.700+ repeater seems to be off-air. Since it usually only came in at S2 from eight miles away, it's hard to tell. It was never listed on RepeaterBook, so there's nothing to update.

• Unknown to the parties involved, N0BVE (Don) has pulled the WIRES-X link between two other repeaters and his 444.925+ C4FM repeater: the 1.25M  223.900- (100.0 PL) and the UHF 442.175+ (100.0 PL) machines. WIRES-X is still working on the .925, as I just had a conversation with KG7NKG (David) in Idaho on the C4FM hybrid machine yesterday. The two de-linked repeaters still remain linked to each other, however.

•  I finally got the EchoLink node on the 145.370- (107.2 PL) repeater to work. K0MSP-L (node 9975) has never worked for me, but yesterday I switched from "Relay" to "Direct" mode and I was allowed in. Currently, it's connected to a conference server in Ireland, though there's no traffic on the repeater, and nobody else is allowed in. Weird...

• Speaking of EchoLink, KC0VRV (Matt) has set up a simplex node on UHF 446.025 in Hugo. Range is estimated at 5 to 8 miles. 

• Meanwhile, the TCFMC's putative node (mentioned on their site) has been continuously down for at least 18 months, and only working for about two weeks over the past two years. Is it really a node if it's never logged in? 

• There's a new APRS gateway in Ramsey. KE0BRY-10 has been in operation a few days, and is providing coverage on Hwy. 10 between Anoka and Elk River. it's also gating digipeated packets well into the metro. On the other hand, the KG9B gateway in Hudson has gone dark, and the AE0RF-10 RX-only gateway in St. Paul has switched to an experimental mobile gateway mode that may not be working as intended.

•  Previously, I mentioned running in to the 147.360+ (136.5 PL) repeater in Hampton during a road trip. K0JTA (Mike) felt confident that I could reach this repeater from my home in Plymouth during our conversation, so this past week I tried to do just that. I put my flimsy 2M Yagi on the tripod and aimed it, as best I could, toward Hampton. To my great surprise, I not only "ker-chunked" the Hampton repeater, but I carried on an extended QSO with Mike. I started out at 25W, and worked down to only 5W. I was still readable at 5W, though 15W worked better. The machine itself came back at S6. Even if you don't have a good enough antenna or enough power to work the .360, it has EchoLink (K0JTA-R). 

• I usually watch the 2M propagation maps daily, and last week had some very good conditions. It's not uncommon for the W0YC-5 gateway to reach Duluth, and for the N0AGI gateway to reach Mason City, IA! These maps work on the APRS signals received, and packet generally doesn't go as far as voice, so the actual conditions are probably better than what's shown. And, APRS is FM, so SSB will generally work farther, as it's a "weak signal" mode. Still, I've had no luck with my 2M beam running horizontally on 144.200 SSB or CW. 

• Yesterday (6/6) KE0NA and I had a chat on the local DMR repeater -- 442.425+ -- and we both noticed that the interference from the .850's remote receive site had decreased significantly. Not sure what was done, if anything, but I was able to get in to the repeater using an indoor whip from Plymouth while there was activity on the 145.850 machine. Dave noticed no packet loss, and we didn't get the "deny" tone indicating that the DMR receiver was swamped by the TX of the remote receive site. 

•  Also regarding DMR, KE0NA (Dave) now has fully-licensed Motorola programming software and working code-plugs. So, if you've hesitated about picking up a Motorola HT because you couldn't get it programmed, that's no longer an issue. There are also code-plugs available for the Connect Systems CS-700 DMR HT. They will soon be available on twintrbo.com, or you can just email me for the CS700 version. A code-plug is just a programming file that you load on to the radio. With DMR, programming is a lot harder than it is with an analogue FM radio, so it's nice to have something ready-made that is known to work. 

• With Field Day coming up, I've ordered a 15M dipole to set up in my brother's back yard. Look for me on 15M CW, because I'm a Tech. I'll be running QRP, and not contesting. I have options for 6M and 10M, too, so a "sked" can be set up if you want to experiment.

• N0BZZ (Randy) has informed me that LSAC is in danger of losing several of their sites, including the once-popular Isanti 443.325+ site. Per Randy, Verizon has been selling off towers to raise money, and these towers are used for several LSAC repeaters. The new owners (ATC) seem to be disinclined to allow other equipment on their new acquisitions. While this was supposed to be the time of year to rebuild the network, instead everything is up in the air. The Isanti site is the crucial link between the northern MN network and the metro area. This is potentially disastrous news for the future of linked networks in the state.

 

The unknown .925 springs back to life

  Just a few days ago, N0BVE (Don) put the C4FM UHF 442.925+ (114.8) repeater back on the air. Previously, Don had tuned it to 444.100+ to temporarily take the place of the TCFMC's prime UHF repeater while it was being taken down and moved to St. Louis Park. This C4FM repeater is not to be confused with the 444.925+ analogue repeater connected to the HandiHam network and operating out of Chaska.

  I've been trying to key up the C4FM .925 every few days or so, in hopes that it would be working again. On Tuesday, I was quite surprised to not only "ker-chunk" it, but to find KE0NA (Dave) come back to my thrown sign! Even more astonishing was to find out moments later that Dave was talking on the 1.25M 223.900- (100.0 PL) "Aggrandizer" repeater. 

  What I discovered is that Don not only put the repeater back on the air, but that he also connected it to a WIRES-X box (Yaesu HRI-200). This allowed him to link both the 223.900- and the Prior Lake 442.175+ (100.0 PL) to the 442.925 machine. On top of that, he also linked the box to a WIRES-X "room" in Beaumont, TX. There's a surprising amount of activity on this nearly unknown repeater. 

  The 442.175+ (hybrid C4FM) repeater is operated by N0AGI (Nagi) -- one of the founders of the Doers Co-op -- and it covers the SW metro nearly down to Mankato. The topography of Prior Lake isn't favourable to such a UHF machine reaching into the rest of the metro, so this link is nice to have. Even from here in Plymouth, I have trouble reaching the VHF and UHF repeaters in Carver and Chaska, and they only come back S4 or S5. By operating on the 442.925, I now have clear access to the lower areas to the south-west of the metro. 

  The cross-band aspect of this arrangement is also intriguing. There hasn't been a strong history of success in linking 1.25M repeaters to UHF, and I am unaware of it ever being tried on VHF. N0FKM (Dan) had a (one-way) link from the 444.750+ to the 224.500- that died a slow and lingering death in late 2013. And KG0BP (Chris) took down the link between his HandiHam UHF .850 and the 223.940- (100.0 PL) well over a year ago. Neither the UHF repeater nor the link has been heard from since. K0LAV (Paul) has plans to link his 224.100- (no PL) machine to his new VHF 147.390+ (94.8 PL), but I'm still unable to raise the 1.25M machine from my location -- nor have I ever been able to. 

  For the time being, anyway, local hams can indirectly access the most powerful 1.25M repeater in the State simply by tuning their UHF rigs to 442.925, and the few brave souls operating on 1.25M are no longer isolated from the other bands. While the C4FM .925 is not linked to the HandiHam network, nor to the VHF 145.230 SNP repeater, it has significant activity from the Texas community and sporadic activity from the two linked repeaters. It's an exciting and unique development. Since the C4FM .925 has been doing other things for so long, I haven't been able to put its coverage to the test. Operating out of Minnetonka, reaching the repeater from Plymouth is hardly a challenge. KA0KMJ (John) has told me that he has no trouble reaching it from Osseo, but that's all of the empirical evidence that I have until I can get out for a drive and find out for myself. 

  The C4FM .925 is, per Don, operating in hybrid mode. This means that analogue FM radios and System Fusion radios can both access it. Until Yaesu upgrades its firmware, however, the C4FM signals will get converted to analogue before being passed on to the linked repeaters or the WIRES-X room. I'm currently unaware of any C4FM repeater operating completely in digital mode.

Loose Notes 4/4/15 - Easter

  I didn't spend a great deal of time on the air this week, but I did spend a fair amount of time in amateur radio discussions off-air. Here's the round-up: 

• KA0KMJ (John) has moved his C4FM repeater to a new site in Dayton (northern metro suburb) about eight miles from his home. The 444.725+ (127.3 PL) hybrid-mode repeater now has a 50W Henry PA, making it the second most-powerful C4FM machine in the metro. The new site is nicely unobstructed and significantly higher, and John has been exploring the improved coverage radius. The machine uses an ARS GasFET RX pre-amp to really clean up signals on the fringe, and it's a welcome addition to the UHF under-served NW suburbs. Don't be fooled by the PL tone; this is an open repeater, and not one of the "emergency" machines. John tells me that a 50W UHF mobile gets him in to the .725 from Zimmerman.

• Last night, I had a brief QSO with John on the UHF .725 while returning home from a birthday party in St. Louis Park. At Hwy 55 and Winnetka, I was virtually unreadable on my 10W mobile (with trunk-lip mounted tri-band whip). That's a very low spot, however, and I chose it specifically to test the coverage. I've always considered it interesting that the County put the 444.175+ (127.3 PL) "emergency" repeater in that vicinity. Once I got on I-169, however, the signal into John's repeater improved -- especially as I gained a little elevation. This is the nature of UHF, and one of the things that I love about the band. It's not "easy". It's also a compelling case for linked repeaters on the band, rather than "monster coverage" machines that attempt to defy the physics of UHF propagation. Also, another QSO with John this afternoon had him getting in readably at 23 miles from I-35W and CR 36. 

•  Coverage reports are also trickling in for the KE0NA/N0AGI cross-band link effort. Using WIRES-X, the 1.25M 223.900- (100.0 PL) and UHF 442.175+ (100.0 PL) have been linked for a few weeks now. At the moment, this is the only 1.25M cross-band action in town. Still no word on when the 223.940- (100.0 PL) machine in Arden Hills will have its link with the HandiHam network restored, either. N0AGI (Nagi) recently reported that KE0NA (Dave) was getting through to the UHF .175 Prior Lake repeater while mobile on the 1.25M .900 -- even as he went through the Lowry Hill tunnel. There have also been scattered reports of activity from distant parts accessing the twin repeaters through WIRES-X.

• The APRS site aprs.fi is back up again after a dust-up with Google over the use of OSM maps on the site. I had expected the site to be down over the holiday week-end, but Google responded promptly.

• Speaking of APRS, the Doers Coop looks as if it is reviving its efforts to use Raspberry Pi (RPi) boards for APRS gateways. If it's successful and documented, turn-key I-Gates could very easily be set up anywhere with internet access. Even rural areas could see gateways implemented with mag-mount 1/4-wave antennae, connected to the internet at libraries, courthouses, schools and vo-techs, and even municipal garages. There are a lot of digipeaters in rural MN, but few gateways. Strategically placing one of these RPi I-gates a few miles from a digipeater would connect local APRS end-users to the rest of the world, and add valuable VHF propagation data to alert hams of VHF tropo openings.

• And, it seems as if AE0RF (Justin) is on a parallel course. He's had AE0RF-10 operating as a receive-only gateway in St. Paul's Payne-Phalen neighbourhood for a few weeks now. His gateway uses RPi, an SDR receiver, and solar power. It was a valuable resource when W0YC-5 went down recently, and it's proof-of-concept for the Doers Coop. Hopefully, Justin can team up with the Doers and we can make this clever solution accessible to the amateur radio community at large. K0LAV (Paul) has also told me of a solar-powered digipeater in Isle, MN.

• Also along these lines, WB0GVI-8 is back on the air with a digipeater near Loring Park. As you can see here, WB0GVI (Noel) is providing fill-in service for the metro, and he routinely reaches the N0AGI gateway in Prior Lake.

• Last weekend, on N0BVE's (Don) 145.230- SNP repeater, I had a nice QSO with WA0DKS (Susie) in southern California. It seems that Don has left the EchoLink node constantly connected to the MN_CONF conference server. The repeater itself is in Chaska, which might make reaching it a challenge for some in the metro.

• N0AGI has put his ARISS I-Gate on the air! The International Space Station (ISS) has about a half-dozen passes over the metro each day, lasting from five to ten minutes each. While it's FM voice function is mostly disabled, it receives FM AX.25 packets (including APRS) on 145.825 regularly. Naturally, a gateway is needed for those packets -- and Nagi has provided one. If you'd like to get in on the fun, see Nagi's "how-to" post on his blog. Work the "digipeater in the sky"!

• KE0NA (Dave) has a short video of activity at the Doers Coop table in the Mid-winter Madness hamfest last weekend. 

•  Over the past week, I've noticed test digipeaters in Maple Plain and Anoka on aprs.fi. Both of these are nice locations to fill in the gaps in coverage and make HT APRS operation possible. 

• The 443.075+ (146.2 PL) machine in Little Falls (WU0S) is now "periodically" connected to the small Central MN linked network (run by DARC). This network links the UHF repeaters in Avon (443.650+), Litchfield (443.800+), and Paynesville (224.800-), and it is accessible through EchoLink (node 925804). This network has always impressed me. UHF can be a "tough sell" in rural areas, and 1.25M is a "tough sell" in general. The 443.475+ in Becker was, at one time, part of this linked network -- and the only part that reached into the metro. N0YNT (Matt) offered to link the network to the local UHF 444.425+ power-house, but DARC wanted to keep their network local in nature. Still, LSAC is making UHF work in northern MN, and western MN is also implementing UHF in rural areas through linked repeaters. And, there's also a linked UHF repeater system in Moorhead. Stand-alone repeaters on the band make a good showing throughout the State.

Well, that's more than I thought that I had when I sat down. There you have it.

Loose Notes 3/14/15

  So what's been happening over the past week? Glad that you asked: 

• K0LAV (Paul) has moved the antenna on his 147.390+ (PL 94.8) repeater to a tower at 125 feet up. That's a lot better than his previous 30 foot antenna height. It takes me 12W to "ker-chunk" it, but it comes back with an S+ signal on my FT-897D. For those of you that aren't familiar with the Yaesu S-metre on that radio, everything above S9 is shown as S+ -- except for full scale, which is S++. Bear in mind that I'm on the opposite side of the metro, and only using an exterior mobile, mag-mount whip. It might be nice to enter your own experience as a propagation report on the 147.390's RepeaterBook page. I've heard other local operators tell me that the machine came back to them only S2, so try it again now that the antenna is much better. 

• KA0KMJ (John) is in the process of getting a UHF PA for his (SNP) 444.725+ (127.3 PL) C4FM repeater operating in hybrid mode out the NW suburbs. Yaesu has downgraded the duty cycle for full-power operation of the DR1-X repeater, so John plans to run a mere 5W into a Henry PA with 50W output. This should keep things cool on the DR1-X, while remaining within the rating for the mobile duplexer. K9EQ (Chris) did something similar, though with higher output, for the UHF .525 Medtronic repeater a few months back, so the principle is sound. I wouldn't be surprised if more System Fusion repeaters didn't follow the same path, as the PA on the DR1-X can't seem to handle extended QSOs at full power.

• The MARA 444.800+ (114.8 PL) had a bit of down time Friday night into Saturday. The RX sensitivity of the MSF-5000 repeater dropped dramatically, but it was back in operation Saturday morning. The repeater has had continuing issues with "RF whiskers", and may need to taken down again for a more thorough cleaning. Small crystalline "hairs" grow out of the cavity -- which is a pretty weird concept -- and cause shorts in the MSF-5000's receiver. 

• N0AGI (Nagi) has had a WIRES-X box set up on his UHF 442.175+ (100.0 PL) C4FM repeater for a few weeks now, and KE0NA (Dave) has been trying to set up a WIRES-X link with the 223.900- (100.0 PL) repeater this week. Nagi also confirmed rumours that he's seriously scouting out tower options for his Prior Lake repeater, which could expand the RF coverage for his UHF machine beyond the SW suburbs. Also, Nagi has completed his (previously-mentioned) "Shack-To-Go" project. Video documentation can be found on Nagi's blog.

• In an on-air QSO with KE0CRW (Greg), I found out that the C4FM 444.100+ repeater (which is the former 444.925+ HandiHam machine), has WIRES-X enabled. So, while the TCFMC has been woefully unable to keep their EchoLink node logged on for years, they now have internet-based access to one of their repeaters.

• I've been noticing sporadic traffic on the GMRS 462.575+ channel this week. I'm unaware of a local repeater on that pair, and it doesn't last long enough for a CTCSS scan. Anyone know something about this?

• Local amateur FM mastermind N0YNT (Matt) is currently operating out of an undisclosed West Coast location, but he wrote back and noted one of  the differences between the Twin Cities and California FM scene:
  

  Like every other populated city, there was nobody to talk to on the various 2 meter machines. It appears that most people in California have found their "cliques" and those are off of two meters. (One ham described two meters in the Bay Area as "The Learning Band", a "one click up from C.B., only licensed.") heh.
  

Loose Notes 3/8/15

A smattering of intriguing developments that I've encountered lately: 

• N0AGI (Nagi) has an interesting project in the works: a portable HF rig. As usual, he's documented it meticulously on his blog and in video. Part 1 can be found on his blog, and Part 2 of the project can be found on this video. 

• This weekend, I stumbled across the UHF repeater operated by K0LAV (Paul) on 444.950+ (114.8 PL). I've grown accustomed to being unable to reach most of Paul's repeaters, being quite limited in antenna options here and being on the opposite side of the metro from him. But I was pleasantly surprised to see the .950 come back full-scale using my exterior antenna and 10W. I discussed this development with Paul on the MARA UHF .800 repeater and learned that the repeater's antenna was a respectable 90 feet up, and also that it was cross-band linked to his 33 cm 919.100- machine. So, if you've ever wanted to play with 33 cm operation, the UHF .950 is an excellent means to do that. 

•  With the addition of a new exciter, and a 100W Henry PA, the 223.900- (100.0 PL) "Aggrandizer" repeater has officially moved out of "testing" and into "on-air" status. This effort has only been made possible with the help and advice from the local amateur community, though some elements of that same community have placed significant barriers in its path. Whatever success may come from this project is a testament to the positive and co-operative spirit that still exists here, as well as the vision and drive to experiment found in some quarters. While the site in NE Minneapolis keeps the 223.900 in the "hobby" repeater class, we are exploring various linking options to make this repeater more valuable to the amateur radio community.  And, as I predicted back in September, The Aggrandizer is in full operation before the TCRC has restored their 224.540- repeater.

•  In an on-air conversation with N0BVE (Don) yesterday (3/7) I found out that the VHF SNP 145.230- (114.8 PL) repeater that he's running is currently located in Chaska. It comes back to me with a (somewhat noisy) S6 signal, but pretty much everyone in town has a better antenna arrangement than I do, so you can probably reach it much better than me. The .230 is EchoLink-capable (through KA0KMJ-L), though not connected to the rest of the HandiHam network. 

• Per K0LAV (Paul), the 146.850- (no PL) operated by MARA is averaging 9.5 hours of key-up time per day. That figure didn't mean much to me, until Paul explained that it's about twice the activity of just two years ago. No similar records are kept for MARA's UHF counterpart, the 444.800+ (114.8 PL), though it seems to me that activity has increased somewhat over the past year. Certainly, there are more people monitoring it regularly, based on the number of people coming back to me when I throw out my sign there. Maybe UHF is slowly becoming more accepted by the two-metre crowd here.  

Loose Notes 3/1/15

As usual, there are a few things going on deserving of mention. 

• One of the big APRS gateways in town has been missing from the VHF propagation maps for a few days now. N0AGI had some brief down time for a software update, but when it returned to service it was no longer showing up on the propagation maps. This is lousy for the local area, as it deprives metro hams of VHF data. A tweet to the operator of the great propagation site, NG0E (Jon), resolved things quickly.

  

  N0AGI gateway is back on the map

• Rumours are that N0BVE (Don) has plans for a UHF C4FM (System Fusion) repeater on the 444.100+ pair. With the TCFMC's "dot one" going off air for weeks now, it may be that Don has made some kind of arrangement with the (financially-struggling) club that the frequency pair is currently allocated to. No word on the site, potential linking arrangements, or target dates for the new repeater. This could be exciting. EDIT: On-air conversations have clarified things a bit. Don has simply changed the frequency of the C4FM .925 over to the 444.100+ pair, in a gracious effort to help out the TCFMC. At the moment, there is no 442.925+ repeater in operation -- either linked to HandiHam or stand-alone. No word on how long this arrangement will be maintained.

• The 1.25M 223.900- (PL 100.0) "Aggrandizer" repeater has it's new 80W PA installed, and a replacement TH-9000D for the exciter is on its way. KE0NA (Dave) put his own mobile rig into the mix as a temporary exciter for testing purposes. Yesterday (2/28) Dave and I made some tests, but the results weren't that great. Using my exterior ground-plane, the repeater came back as only S3 or S4 with a lot of noise. Switching to my Yagi brought it up to S6 or S7, but doing that before we were using a PA gave me a full-scale signal. Dave checked the output power with his Bird metre, and confirmed 80W going to the antenna. Nothing has really changed on my end, but I'll go over my entire setup today with a fine-tooth comb. I confirmed that I can easily reach other repeaters on the band, though. If you have a 1.25M rig, maybe give the .900 a listen and provide us with some independent data. In the interim, Dave added an LED light bar to the repeater: 

  

  The Aggrandizer is all lit up

• I've been informed that K0LAV (Paul) now has his 147.390+ (94.8 PL) repeater in low-power testing. I'm not able to reach it, so I can't confirm this.

• N0AGI (Nagi) has  new YouTube videos up documenting the setup of his new 442.175+ (100.0 PL) System Fusion repeater. As usual, he goes into painstaking detail, and includes the setup of his WIRES-X node.