Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone!   Hope you find something shiny under the Christmas tree this year!  Looking forward to working with all you during the upcoming year.

WVCARC Board

A Ham's Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas,  

And all through two-meters,  

Not a signal was keying up  

Any repeaters.

The antennas reached up

From the tower, quite high,

To catch the weak signals

That bounced from the sky.

The children, Tech-Pluses,

Took their HT's to bed,

And dreamed of the day

They'd be Extras, instead.

Mom put on her headphones,

I plugged in the key,

And we tuned 40 meters

For that rare ZK3.

When the meter was pegged

by a signal with power.

It smoked a small diode,

and, I swear, shook the tower.

Mom yanked off her phones,

And with all she could muster

Logged a spot of the signal

And the DX Packet Cluster,

While I ran to the window

And peered up at the sky,

To see what could generate

RF that high.

It was way in the distance,

But the moon made it gleam -

A flying sleigh, with an

Eight element beam,

 And a little old driver

Who looked slightly mean.

So I thought for a moment,

That it might be Wayne Green.

 But no, it was Santa,

The Santa of Hams.

On a mission, this Christmas,

To clean up the bands.

He circled the tower,

Then stopped in his track,

And he slid down the coax

Right into the shack.

While Mom and I hid

Behind stacks of CQ,

This Santa of hamming

Knew just what to do.

He cleared off the shack desk

Of paper and parts,

And filled out all my late QSLs

For a start.

He ran copper braid,

Took a steel rod and pounded

It into the earth, till

The station was grounded.

He tightened loose fittings,

Resoldered connections,

Cranked down modulation,

Installed lightning protection.

He neutralized tubes

In my linear amp...

(Never worked right before-

Now it works like a champ).

A new, low-pass filter

Cleaned up the TV.

He corrected the settings

In my TNC.

He repaired the computer

That would not compute,

And he backed up the hard drive

And got it to boot.

Then, he reached really deep

In the bag that he brought,

And he pulled out a big box.

A new rig? I thought!

A new Kenwood? An Icom?

A Yaesu, for me?!

(If he thought I'd been bad  

It might be QRP!)

Yes! The Ultimate Station!

How could I deserve this?

Could it be all those hours

That I worked Public Service?

He hooked it all up

And in record time, quickly

Worked 100 countries,

All down on 160.

I should have been happy,

It was my call he sent.

But the cards and the postage

Will cost two month's rent!

He made final adjustments,

And left a card by the key:

"To Gary, from Santa Claus.

Seventy-Three."

Then he grabbed his HT,

Looked me straight in the eye,

Punched a code on the pad,

And was gone - no good-bye.

I ran back to the station,

And the pile-up was big,

But a card from St. Nick

Would be worth my new rig.

Oh, too late, for his final  

Came over the air.

It was copied all over.

It was heard everywhere.

The Ham's Santa exclaimed

What a ham might expect,

"Merry Christmas to all,

And to all, good DX."

(c)1996 Gary Pearce KN4AQ

Permission granted for any print

or electronic reproduction.

January Elections

The following positions are up for election in January: President & Secretary.

Duties of each position can be found in the bylaws found here.

If you are interested in running for one of these positions or if you would like to nominate an individual for a position please send an email to info@wvcarc.com. If a member nominates someone

by email, it is that nominating member's duty to also copy that nominee in the email to the

Officers.

Nominees must be 18 or older, licensed in amateur radio, and be members in good standing of

the WVCARC and be aware of the responsibilities listed above in the by-laws for the respective officer position. There are no term limits for any offices. Anyone can

nominate themselves in addition to being nominated by a member of the WVCARC. Nominees

do not have to be present at the January meeting. The email option nominating window closes 24

hours before the January monthly face-to-face meeting which will be held January 12th. All nominees must accept their nomination before voting occurs.

Election results will be determined by the majority of votes cast. Voting may occur by ballot or

by a show of hands. Only members of the WVCARC may cast a vote and have to be present at

the January meeting. No proxy voting will be allowed.

Geek Post - Making your TNC an APRS Client

It's always fun to add functionality to an existing piece of equipment.  I'm not sure where I came up with the idea, but for some reason I wanted to see if I could add Bluetooth to our Pi-96k TNC's that we sell as fundraisers.  Well I found this little jewel on Amazon: DSD TECH HC-05 Bluetooth Serial Pass-through Module Wireless Serial Communication with Button for Arduino.  It runs on 3.6 volts which is close to what the Teensy on the TNC runs at.  It also has pins for RX and TX.  Turns out there are pins for all of those connections on the TNC board which is cool.  It also only cost $9 which is affordable.

By default the TNC's are configured to output their data through the USB port.  When you load up the Raspberry PI firmware, it sends that same data though the pins that connect to the PI.  I was able to find pins on the board that I could tap into.  Another problem I ran into was the Bluetooth module runs at 9600 baud so I had to modify a config file for the firmware to set the correct connection speed.

After a quick recompile I upload the new firmware to the Teensy, held my breath, and plugged things in.  No smoke, so I connected the TNC to my radio and grabbed my Android phone (sorry, iOS devices are not compatible with this particular module).  I paired my phone to the BT module.  I then launched APRSDroid and set the Connection Protocol to TNC (KISS) and selected my BT device from the TNC Bluetooth Device menu.  Next I selected "Start Tracking" at the bottom and as the Solder Smoke guys say, "Bob's Your Uncle!"

So what can you do with APRS?  Well if you move this setup to your car you can have your position transmitted as you drive.  APRSDroid uses your phone's GPS to get your current location.  It then transmits this information through the TNC.  This setup could be used for a SAG (Support And Gear) wagon so that Net Control knows where the support vehicles are.  You can also send quick messages to other station through APRS.  You can see Jason (KG7RZX) and chatting back and forth here.

Anyway, I had fun getting this put together and thought I would share it with you all.  Pictures are below.

Modified Firmware Download

Breadboard

Pins Used

Look, It's Me!

Effective Net Control/Event Communications/SAG Support Coordinator class

UtahSAG is sponsoring a class for net control operators and for those that are organizing public service events.

When: Saturday, February 16, 2019 8 AM until 5 PM.  We will take a lunch break from approximately 11:30 - 12:30.

Where: Taylorsville City Hall - 2600 West 5400 South.

Cost:$25

This is an advanced class for those HAM Radio operators who wish to become more involved in supporting and coordinating the support for public service events.  This all day training includes information on how to be an effective net control operator, managing the net, crisis control, logging and reporting as well as other critical topics on how you can manage the functions and duties of being the Net Control Operator.

The second half of the training covers the topics surrounding being an event support coordinator from working with the event staff and how to recruit volunteers to creating signup and logging forms using Google Docs as well as some of the legal issues volunteers need to be aware of.

They ask that you pre-register for the class so that They can have the materials available for everyone on the day of the class.  You can register at this address - https://goo.gl/forms/GjBwYZ59yaTL8IL13

This year they will be providing the class materials on a thumb drive, as such and to make it possible for you to follow along with the hands on parts of the training, please bring a laptop or tablet capable of running Windows with you.  By providing the materials on thumb drives they can include not only the PowerPoint presentations, but also the source materials they used to compile our course information.  

Clean Out Your Shack Week

I am declaring this week "Clean Out Your Shack Week." or as my wife calls it "Clean Up Your Room Week". That being said, if you have something you want sell or give away this week respond to this post and who knows, someone might want it.  I'm going to kick this off with a list of my own.  All things below are free, in working order, and have no warranty.








Computers

• Inspiron Zino HD 
• AMD Athlon 2650e 1.6 Ghz
• Memory - 2 GB
• HP Compaq 8510p
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz
• Memory - 4 GB
• Hard Drive - 120 GB SSD
• Screen - 15"
• Aspire One
• Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz
• Memory - 2 GB
• Hard Drive - 120 GB SSD
• Raspberry Pi Original

Networking

• Cisco Small Business Switch - SG200-26FP
• Ports - 26
• Speed - 1 Gigabit
• TP-Link - TL-SG1048
• Ports - 48
• Speed - 1 Gigabit
• 3Com - Switch 4226T
• Ports - 26
• Speed 100 MB
• 3Com Office Connect
• Ports - 16
• Speed 100 MB
• EnGenius Wireless-300N Bridge - ENH202
• Has most of the parts. Missing injector and a cover
• 1st Gen Chromecast

Send me an email at mat.murdock@gmail.com.  First come first serve.  If you have something you would like to get rid of as well respond to the email being sent out or attach a comment to this post.  Here is to cleaner rooms!

Mat

K2MJM

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Officers of WVCARC would like to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving.  Hopefully you all were able to spend time with family and friends, and of course had some wonderful pie!

Hopefully within the next two months we will be transition from the 146.70 repeater to the club repeater which will be on 443.800.  Many of the online ham radio stores have radios on sale right now, so if you do not have a radio that works on the 70 cm band, now may be a good time to pick them up.  Here are a few in no particular order:

HRO
DX Engineering
GigaParts
Ham City

Find any good deals?  Post them here!

Mat
K2MJM

Saturday's In Person Meet Location Change

Due to a scheduling conflict we are moving the in person meeting to Monticello Academy at 2782 South Corporate Park Drive, West Valley City.  Please enter through the North entrance and then follow the signs.  See you Saturday at 9:00 AM.

Mat
K2MJM

Saturday In Person Meet Topic - Let's Get That TNC Working FINALLY

So this Saturday the plan is to meet at Station 74 at 9:00 AM for two purposes.  One is to get that fancy new TNC you made six months ago hooked up to your radio and computer and the second is to give you hands on experience with Winlink.  Why the big rush you ask?  Well in the next 1 - 2 month we will have our West Valley City packet node installed at Fire station 76 as well as our shiny new repeater up and running,  Woot Woot!  Soooo, we need to make sure each and everyone of you are ready to go.

To help with getting your on the air I will have DB9 connectors for the TNC and 3.5 mm audio jacks, and RJ-45 ends, as well as some cable to connect it all up.  You will will need to bring a soldering iron, your radio, and a few bucks for the connectors to keep my wife happy.  Also bring your TNC and a laptop if you got it.  If you are all setup GREAT!, come and help others get their gear together.  Should be a fun morning and the results will benefit everyone.

If you didn't have a chance to build a TNC I will have them available as well.  $45 for the TNC and $8 for the case.

Any questions, let me know,

Mat
K2MJM

ARES/ RACES Workshop

Bob Craven, N7GTE, has asked me to send out a reminder about the ARES/ RACES Workshop that will be held on Saturday, 3 November 2018. Check-ins will begin Saturday morning at 0800 and the training will begin at 0900. The Work shop will be at a new location this year, 195 N 1950 W, Salt Lake City, (Multi Agency State Office Building/Environment Quality Building) Registration for this event will be different than in the past, please use Eventbrite.com , search for the ARES/RACES workshop on 3 Nov. We request that all registrations be submitted no later than Monday, 29 October. This is so the meals can be ordered for the free lunch that will be provided. Also we encourage you to register as soon as you can because there will be a limit on how many seats will be available.

Contact Bob Craven, N7GTE, n7gte@yahoo.com for more info if you have questions.

In Person Meet - Car Go Kit

Our in person meet this month will be this Saturday the 13th at 9:00 AM at Station 74.  We will be talking about Go Kits.

Below is a curated list of items that will fit into a Ammo Can style container.  We will be going over these Saturday.  I think everything is Amazon Prime eligible, so if you hurry you can have them for Saturday.

Ammo Can - https://wvcarc.page.link/tc4X
AA Battery Holders - https://wvcarc.page.link/fFWD
First Aid Kit - https://wvcarc.page.link/GLp8
Flashlight - https://wvcarc.page.link/82AY
Multi Tool - https://wvcarc.page.link/NSef
FM / NOAA Radio - https://wvcarc.page.link/DW7Y

Radio - You choose your own based on budget
Radio Manual -
Roll Up J-Pole - Made by club
Survival Bracelet - Made by club
Field Operations Manual - Coming Soon

Other Items
Water, Energy Bars, Gloves, Hat, Matches, Paper, Pencil/Pen

This is just the start of your kit so you can add more stuff to it.  Got anything else you want to add to the list?  Reply to this post.

Mat
K2MJM

Club Repeater Update

Ok, time for a Club repeater update.  We have received our frequency pair for the repeater that we are planning on installing at Station 76.  A special thank you goes out the the Utah VHF Society for getting for finding an open pair.  Our frequency is 448.800 Mhz with a negative offset.  Jason and I climbed up on the roof of 76 Friday and played around with some different locations and the station looks to be a great location for us.  We were actually able to contact someone in Ogden of 5 watts simplex.  Not bad at all.   

We are looking for some non penetrating roof antenna mounts like the one below.  If anyone knows were we can find some used ones or a local source of them let us know.  We will send out an announcement as we get closer to the install date.

WVCARC Logo Contest

We are looking for a new logo.  The current logo is OK, but doesn't work very well for being put on apparel.  So, we are going to hold a Logo Contest.  The contest will run until November 1st.  The logo needs to meet the following requirements

• Images used must be copyright free
• Must look good when in color, grey scale, and black and white.  You may submit version of the logo for each each print type.
• Must be able to be embroidered onto clothing.  Basically really thing lines and small type don't work well.
• Should have Armature Radio and West Valley elements to it.

Please submit your logo to board@wvcarc.com

After the deadline WVCARC officers will evaluate the submitted logos and will choose the winner.  The person whose logo is chosen will receive a WVCARC jacket.

If you have any questions regarding the contest or would like something clarified please email us at the above address.

Good Luck!

Station 75 up and running

Saturday a few of our members met and finished setting up Fire Station 75's radios.  This puts us at a halfway mark on this project.  Stations 73, 74, and 75 are ready to go. 71 and 72 are still under construction and 76 is in the planning stages.  Special thanks to all those that have worked on these projects.  In the upcoming months we are planning an activity where we activate all available stations to very everything is working a designed.

Saturday - Firestation 75

For those that are interested I am going to be at Station 75 Saturday at 9:00 AM to finish up the wiring job we started last year.  We need to extend the coax from where the radios were original kept to a new room.  Most of it will be above the drop ceiling, however a portion of the run will be going over hard-top, so that will prove interesting.  If you have an 8 ft. ladder it would be helpful.

Thanks,

Mat

What Makes A Good Volunteer?

Emergency telecommunication volunteers come from a wide variety of backgrounds and with
a range of skills and experience. The common attributes that all effective volunteers share are
a desire to help others without personal gain of any kind, the ability to work as a member of a
team, and to take direction from others. Emergency telecommunication volunteers need to be
able to think and act quickly, under the stress and pressure of an emergency.

You cannot help others when you are worried about those you love. Your own family should
always be your first priority. Adequate personal and family preparation will enable you to get
your own situation under control more quickly so that you are in a position to be of service to
others.

Net Training - Principles of Disaster Communication

Taken from
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Field Resources Manual

1.Keep transmissions to a minimum – In a disaster, crucial stations may be weak.  All other stations should remain silent unless they are called upon.  If you’re not sure you should transmit, don’t.

2. Monitor established disaster frequencies. Many A.R.E.S. localities and some geographical areas have established disaster frequencies where someone is always (or nearly always) monitoring for possible calls.

3. Avoid spreading rumors. During and after a disaster situation, especially on phone bands, you may hear almost anything.  Unfortunately, much misinformation is transmitted.  Rumors are started by expansion, deletion, amplification or modification of words, and by exaggeration or interpretation.  All addressed transmissions should be officially authenticated as to their source.  These transmissions should be repeated word for word, if at all, and only when specifically authorized.

4. Authenticate all messages.  Every message which purports to be of an official nature should be written and signed.  Whenever possible, amateurs should avoid initiating disaster or emergency traffic themselves.  We do the communicating; the agency officials we serve supply the content of the communications.

5. Strive for efficiency. Whatever happens in an emergency, you will find hysteria and some amateurs who are activated by the thought that they must be sleepless heroes.  Instead of operating your own station full time at the expense of your health and efficiency, it is much better to serve a shift at one of the best-located and best-equipped stations, suitable for the work at hand, manned by relief shifts of the best-qualified operators.  This reduces interference and secures well-operated stations.

6. Select the mode and band to suit the need. It is a characteristic of all amateurs to believe that their favorite mode and band is superior to all others.  However, the merits of a particular band or mode in a communications emergency should be evaluated impartially with a view to the appropriate use of bands and modes.  There is, of course, no alternative to using what happens to be available, but there are ways to optimize available communications.

7. Use all communications channels intelligently.  While the prime object of emergency communications is to save lives and property (anything else is incidental), Amateur Radio is a secondary communications means; normal channels are primary and should be used if available.  Emergency channels other than amateur which are available in the absence of amateur channels should be utilized without fear of favoritism in the interest of getting the message through.

8.  Don’t “broadcast.”  Some stations in an emergency situation have a tendency to emulate “broadcast” techniques.  While it is true that the general public may be listening, our transmissions are not and should not be made for that purpose.

9. NTS and ARES leadership coordination.  Within the disaster area itself, the ARES is primarily responsible for emergency communications support.  The first priority of those NTS operators who live in or near the disaster area is to make their expertise available to their Emergency Coordinator (EC) where and when needed.  For timely and effective response, this means that NTS operators should talk to their ECs before the time of need so that they will know how to best respond.

Winlink Presentation

Just a reminder that our May in-person meet will be tonight in conjunctions with Salt Lake County ARES.  I will be giving a presentation on Winlink and will be helping people get registered with the service.  Please bring a computer with you if you would like to be registered.

The meeting will be tonight, May 23rd at 6:30 PM.  It will be held at the West Valley City Hall.

Net Training - Cross Band Repeaters

The following information is taken from “The ARRL Operating Manual for Radio Amateurs, 9th Edition.”
I was, recently, asked if I knew anything about CROSSBAND REPEATING.  If you have a dual band, dual-display mobile radio and a handheld radio you can set up your own repeated system.

Why do so?  There are several reasons.  My personal reason is as follows.  I have two separate radios installed in my vehicle.  One radio is a dual-band dual-display Kenwood, TM-V7 and one is a Motorola, Spectra, single band UHF radio.  My Motorola has a public address system with an external speaker, so I can hear the radio outside my vehicle.  The Kenwood does not.  There have been times when I was out of my vehicle and did not have a handheld radio with me, but I wanted to keep track of what was going on on-the-air.  I set my Kenwood as a repeater from 2 meter frequency to 70 centimeter frequency.  Any call that came in on 2 meters was repeated on the UHF and came out through the external radio speaker.  I could now hear what was happening and also hear if someone called me.

Let us say you want to operate your handheld radio, but you need the extra power of your mobile radio to hit a repeater.  For example, you’re on the lower level of a shopping mall with your handheld.  You can’t reach the local repeater from down there, but you can the repeater from your vehicle in the parking lot.  Again you repeat through your vehicle to the repeater and you have coverage from your handheld.

You may be in one of the hospitals and you have your handheld, but cannot reach the local repeater, but you can reach your vehicle in the parking lot…I think you get the idea.
Cross-band repeat operation in most mobile radios is very simple.  When the cross-band function is turned on, anything the radio hears on one band is retransmitted to the other.  When the signal stops the radio goes into receive on both bands and waits for the next signal, on either band, to repeat.  So down in the mall or down in city hall or down in the hospital, you transmit on UHF.  Your mobile hears its UHF received, and repeats you to the main repeater on VHF, flips itself around and repeats the main repeater back to you using the UHF transmitter.  Simple as this is, it can take a while to wrap your mind around the concept.

There are some problems that limit the utility of cross-band repeat.  The biggest problem is hang-time on the main repeater – the time after someone stops talking, but the repeater stays on the air, beeps, and finally drops.  On many repeaters that’s several seconds, and when two hams are in conversation, the repeater never drops until they are done.  It will automatically reset the time-out timer as each one un-keys their mike so it does not time-out.  Your cross-band repeater can’t tell the difference between a ham’s transmission through the repeater and the hang time afterwards.  It’s all just one long signal being received.  So, if you, down in city hall, are listening to two hams talk, you can’t break in until they’re done.  As long as they are talking, your mobile never stops sending the signal to you, and never listens for you. (Something else to keep in mind here is that your mobile is now transmitting a lot, and it is not designed for continuous transmission.  Keep it in low power.)

A repeater can be made “cross-band repeat friendly” by having a very short hang-time, or by specially designed CTCSS system.  If the repeater sends the tone only when a signal is on the input, and turns it off during the hang-time, your cross-band repeater can use the tone to know when to transmit and w2hen to shut off, allowing you to access the repeater between transmissions normally.  Or, if you can hear the main repeater directly on your handheld but just can’t get back to it, you do one-way cross-band repeat, from your handheld through the cross-band repeat, from your handheld through the cross-band mobile, but not back to your handheld.

A few notes of caution:  first, be careful in configuring your cross-band repeater.  Choose frequencies wisely – your coordination group may have identified band segments for cross-band repeat operation, so don’t just plunk down anywhere you want.  Do some research.  Guard the “local” side of your cross-band mobile with CTCSS or DCS.  If you don’t, and the squelch opens on your mobile, it will spew noise out to the main repeater.  Cross-band operation I particularly useful for emergency and public service event work, but a noise spewing, out of control cross-band mobile can render a vital repeater useless.

Second, maintain control.  The FCC rules require you be in control of the transmitter, but are not specific about how you do that.  If you can reach the vehicle in a few minutes from the inside of city hall, that’s probably good enough.  But don’t stop paying attention to it or leave the area.

Finally, you are required to ID both your mobile transmitter with your call sign.  How do you ID the transmitter that’s sending the main repeater signal back to you?  If you ID at the end of a transmission it goes out on the handheld and is repeated on the other frequency.  I don’t know many hams that talk for ten minutes, but you are to ID every ten minutes.

April 21st Drill - Recap

First off, hats off to all those that participated in our April 21st drill.  You all did great!  We were able to have a check in from every school in West Valley City which totaled 32 schools.  It took us about 80 min to complete and I felt things went pretty well.  I appreciate the input I also received during the drill and will see how best I can incorporate them in the future.

We also had the opportunity to work out of the City's new communications trailer and give it a proper shake down.  When doing these type of exercises you always find little things that need to be fixed which is the purpose of doing this.  I appreciate WVCFD for their willingness to bring out the trailer and allow us to use it.

The Great Utah Shake Out

The Great Utah Shake Out is this Thursday, April 18th.  WVCARC will be holding a quick NET at 12:00 PM on our normal repeater which is 146.700 Mhz, negative offset, 100 Hz tone.  This is always an interesting NET as people are generally at a different location then our normal Thursday Night NET.


Mat Murdock
K2MJM

April 21st Drill Instructions and Resources

First off thank you for all those who have signed up to participate in the April 21st Drill.  The goal of the drill is to check in from each of the 31 elementary schools in West Valley City.  The drill starts at 10:00 AM.   Net Control will be online by that time.  We will be operating on our simplex frequency which is 147.58 Mhz.  Net Control will be operating from City Hall.  Relay stations will be setup at Fire Stations 74 and 73.  Net Control will start with a quick check in to verify which operators are participating.

Once you arrive at a location you need to follow steps below.

1. Prepare a short message using the FEMA ICS-213 form found here: ICS-213 Form
2. Contact Net Control and let them know of your location.  When asked relay your message
3. Wait for Net Control to dispatch you to your next location

The current deployment roster can be found here: Deployment Roster

You will notice that an order has been set as to which school you should go to first.

Following the drill you are all invited to come to City Hall to check out the new communications trailer.

If you are unable to participate please let me know ASAP so I can make alternative arrangements.  If your name is not on the roster and you would like to participate also let me know.

Thanks,

Mat Murdock
K2MJM
mat.murdock@wvcarc.com

April 14th - In Person Meet

Saturday will be our monthly in person meet.  It will be held at Fire Station 74 at 9:00 AM.  We will have a couple of things going on.

First a brief overview of the drill that will be held on April 21st.

Second, I will lead those who want to build their TNC's through the process.  Please bring a soldering iron with the finest tip you have as well as solder.  A pair of side cutters or toe nail clippers as well as something to hold the board is helpful.  We will have a few extras on hand if you don't have one.  We do have a few extra kits available if you decide to build one.  Cost is $45.

Third, those who want to have their radios programmed with the Standard Load can bring their radios and we will do our best to make that happen.  If you are a new Ham we will answer any questions that you may have and get you on the air.  If you have any questions let us know!

Mat
K2MJM

Soldering Pro-Tip

I use a vise very similar to this about every time I solder something. It does a couple things for you.  It holds the item you are soldering and you don't burn your fingers.  I noticed Harbor Freight had these on sale for $14.99 at the moment and thought I would share this little pro tip with you all.  You can find them here: https://www.harborfreight.com/2-3-4-quarter-inch-articulated-vacuum-vise-3311.html.

Of course this isn't an endorsement of any kind, just looking to save some finger tips!

Mat
K2MJM

TNC-Pi 9k Kits - Last Call

This is the final call for anyone interested in purchasing one of our clubs TNC-Pi 9K Kits.  You can find out more about it here: http://www.wvcarc.com/2018/03/tnc-pi-9k-kits.html

In short it is a 300 / 1200 / 9600 baud TNC that can run stand alone or be connected to a Raspberry Pi.  We will be building them at our April 14th in person meet.

We are selling kits for those that are interested for $45 (case additional $8).

If you are interested sign up here: https://goo.gl/forms/W99MWcltPVL6MmC12

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mat
K2MJM

Ham Radio Manufactures Decide On Single Digital Standard!

Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu have just announced a joint digital standard.  Currently there are three competing digital modes, namely D-Star, System Fusion, and DMR.  This division has been both challenging and confusion for new and old amateur radio operators alike. 

The new standard will be called DHR (Digital Ham Radio)  "It will combine the best parts of all the existing digital voice and data standards" according to Ray Novak, N9JA of Icom America.  One of the most exciting aspects of this announcement is that all existing digital mode handsets will be upgraded to support this new standard.  Expect firmware upgrades to be available starting today.  This is an unprecedented showing of collaboration and cooperation.  For more information regarding this announcement click here: https://goo.gl/4VTsDk