This weekends events:

I normally try and let you know whats I’m up to on the weekend especially if Amateur Radio is in the works so here we go for this (Long Weekend in ONTARIO) weekend.

Toby and myself are planning a trip to Cornwall early Saturday morning.  We will be returning Sunday afternoon.  We probally will not be too active on the trip up as he insists on hitting the VFO knob with his paws when he stretches in the front seat.

Will be active (from the trailer) on HF when we get there (FT857 and my 10-80 windom),  I also will be testing out the new interface for AGWPE and plan to be active with a 5w signal on APRS (so look for VA3QV-5).  I should be able to get into the Cornwall Digi with 5w but not sure where the signal will bounce to from there…

I also intend to test out WINPACK on packet radio assuming I can find any node/digi out there.  I will leave the rig on 145.010 then switch to 145.030 and then switch to 145.050 just listening and see if there are any nodes or bbs out there.  Google searches don’t show much packet activity so its almost uncharted area.  As previously mentioned in the “Greater Ottawa” area we have VE2UQH in Gatineau which is an AMPR.ORG site.   Hopefully there is another site in the Cornwall area on either side of the border…

There seems not to be too much locally on the Balloon scene but there is a launch scheduled for Sunday from a location in Tennessee.  Check out their website for more info.

There are also some launches for the next week in Kansas City so check out their webisite for more details.

As it stands right now there are no scheduled Canadian Launches but I have heard of plans of an upcoming launch in November.  This could be a joint effort with the LANARK GROUP IN PERTH and the West Carleton Amateur Radio Club.  The WCCARC website makes mentions of some basic plans but nothing confirmed on the LASA site. 

Anyways getting back to my plans for a minute.  As always my travel plans are dependant on the WX.  I enjoy getting out of the City even if its for an overnight trip.  My dog “Toby” loves the freedom he has at the trailer…but neither of us really want to be stuck in a travel trailer in a thunderstorm.  The trailer is large enough but…

The best way to see where we are this weekend would be to look at aprs.fi  and find out where VA3QV or VA3QV-5 is located. 

If we are in Cornwall I welcome any attempts for HF skeds.  Best place to find me is 14.140usb during the afternoons, 3.742 around 1900 eastern and 3,730 after 2100 eastern.

If the hf bands are lousy then i usually monitor repeater VE2CRA in Chelsea Quebec which is accessable from Cornwall.  This repeater has AN EXCELLENT WIDE COVERAGE AREA and also has an IRLP node (NODE 2040) working.  If your bored this Saturday or Sunday try calling on either HF or VHF and see how bored I am at the trailer. 

Final plans (or at least a better guess) should be posted here late Friday evening as I get everything ready for loading up on Saturday morning….

CU Later and thanks for visiting

73bob

40M MOBILE

I decided to head out this morning around 10am and visit VE3VIG (VA2MA/m) Maurice-Andre as he was setting up the Special Event Station VC3C for the last time.  Today is the last day that Industry Canada is allowing for the special call.  MA has been very busy in the last month and deserves many kudos for the hard work he has done on behalf of our hobby.

WELL DONE

As I was driving over to the park he was setting up at I decided to play a bitt of hf mobile and hooked up the FT857 and the Optek combo and see what I could hear while I was driving to the park.  My favourite HF band is 40m.  Many pleasureable miles have passed checking into the Trans Provincial Net over the years but unfortunately with the poor band conditions on 40 recently I could not hear any noises other than static on 7.055.  However as I tuned up the band a bit to 7.255 I was able to hear the 11am controller on the ECARS NET and get an excellent signal report from his QTH in Deleware.  The 12 noon controller was in PA and also gave me a good report while on the way back from the VC3C location.  The band was open and strong…Just a bit too long or better yet not short enough.  The signals were not going exactly where I wanted them to go but at least they were getting out there and the signals were constant.  I am VERY pleased with the 2 hours of dependable 40m voice comms over that distance.  This would be a distance of approx 400 miles to average the distances between the two net controllers and it was SOLID COPY with no fade outs.    Its always good to know the bands are still there.  It does look like I have lost 40m as a close in band so I g;uess I will have to start to plan on 80m for the first hf band in a trip….  I used to think of 80 as a nighttime band in the past…Times have changed…

73bob

History revisited

A few posts back I commented on the old AX25 packet ways of old:

I actually had an APRS QSO with VA3STL…  Although there are many out there that do not see the use for APRS…the ability to send out short text messages is a definate bonus….and it does give us a reason to dust off the old AX25 Packet gear again…you remember AX25 Packet…..that the mode everyone was using before the internet came to the forefront…  Then we added TCPIP protocols to packet radio…  I remember my first email address  “  ve3ybc@bbs.ve3jf.ampr.org  ” and I also remember my first domain name ” ve3ybc.ampr.org “  and that seems so long ago….

Well yesterday I made some enguiries and then played for a bit.  I installed my Winpack amateur packet program which incidently is fairly new and created by the genius who created UI VIEW so it works fine with the AGWPE Packet engine.  I then dialed up from 144.390 which is the APRS frequency up to 145.050 and found the frequency of ve2uqh.ampr.org  .  Remembering the commands took a bit but after typing the command string ” C ve2uqh” I suddenly found myself (or as sudden as 1200 bd AX25 Packet can be) connected to an “ampr.org BBS!!!

The process to register took only seconds and then I tried sending out an email. (yes a real email) to my rac account (va3qv@rac.ca) and shortly on my other mail account came the following:

=========================================

Date:	Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:01:40 EDT
From:	va3qv@ve2uqh.ampr.org  Add to Address Book
To:	va3qv@rac.ca
Subject:	test message

 Hate to waste bandwidth but I should see if this works and I rmember
how

======================================================================

Now, this is not as earth shattering as the famous "Mr Watson....come here I want you" or the "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" but I was able to orignate a real email from amateur packet radio.

Now shortly after recieveing the email I was able to reply to it and the reply was recieved at my ampr.org email account.

NOW THIS IS OLD TECHNOLOGY.  I COULD DO THIS IN 1993.  THE THING I FIND MOST IMPRESSIVE IS THAT I CAN STILL DO IT IN 2008 AND BASICALLY THE SAME WAY I COULD IN 1993.

There are now ways to do email through pactor and other modes but its good to see the old AX25 Packet can play a part.

When I visit the trailer it would be interesting to see if there is a ampr.org bbs in the Cornwall Area.  I can remember there was one across the Bridge in NY State at Clarktown University.  I wonder if its still there.  This could give me the email capabilities I was looking for to communicate with family when I'm out at the trailer....

This could be a big help...

More info on this after I have done some checking.

73bob

Some things you notice right away…

While playing yesterday with the APRS setup I was mentioning  with my last post I was wondering why my signals were not echoing back to me using the same path that they were when I was using my Home APRS station.  I am in the same location (more or less) the maximum power setting on the handie is 5w which is the same as the minimum setting on the FT2400.  The antennas were both in the rear yard and almost at the same height…  The temporary antenna I put outside for the testing of the handie was slightly lower.

Suddenly it came to me…I was no longer getting the first hop from the VE3WCC-1 digi which is co-located at the VE3TST Repeater site.  My first hope was coming through a Digi in Gatineau QC.  I guess there is a difference in the 5w settings on the radio.  The FT2400 was getting into Gatineau with no issues and the ADI was having some problems with its 5w setting and different antenna.

Then it dawned on me that I had not heard VE3TST on VHF or UHF recently…

After checking with a few local amateurs my fears were confirmed.  The VE3TST repeaters were indeed off the air as the repeaters are being relocated.  It would stand to reason that VE3WCC-1 digi would be relocating as well as it was co-located.

Lets hope they all return soon in a better (though its hard to imagine there could be better location than where they were)in the near future.

73bob

Playing with APRS

Today I finally got around to doing something that I had been saying I would do for quite a while.  I finally got off my duff and built the interface for my rigblaster nomic that hooks into my ADI (only radio in my shack not YAESU) handheld. 

I should mention that the ADI uses the same configuration and the YAESU FT 4XX series of radios, which is the same as the HTX 202 and HTX 404 which as you know is the same configuration as the Icom IC2AT series of radios.  So if the ADI ever fails there are plenty of the Radio Shack HTX line of radios out there so a replacement radio will not be too hard to find for APRS,

I found a great schematic at the Rigblaster site and picked up the parts at a local store today (with the exception of a donated 2.2k resistor-Thanks to VE3SBC) and built the interface in about an hour.  I hooked it up to the rigblaster and the handie and powered everything up and much to my amazement we passed the “Smoke Test”….  Both the radio and the laptop worked perfectly and soon after VA3QV-5 appeared on aprs.fi.

I have only now to pick up an older laptop as I need one with a soundcard and an even harder to find a  serial (not USB)port.

This will give me APRS/PACKET in the house (laptop/UI VIEW and AGWPE with rigblaster and FT2400) and as soon as I can find another laptop it will give me a portable station with UI VIEW/AGWPE , the rigblaster and the ADI handheld)  I still will not be APRS/PACKET Mobile as I am still lacking a few pieces of hardware but it will be found sooner or later…

This serves seveal purposes.  The first, being having APRS in a more Transportable mode (handheld instead of radio and battery pack and secondly now gives purpose to an old handheld which was going to be retired once I got the new VX8R.  And now most importantly as my only handheld radio is now tied up as part of an APRS Station I now have to buy a new handheld (HELLO VX8R) and I can now justify the purchase to Liz.

This is looking like a Win-Win Situation in my warped mind….

Now if Yaesu would only hurry up and give us more info on the new handheld….

73bob

Its amazing where you find stuff…

I found this blog post when doing a google search today…  I find it interesting that a CBer would actually find my blog “neat”.

From his commments we might hear him on the air sometime.  Hope he makes it….

 

……this amateur radio blog is really neat to check out.  The writer is, obviously, a HAM (not a CB user) and does an impressively detailed job of chronicling his radio interests and activities.  Reading through the blog made me consider the primary advantage of 10 meter radios – the enhanced broadcast power and range.   On a CB, you’re lucky to get out more than 5 miles where as HAM operators, with the right equipment and conditions, seem to be able to often talk 1000s of miles away.  One of these days I may need to take the test and get my amateur radio’s license.  Then, I can start broadcasting with some serious wattage………

73bob

Saturdays report

Due to the threat (and rightly so) of bad weather I decided to stay in Ottawa for the weekend.  I followed the RAQI Group and their balloon launch and after that stopped in at Green Island in Ottawa and talked to the VC3C crew who were operating from there. 

Saturday evening was spent giving out a few contacts on 20m, 40m and 80m to the stations who were operating in the IOTA contest.

I managed to have a bit of a laugh working Al V01NO who was part of the VC1T operating crew.  I have rarely worked Al when he is at home.  This year so far I have worked him from Grafton Ontario as part of the West Carleton Amateur Radio Club VHF DXPedition for the June ARRL QSO Party, the Manotick Ontario when he was part of the VE3AIR (Manotick Amateur Radio Group) set up for Field Day and now from the East Coast of Canada for the IOTA Contest. 

 I wonder if we can get some sort of “Worked all Al award” with a nice certificate? 

In between these contacts I was able to jump in with the 3.730 group and chat with some friends.  It was a nice way to finish the evening…

73bob

Balloon Update

After watching all the people getting together in VE2LAND and see several beacons then all the chase teams leaving but the balloon staying caused me to send an APRS TEXT MESSAGE to VE2WMG-9 who seems to be the organizer of the event…

2008-07-26 16:11:39 UTC: VA3QV>VE2WMG-9: R U launching today?
 2008-07-26 16:14:03 UTC: VE2WMG-9>VA3QV: done with probLem
 2008-07-26 16:16:07 UTC: VE2WMG-9>VA3QV: ne gps
 2008-07-26 16:20:13 UTC: VE2WMG-9>VA3QV: 145.51

As you can see by the messages he sent me back, it looks like they had a GPS Failure but have launched anyway.  They are tracking it by alternative means by a voice beacon on 145.51.  Even with the altitude it has I can’t hear anything from it but if you track VE2WMG-9 on findu.com  or  aprs.fi it should give you an idea of where the balloon is and how things are going.

Best of luck to the RAQI Crew.

73bob

Weekend EVENTS (on now or starting soon)

VC3C Special Event Station will be operating from the site of the old Ottawa City Hall on Green Island

This station will (should) be active on all the HF bands and as they will be using an FT897 6m-2m and 70cm as well. 

For you island hunters Green Island is CISA  ON 122

The VC3C Website is here

Green Island is here

 

Also after looking at my APRS Screens I notice that there is some activity in the area for the RAQI Balloon Launch this morning.  Looks like the Crews have arrived and things are starting to happen for the launch at 1400 UTC.  All this is wx permitting but so far it seems to be going well from a distance.

All the info you need to find them is right here on my blog under the heading VE2 Balloon Launch which is a few behind this posting.

Looks like it will be a good weekend

73bob

a Spot of humour

I found this one and thought I would share it with you….

http://www.southgatearc.org/news/september2005/pet_ham.htm

73bob