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A cool new AI-generated club logo
Hi all,
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I debuted this at yesterday's club meeting. I was finally able to get an AI to create a decent club logo. This isn't necessarily an "official" club logo but I thought I'd share it in case you all would like to use it. I created it with Meta AI. Enjoy!
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FYI here's the "prompt" that I used to create the logo (no quotes required): "imagine a logo for an amateur radio club named "285 Tech Connect Radio Club" based in Lakewood, Colorado, near the rocky mountains". Pretty amazing IMO!
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And if you want to play with the Meta AI, it's free; here's the URL: https://www.meta.ai/
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Re: Intruder on 438.125 MHz
Thanks Greg - I¡¯ve been meaning to check in on this but have been busy with work travel and vacation.
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I¡¯m glad that it was taken off the air and it¡¯s still amazing to me, how far and wide that signal managed to go. It would have been interesting to learn what antenna and ERP they were using.?
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Re: New 285 TCRC DMR Talkgroup and Tuesday TechNet digital connectivity update
Hey Bill,
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Yep, NA0TC's DMR talkgroup 3215003 is up 24x7x365. I've been trying to monitor it but so far I've mostly been listening to silence, so it would be awesome to get some traffic going on it.
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Re: New 285 TCRC DMR Talkgroup and Tuesday TechNet digital connectivity update
Great work, Mark,?thank?you!? Is the BM talkgroup up and running 24/7, or just during the Tech Net?? I tried it just now using time slot 1 and color code 1 without success. Bill K1BP On Wed, Mar 12, 2025 at 1:53?PM Mark Ehr | K0EHR via <mark=[email protected]> wrote:
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Bill Karsell K1BP |
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New 285 TCRC DMR Talkgroup and Tuesday TechNet digital connectivity update
Hi all,
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I'm pleased to announce that the DMR test on yesterday's TechNet was a success! In case you missed the other discussion around this, we have been experimenting with bridging digital protcols (EchoLink and DMR) into the CRA 145.145 repeater in order to provide access to the net for folks that are outside of the repeater coverage area. Last week we had a successful test of EchoLink (thanks to John WB4HZA for his help!) and this week we tested DMR, which was also a success. We're working on tuning the DMR connection a bit to improve quality but overall it worked out great.
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I'm also happy to announce that after a discussion with Brandmeister, the dominant DMR ham radio network, we are able to use the club's DMR "RadioID" as a talk group, so we'll move forward using that. While TGIF is a great network, probably 90% of the DMR traffic worldwide goes over Brandmeister, so let's stick with that from a pure usability perspective. The talk group number is 3215003 and John WB4HZA and I just had a successful QSO on it between Littleton CO and Tampa FL, so it's ready to go!
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I encourage anyone that's got a DMR radio and hotspot to check it out. I'll be monitoring the talk group whenever I can and it would be fun to get some QSOs going. If you need some help configuring your hotspot I'll write up some steps on how to do that using Pi-Star. I've also asked John to do some screen grabs using his OpenSpot 4 for those of you using that hotspot. If you're having difficulties configuring your hotspot, or need advice on what hotspot to buy, put a message up on this channel and we'll be happy to help get you set up.?
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In a nutshell, in order to access the talk group, you'll likely need a DMR hotspot, however there is a possibility that one of the local DMR repeaters would allow "steering" to our talk group.?
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At any rate, please give the new talk group a try and report back here on how it's working for you. And as always, I encourage everyone to join the TechNet on Tuesdays at 7pm, regardless of which mode you use!
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Here's the summary of ways you can connect to the TechNet:
Analog: CRA Mestaa¡¯?hehe 145.145 (-) and 447.575 (-) repeaters. Both require a 107.2 Hz CTCSS tone to transmit.
EchoLink: W0CRA-L
DMR: Brandmeister talk group 3215003
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Re: Attention attendees of the Saturday, March 1 club meeting.
Sorry to hear that and thanks for letting us know.
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All the best for a rapid recovery!
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Bringing the Tuesday TechNet into the digital age!
Hi all,
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As I've mentioned over the past couple of club meetings, I've been working with Robb and the CRA to figure out a way to bridge the 145.145 repeater to a digital network so that club members that live in areas that can't hit the repeater, plus those that travel or are in other states, can still participate.
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It took a little work to find the right person at CRA, but I finally found Nate Duehr WY0X who has been instrumental in helping us with the project. On tonight's net, he was able to bridge the 145.145 and 447.575 repeaters together, which then allowed us to bring in Echolink and Allstar networks.
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Fortunately, John Stevens WB4HZA was conveniently at his place in Tampa this week and he joined the net using the Echolink app on his iPhone. I'm happy to report that the test was a success, although John did mention that he lost the connection a couple of times (just requiring him to restart the app).?
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Going forward, the plan is to continue to bridge the repeaters, so it will be possible to utilize the UHF repeater (447.575 (-) 107.2 Hz), which is also located on Mestaa¡¯?hehe (fka Squaw) Mountain. The UHF repeater also supports Echolink connections (search for W0CRA-L in the Echolink app) and Allstar node 59468. I haven't played around with Allstar much although I believe you can get to it using DroidStar on an Android phone. And Echolink can be accessed via Android and iOS apps plus Windows, Mac and via a web browser. Details on the various Echolink apps is here: https://www.echolink.org/download.htm
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By the way, if you're mystified about how to pronounce Mestaa¡¯?hehe, it's "mess-taw-HAY".?
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Nate and I are also investigating bridging the repeaters into a DMR talkgroup. For next week's net, we're going to see if we can borrow another club's talkgroup for a proof of concept, and I'm also working on getting a RadioID assigned to the club callsign, which will then enable me to create a dedicated Brandmeister talkgroup for the club. The talkgroup would be automagically bridged to the CRA repeater every week for the TechNet, and it would also be available 24x7x365 for club members to use to communicate with each other using a DMR radio connected to a DMR repeater or using a personal hotspot like an OpenSpot or Pi-Star (MMDVM) hotspot. Pretty cool!
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So stay tuned for more news on this and in the meantime, if you haven't been able to participate in the net in the past due to a lack of connectivity or coverage, please give Echolink or Allstar a try!
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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HB 1094 - Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act Re-Introduced
Hi all,
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As we discussed at Saturday's club meeting and on tonight's Tech Net, this is an effort underway to get the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act Re-Introduced in Congress (HB 1094). Believe it or not, this bill would amend the Communications Act of 1934 which is used by HOAs to restrict amateur radio antennas on private land.
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This bill would prevent HOAs and other entities from restricting amateur radio antennas on private land. Here's a description of the bill from the ARRL website:
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"Homeowner association rules often prevent Amateur Radio operators from installing antennas at their homes even though Amateur Radio has proven to be essential in emergencies and natural disasters such as hurricanes when other means of communication fail."
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This was literally just announced in January, so it will be likely be a while before the bill is introduced as it doesn't appear that it's even been drafted yet. The good news is that it's got bi-partisan support, with U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Richard Blumenthal, D- Conn., and Representatives August Pfluger, R-Tex., and Joe Courtney, D-Conn all sponsoring the bill.?
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For more information, you can visit the ARRL page on the bill here:
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You can read the full text of the proposed bill here:
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This would obviously be great news for all amateur radio operators and I'm excited that the ARRL is supporting the effort. If it comes to the floor for a vote, we should all get involved to petition our senators and representatives to vote for it.
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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KV4P HT v2.0c build is complete and working great!
Hi all,
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Last weekend I finally got around to building the KV4P HT, which consists of a small PCB that comes mostly pre-populated, only requiring the addition of an inexpensive RF module. It connects via USB-C to an Android phone and turns it into a pretty capable 2-meter HT that can output 1 watt and do FM plus APRS. Pretty cool project!
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I'm also very excited about the prospects of connecting the HT PCB to a microcontroller such as an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi, which opens up a world of possibilities. For example, two of them connected via inexpensive Yagis could be used to exchange data via APRS, and at 1-watt with the right antenna, you could get some pretty good distance out of them. I've done 90+ miles on 5 watts with a Moxon, so I'd imagine you could get at least a couple of miles (maybe even 10+) on 1 watt with the right antenna. Vance has published the source code for all components of the HT (Android app and the ESP32 firmware) so it shouldn't be too heavy of a lift to send the command set from a microcontroller to the ESP32.?
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I documented the whole project in detail on my blog:
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I'll bring this along to this (March 1 at the Bridge Church in Lakewood starting at 9:30am) as an example of a fun "DIY'ish" project you can do.
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Happy reading and 73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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44 Net - free public internet (IP) addresses for ham radio uses!
Hi all,
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Today while listening to the Ham Radio Workbench podcast I learned about the 44 Net, which is a set of millions of public (also known as "static") Internet (IP) addresses that were allocated for exclusive use by amateur radio operators back in 1981, literally as the Internet had just been created. I've detailed all about the 44 Net and the foundation that manages this incredible (and highly valuable) block of IP addresses, along with some ideas on how you can make use of them. One immediate use I can think of would be for the club remote station - @Mark Edwards, we should chat about that.?
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Check it out on my blog here:
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Re: Intruder on 438.125 MHz
Good idea - I'll do that.
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Re: Intruder on 438.125 MHz
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýGreg,Nice work tracking down the signal as much as you did. ?Thank you. I see you are already in touch with our club president Mark Ehr, K0EHR. ? Have you also contacted other clubs, like the Parker Radio Association?
73,
Mark Edwards-W0QL
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One thing is certain: ?The future is uncertain.
On Feb 7, 2025, at 2:18?PM, Greg Ella | N0EMP via groups.io <gregella53@...> wrote:
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Re: Intruder on 438.125 MHz
Also, in case anyone is interested, I made a WAV recording of the transmission from my SDRPlay receiver. It appears to be a sideband transmission and in addition to the "heartbeat" every second or so, there is a 10-second data burst every 2 minutes or so that does sound a lot like PSK of some sort.
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I sent this to my signal processing buddy who is going to run it through their detectors to see if he can identify it. They do all kinds of crazy top secret stuff, so if anyone can decode this, he can. I'll keep everyone posted!
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
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Fascinating read on the history of QRP Labs and the evolution of compact QRP transceiver designs
Hi all,
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I've recently jumped into a couple of QRP Labs projects, including a QMX that I managed to break within hours of getting it (I think I blew the finals when I attached it to my mag loop, even though it's supposed to have SWR protection) and a QCX kit that I have yet to build. I'm about ready to replace the four BS170 MOSFETS in the QMX which will hopefully get it back on the air.?
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At any rate, I came across this accounting from Hans Summers G0UPL, the founder and owner of the company, on his journey from being an investment banker in Japan to quitting his career to pursue the QRP Labs business, which involves many twists and turns including a move to Turkey. It's a fascinating read and also a great treatise on various ways to design compact, cost efficient transceivers. Definitely worth a read!
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73,
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Mark
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--------------------- Mark Ehr | K0EHR President, 285 Tech Connect Radio Club Littleton, Colorado k0ehr@... Check out my ham radio blog: |
Mark Ehr | K0EHR
Bill Karsell | K1BP
Mark Edwards | W0QL