Category: radio

Rainy Sunday

It has been a cold, rainy Sunday. We are on short final for the delivery of child number two… about 12 more days. Spent part of the day finishing the fixes to the nursery. Despite the rain, I BBQ’d two excellent steaks for dinner. I spent a good amount of time at Fort Lewis, WA so BBQing in the rain is no big deal.

Yesterday I mounted a bike seat for my daughter (age 3) on the back of my underused Trek bicycle. The weather was pretty nice, sun and a little cool. I decided to take along my TH-D7A and mounted my Garmin eTrex on the handlebars… I was APRS bicycle mobile again (with a small passenger). I kept the power setting at EL (50mW) and had good luck getting digipeated by N7FTM, which is nearby. To get a little better coverage and maintain the low draw on the battery, I configured the home TM-D710A to digipeat only the packets from my TH-D7A. I hope the weather improves soon so I can do some more bicycle mobile testing. A speaker-mic would also be a great addition to the setup.

I have been doing a little more reading on APRS (when I should be working on homework). One item that I found very intriguing was CQSRVR. There is a good run down of that feature here and Bob “Mr. APRS” Bruninga’s, WB4APR, recent article in QST. What amazes me is that the CQSRVR feature is not used more often. I have also had a great time playing with aprs.fi. I am a long time user of findu.com, but aprs.fi is just a wonderful tool to use in looking at APRS data.

It is time to get ready for Field Day. The plan is to road trip out California and link up with my dad, KD6EUG, at his cabin in Mi-Wuk (near Sonora, up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. We will be a 2A operation. My rig will consist of my resurrected ARSIB (Amateur Radio Station In a Box). The ARSIB is based around the FT-817ND. To give the FT-817ND a boost, I’ve paired it with a 100W Tokyo HyPower amplifier. The tuner remains the LDG Z-11 PRO. I would like to have both a rig control interface and control cable from the radio to the amp but the the FT-817 has only one ACC input. Enter the CAT MATE – I am hoping this will solve the ACC input limitation. For a logging program I think we will go with the N3FJP logging software. It offers the ability to have two (or more) seperate stations have a combined log. It also features a software-based voice and CW keyer, which may come in handy. The downside is it is a Windows only program and it does not have integrated PSK-31. This will require a manual work around to add PSK-31 QSOs. I need to get all the pieces and parts together and start testing everything out to make sure there are no surprises. We will be busy enough stringing antennas and I want to minimize any adjustments I need to make to my own equipment during actual operation.

Send these commands to UI-VIEW as a message

I’ve been having fun using my TH-D7A with the UI-View32 setup at the home QTH. The commands below allow me to send a message from my TH-D7A back to my home rig and get a specified response:

?APRSP – sends back a location beacon.
?APRSS – sends back the status text.
?APRSO – sends back your active objects.
?APRSD – sends back a list of stations that have been heard direct.
?APRST (or ?PING?) – sends back the route by which the query was received.
?APRSH – sends back information on when was last heard.
?VER? (not an APRS query, but some APRS software supports it) – sends back information on the software version in use.

With “Remote commands” enabled in UI-VIEW, you can send the following commands that are specific to UI-VIEW

QAS – causes your system (the Ui-VIEW station) to Query All Stations.
QWS – causes your system (the Ui-VIEW station)to Query WX Stations.
BCN – causes your system (the Ui-VIEW station)to send a beacon.
LGS (or LG1) – enables logging at (the Ui-VIEW station),
using a log file named according to the date.
(This command must come from the station callsign.)
LGX (or LG0) – disables logging at (the Ui-VIEW station). (This
command must come from the station callsign.)
DX – causes your system (the Ui-VIEW station) to send an abbreviated best DX report.
!program – when sent to (the Ui-VIEW station) runs a program in the RCOMMAND directory

Wheat State Wireless Association

In meeting my requirement to speak to a community group, school, or other organized gathering of citizens – I debuted my presentation tonight to the Wheat State Wireless Association’s April club meeting – located in Paola, KS.
The club had about a dozen members in attendance – seems like a very nice club, a good number hams who were very friendly and welcoming.
Overall, I think the presentation went well. I think I am going to add a slide that shows the specific equipment that I used while in Iraq and maybe another slide showing the WinLink path between Germany, my station in Iraq, and the one in Qatar. I think maybe a handout as well that includes some of the QST articles that talk about amateur operations in Iraq. The presentation time ran about 30 minutes or so. It seemed like the audience was interested and there were a handful of questions afterwards. One young woman approached me afterwards and told me about how her grandfather was a member of Navy MARS during the Vietnam War and operated phone patches. She said she had never really understood what that was about and that my presentation made her realize the great value her grandfather provided the military personnel and their loved ones. She also said she remembered going into his radio room that had racks of old tube radios and the distinct smell that used to produce when they were in operation.
I have my notes mostly finished and will add a link to my presentation slides here soon.

TM-D710A and UI-View32


I was able to interface my TM-D710A with UI-View32. Previously I was using UI-View32 along with a Kantronics KPC-3+ and a dedicated FM rig (FT-1500) with a direct packet connection. This set up worked well – UI-View32 puts the KPC-3+ into KISS mode and the rest of the settings are pretty straight forward. The advantage of using the TM-D710A (one of many) is that with its two radios in one I can run my APRS station and also get on the local repeaters while only using my one VHF/UHF antenna.

I use Weather Display in conjunction with my Davis Vantage Pro2. Weather Display is an amazingly powerful application and it works well with UI-View32, allowing my APRS station to transmit my weather data in addition to my position info.
Configuring TM-D710A and UI-View32 to work together is little more tricky.
The TM-D710A has a built-in TNC. When you use the TM-D710A in a mobile configuration, the TNC runs in APRS mode. When used with UI-View32, the TNC operates in standard packet mode. It looks like it is possible to use the TNC in KISS mode, but I am not sure how to do that with UI-View32. The directions from Kenwood for the TM-D710A include a recommended CMD file to be used with UI-View32. I used the recommended CMD file and UI-View32 and the TM-D710A worked together up to a point. What was missing were two TNC commands that allow UI-View32 to see the received APRS traffic and then display the traffic on the UI-View32 map. Here is what the CMD file looks like now:

;This is a sample TNC initialization file for use with
;the Kenwood TM-D710A.

[SETUP]
;DON’T alter anything in this section unless you are
;sure you know what you are doing!
COMMAND_PROMPT=cmd:
COMMAND_CHARACTER_CODE=3
ESCAPE_CHARACTER_CODE=
CONV_COMMAND=CONV
MYCALL_COMMAND=”MYCALL ”
UNPROTO_COMMAND=”UNPROTO ”
NO_BEACON_COMMAND=BEACON EVERY 0

[INIT_COMMANDS]
^C^C^C
;Control mode on.
TC 1!TS 1
;Select TNC PKT mode on A band.
TN 2,0!TN 2,0
;Waiting for command prompt.
^M!cmd:!5
;Repeating the first two commands is not an error!
ECHO OFF
BEACON EVERY 0
ECHO OFF
BEACON EVERY 0
;Also UI-View32 to see incoming APRS traffic
MON ON
MCOM ON

This Weekend…

Joseph Sheehan Bicycle Road Race: Today I helped support a 52.9 mile bicycle race between Leavenworth and Atchison, KS. The weather was miserable. A cold morning to begin with. Then rain… and sleet. Even snow. I was positioned at a intersection that crossed the highway which served as about the 10 mile mark and then 40 mile mark on the route back. 52 cyclist made it to the 10 mile point and not more than 20 went on to finish the race. I couldn’t believe that many of the guys hung with it. Those were some dedicated folks.
There were four of us supporting the race, positioned at key spots along the route (inside our nice, warm vehicles). I was able to have several “lessons learned” for this event. I had a distinct lack of planning and preparation.
(1) I didn’t fully check my rig prior to the event. I was at the event site trying to do a radio check with net control with no results.
(2) When it is time to troubleshoot, you have to use logic. When time is short (because of lack of preparation) and problems come up, you have to keep your head. Troubleshooting a radio system is pretty basic. Start from one end and work to the other. Finding that the antenna feedline isn’t properly connected to the rig should be an easy fix.
(3) Having an HT as backup is good. Knowing how to change the settings on it is critical. One of those Nifty manuals or smart cards does the trick.

That being said, thanks to the quick thinking of the net control I was able to initially talk to him on my HT using a repeater that didn’t require a tone (I’d forgotten how to change the tone setting on my Kenwood TH-D7A). I eventually figured out how to set the tone and was on the repeater with the other folks. Then with a bit more thought and troubleshooting, I discovered my feedline connection to the rig had come loose and with that fixed I was back in business. Part of the problem is that I have a relatively new rig in the truck, the Kenwood TM-D710A. It is a very complicated rig and I have only scratched the surface on how to operate it. I was able to interface it with the Garmin Nuvi 350 thanks to a cable from Argent Data Systems. The cable allows the D710A to pass APRS data to the Nuvi and the Nuvi plots the data as waypoints. It works pretty well.

Big week ahead. I mentioned before that I have some specific graduation requirements for the course I am in at Fort Leavenworth. This week I should be able to complete another of the requirements: speak to a community group, school, or other organized gathering of citizens. I have put together a presentation concerning my operations of both amateur radio and MARS station while in Iraq and will be giving the presentation to one of the local amateur radio clubs. The presentation, in addition to my operations, covers the history of the US Army and amateur radio while deployed overseas. It has been fascinating researching the operations of previous Army hams from WWII (Germany and Japan), Korea, Vietnam,

Spec/5 Dennis Vernacchia operating MARS Radio Station AB8AY, out of relocated radio station in quonset hut, puts radio-telephone calls through to the states for the troops stationed at LZ Betty and to co-ordinate “Operation Vietnam Merry Christmas”

Desert Storm, Afghanistan and Iraq. I also cover the history of amateur radio in Iraq from the early days in the 1920s through the Saddam period and then today. Once I get my slides spiffied up a bit more and add some notes, I will post a link here so those who are interested can take a look. My final requirement is: write professionally by submitting a letter to the editor, Op-Ed piece, or article for publication. My intent is to turn the presentation into an article and then send it to ARRL’s QST. Most of the article is done – I hope to get it completed this week as well.

A bit of fun

—–Original Message—–

From: AD7MI
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 10:34 AM
To: ag1yk
Subject: Pilot line question

Steve,
I enjoyed your contribution to Hints & Kinks and have tried to get it to work. Here is an additional idea that has worked for me – add a bit of peanut butter on the acorn. The first time I tried this without the peanut butter, the squirrels seemed to ignore the acorn with the line affixed to it. I tried the peanut butter and that got their attention – although I had some peanut butter on the zip tie and the squirrel, in his attempt to get the peanut butter, bit through the zip tie. My real question is what type of line did you use for the pilot line? The line I’ve tried seems to be to heavy for the squirrels here – they get the acorn and line up about half way and then drop it… it looks like the line is too heavy, causing the squirrel to drop it. A lighter line might work better? What kind did you use?
Thanks again for a great tip!

73 Scott AD7MI

—–Original Message—–

From: AG1YK
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 2:46 PM
To: ad7mi
Subject: RE: Pilot line question

Scott,
Glad to hear you enjoyed the article. As to your problem, I think it is more a matter of motivating the squirrel more. I have found, after years of experimentation, that squirrels go squirrelly for orange. I had one get so excited that he ran up the tree so fast he went right off the top and continued up into the air. Luckily the wind was blowing right and he drifted across the yard and landed on the far side of the other tree I wanted to put my antenna in. I was able to pull the support line through both trees in one operation.

Really, try orange.

73,
Steve Sant Andrea, AG1YK
Assistant Editor, H&K, QST
—–Original Message—–

From: AD7MI
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 8:34 PM
To: AG1YK
Subject: RE: Pilot line question

…and all this time I thought squirrels were color blind. I will give orange a try! 🙂

Odds & Ends

I am nearing the end of my master’s degree program in international relations. Although the Army’s Command and General Staff College (CGSC) program for us majors is a graduate-level program it does not grant a degree (unlike the Navy, Air Force, and USMC). Apparently this is actually written into the Congressional statue that provides for CGSC – so for whatever the reason, if you want to get a master’s degree while here, you need to do extra work. The program I am in is through Webster University (based out of St. Louis, MO). The military has arrangements with many colleges and universities to run extension programs. Webster’s program here accepts many credits from CGSC. In the end, my requirement has been to take 6 additional classes, two at a time over the course of the last 7 months during the evening. The final requirement is a thesis paper. I am, at long last, done with the six classes and am working on my paper. It has been a tough few last months trying to balance the normal class requirements during the day and meeting the requirements for the classes at night. I will be a happy man when my thesis paper is complete.

As a break from my studies, I went to a National Weather Service (NWS) spotter class sponsored by the Leavenworth County Emergency Services folks. I last attend training back in Virginia. I’d have to say that the people here in Kansas take their weather a bit more serious than the Hampton Roads crowd. The training was conducted at the National Guard Armory in one of the briefing rooms… and the place was packed. It wasn’t just the amateur radio crowd either – there were high school students, CERT members, the elderly Neighborhood Watch types, and the storm chaser fanatics. The class and presentation was excellent, my hat is off to the NWS.

Yesterday we had Gen. Sir Richard Danatt (Chief of the General Staff, the head of the British Army) speak to our CGSC class. It was an excellent talk and he brought up a few key points. As an Army, our focus has been (at least in the last 100 years) on the 3rd phase of operations, the domination phase. The first two phase are deterrent and preparatory and the 4th phase is stability and transition. The domination phase, phase three, can be characterized by major combat operations – and that has always been our focus in training. We close with and destroy the enemy – that is how we have won our wars. Gen. Sir Danatt observed that perhaps the 4th phase is the real decisive operation and I think he makes a good argument for it. I think our Army realizes this is the case, but we don’t have buy in across the board. Gen. Sir Danatt made an observation about the possible French re-entry into NATO. It is a good thing, but he observed that the French Army would be behind the ball when it comes to operating as a team in a NATO operation. They haven’t participated in all the NATO exercises or the associated planning, which will leave them with a steep learning curve to assume a meaningful role in NATO. The last point that Gen. Sir Danatt made that really hit home with me was that if we fail in Afghanistan than it may signal the end of NATO – essentially signifying that NATO is incapable of achieving results. Since the fall of the Soviet empire, the existence and purpose of NATO has always been in question. History tells us that alliances never last forever – it will be interesting to see how long NATO can continue its run.

I am going to see how many little projects I can knock out this weekend – try to take advantage of the good weather…. oh, and also work on my thesis paper.

Mobile install

I have my HF mobile up and operational again. The setup I had last summer was with a stake pocket mount with my Tarheel Stubby 75 towards the rear of my Toyota Tundra’s bed. The problem with the stake pocket mount is that the Stubby 75 kept coming loose. I ordered the MT-1(S) mount from Tarheel. I had the MT-1(S) mounted on the inside of the bed of the truck towards the rear. The trick is getting the thing secured to the side. For this task I enlisted the help of the local body shop which did the job for under $40. The mount and antenna are now incredibly secure. I have to redo the PL-259 connector connector from the feedline to the base of the Stubby 75 – should have time to do it after school on Friday. Oh… and this picture is not actually of my install but thought it looked like some good intentions gone wrong. I will try to take some pics of my mobile install and post them this weekend.
In other news… EI9FVB emailed me confirming his receipt of his YI9MI QSL card. That’s great – hopefully the others will be receiving their cards soon (if not already).
… last but not least, it looks like the ARRL store has field day shwag for sale.

Force 12 From Santa Cruz

In an attempt to improve his antenna situation my dad, KD6EUG, was perusing Craigslist and found a seller in Santa Cruz that was looking to part with his Force 12 Sigma 5. I had just been reading about this antenna on one of NE1RD’s blog’s:The 100lbs DXpedition. Scott used his Sigma 5 on a few DXpeditions and reported good results. The Sigma 5 is a 5 band (20-17-15-12-10) vertical dipole. This should be easy for my dad to setup at the home QTH in San Jose, CA and also up at the cabin in the Sierras. I also have high hopes that this antenna will allow for an HF QSO between my dad and me. And a big thanks to Jack, WA6FYD who was the previous owner of the Sigma 5. I got to exchange emails with Jack – he’s retired military and a devoted CW aficionado.

Linux in the Ham Shack

I found an excellent podcast focusing on using linux in support of amateur radio. The show is hosted by Richard, KB5JVB, and Russ, K5TUX. The first episode debuted in October 2008 and as of this month there are a total of 8 episodes with another episode due any day. Richard is a good ol’ boy from Dallas, TX and it is worth listening to the show just to hear his banter. Russ is the brains behind the operation. There is also a forum for discussion.
I am trying to find a good logging program that I can use. Under Windows I use Ham Radio Deluxe, which is hard to beat with all its features. Is there any piece of linux software that is a feature rich?
There is CQRLOG. This looks like a fairly new piece of software that is described as: an advanced ham radio logger based on Firebird database. Provides radio control based on hamlib libraries (currently support of 140+ radio types and models), DX cluster connection, QRZ callbook (web version), a grayliner, ON6DP QSL manager database support and a most accurate country resolution algorithm based on country tables developed by OK1RR. CQRLOG is intended for daily general logging of HF, CW & SSB contacts and strongly focused on easy operation and maintenance.