开云体育

The club voted to replace the UHF repeater controller with a new Yaesu Fusion model at the last meeting.

The controller was purchased at a remarkable discount, which makes the frugal ham in me beam!

Dan KC0CAP handled the install along with Tony WD0HXV and your faithful scribe, N0QBH, observed.

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What this means to us users is the 448.400 repeater should work as it always did before in analog mode.

Many of the newer Yaesu radios support the C4FM digital mode and will work splendidly with the new machine.

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Folks with analog only transceivers will want to set and enable their receive tone on this frequency to 146.2 Hz.

This will prevent your radio from breaking squelch when a digital signal is received.

It will only respond to other analog signals.

Else, it will sound like loud noise on the frequency during a digital QSO.

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At this point, we do not have Internet access so the WiresX functions will be down the road.?

Then we will be able to link this repeater with others digitally like many of the repeaters to our north and east.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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Wish could make it. Got football playoffs and repeater council meeting that day.

Saturday October 26 at 1 pm located at the Kandiyohi County Rescue Squad building (Lakeland Ave east side just south of the tracks).

Same place as the club meetings.

We plan to demonstrate setting up a new Winlink station operating VARA FM.

The is also a guest Ham from Todd County, Mike Wisnewski KC0TAF, who is interested in expanding Winlink here to western Minnesota.

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This should be a good chance to see how it's done and encourage others to join us.

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See you there,

73

Mike N0QBH

Copied from ARRL Letter.

Winlink, which provides email over amateur radio, has been used significantly in the recovery. ARRL Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV, says the recent FCC removal of symbol rate restrictions has allowed a streamlined response using modern technology. “Winlink is an example of how modern tools work well within the Amateur Radio Service. Not having to petition the FCC for a waiver of the old rules allowed Winlink to be used immediately during this emergency,” he said. ARRL had advocated for the change,?.

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Significant stories of the response from individual hams is emerging, particularly from those who have created pop-up nets to pass health and welfare traffic. Using mountaintop repeaters that have robust power backups, HF frequencies, and Winlink, ham radio operators are putting in their time, talents, and personal gear to good use.

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The local news media in affected areas has connected with several radio amateurs to highlight their work. CBS 17 in Raleigh reported on??trying to get information on loved ones. In Charlotte, Queen City News told the story of??as well as passing along messages to loved ones.

We still need help with the marathon. A little on Net 3 in St. Paul and 5 people in the Finish line Family Medical Tent at the capital grounds. Contact, Erik Westgard to help. C. (612) 308-5321.
We also need help with Net 1 (miles 1-19). Contact Stephen Cullen, KF0AED, kf0aed9@..., 612-669-2490.

Aaron Larson, WB9CFN

I wish it were a larger image, but I thought the difference between roof and trunk (2 dB) was worth noting.

Roof center is best. It goes downhill after that.

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Here's a great video on YouTube by Stu AG6AG detailing how to install the Winlink program.
He has a series of videos on the different modes of Winlink operation.

The VARA setup is mixed in with the Signal link video and is a little dated.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSLghO6RgFU&list=PLvg1CrZfziQtz-Qg70flt1Ht2aK3XF03m

We have tentatively set the date and time for the workshop to October 19 @ 1:00pm at the Kandiyohi County Rescue Squad building.

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Ace Bonnema KB0MNU has volunteered to be our newest Winlink user.

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Interested Hams are welcome to come out and watch along as we go through setting up Ace's Winlink email account and VARA FM modem.

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73

Mike N0QBH

Probably worth a try. I have some I could experiment with.
Else the plan was to operate on battery only and charge while driving.

Inductance can't be sensed, felt or even understood easily.
In this case we hope the right amount looks like a high resistance to noise (AC) in the power cable while the DC passes unaffected.

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73

Mike N0QBH

Would ferrite chokes on the charging cables help mitigate that? Asking for a friend because I'm to ashamed to admit I don't know what I'm talking about.?

While trying out a DC to DC mobile laptop charger today, I discovered the VARA receive signal was getting interfered with when the charger was plugged in.

I assumed the PC battery would filter the charger noise, but apparently having the radio and charger on the same supply (car battery, engine running) provided a path for the noise.

The charger appears to be well made, just noisy.

If you are doing mobile VARA ops and are having trouble, it's something to check.

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73

Mike N0QBH

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In a few weeks we are planning on holding a short workshop on how to set up Winlink and VARA on your Windows 10/11 computer.
We will gather at the Rescue Squad building where we have club meetings.

Come and watch as we set up a new Winlink user from start to finish. - See the clowns working without a net! (just kidding)

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Right now, this is still in the planning stages, but I wanted to let folks know we are still very much into making this grow.

Stay tuned...

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73

Mike N0QBH

That is great Ham Radio humor!

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73

Mike N0QBH

Hello,

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I will not be in the area for the next two weekends, 9/1 & 9/8, and therefore cannot run the Sunday evening Nets.? I'm asking for someone to take one or both of those dates for net control.? I will announce it on the next Net.? Thanks.? 73

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de WD0HXV

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Tony LaPatka

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Here is a portable Meshtastic node I've constructed for temporary events like a search and rescue or covering a race.

The hardware is identical to my tower node sans the solar panel as the battery alone is good for a few days of operation.

It's purpose is to be a text repeater.

Located reasonably high with a good antenna (for 915 MHz) to act as a relay for the other Meshtastic users.

Depending on terrain and how high up it's located, this should easily cover a couple mile plus area.

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It consists of a weather tight plastic case with a RAK Meshtastic 915 MHz LoRa module, 5 dBi antenna and a 5A 3.7 volt LiPo battery.

The module has a USB C connector for programming and charging the battery. Plugging and unplugging the battery turns it off/on.

A Bluetooth connection lets a nearby event manager manage the node remotely.

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73

Mike N0QBH

Received this Winlink email from Leon KF0OUA today.?

Google says that park was 44 miles away as the crow flies.

The location GPS coordinates are for his QTH.

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I just sent my personal reply. My main complaint besides repetition is the small businesses that have grown up building devices for the ISM band.

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Here's the link and Proceeding number

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If you want to file a comment:

The proceeding number is 24-240.

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73

Mike N0QBH

Here's a good place to start learning about mesh networking.

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I also emphasize, there are no serious dumb questions here.?

While it's radio and electronics, it's also on the leading, bleeding edge of technology with LoRa modulation.

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