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When K-link announced sunset years ago, Sunflower was set up to do statewide linking.

There’s been a little interest but very little do. The do part is simple. Connect your device on any mode desired to any mode the system offers.

One solution is to make an M17 repeater, the first in this State, and join that way. There’s grant money for such as this and help online and in Oklahoma, home of the first in that State.

The goal has been a statewide network such as Alabama, Illinois, Oklahoma, and others have. I still believe in Santa and this goal.

At any rate, tomorrow, Echolink, Echophone, Droidstar are three modes to use on your PC, tablet, or phone to participate.

73

--
Lloyd Colston, KC5FM
SunflowerNet.us
Hamshack Hotline 50052

Nice to hear from you Lloyd....

You mentioned M17. I wonder if anyone / everyone in the club ---for that matter everyone in Kansas is aware of M17..

In an nutshell M17 is "yet another digital mode".... and further dilutes communications, and interoperability; especially if anyone has taken a look at the last hurricane season and the Butler County Pennsylvania assassination attempt /mass shooting this past fall. In those cases, dissimilar communications was a problem and at fault.

Digital FM is the Amateur radio version of the Betamax -VHS wars we were so aware of back in the 1980's. except more diluted as because of multiple choice, a digital standard will NEVER be agreed upon. There's, one from Motorola, one from the Polish hams, 2 from Japan, one JARL and one a business. and so on...

The saving grace for Amateur Radio for the most part, is that hardware available for the different digital modes can revert to 1948 analog FM.. You can fire up the DELCO spark plug 2 way land mobile that weighs about 80 pounds and talk to someone on 2 meters.

Here in Kansas we have Amateurs that are on the air with Clegg 27B 2 meter transceivers. 99% of ALL VHF/UHF FM transmissions are Analog FM, even ARPS.. Maybe digitial is more popular in NYC or the mid Altantic states and California, but not here...

if you want to popularize something,, make it so everyone can access it. Meaning no on eher eis hoing to spend $100 to $650 for a HT to work 1 frequency or one mode... ANALOG works...
The only digital mode that makes sense for Amateurs happens to be FUSION.. It's downfall- is Yaesu rolled it out with propitiatory "WIRES-X" to sell hardware that mimics ALLSTAR at much higher cost..

HOWEVER -Fusion offers AMS... Automatic Mode Selection, so that their repeaters can handle cross mode QSO.. one guy with Fusion and one with ANALOG and they won't know the difference...
Fusion like WSJT-X can be decoded right into the noise, so a noisy signal becomes full quieting. Therefore everyone is "full quieting".. and repeaters can be accessed where analog signals would "not make it" A tremendous advantage regarding "weak signal" typically HT's being used. Fusion also sends the callsign of the station digitally, meaning the necessity to ID is unnecessary. for those DMR proponents DMR does not ID with a callsign.

It's to bad Yaesu went down it's WIRES-X path and didn't incorporate ALLSTAR. Had they, they would be top dog in the digital wars. as ALLSTAR is 25+ times more popular than that of WIRES-X.

Now that I've said all that, if someday W0VFW joins the Sunflower Net, which I'm sure they are for.. it would be best to go with ALLSTAR, not M17.

Fact- just listen to W0VFW/R on 145.27. It's linked to ALLSTAR, the Blind hams net. A quite sophisticated network with D-star, Fusion and DMR bridges.. These Blind guys know good audio. Trust me on that one.. some hear a Tone on the network and will tell you the frequency.. Can you do that? I can't.

I have my repeater a fusion machine on 442.00 in a test mode till I get the rest of the tower up at my ranch.. I live alone and the last thing on my list every day is finishing the tower and I never get through the list..Currently it's on an antenna 20 feet above ground. things will change when it gets to 65 feet. Since I am sole owner of my machine I can do as I want. I also have 2 commercial repeaters..
(Ritron Patriots) 30 watt jobs, i will probably put on the tower under the ham antenna and run GMRS.

The quandary the club has... IS this....
Placing the UHF repeater on SUNFLOWER Net is like having it on K-LINK -very little traffic. The VHF repeater on BLIND Hams is the most active repeater in Wichita.
BUT-
It is NOT attracting new members.. New members not only replace those dying off but infuse manpower and money, much needed to meet our mission to serve Veterans, their Family and the community. As the club falls under the VFW umbrella.

To attract new members is to replace years old.. belong to the club and you can use the autopatch... to belng a member in the club and you can get codes to access the entire ALLSTAR NETWORK... That may increase membership. Our complete HF 600 watt station and beam does not.

Then perhaps program the Blind Hams attached repeater to Sunflower which would require club approval... or set it up so that it sits on Blind hams but can be toggled to sunflower (also AMRRON) for things like their net. There are multiple nets during the week on Blind hams. About 5 or 6 that I know of...

But that is up to the club to approve and implement. I don't have say...my now 17 year investment has had virtually no return. If I wasn't a life member of the ARRL, I wouldn't pay annual dues there.. i have not belonged to the NRA for 20 year or more either.. I'm a life member of the VFW, and I do pay annual dues to the American Legion as the dues cover the only watering hole in Mulvane where I live and I can bicycle to the post it's 2 miles. W0VFW is 21 air miles and 25 miles to drive each way for me..

So.... I'm fat and happy. I can get into Sunflower via ALLSTAR or fusion hot spots at my home. I can even listen to both at the same time along with Mulvane police dispatch and have 2 more hot spots if I want to "dial up" my buddies back east, or the morning coffee club (W6EK ALLSTAR 51018) and hear them all at the same time. Then I have 3 HF rigs.. One- my Yaesu FT817 backpack. That is set on 146.85 KAN-OKLA.. that repeater is only 2000 feet north of me.

So, I suspect M17 will never even become more than a foot note in the annals of ham radio history.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it..

Merry Christmas to all....

Larry W8LM

Good morning Larry and all …

You mentioned

You mentioned M17. I wonder if anyone / everyone in the club ---for that matter everyone in Kansas is aware of M17..


I can’t talk for everyone in Kansas but I’m in Kansas … barely … and yes, I am aware.

Speaking of audio quality, I agree that Allstar has the best analog audio. Add Hamshack Hotline and it’s even better!

When I call nets, I listen on HH and sometimes talk on another mode. HH is full duplex. That means as NCS I can hear when someone is doubling.

Also, the headset hears what the repeater hears not what the repeater transmits. This came out during a west Texas tornado warning.

I checked into a linked system and heard a mobile report a tornado. The system admin listening on a radio could not “pull him out”.

Now M17 might be flash in the pan. However, audio quality there is as good as Fusion and approaching Allstar quality.

Using Droidstar, M17 and more are achievable. Every Friday, there’s a global all day M17 net. There’s a weekly net on Droidstar.net for users.

From my understanding, M17 has a benefit in that the module plugs into an existing device, ex. Kenwood radio, and does the encryption and decryption. The module is cheaper than a new repeater. I may be wrong about this but I hope not. I remember a demonstration at a Hamfest a year or so ago.

So users can use Droidstar on their cellphone and connect on M17 to whatever module is desired.

THAT is cheap. I already have a cellphone. No additional radio required. One of the hams this week added the app to his phone. He thought it would be hard. I didn’t have to hold his hand. He called on Sunflower yesterday during the Santa Net. He had good audio. THAT is easy.

My cellphone is insured by the ARRL equipment insurance. Because of the apps, it becomes a ham radio.

Hope that helps.

73



--
Lloyd Colston, KC5FM
SunflowerNet.us
Hamshack Hotline 50052

Nice to see we can have a non real time conversation via this digital license free mode.. (HAHA) and share it with the rest of the subscribers..

Last night on YOUTUBE I caught the "podcast" of Ham Radio 2.0 .. That guy is out of Dallas Texas and I met him at on of the Dallas Hamfests last year and also at ARDMORE, OKLAHOMA.. His latest podcast was regarding the 3 new YAESU radio's just announced..

After viewin gthat I found John KRUK's -Yaesu America national Sales Manager, s review of the same 3 new radios. THe claim is that they will be at Dealers by the end of November --isn;t that yesterday?? Not like ICOM or Kenwood who announce new radio's and it's 6 months before they can be had....
Anyhow all 3 new Yaesu's are ANALOG FM Two are 2 meter a 65 watt and 85 watt rig.. Then a 2meter 440 dual band 50-35 watt unit.

John Kruk went into a big spiel regarding ANALOG FM and the fact it is not dead and many hams have little use for digital modes or digital modes are just not popular in their part of the country.. Since neither of us live in NYC, LA or Boston, he's right..

I may condsider the new dual band rig as it's virtually "plug and play" for ALLSTAR.. It has a data port on the rear of the rig which will accept a DINAH dongle (made by the same people as the famous ALLSTAR SHARI) into a Raspberry PI. through a 10pin to 6 pin Yaesu data cable. The total cost of doing that is much less than the FTM-500 Fusion Dual band Yaesu..

The new rigs all feature weak signal digital signal processing making this ideal for a simplex wide area ALLSTAR NODE..

Considering the difficulty and extra costs to interface a Yaesu Fusion repeater to Allstar, 2 of the above would be a good lower cost way to get a repeater running on ALLSTAR..

Regards,

Larry W8LM...

There are commercial radios for M17 available.




Simplex is available until repeaters come up.

Droidstar is less expensive.


73

--
Lloyd Colston, KC5FM
SunflowerNet.us
Hamshack Hotline 50052