Balloon is now over Morocco (Africa)

If you follow this link…

http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FK6RPT-12&timerange=604800

And you will see the path taken so far by the payload….

It appears to have come down in Morocco… from the last data…

It seems they have had some issues with a GPS lock on this trip along with longer than expected gaps in the communications side of things with the APRS Packets not being received by ground stations.  I’m not sure if thats due to the ground stations now switching over to the 144.390 from the European APRS frequency of 144.800 quick enough or if there were other issues…

However I would have to concider the flight a success as again they few across the country from California to the Atlantic Ocean and then successfully made it across the Atlantic to the continent of Africa…. Their previous attempt went from California into the Mediterrian Sea…

The bar has been raised (again) and I’m starting to thing that it can’t go much higher….  For distance/flight duration there might be some room for improvement but I don’t see much happening for altitude unless someone makes a stronger balloon and that new material has to be affordable to the Amateur Ballooning community….

Congrats go out to the California Near Space Project for their efforts on another successfull flight.

73bob

Balloon now South East of Newfoundland

If you follow this link…

http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FK6RPT-12&timerange=604800

You will see that K6RPT-11 took off from San Jose California last evening and has been heading East-South-East since then…  Recently at a pretty good rate of speed (just under 400 kph/hr)

At 1725utc I started receiving APRS Packets from the balloon on 144.390 and so far its 2100utc and I am still geting data from the payload as it continues east over Maine.  My antenna is 15 feet AGL but the balloon is 21 miles up so that helps a bit…

From previous events (LASA have had 2 balloons head into Maine) I know that soon I will be losing RF and be forced to watching via APRS.fi…  But it was nice while it lasted

I am now following the balloon via APRS.FI as I lost direct APRS packets from the Payload as it was entering Nova Scotia (VA2/VE1).  Soon we will lost contact with NFLD and the balloon will be floating slightly south east till it comes within range of an APRS station in the Azores.  Lets not guess past the Azores for now…  gives you something to talk about in the morning…

It was launched by the California Near Space Project and if you follow the link to their website you can get some background info on their efforts…

If you have nothing better to do today…. Stay inside and follow the flight…

73bob

Issues with APRS and the Electric Vespa

Earlier this afternoon I put a 1/4 mobile antenna on the Electric Vespa, hooked up the Yaesu VX8gr and went out for a ride…  I was checking a couple of portable operating locations in my general neighborhood that I might be able to use in July and August.  The reason for that is because once school gets out my local parks are filled with Kids being kids…  It gets over crowded and I just don’t feel like sharing…  I have no real right to the parkland any more than they do and as there is more of them than there is of me I just figured on checking some other City Greenspaces that are not so structured. 

So far I have found nothing that meets my needs so I keep on looking…but…

I did notice that although the antenna is working fine, I am having a problem getting a signal into any of the IGATES in the south end of town.  As I followed my track this pm even though I was beaconing every 3 minutes I only got two into the APRS system.  One at the turn around point at 1834 and one at the end of the ride at 1850.  By my simple math we lost 5 beacons on the way back and about 7 beacons on the way there… 

 On the bright side of things I did get the Vespa up to 17kph on the way back…

So now I have two issues to look into.  The first is the quest for a quiet operating location and the second is trying to figure out how I am going to get a 5w aprs signal easily into a Digi…  I can bring up all the repeaters in town using 5w and the rubber resistor but…  it seems the closest Digi is a bit more of a challenge…

Wish me luck

73bob

A very busy RADIO weekend

Well its Monday am now but did I ever have a great weekend….

Saturday AM found me packing up the Electric Vespa and  heading over to Carleton University in Ottawa.  The Ottawa Bicycle Club was running their event (The Rideau Lakes Cycle Tour) this weekend…

The amateur community using the resources of Ottawa ARES (Emergency Measures Radio Group), the Lanark North Leeds ARES and the Frontenac County EMCOMM Group.  Now that you are wondering how come they need three groups to provide communications remember that the event leaves Ottawa on the Saturday Morning  and they ride all day long to arrive in Kingston on Saturday afternoon/early evening.

Thanks to Google for the map

The above route is approximate but does show yout the area the tour travels

The riders rest up at Queens University and then leave Kingston on Sunday Morning and arrive in Ottawa at Carleton University later that same day.

My checkpoint was the Start Line on Saturday and the Finish Line on Sunday (both locations at Carleton University)  From what I know from talking to tour officials and from being on the Ottawa to Perth Radio Net things went very smoothly.  I did see some signs of “Road Rash” on a few of the riders as they returned to Carleton but concidering they travelled about 200km each day and there were approx 2000 riders sharing the roads on an open course (cars, trucks etc…) I think things went quite well…

On the radio side of things we used 2m repeaters and APRS for communications.  Most of the administrational/operational vehicles were 2m and APRS equipped and a few of the checkpoints were beaconing as well…

I used my Yaesu VX5r for voice comms and I used my Yaesu VX8dr keeping track of the SWEEP Vehicle (motorcycle) that was following the last riders back to the finish line.  It made it very handy to know where the last riders were so I could inform the Finish line Official to get back to the finish line with the checkered flag (so to speak).

Every person who crossed the line got a standing ovation from the Finish line staff as even though they did not finish first they did finish and a 400 km ride over two days is nothing to sneeze at…

We had stationary mobile units at select locations along the course that gave the riders a place to stop and request assistance if they needed it and we also had tour vehicles travelling the route who were providing bike repairs and transport for those bikes/riders who could not finish for any reason.  These support vehicles had a radio operator and APRS as well.

Saturday I was on duty from 7am till about 10am but on Sunday I was on duty from 930am till 630pm which was when the last rider crossed the line…

Anyway it was a great way to spend two days and I lost count of how many times I got thanked for giving up my weekend so they could enjoy theirs….

73bob

Getting ready for Friday’s Demo of Amateur Radio

Its been a busy couple of days but all the planning for Friday’s Amateur Radio Demonstration for the Glengarry Memorial Hospital  in Alexandria Ontario is finally complete  Today some of us are heading out to do some last minute equipment checks and then we will be set for the demo…

We will be showing them that Amateur Radio can communicate between Alexandria and Ottawa using the following modes:

VHF FM Analog communications- using two different 2m repeaters.  One located in Ontario and one located in Quebec.  We were fortunate to find two repeaters that were within range of both Alexandria Ontario and Ottawa.  Having one in each province narrows the risk of a power failiure taking both off the air.  If you think back to the blackout of a few years back Ontario was knocked off the grid but Hydro Quebec was up and running.

APRS Text Messaging-  As proven by those of you who “ Tweet ” there is a lot you can say in a short line if you think about what you say.  The APRS Structure in the area is fairly robust and Alexandria is close enough to the other areas they would want to talk to that they would not need IGATES and could easily reach each other using the  standard WIDE 2-1 settings.  This could easily augment the VHF FM Analog Repeaters

HF NVIS (40m)- The oldest mode and most mis understood.  The bands are the most dependable they have been in years and I know some of you would disagree with that but…  Because this is not an exercise, or a test but a demonstration of methods we will show it as well.

As some of you know the “Coles Notes” principal of Near Vertical Incident Skywave (NVIS) is really just lowering your 40m or 80m antenna to a suitable height (close to the ground but high enough not to take off hats or heads) which does the following.  First it lowers your noise and the signals coming in.  Second it shortens your “first hop”.  What this means is that it uses the ground beneath your antenna to bounce your signal more straight up causing it to bounce back and as it bounces more straight up in then bounces more straight back in effect shortening the first bounce which makes it more suitable for contacts in a closer area.  Now to you technical types out there please no flames…  I did say the above was a quick and dirty version of what has been the subject of many different technical papers…

The plan is to set up a NVIS Station in Alexandria and a Receiving Station in Ottawa and if the bands work we should be able to contact each other on 40m.  At least like I said ” Thats the plan…”  Given the fact that 40m is usually “long” at that time of the day  I am hoping we will be able to shorten the first hop enough to communicate but we won’t know till we try…

DSTAR Digital Voice

This is the “Dark Horse” in the demo as to be painfully honest I have never really looked at DSTAR seriously before and so I will be seeing it for the first time during this demo.  But it meets the criteria and Alexandria is 20 miles away both from the DSTAR Repeater in Rigaud QC and the DSTAR Repeater in Cornwall Ontario.  And through the DSTAR network they could reach the DSTAR Repeater in Ottawa.  So once again they have a repeater on both power grids which increases their chances of staying on the air in an natural emergency situation.  In addition the DSTAR radios can also work in Analog mode so the same repeaters we used in the VHF Analog test could be used as backup.

Now there also is a Digital Data mode as well they can use but I know little about it.  I’m not sure if thats a simplex only mode or if they can pass data between two station on the repeater network.

Above map shows Ottawa (major hosptials), Hawksbury Ont, (region hospital), Rigaud QC (DSTAR site) and Cornwall Ontario (regional hospital and DSTAR site)-  Its not an overly large area to communicate within.

Now before you start telling me that the DSTAR Network does need an internet connection remember that the Alexandria Hospital might have to need to talk to other local hospitals (Cornwall – Hawksbury) in Ontario and those would be in straight repeater coverage on the DSTAR System and not needed the internet.

Yes I agree that for either repeater (Rigaud or Cornwall) to reach Ottawa the DSTAR network would need to access the internet…  Like I said its a demo.

So back to the demo itself…  We will have stations at the hospital in Alexandria and we will have stations in Ottawa on the the different frequencies and modes…  If all goes according to plan they will be able to communicate and the Demo will showcase our talents to the Hospital Administration.  After the demo the Hospital Admistration will meet up with the Stomount, Dundas and Glengarry ARES people and start the process of getting the hospital “Radio Active” so to speak.  The demo brought all concerned to the same place at the same time which has speeded up the process  to allow SDG ARES group to assist their new communications partner.

As I mentioned earlier this is not an exercise, this is not a test…  This is a demo….  It proves to us what works or what does not…

There will be much more on this topic in the next few weeks (after this Fridays DEMO)

73bob

Its a better day today…

Well what can I say…

The band conditions were a bit better…  The APRS rig (aprs ssid VA3QV) is back up and running kind of…  Never had this happen to me before so… If you can figure it out let me know…:

As long as the ACER Netbook is running off its internal battery the APRS Gear (AGWPE/UIVIEW Softare and the Rigblaster NOMIC interface) works great…  Whenever the Netbook is running off the power supply (plugged into 110V) the unit refuses to hear anything from the radio…  It will however transmit a beacon whenever I till it to…  This is the same Hardware (Radio and interface and USB to serial port adapter ) I have been using for a long time now.  I have been using AGWPE and 32 bit UIVIEW for just as long.  The only change is that when all these problems started I downloaded a more recent copy of AGWPE and installed it but then the problems were there before the software change and now they are still there…

Darned if I can figure it out but the fact that it only occurs when I am plugged into the wall gives me an idea that it has something to do with the power supply of the Netbook.  However according to the company website the power supply is putting out the correct voltage (yes I measured it) and the power supply does not seem any warmer to the touch than it did before so I’m not sure… 

I have a back up USB to Serial port adapter so the next step is changing that over to see if thats it…  Although its seems a lot of work to see 80 stations on the screen now its bugging me….  it used to work… and as I really changed nothing and only put it away for a while it should work and come hell or high water gosh darn it ….  it will work again…

But sorry about the ranting yesterday…

The highlight of todays radio work will be the contact I think I made today with wG0AT who was up on Mount Herman Colorado doing a SOTA Activation.  I had seen the “Tweet” from Steve earlier stating he was heading up the mountain and using APRS.fi I had followed him up the mountain so to speak.  As his “Tweet” had given his Operating Frequencies I just sat on 18.125 waiting and listening…

The nice thing about following Steve on YouTube is that I know what his voice sounds like and suddenly I hear a voice I have heard before asking if the Frequency is in use…  I wait and then hear his first call and go back to him….  I hear his reply but before the exchange could be made I get a blast from a station just underneath us who is way too loud…  Not sure if we completed the contact but I know he heard me and I know I heard him so…  Thats about as good as it gets in poor band conditions…  Ottawa Ontario to Mount Herman Colorado is just over 1500 miles as the crow flies which is not too bad for ssb when one end of the QSO is QRP.  I was using the FT450 which was at 100w but Steve was QRP at his end so…

So the rest of today was listening for the CW Beacon of the Project Blue Horizon Flight  and just taking it easy…  I never did get back into contest mode but I hope the rest of you made lots of contacts…

73bob

Wishing SOMETHING would get done

Today is a “Murphy Day”….

Its been a while since Murphy came to visit the shack but today proved the Law was right…

If it can go wrong…. It will!!!!

The band conditions for the Contest are not that good (but then most of you knew that already) and the few stations I can hear either can’t hear me or I have in the log already…

I have been following the Project Blue Horizon Balloon flight on APRS.fi only as I can’t hear the 40m or 30m HF CW Beacons…  Remember what I said about the poor band conditions…  However according to the Twitterverse several hams are able to copy the beacons and are keeping the PBH people up to speed on where the balloon is.  They will be at the end of the VHF Coverage shortly and then its HF CW till the payload finds land again…

Seeing that I have been watching APRS all day today I thought I would fire up my APRS Station but…  One of the files on my system must be corrupt as…. It worked when I put it away…. Today I bring everything out and fire it up….  Well the computer will transmit a beacon and that is about as good as it gets…  After the first beacon AGWPE (which has served me faithfully since my CASARA Ground Days) suddenly decides to lock up my computer…  A re boot finds the same results…  Thank you Mr Murphy…

I try 3 different versions of AGWPE on three different computers…  two different versions of windows as the old dell runs XP, The netbook runs XP and the New Dell runs windows 7 and still no luck…

The only thing I have not tried is re installing my copy of UI View but…  whats the chance of all 3 copies of UI View crapping out at the same time especially when all 3 copies work fine when I go in through the APRS server (via the internet).  The only time the lockup occurs is when AGWPE is brought on line…  But the funny thing is that it worked fine when I removed the APRS station from the shack….

It has me confused and frustrated so its time to take a deep breath and go upstairs and forget about radio for a while…  Watch the Hockey game and relax…  Tomorrow has to be a better day…

73bob

However if anyone has any suggestions besides use a real tnc other than AGWPE you can drop me a line… This was a turnkey APRS System that has worked flawlessly in the past… I take it out of its box and it does not work…  confuses the $%^%$$  out of me…bob

Back on the air with APRS

I’ve got a bit more time on my hands these days…  Nothing to brag about or complain about for that matter…  Just re thinking some things I used to do and decided not to do them anymore…

So this morning I dug out all the parts and managed to get my home APRS Station back on the air.  If you live close to Ottawa you might have noticed VA3QV suddenly re appear on your screen after a long period of inactivity…

My home station (VA3QV) consists of my ACER Netbook running Windows XP.  I am using the free version of AGWPE along with a Regestered Version of UI View.  The radio talks to the computer with the help of a Rig Blaster NOMIC interface and the radio is my tried and true Yaesu FT 2400 which I have affectionalty called in the past my 2 meter beater…  I am using a copper J pole about 10 feet off the ground as my APRS antenna and so far everything is working fine…

Now that the home station is up and running you might see VA3QV-7 up and moving around.  This SSID belongs to my Yaesu VX8GR radio and is normally used either when I am out riding the Electric Vespa or out walking.  Walking around the neighborhood is a save bet as my doctor and also my XYL would like to see me shed more than a few pounds and if I walk with my APRS rig on my belt Liz can see how far I actually walk ( or where to send the paramedics if the Icon don’t move for a while)

As I don’t operate a car anymore if you see VA3QV-9 on the road…  Its probally a pirate… Unless you see me bragging about getting a new APRS Radio for the mobile I don’t have right now.

In addition you might also see VA3QV-4 on your screen.  That is my Dell Laptop running UIView using an internet connect only.  No RF through this setup as my Dell is using Windows 7 and I have had no luck getting the version of AGWPE I use to talk to the Dell (so far)…One of these days I hope to get this corrected…

Seeing that the temps for Ottawa are supposed to be in Double Digits (on the plus side) for the next week or so I am planning to spend a bit more time outside either walking or operating the FT817 from the park…

73bob

 

Changes on the local APRS Map

Its not much of a change but it is a change…

This morning I took VA3QV off the air and replaced it with an IGATE configuration with the callsign of VA3RCS.  VA3RCS is now filling a slight hole in the South East end of Ottawa and acting as an IGATE.  Currently the staion is gateing RF to the Internet only but in the near future (when I can get the configuration set correctly ) will also be gateing local stations (within 20k) to my QTH from the internet to RF.

I am currently using my “Old Dell” Laptop which has more than enough horsepower to do this task.  Its easier and neater to use a Laptop rather than a desktop as there is less cables etc to snag wires…

When I am  at home you will still see (might see or should see) VA3QV-4 (New Dell Laptop-internet only) .  If I am out or on the road you should see either VA3QV-5 (Acer netbook- internet or RF) or  VA3QV-7 (Yaesu VX8gr).  If I ever get the van I am hoping for then you will also see VA3QV-9 but that is in the future.

If you get bored take a look at APRS.fi  and see where I am.

73bob

Issues with ECHOLINK

It was one of those spur of the moment ideas…  Once I got my Android Smart Phone for Christmas and I figured out that there was an ECHOLINK APP for the phone then it made perfect sense to hook up my old ECHOLINK  NODE back up so I could link back to my 2m radio from my phone if I was not within range of normal 2m communications.

Back in late 2005/early 2006 I was doing this with the 2m radio being set to the OVMRC Repeater VE3TWO Frequency of 147.300.  This worked great and so I figured that if it worked last time then it should work this time…

Can anyone out there see where this is headed???  All the old parts were still intact.  My Rigblaster NOMIC sound card interface set up for my Yaesu FT2400 with the right cables.  This I know works as its the same setup up for when I operate APRS from home so its already configured correctly for receive and keying the radio up for transmit.

So it it works with the above gear and the computer like the sound card settings  then when I go with the following setup…

Only real difference is the soundcard settings and the software…

And thats were we sit at this time.  The mechanics of the setup work fantastic.  No issues with keying up the radio or off keying its works great.  However the audio quality on TX and RX is leaving much to be desired and it looks like this could take a while.  It seems that UI View/AGWPE for APRS is much easer to set sudio levels for than ECHOLINK is…

I have a new shack computer (hand me down as Liz is getting a new desktop) coming in in the near future so I hope the sound card config issues will be cleared up with a newer, faster computer to work with…  Failing that somewhere in a box, here in a corner of the basement is the very old desktop from 2005-2006 that might still even have the old software on it and perhaps I can dust that off and breath life back into it for the amateur radio community…

In the meantime if you follow Echolink keep a watch out for VA3QV-L which would be me trying again to get the audio levels set correctly (so link in and say hi and give me your opinion of how it sounds to you).  If you see VA3QV on the stations list then its either my Phone or my Acer Netbook with the internet stick and then just try and connect and say hi…

More on how this work in progress continues ….  Its all in the configuration…

73bob