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.             

APRS update 1/9/16

  A few new APRS gateways have joined the local network recently. First, AE0RF (Justin) has got his AE0RF-10 RX-only gateway back in the game. It's already gating packets in the challenging RF environment of downtown Minneapolis. Second, AE0MT (Mike) has very recently brought a solar powered Raspberry Pi (RPi) receive-only gateway online in Coon Rapids. AE0MT-10 is providing local coverage of Hwy 10, and we'll get a better idea of its wider coverage as time goes on. Third, N0QHM (Jim) has his gateway and digipeater back on the air in Bloomington. N0QHM-1 covers a lot of the south metro on a fill-in basis, out to 35E and down to Burnsville. This is an area of relatively heavy packet traffic, and a gateway is needed there for redundancy of coverage. 

  The big N0HOY-10 digipeater in Arden Hills is currently down. This is a great example of why we need these local-coverage gateways.

  N0BVE (Don) provided a real-time test of APRS coverage recently, and it was interesting. Don drove from Minnetonka down to south-eastern MN with a 5W HT and a 5/8-wave whip, and he let me know ahead of time so that I could watch how his packets were handled. One of my concerns has been that our current network is built for higher-powered mobiles, so Don's trip with a 5W mobile station was interesting to me. 

  In town, of course, coverage was great. His HT was SmartBeaconing, so there were plenty of data points. As he got on to Hwy 52 near Inver Grove Heights, though, coverage became fairly sporadic. There's a need for an RX-only I-Gate (or even a low-power digipeater) somewhere between Inver Grove Heights and Hampton on Hwy 52. Operators with more power might have little difficulty in that area, but what we have now isn't reliable for gating packets with low power. 

  As Don approached Hampton, the W0MXW-3 digipeater in Rochester took over the bulk of Don's packets. This digipeater was over fifty miles away, and it was passing on packets from a 5W mobile! The KC0REO-10 gateway in Owatonna ended up actually gating those packets. 

  Once you get into southern Minnesota, there are a lot more digipeaters than there are gateways. If there was more traffic, I think that the three gateways for the area would really struggle. Still, there were no areas of sporadic coverage for the remainder of Don's trip.

  In Rochester, Don got off Hwy 52 and on to I-90. The two Rochester digipeaters (W0MXW-3 and WB0MPE-7) took over fully, and passed packets to N0OWT-3 in Winona. Further east, the Wisconsin digipeater N9QIP-9 and the W0NE-1 gateway were an efficient team. Even down in the river valley at Onalaska, N0EXE-3 digipeated Don's packets to W0NE-1. 

  I was impressed with this model. It wouldn't work in the metro, because the few gateways would get overloaded, but it does a fine job handling low-powered mobile packets. South of I-90, however, the terrain gets very challenging and it's doubtful coverage would be so continuous. But I'd see the priority as covering the interstate, and the APRS network probably could handle low-powered mobiles all the way to Albert Lea along the interstate. 

  The only weak point in the trip was in the south-east exurbs. I know that I've heard of operators with portable APRS radios in Eagan having trouble getting their packets gated. This seems to be "low-hanging fruit" that a RPi RX-only gateway could easily resolve.                             

My mobile future

   My current project is making preparations for my new mobile arrangement. I've ordered a 45W UHF monoband mobile (CS-800) that operates on analogue and DMR. 

  I've never had a "real" mobile rig, instead using various HTs connected to various exterior-mounted mobile whips for a long while. Then, I put the Leixen VV-898 in my car about a year ago. It's a 10W dual-band rig that's worked okay for local use and even road trips. Most hams would sneer in derision over such a feeble mobile setup, but I actually spend very little time in my car, so I don't need much to reach a few favourite local repeaters. 

  Using DMR, however, has made the deficiencies in this mobile setup painfully clear. My DMR HT (CS-700) doesn't really reach the 442.425+ repeater at the East Bank campus of the University, though it receives very well. It's only a ten or fifteen mile distance in my driving range, but the de-sensing of the repeater's receiver from the MARA UHF remote link demands a stronger signal. Also, UHF coverage is highly dependent on topography. In a year or so, the situation should improve considerably with the addition of the Dayton site and the use of new frequency pairs on the other two sites. Even with the potential for improvement, I'd really like more reliability in my UHF coverage -- both for DMR and analogue. Improving my mobile rig is something that I can do on my end, rather than waiting for others to make my life easier. 

  Making a change like this has required me to think long and hard about the various trade-offs, and about what I really want and need in a mobile setup. The CS-800, as I said, is a monoband UHF rig. It will most likely let me get into most of the metro UHF repeaters reliably, wherever my local travels take me, but I'd be giving up two-metre FM entirely in my car.  

  For a lot of hams, that would be a big deal-breaker. For my uses, however, it's not that much of a sacrifice. My 2M FM activity is almost entirely limited to the 145.450 HandiHam repeater in Minnetonka and (to a much lesser extent) the 147.000 repeater in Maple Plain. And, as I mentioned, I don't really spend even two hours in my car total over the course of a week. My (very infrequent) road trips would be the major consideration, as VHF rules outside of the metro. My experience over the past three years has been that these rural and out-state 2M repeaters are pretty dead, though. On a camping trip this past Spring, I went to a fair amount of trouble to reach the Rush City 145.330- repeater from the campsite -- only to discover that there was absolutely no activity on this machine over the course of the entire weekend. In the same situation (where I hung a roll-up J-pole from a tree and ran it into my 10W mobile), a 45W UHF mobile would have allowed me to reach the (linked, but similarly dead) 444.575+ UHF repeater in Hinckley. 

  There's something to be said for having 2M FM simplex capability when travelling outside of the metro, of course. A full-powered dual-band analogue rig would cost about as a much as the monoband DMR rig, after all. Hence, my dilemma. I reconciled this by realising that I could always put my Leixen dual-band in the stash box on road trips. 10W isn't much on two-metre FM -- just about enough to get you laughed at -- but it would be better than nothing. Plus, I could leverage that with a beam when I was stationary if there was sufficient local VHF activity to warrant it. My tape-measure Yagi doesn't take up much space in the trunk when it's broken down and folded up. Even if I didn't want to bother with the Leixen, I always take along a 5W dual-band HT on trips. Putting a dual-band whip in the trunk isn't much trouble.

  So, with the infrequent road trip scenario addressed, I came back to the issue of local use. The state of local UHF repeaters has improved a lot over the past three years, though activity hasn't improved in a commensurate way. There are linked Fusion machines on the band that will soon provide continuous coverage almost up to Mille Lacs Lake. The local 442.075+ repeater links to the entire State of Wisconsin, as well as reaching the metro widely. There are several wide-coverage UHF repeaters, including the ostensible "emergency" repeaters. More importantly, the local UHF scene is still growing, while the local two-metre FM scene is locked into stagnation. New UHF machines can still be added, linked, and improved. Nothing will change on VHF in the foreseeable future, other than at the margins. 

  Here in Plymouth, I'm at the edge of the UHF world, however. Locking myself into one band is a gamble. The 444.375+ repeater in Plymouth is pretty much the western edge, and there's virtually no activity on it, though it has good coverage. The HandiHam 444.925+ repeater is not easily reached, and the 444.650+ machine has "issues". I could live with losing access to the (nearly dead) 147.000 2M machine, but giving up the 145.450 would be a sacrifice. 

  The solution that I've settled on is a bit unconventional. My plan is to add 1.25M capability with an HT that can go in the stash box. I may add a second mount in the future for a monoband 222 MHz whip, but for now my scenario is swapping out my UHF monoband whip for the monoband 1.25M whip when the need arises. I've been testing access to the 223.940- (100.0 PL) from my common routes, and the results are quite good with a 5W HT. The 223.940 is linked to the HandiHam network, so it's as if I'm accessing the 145.450 machine. Of course, this arrangement would also allow me access to three or four other nice 1.25M repeaters with good coverage in Plymouth. Yeah, those repeaters are dead, but somebody has to make the first move to make the 1.25M band viable locally. It's possible that one or two of these repeaters could be made cross-band in the future, too. The 1.25M FM band is wide open with more than fifty empty frequency pairs, affordable repeater solutions available, and more user radio options than ever before. 

  The only thing that I see in the future for the local 2M FM scene is more and more consolidation into two or three repeaters, with the remainder sitting unused (except for nets). The disdain for linking, EchoLink access, cross-band, and actual conversations is making the band irrelevant. Additionally, the insistence on a full-quieting signal as a requisite for a 2M FM QSO is slowly turning it into a swamp of boring elitists much more concerned with the rig an operator is using than what they actually have to say on that rig. Of course, "it's not everybody", but it doesn't need to be "everybody" to make something irrelevant. Most of the people who own two-metre frequency pairs are locked in to a world that only exists in their own minds and memories. I'm still hopeful that N0FKM (Dan), N0YNT (Matt), N0BVE (Don), the Richfield Radio Club (W0RRC), and the minds behind the K0MSP repeater can still do something innovative locally with their VHF frequency pairs, but the challenge is largely one of resources and time. 

  I'll still have access to 2M FM at home, of course. It's easier for someone like me to gamble on an unconventional mobile setup, and DMR figures largely in that picture. I'm choosing a path of future potential, and betting on the local amateur community to create the future-proof infrastructure (cross-band and linked networks, particularly) to make this kind of move viable.

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 10/11/15

  Not a heck of a lot has happened in my radio world this week, but I'll try to put something together. 

• On Wednesday (10/7), the RF link between the 1.25M 223.940- repeater in Arden Hills and the HandiHam network was restored by KG0BP (Chris) after being down for nearly two years. Chris received substantial help from N0BVE (Don), who provided a tower. The signal from the 223.940 is received in Richfield and sent to the network via EchoLink, and any traffic on the network is transmitted to the 223.940 repeater with an Alinco mobile. I had a chance to test it out yesterday (10/10) with KA0PQW (Matt) and Don, getting in easily with 10W into a mag-mount tri-band whip from the opposite side of the metro. Don was also on 1.25M, so I had a chance to hear the audio directly and it's pretty good. The .940 will get a work-out with all of the traffic on the network. Thanks to everyone involved in this useful project. 

• As part of this upgrade by KG0BP, the 444.850+ (114.8 PL) HandiHam repeater is back on the air. In contrast to my discussions with Chris last November, he decided to use the old antenna that the .850 used before, rather than a north-facing beam. At only 13 miles distance, I'm unable to "ker-chunk" the .850 nor even hear any of the network traffic carried on it. Don has worked it from about seven miles at the University, and Chris' wife has worked it from about five miles distance. Undoubtedly, topography is the major limitation here. In its previous incarnation, the 444.850 had quite decent coverage to the south, and it's likely that it still does. Try it out and put your signal reports on RepeaterBook. Some operators in the inner southern suburbs might find the .850 a welcome alternative to the .650, as it's not plagued by a short time-out. The 444.850 is a fully-functional linked network repeater, so reaching it re-transmits your signal on every other HandiHam repeater over three bands.

• In an on-air chat with N0YNT (Matt) over DMR (N. America TG), I learned that he will moving back to St. Paul (from San Francisco) in 3 or 4 weeks. We discussed moving the 223.900- repeater to the St. Paul campus (definite maybe), and the 224.940- machine to K9EQ's (Chris) site (unlikely). Matt also has some hazy plans for the 443.425+ and 147.150+ repeaters that have more or less languished for years. Before his move to the West Coast, Matt expressed a vision for an ambitious metro-wide, linked, cross-band network. The pieces are finally coming together, with various people contributing their unique talents and thinking outside the conventional box. 

•  A chat with N0GOI (Terry) revealed that his six-metre FM repeater project (53.470-) is "not that far off". Two years ago, the TCRC's 53.370- machine died a whimpering death and left the metro without 6M FM coverage. Last year, W0CE (Charlie) informed me that his 6M repeater in Ramsey was, indeed, off-air, and would not be restored. N0BVE (Don) has been looking for a site for his 6M repeater for years now. I'm unsure how much interest there is in the metro for the six-metre band, at least as far as FM goes. With three bands already, and activity declining, it might be a "tough sell". In theory, the lower frequency should provide somewhat better "over-the-horizon" coverage (all other propagation anomalies aside). I could see more value with six-metre FM as part of cross-band linked system than as a stand-alone option. 

• In a QSO with K0ZZK (Tom) on the 444.475+ (118.8 PL) repeater yesterday (10/10), I learned that the antenna for the Richfield (RARC) machine has been upgraded. I was fairly surprised to reach it so well with an indoor antenna 13 miles away, especially considering my complete failure to reach the 444.850 (in the same city) with an outdoor antenna. Tom gave me a good signal report, however, and the .475 came back to me with an S6 signal here in Plymouth. Per Tom, the cross-band link to the RARC's 145.390- (103.5 PL) is no longer working and the idea has been abandoned. Still, the UHF .475 is a System Fusion machine, which offers potential for WIRES-X linking if the RARC ever wanted to do something creative with their coverage. For example, a WIRES-X link to the 442.075+ C4FM machine in Prior Lake (18 miles away) would be mutually beneficial. It would open up more of 169 and 35W to the metro and boost the fringes of the 444.475's coverage. As it stands now, though, the upgraded .475 has excellent coverage. I just need to find out how well I can reach it with 10W in my car this far away. 

• Not satisfied with being a major metro APRS gateway, N0AGI (Nagi) has teamed up with N0BVE (Don) to put N0AGI-5 on the Chaska water tower. This moves the I-Gate about a dozen miles north, and much higher. The results are very impressive. The map of stations directly heard shows that coverage for the west metro (which has always lagged) and the north-west metro (always spotty) has now dramatically improved. Keep in mind when looking at that map, that this is showing the results from less than a week at the new site. There still might be a gap between N0AGI-5 and the Litchfield KD0JOU-2, but the odds of getting your packets gated in the west metro are now pretty good. The map doesn't show coverage from digipeated stations, so this is a worst-case scenario...and it's very good. More information on the new gateway can be found at Nagi's blog.

• Nagi is also involved in another project: a WinLink gateway and packet node on 145.670. Per Nagi, this is actually three different projects. N0AGI-10 is a WinLink gateway that allows access to mail over RF. N0AGI-15 is a KA-node for packet allowing you to link to other packet nodes. And N0AGI-5 is a BBS (bulletin board) for posting messages, accessible over RF. Nagi is very keen to have others test this out and make use of it. Remember, packet works over FM. Your standard FM mobile, connected to a TNC and your computer, will allow you to do access these nodes (and other nodes on 145.110). While I'm just getting in to packet through APRS, I'm not familiar with anything outside of that. Nagi has generously agreed to advise me on how to set up a working packet station, and I hope to share that information here on the blog in the future.

• After being unable to reach N0YNT's (Matt) UHF SNP repeater on 443.000+ (118.8 PL) for a couple of weeks, I was surprised to find it working this week. Located in St. Paul, it's been around for years. Hopefully Matt can find time to look at it when he returns to Minnesota in a month or so. 

• On the other hand, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get in to the 444.950+ (114.8 PL) repeater in White Bear Lake. I haven't been able to raise it in my car for over a month, nor with an indoor whip. I takes an outdoor antenna and at least 10W to open it up. A few months ago, I was able to work it with an HT/duck indoors. 

• The MARA 444.800+ (114.8 PL) continues to struggle. If you use this machine regularly, you are probably aware of it's annoying tendency to shut down completely for ten minutes or more if a QSO goes beyond six or seven minutes. In a QSO with KG0BP this week, it went dead just as we were discussing the effort to restore his UHF .850 repeater. It's smart to agree to a backup QSY when using the .800 repeater.

1.25M Link For HandiHam Network

  Per KA0PQW (Matt), the 223.940- (100.0 PL) repeater will soon be linked into the HandiHam network. This repeater was linked in for a long time, but the link was taken down when KG0BP (Chris) moved nearly two years ago now. 

  It seems that N0BVE (Don) has installed a tower at Chris' house for the 1.25M antenna, and that this station will re-transmit HandiHam network traffic to the 223.940 repeater. Likewise, any traffic on the 223.940 will be received by this remote base and linked in through the internet (most likely via EchoLink). 

  We finally have cross-band linking to 1.25M in the metro! There have been other short-lived efforts to link the band up to the rest of the world over the past year, and many more plans to do so voiced, but this looks as if this will stick. 

  The 223.940 has very good coverage. Those in the north metro and western Wisconsin that have struggled to get in to the network through 2M or UHF should find it easy to do using 1.25M, and mobile coverage throughout the metro has been pretty solid, in my experience. I've worked the .940 with a 5W HT in my car (using a tri-band whip) from North Branch, and I can certainly work it with 5W into an exterior antenna from here in Plymouth. 

  Chris also operated the 444.850+ HandiHam repeater out of his home years ago. It's possible that this development could restore that machine to the air before too long. The south metro already has good coverage on UHF from the .325 at the airport and whatever machine is currently running in Chaska. But Chris had told me last November that he planned to use a north-pointing beam on the .850 to eliminate some of the southern coverage redundancies and fill in the gaps of the .650 repeater. That would be good news, because  the .650 has spotty coverage (and a maddening two-minute time-out). If the 444.850 could cover more of the UHF-deficient west metro, that would be a plus.

  Previously, K9EQ (Chris) has voiced a willingness to host the 224.940 repeater, which has been operating out of a garage in New Brighton for years now. It's possible that another cross-band link (UHF/1.25M) could be in the metro's future. 

  It's getting a bit late in the year for any dramatic improvements in the landscape, so I'll take what i can get at this point.

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.  

Loose Notes 8/30/15

  There's not a whole lot of developments that I've noticed over the past week, but I thought that I'd get a brief post up. 

• The WIRES-X link that N0BVE (Don) had set up on 145.230- has been down most of the week. Also, per a brief conversation with Don last week, I learned that he has put up a UHF repeater on 443.000+ (SNP) at the HandiHam camp on Maple Lake. This repeater is in addition to the 145.470- (114.8 PL) VHF machine already at the Camp. 

• The Fox 1-A FM satellite won't be launched this month, as I've previously mentioned. Instead, the date has been moved to early October. I'm still wondering when the FM repeater on the EO-80 satellite will be activated. It should be soon, but there have been no announcements about it. 

•  I just wanted to put up this map of the current propagation, so that we can look back on it over the winter:

  

  Ducting from Canada down to Texas! 

  
  

• There are a few things to note for APRS lately. KC0REO-10 has popped up with an RPi I-Gate in Owatonna, with some nice coverage of I-35. Just across the border in La Crosse, the N0EXE-3 digipeater is a very new development. It does a great job filling in the gap, and it covers both sides of the Mississippi River up to the new N9MFI-10 gateway. It was only a month ago that we got the new KC9DGP-10 digipeater a dozen miles to the south of N0EXE-3. The terrain is very challenging in the south-eastern part of Minnesota, so it's very good news to see local hams building up the infrastructure there so quickly. It was only a month ago that the new N0QK-1 digipeater appeared in that same general area, too. Further afield, the N0CBV-1 digipeater has stuck it out for a month now, operating north of Pelican Rapids.     
  

I'm on DMR...at last!

  Over a month ago, I got the Connect Systems CS700 monoband UHF HT. I outlined the ordering process here, and you have to call Connect Systems and order over the phone if you want the amateur discount -- which is about 50%. The radio and accessories arrived quickly, but programming the radio was pretty difficult. Eventually, I was able to get the analogue FM side of the radio working, but not the digital (DMR) side. Even using analogue, I was very impressed with the audio quality on both transmit and receive. Listening to my signal on simplex, it sounded just like I was using my FT-897D. 

  The radio, speaker mic, extra battery, programming cable, and shipping came to $260. That's less than the ($300) ICOM D-31A D-Star UHF HT -- without an extra battery, speaker mic, and programming cable, which is another $200! Of course, the D-31A has built-in GPS, and the CS700 doesn't. To save an extra $240, I'll use the GPS in my smart-phone, though. 

  The Yaesu FT-1DR is $310 (including programming cable). An extra battery and speaker mic is about $100 more. The FT-1DR also has GPS and wideband receive, and is dual band. Personally, I think wideband receive is a great way to hear a lot of intermod. The new FT-2DR is $550.

  So the CS700 is a relatively affordable way to get into DMR, and we do have two DMR repeaters in town now. It's not just the local repeater that makes DMR attractive; it's the "talk-groups" that a DMR repeater gives you access to. There is a North American and World-Wide talk-group, as well as a Midwest option. The best analogy is to an EchoLink conference server, with anyone on (pretty much) any DMR repeater in the world being able to get on local, regional, or world-wide "conferences". The audio is absolutely noise-free. Like all digital modes, you are either perfect or not there at all. I've heard D-Star audio quality, and the voices on DMR sound immensely better. There's a slight metallic edge, but I could easily recognise the voices of N0BVE (Don) and KA0KMJ (John), and they sounded good. 

  But, for over a month, I was stumped by the DMR programming. I had watched a long video explaining how to program the radio, which was very instructive as far as the framework and peculiarities of DMR. Even though it's long, I'd recommend it to anyone before they begin any attempt to program the CS700. Just realise that the guy has the output and input frequencies of all of the UHF repeaters reversed. Using this video, I was able to get the analogue repeaters to work. But the DMR settings are much more complex. I was part of the way there, but not all of the way there. And I was at a dead end. 

  Most people use Motorola HTs for DMR, and it's a lot easier to get help programming those. But, last weekend, I was talking to N0BVE on my drive home from grocery shopping and I mentioned that I was not able to figure out the digital side of the CS700. While Don had a Motorola, and couldn't help me directly, he suggested that I contact KA0KMJ. John has a CS700, and he successfully programmed it. All that I needed, in theory, was a copy of the programming file on John's radio. I could change the callsign and DMR ID, and load it into my HT. 

  So today I went over to John's 444.725+ repeater and approached him about getting a copy of the file. John not only dropped what he was doing, but he also edited the file with my callsign and ID and emailed it to me. 

  I loaded the file and plugged the radio into an indoor whip. Then I threw out my sign on the "local" talk-group. Immediately, N0BVE responded and I knew that the code-plug worked! I was on the air with DMR. 

  Big thanks go to KA0KMJ for making this possible. Now I owe him a favour.

  The generic code plug for the Twin Cities is here. This will only work on the CS700, and you will have to add your own callsign and DMR ID. You can get a DMR ID here. Bear in mind that things might change on the local repeater, but you can always use this code-plug as a template and merely edit the talk-groups or group call info. There are also a lot of analogue FM repeaters, which you can remove, rename, or edit to fit your local situation. It's best to watch the video to understand how to alter the scan list, zones, etc. to accommodate these edits. 

  There are problems with the local DMR 442.425+ repeater. Since the remote receive site for the MARA .850 is on the same roof as the DMR repeater, it tends to wipe out the DMR .425 when the .850 is in use. I didn't experience any issues while I was listening, but John and Don assure me that the problem is real and can be quite annoying. 

  With DMR, all of the "brains" are in the user radio; the repeater is comparatively simple. There is talk of expanding the number of repeaters, possibly to Rochester, if suitable sites can be found. 

  If you're thinking of dipping your toe into digital modes, the CS700 could be the least expensive option -- and also give you excellent analogue performance. And if you travel to other cities with DMR repeaters often, the choice just gets easier. While the CS700 is a monoband (UHF only), nearly all DMR repeaters are on UHF.

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 3/8/15

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.

New C4FM UHF repeater in Prior Lake

  There's a new UHF C4FM (System Fusion) repeater on the air in the SW metro. 

  Per N0AGI (Nagi), the 442.175+ (PL 100.0) repeater is up and running out of his home in Prior Lake! Like KA0KMJ's (John) 444.725+ (PL 127.3) C4FM repeater, Nagi is running 25W output. Nagi has added a WIRES-X node to the .175, and it's operating in hybrid mode. 

  Initially, Nagi couldn't get the Yaesu DR-1X to transmit. With some kindly support from K9EQ (Chris), the issue was tracked down to an internal slide switch that was set to "boot" mode at the factory. Per Nagi:

If any of you are implementing Fusion, note that there are 2 “boot” slide-switches. One that is documented for uploading firmware. This sits right inside a “round hole” on the RX module on the left of the unit. And the 2^nd “boot” slide switch controls the TX behavior that sits on the PCB right behind the LCD Panel on the left hand side.

  It's great to see hams helping each other out in a positive, constructive manner, and willing to share what they learn with the world. Hopefully, the petty distinctions that have been manufactured by the hobby over decades will evaporate as we tackle new things.

  With the machine on the air, the next order of business was getting signal reports. N0BVE (Don) obliged, and the UHF .175 was checked in digital and analogue modes. It's about 18 miles from Prior Lake to Minnetonka, and the new C4FM repeater was up to the job. KE0NA (Dave) was enlisted in the effort to determine the coverage area from NE Minneapolis (27 miles), but he couldn't "ker-chunk" the repeater with his quad beam. Chalking it up to the obstruction of downtown Minneapolis, I became an obvious next choice. Here in Plymouth, I'm also about 27 miles from N0AGI -- but straight north and relatively free of potential obstructions. 

  Naively, I first tried to "ker-chunk" the machine with 40W and an indoor antenna. That didn't work, of course. So I moved into the other room and put 20W (FT-897D) into my exterior ground-plane. I get in to UHF repeaters further away than 27 miles with this arrangement, so it seemed sensible to expect success. I at least expected to hear an ID. No such luck. 

  Okay, I still have a three-element UHF Yagi and a tripod mast on my balcony for just such challenges as this. I went out into the cold and mounted the beam, extended the mast, and connected the coax. One of the sections on the mast was frozen stiff and wouldn't extend, but the beam was still mostly above the roof level. 20W into the Yagi has worked wonders for me on UHF, even with my antenna restrictions. This time, though, it didn't work. SWR was great, it was pointed using a compass -- but I didn't even hear an ID from the new repeater. 

  I brought the mast indoors and thawed out the frozen section, adding a little light oil to prevent a recurrence. Maybe an extra (not quite) two feet of height on the mast will make a difference. I'll try it again today. Still, this is hardly an ongoing option for me at a condo, even if it does work. 

  So I'm throwing out an appeal to other local operators that may be closer or have better antennae to give the 442.175+ a try. As I understand it, the station antenna is about 90 feet above ground and clear of obstruction. Let's figure out what the coverage radius of this new repeater is. We know that it's working, based on N0BVE's report. 

  Right now, it seems safe to say that it won't reach Minneapolis proper. We're probably looking at Edina, Richfield, Eagan, Farmington, and Waconia as the practical range. That's still a respectable coverage area, and it brings UHF C4FM into areas lacking it currently -- and the fastest-growing part of the metro. 

  Otherwise, linking is the most practical way to increase coverage. This is an option fraught with politics in the metro, however. From a strictly technical point of view, though, the UHF HandiHam C4FM .925, the UHF .725 in Osseo, or the Medtronic .525 in Mounds View would be the low-hanging fruit in such an endeavour. Each option would increase the coverage of the UHF repeaters involved. UHF is still the most likely path for C4FM expansion in the metro.

  Still, there are VHF C4FM machines already in operation in Carver and Eden Prairie -- not that far away. Maybe cross-band linking could establish dual-band C4FM with a local coverage radius. 

  Even if I can't reach the new 442.175 machine, it's nice to see UHF coverage expanding outside of the urban core. 

Loose Notes 2/22/15

As usual, just a few scattered bits of info that don't merit an in-depth examination. 

• N0BVE (Don) has apparently been trying to get his SNP 2M repeater to take off. On 145.230- (114.8 PL), it's operating out of either Minnetonka or Chaska. It's hard to keep up with the constantly-shifting status of his multiple machines, after all. The EchoLink node says Chaska, but Don has told me that it's at his home in Minnetonka. The 145.23 has a decent signal strength (S7 here in Plymouth), but there's a fair amount of noise. I'm not sure if the audio is just fairly low, or if there's interference, but the quality of the signal is not good relative to the signal strength. There's not a lot of local activity on the repeater, and it's not often linked to the rest of the network, but Don does frequently connect it to a different EchoLink conference -- MN_CONF. This is a chatty (and friendly) group of people from outside of the area, and the connection to the conference server does create activity on a repeater that would otherwise be dead. It's worth checking out.

• One of Don's other projects, the C4FM repeater on 442.925+ (114.8 PL), is still holding up. There's been issues with the PA blowing on the local C4FM repeaters, but this one is working fine. It has a much better signal than the 145.23 machine (from my vantage point, anyway), though it doesn't seem to be connected to the larger HandiHam network. I'm pretty sure that it has WIRES-X access, though, so it's a bit more than a stand-alone UHF machine. 

• It's not often that we can look forward to a new two-metre repeater in town. The frequency pairs are tightly locked up, but K0LAV (Paul) managed to get his hands on the 147.390+ (94.8 PL) pair a few months ago. In an on-air conversation with him, I learned that his two remote receive sites (White Bear Lake and Columbia Heights) are up and running. The repeater itself is not yet on the air, though. Current plans involve a cross-band link to his 1.25M 224.100- (no PL) repeater in Gem Lake, and DTMF access to the SuperLink network. Big plans, certainly, but Paul has a proven track record of making big plans a reality. It's also encouraging to see something innovative finally taking shape on the local 2M scene. The vast majority of those who cling to the two-metre pairs have rejected, struggled, and fumbled with anything new. Adding voice ID seems to be the major concession to the world of thirty years ago. And there's those three D-Star repeaters. And a bare few EchoLink nodes -- that never seem to be logged in. So it's pretty impressive that Paul has undertaken this novel course of action. 

• The major digipeater in the metro, K0YTH-13, has been down for the past three days. I notified N0ZRD (Gordy), and he's confident that it can be returned to service quickly. This is why it's great that we have redundancies in coverage. Most of that redundancy is provided by individuals, and not the clubs. The clubs talk up EmComm, but seem completely incapable of connecting a BaoFeng to a junky old laptop and making even a feeble pretence of  supporting the local APRS infrastructure. Thanks go out to those guys that are there when things fail. 

• I've confirmed that KA0KMJ (John) has his C4FM repeater back on the air in Osseo. Operating in hybrid mode on 444.725+ (127.3 PL), John has reduced his output power to 20W in order to prevent the PA from melting down again. I'm only about seven miles from the repeater, and it comes back S9++ (full scale), but I'll have to try out the coverage on my mobile to get an idea of how useful the machine will be for my day-to-day purposes. The 444.725 holds up the NW for UHF C4FM, while Don's 442.925 repeater takes care of the SW metro. And, of course, K9EQ (Chris) runs his power-house (100W+) 444.525+ (114.8 PL) machine out of Mounds View, which takes care of Minneapolis and St. Paul proper (at least). UHF is definitely where the new stuff happens around here. 

• In about a week, the 1.25M Aggrandizer repeater on 223.900- (100.0 PL) will have its new PA up and running. Capable of 100W, it will be run at "only" 80W to provide a margin of safety and reliability. KE0NA (Dave) has run some models, and we expect that it will cover Minneapolis and most of the first-ring suburbs quite well. The rest of the metro generally falls into a S5-or-less zone. Options for expanding this range (which is already far more than we originally anticipated) are being explored. You can get a full-powered rig for this band for $150, and there's decent mobile coverage for most of the metro already. In a few months, the HandiHam network will be linked to 1.25M and the SuperLink will be accessible. There's already EchoLink on the 224.660- (100.0 PL) repeater. N0FKM (Dan) is pondering the restoration of UHF cross-band with his 224.500- (100.0 PL) machine, too. Things are happening on the infrastructure end, but we need more operators using this band or we'll lose it to commercial interests.

HandiHam network update

I ran into N0BVE (Don) on the Medtronic UHF .525 repeater tonight, and he let me in on a few new developments: 

• The two-metre SNP repeater that I previously mentioned is now on the Chaska water tower. N0BVE (Don) is running a machine on the 145.230- (114.8 PL) pair, and it has EchoLink and tone squelch implemented. I've never heard anyone on it, and it seems as if Don is keeping it in reserve while testing it for reliability. It's quite functional, and comes back S7 here in Plymouth. 

• The 443.000+ (100.0 PL) UHF repeater in Chaska  is back on the bench, and the 444.925+ (114.8 PL) has taken its place in Chaska. Those of you in the SW and Western metro on UHF should make note of the change. 

• N0BVE has also set up a Yaesu System Fusion (C4FM) repeater in Minnetonka on the same site as the 145.450 2M HandiHam machine. It operates on 442.925+ (114.8 PL) in hybrid (both analogue and C4FM) mode. This is the same frequency pair as KA0PQW (Matt) uses for his UHF HandiHam repeater in Ellendale, and it's currently being tested as a possible backup for his failing machine there. I ker-chunked it for an S7 return, though it took at least ten watts. That's odd, since it's only about five miles (at most) from my location. My impression is that Don is also using this repeater to get acquainted with the C4FM mode, as he plans to link it to the network in the near future. So, the western metro is going to get another UHF machine -- and one that's linked, too. 

EDIT: I was able to get in to the 442.925 okay with my PuXing HT and a stock duck antenna indoors, and also with my indoor Leixen rig. I guess that I need to clear some of the ice off my outdoor antenna. The 442.925 is definitely linked already, as I could hear the Friday Night Tech Net quite well on it.

Loose Notes 1/3/15

Not much going on, but I have a few items that don't merit their own posts.

• There's a new Amateur TV (ATV) repeater in town! N0MNB (Bill) is operating this repeater out of New Brighton on 1250.000, with an input of 427.250. Though my Kenwood TH-F6A can receive 1.2 GHz, I don't have an antenna for the band and feed-line losses are insane at these high frequencies. Obviously, you need to connect your radio to a computer to view the signal. I'm still looking for someone that knows enough about the band and ATV to write up some kind of tutorial on how to set up a station, because that person sure isn't me.

• In an on-air conversation with N0BVE (Don), I learned that the 443.000+ (100.0 PL) HandiHam repeater is back on the air, operating from Chaska as it was before. I was unable to get the current location of the 444.925+ (114.8 PL) repeater from him, as the .925 has been operating from Chaska while the 443.000 machine was being repaired. Instead, he reiterated his plans to move the .925 to the airport in Bloomington -- where the 444.325+ (131.8 PL) currently is. The .325 will become a stand-alone (i.e. not linked to the HandiHam network) repeater, and the .925 will take over the function of the .325 in extending the network coverage to St. Paul and the southern suburbs. The 444.325 machine will join the (virtually unused) stand-alone UHF repeaters in that area: the TCRC's 444.300+, the TCFMC's 444.125+, and the County "emergency" repeater on 444.200+. 

• Also in Don's plans for the HandiHam network is the inclusion of a System Fusion (C4FM) repeater. Details of this addition were sparse, but it will be linked to the network and allow local operators to use the proprietary C4FM digital mode and communicate with others using analogue FM. Ultimately, Don's plans are to include all of the common digital modes in the network. This would create compatibility between the various modes, while allowing digital users to speak to analogue users. It's a truly visionary concept. Yaesu's WIRES-X internet connection protocol is also going to be added, per Don. 

•  The HandiHam network has run out of EchoLink callsigns, per KA0KMJ (John). John has lent the network the use of his -L sign for the 443.000 repeater's node, and his -R sign is in use on the 444.425+ (114.8 PL) machine. An operator is only allowed two variants of their sign to be assigned to nodes: the -L and the -R. If you're registered on EchoLink (i.e. you've been verified and have installed the software on any device) and you have a -L or -R sign to spare, just contact N0BVE (Don) to get the process in motion. Contact details are on his QRZ.com page.

• I found an interesting blog post about adding a counterpoise to a BaoFeng HT. Amateur operator SA6TOM (Tommi) in Sweden has provided detailed instructions for the addition of a "tiger-tail", and the basic process can be applied to any HT. By attaching a wire to the chassis ground of the hand-held radio, you create a ground-plane -- much like the radials that you see on base station antennae. Normally, your body is the "ground-plane" when using an HT -- and your body isn't the most efficient RF conductor, nor is it tuned to the proper frequency. I've tried this with one of my monoband UHF hand-helds, though I just slipped some bare stranded wire wrapped around the outside of the SMA connector and tightened the antenna down to hold it. I was pleasantly surprised how much reception improved by adding the wire and holding it in the "sweet spot". Even allowing it to hang freely helped somewhat. It's an easy experiment to try.