Loose Notes 10/4/15

Not much to go with this week, but I wanted to get in a post. Here goes:

• Per KA0PQW (Matt), the 223.940- (100.0 PL) will soon be re-linked to the HandiHam network. N0BVE (Don) has put up a tower for the remote base at KG0BP's (Chris) house. No word on if KG0BP plans to restore his 444.850+ HandiHam repeater as part of this effort. Still, we have cross-band 1.25M linking in the metro again. 

•  Rumours are that K9EQ (Chris) is testing yet another System Fusion repeater to go on the 442.025 pair. Per Chris' RepeaterBook listing, the new repeater will be in Ham Lake and provide wide-area coverage, though it seems it will mainly be providing C4FM coverage to the north metro and exurbs. This is an area that has always seemed reluctant to embrace UHF, but it should provide a very useful link to the urban core. 

•  N0FKM (Dan) has now fixed the 444.550+ (114.8) repeater. It has been suffering from poor receive for several months now, and apparently had a bad connector or patch cable. Dan also has another UHF repeater in testing out of his home in Columbia Heights, so it should be interesting to see what comes of that. 

• Less than a week before the launch of the new Fox 1-A satellite.

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.

Loose Notes 12/7/14

Just a few scattered things that I've run into lately. They don't merit a full post of their own, but worth mentioning: 

• The Columbia Heights 1.25M (220 MHz) repeater on 224.500- (114.8 PL) has considerably improved this week. The receiver has improved enough for me to "ker-chunk" it with an indoor, stock duck, 2.5W HT from here in Plymouth. The signal that comes back is S9 and clear of the noise that plagued it before. A check with the HT and the TYT TH-9000 revealed that it does, in fact, transmit clear audio. N0FKM (Dan) has struggled with this repeater for some time, but he's finally found the issue, judging from the results. The 224.500- joins Dan's other 1.25M machine on 224.660- (100.0 PL) on the band. This makes seven 1.25M repeaters now functioning in the metro, with varying levels of coverage. There's an inside joke that there are more repeaters now than there are people with 1.25M rigs. I don't think that's true, because there are people with Kenwood TH-F6A's that have 220 TX capability, and there are others with dual-band Chinese HT's that cover the band, too. There's also EchoLink on the .660 machine, and there are schemes afoot to cross-band link other machines to 1.25M. So you don't even necessarily need a 1.25M rig to join in the effort to save the 220 MHz band for ham radio. It's "use it or lose it", and you're licensed to use the band, right?

 

• Though it's been a tough time in the personal lives of the two-man team responsible for the LSAC network in northern MN, there are positive developments. The Grand Marais 147.360+ (114.8 PL) linked repeater will be getting a new site on a disused Verizon tower, which should help improve coverage of the eastern end of the remote Superior National Forest. Also, 33cm (900 MHz) repeaters in Duluth are now linked into the LSAC system. And six-metre FM repeaters have joined the network, too! Now if we can only get that 443.325+ (146.2 PL) back into shape, the metro area will have access to the network. N0BZZ (Randy) reports that activity levels are good and that the repeaters are getting use. 

 

• K0LAV (Paul) recently told me about a new site that he has access to in Rockford, which is roughly 25 miles west from downtown Minneapolis. There's a Time-Warner cable building that's no longer used, along with a 150-foot tower (estimated). Paul has plans to put one of the links for the SuperLink network in the building, which would link the St. Cloud node to White Bear Lake. Word is that N0YNT (Matt) is mulling over some plans at the Rockford site, too. Remote receive sites, links to metro repeaters, and APRS digipeaters are possible. The site has a lot of unused antennae that need to be removed, and a lot of old equipment that's been abandoned inside. The 6GHz microwave horns sound especially daunting to remove, as they aren't small or light. There's plenty of (75-ohm) feed-line and arms for mounting antennae on the tower, once the old Yagis are taken down. No internet at the site, so EchoLink, AllStar, and APRS gateways aren't happening. But there's potential for some exciting developments to the west of the metro area in the future. 

 

• I heard the NCO on the HandiHam net Thursday talking about a new trend in amateur radio: micro-nodes and nano-nodes. It wasn't clear to me how the whole thing worked, but I'll mention it in case someone else knows more about it and feels like writing something up for the blog. The idea is that you use a sub-1W HT in your home that's linked to something like an IRLP thin client, allowing you to walk around your place and talk to IRLP-linked machines around the world without creating RF interference with your neighbours or requiring an exterior antenna. More information is here, along with a $500 0.2W UHF FM simplex client with built-in IRLP and EchoLink. There are only about a half-dozen IRLP nodes in MN, but the idea is to be able to connect with machines all over the world -- from Antarctica to New Zealand, from Armenia to Bermuda. IRLP nodes use Linux and a special board -- so if this has been a barrier to adoption, then these thin clients could make the difference in allowing a wider audience of hams make use of the technology.

224.660 repeater is definitely back

I've been waiting to write about this, because things have been changing with this repeater so much over the past year, but N0FKM's (Dan) 224.660- (PL 100.0) 1.25M repeater is back on the air! 

From here in Plymouth I've been able to "ker-chunk" it with an HT/stock duck indoors, and it comes back with an S9 signal. Listening on my TH-9000, I've verified that it is actually transmitting audio (and not just noise, as it was previously). Of course, with even 10W into a three-element Yagi, the TH-9000 reaches the .660 easily. The signal is full-scale and very quiet. The 224.660 is no longer linked to the UHF 444.750+, though, so there still isn't any cross-band action for 1.25M. One surprising thing about the "new" 224.660 is that it is has an EchoLink node (node 263469) ... and it actually works! So you don't even need to have a 1.25M rig to reach across the metro with this repeater.

Even the Arden Hills 223.940- (PL 100.0) machine seems to be more reliable these days. Once KG0BP (Chris) gets the link to the HandiHam network restored, those with 1.25M rigs will no longer be isolated. 

The other 1.25M repeaters

The other 1.25M repeater that N0FKM runs -- the 224.880- (no PL) in Maplewood -- has been unreachable for a while now. But that repeater had low coverage and nobody using it anyway. Maybe it was cannibalised to restore the .660 machine, but I don't know.

Still no word on what is going to happen with the 224.940- (PL 100.0) machine in New Brighton. It works fairly well, but has low coverage operating out of a garage. The last that I heard N0YNT (Matt) and N0TYE (Paul) were looking for a better site, and struggling with that effort. 

The 224.100- (no tone) repeater that K0LAV runs out of White Bear Lake is claimed to be up, but I can't reach it at all. I think that there's a plan to cross-band link this repeater to two metres, and then to the SuperLink at some point. 

The 223.900- (PL 100.0) machine operating out of KE0NA's (Dave) home in NE Minneapolis is still in testing, and is currently down. There was talk of moving it to the University and possibly running a three-band link with it, but no word on that effort. 

The TCRC's 224.540- (PL 100.0) remains down, and will probably stay that way throughout the winter, at least. 

N0FKM's 224.500- (PL 114.8) machine is listed as "on-air", but I'm unable to reach it nor hear any ID.

New repeaters, courtesy of N0FKM

N0YNT (Matt) discovered this afternoon, virtually by accident, that the Columbia Heights 444.750+ (114.8 PL) repeater was back on the air. Matt (N0YNT), Al (KD0KJI) and I were sitting in the Gopher Radio Club "hamshack" after putting up a new dual-band antenna and a 1.25M Yagi. Earlier, I had remarked that one of the eight channels on the Midland UHF radio wasn't up any more, as the 444.750 had been down since January.

Matt, presumably on a whim, keyed up on the .750, as he was testing the new antenna. To our surprise, it "ker-chunked"! N0FKM (Dan) had put it back on the air. The .750 had some nostalgia for Matt, as it was one of the big repeaters for him in his early days as a ham in New Brighton. It had some memories for me as well, as it used to be (kind of) linked to the 1.25M 224.660 repeater in Columbia Heights until both were taken down about six months ago. Six months is about one-third of my amateur radio tenure, and I'm not as accustomed to seeing repeaters fade away as a lot of the long-time hams are. So it was exciting to me to know that it was not only restored, but in apparently good shape.

When I got home from our effort an the University of Minnesota, I turned my 1.25M on, set it to a channel scan, and sat down to re-program the 444.750 into my Yaesu FT-897D. As I "ker-chunked" the new UHF machine, I would hear a carrier on the 1.25M radio during its scan. Thinking someone was on the 223.940, I went over to the 1.25M TH-90000 and stopped the scan. I have the TH-9000 set to return to the last channel with a received signal when a scan is stopped, and I was surprised to see that it had returned to the 224.500 repeater.

It took me a few minutes to realise that the two machines might be linked. N0FKM (Dan) had mentioned before to me that he had plans to link the two repeaters. So I keyed up on the UHF 444.750, and was amazed to hear my signal coming out of the 1.25M radio. I let Matt know about the link arrangement immediately, as I was fairly sure that he had a 1.25M rig in his vehicle at that moment.

As I had written about previously, KA0KMJ (John) had discovered a couple of weeks ago that the 224.500- (114.8 PL) repeater was back on the air...kind of. It could be "ker-chunked", but there was no audio (other than noise) transmitted. The carrier was strong, and it ID'd nicely, but it was pretty much useless.

However, if you transmit on the 444.750, the audio comes through on the 224.500 machine just fine. We also found that Matt, on his 60W mobile, could get through on the 224.500 input -- though kind of noisy -- where John and I could not. John deduced that Matt's proximity to the 224.500 allowed him to get in to the machine, and that the 224.500 had very weak reception.

So we have two new repeaters: the 444.750 and the 224.500 machines. While amateurs on the 1.25M band still can't be heard on UHF or VHF, those on UHF can be heard on 1.25M. Until the cross-band link to the HandiHam network is restored by KG0BP (Chris), this is the best that we have in town -- and I'll take it!

Matt and I also found on Sunday night that the 223.940 is working again, as we experimented with the 1.25M Yagi that N0DSH (Frank) had donated to the Gopher Radio Club. We also concluded that the Arden Hills .940 is a "bunny rabbit" -- the opposite of an "alligator" -- that receives better than it transmits.

Per KE0NA (Dave), the somewhat sickly TCRC 224.540 will be "looked at" in the coming weeks. My impression is that this effort is more of a diagnosis than a repair.

N0YNT (Matt) is also thinking about a pseudo-repeater arrangement for 1.25M. The Yagi we put up this afternoon would transmit network traffic from the UHF .425 and the VHF .150 to the west and (from the back of the Yagi) to the east. An EchoLink-connected Alinco in St. Paul would function as kind of a remote receive site on 1.25M for the .425/.150 network. Details are still fuzzy, as is the time-line.

Even the relatively simple job of putting up a new antenna at the U of M today gave me a deep appreciation of the effort that goes into keeping everything running at so many sites in town. Things are always breaking, degrading, and offering room for improvements. It's not easy, and it can seem thankless at times.

EDIT:  KE0NA (Dave) has confirmed that the audio fades on the 224.540 repeater after four minutes of use, and that replacement is more likely than repair of this machine. My understanding is that repeaters for the 222 MHz band are hard to find, so it could be some time before the Burnsville site is restored. This makes the sudden re-appearance of the 224.500 quite propitious.

1.25M FM repeater developments

It's a good news/bad news type of situation right now with the local 222 MHz repeaters. KA0PQW (Matt) tells me that the problems with the 223.940- repeater in Arden Hills are due to "1.6 MHz mixing" at the repeater front-end. My understanding is that the proximity of the repeater to local MW (AM) broadcast transmitters creates harmonics in the FM repeater mixer. Sometimes it's bad, other times it's non-existent. Either way, the result is that the audio from the repeater is not very good; very noisy regardless of how strong the input signal is.

N0FKM (Dan), true to his word, has got the 224.500- repeater back on the air...sort of. It "ker-chunks" with a nice signal, but has no audio. KA0KMJ (John) and I played around with it for a bit, as he was the one that noticed it. Neither of us could get anything out of it, and it wasn't for lack of input power to the machine. Previously, Dan had told me that his goal was to get the .500 working this spring. He also hinted that he'd like to make it cross-band between his VHF 145.290- (114.8 PL) and his UHF 444.750+ (114.8 PL) repeaters. Obviously, there's always space between what we'd like to do and what we can actually make happen with the resources given. As I mentioned before, his 224.660 had a one-way link set up with the 444.750 that ended in January. Try "ker-chunking" the .500 and you'll see that it has very good coverage, which just makes it more tantalising to be almost working.

The 224.500 would be in a great location for metro coverage, directly across town from the Burnsville 224.540 machine that the TCRC maintains. Basically, all of the local 1.25M machines are perpetually on the verge of permanent breakdown, so any of Dan's repeaters coming back from the dead is great news for the local amateur radio community.

repeater update 2/22/14

I learned of three repeaters this week that had been around a long time. None are listed in RepeaterBook. When I tell repeater owners that their machines aren't listed in RepeaterBook, they often get huffy, as if I'm implying that the repeater isn't co-ordinated. RepeaterBook is an app/website; it's not the "official" MRC listing, nor is it the ARRL hard-copy directory. Unlike a paper book, it can be kept continuously updated, comments can be added about a repeater, and propagation reports can be added to give hams some idea of the coverage a particular machine offers. You can also do nifty things with RepeaterBook, like telling it to show you all of the known active repeaters on a certain band within a particular radius of your current location. It can show you the distance between your location and a particular repeater, and indicate it on a map. It can also provide contact info. RepeaterBook also is integrated with the CHIRP programming software. None of this is possible with the ARRL Repeater Directory. You can find the MRC repeater list here, but it shows repeaters that haven't worked for about a year, such as the 224.500 and 224.660 machines on 1.25M and the 442.700 on UHF.

With that out of the way, here is the current status of some local real or rumoured repeaters:

• Per NY9D (Eric), the 224.100+ (no PL) repeater in Gem Lake (NE metro) is back in operation. I was not able to reach it. Word on the street is that K0LAV doesn't have a working UHF link needed to establish a connection to the SuperLink network, and K0LAV has not responded to my emails regarding this machine. Not listed in RepeaterBook.
• The 444.900+ (114.8) in Edina is not listed in RepeaterBook, and I am unable to bring it up. The owner (KG0SG) tells me that it's "on the air", however.
• The 443.425+ (114.8) in Oakdale is not listed on RepeaterBook, but I was able to "ker-chunk" it for S3 here in Plymouth. The owner (and blog co-author), N0YNT (Matt), says that there's little to no activity on that machine. 
• The New Brighton VHF 145.290 is back on the air at the moment, though it's been down all week. With the warm weather we had most of last week, it's unlikely that cold temperatures were the issue. 
• N0FKM's UHF 444.750 (114.8) is still off the air, and the 444.550 (no PL) was off the air overnight.
• The UHF HandiHam 444.650 repeater is back in the game. Earlier in the week, its signal was wildly swinging from S2 to S7. It also seems as if the issues affecting the VHF 145.450 are now resolved, too. 
• The "Mounds View" (actually in New Brighton) 224.940 (100.0 PL) machine is facing an uncertain future. The Anoka County Radio Club disowned it completely last week at a Board meeting, though it was costing them no money. Placing it back on the Mounds View water tower would have been greatly facilitated by its association with a radio club, yet the ACRC Board flatly refused to go along with this symbolic effort to restore the only 1.25M machine in the entire County, though all costs would have been borne by the machine's owners. This is yet another sign of how our local radio clubs are wilfully becoming irrelevant to the development of the hobby's infrastructure. We can only hope that the ACRC will not oppose N0FKM's independent plans to restore his 1.25M repeater in New Brighton, as the ACRC Board seems to have some kind of irrational fear of the band.