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A monster asset - WILMAR node and 444.800 repeater
I recently received an email from Ace KB0MNU describing the mounting location and antennae in conjunction with the packet node and UHF repeater. |
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The Great Car Run caper of 1994
The Great Car Run Packet Caper
Every August antique car enthusiasts hold a 90 mile run for cars made before 1920 that goes from New London, MN to New Brighton, MN.
For many years the Willmar Ham radio club provided communications support by placing mobile hams with 2 meter transceivers amoungst the participants.
They used the 146.91 repeater which is a wide area coverage machine and put up a net control tent at the Buffalo, MN halfway stop. Usually a crowd would gather around to hear the progress. The old guard in our club reveled in this opportunity to show off their repeater and made no secret of it.? One of the other factions in our club were the digital packet radio folks like myself who saw greater possibilities by merging radio and data. One of the obvious uses combined the new GPS service many of us had with digital radio to allow us to track a GPS transmitter paired together.
The much re known APRS was in it's infancy then - the biggest snag was a lack of decent maps to plot on the computer screen. The popular thing at the time was to attach a GPS to a laptop computer running the Delorme mapping program.
The present location would show as a green arrow on a very detailed map! In doing some experiments, I discovered it was possible to send the data from a GPS to the computer via packet radio, cutting the cord, so to speak.
We ran experiments on quiet simplex frequencies to fine tune the process and stay below the "old guard's" radar. In the summer of 1994 with the help of John K0CQW and Joe N0NCO, we put together the system.
John got us access to a tower near Lake Minne Belle where we installed a temporary packet repeater which filled in a coverage hole once we were out of the Spicer packet nodes range. Joe set up his own tent in Buffalo with a 1000W Honda generator,? packet station, antenna and the biggest monitor I'd seen attached to his laptop computer that was running the Delorme mapping program. I was the tracking car. It took a little convincing to allow me to join the pack, but once in, I just stayed a safe distance behind whoever was the leader.
I was mostly in the dark as to how it was working as my radio was tied up doing packet. When we stopped in Litchfield I was able to hear the good news that everything was working better than we'd hoped! At Buffalo, word got out that Joe had a graphic display of the run going and the crowd gathered round to watch.
When we got to the Buffalo fairgrounds, our stopping point, I peeled off and drove over to the tent. The folks watching the arrow thought the old car was outside, but, it was just me, grinning ear to ear in my Dodge Colt with the GPS antenna "boob" on the roof. For a day, at least, we'd stole their fire. ?
Mike N0QBH |
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W0SW local packet history
Early Packet Radio in central MN
In 1991 when I got my Ham radio licence the other technical "rage" was Bulletin Board Services (BBS) which operated over phone lines with dial up modems allowing us to read and send messages (think early email) with our computer.
The downside of BBS activity was cost. It was usually long distance to any of the bigger, non local BBS's, so the meter was always running.
On the other hand, I'm sure the phone companies loved it.
After I had gotten my feet wet in amateur radio, mainly in the VHF and UHF FM operations, I discovered Hams also communicated with computer modems over radio channels at whopping speeds of 300 and 1200 baud!
Early on, a group of Hams from Tuscon, AZ designed and sold a modem kit called a Terminal Node Connector 2 (TNC2). It was an instant hit and several companies cloned the design, putting it in range of the typical ham for around $100. The TNC was connected to the computer with a serial cable and to the radio's microphone connection.?
This facet of ham radio took off, primarily because hams also tended to be early adopters of personal computers and love new gadgets.?
Our local college in Willmar had a wireless communication program that was very popular turning out two way radio technicians.
It's instructor, Roger Williams W0WUG(sk) had a packet station at the lab and it was using a 100' tall tower, one of two the school had for training. As a result of it's height and quality installation, it had a wide coverage and many area hams used it to get on packet radio.
About the same time Ham programmers were creating BBS and network software (mostly free) designed for radio use that also included message forwarding and routing routines. BBS programs were computer based while network modems were EPROM replacements for the TNC2 that eliminated the user interface and used intelligent algorithms to route the traffic.
In essence, a network for Packet Radio was evolving before our eyes.?
Hams with high locations, like myself, were able to connect to these packet radio networks at night that were starting to appear in Minneapolis and St Cloud. It made us want more...
One of the local hams, Dick Butler W0RIM(sk), had connections to the St. Cloud Ham club and made the introductions to Hank Koch NF0H(sk), Ed Steinblock K0VU(sk) and Jack Maus W0MBD(sk).?
Hank was already running a BBS, but found the connection to Minneapolis to be very unreliable. We all agreed a designated "backbone" that would move the traffic between us and the metro was needed. The result was a UHF (446 MHz) path extending from the west metro to a 1400' site east of Cold Spring. The Cold Spring site had a line of sight path to the Mpls "node" and a clear north-south path to St Cloud and my QTH on Ringo Lake near Spicer. Frankly, we were very fortunate geography was our friend.
We used cutting edge (at the time) 9600 baud radio modems grafted to network TNCs for greatly increased throughput.?
At the time, the radio transceivers had to be modified to work at 9600 baud, so I turned to Roger W0WUG(sk) and a student of his Joel N0NCO, from Ridgewater Wireless to teach me how.
I might also add another of Roger's former students, Dan Karg WB0GDB, was also active in packet radio and created the 9600 baud connection at the Minneapolis end. This, in turn, connected us to the rest of the packet radio BBS "world".
With a solid connection in place, we had two local access BBSs running on each end for a total of four. Two in St Cloud, one at Ringo Lake and one in Willmar.
About the same time I procured a rent free location at the 150' level on a 500' tower near Spicer. This was a wide area access node running 50W on VHF (145 MHz) and 1200 baud. With it, hams from a 30 mile radius could easily access the two local BBSs as well as other hams on this network. It was called MNSPI and served the packet community until the tower site was sold and we had to vacate around 2000.
One of the earlest users of the Internet were Ham radio packet operators using "wormholes" between universities (where the Internet resided in those days). These wormholes allowed us to virtually appear on a distant network - in our case usually Florida. From there we would connect to and chat with other hams in the Sunshine state like they were local.
Most users "surfed" the local BBS stations reading personal messages, public bulletins and often, posting their own replies. This was almost always 2 meter FM 1k2 baud in order to keep the hardware requirements simple. If you were already operating voice mode, all you needed was a TNC (modem).
Then the Internet happened and this all died off. ?
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WILMAR Node etc
Just a note with a new subject line - the WILMAR packet radio node is on line and open to ALL licensed Ham users.
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Re: WILMAR packet node offline this weekend
Sorry for the delay, Ben.
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Re: 60m band comments to the FCC
I'd like to urge everyone to submit a comment to the FCC on the negative effect of the proposed changes to the 60m band.?
I submitted comments on the behalf of myself and the W0SW club. Comments do nott have to be overly complicated, a simple example could be "Please reconsider the changes to the 60m band. A reduction in power limits the effectiveness of emergency communications during disasters and the ability to relay information over a larger effective area". It's important that the FCC receives a large response from the amateur radio community regarding this issue even if you don't use the 60m band or have HF privileges. |
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Re: WILMAR packet node offline this weekend
Thank you for the 2m packet presentation at the meeting last night. If I get a chance to get everything set up next weekend I'll give it a try and see if I can make a contact with you through the WILMAR node.?
Is there an online resource anywhere that I can find a "cheat sheet" with commands used for getting started? |
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Re: WILMAR packet node offline this weekend
WILMAR is back on line at the LEC site and is sporting it's new callsign W0SW (Willmar Ham club's call).
The CQ IDer is no longer active which will likely be appreciated by the other nodes it would occasionally interfere with. I also enabled the node's mailbox W0SW-1. This can be a place to leave messages for other users and works like a public email.? I limited the memory allocated to about 20k, so there won't be any huge tomes there, just messages. Thanks again to Tony WD0HXV for getting me in and sort of introducing me to the "new" WIllmar EAR. 73 Mike? N0QBH |
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WILMAR packet node offline this weekend
Tony WD0HXV & I removed the WILMAR (note the spelling) node TNC from it's normal location under the LEC big tower Friday.
This was done to change the node callsign from Ace Bonnema's KB0MNU to the Willmar EAR club callsign W0SW and to check over the health of the unit. I also turned off the CW ider as it is bad for the network and not required in the US. Tony and I tentatively plan to reinstall it Sunday. I'm hoping to cobble together a packet station for the meeting Tuesday and demo it to the troops. 73 Mike N0QBH |
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Kenwood TS-570 For Sale
Kevin-W0RND has a Kenwood TS-570 for sale. $400
Contact Kevin for info at either kc0cgm04@... or cell #320_492_1939 Thanks. #ForSale |
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Re: Digital system for hospital
Dan Gelle KC0CAP would be the best source of information that I know in regards to your question.
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Re: [NLRS] FM carrier with roger beep on 144.200 at 85 degrees azimuth
Hello Mary W?AAT and fellow Amateurs, I normally don’t get on here all that often, but been on the NLRS email reflector for some years now. I’ve been into Fox hunting for many years. I thought I might be able to try to help here if I can.? If other hams are hearing stuff send me an email directly to me at KB0DCO@... or REPLY here at NLRS. The more data I can get from other hams, I will try to compile the data on this map using CalTopo. It is a live link till I delete the map. ( screenshot below.) To try track down man made noises. Either being made by industrial machines or a person who is interfering with ham radio communications.? On this map, I’ve made a custom colors elevations on the map. It’s something I’m using to study the terrain a bit better. Anyone can turn items on and off in the columns on either side of the map. At this time, I believe I’m the only one that can add/edit this map. (Let me know if you are able to.) So after seeing your message, I thought this was interesting to me because I’ve also heard something stop my radio scanning on 144.200 from my location from time to time. But not enough to have a significant signal reading here in Stewart using a 5/8 wave mag mount antenna inside my apartment. For those looking to help and make reports… By having a beam antenna and reporting the degrees from your location, plus a signal strength level. If you are a mobile station driving down the road with a vertical antenna… Just give your cross streets with a signal report. Then at a later time, someone can go investigate from those locations that you were in. A Report Example: Station Reporting: (KB?DCO Thomas) What was Heard: (FM Carrier) Receiving Frequency: (144.200) Signal Strength: S9 +10 Db Cross Streets and City or County Location: (Hwy 212 & 41, Carver Co.) In What Direction in Degrees: 260 If anyone has any questions please feel free to contact me and we can discuss things in more detail. KB?DCO Thomas Gagnon Sent from my IPAD 4th Gen. Air Touch On Sun, Oct 15, 2023 at 1:34?PM Mary Brown <maryalanab@...> wrote: I am hearing an FM carrier with a roger beep on 144.200 pointed at 85 |
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60m band comments to the FCC
Link to article above. ARRL Urges Comments to FCC on 60-Meter Band10/10/2023
? is asking that all radio amateurs urge the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to continue the existing use of the 60-meter band. A public comment period is open until October 30, 2023. ARRL encourages expressions of support to the FCC for the current 100 W ERP power limit (instead of reducing the power limit to 15 W EIRP) and continuing secondary access to the current channels.? ARRL has assembled a web page with instructions on how to submit your comments, as well as background information on the issue:?.? To submit a filing of your comments for the FCC’s consideration in the rulemaking process, go to the FCC web page for the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking’s (NPRM) Docket Number 23-120 at?. If you wish to directly enter your comments, select the button labeled??or if you are uploading a document that contains your comments, select?. When submitting your comments, be sure the correct proceeding’s docket number, 23-120, is included on the form.?Your name and comments will be entered into the official public record of the proceedings and will be viewable by anyone who visits the docket web page. While radio amateurs are encouraged to include any comments they would like in their submissions, they’re especially encouraged to draw upon their personal experiences using the 60-meter band for public service purposes and for its location between the amateur 80- and 40-meter bands, which is critical to ensuring signal propagation to certain geographic areas during variations in time and the solar cycle. For example, ensuring radio amateurs have a continuum of communication capabilities across the 7 MHz, 5 MHz, and 3.5 MHz bands is valuable for emergency communications, especially between the US and Caribbean nations during hurricane season. ? ? Some of the main points to comment on for this NPRM are:
ARRL Public Relations and Outreach Manager Sierra Harrop, W5DX, underscored the importance of commenting, urging members to speak up. “ARRL members make up the strongest voice in matters of amateur radio spectrum defense,” said Harrop. “Your membership and participation in the rulemaking process both ensure ARRL continues to make the difference when our band privileges are threatened. Please join us in effort to protect our 60-meter band privileges |
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TARPN - An interesting approach to packet radio in the 21st century
What I find interesting - TARPN seems to have figured out how to implement forward error correction (FEC) to AX.25 packets.
Packet's greatest downfall has always been lack of robustness - one error and the packet is trash. This could change. Another thing is they have figured out how to use mobile radios that claim to support 9600 baud packet (but never did very well) by reducing the speed in half to 4800 baud. I plan to build and test their NinoTNC with a couple of Yaesu FT-2600 2m radios that fall into the above mentioned category. 73 Mike? N0QBH |
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Quarterly Meeting
Hello members,
The clubs quarterly meeting is coming up on Tuesday, October 24th at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held at the Kandiyohi County Rescue Squad building. The address is 213 Lakeland Dr NE Willmar, Mn 56201 |
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Re: Welcome
Hi Rick. I qso'ed with you on the 146.91 machine this week as you were heading thru Willmar on the way to Tyler I believe. |
N0QBH Mike Berg
W0AYE Ben Wussow
Willmar Area Emergency Amateur Radio Club