Dan (N7XDL) teaches us the basics of several common handheld radios.  Basic concepts are covered including turning your radio on (and off), switching between VFO and Memory Channel, and programming your radio for repeater use (including offsets and PL tones).  If you are a new ham, just getting used to your equipment, and you don't have an Elmer to ask, this presentation will get you on the local repeaters and operating your radio!

Radios covered include the typical Baofeng, Yaesu FT-60R, Yaesu VX-6R, and TYT TH-350.

Jan (KD7ZWV) briefs us on some of the gateways and services that we can access via APRS.  NOTE:  this is NOT an introduction to APRS briefing... for that, take a look at  Training Class - APRS which was presented via Zoom back in 2020.

Here are the slides for anyone looking... APRS_Gateways_and_Services.

Relevant links:

• SMS Gate (SMSGTE)
• E-mail Gateway (EMAIL-2)
• AP Spot

Not much of a turn out for the finale of RATPAC's Beginner's Guide to HF tonight, but we had some good conversation around a lot of the points.  This week's presentation covered setting up an HF station, including things like where to put it, what equipment is needed, antennas and grounding, power, and other requirements.  You can watch the video on RATPAC's site or right here:

The slides are available here:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zw217051om5lxtu/AACiqQxRS3DG9J9HDudQiSuIa?dl=0

Slide deck:  Packet Revisited

RATPAC Beginner's Guide to HF Week 2

Again, the slides and chat info are available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zw217051om5lxtu/AACiqQxRS3DG9J9HDudQiSuIa?dl=0

RATPAC Beginner's Guide to HF, Week 1

We viewed the first week's session of the excellent RATPAC presentation Beginner's Guide to HF:  HF Bands, Modes, Making Contacts & HF Activities, which was presented by Anthony Luscre, K8ZT & Dennis Kidder, W6DQ.

A link to the presentation PDF is here:  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/zw217051om5lxtu/AACiqQxRS3DG9J9HDudQiSuIa?dl=0 (this dropbox bucket contains all three presentation PDFs as well as additional notes from the Zoom session chats).

I'll add the links from the PDF later... wading through the presentation to extract all of the links is taking longer than I expected and I want to get this posted sooner rather than later.

Last week, our own Max (AI7LG) briefed us on how licensing works and especially the history and current operation of the VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator) program.  As a relatively new VE, Max had a great review of the topic and was able to present a lot of useful information.

We tried casting this meeting via Zoom, but had some technical difficulties.  Because of that, we were unable to produce a suitable recording of the meeting.  I will include a link to the slides here, though.  I may be able to sync up the audio to a copy of the slide presentation over the next few days, but I'm not going to promise anything.

Without further ado, here is the link to the presentation slides:  AARG Testing presentation.

One thing to note, Max's VE group, Aurora Amateur Radio Group based in Alaska, is offering FREE remote testing until the end of 2022.  You'll still be on the hook for the FCC fee, but the testing fee is waived until the end of the year.

If you were unable to join us for the meeting on the 14th, you missed out on a great presentation by Gary (KK7DV) on Remote Base radio operations.  Sadly, I forgot to hit the "record" button on the Zoom session, so if you missed it, you really missed it.

Gary talked to us about the remote base setup operated by UARC at Leamington Pass Canyon down near Delta, UT.  He went into the details on the radios and antennas at the site, which is located at an old AT&T microwave relay facility (the microwave horn antennas are still there, although the equipment to use them is long gone).  Gary talked about how the site connects to the internet (via a WiFi shot to a public ISP in Delta) and how the system is supported by a UPS.

After the talk and pictures, it was demo time!  Gary connected to the Leamington system using the RCForb software (see the link for details) and was able to tune around, adjust the beam antenna's direction via a remote controlled rotator, and showed transmitting and receiving on multiple HF bands.  He discussed some modifications that had to be made to the RCForb Server software in order to control the antenna rotator and to add the ability to select three antennas when the radio on site (a Kenwood TS-480) normally only has two antenna inputs.  These modifications were facilitated by the RCForb software developers giving Gary access to the source code for the radio driver so he could add support for the custom hardware that is used to manage the additional antenna.

Gary also runs a remote base radio at his property in the Salt Lake valley, and he demoed that including accessing the Farnsworth 2m repeater and also made a contact with our own Chris (W7CHP) on 146.52 simplex!

Finally, Gary finished up by talking about the WebSDR setup in Corrine, UT (that we have covered in a previous meeting), indicating that these systems are great for exploring what is currently on the air.

Seriously, if you missed this one, you really missed out.  Thanks, Gary, for the guest appearance at MARC!

Cody (W3AMG) from Bridgecom Systems joined us via Zoom and talked to us about DMR (Digital Mobile Radio).

In the presentation, Chris (W7CHP) mentioned a codeplug, which can be downloaded here:  AnyTone - MARC_878 v1.24 (04_07_2022).rdt (note, this is a zip file... you will need to unzip it after downloading and before importing into your codeplug management software).

You may also be interested in our earlier presentation on DMR here:  Training Class - DMR and an earlier presentation on code plugs here:  Monthly Meeting - DMR CodePlugs.  These presentations were both from 2020.