REPEATER UPDATE

As of Friday, 19 DEC 2024 at 1500 MST, the MARC repeater is BACK ONLINE.

Dan (N7XDL) completed the insulation in the window and has powered the repeater online again.  He also installed some recording thermometers (courtesy of Justin, [KK7VBL]) so we can track the temperature over time.

Many thanks to all those who helped with the new feed line install and especially Dan for his hard work to get the repeater back up.

Future Sunday nets will again be held on the club repeater, starting this Sunday!

PREVIOUS UPDATE

Murray City is still trying to find a suitable contractor to perform the tower work.  Sammie (NA7EGC) has offered the use of one of his repeaters on Ensign Peak for the interim period.  This repeater is at 224.080 MHz, negative 1.6 MHz offset, and tone of 136.5 Hz.  As this is a new repeater, it is not currently included in any standard load files.  If you need help programming this repeater into your radio(s), please bring your radio(s) to a club meeting and someone will help you.  We will be using this repeater for Sunday nets moving forward until our club repeater is back in operation.

PREVIOUS UPDATE

We have been advised that the tower contractor is unable to perform the work this week, so the repeater will NOT be back on line this Thursday as planned.  Please do NOT come to the tower site at 8:00 AM on Thursday 25 JUL 2024 or you will be lonely.

We will advise when we have more information.

PREVIOUS UPDATE

Thursday, 25 JUL 2024, at 8:00 AM any member of MARC who is available is requested to meet at the repeater site to assist with the installation of the new heliax feed line to the antenna.  Murray City and the Murray FD have purchased sufficient foam core heliax cable to go from the shack to the antenna and have contracted an installer to climb the tower, install the new cable, and adjust/tune the antenna in situ.  If you are available to help that day, please come to the tower site at 8:00 AM.  Bring a hard hat if you have one and you'll probably want gloves as well.

Expectations are that the repeater will be back on line later that day!

ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS

Until further notice, the MARC repeater (223.960 MHz, standard load channel 27) is OFFLINE.

A few weeks ago, the repeater failed with a "PA FAIL" indicator.  At the time, we were able to bring the repeater back online, but a week later it failed again in the same way.  MARC members pulled the repeater from the rack and had it examined by a local repeater tech, who identified a blown cap in the finals.  The cap was replaced and the repeater is once again functional... HOWEVER:

When reinstalling the repeater, some additional testing on the feedline and antenna configuration took place.  You may recall that when the repeater was initially installed, we had a length of Heliax cable donated to the club, but the cable was not long enough to reach all the way from the antenna to the repeater.  The final 70 feet or so was bridged with LMR-400 cable.  Analysis of the installation showed that the feedline and antenna is presenting an SWR of 1.6:1.  With the repeater pushing 35W of power up the cable, this results in a reflection of about 4W of power back into the repeater's output finals.

While many repeaters would be able to handle this, the Quantar repeater we have appears to be extra sensitive to this type of SWR condition.  We need to replace the coax with a continuous length of Heliax cable and retune the antenna in situ (on the tower).  We have chosen to make plans to do this BEFORE putting the repeater back online.

We have identified a source for the cable we need, but it is quite expensive.  In addition, installation of the new cable will require someone climbing the tower, and Murray City (the owners of the tower) require that this be done by a professional tower crew for insurance purposes.  We have brought the requirements and numbers to our contact with the fire department and the city is currently working on providing the funds required.  Unfortunately, this may need to wait for the next budget year (which starts in June).

For now, we will continue using the 223.440 simplex frequency (standard load channel 29) for our Sunday evening nets, and we are also exploring other options for temporary use.  Stay tuned to this post for more details as they become available.

Last night we met to discuss what we want to do for the Advanced Topics classes in 2024.  As you may (or may not) know, MARC has a so-called "Advanced Topics" class on the second Thursday of each month.  These classes are intended to reflect more advanced and/or esoteric topics.  Historically, I've presented something about amateur radio that I found interesting... a technology or subject that is related to amateur radio and is more involved than just chatting on the repeaters (or even via HF).

For 2024, I want to continue this model, but extend it.  I want to spend several classes on each topic, starting with an introduction and background, but moving to a hands on session where we (the club members) actually DO something with it.  This may include things like configuring equipment, building antennas, etc. and ALSO includes taking that configured equipment, antennas, etc. out and actually USING it.  I want the Advanced Topics classes in 2024 to be more about DOING than just being SHOWN something.

To this end, I suggested three sample topics that I am interested in and that I thought would fit into this model fairly well.  The topics I put forward were Winlink, 10m operations, and AREDN.

I know we've done some classes on Winlink before, and we participated in the multi-club Winlink Workshop last year that was very well attended.  I want to do that one better... starting with an overview and background on Winlink one month, then having a mini-workshop the following month where we actually get our equipment configured and working, and finishing it up with us taking our gear out and actually using it to send messages, process forms, etc.

For 10m, I suggested a similar model, but concentrating on what you need to get on 10m.  That basically includes a radio and an antenna, so one class session could be on actually building (or modifying existing CB) antennas.  This series would culminate with us getting onto 10m and participating in Paul's 10m weekly net.

And for AREDN, the club has a bunch of hardware that was donated by a ham who was moving.  We could spend a session learning about it, another session configuring the hardware, and a final session hauling the gear out into the real world and setting it up to see how we can make it work.  I think we may be able to leverage UVARC's people as they have been using AREDN effectively in Utah County.

After presenting these three topics, I opened it up for discussion from the group about other topics that may be of interest.  We came up with another fifteen (!) possible subjects.  I'm going to do a little research on these, since many of them will require some level of investment in hardware and/or software (antenna parts, while often inexpensive, are not free).  Once I have some idea of what's involved, I'll put together a little survey for people to register their interest.  If you have an idea for another topic that isn't on this list, please let me know and I'll add it.

Without further ado, here is the list of potential topics for MARC Advanced Topics classes for 2024 (and likely beyond):

1. Winlink
2. 10m operations
3. AREDN
4. Software defined radio (both receive AND transmit, and what to do with the things you receive)
5. NVIS (Near Vertical Incident Skywave antennas, how they work, building them, using them)
6. mounting antennas (mobile and fixed base)
7. SKYWARN/weather monitoring (to include CWOP and building your own weather station, weather telemetry on APRS, etc.)
8. APRS in depth (using APRS in events, digipeaters, building a digipeater, getting club assets on APRS as objects)
9. Digital Voice modes (this we broke out into three sub-topics since there is probably enough in each to spend at least a couple of classes on)
   1. D-star
   2. DMR
   3. YSF
10. radio astronomy
11. high altitude ballooning (build a balloon and launch it!)
12. EME (Earth-Moon-Earth, from what do we need to actually do it, to let's actually do it!)
13. satellite operations (what satellites are working, build a dual-band yagi, make contact with someone via satellite)
14. digital (data) modes
    1. packet (build our own packet station)
    2. vara HF/vara FM
    3. PSK31
    4. FT8/JS8
15. time and clocks (how does GPS work, what about atomic clocks, why do we care about accurate time)
16. amateur radio crossovers with other hobbies (model rocketry, RC aircraft, drones, aviation, etc.)

Again, if there are other topics that interest you, that are not on this list, send them to me and I will add them to the list.  There are so many things we can do with amateur radio... we have only scratched the surface!

Other topics suggested after this list was first posted:

17. QRP (low power, 5W or less on HF)
18. Learning Morse Code (I know we're not going to learn the code in a session or two, but we can cover various techniques and tools for learning and maintaining proficiency in code.)

Dan (N7XDL) reviews the Murray ARC's Standard Operating Guidelines, which were based on the SLCo ARES SOG.  The guidelines were discussed and future changes considered.  A copy of the guidelines will be presented for comment by the club members and suggestions will be incorporated as deemed necessary.

Slides:  Slides in PDF

NOTE, a draft copy of the document has been created in Google Docs and a "comment" link has been sent to the marc-members mailing list.  If you are a member of the club and you are not on the marc-members mailing list, use the Contact Us link to request a copy of the link.

MASSIVE EMERGENCY ALERT TEST – OCTOBER 4, 2023

*** GENERAL QST MESSAGE ***

On Wednesday, October 4 at 14:20 hours ET (12:20 hours Mountain), every TV, radio and cellphone in the United States should receive an electronic warning tone of an emergency alert, accompanied by a notice similar to the following:

“This is a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, covering the United States from 14:20 to 14:50 hours ET.  This is only a test.  No action is required by the public.”

This test is being run by FEMA to ensure the system is in working order on a national scale.  Local agencies will be participating with FEMA in conducting this test.  This test is being conducted to make sure the national alert system is still an effective means to warn American citizens about emergencies, natural catastrophes, attacks and accidents at the national level.

Salt Lake County ARES will conduct an emergency check-in net immediately following the announcements sent from FEMA.  The check-in net will be conducted on our primary SLCo ARES repeater, 146.700 MHz (100 Hz PL Standard Load ARES1 channel 72).  All stations wishing to participate on this net may do so using normal net-control protocols.  We will also be using our simplex frequency of 147.540 MHz (ARES3 channel 74) to simulate the use-case of the repeater going down during the net.  If you do not hear net control on the repeater this means that we have moved to the simplex frequency.

Any questions about this event, please contact Dan Lundwall via email, n7xdl.dan@gmail.com.

As you may have heard on our net and on the marc-announce mailing list, we have cancelled the club meeting scheduled for 20 July due to a personal conflict.  Fortunately, the Sandy ARC has planned our same agenda for the following week, 27 July 2023, and we have been invited to attend.

If you want to get online with Winlink, this will be a great opportunity!  The meeting will be on 27 July 2023 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM and will be held at the Sandy Fire Department Station #31, located at 9010 S 150 E in Sandy.  Please park in the North parking lot.

The primary goal of this meeting will be to get Winlink Express (the client software) installed and get people configured with at a minimum of telnet access into the Winlink system.  Those who are more motivated and have the equipment will be encouraged to get at least one RF mechanism (VHF Packet, VARA FM, ARDOP, and/or VARA HF) set up and tested.

If you plan to attend, please e-mail Jan (KD7ZWV) [you can also use our Contact Form] your name, call sign, and what equipment you have and can bring.  You'll want (at a minimum) a Windows PC/Laptop to run Winlink Express.  If you have a radio and some kind of interface (e.g. SignaLink or DigiRig, or a radio that has a built-in soundcard), bring that, too!

We have talked about Winlink in a previous class... you can watch the old presentation (from September 2021) here:  Winlink Overview.

Hey, folks, I thought I would share with you all just how well received our web site and presentations have been lately.  We'll start with the video recordings of our meeting presentations that have been made available on Youtube.

Here are some of our more popular presentations, sorted by which has had the most views:

Curious about our past presentation?  Check out the "News" link at the top of every page.  Whenever we record a presentation, we publish it via Youtube and post about it on the web site.

Back in September, October, and November of 2022, MARC (along with some members of the Citizen's Militia of Utah) was privileged to take part in a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training series offered by our own Murray City Fire Department.  At the conclusion of the final week, which was a hands on practical exam/exercise, we sat down to enjoy some pizza and talk about the experience.  I asked Dan (N7XDL) to write up a summary of our discussion, which I am posting here:

MURRAY AMATEUR RADIO CLUB – MARC

POST-MORTUM ANALYSIS OF THE CERT FINAL EVENT

After going through the final CERT training event, held at Murray Fire Station #84, here is a synopsis of what went well and what we could have done better as far as Communications go. Most members of the Murray Amateur Radio Club (hereafter referred to as MARC) were present for this round of CERT training. As MARC members are very familiar with radio communication protocols, it was more “normal” for us to deal with the communication aspects of the CERT event than others not as familiar with radio communication as we are. That said, there were things that we did “right” and there were things that we found needed improvement. This summary document describes each.

THE GOOD

The first person that arrived was designated as the “IC”, or Incident Commander. This person was Sherwood. He identified and created Teams that needed to be created in order to perform the various functions of CERT.

Each Team had a Team Leader identified. This person was called by the IC.

Each Team had an assigned “RADO” or Radio Operator. This person was also called by the IC.

Tactical Call Signs were discussed and assigned to each Team based on the function of the Team.

Most times effective communications were used to get vital information back to the IC.

Most times vital information was communicated between Teams.

All RADO operators tried to keep the information flowing.

THE BAD, THE UGLY

According to many members of the Murray Fire Department, MARC excelled at communications. They told us time and time again that they’ve never seen CERT classes that they’ve taught communicate like we were able to communicate. With that said, there were a number of items that we could have improved on. The following describes this.

We should have already had pre-identified tactical call signs, or at least a better version of the tactical call signs that were used. Some examples follow:

1. M-A (Mike-Alpha) was first used as Medical Alpha, which originally was thought to mean the first medical team (Alpha designator). What should have been used was M-1, or “Mike-One” or even better, “Medical-One”. This prevents any ambiguity in the radio transmissions.
2. S-A (Sierra-Alpha) and S-B (Sierra-Bravo) were the original tactical call signs to designate Search team One (Alpha) and Search team Two (Bravo). Again, we should have used “Search-One” and “Search-Two” as the tactical call signs.
3. The same issue with T-A & T-B, which originally meant, “Transport Alpha” and “Transport Bravo”, which should have been “Transport-One” and “Transport-Two” respectively.
4. The Incident Commander did not really have a tactical call sign. This should have been identified immediately. The issue of Sherwood not having a TCS (Tactical Call Sign) resulted in the fact that Sherwood was first acting in a duplicate role, and that of the Medical Triage person. He had to do that as no one else was assigned to this position.
5. The IC should have really had a RADO assigned to him. That would have been ideal. We were short RADO’s, so we did what we could.

There were some basic FCC guidelines that were mistakenly “modified” for the CERT event. Namely the FCC requirement of proper Identification. These guidelines were even forgotten by some of the most experienced ham radio operators in the club… namely the Founder himself! Wow!

Since I admittedly confessed my sin to the FCC I hope they forgive me 😊

What was missed? I was the RADO for the Transport-One team. Or was it Transport-Two? One of those! Anyway, after I would talk to the IC or some other Team Lead I completely forgot to end my transmission QSO with my call sign. I would use my TCS solely during the QSO. As we all know, that is a “no-no”.

To be fair, I also heard others do the same, but in the same breath, I heard other RADO’s that properly identified themselves as well. My hats off to those who were not as easily swayed into thinking that since this was a CERT activity one didn’t need to follow FCC rules! So that was definitely something that needed to be addressed (if by no one else, by me!)

We all should have followed the Utah SAG RADO procedures more closely. Having done that, we wouldn’t (OK… I wouldn’t) have forgotten that rule of identification. Just to be clear, everyone should have followed the protocol as outlined below:

1. When beginning the QSO, simply identify the person you are trying to contact, followed by your TCS. As an example, “Search-Two from Transport-Two, do you copy?”
2. Communicate your message, then when you are done identify properly by saying something like this, “This is Transport-Two, N7XDL, clear”, where “Transport-Two” was my TCS, but N7XDL is my FCC call sign.

Equipment

Every RADO’s really needed the proper equipment to do their job well. We should have all been wearing headsets and had extra batteries at our disposal. For the headsets, having an “in-ear” or “over-the-ear” speaker would have been preferable than to just relying on the HT speaker. There were some calls that were missed because of this. If you can’t hear the person trying to contact you it’s a bit difficult to respond. Having an earpiece should be standard (and required) equipment for any RADO.

Having extra batteries should also be a minimum requirement for RADO’s as well. There’s nothing worse than to have to bow out of being a RADO because your radio no longer works… because you forgot extra batteries for it.

Other Observations

Sherwood, the IC, should not have been handling a radio if he was the IC.  If he was going to be on the radio for that station (which was necessary due to a lack of radio operators available), he should have handed off IC duties to another qualified person as soon as one was available.

No disregard to Sherwood, he did a great job juggling a complex situation, but trying to combine IC duties, comms duties, and passing messages for medical was a little too much for one person.

Final thoughts

In my professional opinion, the MARC members who were participating in the CERT event, did an exemplary effort in communicating during the event. We laugh about it now, but we also know that identifying these successes and opportunities for improvement is part of improving our skills in radio communications. What a great effort and experience it was to participate in the CERT event. We all learned lots and were able to see how we each needed to improve, for when we do this again, we’ll be all that much better!

A warm thanks to the Murray Fire Department in leading the way! Thanks to them we have been able to attend a few CERT classes.

73 for now.

Dan Lundwall, N7XDL… and I’m clear.

Thank you, Dan, for that well written and detailed exposition on both what went well at our CERT evaluation and what went not quite so well.

You may remember that we have talked about Tactical Call Signs back in March... you may want to review that class.  Dan also gave a presentation on Tactical Call Signs in EmComms in November (working on getting the slides from that online).  We also have an upcoming class in January where we will be talking about Roles and Responsibilities at an Event.  Hope to see you all there!

For those who missed the holiday party last night, I read a posting from the TELECOM Digest entitled "Camelot on the Moon" by Don Kimberlin, who was a telecommunications engineer working for IT&T when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of the Apollo XI mission landed on the moon.  Don's article talked about the difficulties encountered making sure that the data, voice, and video feeds from the moon could be received and processed back here on earth.

For those interested, I went looking today for the original posting to the TELECOM Digest and found it in the archives, which you can read here:  https://telecomdigest.net/archives/history/camelot.on.moon-july.69

There were also several replies to this posting that are included in several succeeding digest issues... they can be found here:  https://telecomdigest.net/archives/back.issues/1994.volume.14/vol14.iss301-350 (NOTE, there are fifty issues of the digest on this page, encompassing several hundred posts... you'll have to search for "Camelot" to find the specific replies).

Sometimes, we take for granted the amazing resources we have available through the Internet today.  We have essentially unlimited access to historical documents, recorded voice and video, photographs, and an abundance of information.  Most of us have a small device that we can carry in a pocket or purse, that can be held in the palm of your hand, and that can provide access to all of this information.  Not only can it give you access to this data, it can be used to instantly communicate in voice, video, or text with people all over the world.  Think back to 1969 and realize that it was only 53 years ago.

As amateur radio operators, we enjoy using our equipment and capabilities to communicate with others.  Perhaps we take it less for granted as we have had to study and understand some of the technologies and physical principals that make it possible to do so, but when you sit and think about it, it really is miraculous what we can do.

As we continue our journey into the future, I hope we all remember how we got here and the challenges faced by those who came before us.  The future is bright, my friends... as bright as we make it.  Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

October 22nd one day Technician class at BYU.

The class will be from 8:30am and end at 5:30pm with a break for lunch at 1pm.

The class is very intensive due to time constraints but around 80 percent of the students get their license that day.  If you are not ready to take the exam the day of the class you may take it later.

The class is free.  The exam given in the afternoon is $14.

To sign up email uvhamtest@gmail.com

If you just need to take an exam you are welcome to come to just do that in the afternoon.  There is always an exam session the third Wednesday of the month at 7pm at BYU.

The FCC now charges a  fee of $35 to apply for an Amateur radio license.  This applies to new licenses, renewals and vanity applications.   The FCC license application fee is paid to the FCC.  You still pay the usual fee $14 to the VE team to take the exam.

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Multi-session classes are the best way to learn to get a license or upgrade.  If your time is limited or you are a quick learner a one day class will work especially if you will study on your own a little bit before the class.

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**  Note  You must have a Technician class license before you may take the exam for General.  You must have a General license before you may take the Exam for Extra Class.

 [Editor's comment, you must take and pass the Technician test before taking the General test, and you must pass the General test before taking the Extra test.  You do not have to wait until you receive your Technician licence before taking the General exam... just have passed the test.  It is possible to take all three tests the same day.  -KD7ZWV]

For classes available in other States check here:

http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-class

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If you hear of any other classes being taught in Utah please email uvhamtest@gmail.com so I may share it.

If you or someone you know is having difficulty attending a class and wish to get a license please email me for links to free high quality study materials you can get online to study on your own..

If you have a license and wish to get deeper into the technical side or just get on the air to talk there is a new general interest Ham radio club in Utah County.

uvarc.club  (no  http://  is required just type “uvarc.club”  into the address bar of your browser).

Steve NV7V

As was mentioned on the last Sunday Net, we received a feedback form on the web site last week from Kathy Ackford, who is a youth services librarian for studymap.org.  Kelly has been using some information from our web site in support of a class she has been teaching 10-14 year old students about radio.

One of Kelly's students, a young man named Dylan, has been doing research on radio along with his father.  He found a link with some great information on the history of car radio.  While this is oriented towards broadcast radio (not amateur radio), it is still quite an interesting read and includes a timeline of how car audio has developed over the decades.

If you are interested, Dylan's link is here:  https://www.titlemax.com/articles/the-history-of-the-car-radio/

Note that I have scanned this link for malware and found it to be clean, but I have not traced all of the links within this page.  Remember your computer security and make sure your browser and system patches are up to date!