Category Archives: Ohio Section Journal

Articles published in the Ohio Section Journal available at arrl-ohio.org

One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Scott – N8SY and articles are submitted by cabinet members.

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Scott has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!

If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the section will need to use the mailing list link above.
Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
Go to www.arrl.org and logon.
Click Edit your Profile.
You will be taken to the Edit Your Profile page. On the first tab Edit Info, verify your Email address is correct.
Click the Edit Email Subscriptions tab.
Check the News and information from your Division Director and Section Manager box.
Click Save.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2017/02/february-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

On Sunday, February 12, I connected up with the Central Ohio Radio Club located in, you guessed it, central Ohio! They have a Tech Net most Sunday evenings at 7:30pm. They asked me to be the featured guest on one of their nets. Some of you might realize this causes a problem since I live in the Cleveland area. Enter the technical side of the hobby and IRLP. IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) is a service that connects amateur stations together using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Different from other ham radio VoIP services, IRLP requires the Internet link be connected to an RF link, usually a repeater or simplex node. Using the LEARA 146.880 repeater in Cleveland (a club which I’m Vice President and a bunch of other stuff) and Internet linking technology, I was able to join their net as if I were local to Columbus.

The CORC Tech Net contacted me looking for information on technical resources available in the section. I got the chance to do an introduction about myself – we’ll quickly move past that 😉 Then I talked about how the technical resources fit into the ARRL organizational structure. If you’re new or haven’t looked at it before, at the top are the ARRL Officers: president, first & second vice presidents, COO, etc. The ARRL Board Committees include the Executive Committee, Administration & Finance, Programs & Services, Public Relations, DX, LoTW, etc. Then Divisions, of which there are 15 total, with Director and Vice Director positions. In Ohio, we’re included in the Great Lakes Division. Finally, our section is the Ohio Section where Scott – N8SY is our fearless leader and Section Manager (SM).

Below the SM are their appointees who may or may not include (depending on the section): Section Traffic Manager (STM), Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC), Assistant Section Manager (ASM), Official Observer Coordinator (OOC), Technical Coordinator (TC), Affiliated Club Coordinator (ACC), Public Information Coordinator (PIC), State Government Liaison (SGL), Section Youth Coordinator (SYC). If you’re reading this, the people above and below me in this Journal make up this list. I won’t spend too much time here as details can be found on the “About ARRL” page at http://www.arrl.org/about-arrl.

As the Technical Coordinator, I’m responsible for the Technical Specialists. The Specialists and I are here to promote technical advances and experimentation in the hobby. We encourage amateurs in the section to share their technical achievements with others in QST, at club meetings, in club newsletters, hamfests, and conventions. We’re available to assist program committees in finding or providing suitable programs for local club meetings, ARRL hamfests, and conventions in the section. When called upon, serve as advisors in RFI issues and work with ARRL officials and appointees for technical advice.

The Technical Specialists really make all this happen. In the Ohio Section, there are about 20 qualified and competent Specialists willing to help. They meet the obligation of advancing the radio art bestowed to us by the FCC. The TSes support the Section in two main areas of responsibility: Radio Frequency Interference and technical information. RFI can include harmful interference (interference that seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a radiocommunication service) from bad insulators on telephone poles to grow lights and poorly made transformers, RFI direction finding, or assist in locating bozo stations. Technical information is everything else from building antennas, repeaters and controllers, digital, computers, networking, and embedded devices.

How can we help? The knowledge and abilities of your Technical Specialists are quite impressive. Here are some examples of the knowledge the Technical Specialists provide:

Documentation and training.
VHF/UHF portable operation.
Antennas (fixed, portable, and mobile).
Batteries and emergency power.
Experts in RFI from powerline and consumer devices.
VHF/UHF/SHF contesting.
Experts in test equipment.
Automotive electronic compatibility (EMC) and interference (EMI).
Repeaters.
Digital modes (D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, P25, APRS & IGates. HF: MT63, JT65, Olivia, PSK).
Computers and networking (VoIP – AllStar link, software engineering, embedded systems – Raspberry Pi, Arduino).
Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) members knowledgeable in interference problems.

This impressive list of qualifications is available to all in the Ohio Section. Looking for help in one of these areas? Feel free to contact myself. My contact info is near my picture and on the arrl-ohio.org website. I’ll try to assist or get some more information from you and put you in touch with an appropriate Technical Specialist. One of the Specialists might hear a plea for help and reach out to you as well. If you would like to add your talents, check out the description at the ARRL site: http://www.arrl.org/technical-specialist and talk to Scott or myself.

Thanks again to CORC (http://corc.us/) for inviting me as the featured guest on their Tech Net and LEARA (http://www.leara.org/) for the use of the IRLP node to make this connection possible.

That’s about it for this month. Stay tuned for next month’s article, got something good planned. Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – January 2017 edition

January 16, 2017 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2017/01/january-2017-edition-of-ohio-section.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

In early January I did some traveling. Both intrastate and interstate. Of course, I took my radios to play around and see what activity there was. The first trip was to western Ohio and the second to south-western Pennsylvania (Johnstown area). I have been a buff for keeping updated lists of repeaters between my usual travel spots. Places I don’t frequent, I’ve relied on Internet sites.

I’m always screwing around with programming in my radios and I have programming software for each. When traveling, I program repeaters along the way and near where I’m staying. My programming application of choice is the RT Systems programmer (https://www.rtsystemsinc.com/). Their solution is about $50 for an entire package including the cable ($25) and programming software ($25). However, 4 of my radios use the same cable so I only needed to purchase the cable once and the software for each radio. CHIRP (http://chirp.danplanet.com/) is another popular solution for only the cost of a programming cable (~$15 each), the software is free. CHIRP doesn’t manage radio settings like RT. I like this ability because I tend to have different profiles depending how I’m using the radio. Manufactures release their own software too. Some are free downloads, others a premium accessory. I gave up on these solutions because the couple I tried were horrible experiences and very barebones packages. They were janky to operate and didn’t have an, what I consider to be essential, import/export function.

RT Systems has a good importer where, in many cases, the output of a webpage can be copied and pasted into the programmer. It will attempt to determine the content of each column (transmit frequency, PL, etc.). It’s not always successful but the data type can be specified during the import process though, this needs to be repeated each time. If a CSV file (plain text file with comma separated values) is not available, I found it much easier to paste webpage results into an Excel spreadsheet. This will retain the data columns. Insert a blank row above the data and type in labels that match the column headers in the programmer. Other columns, like city or distance, can be deleted or left blank – and will be ignored. Copy all data including headers and repeaters from the Excel sheet and paste them into the RT programmer. The import wizard will appear. Check that the data is being detected correctly in each step. Clicking finish will complete importing the data into the programmer. This helps greatly in importing data straight from a webpage so I don’t have to assign data types each time I import data. This spreadsheet approach is not needed when using “External Data” sources built into the programmer. Here are some header conversion examples: the webpage column label is on the left and the spreadsheet (RT) header on the right:

Frequency -> Receive Frequency
PL -> CTCSS
Call -> Name
Notes -> Comment
Distance -> *delete column or no label*
City -> *delete column or no label*

Aside from the programming software, sources are needed for data. I’ll share my experiences with some that I’ve used. I used the Repeater Directory, Ohio Area Repeater Council (OARC) website, RFinder, K1IW Amateur Repeater and Broadcast Transmitters Database Websearch, RepeaterBook, Radio Reference, and the ArtSciPub Repeater database.

General comments about these sources: much of the information is old, dated, stale, or wrong based on information I knew about repeaters in my home area and observations about the resulting data in my travels. Most make some claim to pull data from a ‘number of sources,’ which almost always means the local repeater coordinating body for that area. In Ohio, that is the Ohio Area Repeater Council. Others take a crowdsourcing approach which enlists the services of a large number of people – or at least those who do contribute. Contributors can submit add/delete requests for repeaters as necessary, update call signs, PL tones, locations, features, network affiliations, Internet links, DMR Talk Groups, and so on. It appears the Repeater Directory is used as a starting point for most databases.

ARRL Repeater Directory and the Ohio Repeater Council website (http://www.oarc.com/): The Repeater Directory and OARC Repeater search are supposed to be one-in-the-same so that’s why I grouped these two together. The OARC is the source for the printed ARRL Repeater Directory. Recent updates may appear on the website with those changes appearing in the print edition a year or more later. I did find differences between the printed edition and online version. I’m unsure why but they should be the same. In both the printed and online searches, there are a lot of, what hams refer to as, “paper repeaters.” That is someone who correctly holds a repeater frequency pair coordination but does not have a repeater in operation on that pair. Repeaters in the testing phase or down for repairs are not considered paper repeaters, unless that time reaches 6 months of inactivity. This timeframe is determined by the local repeater frequency coordinator. Something else I noticed: there are repeater pairs turned over to the OARC, nearly a decade ago, that are still listed as active or coordinated. The OARC website is free to use and results can be copied and pasted from the webpage for importing. No export of the OARC database is available.

The Repeater Directory comes in pocket sized ($10.95 – https://www.arrl.org/shop/The-ARRL-Repeater-Directory-Pocket-size) and desktop editions ($15.95 – https://www.arrl.org/shop/The-ARRL-Repeater-Directory-Desktop-Edition). An electronic version is available through RFinder (see below). Importing from the paper Repeater Directory into programming software is, well, impossible without typing it in or utilizing character recognition. 🙂

RFinder (https://www.arrl.org/shop/RFinder-The-World-Wide-Repeater-Directory/): Also known as the World Wide Repeater Directory (WWRD). It started out as a project by Bob – W2CYK as the place to find repeater data. He has partnered with the ARRL, RAC, RSGB, and many other organizations throughout the world including software companies for the ability to import directly from the RFinder database. In partnering with the ARRL, RFinder is the online version of the printed Repeater Directory. There is an iOS and Android app available. The Android app is feature-rich which includes the ability to preload a continent (if you don’t or won’t have Internet access), different sort methods (frequency, distance), display estimated coverage maps, list Internet Linked nodes (EchoLink, IRLP, and AllStar), and ability to submit updates (crowdsourcing). In addition to the mobile apps, much of the functionality is available through a web interface. My favorite feature is the map displaying my current position and tower icons indicating repeaters nearby. Though not the best implementation because a city with multiple coordinated repeaters has the icons for each stacked on top of each other. A popup balloon listing all would have been more useful. A lot of work has been put into developing features but, the interfaces could use some fine tuning as the map was one example of multiple problems I encountered. RFinder suffers from paper repeater and stale data problems due to the source of the data. An annual subscription of $9.99/year is required with multi-year and lifetime discounts available. The Android app comes with a 30-day limited trial. Purchasing the iOS version includes a 1 year subscription.

K1IW Amateur Repeater and Broadcast Transmitters Database Websearch (http://www.amateur-radio.net/rptr/): This website serves a single purpose: find repeaters and/or broadcast transmitters (FCC listed AM, FM, and TV) within an area. Enter a city, state, radius, and select at least one band and the results will be a listing of repeaters within that radius – including Canada and DC. The search aggregates various coordinating organizations along with a couple other sources. Searching Toledo, Ohio brings up both Ohio and Michigan results. Usefulness of the results are based on accuracy of the sources. There are paper repeaters and stale data here as well. Resulting lists can be copied and pasted from the webpage for importing. This service is free.

RepeaterBook (https://www.repeaterbook.com/): RepeaterBook relies on crowdsourced data and not sources like the Repeater Directory. Upon navigating to a particular state, there is an extensive list of quick search options including: band, features (Autopatch, EchoLink, IRLP, linked), emergency service (ARES, RACES, Skywarn), coverage of a route (highway, US route, state route), town, county, and ratings. Advanced search options provide radius, nationwide, travel, niche (digital modes, linking), and frequency vacancies. Results can be copied and pasted from the webpage for importing. Creating an account will enable exporting to the software applications CHIRP, G4HFQ, RT Systems, and TravelPlus. Though most are CSV files, they nicely include the correct column headers and break the data into the correct fields like 146.610- into “Receive Frequency” and “Offset Direction.” Since the data is crowdsourced, the listings are not entirely accurate. I noticed a good number of repeaters in the Repeater Directory and on-the-air but, missing from RepeaterBook. When I brought up the Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) for the jog around Pittsburgh, no repeaters were listed. The first one returned was nearly 3 hours east of the PA border. This means no repeaters in Pittsburgh have been submitted as covering I-76 which was incorrect seeing as I could hit a number of repeaters. The website can use some unification because different options are available on different screens. Mobile applications are available for iOS and Android and they support BlueCAT BlueTooth (http://www.zbm2.com/BlueCAT/) available for a limited number of radios. Clicking a repeater listing in the mobile app will tune the radio to that frequency and set correct offsets and PL tones. This service is free.

Radio Reference (http://www.radioreference.com/): Radio Reference is geared toward the scanner listener and contains mostly crowd sourced data for public service frequencies. Scanner listeners who are travelers have definitely used this site. Once you locate an area in the Frequency Database, often there will be a list of repeaters in the “Amateur Radio” tab. This list is minimal and not comprehensive but includes mostly popular, emcomm, and Skywarn repeaters. These will likely be ones of interest and will actually be on the air when you key up. Results can be copied and pasted from the webpage for importing. Downloading a CSV file requires a premium subscription of $15 for 180 days, $30 for 360, or by providing an audio scanner feed.

ArtSciPub (http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/): ArtSciPub stands for Arts & Sciences Publications. They started as a software company and now do science related publications. One of their projects is a repeater database. Start a search by selecting a state, entering a zip code, or frequency. The resulting list can be resorted by clicking any of the column headers. Repeaters can be added or modified without an account. This database is very old as changes that happened 15 years ago are still not listed. Results can be copied and pasted from the webpage for importing. A Repeater MapBook is available for purchase. A membership of $20/year will allow access to larger maps, customized content, removal of advertisements, and high-quality PDF maps.

In this realm, there are currently no great solutions with perfectly accurate data. Some repeaters never change, others are changing all the time – which is a reason why it’s hard to keep accurate records of such as large population of repeaters. I think my best option is using RepeaterBook in conjunction with the ARRL Repeater Directory or K1IW to get a good representation of the repeater landscape while traveling.

I got the chance to finish up the project of getting LEARA’s Fusion repeater on the air New Year’s Eve. I mentioned the first in a series of tips back in November. With the help of Bill – K8SGX (Technical Specialist), we punched some holes, ran some jumper cables, and finally, the machine was on the air! Other DR-1X owners who are using the repeater in Automatic Mode Select were reporting the repeater locking in transmit when a digital and analog signal were simultaneously received by the repeater. Cycling the power would be required each time the repeater locked up. Our club decided to configure the Fusion repeater in digital only mode as a result. Today, it is a stand-alone repeater but things are looking promising for an Internet link. If you’re in the Cleveland area, try out the 444.700 YSF repeater on the west side. No tone, digital squelch, or digital code options are required. Thanks again to K8SGX and my dad Tom – N8ETP for their help with this project.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – December 2016 edition

December 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/12/december-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

In October, I was invited by Medina County ARES to see a presentation about Winlink. I had heard of it as a way to send email messages over the HF bands. There were rumors around whether specialized hardware was needed and I really wanted to see what it was all about. Rick – K8CAV gave a great presentation on how it all works and some tips that really helped me get operating on Winlink.

Winlink, in short, is a way to send email via radio circuits frequently used by RV campers, boaters, and mariners where the Internet may not be available or reliable. It is a store and forward system meaning your messages will be held and delivered when you call into a gateway, much like the dial-up or BBS days. There are a number of ways the software will operate: connect to a remote gateway station over the air, operate peer-to-peer over-the-air, connect via the Internet using Telnet (yeah, yeah ‘telnet isn’t secure’ but neither is your email going out over the air), or webmail. Winlink has regional Central Messaging Servers (CMS) which connect to the Radio Messaging Servers (RMS) over the Internet. The RMS is the gateway your client connects to for sending and receiving messages over-the-air.

There is little privacy as other stations can read your messages but the intent is to have a worldwide emergency email messaging system. Messages can be exchanged with any email address (Gmail, your ISP) on the Internet using the assigned callsign@winlink.org email address. Stations conducting business will likely get blocked from the RMS gateways. Attachments can be included with messages but due to bandwidth, these should be kept to small files like CSV or TXT files – no multi-megapixel images or videos.

There are three pieces to the Winlink client software: RMS Express is the ’90’s looking email client, Winmor – the modem, and ITS HF Propagation is a third party software program that works with Winmor to determine propagation for connection reliability. I got Winlink setup and working with my radio and SignaLink so no specialized hardware is required. A lot of back-and-forth transmit and receiving happens between the client and gateway. The TX/RX turn-around time needs to happen quickly (under 200ms), longer will require a high number of retransmissions. One tip to help minimize the delay: set the SignaLink delay control no further than the second hash mark (8 o’clock position). To get started, go to ftp://autoupdate.winlink.org. Click “User Programs.” Download and install “Winlink Express Install,” and “itshfbc” to their default locations. To get an account created on the system, you need to send one email to an Internet address such as your personal email. In addition, Winlink has an “APRSLink” where you can check for messages, read, compose, forward, and delete all by sending APRS messages. Feel free to send me a message to “my call” at winlink.org. More: http://www.winlink.org/

I’ve also been playing around with a new device from Shark RF called the OpenSpot. It’s a small company with two guys in Estonia (South of Finland). Production is done on a batching basis so there is a waiting list. It seems like they’re shipping units close to once per month. Once I got the shipping notice, I had the device within a week. They say 3-6 business days shipping time and it arrived certainly within that range. The OpenSpot is a standalone digital radio gateway otherwise known as a hotspot. It currently supports DMR (Brandmeister, DMR+), D-STAR (DPlus/REF, DCS, XRF/DExtra, XLX), and System Fusion (FCS, YSFReflector). If the mode or network isn’t supported, they do take requests and will make additions available via firmware upgrades. Since it is a hotspot device a transceiver capable of operating that mode is required. They are doing something cool since DMR and Fusion use the AMBE2 codec. A DMR radio can be used to access the Fusion network and vice-versa (DMR Talk Groups with a Fusion radio).

The OpenSpot has a lot of flexibility, very well designed, and is superior to the DV4Mini. It doesn’t need different Raspberry Pi images for different modes like the DVMega. The device comes with everything: the OpenSpot hotspot, Ethernet cable, USB cable, USB power adapter, and antenna. It runs an internal webserver for device configuration. I even like how they do the firmware update process. The OpenSpot shows up as a drive to the computer and using the copy command – copy the firmware to it and voilà – done. For DMR, it will operate like a DV4Mini with the radio configured in TG 9 (talk-group) or it will operate like a repeater (my preference) where the Talk Groups are push-to-talk. All the TAC groups are available (310, 311, 312, etc) and call routing works. I could not get these to go on the DV4Mini. D-STAR works great too. You can link and unlink to reflectors using radio commands. It does not have a drop down for linking directly to a D-STAR repeater on the network. The only systems listed are reflectors. Forum posts describe how to link to a D-STAR repeater (like a DVAP or DNGL would do) using the “Advanced Mode” screens.

It’s not great for portability as it comes (in a car, for example). I have not tried any of the USB to Ethernet adapters with my smartphone or tried a Raspberry Pi as a WiFi to Ethernet bridge. OpenSpot requires an Ethernet cable connection meaning no WiFi though there are plans to add this and uses USB for power and firmware upgrades. As with these devices in DMR mode, they do not transmit a valid call sign. The radio ID is not valid identification. If you listen to a repeater in FM it will ID in CW. Unfortunately, the cost is about twice that of the DV4Mini 182.50 € which, when I ordered, was about $235 including shipping. More: https://www.sharkrf.com/

Other new tech (Christmas gifts?). With advancements in Software-Defined Radios (SDR) I’m seeing a new breed of devices hams can use as radios: your smartphone. Well, at least something that resembles a smartphone or tablet – still need the additional hardware. A device out of the UK called “MyDel Hamfone Smartphone Transceiver” is available. It offers a 3G cellphone, 70cm transceiver (500mw/1W) with camera, expandable SD card, and GPS. The few reviews are positive but there is some question if its FCC certified in the US. More: http://www.hamradio.co.uk/amateur-radio-handheld-radio-mydel-handhelds/mydel/mydel-hamfone-smartphone-transceiver-pd-6093.php

Bob – W2CYK and the guys over at RFinder (the online repeater directory of the ARRL) have released the “RFinder Android Radio.” Their device integrates 4G LTE & GSM cell technologies alongside FM (DMR is also available) radios into a device with the RFinder repeater directory database. The directory offers coverage maps and switching repeaters is a point-and-click away. They also boast the elimination of codeplugs for DMR. This is great as finding codeplugs, or the information for one, is not always readily available. More: http://androiddmr.com

This past month, the Parma Radio Club invited me to their meeting to give the Raspberry Pi presentation. There was a lot of good discussion and questions. This is always good to hear because you know the audience is engaged, thinking, and ultimately providing real-time feedback on the presentation. Thanks for having me at your meeting. More: http://www.parmaradioclub.com/

Don’t forget, National Parks on the Air will be wrapping up at the end of the year. According to Tom Gallagher – NY2RF, NPOTA is getting closer to #1MillionQSOs: https://twitter.com/hashtag/1millionqsos. Look out for those NPOTA stations to get your score up for your wallpaper (that is certificate if you don’t operate special events and contests).

Starting this past fall with the kickoff of new TV seasons, the CW is airing a show called “Frequency” loosely based off the 2000 Sci-Fi thriller of the same name. It starred Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel as father and son, Frank and John Sullivan. This was big with hams because the movie incorporated something that resembled ham-radio which allowed the father and son to talk 30 years into the past and future. The TV show has gotten positive reviews with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 74% with the biggest criticism being the back-and-forth between now and 20 years in the past. It airs Wednesday nights at 9pm (Ham Nation time so it gets the DVR treatment here) with the last couple episodes available on the CW website and on Netflix streaming. More: http://www.cwtv.com/shows/frequency/

Finally, don’t forget the HF Santa Net through Christmas Eve. Starts at 8:30 pm Eastern and can be found on 3916 kHz for the little ones to have a chance to talk with Santa! More: http://www.3916nets.com/santa-net.html

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – November 2016 edition

November 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/11/november-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

It’s been a rater busy month. End of the year projects and planning are in full swing. I ran the electronic voting for the LEARA Trustee elections. Voting ended in a never-before-seen tie between two candidates. It was a great slate of candidates and noted in the results because the race was close. There was a clear #1 and #2 winner. The #3 spot was a tie. All three candidates received more than 50% of the total vote. At the Trustees meeting, we sat the two winners then had a run-off vote among the Trustees. Since there were 10 Trustees, the run-off vote could end in a tie so a coin flip may have been the deciding factor. However, the run-off vote did not end in a tie and the 3rd person was seated.

Been planning and getting the end-of-year door prize ready for our Holiday Dinner meeting. Traditionally our club has given away a radio as a door prize at this meeting. For the past two years we’ve given away Baofeng radios. With the findings in the November 2015 issue of QST and similar tests run by other individuals (Dave KD8TWG being one) I encouraged the group to consider better alternatives. We settled on a Yaesu FT-60 HT holiday door prize.

Just this past weekend (10/12), Bill K8SGX with help from KD8TWG (both Technical Specialists) and myself made significant forward progress on installing LEARA’s Fusion Repeater. That project has taken a lot longer than I would like but hit significant road blocks in the original plan. Even installing the repeater at the site caused problems because the handles on the DR1X wouldn’t allow the cabinet to close. *Sigh.* Had to take out the unit, the 16 some screws for the top cover, remove the screws for the handles, and put it all back together. I think one more trip is required to drill some holes and install some jumper cables. Then, finally, it will be on the air *knock on wood.*

If that wasn’t enough, I participated in a DXpedition the weekend of October 22nd. Bob K8MD, Technical Specialist, wrote up an article.

—

K8JTK, WA8LIV, and myself: K8MD completed a “DXpedition” to South Bass Island to activate Perry’s International Victory and Peace Memorial (NM20) for National Parks on the Air. After an arduous boat ride (wind and waves were high!) we landed on the island around 1045. We started setting up the HF station on Saturday at approximately 1130. We operated for approximately 2 hours on 40m. Operating was great! Once we got spotted, we were frequently piled up. We were averaging over 100 contacts per hour. While the day was relatively sunny, cooler temps and a brisk wind coming off the lake kept us bundled up. The National Park Service was extremely welcoming and hospitable. They offered us tables and chairs, which we declined due to bringing our own. They permitted us to operate on the “back porch” of the museum. So the wind was mostly broke by the building, which was definitely appreciated by us! As long as we kept in the sun, we were comfortable.

The contacts rates never really slowed down much, but it was getting near the time they close the observation deck for the day. So we left the HF setup to head up to the observation deck at 317′ to try a few VHF/UHF contacts on 146.52 (didn’t have SSB capability). We made 7 contacts on FM and zero contacts on DMR. Zero contacts on DMR surprised us, as we had advertised the activation on social media and received responses that people would be out looking for us. We got on the DMR repeaters on the Ohio Talkgroup to try and set up simplex skeds. Even the repeaters were quiet. After coming back down from the observation deck, we operated HF for another 40 minutes until the park closed. At which point we packed up and got dinner. When the day was over, we made approximately 240 contacts on HF and 7 contacts on 146.52.

We returned to the park on Sunday and operated for an additional 3 hours. From approximately 1200 to 1500. The weather on Sunday was a significant improvement to Saturday afternoon. Sunny skies, calm winds, and temperature around 65. Operating during these three hours however, proved to be more of a duress then the previous day. Both operating and logging proved more difficult due to the lingering effects of the festive activities from the previous evening. When visiting foreign lands, I think it’s important to assimilate into the local culture. We found ourselves in a bar that was both red and round, consuming a strange carbonated gold colored drink, that was dispensed from a tap. Thinking this was just an unusual tasting local water, we consumed a great deal. We wanted to make sure we were properly hydrated and also remain assimilated with the natives. This was Halloween weekend on Put-In-Bay, and everyone was dressed up in costumes. The costumes were quite amazing! Despite the self imposed adverse conditions from our Saturday night activities, we were able to log an additional 100 contacts on Sunday, including DX: Croatia, France, Belgium, Mexico, and Canada. Again the National Park Staff was very warm and welcoming to us. This was the last day the monument and museum would be open this year. The park staff gave us free candy and free popcorn balls at no charge due to the expiration date happening before they reopen in Spring.

A few different antennas were utilized, as well as a few different methods to get the antennas off the ground. I learned that 40m and 80m dipoles fed with LMR-400 is a lot of weight for my Jackite pole. I need to cut a piece of RG-8X that’s the exact length to get to the base. Then use a connector to connect feed line to get back to the operating position. That should lighten the load on the mast. Despite being stressed, the Jackite pole performed excellent. So much easier to cart around then the military masts I had been using previously!

I fabricated an aluminum ground spike for the Jackite pole. Not a good idea: the aluminum ground spike bent under the weight. I guess aluminum was too soft. The point of the ground spike was to hold up the mast while I set the guy wires when operating by myself. We had three people, so it was easy enough for one person to hold up the mast, while the other two set up guy wires. I’m glad I tried the spike for the first time when I had other people around to help me, rather than trying the spike when I was by myself! My portable dipole is a 40m / 80m crossed dipole. The dipole legs are resonant 1/4 wavelength and also act as the guys for the mast. Perhaps I need to try a 40m vertical on the Jackite pole next? A single antenna wire might be more suited to the light weight jackite pole. We used the mast and dipoles on Saturday. Then we used LNR end fedz on Sunday. We used a slingshot / fishing reel to put the end fed into trees. The 40m end fed was up an impressive height. The single band end feds into trees was definitely more simple to set up then setting up the mast and dipoles, and I believe the end fed was just as effective. Both Saturday and Sunday a 20m LNR End Fed was set up vertically in one tree. Since it’s a half wave with match box, it does not require any ground radials. It performed very well with 59 reports into California and Oregon. It’s this antenna where we worked DX stations in Belgium, France, and Croatia.

A fun time was had by all, and we all look forward to similar opportunities in the future.

Bob Mueller, K8MD

—

This was a phenomenal experience for me as I’ve never done anything close to a DXpedition. Huge thanks to Bob – K8MD as he did much of the planning and most of the equipment used was his. Andrew brought his go box setup for the contacts on Perry’s Monument. We made a total of 350 contacts. Bob worked out the numbers for NM20. We made 3x the average number of contacts for all previous activations. Our contacts accounted for about ¼ of the total number of Q’s through our activation. Thanks to the National Parks Service for their gracious hospitality and putting up with us slinging wires and running coax around the park.

“All your lightbulbs are belong to us”

A pun on the ’90s meme “All your base are belong to us” has been used to describe what happened to the Internet on October 21. There as a massive DDoS attack on one of the companies that provides core services to the Internet. Dyn, formally DynDNS, was the target of this attack. They were known for providing the previously free, now paid, service of allowing automatic updating of DNS records without manual intervention. It was used by tech savvy people to access devices on their home network. I used this service when I ran my website on a server in my house. The Dynamic DNS service would update my URL when the IP address of the DSL modem changed. The company has rebranded to “Dyn” and shifted their focus to more commercial infrastructure products such as domain registration and email services.

Dyn provides DNS services to some of the largest companies on the internet: Twitter (social media), Reddit (social news aggregation), GitHub (code repository), Amazon (shopping), Netflix (movies), Spotify (music), Runescape (game), and its own website.

DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) happens when criminals use a large number of hacked, ill-configured, or poorly secured systems to flood a target site with so much junk traffic that it can no longer serve legitimate visitors.

DNS refers to Domain Name System services. DNS is an essential component of the Internet. It’s responsible for translating human-friendly website names like http://arrl-ohio.org/ into numeric, machine-readable Internet addresses (74.220.207.99). Anytime you send an e-mail or browse the web, your machine is sending a DNS look-up request to your Internet service provider (ISP) to help route the traffic.

A DDoS attack effectively makes a site or service disappear from the Internet. Users cannot access the site because it is busy handling (what it believes to be) legitimate traffic but in reality, is junk.

With more and more multi-megabit connections into our homes and more consumer devices on the Internet, the amount of junk traffic generated in recent attacks has been some of the largest seen on the Internet. The availability of tools for compromising and leveraging the collective firepower of Internet of Things devices (IoT) has made these large-scale types of attacks possible. IoT being Internet-based security cameras, digital video recorders, baby monitors, lightbulbs, refrigerators, toasters, and Internet routers – to name a very few. Many of these devices are unpatched, not updated, poorly secured, and essentially unfixable. They’re rushed to market, made as cheaply as possible (which lends little credence to security), and not supported due to lack of resources or the company went out of business. On the flipside, it’s also applicable that users don’t know they need to secure their devices.

Criminals need to build and maintain a large robot network of these devices (known as a ‘botnet’) which is time intensive, risky, and a very technical endeavor. Botnet owners make their services available to anyone willing to pay a couple bucks for a subscription. With a few commands, they can leverage all devices under their control to attack a target. In general, with very few exceptions, owners of compromised devices have no idea their device is part of a botnet.

DDoS attacks are typically: retaliatory in nature – criminals get offended or upset at some comment, story, or statement and, in response, knock their service offline. Attempts at extortion – flood a service with so much traffic it’s unavailable to legitimate users and demand a ransom to stop the attack. Diversion – ‘hey look at this massive attack while we secretly do something else over here.’

It is believed the attack on Dyn was retaliatory in nature using compromised digital video recorders (DVRs) by XiongMai Technologies. The components that XiongMai makes are sold downstream to vendors who then use it in their own products.

A DDoS can happen to anyone or anything connected to the Internet.

I bring up this attack because our Section Manager Scott mentioned it in one of his mailings and I was discussing it with Bob – K8MD on our DXpedition. Bob indicated he was seeing a lot of posts online how something similar could disrupt ham radio digital modes and hams must stick to analog only modes. His response was: a digital repeater will still function without the Internet, which is true. D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, and probably any other up-and-coming mode repeaters will still continue to operate without an Internet link. Additionally, all of these modes will operate simplex without a repeater and without infrastructure. The Internet is for linking or sending your message to another endpoint. Then you have resources like PSK31 or Olivia that do not have any Internet infrastructure component. Digital modes, in particular on the HF bands, can reach out further than analog modes.

I think it would be possible to make a backup IP link over another transport (like Mesh) for those modes or use AllStar – which is great for linking over non-Internet based networks. To go even further with the dooms-day scenario: if anyone else can get access to your resources, they have the potential to disturb them. Analog repeaters too can be jammed, brought offline with a power outage, or sabotaged by a determined actor.

How can we fix DDoS attacks? We can’t. The Internet and the protocols in use today are not much different than originally designed. The protocols were not designed to handle this type of abuse. Strides are being made by ISPs so secure their networks as best they can. There is even dissent between providers as to what steps should be taken. Another suggestion is to create some kind of IP security association with published standards, auditing, and a certification process similar to an Underwriters Labatory “UL” sticker on a product. Another (less likely) is to hold companies financially responsible for attacks using their devices. Less likely to happen because it could put legitimate companies out of business quickly and would not hold fly-by-night companies responsible. Until then, these devices will remain a danger to others until they are completely unplugged from the Internet. That’s not going to happen. We like our stuff.

Coverage of the DDoS and resources used for my write-up:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/10/ddos-on-dyn-impacts-twitter-spotify-reddit/
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/10/hacked-cameras-dvrs-powered-todays-massive-internet-outage/
https://twit.tv/shows/security-now/episodes/583
img: http://www.joyoftech.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/2340.html

Map is of the outages caused by the attack.

That’s about it for this month. Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – October 2016 edition

October 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

Great to see everyone at the Cleveland Hamfest on September 25th. There was not a cloud in the sky. As a result, I think more people were out in the flea market selling their wares, which is good. The inside vendors just weren’t there as in the past. Last couple years they had a large vendor selling Raspberry Pi computers and accessories. They were absent this year. Many clubs and organizations came out and showed their support by setting up tables and selling various junk which others purchased as treasures.

In an effort to promote Slow-Scan TV, digital modes, and the LEARA digital net, I put together a presentation for The Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association on the topic. In researching the history, I found and interesting connection to Ohio. The developer of SSTV, Copthorne Macdonald, specifically mentioned Fair Radio Sales in Lima, Ohio as a place he purchased surplus CRTs and components. That was a nice surprise! Slow-Scan was used a lot in early space exploration as there was no effective way to transmit images back to ground stations in the late 1950s early 1960s. The concept of satellites in space as we know them today was just starting to come around about the same time.

In talking about SSTV modes and properties, it’s great to have some technicals but it doesn’t mean much if the audience can’t relate – especially if they have not operated that mode. This applies to any topic. One idea I included in the presentation was image comparisons. I took a test pattern type source image and ran it through the loopback feature in MMSSTV. This eliminated any RF variability. The source image was compared to the received image in terms of quality and clarity of the mode only. For one comparison I did use RF. This was to demonstrate the acoustic interface (where you hold the radio to your computer). Point being that it is possible to operate digital modes using an acoustic interface but it’s clearly not the best option. Having an interface between the PC and radio is the best option for digital operations.

The presentation was geared more toward operating SSTV in an informal environment. I did include a typical exchange and places to look for SSTV activity on the HF bands. Lastly as part of the meeting, we did Slow Scan TV live – a live demonstration at the meeting! Well known Ham Radio educator Gordon West – WB6NOA promotes the idea of doing things live and hands on. I encouraged those who wanted to play along to bring their laptops and radios. How-to configure and use MMSSTV was shown. Then pictures were exchanged. This showed the audience what the application looks like while sending and receiving pictures. Also the Android SSTV application was available and demoed. Thanks to Joel K8SHB and Carl KB8VXE for helping out. The presentation is available on my site: http://www.k8jtk.org/2016/09/27/sstv-images-via-radio-presentations/

The following weekend on October 1st was the State Emergency Test (SET). I had been asked to participate as an HF digital station by Cuyahoga County Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC) and Technical Specialist Bob K8MD. I had checked into the Ohio Digital Emergency Net (OHDEN) over the summer. Watching and learning their procedures during the practice nets, I had knowledge of how to check in and pass traffic. This goes back to something I mentioned last month: regularly participating in nets and public service events not only shows you’re active but you’ll be familiar with the responsibilities you’ll be assigned.

That’s about it for this month. I’ll be working to get projects wrapped up and take care of end of the year requirements for clubs in the area.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – September 2016 edition

September 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/09/september-edition-of-ohio-section.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,
I don’t have to complain to you about the hot and extremely humid weather we’ve had because all of you are living it too. Storm season arrived later in Northern Ohio. I wrote last month how my city got hammered by some storms. It continued with a tornado outbreak in Indiana on August 24th. Friend and regular checkin to the Ham Nation D-STAR net luckily sustained no damage. However, his neighbors a quarter-mile to the north and south had their homes destroyed. The line of storms that moved through Indiana spawning many tornados prompted the National Weather Service in Cleveland to staff the Skywarn desk. I was one of the operators at NWS that night. Though the storms significantly weakened by the time they reached the Toledo area, there was one confirmed EF0 tornado in Pemberville (Wood County – my old stomping grounds). It touched down along route 6 and dissipated quickly but not before removing sheet metal roofing from nearby buildings. No injuries or fatalities.

Public service season is quickly wrapping up for most of the section. Technical Specialist David KD8TWG ran much of the five-day public service event at the Great Geauga County Fair. Being from Cuyahoga county (and the far west end at that), I was a little skeptical. ‘OK the GREAT Geauga Fair.’ But it really was a great fair. It’s the biggest one I’ve attended. There’s a ton of people, displays, awards, animals, events and acts, and yes people really do stand in line 45 minutes for a milkshake. This was confirmed in a casual conversation between fair-goers. As far as ham radio there is a great mixture of technologies including Ohio MARCS, 800 MHz, APRS, Mesh, VOIP, and a portable repeater for their communication needs. It was quite the elaborate setup and really is a great example of utilizing technology to suit communication needs.

The public service season concluded in Cleveland on the 11th with a half-marathon called “River Run.” It was great weather and there wasn’t a single ambulance call. A lot of the ham radio event coordinators have to beg, twist arms, and make many phone calls to get people to come out and help. Please volunteer and help out with these events. You’re there to make sure everyone has a good, safe time during the event. Your presence also gets ham radio out in front of the public and builds relationships with event organizers and county officials. If you’re active in helping out with public service events, you’re more likely to be called in the case of an actual situation.

Ham Nation episode 264 (https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation/episodes/264) was an episode that featured an all YL cast. Everyone on the show that night was a young lady. The episode highlighted female participation in the hobby and pointed out that ham radio is not made up entirely of OMs. Additionally, Dr. Skov (who is not licensed … yet) gave a detailed tutorial on ionospheric conditions and how space weather effects propagation on the HF bands. She talks about the atmospheric layers, electron density, how those layers change during the day vs night vs gray line, the layers which reflect signals, Kp and X-Ray Flux indices. Her tutorial would have really helped me on those licensing test questions! It starts about 44 minutes into the episode – with some interesting analogies. I will leave it at that!

I’ve been spending a ton of time learning more about the DV4Mini and DMR in particular. The DV4Mini is a USB hotspot device about the size of a large USB memory stick. It has the ability to “speak” several different digital modes: D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, P25, and dPMR/NXDN/IDAS. A hotspot is a device that provides connectivity. In this case, to different digital networks from your home PC or Raspberry Pi with a low powered transmitter (usually under 10mW). A misconception I hear a lot and have been asked about: yes you do need a radio for each digital mode you want to operate. To connect to D-STAR reflectors you’ll need the hotspot device and a D-STAR capable radio. Similarly, for DMR talk groups, you’ll need the hotspot and a DMR capable radio. I’ve been hanging out a lot on the Ohio Statewide talk group (3139) and USA Nationwide (3100), I even ran into our own Section Manager on the network!

The more time I spend with the DV4Mini the more issues I find with it. It’s a great concept to have one device to work 5 different modes. The DV4M has a lot of issues that I hope the developers correct related to its performance. I actually bricked mine updating it to the latest firmware. Had to crack the case and put into bootloader mode to re-flash the firmware. The update took the second time. This happened to another user too. Comparing audio quality to repeaters on the network and listening to BrandMeister Hoseline, the audio from the device sounds bad most times and terrible the rest. The direct calling feature doesn’t seem to work. A buddy of mine found the developer for the BrandMeister extended routing feature (DV4MF2) completely ceased development as of September 9th. It will be interesting to see why that happened and if that means anything for the future of the device. There are other hotspot devices out there and I hope to find out more about them soon.

David KD8TWG and his presentation on APRS at the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association (LEARA) meeting was fantastic. We had a lot of fun with APRS on our smartphones and radios sending messages back and forth.

Thanks to the Cuyahoga Amateur Radio Society (CARS) for having me at their meeting on September 13th. I presented my introduction to the Raspberry Pi computer. Good discussion ensued in both cases on new technology hams can utilize.

Coming up, I will be at the Cleveland Hamfest on the 25th. Two days later I’m giving a presentation at the LEARA meeting on Slow Scan TV. If you’re in the Cleveland area and want to see SSTV in action, stop by the meeting on the 27th. More details will be available at leara.org as the meeting date approaches.

Congratulations to Scott N8SY on being reelected as Section Manager for the Ohio Section. Give him a pat on the back or buy him a beer when you see him for all his hard work!

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – August 2016 edition

August 15, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/08/august-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

As I’m beginning this month’s article some nasty storms just ripped through Cleveland on the 11th. There were branches, trees, wires, power lines down, and road closures on the west side due to those hazards, including my QTH of Westlake. Luckily I’ve heard of no injuries. If you’re not part of the NWS Skywarn program, please consider joining as a spotter. Skywarn is a volunteer program that helps the local National Weather Service office know what’s happening on the ground and assists in warning people about dangerous weather conditions. Training typically happens in the early spring for spotters. Check with your local club or Skywarn organization.

The Republican Nation Convention went off without major incident in Cleveland. I was working from home and had the scanner on most of that week. Three major trunked radio systems were utilized: MARCS, the new MARCS-IP (Multi-Agency Radio Communications System), and GCRCN (Greater Cleveland Radio Communications Network). If you didn’t set a wildcard or use UniTrunker to watch those systems, you probably missed a lot of the event communications. There were about 12 primary talk groups on GCRCN where most of the action took place. These were previously unidentified so they were not in any lists or databases that use Radio Reference. A wildcard stops on any talk group whereas programming specific talk groups into the scanner will only stop on transmissions for those talk groups. The “old” MARCS system was shut down immediately following the convention as it was kept online largely for backup. It has been replaced by the MARCS-IP system.

This month we learned the sad news of Hara Arena’s closing. No more Hamvention at Hara Arena after 52 years. The Dayton Amateur Radio Association put into action their contingency plans. It was announced that Hamvention will still be in the Dayton area. The new location is The Greene County Fair and Expo Center located in Xenia, Ohio. Michael Kalter and Ron Cramer talked about the new location on Ham Nation for about 30 minutes in episode 259. Couple of links worth visiting:

-Why we are saddened by the loss of the Hara Arena: http://ad8bc.com/bc/?p=601
-Hamvention Announces Venue for 2017: http://hamvention.org/hamvention-announces-venue-for-2017/
-Ham Nation episode 259: https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation/episodes/259, or YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_OaKmllEDY

One of our Technical Specialists, David KD8TWG, has been involved with setting up a DMR repeater in Cleveland. The frequency is 442.0875 (+5 MHz standard offset) using Color Code 1. The repeater is connected to the K4USD cBridge (http://www.k4usd.org/). On that website is a listing of the “standard configuration” for repeaters connected to the bridge. Right now, your code plug should follow the layout listed on the site. A cBridge is a feature that allows interconnecting of repeaters over the Internet and a Color Code is equivalent to a PL tone or DCS on analog repeaters.

When I picked up my DMR radio at Dayton, I found a code plug that had repeaters in Dayton and Columbus for the drive home. It was a nice opportunity to quickly get on the air with DMR but I kept threating myself to write my own. With the installation of the repeater in Cleveland, I took the opportunity to do just that. What is a “code plug?” Some history I found online notes the origins came from wire plugs, later jumpers, which were plugged into the radio to enable certain options or features. Since everything is now processor based, the term continues to stick with the radio world and is a fancy word for ‘radio configuration.’ It contains transmit/receive frequencies, tone selections, timeout values, IDs, configuration settings, etc. I used the one I found in Dayton as a reference. There is also a sample one on K4USD’s site for my radio. I compared the two and designed mine the way I thought worked best. Just because someone designed a code plug one way doesn’t mean you can’t modify or do it differently. It’s analogous to one ham’s memory channels are not the same as another. In the end, it took about 3 hours to make mine! Keep in mind that was a lot of learning and comparing, in addition I programmed all 65 possible talk groups so I don’t have to add them in later. From discussions on the air indications are it took others a few hours as well. But my code plug works! I couldn’t be happier. Well OK I could, apparently I’m just far enough away that my 5 watts doesn’t quite make the trip. I took the radio to work and tested it from there.

I am writing an introductory series for the Wood County Amateur Radio Club on getting started in digital modes. The first few articles were for those who have never worked digital and want to upgrade their station. Remaining articles will focus on a specific mode. I’ve completed 3 so far (starting in February): an introduction, station setup, and working JT65/9. Published versions can be found at the club’s website in the CQ Chatter newsletter: http://wcarc.bgsu.edu/. As I point out in the second article, Technician class licensees can still participate. All of these sound card digital modes can be operated over FM simplex or even a net on a repeater using an HT! There are clear downsides like not being able to transmit as far as an HF station and occupying the full 10 to 15 kHz FM, even though the bandwidth of the audio generated by the computer is less. Yes, this defeats the purpose of narrow bandwidth modes. Someone wanting to learn and experiment with these modes may get bitten by the bug and lead to a license upgrade. That’s how I did it. I plan to write an article every 2-3 months.

My dad and I had the opportunity to join the Toledo Mobile Radio Association (TMRA) on August 10. They had Chris Wilson N0CSW, National Sales Manager for Yaesu talk about their System Fusion. Chris did make it clear that the company was paying for travel so there would be some ‘sales pitches.’ The presentation was short but the program ended up being driven by the audience with a lengthy question and answer session. Some things I learned: the DR-2X repeater announced at Dayton is not going to be a replacement for the DR-1X, though they may have improved on some shortcomings. The 2X is more of a full featured repeater. It will have the ability to operate dual receive and dual transmit (but not at the same time) creating two repeaters from one unit. They are including voice messaging (like club meeting announcements). Mailboxes were users can record messages for others. This reminds me of the mailboxes repeaters used to have when autopatches were more prevalent. The 2X can monitor a separate control channel for commands. This repeater will not support WiresX but will have “MSRL” (Multi-Site Repeater Linking) via an add-on Ethernet port. Their linking technology will allow the repeater to be linked over any IP based network, including mesh. This brought to mind an interesting use-case where multiple low profile/portable repeaters could be linked at sites with mesh such as air ports, hospitals, and Red Cross shelters. This would create a linked repeater system where not as many users would have to setup cross-banding or run to the other end of a hospital to reach a radio. In contrast, something similar can be done using the AllStar Linking system. At the meeting there was alot of: “I would like this feature/I don’t like this feature in the radio,” “we’re having this problem setting up the repeater to do X” kind of Q&A. My take away from that, their plan is to add features to radios by firmware update and not always release new radios.

In addition to all the work David KD8TWG has been doing to get DMR up and running in Cleveland, he’s been helping repair and upgrade analog repeaters, and setting up APRS IGates around town. He will be giving a presentation on APRS at the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association’s club meeting on August 30th. Dinner starts at 6:30pm with the meeting at 7:30, don’t need to have dinner to attend the presentation. Haven’t seen an official announcement on location yet but it’s expected to be at the Play Arcade in Mayfield Hts (5900 Mayfield Rd, Mayfield Heights, OH). Check the LEARA website for updates and for dinner reservations: http://www.leara.org/.

I will be giving my introductory Raspberry Pi presentation at the Cuyahoga Amateur Radio Society meeting, September 13 at 7:30pm. It will be updated as there is new hardware and innovations available. Their meeting location is the Busch Funeral Home, 7501 Ridge Rd, Parma, Ohio. More: http://www.2cars.org/.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – July 2016 edition

July 14, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/07/july-issue-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,
It’s been a busy month with ham radio holidays and national holidays. June was a great operating month for me as I had taken some time off work after Dayton. Since I really hadn’t been on the air the first half of the year, I spent a lot of time catching up. Heck April I made a total of three contacts. Bleh. I racked up 130 contacts including Field Day and 17 National Park activations. As usual I’m coming to the party late on NPOTA so I’m getting there. Our own Affiliated Clubs Coordinator John KD8MQ has given many updates in past editions of the Journal; check them out. More: https://npota.arrl.org/

I will tell you no matter what you do for Field Day, you’re always going to have a good time. If you get together with a club or some buddies, there are going to be good stories too. This year I took a different approach and decided to operate as a 1D station. Still had a good time. It gave me a chance to refresh my memory and practice using the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) and filtering features of my radio. As one would expect, there were stations all over the place. The bands weren’t that great either. I would hear a station but not clearly. I used different Automatic Gain Control (AGC) settings, Noise Reduction, filters, Passband Tuning (PBT), the whole nine yards. If I wasn’t hearing much scanning around, I would go work on something else and come back later to work more stations. In total made 30 contacts mostly on 40m from the home QTH.

The following weekend was Canada Day and the Independence Day holiday weekend. First up was the Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) Canada Day contest on July 1st. Since I’m a station outside Canada, the exchange was RST and serial number. The serial number was the number of Canadian stations worked during the contest. I worked 14 stations total over the 24 hour contest.

Then (of course) starting Friday morning was the 13 Colonies Special Event. There is one station in each of the 13 original colonies and two bonus stations. Bonus stations are Philadelphia where independence was declared and England for the “British Standard” contact. Things were going well for me. I started out working 9 stations on Friday night and 5 on Saturday morning. Then nothing. The British bonus station was eluding me. I kept trying when they were calling on sideband but they never came back to me or by the time they went through the numbers and got to 8 – they were down in the noise. It wasn’t looking good. In literally the 11th hour, I finally made contact with England on PSK for my clean sweep! I’ll be sending away for my certificate and sending out QSL cards soon. If you worked any of the 13 colony stations, please support them by making a donation or sending in for a certificate. Many stations took time out of their holiday weekend to put on another successful event. More: http://www.13colonies.info/

Last month I mentioned the Portage County Amateur Radio Service was going to have an Earth-moon-earth presentation for their July meeting. I’ve never experienced or knew anyone that worked EME so this was a presentation I did not want to miss. It was a bit of a drive in rush-hour traffic from downtown Cleveland. Nonetheless, food was great and it was an excellent presentation. Tony WA8RJF talked about the properties and theories involved making EME contacts, early days of EME needing monster arrays with gain antennas and rotor controls the size of two truck-beds –in one case. Then he talked about JT65 being the game changer to make EME communication more accessible to regular hams. The majority of my HF contacts are JT65 so a lot of it hit home for me. JT65 was originally created for EME but later adapted to HF and has become the second most popular digital mode. Thanks to Tony and PCARS for allowing me to be a guest at their meeting.

Speaking of modes I haven’t yet operated, the QSO Today podcast interviewed Art Towslee WA8RMC of Westerville who is heavily involved with ATV (Amateur Television, sometimes called Fast Scan TV). ATV uses video and audio much like a commercial broadcast station. In many ways you are operating from your own studio with a video camera, microphone, lights, or other video sources. In the podcast they about Art’s history, knowledge, and involvement in projects to move ATV forward using Digital TV standards. With the introduction of Digital TV, quadcopters and 4K resolution, ATV is becoming popular once again. Slow Scan TV in contrast is sending a single still image over the air. More: http://www.qsotoday.com/podcasts/wa8rmc and https://atco.tv/

The TAPR Digital Communications Conference is coming up September 16-18 in St. Petersburg, FL. The list of speakers and forums haven’t yet been released but topics will likely include Software Defined Radios, digital voice modes (D-STAR, Fusion, DMR, P25, Codec2, FreeDV), digital satellite communications, APRS, and the like. More: https://www.tapr.org/dcc.html

In a great article from ARS Technica, they talk about the Linksys WRT54GL router that is 11 years old and still making millions for Linksys. This router came out in 2005 but really had an ecosystem built around it. The router was Open Sourced making it easily modifiable and turning it into a much more powerful router. We hams have seen this first hand as these are one of the more popular models used in Mesh Networking. Linksys said they’ll continue to make the router while suppliers keep selling the parts; great news for Mesh users. More: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/07/the-wrt54gl-a-54mbps-router-from-2005-still-makes-millions-for-linksys/

On a sad note that hits close home, especially those in Cleveland. At the end of July, Amateur Radio equipment retailer Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) will be closing for good. We all have stories about the long time retailer. I liked browsing the show room and playing with the radios on display. They were always helpful to their customers. It’s sad to see a retailer leave and friends lose their job. 73’s to the AES crew. You will be missed. More: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-electronic-supply-closing-after-59-years-in-business

That’s about it for this month. With the conventions going on in the state, everyone please stay safe. As I’m writing this a few days before the RNC, there are plenty of changes happening in Downtown Cleveland: unmarked SUVs, helicopters flying around, “Cell on Wheels” (COW, portable cell sites) popping up, temporary stages going up, and TV equipment trucks. My company has made previsions for us to work remotely. Those with a P25 digital trunked capable scanner in the Cleveland area will probably find most activity on the Ohio MARCS-IP (Multi-Agency Radio Communications) and GCRCN (Greater Cleveland Radio Communications Network) systems. The old MARCS 3.5 legacy system is going to be kept on-line as a backup to the MARCS-IP system. After the convention that system is expected to be fully shutdown. No definitive word on talk-groups to listen to but keep an eye to the Radio Reference Ohio forum and frequency database pages as things gear up.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – June 2016 edition

June 16, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/06/june-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,
You’re reading this so you survived another Dayton. My dad N8ETP and I went down on Thursday. We stopped at MCM Electronics. It was actually on the way because we stayed south of Dayton this year. My dad was looking for some parts. I ended up buying another Raspberry Pi 3 on a Dayton weekend special and an Arduino Uno board. The Arduino was cheap and a lot smaller than I expected. Don’t have much lined up for it but I did want to try a project I saw on AmateurLogic.TV some time ago.

The difference between the Raspberry Pi and Arduino Uno boards is the Pi can run a full operating system (usually Linux) while the Arduino Uno runs instruction sets uploaded to memory. Variants of the Arduino can run entire operating systems. Both have General Purpose Input/Output (GPIO) pins for interfacing. I haven’t mentioned it in this space – Raspberry Pi 3 is the latest addition to the line of cheap micro-computer devices. The Pi 3 has all the features of the Pi 2 with an upgraded CPU to 1.2 GHz 64 bit, built in Wireless N LAN, Bluetooth 4.1 and Low Energy (LE). All of this goodness (still) at $35 in the same form factor. I ran a compile of Fldigi/Flmsg for comparison. The Pi 2 compiled the programs in about 22 minutes, the Pi 3 compiled in about 13 minutes.

This year I really didn’t have a lot on the Dayton shopping list. I wanted to take a look at the new ICOM IC-7300. That is a very nice radio and a huge improvement over my IC-7000. I didn’t pull the trigger on that for some reason. I’m reluctantly holding off. The newer radios are coming with built in USB. For someone looking to get into HF digital check out the newer radios. You won’t need a SignaLink type device because the sound card is built in!

I did attend Dayton with the intent of purchasing a DMR radio. From the amount of people I heard on DMR repeaters and podcasts afterwards, it sounds like they were the popular item this year. For good reason, I picked up a Tytera MD-380 for a little over $100. It included the radio, battery, charging base, 2 antennas, programming cable, and software.

DMR stands for Digital Mobile Radio and is a standard published in 2005 that came from our friends in Europe. It is an open standard (publically available for adoption and modification) and widely adopted for commercial use. In practice manufactures have introduced proprietary features into DMR and created marketing buzzwords like MotoTRBO. With enough surplus hardware available in the market, the price dropped low enough for hams to adopt the standard and setup DMR repeaters. I have a lot to learn about how all this works. There aren’t DMR repeaters in range of my QTH. Couple on the opposite side of town and to the south. There are some repeaters in Toledo and Columbus. The greatest concentration is between Dayton and Cincinnati. Thanks to the folks at the Dial Radio Club in Middleton, Ohio, I had a DMR repeater easily accessible from my hotel room during the show.

New things I saw include scanners from Whistler with DMR (expected June 2016). Following quickly behind was Uniden with the same announcement (no release dates set). If you have a public service agency utilizing a DMR system, you’ll soon have scanner options available. Kenwood showed off their 2m/220/440 radio with APRS and D-STAR (and hopefully DPRS). My dad and I both noticed how incredibly crisp and clear the color display was. Standing about 5-6 feet away we could easily read it. Wireless Holdings showed off a new digital all-in-one radio, the DV4mobile. This thing has ALL the features: 2m/220/440, DSTAR/DMR/Fusion – with P25/NXDN/NEXEDGE coming next year, LTE (as in cellular connectivity), remote programming, remote operation, Ethernet/WiFi, SMS (text messages). Will this thing do my dishes too? Wow. Both Kenwood and Wireless Holdings are expecting release dates in about 6 months.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by the Field Services table at the ARRL Expo. I had a great time chatting with hams from England and exchanging ideas. It was fun meeting those in Newington who administer the programs we know and love. A lot goes into these programs and there’s a lot of technical research happening. The table was staffed by representatives from the Ohio Section including moi. Scott and his wife Jane spent most of the show at the table making sure everything went smoothly. Huge thanks to them for getting everything organized. It was nice to meet all of you. I picked up a couple books in the store on the way out. More stuff to do!

Reminder about Windows 10: Don’t forget the free upgrade offer to Windows 10 is set to expire July 29th. You still have about a month to decide on the upgrade. If you missed my April article, I went into great detail about Windows 10 and the push to upgrade users. Check it out on my site or on the Ohio Section Journal site. There is no indication from Microsoft if the upgrade will become a premium option or if they will extend the offer. Some analysts think it will become a pay upgrade others think the upgrade offer will be extended indefinitely. One change, Microsoft is becoming even more aggressive in forcing the upgrade. Didn’t know this was possible but they’ve succeeded. I mentioned in April that clicking the red “X” to close the upgrade pop-up will delay the upgrade. This is no longer true. Microsoft’s new interpretation of clicking the red “X” is an AGREEMENT to the upgrade. This whole upgrade thing is ridiculous. I have no defense for this behavior. If you want to disable the Windows 10 upgrade, run Never10 (https://www.grc.com/never10.htm). Many users are disabling Windows Update to prevent the upgrade. Please don’t. If you have, run Never10 and disable the upgrade. Reboot. Check it’s still disabled by running Never10 again. Run Windows Updates and let it do its thing. Then run Never10 again to verify the upgrade is still disabled. I’ve been upgrading my machines to Windows 10. It takes some finessing to disable the crap. I do keep coming back to a single question: “why?” Not ‘why did I upgrade’ but ‘why is this useful setting now burred and takes fifteen clicks when it used to be three’ or ‘why would you change things (color schemes, color contrasts, move things around for the seventh time) just to change things?’ Haven’t yet taken the plunge to wipe-out my machine in the shack.

Technical Specialist report:

With summer and projects gearing up, requests have been coming in. Bob K8MD and a good friend of his Dave NF8O traveled to the Ohio Veterans Home station, W8OVH, in Sandusky. They have a sideband station and wanted an upgrade to run digital modes. Bob and Dave spent a few hours working with them to get the station up and running. They trained the club members how to use Fldigi and helped them make their first PSK31 contact! The guys reported it was a humbling experience talking to Vets who served in major conflicts from WWII to Grenada.

Dave KD8TWG has been busy with presentations for ARES groups. First was a presentation on APRS for Cuyahoga ARES. The presentation touched on history, uses, settings and what they mean, and systems built on the APRS network. There is a lot to APRS and I learned a lot. Soon after he did a “program your radio without a computer” for Geauga ARES. Interesting concept. Most groups bring computer programming in to help newbies program their radio. Knowing how to program a radio without a computer is useful during an event or public service activity where improvisation is likely needed. Could you change PL tone on your radio and save it in memory though the front of your radio? Programming a temporary repeater that has a 1 MHz split? DCS, anyone? It’s good to know and practice changing transmit, receive, PL frequencies, and power settings on-the-fly through the front of your radio.

PCARS (Portage County) club members contacted me about a moon bounce (EME) presentation. This is an area I wasn’t familiar with or knew anyone who operated. I reached out to the assembled mass of Technical Specialists. Tracey – W8TWL came through with a couple contacts. Got PCARS in touch with one of them and they are working out the details for the July 11th meeting. I’m hoping to make this meeting and see a great presentation on Earth-Moon-Earth.

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Img: VA3XPR, raspberrypi.org

Amateur Radio, ARRL Ohio Section, Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – May 2016 edition

May 15, 2016 Jeffrey Kopcak

Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.

Now without further ado…

Read the full edition at: http://n8sy2.blogspot.com/2016/05/may-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net

Hey Gang,

I’ve wanted to do this article for some time but kept putting it off due to more relevant and timely topics. Ham Radio Podcasts. With Dayton quickly approaching, you’re likely to see many of these hosts at Hamvention. If you’re not, you may have seen them in the past and wondered “what’s a podcast?”

The word “podcast” is a mashup between the words “IPod” and “broadcast.” There is some debate on this because the word predated the IPod portable media player. Some say ‘POD’ means “portable on demand.” Either way, they are both accurate. “Net cast” is an Internet broadcast and synonymous with podcast but typically don’t make content available offline.

A podcast is a digital media file offering audio and/or video content. PDFs or eBooks (books in electronic form) can be considered podcasts too. In general, podcast refers to audio or video. The content can be whatever the creator wants each file to contain. Most are a series of episodes covering a topic of interest. Some follow a news magazine format discussing recent news and developments. Others could be clips from a longer radio show including interviews or bits made available for download. Podcasts often serve niche interests where it might not be popular as a broadcast radio show to the general public. The same content targeted toward special interests or hobbyists would do very well.

The creator or distributor maintains a list of episodes known as a “web feed” which provides users with updates. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is used to publish frequently updated information. The RSS rippling signal icon with headphones or microphone signifies a podcast feed. An app known as a “podcatcher” monitors the web feed for new content. The app then notifies the user or downloads the episode automatically. Once the file is downloaded, it’s available offline where you don’t need to be connected to the Internet. In this way someone can download a number of episodes and listen to them at a remote camping site with no Internet. This is different than YouTube or Netflix where a connection to the internet is required to view content on demand.

The first podcast was believed to be released around 2003. This technology really became popular with the growth of the internet and portable media devices like the IPod. Podcasts cover a vast range of topics including: movies, news, science, comedy, interviews, storytelling, health, love, self-improvement, music, food, business, sports, pop culture, and farming. The list… goes on. There really is something for everyone. Podcast technology is considered disruptive because the radio business spends a lot to provide content to wide-ranging audiences. Podcasts have shown that preconceptions of audiences, production, and consumption are no longer traditional. Sure some podcasts are produced in studios with professional equipment. The majority are recorded using similar pieces of gear found in your ham shack: professional microphone, mixer, computer, internet connection to bring in guests, and maybe a video camera or webcam thrown in there too. Anyone can do it!

On the flip side, since anyone can do it, episodes depend on schedules of the host(s). Some release on a weekly schedule, some monthly, others “as time permits.” Some podcasters have been around awhile. While others try it out and decide it’s too much effort.

I consume podcasts using my phone. If you do the same, know the limits of your phone’s data plan and use Wi-Fi when possible. Video files in particular can be very large depending on quality (hundreds of megabytes to a gigabyte). Podcatcher apps are available on every platform. Check the ‘app store’ for your device. PocketCasts is my favorite. It’s available on Apple and Android devices for about $4. I think it’s the nicest looking app and it’s easy to discover podcasts. Stitcher is another popular app, and free. Apple ITunes, Google Play, and TuneIn have podcast directories. Poddirectory (poddirectory.com) is great for desktop users. Also devices like the Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV allow for viewing on a TV.

Podcasts are free. Many are supported through sponsors. In the same way that podcasts are targeted for special interests, the ads typically are too. Some ask for support and donations in lieu of advertisements. Others don’t ask for any support. If you find any podcast useful or you regularly listen, show your support for the work they are doing by throwing them a couple bucks or visiting their sponsors. It does cost money for equipment, bandwidth, storage, projects demonstrated, and services needed to bring you a wonderful podcast.

For content and podcast creators, gain lots of exposure for your work. Post new episodes and show notes on places where likeminded people hang out (QRZ.com). Even though ITunes is a terrible experience all around, nearly all podcatcher applications get their directories from ITunes. Get listed there so all the podcatcher apps pick up the show!

Below is a list of ham radio podcasts I’ve found. It includes the ARRL! I’m sure this list is not complete because I’m constantly finding new ham radio podcasts. This list mainly came from headline posts on QRZ.com or I discovered them in my podcatcher app.

Podcasts:

100 Watts and a Wire (100wattsandawire.com) – Experiences of a new ham operator hosted by Christian K0STH.

Amateur Logic and Ham College (amateurlogic.tv) – Ham Radio and technology show hosted by George W5JDX, Tommy N5ZNO, and Peter VK3PB. They do a second podcast covering theory, history, and topics that appear on the Technician exam.

Amateur Radio Newsline (arnewsline.org) – News for Radio Amateurs. You’re probably heard this newscast on a local repeater.

ARRL Audio News (arrl.org/arrl-audio-news) – News of the week from the ARRL hosted by Sean KX9X.

Everything Hamradio (everythinghamradio.com) – Ham radio topics hosted by Curtis K5CLM.

Ham Nation (twit.tv/hn) – Ham Radio topics covered by Bob K9EID, Gordon WB6NOA, George W5JDX, Don AE5DW, Amanda K1DDN, Val NV9L, and Dale K0HYD. I host the D-STAR After Show Net for this podcast.

Ham Radio Now (hamradionow.tv) – Covers ham radio topics, forums, and seminars with Gary KN4AQ.

Ham Talk Live (hamtalklive.com) – Call-in ham radio show with Neil WB9VPG.

HamRadio 360 (hamradio360.com) – Ham Radio topics hosted by Cale K4CDN.

ICQ Podcast (icqpodcast.com) – Talk-radio style podcast.

Linux in the Ham Shack (lhspodcast.info) – Covers Linux, Open Source, music, and food for the shack hosted by Russ K5TUX (get it?) and his YL Cheryl.

PARP [Practical Amateur Radio Podcast] (myamateurradio.com) – Operating with Jerry KD0BIK.

QSO Radio Show (qsoradioshow.com) – Ham Radio talk show on WTWW shortwave hosted by Ted Randall WB8PUM.

QSO Today (qsotoday.com) – Interviews with Eric 4Z1UG.

SolderSmoke (soldersmoke.com) – Radio-electronic homebrewers.

TX Factor (txfactor.co.uk) – Professionally produced programs dedicated to ham radio.

Net casts (typically online only):

DX Engineering Interviews (youtube.com/user/DXEngineering) – Tim K3LR interviews guests.

Ham Sandwich (thehamsandwich1.blogspot.fi) – “Off beat” show about Amateur Radio with Steve KD0PXX and Greg OH2FFY.

Ham Sunday (youtube.com/user/adafruit –then search “Ham Sunday”) – “Lady Ada” Limor AC2SN of Ada Fruit learning ham radio.

K6UDA (youtube.com/user/bondobob) – Bob K6UDA, the Elmer with an attitude. This one can be NSFW (not safe for work).

W5KUB (w5kub.com) – Tom W5KUB, you know him as the guy who documents his trip to Dayton Hamvention using the “Helmet cam.” He hosts roundtable events on Tuesday nights.

YHAMRADIO (w5mhg.com/yhamradio) – Interviews “Y” hams got into ham radio with Mark W5MHG.

I will see you at Dayton! Stop by the ARRL Ohio Section table at the ARRL Expo in the Ballarena late afternoon on Friday and early afternoon on Saturday. Hope you stop by and say ‘hi.’

Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK

Jeffrey Kopcak, MBA – K8JTK

Category Archives: Ohio Section Journal

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – February 2017 edition

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Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – December 2016 edition

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Ham radio and tech.