MARC Attending Sandy ARC Meeting This Month

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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.

JS8 and JS8CALL – Advanced Topics – 11 May 2023

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Hey, folks, while we did Zoom the meeting tonight, I did not take a recording because a large portion of the meeting was watching a couple of videos by Jason (KM4ACK) and I didn't want to get into any copyright trouble on Youtube.  If you weren't present (live or virtually) then I'm afraid you missed out on my comments and commentary.  I will post the slides below and link in the two videos we watched.

For those not in the know, JS8 is a protocol based on FT8 and the WSJT weak signal protocol, and JS8CALL is some software that uses JS8 to give a good, useful communications interface.  JS8CALL works on Windows, MacOS, and Linux (including the Raspberry Pi) and lets you make solid digital comms with other stations.  Check it out!

JS8CALL

Web Site and Presentation Statistics

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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:

Using Your HT 114
MESH Networking 69
EMP and CME 54
Fox Hunts part two 47
Q-codes and Prosigns 44
Fox Hunts part one 41
Introduction to DMR 39

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.

Radio Comms for YOUR Neighborhood – General Meeting – 20 April 2023

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Dan (KK7IOD) briefed us on introducing a radio communications plan to your neighbors. He covered equipment, appropriate radio services, training, and many other factors that go into putting together a viable, usable emergency communications plan for use in a local area. He closed with a recording of an actual neighborhood net (names and places have been deleted to preserve privacy).

If you missed this meeting, you missed out on some great post-presentation discussion as well.  Please review the video and slides here and feel free to comment.

Here’s the PDF version of the slide deck:  Radio Comms for Your Neighborhood

Radio Comms for Your Neighborhood

All of the photos are from pixabay.com and all of the quotes are from azquotes.com.  The sample family contact plan is from Kevin Westenskow KB7SNA.  The script for the recorded net is from Sherwood Preece KF7YCT.

The Retevis RB26 cheat sheet is here:  RB26 GMRS Quick Reference Card
Sample Net Control script is here:  South Cottonwood Ward ERC Net Control Dialogue

More info on Meshtastic can be found here: https://www.meshtastic.com/

The Icom Wi-Fi radio system can be found here: https://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/network/wlan/wlan/default.aspx

Screenshots of the ready.gov info came from: https://www.ready.gov/plan and https://www.ready.gov/plan-for-locations

Similar info available on: https://slcoem.org/be-prepared-community-outreach/family-communication-plan/ and https://slcoem.org/be-prepared-community-outreach/12-ways-to-prepare/

Planning for the Shake Out – Advanced Topics – 13 April 2023

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MARC members met and discussed our club's involvement with the Great Utah Shake Out, scheduled for 20 April 2023.  We identified several action items (see below) for the club to work on.  Here is a recording of the presentation:

Here are the action items we discussed:

  1. have a presentation about the SAFE Neighborhood program and the JIT kits located at each school

    I have put together a very short presentation... please consider printing it out, taking it to your local school, and presenting it to your school's principal and/or PTA.  You can find the presentation on the club web site here:
    https://www.murrayarc.org/introduction-to-the-safe-neighborhood-program/

  2. provide access to the SLCo ARES collection of files and materials that were distributed last year and should be included in each JIT kit:
    https://www.murrayarc.org/salt-lake-county-flash-drive-contents/
  3. have an emergency procedures net on the day of the ShakeOut

    Please check out our eComms Protocol page on the club web site.  On the day of the Shake Out (this Thursday, 20 April 2023 at 10:15 AM) we will begin a drill emergency net as described here:  https://www.murrayarc.org/radio-resources/ecomms-protocol/

  4. talk to the city engineer about the stability of our repeater tower
  5. talk to the city council/mayor's office about our emergency power plan for the repeater
  6. survey our membership:  who has equipment that will operate on 1.25m (i.e. our club repeater) AND who doesn't

    we took an informal survey during the last Sunday evening net and also would like people to fill out this form:  https://forms.gle/RFn126roP44n3GJTA

 

Introduction to Repeaters – MARC Basic Topics – 6 April 2023

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Dan (N7XDL) takes on repeaters in a way that is understandable to the new ham.  Have you ever wondered just what components go into a repeater system?  What the heck is a "cavity" and why doesn't my dentist care about it?  Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System vs. PL Tone?  Dan has the answers.