Month: August 2006

Smithsonian’s NN3SI to QRT during museum renovations

— submitted to ARRL.org by Murray Green, K3BEQ

NN3SI, the Amateur Radio station exhibit at the Smithsonian Institutes’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, will QRT in late August while the museum undergoes renovations that will include the ham station. The museum is scheduled to reopen by the summer of 2008. Inaugurated in 1976 and supported by a volunteer staff, NN3SI occupies a corner in the “Information Age” exhibit on the first floor of the National Museum of American History, and it’s been open daily for visiting radio amateurs to operate.

I was a guest op at NN3SI earlier this year.

Playing With Trains – Sam Posey

I saw this book about 2 weeks ago on the “three books for the price of two” table at Borders. I’d just purchased Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods about his adventures on the Appalachian Trail or otherwise I think I would have purchased the Posey book on the spot. A book about railroad modeling…. very cool. Like amateur radio, model railroading is a hobby I wish I could devote more time to. I had a layout as a kid and also remember setting up my Dad’s old Lionel train set around the Christmas tree. I still have the Lionel train and some of the track.

Great book… nicely told story.

Yahoo Group and website


Well – I think packet radio is a shadow of it’s former self. Lots of old, dead links out there.

However, I found an active Yahoo! group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Packet-USA

… and an interesting website: http://www.uspacket.org/

WinPak

Looks like WinPak is a popular program to use instead of Hyper Terminal.
http://www.winpack.org.uk/
http://www.apritch.myby.co.uk/uiv32.htm

Packet Station… COM 1 connection and ABAUD

Was able to mess around a little with the KPC-3+ at lunch. I need to take a look at my COM 1 settings.

9600 bits/s
8 data bits
no parity
1 stop bit
hardware flow control

There should also be a parameter to adjust the port on the KPC-3+ that connects to the PCs COM 1.

… yes there is… ABAUD. Default is 0, which does a self check. I need to set ABAUD to 9600.

Packet Station…….

I got the KPC-3+ operational with the FT-1500M. I did a soft reset on the KPC-3+ (as it was setup previously for APRS). Now I need to remember how I had the KPC-3+ settings configured when I was using it as a standard packet station. Here’s the settings recommended from NLARC, a nearby digipeater:

8BITCONV ON
AX25L2V2 ON
ABAUD 1200
AUTOLF ON
AXDELAY 0
AXHANG 0
BEACON EVERY 15 min
BKONDEL ON
BTEXT WB5POJ/KPC-3 (-1 PBBS) – Jim Byrd – jbyrd@members.vectec.org
BUDLIST OFF
BUDCALLS NONE
CANLINE $18 (CTRL-X)
CANPAC $19 (CTRL-Y)
CD INTERNAL
CHECK 0 (disabled)
CMDTIME 1 (1 sec)
CMSG ON
COMMAND $03 (CTRL-C)
CONLIST OFF
CONMODE CONVERS
CONOK ON
CPACTIME OFF
CR ON
CRSUP OFF
CSTAMP ON
CTEXT Hello – WB5POJ/KPC-3 – Jim Byrd – jbyrd@members.vectec.org
CWID EVERY 0 (disabled)
CWIDTEXT DE *
DAYTIME 11/21/01 08:26:37
DAYTWEAK 8
DAYSTR mm/dd/yy hh:mm:ss
DBLDISC OFF
DELETE $08 (CTRL-H)
DIGIPEAT ON
DWAIT 0
ECHO OFF
ESCAPE OFF
FLOW ON
FILTER ON
FRACK 4 (4 sec)
FULLDUP OFF
HBAUD 1200
HEADERLN ON
HID ON
HTEXT
INTFACE TERMINAL
KNTIMER 15 min
LEDS ON
LCOK ON
LCSTREAM ON
LFADD OFF
LFSUP OFF
LLIST OFF
MONITOR ON
MALL ON
MAXFRAME 4
MAXUSERS 10
MBEACON ON
MCON OFF
MCOM ON
MRESP ON
MRPT ON
MSTAMP ON
MXMIT ON
MYCALL WB5POJ
MYALIAS
MYNODE WB5POJ-7
MYPBBS WB5POJ-1
MYREMOTE (you do not get to see this! hee hee)
NDWILD OFF
NEWMODE ON
NOMODE OFF
NTEXT
NUCR 0
NULF 0
NUMNODES 0
PACLEN 128
PACTIME AFTER 10 (1000 msec)
PARITY NONE
PASS $16 (CTRL-V)
PASSALL OFF
PBBS 5
PBFORWRD NONE EVERY 0 (disabled)
PBHEADER ON
PBHOLD ON
PBKILLFW OFF
PBLO NEW VARIABLE
PBPERSON OFF
PBREVERS ON
PERSIST 63 (25%)
PID OFF
PTEXT Hello from Jim Byrd’s KPC-3 – leave a message.
REDISPLA $12 (CTRL-R)
RELINK OFF
RESPTIME 5 (500 msec)
RETRY 5
RING ON
RNRTIME 0 (disabled)
RTEXT (you do not get to see this! hee hee)
SCREENL 0
SENDPAC $0D (CTRL-M)
SLOTTIME 10 (100 msec)
START $11 (CTRL-Q)
STATSHRT ON
STOP $13 (CTRL-S)
STREAMSW $7C (|)
STREAMCA OFF
STREAMEV OFF
SUPLIST OFF
SUPCALLS NONE
SWP 17,17,108
TRACE OFF
TRFLOW OFF
TRIES 0
TXDELAY 30 (300 msec)
TXFLOW OFF
UNPROTO WB5POJ VIA LARCND
USERS 1
XFLOW ON
XMITOK ON
XOFF $13 (CTRL-S)
XON $11 (CTRL-Q)

Packet Station: AD7MI-3

I’m trying to setup a packet station…. again. My initial attempt at packet was with my IC-706MKIIG and my Kantronics KPC-3+. It worked well, but now the IC-706MKIIG is dedicated to HF operations and I would like a stand alone packet station.

I’ve heard many good things about the FT-1500M being used for packet and APRS, as it has a built in DB-9 data connection. So I was able to get an FT1500M off eBay and have it up and operational. I also fabricated a power cable for the KPC-3+ using the PowerPoles.

My last use of the KPC-3+ (before I took it down) was an APRS Digipeater.

I need to relearn my TNC commands and figure out how to do make the KPC-3+ sing again.

2M Mobile Install

I installed a 2M rig in the Toyota Avalon today. I got a Radio Shack HTX-242 off of eBay. For the mount I used a Diamond K601M UHF hideaway trunk mount and a Diamond dual-band antenna. From the tests so far, the rig works pretty well. For an older radio, the HTX-242 has all the features of the rigs that are out there today.

Special Events

Aug 8-Aug 14, 1300Z-1700Z, Sycamore, IL. Amateur Operators of the Northern Illinois Steam Power Club, W9S. 50th Anniversary of Northern Illinois Steam Power Show. 28.390 14.268 7.268 3.990. Certificate. Bob Yurs, W9ICU, 1107 Commercial St, Sycamore, IL 60178. www.w9icu.com.

Aug 11-Aug 13, 2200Z-1900Z, Oscoda, MI. Wurtsmith Division Yankee Air Force, W8Y. Annual Fly-in and Pancake Breakfast. 28.365 14.265 7.265. Certificate. Wurtsmith Division Yankee Air Force, PO Box 664, Oscoda, MI 48750. www.wurtsmith-yaf-museum.org.

Aug 12, 1300Z-2000Z, Baltimore, MD. Social Security Employees Amateur Radio Club, W3SSA. 71st Anniversary of the Social Security Act. 14.280 7.280. Certificate. Greg Stec, K3ANG, 1624 Pickett Rd, Lutherville, MD 21093. Electronic certificate available, e-mail ac3p@arrl.net.

Aug 12, 1330Z-2130Z, Hawley, PA. Science Camp Watonka, KB3BUM. 8th Annual Event. 28.440 21.340 14.240 7.240. Certificate. Camp Watonka ARC, PO Box 127, Hawley, PA 18428. www.watonka.com.

Aug 12, 1400Z-2000Z, Newark, OH. Central Ohio Operators Klub Extra-Novice, W8TNX. Commemorating Johnny “Shiloh” Clem, youngest Army NCO. 18.160 7.250. Certificate. COOKEN, 1010 Blacks Rd SE, Hebron, OH 43025. www.cooken.org.

Aug 12, 1500Z-2100Z, Van Buren, IN. Grant County Amateur Radio Club, W9EBN. 34th Annual Popcorn Festival. 146.79 14.260 7.260. Certificate. Bart Bartholomew, WA9SPT, 6981 N E00 W, Marion, IN 46952. www.grantarc.com.

Aug 12-Aug 13, 0000Z-2359Z, San Angelo, TX. AB5BG. Honoring the Native American Codetalkers of WWII. 40 20 15 meters. Certificate. Don Goff, 1210 Ardmore, San Angelo, TX 76905.

Aug 12-Aug 19, 0000Z-2359Z, Royal Oak, MI. K8W. 12th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise. 14.250 21.400 7.250 3.950. QSL. K8W, 27120 Barrington St, Madison Hts, MI 48071.

Aug 12-Aug 21, 1600Z-2000Z, Indianapolis, IN. Indiana State Fair ARC, W9ISF. 150th Indiana State Fair. 21.340 14.240 7.240 3.860. QSL. W9ISF, PO Box 18495, Indianapolis, IN 46218-0495.

Aug 13, 1400Z-2100Z, Punta Gorda, FL. Peace River Radio Association, W4DUX. Commemorating the second anniversary of Hurricane Charley coming onshore at Gilchrist Park. 20 m. QSL. Gino Gerranti, KE4TJO, 391 Kenova St, Port Charlotte, FL 33954. .

Aug 13-Aug 14, 1400Z-2359Z daily, Window Rock, AZ. Navajo Amateur Radio Club, N7C. The Navajo Code Talkers Days. 14.265 7.265. QSL. Herbert Goodluck, N7HG, PO Box 3611, Window Rock, AZ 86515.