Another look at 1.25M FM

  The 1.25M (220 MHz) band has been in a precarious and neglected state for several years now. The loss of 220-222 MHz to commercial use was a wake-up call of sorts, and commercial digital FM systems still comprise the biggest threat to the band. Amateurs on the East and West coasts use the 1.25M band, though popularity is scattered and coverage is far from continuous. The positive side of the loss of 220-222 was that amateur radio use was made primary on 223-225

  From time to time, various bad ideas emerge from the amateur community about "what to do with 220". Most of them boil down to dumping whatever activity doesn't fit into our current VHF model on to 1.25M: auxiliary links, ATV (amateur TV), digital modes (repeater-based and simplex), packet, satcom, etc. Some have even revolved around making the band shared with a new (non-existent) unlicensed FM service in order to create activity and "save" 1.25M for ham radio. Most of these ideas would require a dramatic over-haul of the band plan and disrupt current users. Additionally, the lack of gear for these "solutions" is a deal-breaker. In effect, the current users of 223-225 MHz are "saving" the band from misguided destruction at the hands of the fellow hams. 

  Making effective use of 1.25M FM has always had two intractable obstacles: very few users and very few radios available. Repeaters, duplexers, full-powered mobiles, and quality antennae have been hard to find. Many of the HTs with 1.25M coverage have had very low output power on the band, and the mobiles have been monoband rigs. Repeater coverage has been concentrated in scattered locales, making a 1.25M monoband useless when outside of the area. These hardware issues, combined with declining overall FM activity, keep operators from moving into the band. And this, in turn, makes getting on 1.25M FM less compelling. 

  In an interesting sense, 1.25M FM has become a "frontier" of sorts. It's the place where you can go for privacy and elbow room. You and your buddies can have simplex to yourselves, with no one listening in. You can operate a repeater that's very exclusive, or you can set up a simplex node for basically private use. 

  If you've read this blog for any amount of time, you probably are aware that I'm an advocate for increased use of 1.25M FM. Two-metre FM got a huge early advantage with the surplus commercial and public-service gear available, but I think 1.25M would have been a  better option if we could do it all over again. 2M FM is great for covering wide rural areas, but 1.25M is superior for wide metropolitan areas. 222 MHz has the over-the-horizon characteristics of two-metre propagation, while also having some (somewhat marginal) reflective and knife-edge characteristics -- and it doesn't suffer considerably from "green leaf attenuation" like UHF does. Like UHF, however, you can do more with less power. 

  Locally, I'd rate our 1.25 FM network fairly well. We don't have the power-house repeaters that two-metre FM has, and coverage is restricted to the north and east metro for low-power end-use operation. About half of the 1.25M repeaters have below-average sites, and the actual hardware seems about ready to collapse at any minute in a lot of cases. On the other hand, we have cross-band operation through the 223.940- (100.0 PL) and EchoLink access through the 224.660- (100.0 PL). The 223.900- (100.0) is also now linked to the "MNWIS-FUSION" WIRES-X room for cross-band access to a growing number of linked UHF machines. The TCRC's 224.540- (100.0 PL) repeater is currently down (contrary to what their site says), and a decision has apparently been made not to use their old 75W PA and not to operate cross-band. Still, when this machine is back on the air, it will balance the north-favouring coverage of the other repeaters. 

There's certainly plenty of room for "hobby" repeaters operating out of homes, and good opportunities for clubs to assist people in setting them up. It's the next best thing to putting up a two-metre repeater, and getting a frequency pair is easy. A $50 Yagi would link that "hobby" repeater to another on the band, and expand the coverage of both. A $35 ground-plane antenna (or vertical dipole) and a $50 BaoFeng would give you a base station.

  I don't understand a few operators' belief that "there's no one to talk to" on 1.25M. The 223.940- is linked to the HandiHam network, after all. It's probably the easiest way to get in to the network from the north, east, and north-east metro -- especially if you don't have a great 2M station. Even if you only have a monoband 220 station, you can still talk to operators on 2M and 70cm using the 223.940 repeater. That's the beauty of cross-band linking. And accessing the 223.900- gets you on a network of System Fusion UHF repeaters, including the power-house 444.525+ repeater and the 444.450+ in Zimmerman.

  If there were demand (in the form of actual users) for it, I think that a few of the existing repeaters could be whipped into shape pretty quickly. Remote receive sites could significantly improve coverage for HT operation. Links could be established between repeaters, and simplex nodes could open up fringe areas.

New developments

 Over the past year, however, things have been happening that dramatically change the potential of 1.25M FM. 

First, Bridgecom is now producing a 25W monoband mobile (around $250) with detachable face and packet capability. This makes mobile operation quite practical, and it also makes base operation from even fringe areas possible. A decent ground-plane or Yagi antenna at 25W would make you competitive with a lot of the repeaters in town, and make FM simplex enjoyable. Bridgecom is also selling a $110 monoband HT (with programming cable) if you don't want to gamble a lot of money on a new band.

Second, Bridgecom is also selling a repeater for 1.25M. $1000 will get you the BCR-220 30W machine. $4800 will get you an entire package: repeater (with power supply), four-cavity duplexer, base station antenna, 100' of LMR-400 feed-line, a 100W PA (with power supply), and ten monoband HTs. If your club can get ten guys to put up $500 each, and if you have a decent site, you could guarantee wide-area coverage and give each guy an HT to access it. My experience using a 5W HT and a mobile whip in my car here in Plymouth to access the 223.94- machine in Arden Hills has convinced me that this is practical. And I've used a 5W HT connected to a ground-plane or Yagi for years as a nice base station to access repeaters on the other side of town. I'll also point out that none of these repeaters are running 100W, either. 

Third, there are Chinese radios that will soon be released to solve the hardware issues for end-users. In about a month or two, Baojie will release a tri-band 25W mobile (BJ-218) for under $200. This could be an affordable base station for a lot of new hams. There's a nicer AnyTone rig that will be released in the coming months under the brand Shi Ying. At $335, the SR-224 will have tri-band coverage, air band RX, and cross-band repeater operation. It has a detachable face, too. On 1.25M, power will be limited to 25W, but that's really enough for the metro area. 2M will be 50W, and UHF at 40W, and cross-band repeat won't work on 1.25M.  The point is that you will no longer have to add a second monoband rig to operate on 1.25M FM. 

 The Alinco and TYT rigs that have been around for a few years now look as if they are sticking around, too. The BaoFeng UV-82X is also only $50, and can be an adequate rig when it's connected to a decent exterior antenna. The addition of an after-market Nagoya duck ($17) for 1.25M can make HT operation less-than-ridiculous, particularly if you're within ten miles of a repeater. Bear in mind, however, that the band doesn't have the building penetration that UHF does. Indoor antennae, like the case on two-metre FM, are often disappointing solutions.

Coverage 

  The two big repeaters currently on air in town are the Arden Hills 223.940- (100.0 PL) and the 224.660- (100.0 PL). I can reach both of these from Plymouth with an HT in my car connected to a tri-band whip, and (quite easily) from home using an exterior tri-band whip. The .660 does very well to the north (of its site in Columbia Heights), and makes it down to Bloomington easily. Both the 224.660 and 223.940 reach out to Rockford with a full-powered mobile. 

  When the 224.540- (100.0 PL) in Burnsville is on-air, it rivals these two machines. Coverage to the south is obviously better than than the other two.

  Next in line is the 224.500- (114.8 PL), which reaches out to here in Plymouth, almost to Edina, and covers St. Paul almost completely. 

  The 224.940- (100.0 Pl) in Mounds View, the 223.900- (100.0 PL) in NE Minneapolis, and the 224.880- (no tone) in Maplewood are basically local coverage repeaters. I can bring all three of them up with 25W and a tri-band whip from Plymouth. The .880 is toughest from here, because it's so far and doesn't seem to be running more than 25W, by my estimation.

  I've never been able to "ker-chunk" the 224.100- (no tone) in White Bear Lake from my place, or in any of my travels around town.

  In Minnesota, 1.25M repeater coverage is more or less limited to the metro area. There's a very good repeater in Paynesville on 224.800- (no tone) that covers the area west of the metro, and up to Little Falls. It's also linked to two UHF repeaters and has EchoLink access (node 925804). I've never been able to reach it directly from Plymouth. N0YNT (Matt) has previously offered to link it to the local 444.425+ machine, but the Paynesville folks want to "keep it local". Beyond that, you basically have your own private band for FM simplex. There's allegedly a repeater in Duluth, but I've been told that it isn't working very well. 

  With the large number of unused frequency pairs available on 1.25M, the potential for wide area coverage, and the improving rig options, the 222 MHz band might be a better option for out-state expansion than UHF. The cost of a brand-new Bridgecom 1.25M repeater is likely competitive with the expense involved in maintaining an ancient UHF Micor, and the range will be better (all other things being equal) than UHF. Cross-band linking would make such an approach even more compelling. I wouldn't bet money on this actually happening, but the potential is there.

  Wisconsin has a few machines, most notably near Madison and Milwaukee. Iowa has several, including a linked machine in Des Moines on 224.980- (114.8 PL) for very wide coverage. South Dakota has only one repeater in Sioux Falls with local coverage. North Dakota has none. There are a couple of repeaters in the Chicago area, if you travel that way.  

  The existence of repeaters, obviously, is no guarantee of activity. 

The Bottom Line 

  Until more people spend the money for tri-band or monoband rigs, either HTs or mobiles, very little of the potential of the 222-225 MHz band will be realised. There's a lot of opportunity to set up home-based, "hobby" repeaters on 1.25M VHF, with two-metres being locked up. Linking these local coverage 1.25M repeaters to UHF machines in more distant parts of the greater metro area might prove to be an attractive way to both increase coverage for UHF repeaters and make 1.25M FM more practical. On the other hand, it may prove that FM simplex on 223.500-223.840 (13 channels) will end up drawing small groups of like-minded operators for 'private' round-tables. This could prove an interesting "social refuge" for new hams disenchanted with the local repeater scene, or long-time hams looking for something different. 
  
  Over the next couple of years, I think that new tri-band rigs will be an increasingly attractive option for newer hams looking to upgrade beyond an HT. These are also operators with less-hardened allegiances, who might be willing to explore the 1.25M scene with an open mind. 

  Once more people get radios capable of working the 1.25M band, I think that a core group of ten (or even twenty) operators will emerge on local 1.25M FM. The needs of that group will drive further infrastructure (either repeaters, simplex nodes, or links) development, and shape the band for the next decade.             

Loose Notes 11/8/15

  Just a few scattered items this week. I've found it hard to drum up activity (for the most part) this week. Local DMR activity is non-existent, and the people that I usually talk to on my brief commute (using analogue FM) haven't been around much. Since actually talking to people is how I obtain most of the information for the blog, it makes it hard to come up with posts. Having said that, let's look at the latest developments: 

• N0YNT (Matt) is back in town! I ran into him yesterday (11/7) on the 444.425+ (114.8 PL) repeater, and we chatted while he unpacked a few boxes. Hopefully, he'll find some time to write here about his West Coast radio adventures and his trip back. Matt is also more focused on his many projects, and his main interest now is in setting up a "turnkey" Raspberry Pi (RPi) box to link repeaters over the internet (SVXLink). The MAGIC repeater network would probably be the biggest target for this effort, but there's potential to link other repeaters in a cross-band scheme, too. 

• Per Matt, the 442.025+ DMR repeater in St. Paul hasn't been connected to the network for a few weeks now. Most people use the 442.425 machine on the East Bank campus, but it was KC0BBK (Galen) who detected the failure of the .025 locally. My impression is that the .025 won't be restored until it's moved to the St. Paul campus, where it should provide very good coverage for the east metro. 

• Speaking of the 444.425+ repeater, activity has picked up sharply there over the past week or so. Activity draws activity, and spontaneous QSO's and even roundtables are happening again. It's not at the level (yet) that it was a year ago, but it is increasing from virtually nothing. 

• Aprs.fi has implemented the new standard icons this week. The new symbols are a lot clearer, and no longer look like something out of the '90s. Take a look and maybe consider updating your APRS icon. 

• Looking at APRS, I notice that AE0RF (Justin) has set up a new I-Gate (AE0RF-10) in downtown Minneapolis. It hasn't been in operation long enough to judge its coverage, but it does reach into St. Paul. Per an uncannily well-timed QSO with Justin, I learned that this arrangement is only temporary, however.

• Yet another I-Gate was added recently, or perhaps I just now noticed it. N0GEF-7 is now gating packets near Annandale, and looks like it has wide coverage. This is an area that has had poor coverage in the past, so we can certainly use some redundancy to fill in the gaps in the west metro.

•  In southern MN, KG0QR-1 looks as if it's sticking around, too. This is an area that has several strong digipeaters, but weak gateway capacity. KG0QR-1 is a gateway operating out of Minnesota Lake, MN (about 13 miles north of I-90) that is fed by the digipeaters in Mankato and Owatonna, as well as handling local traffic. So often these gateways pop up for a few days and then disappear. This one has stayed around for a few weeks now, and the MN amateur community benefits from the redundancy of coverage this gateway provides. Now if we could only get something in Alexandria to cover I-94... 

• The new Chinese SSB satellites are having difficulties, apparently. XW-2A, B, C, and D are only operating as beacons, and XW-2E hasn't been heard for days. Only XW-2F is currently operating as a transponder.                   

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 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.     
  

Loose Notes 8/16/15

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Loose Notes 6/14/15

Another quick run-down of the previous week's radio developments:

• I guess that there was some kind of MS 150-type event over the weekend, as there was a lot of APRS traffic indicating that. The Hinckley K0YTH-10 digipeater got a work-out, and a lot of traffic bounced off from that machine to the N9XH-4 (Balsam Lake, WI) digipeater, to the northern metro digipeaters (e.g. N0HOY-14 and K0LAV-8). The network of RX-only I-gates did a great job handling the extra load. 

• Another new digipeater has sprung up in Brooklyn Park. KC0KEP is located near the Crystal Airport, and the new digipeater has handled a lot of packets for the recent weekend event from Forest Lake and even further north. I'd rather see such a nice receiving setup acting as a gateway instead of a digipeater, but we need something in the NW metro. Hopefully, this new addition will stick around. 

• My new 15M dipole (with balun) has arrived in time for Field Day. Barry from Hy Power Antennas was as good as his word, and I'm ready to wade back into HF waters -- if only for a day. I'll be setting up in St. Louis Park with KE0NA (Dave) for QRP operation on 15M and 10M using voice and CW. Look for us on APRS to find out the band/mode we're working at the moment. I expect to have my 5W HT running into my three-element Yagi, and that should reach the local packet infrastructure just fine. 

• On Saturday (6/13), I was surprised to hear KE0NA on the local C4FM 442.925+ (114.8 PL) repeater. I was even more surprised when he told me that he was operating mobile on the 223.900- (100.0 PL) repeater. Obviously, the WIRES-X link to the 1.25M repeater has been restored by N0BVE (Don) over the course of the past week. The audio was strongly "digitised", and I scarcely recognised Dave's voice, but he was completely readable. The EchoLink node for the 224.660- (100.0 PL) has been down for a few weeks now, so the .925 is the best way to operate on 1.25M if you don't have a radio for the band. 

• Speaking of the 442.925, I had a chat there this week with KA8JRJ (Fred). He was operating on WIRES-X from Michigan through a hub in Texas. Per Fred, the WIRES-X room in Beaumont, TX connects several repeaters across the country and even into England. The local 442.925 machine is one of those repeaters linked to the Texas hub, so it's a good place to hang out for some out-of-state conversation. 

• I had my first 2M SSB contact this week! I was immensely surprised to hear KA0RYT (Ron) come back to me on CW, and he then suggested moving to SSB. I first heard someone on CW while casually listening on 144.200 with a vertical whip, so I put up my VHF Yagi hastily. It was set horizontally, and pointed east. This greatly improved the signal, and I was able to tune in precisely and get the callsign. The tone of the CW signal was a bit raspy, but I could copy it. After making contact, I learned that he was in Milaca (to the north-west), and I turned my beam towards Ron for even more improvement in the signal. At a distance of 50 miles, this was my furthest two-metre simplex contact yet.

• I put some LMR-240 coax on my Sirio GP-430 UHF ground-plane antenna this week, replacing the RG-8X that I've been using. This is the antenna that looks like a beer can with three radials sticking out. I've had the mount for about two months now, and I've been using it on UHF FM to get into the local amateur repeaters, as well as the local GMRS repeaters. It's very wide-band and shows flat SWR on all of the 440-MHz frequencies and even up into the 467 MHz GMRS repeater input frequencies. I've been relying on it heavily to reach the 442.425+ DMR repeater, as well. The radials provide a rock-solid signal that my other whips don't give me, and I no longer have to swap antennae to work GMRS. The upgrade to LMR 240 coaxial cable has given me (much) less noise from neighbours' electronics, and boosted reception by about one S-unit. 

• One of the first repeaters that I tried with the new coax was the 444.050+ (114.8 PL) in St. Paul. It's always been a challenging UHF repeater for me to reach. I got in well at 10W, and caught up with N0GOI (Terry). He's taking a well-deserved break from developing his various repeaters, but he still has plans to link the VHF 145.170- (100.0 PL) to the UHF 444.050 machine. Ultimately, he wants to create a cross-band linked network that would incorporate the NE Minneapolis 444.575+, the Hugo 443.050+, and the Foreston VHF and UHF repeaters into the previously-mentioned cross-band pair. It's an ambitious vision, but one that would create activity on currently-unused repeaters and expand coverage dramatically.      

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 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.

Western MN 444.900 network sounds interesting

Often I've heard stories about the particular challenges of rural FM amateur radio: operators prefer 2M simplex to repeaters, UHF is dismissed as too weak or just "newfangled", repeaters have to cover relatively large areas to gain enough potential activity due to lower population density, etc. But an interesting listing showed up on the RepeaterBook Twitter feed this week, and I looked in to the details of the 444.900+ (136.5 PL) repeater in Madison, MN. It was so intriguing as an example of a rural repeater doing innovative things that I contacted the owner, NY0I (Dean) for more information. He generously obliged.

Madison is in the western part of the State near the South Dakota border. South Dakota has its own state-wide, always-linked, cross-band repeater network called SDLink, and some of that inspiration may have rubbed off on the Minnesota side.



The 444.900+ is a UHF repeater in a rural area, which is unusual. But it also links to two UHF machines in Clear Lake, SD which fills out the edges of the SDLink coverage between Watertown and Toronto, SD. It's not part of the SDLink network, though. Between the Madison and Clear Lake repeaters, Hwy 212 is covered from Montevideo(MN) into Watertown (SD). A UHF linked network in a rural area is something different.

The Clear Lake UHF machines have implemented EchoLink (node 578534), so it's possible to access the Madison 444.900 through the internet. The node is currently down, though. 

I asked Dean for the technical details of the link arrangement between the UHF machines, which are 30 miles apart. This is how he explained it: 

Audio is streamed live, via RF.  The 900 is located in Madison MN, as is a typical repeater system, with 1 stand alone antenna, at 250 ft.  The link portion of the repeater, uses a its own separate receiver, with it own separate antenna at 30ft.  So it basically “hears’' the 300 transmitter, and dumps that audio directly into the receive audio of the 900, which then retransmits the 300 audio feed.  At the 300 site, located in Clear Lake, SD, is a receiver, that basically does the same thing.  All sites utilize the NHRC-4 controller.     The 950 site, which is located south of Watertown, SD, performs the same way at the 900 site does in Madison, MN.

The ".950 site" is the 444.950+ (136.5 PL) in Clear Lake SD. The ".300 site" is the 444.300+ (136.5 PL), which is also in Clear Lake. 

As I mentioned before, UHF is viewed kind of dimly by many hams for various (incomprehensible) reasons. Even here in the metro area, there's a faction that "doesn't see the point" of UHF. It's only been through hard work and innovation that a "critical mass" of operators have embraced the 440 band here. Ironically, all of this innovation happened on UHF because of the shortage of VHF repeater pairs, and because so many of the two-metre repeaters are dominated by those living in the past and opposed to any development whatsoever. I wondered if Dean faced the same situation in western Minnesota, and I asked him how the new UHF network was received by the local operators: 

Very tough sell, it is as if the old timers feel like they are cheating on VHF, if they use the UHF system.  Our UHF systems out performs our VHF system, hands down.

Having said that, one might wonder why Dean moved in this direction. As in so many cases, it came down to availability of gear for the band: 

I found this repeater going to be trash, within hours, so I bought it from the city for $1   With the NHRC controller, free- pre installed 7/8 hardline, $ 50 JTB-3 antenna, and some hamming, it was built on a shoe string budget.

 

There's also a separate VHF network linking Ortonville, Madison, and Dawson. VHF hasn't been abandoned, but rather enhanced by linking scattered machines into a full-time network.

NY0I sent this map of the VHF system

Imagine trying to sell our local Wise Elders on the idea of a three-machine VHF linked system. It would violate the sanctity of their individual fiefdoms. K0LAV (Paul) had to sneak an AllStar link to the Mille Lacs area into the MARA .850 repeater, N0GOI (Terry) has been dismissed as a wild-eyed nut for his plans to link the Foreston 2M machine to the metro, and N0BVE (Don) has been sneered at by the local cognoscenti for years for his innovative, cross-band (gasp!) HandiHam linked network. 

Maybe it's easier to do innovative things outside of the ideological and political constraints found in the metro. Dean certainly has risen to the challenge. LSAC, for being a two-man operation, has successfully defied conventional wisdom for a long time. The Central MN network linking UHF and 1.25M (what's that?) repeaters is still making these "weird ideas" work. It's possible to do innovative things. It's happening right now in places like Madison, MN and the world isn't coming to an end.

Activity draws activity on the MARA .800

I threw out my sign on the MARA 444.800+ (114.8 PL) last night after I came home from work, expecting the usual response of silence. The .800 has always impressed me, ever since I got my licence, and I keep coming back to it.
Back then, I used a monoband UHF HT with an exterior antenna as a base station and attached the HT to a mobile whip on my car to serve as an improvised mobile rig. This is, of course, "doing it wrong" in the eyes of many. Still, I was able to make this limited arrangement work well enough for my purposes. I could get into the 444.100 ("dot one"), the Gopher .425, the HandiHam .650, and several fairly dead repeaters. But it was the .800 that I could always reach with a good signal no matter where I drove in town, and it was the .800 that served as the benchmark for my experiments with various antennae. Aside from the minor "RF whisker" issue, the repeater has been remarkably reliable for as long as I've been on the air. 

And so it was the UHF .800 machine that I dialled in as I sat down last night. Though it's a reliable repeater with great coverage, it's also very "under-utilised". It's the machine that I spend the most time monitoring these days, and I seem to be only one throwing out their sign on it. So it was a pleasant surprise to hear K0LAV (Paul) come back to my sign. 

Paul always has some interesting project in the works, and I asked him a few questions about his current 2M/1.25M/SuperLink effort. He's always very open about these projects - what he hopes to achieve and what the obstacles are - and it's pretty interesting stuff. Best of all, he can "dumb it down" to my level without being condescending, so it's enjoyable to peek behind the curtain and see how these complex systems work. He explained that the UHF repeater in the tri-machine link equation was really more like an auxiliary link for the SuperLink, which is comprised of standalone VHF repeaters linked by a parallel system of UHF repeaters. He told me that the co-ordination for his 2M pair had been finalised, and that the VHF repeater was in operation at his home near White Bear Lake. While I'm not sure what it's permanent location will be, having remote receive sites on water towers in Columbia Heights and White Bear Lake should allow metro-wide access to the SuperLink and the 1.25M repeater. 

Since he's also involved in (or aware of) a lot of what goes in the FM repeater "scene", I asked Paul about the updated listing for the 443.450+ machine in St. Cloud, and if the coverage claims were realistic. While he didn't actually know what that situation was, K9EQ (Chris) joined in with the information. Chris was involved in the upgrade to a superior tower and confirmed that the coverage claimed was realistic. However, he added that the repeater was exclusively for D-Star operation.

Activity draws activity. The chat between K0LAV and myself had attracted someone else, and turned an "under-utilised" repeater into the host of a roundtable discussion that lasted for about two hours and further brought in WW8A (Wayne) and N0TGF (Norm). Later on, Paul observed that this roundtable was the most activity that the repeater had seen since it provided communications for a marathon earlier in the year. 

Ironically, one of the topics in the wide-ranging conversation was the disturbing lack of activity on the FM repeaters. Both Paul and Chris shared anecdotes about drives out of the State in which they experienced no response to thrown signs and a lack of any activity whatsoever on both linked and standalone repeaters. Paul actually had better luck on 2M FM simplex in some areas, and Chris encountered a repeater owner stunned to find someone actually using their machine. 

Paul added that one of things that he had tried in response to this was introduce linking. I was unaware that the 146.850 was linked (through AllStar) to a 2M machine near Mille Lacs Lake. The idea was that linking hams in remote, low-activity areas to hams in more populous areas could increase activity in both areas. Chris was of the opinion that people put up repeaters without considering a target audience (kind of like market research), and that repeaters need a mission statement to justify their existence. 

I've long thought that there are simply too many repeaters to support the limited number of operators willing to actually get on the air. We have at least a dozen wide-coverage 2M repeaters in the metro. Outside of nets (which are showing declining participation), there's little activity on most. Few have the "core group" (or "critical mass", as Chris put it) to generate enough activity to draw others out of silence. Even worse, it seems as if any repeater can only increase its activity by 'stealing' activity from another repeater. Paul noted the case of the Brainerd Lakes area, which has four VHF repeaters for a tiny population of users. The result is that operators miss each other by calling on the "wrong" repeater. And I think the more that operators throw out their signs without a response, the more discouraged they get about doing that again. It's a vicious cycle that feeds on itself. After a while, it becomes "normal" to ignore thrown signs and people that do respond are kind of viewed as "different" -- which is really bad in this hobby. 

We are fortunate to have so many powerful, well-sited, and well-maintained VHF repeaters in the metro, but it's also an immense duplication of effort and resources. I'm not a big personal fan of nets, as they are contrived activity that lacks the flow of conversation. But they are also 'safe' venues for anyone to participate, and a whole lot of repeaters seem to exist only for the purpose of hosting a weekly net. The same operators that feel comfortable in that structure simply do not feel comfortable striking up conversations with strangers, or with acquaintances outside of their small clique. And that "core group" never materialises to create activity that would draw others in. 

Nobody is in the position to "cull the herd" and reduce the number of VHF repeaters down to a sustainable number. The solution, in my mind, is to draw more people back on the air by introducing compelling 'content' -- a core group or critical mass of operators able to carry on actual conversations without intimidation, alienation, and enforced boundaries. Yes, you may be exposed to views that you don't completely agree with, but that's not a terrible tragedy. Maybe that's what at the social root of this slow evaporation of activity. There's simply less that we all agree on, and we're increasingly willing to isolate ourselves into artificially-maintained social environments to avoid contact with those who think differently from us. Our adult skills of respectfully responding to conflicting opinions are becoming vestigial. 

Certainly, four people were able to carry on a wide-ranging conversation last night without recriminations or enforced conformity of opinion. It would take considerable time to draw those that have abandoned FM repeaters back on the air, but it's worth doing. Without that core group and an open atmosphere, linking by itself won't increase activity. 

Make a point of coming back to someone's thrown sign at least once every time that you get on the air. Be willing to listen to them. The range of conversational topics is vast: home projects, car repairs, travel plans or past trips, holiday shopping, TV shows, outdoor activities, career goals, music, books, etc. You don't have to limit yourself to ham radio topics, and you might learn something. Grab on to threads of agreement and build on that until you hit "pay dirt". Either way, the odds are that your conversation will draw someone else in and expand those topics into something that's more your style. And, if you don't have anything to talk about besides griping about the weather or current events, maybe the problem is that your life is intensely boring, rather than other people being "different". There are ways to fix that.

Also, throw out your own sign on a "dead" or different repeater. What have you got to lose? If you generate a little activity, others might feel less conspicuous and uncomfortable when they come back to a thrown sign. Set an example, and use your status to a positive end. Move around to other machines and keep an open mind.

The long-term solution is not a technical one, solved by putting up more repeaters with a particular digital scheme or operating on a certain band. "If you build it, they will come", is not a viable long-term mindset for the hobby's future. As Chris noted, the better approach is to create a community, and then provide them with a reliable and constructive venue. 

There were a lot of other interesting subjects in that conversation last night, but I'll let you digest the "low activity" issue before addressing the other threads we covered.

VHF DMR coming to the metro

At yesterday's MRC (MN Repeater Council) meeting, an issue was on the agenda that usually doesn't come up. There was a two-metre repeater frequency pair that a club in Dakota County had given up, and was available to be re-assigned. This is pretty rare, as all of the slots for VHF repeaters are tenaciously held on to, and even death isn't necessarily sufficient grounds to lose a slot. There is a waiting list for frequency pairs, and the first guy in line passed on the available slot because he wanted something in the 145 MHz range. 

And so the slot went to K0LAV (Paul E.), the guy behind at least a dozen MN repeaters including the 146.850 multi-receive repeater. I spoke with him on the air (444.800+) last night while I tested a new UHF antenna, and congratulated him on getting the VHF frequency pair. 

The slot is the 147.990 / 147.390 pair at the top of the two-metre band, where he will put a VHF DMR repeater on the air using a CTCSS tone of 98.5 Hz. He's in a bit of quandary over whether to make it a hybrid (both analogue and digital) or a digital-only repeater. I'd like to throw the question out to the community and find out if there's enough interest to support a VHF digital-only repeater. The issues, as I understand them, are as follows:

• A hybrid repeater won't have any internet link to other Talk Groups, due to the restrictions of DMR MARC. Imagine D-Star without reflectors. That's what the hybrid option would be like. A digital-only repeater would be able to be linked to the rest of the world, and also to the UHF DMR repeater in St. Paul.
• A digital-only repeater won't have the use of the remote receive site in Columbia Heights. Instead, it will just operate from Paul's site in White Bear Lake. This could potentially limit coverage, and leave out operators in the west and south-west. The bigger problem, in Paul's mind, is that there isn't enough interest in VHF DMR to justify a digital-only option. 

So why not weigh in the issue? Let K0LAV (Paul) know if you have interest in VHF DMR. You can find him on the 146.850, the 444.800, or you can find his email address on his QRZ page. It's unusual for repeater owners to solicit input from the community, though I wish it was done more often.
 
To me, it seems that there are already plenty of voice two-metre repeaters in the metro -- perhaps too many for the finite number of hams -- with excellent coverage options and features (cross-band linking, EchoLink, WIRES, IRLP). I'm sceptical that a hybrid repeater would draw significant numbers of analogue users on VHF to a new repeater. The TCFMC's hybrid "dot one" is almost all analogue users, because their user base was established on analogue. It wasn't a case of new people streaming in to talk to C4FM operators. 

  For a lot of operators, one of the more compelling reasons to move to digital is the ability to insulate yourself from the "common hams". Elitism is rampant in the hobby, to the point where long-time hams have been immersed in it for so long that they no longer notice it, as one does not notice the air that they breathe. Making the 147.390+ (98.5 PL) repeater a dual-mode affair would undermine the elitist appeal of a DMR repeater. The majority of digital repeaters are on UHF, which so many hams spurn outright on the basis of some mysterious principle that I fail to grasp. This repeater would be on two metres, which is what serious people use. And it would use DMR, which is what serious professional and commercial operators use. 

We just hit the trifecta here. 

There are, of course, other reasons to embrace digital FM modes. There is no noise, your narrow-band signal can be heard by repeaters further away, and you have access to the entire world through internet-connected Talk Groups. Battery life also improves. 

There are the usual Motorola and Hytera radio options, and they are expensive but well-made. Connect Systems in CA makes a VHF HT (the CS701). Connect Systems gives hams a steep discount, and you can get the CS701 for $180 (excluding cable, speaker mic, and shipping). The order form is here. You don't have to fill out the credit card information, as they will call you when everything is ready. There are Chinese knock-offs of Motorola mobiles out there, too. 

Last, but not least, on the list of reasons for the 147.390 to go digital-only would be that it could link to the only other DMR repeater in the State -- the UHF 442.425 machine in St. Paul. It would be nothing more complex than having a MN Talk Group, and VHF operators could just as easily isolate themselves from the UHF operators if they wished. But there is no good reason in my mind to duplicate the UHF/VHF gulf on DMR that we already find on analogue in the metro. The HandiHam network is the only cross-band repeater option, and others seem to have deliberately avoided following this example -- even though there are UHF slots still available. 

DMR offers Minnesota a chance for a fresh start, free of the distinctions of decades past that are no longer relevant moving forward. In contrast to most of our neighbours, who have state-wide linked repeater networks, digital could finally be the state-wide solution that we've studiously avoided for so long.

Changes in the HandiHam network coming

Per an on-air conversation last night (7/4) with N0BVE (Don), there are some minor changes in store for the UHF end of the local HandiHam network.

The UHF side of the linked network seems to be the most over-looked aspect of the HandiHam vision. Many new hams struggle to reach the VHF 145.450 machine, when one of the UHF repeaters linked to the network would be a better option for them in terms of signal strength. They all go to the same "place", so if you can get into one of the UHF repeaters, you are also on the VHF .450 in Minnetonka. Likewise, anyone using EchoLink to access the HandiHam conference node is also transmitting on the UHF repeaters -- not just the VHF machine.

The "main" UHF machine in the linked network is the 444.650+ (114.8 PL) on the West Bank near the U of M. There's also the 443.000+ (100.0 PL) in Chaska, and the 444.325+ (131.8 PL) in Bloomington at the MSP Airport. It's been several months since the 444.850+ repeater in Edina went down, and the link to the 1.25M 223.940- went with it. I've been unable to find out any information about the plan to restore the link and repeater, but I've not heard that the effort has been abandoned, either.

The minor changes to the UHF side involve making the 444.325 a standalone repeater (i.e. not linked to the HandiHam network), and adding another repeater on 444.925+. It wasn't completely clear in my conversation with Don where the new .925 repeater would be sited.(Note: see edit at bottom of this post)

The 444.325 has decent coverage, especially to the south and east, though it kind of duplicates the coverage of the TCRC's 444.300+ (114.8 PL) repeater. On the other hand, it could also serve as a back-up to the sometimes-troubled .300 machine. The only other machine out that way is the 442.550+ (100.0 PL) in West St. Paul, though other repeaters cover that area reasonably well. In any case, the 444.325 isn't exactly a "hobby" repeater, as I've "ker-chunked" it from Long Lake Regional Park before. It remains to be seen who will "inhabit" it, however. While the number of active UHF users is growing, I think it still may be too small to keep a "new" repeater active. A comparable repeater would be the 444.375+ (114.8 PL) in Plymouth, and to say that the .375 is "under-utilised" would be an understatement. Although, the .325 in Bloomington may have built up a core group of users over the years by virtue of it's link to the HandiHam network. It's possible that these users will stick around after that link is severed.

If the new .925 repeater is sited in the same place, only linked, that would be a decent coverage outcome. The HandiHam network's coverage is weakest in the north, however. In previous on-air discussions with KG0BP (Chris) -- who is the trustee for the currently-defunct Edina .850 machine -- a plan of sorts was mentioned where the UHF .850 would use a beam pointed north in an effort to improve that situation. KD0WIL (Erik) also made an effort to improve northern coverage with a simplex link, though this alternative created some controversy.  N0YNT (Matt) also made some attempts to improve coverage of the network by temporarily linking the UHF .425 to HandiHam, and also by establishing a link from the 1.25M HandiHam machine to the network by way of his N0YNT-L node. Neither of these alternative "stop-gap" measures turned out be well-received.

It's clear that the entire concept of linked repeaters is met with inarticulate disdain by many clubs, trustees, and users alike. A minority, however, have a different vision -- and that vision is slowly becoming reality on the UHF band.

EDIT: RepeaterBook is showing the 444.925 as sited in Bloomington, and in testing...with a functioning EchoLink node already. Most likely, it's at the same MSP Airport site as the .325 machine. Give it a try!

Paynesville 224.800 is back, and more info

This morning I received an email from N0BJN (Rick) about The 1.25M Paynesville repeater. Previously, I reported this machine as down per N0ANC (Shannon), but it's been operational since 1/29. I also noticed that it's linked to the Litchfield UHF 443.800+ (PL 146.2), but not the repeater in Avon as I previously had thought. Rather than paraphrase Rick's email, I'll just excerpt the majority of it since he didn't raise any objections in his message, and I was clear that I would keep anything confidential that he wished. 

Thank you for your inquiry about the Paynesville 224.800 - Repeater.

It's up 200' at the Paynesville site & gets mobile coverage all the way to Little Falls on the north  ( 50 + miles ) & well south of Litchfield on the south. It does NOT have a PL tone. Its output is 224.800 & its input is 223.200. It's back on the air as of 1/29/14 & is working really good. My Echolink NØBJN-L Node 925804 is currently running on it & it's connected to KCØCAP-R Litchfield 443.800 + tone 146.2 FM  Repeater.

My DARC ( Digital Amateur Radio Club ) stumbled onto the Paynesville 224.800 - Repeater by accident when we acquired the Paynesville site. We found the Repeater there & recognized it as the old St Joseph Repeater from Meredeth WBØTDM from 2005. We fixed it up & put it on the air in Paynesville cuz there's a 220 antenna there at 200' with a 1.5 SWR there. It works great ! Please try it & tell everyone !  

   Shannon NØANC,  Peter  KDØILS  &  myself will be happy to chat with you & anyone else.  We run a DARC Net Saturday nights at 8:00 PM on the 224.800 -.  You can check into our Net over the air or on Echolink. 

We also run a DARC Net Saturdays at 7:00 PM on the Avon 443.650 + FM Repeater tone 85.4.  My Echolink will get you there too. I have my Echolink set up so I can move it to Paynesville or Avon in about 5 minutes or so with the Echolink stations connected,  as long as they don't transmit.

So, there you have it. I'm always amazed at the amount of gear floating around or stashed away in someone's garage, and these guys just stumbled on to a piece of equipment that's difficult to find.

Along with Rick's statements regarding coverage, I will add KC0CAP's remarks that this machine reaches past Willmar. This would seem to indicate that St. Cloud could also be reached, including a big stretch of I-94. So, if you venture out that way and you're equipped for 1.25M mobile operation, give the Paynesville repeater a try. Maybe drop me an email and tell me what results you get.

I've also created a listing on RepeaterBook, though it isn't approved yet. Once the listing is up, you can post propagation reports on that site and help out your fellow hams in trying determine if they can reach the machine. 

And, as with all repeaters on this band, any activity is always welcome and appreciated. Don't forget that Echolink affords you access to the machine, even if you don't have a 222 MHz radio. 

It's a bit unfortunate that the operators of the central MN network have declined N0YNT's offer to link to the metro, but the Paynesville 224.800 is just another piece of the 1.25M puzzle. With the Maple Grove 224.400 coming, and the Columbia Heights 224.500's planned restoration, on top of the great machines that we already have, the band will offer excellent potential for mobile use. And being able to keep in contact with a mobile through EchoLink as it travels around Little Falls is also an exciting possibility.

Paynesville 224.800 machine is down

Per N0ANC (Shannon), the Paynesville 1.25M machine is down. The issue is, as we've seen with other local machines, the cold temperatures. Normally, the problem with repeaters is keeping them cool. But the relative lack of activity on these machines is not generating heat from transmissions.

The other bit of welcome news from Shannon is that the 224.800- repeater does not use a PL tone for access. So, if your travels bring you to out to the western rural areas, give the 224.800 a try when it comes back on the air. Both first-hand and second-reports indicate that the coverage of the .800 repeater is excellent, reaching past Willmar and north to I-94. Since it's part of a linked network, getting on the 224.800 also gets you on the UHF machines in Litchfield and Avon. And the entire network is accessible through EchoLink, too. So your computer, smartphone or tablet can get you in on the 'ground floor' of 1.25M FM without even spending the money for an HT or mobile capable of working the band.

Hopefully, I'll have more information on both the Paynesville 222 MHz repeater and the network that it is linked to in the near future. It seems likely that N0ANC (Shannon) or N0BJN (Rick) will keep me informed when the repeater comes back into operation.

Those of you with higher-powered base station FM rigs and good 222 MHz antennae might be able to reach Paynesville when it returns to the air, and I welcome your reports here. Please email them to the address listed in my profile. Just because circumstances have required me to disable comments, that does not mean that you can't participate in discussion with your local amateur radio community.