Dan (N7XDL) talks to us about ham conventions in general and HamCon:Zion in particular. HamCon:Zion was held in St George, UT on the 12th and 13th of July, 2024. For more information about HamCon:Zion, please see HamCon:Zion. Presentations were recorded and this post will be updated with a link to them after they have been published.
Slides are available for download here: HamConZion_PostAnalysis
Or read them on the site right here:
2024_HamConZion_PostAnalysisDan (N7XDL) briefs us on using your radio and building your radio skills through Public Service events and also talks about Utah SAG, an organization devoted to connecting amateur radio volunteers with the organizations that need their services.
Download the slides here: Public Service Events and Utah SAG
Or view them directly:
Public_Service_Events_and_Utah_SAGWe had another Winlink session this week, with a concentration on P2P with packet. P2P is peer-to-peer, sending messages directly from one Winlink client (i.e. Winlink Express) to another without going through an RMS or the CMS. Five people brought their equipment this week, and we successfully accomplished P2P message transfers between three of them.
Next month we'll be playing catch up, trying to get everyone up and running with working Winlink accounts, getting RF working, and getting P2P working with both packet and VARA FM. If you're planning to attend the Advanced Topics class next month, please plan to bring your radio(s), computer or other computing device, and an interface if required (some radio/computer combinations do not require an interface device). If you need help figuring out what you need, let Jan (KD7ZWV) know or use the Contact Us form.
Our ultimate goal is to be able to haul our gear out into the wild and pass messages with Winlink. To that end, we want everyone comfortable with the following:
Being comfortable doesn't mean you are ready to teach someone how to do it, but it does mean that you're able to get your own setup working. You're encouraged to practice using Winlink often, send messages to each other, take your setup apart and put it back together, and understand the Winlink concepts. If there are any of these you're uncomfortable with, come to the meeting in June and ask!
The fifth session of the Getting Started With Amateur Radio series, this session covers actually getting on the air... that includes things like finding frequencies, nets, repeaters, and other amateurs in your area, getting your radio set up, and the most dreaded first you will ever experience as an amateur radio operator: pushing the PTT button for the first time!
Download the slides here: Get On The AIR!
Or look at them right on the site below.
04_Get_on_the_AIRREPEATER 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.
This week we continued our 2024 advanced topics program with a Winlink workshop. Last month, we introduced Winlink and got people set up with the software, got Winlink accounts created, and made connections using "Telnet" protocol. This month our focus was on getting people working with RF! We had about ten folks show up with computers, radios, and interfaces and got most of them going on VHF, using both the Crossroads club's gateway (K7XRD-10) and West Valley City's gateway (N7WVC-10).
Next month we'll continue the process of getting everyone working on RF, and we'll experiment with P2P and other techniques. If you're just getting started with Winlink, we'll help you get going from the ground up. If you've had Winlink for a while but not used it much, we'll show you some things you can do. If you're having trouble getting Winlink to work with your radio, bring it to the meeting and we'll help you get it running and working.
The fourth session of the Getting Started With Amateur Radio series, this session covers programming your radio. We start with talking about various settings and configuration options, diving into detail on what each of the options are and why you would choose one setting over another. We continue with a discussion of programming in frequencies (and where to find the frequencies to program in). Unfortunately, we ran out of time before we got into the demos, so we'll continue this session next time, which will be April 4th, 2024.
We continued with a discussion of programming the radio's VFO (Variable Frequency Oscillator) manually from the front panel and saving that information into a memory, then covered programming via software with the manufacturer's software, CHIRP, and RT Systems.
Here's the video from the second session:
Download the slide deck here: Programming Your Radio
Or view the slides right now:
03_Programming_Your_RadioJan (KD7ZWV) briefs us on Winlink, how the system works in both Conventional and Hybrid modes, P2P, and "Radio Only". We finish with discussion of plans for our workshop next month and MARC's plans for Winlink in the future.
Download the slides here: Let's Get Started With Winlink
Or view them on the site:
Winlink_IntroDan (N7XDL) relates his experiences surviving a 7.5 and 7.4 earthquake in Chile and talks about what we should do to be ready to help ourselves, our neighbors, and our communities when the "Big One" hits Utah. MARC welcomed the Salt Lake Crossroads club, who joined us for the briefing.
Download the slides here: What to Do When Disaster Strikes
Or view them right now:
What-to-do-when-disaster-strikesJan (KD7ZWV) introduced the MARC repeater and talked about the need to provide some type of wide area connectivity into the repeater for MARC members (and others). He covers repeater linking, both RF and Internet based, and moves on to the solution that MARC is exploring, EchoLink. EchoLink is introduced and we discuss how to get an EchoLink account, including getting your license validated. Finally, EchoLink configuration is covered. Jeff (KL7KVG) continues with a discussion of the EchoLink for Android application and then talks about the EchoLink node that he has built as a proof of concept for the MARC repeater. Finally, we observe a demo of the EchoLink software connecting to the MARC repeater using the node Jeff built, which was on display in the meeting room.
Slides are available here: EchoLink and the MARC Repeater
Or view them immediately:
EchoLink_and_the_MARC_RepeaterAdditional notes: