radio – Page 42 – Spinning and Grinning

More noodling

I changed my UNPROTO to WIDE3-3,WIDE2-2 and met with some success. The following came off of www.findu.com:

KD7PJQ-6>S7PV8P,N4EVA-11,WIDE3*,WIDE2-2,qAo,W8JUK-3:`h8?o^2″3r}TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PV5S,N4EVA-11,WIDE3*,WIDE2-2,qAo,W8JUK-3:`h8Vo6)”4″}TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PU1X,N4EVA-11,WIDE3*,WIDE2-2,qAo,W8JUK-3:`h7C!SE”3z}TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PT4S,N4EVA-11,WIDE3,K4ROK-10*,WIDE2,qAo,KF4VTT:`h6N!S6″3x}TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PS5X,N4EVA-11,WIDE3*,WIDE2-2,qAo,W8JUK-3:`h5(!]9″3x}TH-D7A(G)

Blue dots above represent a plot from each packet that made it to N4EVA-11.

What I did for this test was to connect the GPS to the D7A and drove out to Newport News and back. While going up and down I-64, I kept getting good packets being digipeated from N4EVA-11. But once I leave I-64, the signal from the D7A (with just a rubber duck, no external antenna) no longer hits N4EVA-11.

Unless I set up my own digipeater, I have to be able to get my packet to N4EVA-11. I believe the key piece of being able to do this while bicycle mobile is to install a decent antenna. I’m going to look for something suitable at the Virginia Beach Hamfest this weekend.

An Email With a Tip

On yesterday’s drive around Langley AFB, I was getting steady packets from AD4NJ and noticed his location was just on the north side of Langley in Poquoson. After getting back home, I went to www.findu.com to take a look at his raw packets in an attempt to determine his UNPROTO path. I also sent him an email with the same question. Here’s his reply:

From : Curtis Overman
Sent : Saturday, September 10, 2005 10:03 PM
To : scott
Subject : aprs

Good to hear from you Scott, I am just setting my APRS station up again. I understand that the unproto path locally is:

(1) Mobile wide1-1,wide2-2
(2) fixed 25w or more wide2-2

73′ Curt AD4NJ

More Noodling

Still not quite getting there. I drove out to Langley AFB and parked in an open area. I sparked up the GPS and was soon passing data between the GPS and D7A. The D7A was soon chirping away as the APRS data was inbound. I verified that packets I received were being passed from the D7A to my GPS and plotting as waypoints (as advertised). I then received a beep and the message “My Position” came up on the D7A display. A good sign – this meant that someone had digipeated my packet and I recived it.

So – I know the GPS and the D7A are talking as they are supposed to. But I think my issue is what to use as an UNPROTO path. RELAY,WIDE? WIDE2-2? WIDE3-3? WIDE1-1,WIDE2-1?

Test #1 Follow Up

Yesterday after work I took the bike over to a location with good line of sight, powered up the GPS, connected it to the D7A, and then powered up the D7A. I was receiving APRS traffic and transmitting my position as a beacon. However, I was unable to receive back my packet – so I’m concluding that my signal was not making it to the local digipeater (N4EVA-11). As the D7A is a dual-bander, I left the top band on the APRS freq and the bottom band I set to scan regular local voice repeaters and the placed the D7A in the handlebar bag. On my ride home I could here APRS traffic and a few calls on the regular repeaters, but I could tell reception was poor. I’m assuming having the D7A in the bag greatly diminishes my over all signal strength.

What I have yet to verify is that data being passed from the GPS to the D7A is being xmitted. My earlier test where I successfully passed a packet to the digipeater was from a lat/long location directly programmed into the D7A, not from the GPS.

Right now for a UNPROTO I’m using WIDE3-3. I’m going to change it to RELAY,WIDE and see if that makes it to the digipeater. In the past (with the TinyTrak) I’ve tried using an UNPROTO of N4EVA-11 and then to the Igate. But that’s never worked. I think N4EVA-11 only digipeats RELAY. I’m going to do a little fiddleing around with it this morning.

Bicycle Mobile

My endstate objective is to have a bicycle mobile setup with APRS and packet functionality.

Bicycle Mobile – Test #1

Objective: xmit at least one APRS beacon packet from my bicycle mobile HT to a digipeater capable of ultimately passing the packet to an Igate and enabling anyone to view my location via www.findu.com.

Components used:
(1) Garmin eTrex Vista GPS. I originally got this GPS when I was stationed in Korea back in 2001. While pulling duty in the brigade EOC I overheard radio traffic of a company XO who was making a chow run…. running hot chow out to soldiers in the field. The company XO (a lieutenant) was lost. He didn’t admit it at first, but finally said he didn’t know where he was. Being lost as a lieutenant is pretty bad, but having to admit over the brigade net that you are lost ranks among the most humiliating acts. At that point, I determined I’d purchase a GPS so I’d never be “lost”. I’ve really enjoyed the GPS so far. It worked great in Korea, I also used it in Germany, took it to Kuwait, used it on the convoy into Iraq and Baghdad, used it in and around Baghdad, and also used it on the return trip. It’s very solid and is pretty easy on the batteries. I was previously using the GPS along with my TinyTrack as an APRS beacon (http://www.livejournal.com/users/shedberg/2005/04/21/).
(2) GPS handlebar mount. I received it in the mail yesterday and installed it this morning. Pretty easy to install, the GPS slides on and locks into place.
(3) Kenwood TH-D7A(G). Designed to be used specifically for APRS, I figured the D7A was the radio for the task. I have the stock battery pack (PB-39, 9.6 V, 600mAh). For an antenna, I’m using something similar to the MFJ-1715S. It’s one of those thin, long dual band jobs.
(4) eTrex-Kenwood GPS data cable. I purchased this off of eBay from the GPSGeek store. The cable has the Garmin eTrex proprietary plug on one end and the 2.5mm plug for the radio on the other.

Pre-Test
As a preparatory test last night, I attached the D7A to my 2m/70cm vertical installed on the top of my house. I set the packet path to Wide3-3, manually inserted my lat/long location into the D7A, activated the beacon function and was able to transmit the following packets that made it to the www.findu.com database:
KD7PJQ-6>S7PS8P,WIDE3-1,qAo,N9VP:’h/Vl TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PS8P,N3XKU-15*,WIDE3,qAo,KA1UDX-1:’h/Vl TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PS8P,N4EVA-11,WIDE3*,qAo,N3IJW:’h/Vl TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PS8P,N4EVA-11,WIDE3*,qAo,W8JUK-3:’h/Vl TH-D7A(G)
KD7PJQ-6>S7PS8P,K4EME-3*,WIDE3-1,qAo,N4DSL:’h/Vl TH-D7A(G)

This test confirmed for me that the D7A was capable of transmitting APRS data locally, finding it’s way to an Igate, providing anyone the capability to check my location via the internet.

Test #1 Execution:
This morning I clipped my GPS onto my bikes handlebars and rolled the bike onto the driveway. Turning on the GPS, I was quickly able to get satellite lock and a position read out. I connected the data cable between the GPS and the D7A and powered the D7A on. A Band was already set with the APRS freq and TNC on. I pressed the POS button and the D7A successfully pulled my current location from the GPS and displayed it on the D7A. Immediately after that, the D7A’s red xmit light came on, indicating that the HT was xmiting my current position. The radio beeped and I could see other APRS traffic being received. I locked the key pad and placed the D7A into the bag on the front of my bike with the antenna sticking out at a 45 degree angle.

I headed out on my 5.44 mile trek to work.

The GPS was working fine the entire ride. The speedometer on the GPS was showing the same speed as my little Bell cycling computer.

I arrived at work and pulled the radio out of the bag. There were no stations listed on the screen – which indicates to me that no APRS stations were received by the D7A. I hit the BCON button a few times, but didn’t receive any responses.

I’m assuming one of two things happen: (1) my antenna isn’t doing an adequate job. Again, the D7A is located in the bike bag hanging off my handlebars and I’m not using any type of counterpoise with the antenna. Or (2) there was an issue with how the radio was positioned in the bag which either caused the data cable to come loose or accidentally engaged a key on the key pad.

Test assessment:
Overall the test was a failure.

Recommendations:
Before I head back home after work, I’m going to take my bike over to a location with good line-of-sight and try sending an APRS beacon to see if I’m getting a response. I’m going to first attempt to send the beacon while I’m holding the radio so I can monitor what is being displayed on the screen. If I’m successful with that, I will carefully place the radio into the bike bag and try this test again on my trip home.

EchoLink

EchoLink® software allows licensed Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, or from computer to station, greatly enhancing Amateur Radio’s communications capabilities. There are more than 150,000 registered users in 152 nations worldwide!

I installed the EchoLink software and was able to have a brief QSO with my dad, KD6EUG. I was on my laptop and he was using his HT. I connected in to a repeater in Saratoga, CA and it worked very well.

SKYWARN

Tonight I attended a class to become a National Weather Service storm spotter under the SKYWARN program.

The training was held at the Newport News Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Joe Safranek, K4JJS, helped coordinate with the NWS to get one of their meteorologist from the Wakefield, VA office to conduct the class. There were a lot of hams there – coming from Williamsburg, Newport News, and Hampton. The training focused on severe weather – lightning, thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes. I got to learn what conditions lead to forming a thunderstorm and how tornadoes are created. All in all, it was pretty interesting. I know have my Storm Spotter qualification and am suppose to contact the NWS at Wakefield if there is severe weather activity around where I live and work.

The ham radio piece comes in to play in case a big storm comes through and knocks out power and telephone lines. At that point, as weather spotters, we’d pass our reports over a local VHF repeater, which would then go to the NWS.

Running Crab

I’ve been having mixed results with my TinyTrak3 APRS beacon here in Hampton – when I start heading south from Newport News towards Fort Monroe (located at the southern tip of the peninsula), I can’t hit any APRS digipeaters – so my APRS beacon packets don’t go anywhere. Friday I was monitoring the local 2m repeaters and using WinAPRS and saw a couple guys testing some APRS equipment mounted on a bicycle. I emailed them and asked about the APRS coverage in Hampton and in response I got a request to help out with the Running Crab Half Marathon (www.runningcrab.org). So I said “why not?” and showed up this morning at the Hampton Convention Center at 6am. I helped set up some equipment and then went out to the 2 Mile Marker and set up a race clock, which I started when the race began – we used a local 2m repeater to relay the report of the starting line’s pistol. I then had to call in the numbers of the first three male and female runners that passed my point. I also helped a nearby water point setup and tear down an antenna for one of the race course APRS digipeaters. Amazingly enough the poles they had for the antenna had to have been Army surplus, because they looked just like the Army’s OE-254 (which I’ve used a million times to set up antennas for SINGCARS). After that it was back to the Hampton Convention Center to help tear down the equipment there (computers, antennas, etc.). The race used two mobile APRS units, one in the lead chase vehicle that was just in front of the male front runners and a bicycle mounted APRS that was trailing the lead female runner.

I think there was a total of 4 APRS digipeaters set up, one on the Convention Center’s roof (which had excellent 360 degree coverage), one at a water point just past the 2 Mile Marker, one near the 7 Mile Marker, and one inside the Convention Center which was connected to a computer running WinAPRS. The WinAPRS computer map display was then projected onto a large screen, so folks at Start/Finish could monitor the race.
I had a good time and enjoyed meeting the other local hams. Also got a free t-shirt. 🙂

Road Trip Wrap Up: APRS – from California to Virginia

Here’s a snapshot of my APRS track across the US – the track is shown in blue – the gaps indicate areas where my radio dedicated to emitting failed to make contact with another radio acting as an APRS relay.

My APRS setup consisted of the following equipment:

ICOM’s IC-T81A
This is a quad band radio (6m, 2m, 440 MHz, and 1.2 GHz), discontinued a due to the absolute hate folks had for that round “Multi” switch located to the bottom left of the LCD window. Admittedly, the radio takes a little to get used to, but overall, I’ve been very satisfied with it’s performance. The primary handicap of using this radio for APRS operation is that like most HTs, at high power it only transmits 5 Watts. I powered the radio with the optional CP-12L cigarette lighter cable with noise filter OPC-245L DC power cable.
IC-T81A manual

Byonic’s TinyTrak3
The heart of the whole operation. It connects with both the GPS and radio. TinyTrak3 takes the position data from the GPS, formats the data for use with APRS, and then passes the data to the radio for transmission. My TinyTrak3 worked flawlessly on the entire trip. It’s powered by a fused cigarette lighter plug connected with a fabricated cable that provides a serial connection to TinyTrak3 and TX/RX to the radio.
Download the configuration software and documentation.

And the final piece of my APRS triad is the GPS:

Garmin’s eTrex Vista
I purchased this GPS in 2001 when I was in Korea after I monitored a fellow lieutenant get humiliated when he got lost near the DMZ while trying to deliver hot chow to some of our soldiers. I vowed never to be “that lieutenant” and have not been lost since (as long as I had my GPS with me). The GPS got me through Korea and my subsequent assignment to Germany, but it really performed in Kuwait and Iraq. With only 2x AA batteries, the eTrex Vista usually operates for 12-14 hours.
Owner’s Manual (Software Version 3.00 and above) Rev. B, Aug, 2004