Category Archives: ARRL Ohio Section

Related to the ARRL Ohio Section.

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/2017/04/april-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

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

Hey gang,

Since the last couple months have been feature articles, this month will be odds-n-ends.

Maker Spaces & Faires

I got positive comments on last month’s article about Makerspaces and Maker Faires. I hope it gave clubs and groups ideas to get younger makers into our hobby. Not only did the January edition of QST have the article on Maker Faires but it was the focus of ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher – NY2RF’s note in April. I’m happy to say these types of things are on the radar of the League and they’re focusing efforts on this new generation of Ham Radio operators. According to Tom, the ARRL plans to be at the three national maker events this year.

AllStar

I learned the creator of AllStar Link, Jim Dixon – WB6NIL, passed away at the end of last year. Jim is the creator of “app_rpt” which allowed the open source PBX system, Asterisk, to function as a repeater controller. In doing so, created one of the most impressive and versatile solutions for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) in ham radio. Having played around with AllStar on my own node, nodes can be linked together directly through the public Internet, private network, point-to-point network, or really any combination of methods. Hubs are systems with greater bandwidth allowing for multiple simultaneous connections – like “reflectors” on IRLP or “conferences” on Echolink. One of my buddies who spoke with Jim commented that he was the smartest, nicest guy you’d meet and [he] would be doing well if he retained even half of what they talked about. Jim will be missed but the AllStar project will live on. AllStar Link: https://allstarlink.org/, Raspberry Pi & BeagleBone image: https://hamvoip.org/

Fldigi & Flmsg

W1HKJ and the contributors to the Fldigi project have been busy (http://www.w1hkj.com/). A new major release of Fldigi was made available at the end of March. This brings both Fldigi & Flmsg up to version 4.0.1. Technical Specialist Bob – K8MD messaged me about the update. My response: ‘crap, I just updated the screen shots from the previous changes the weekend before’ (3.22.x). I was hoping there were no new changes. Of course there were! Now my newly updated instructions are dated again! Those instructions were getting stale because of significant program option changes since I made them available about two years ago. They are on my site (up to Fldigi v3.23.21 and Flmsg 4.0.1) at http://www.k8jtk.org/2015/04/16/getting-started-with-fldigi-including-flmsg-and-flwrap/. Written for the LEARA Digital Net, they do focus on NBEMS operation.

Check them out and do some practice nets. From experience, it’s best if ALL participating stations are using the same program versions. There are fewer issues with forms because newer forms are included in later Flmsg versions that were not in earlier ones and everyone can be on the same page when going through settings.

Over that same weekend, I wrote up tutorials and hacks you can do with Flmsg. We’ve all been there. You missed receiving part of an Flmsg message because of being off frequency (radio or waterfall), in the wrong mode, or not paying attention. The issue is quickly corrected and most of the message is still received. However, Fldigi doesn’t know what to do with the form because some of the headers are missing. When headers are missed, Fldigi can’t open the form because the message won’t checksum. The checksum is used to verify the entire message was received. I wrote up a tutorial how to recover a partially missed message: http://www.k8jtk.org/2017/03/25/recovering-a-partially-received-flmsg-message/.

The last is more of an Flmsg hack. When an Flmsg form is received, NBEMS standard is to have the ‘open in browser’ option enabled. As expected, this will open the received form in the default browser. Many don’t realize that any web programming code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) sent as part of the form will be interpreted by the browser. This means you can send clickable links, link to an image, redirect to websites, and change background colors. Just about anything that can be done on a webpage can be sent as part of an Flmsg form and rendered when opened in the browser. Find out how at http://www.k8jtk.org/2017/03/25/flmsg-forms-rendered-as-web-pages/. Standard squid disclaimer for both: this is for fun and not NBEMS compliant.

OpenSpot

If you have an OpenSpot hotspot, there was a major firmware update for the device in February and subsequent update in March to bring the current version to 108. The changelong has – in the neighborhood of – 80 (yes, eighty) fixes and enhancements. Previously, I wasn’t using this device to run the Ham Nation D-STAR After Show net. However, since they added a nice web interface with call log and export feature, it’s now my device for running the net. If you’re looking for a ham radio digital mode hotspot, check out the SharkRF OpenSpot: https://www.sharkrf.com/products/openspot/

One of the SharkRF connector options is their own IP Connector Protocol Server (https://github.com/sharkrf/srf-ip-conn-srv). The Connector Server is used to create a network of OpenSpot devices and it can be implemented in other hardware/software as it is open source. Like AllStar, it can accept public internet connections, run on a private network, or mesh network. I haven’t tried but it may even compile and run on a Raspberry Pi.

The Connector Server repeats any digital transmission sent to it. All modes can even be simultaneously connected. D-STAR connected clients will only hear D-STAR transmissions because there is no transcoding of D-STAR data streams. DMR and Fusion streams can be transcoded. DMR streams are transmitted to modems set to DMR and converted by the OpenSpot to Fusion for Fusion modems. Similarly, a Fusion stream is transmitted to modems sent to Fusion and converted to DMR for DMR modems.

I’ve setup a Connector Server that is open and there to mess around with. In the OpenSpot configuration:

In Connectors: under Edit Connector, select “SharkRF IP Connector Client.”
Click “Switch to selected.”
Once changed, enter your TX/RX frequencies.
Server address: srf-ip-conn-srv.k8jtk.org
Port number is in ‘Advanced mode’ but is the default, 65100.
ID, use your CCS7 DMR ID.
No password.
Enter your Callsign.
Click “Save.”
In the Modem options, select the desired mode.

The dashboard is: http://srf-ip-conn-srv.k8jtk.org/. The server will remain online if it continues to see use. Otherwise, it could disappear at any time without use 🙂

Ham Nation 300 (#HamNation300)

Last but certainly not least, yours truly has been on the planning committee for the Ham Nation 300th special event. Ham Nation is an audio and video podcast recorded live and available at https://twit.tv/shows/ham-nation. The program records at 9:00 p.m. eastern time every Wednesday evening. Following each episode are the “after show nets” which are round tables discussing the show or ham radio. These nets include: 20m, 40m, D-STAR, DMR, and Echolink.

After each 100 episodes, a special event is planned to commemorate another 100 episodes. In the past, these have been geared around HF. The show is not only for the General/Extra class licensees and not everyone has the ability or desire to operate HF. This year’s festivities have something for everyone including the chance to make digital contacts for the special event and a summer long challenge.

Ham Nation 300th special event runs the week following Dayton, May 24-31, 2017. Full details can be found on any of the 1×1 special event callsigns on QRZ or at https://www.hamnationdstar.net/2017/04/05/ham-nation-300-special-event/. Please join in and help make this event successful. Follow it on social media: https://twitter.com/hashtag/hamnation300 and https://www.facebook.com/HNonTwit.

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 – March 2017 edition

March 15, 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/2017/03/march-edition-of-ohio-section-journal.html

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

Hey Gang,

Ever heard of a makerspace? I hadn’t until one of the podcasts I follow, Hak5, talked about the concept and visited a couple. Following that, the “QSO Today” podcast (episode 75) talked about a connection to ham radio and the January 2017 edition of QST gave ideas for clubs participating in “Maker Faires.” Makerspaces, sometimes referred to as hackerspaces, hackspaces, or fablabs are shared resources for creative DIY types where people can gather to create, invent, and learn. Sound familiar? It should. Those are the foundations of Amateur Radio.

“These spaces combine manufacturing equipment, community, and education for the purposes of enabling community members to design, prototype and create manufactured works that wouldn’t be possible to create with the resources available to individuals working alone” states makerspace.com. Makerspaces are a relatively new idea with a leaning toward younger individuals. Spaces can be setup by a group of individuals, nonprofit company, or for-profit company who host spaces in rented buildings, schools, universities, libraries, or anywhere else the community decides to meet.

The business model is similar to that of a gym membership where users of the space pay a monthly membership fee – somewhere in the neighborhood of $30-$50. This gives members access to the facility and its resources. Those resources may include: machine shop, wood shop, welding shop, electronics lab, 3D printer, laser engraver, art supplies, blacksmithing, molding and casting, robotics lab, CAD software, glass blowing, space for experiments, and even entrepreneurship classes. The possibilities are endless. This model works because purchasing even one piece of equipment will run an individual more than the cost of a membership fee. Experts and instructors are available to help others learn how to use the equipment – on-site or through training classes.

When you think about it, hams have been doing this for decades: borrowing radios, borrowing test equipment, and pulling knowledge from the larger community to accomplish a task. The community, as a whole, is a much more powerful resource when each individual shares their own knowledge with the community and builds encouragement for others. Look at all the aspects of the ham radio hobby. Some hams are good at soldering, surface mount, climbing towers, programming, tuning repeaters, fabrication, digital operation, software defined radios, Internet linking, portable operation, award chasing, DX, CW, QRP, building antennas – no one ham can do it all. It’s the reason most of us join clubs. Contribute to the community and learn from others.

Getting ham clubs affiliated with makerspaces will promote the maker mentality of ham radio in a space where people who make stuff are already gathering. A club could hold licensing classes or a build project in the space. Others would see those sessions posted around the space, promoted on the website or Facebook group, or in an email to the makerspace members and community inviting others to join in. One club in our section is doing just that. The Wood County Amateur Radio Club has partnered with the BiG Fab Lab in Bowling Green, Ohio. I am a Life member of the WCARC and joined this club while attending BGSU in 2002.

About the BiG Fab Lab from their website:
BiG Fab Lab, LLC is an open-access 24/7 workshop (or “Maker Space”) that serves people in the Northwest Ohio region. We provide the equipment, classes, private storage and studio space, and personal assistance to a membership community that allows them to prototype and develop any idea they can imagine. We are targeting people, schools, and businesses who have an interest in hands-on skills in a variety of crafting, design, manufacturing areas, and business incubation. We also provide retail space so that our members can test market and sell their creations! … Could you imagine the power of bringing business, students (K-12 & university), and community members together into one place? No walls, no silos, each sharing and collaborating with others to innovate, educate, and collaborate. Perhaps we could transform our region and maybe the world!

Located in the Woodland Mall off North Main Street, the $40 membership fee gives access to: a wood shop, machine shop, engravers, 3D printers, plotters, laser engravers, an arts and crafts space for ceramics, large cafeteria style meeting room, and they’re not done yet! Training classes are held for each piece of equipment in the lab. Once a member is trained and demonstrates the ability to safely operate the equipment, an achievement is added to their member swipe-card giving them access to that equipment 24/7.

The BiG Fab Lab will be featured in an episode of the PBS show “The American Woodshop.” Scott Phillips, host of The American Woodshop, and the crew from WBGU-TV (a former employer of mine), taped episode 2409 set to air this month (March 2017). If you missed the show or it’s not carried by your local PBS station, past episodes can be found at http://www.wbgu.org/americanwoodshop/ and look for “Watch Episodes” near the bottom.

In one of my return trips to visit the club, I got a tour from Bob Boughton – N1RB and Bob Willman – WB8NQW to see how this partnership came to be. Mark Bowlus, Founder and Director of the BiG Fab Lab, wanted to strengthen the presence of electronics in the lab. Doing some research, he reached out to the Wood County Amateur Radio Club. Over the past few years, the two have partnered and are developing a relationship promoting electronics and ham radio. The club established a station at the Fab Lab which and will include VHF/UHF station and HF station. Of course, the work is never done and more is being added all the time.

WCARC couldn’t be happier about the cooperation they are receiving from the Fab Lab. To date, there have been two ham radio licensing classes; one Technician and one General. A second Technician class was started in February of this year. The turnout has been better than expected because the BiG Fab Lab is promoting these classes on their calendar and Facebook group. Participants come as far away as Michigan. Students are charged $30 for the training manual, exam fee, and a monetary fee charged by the lab to use the space.

Future plans include building out the electronics area with test equipment. The club hopes to offer regular electronics and license training classes. Once the training classes are in place, the Fab Lab has offered to waive the lab membership free for WCARC members! Additionally, the club plans to use the station as a base of operations, being more out in the public, in case of an emergency.

Issues the WCARC had to address are: legal agreements and unauthorized access to the station. Legal agreements are incredibly important. Their agreement spells out and covers both the lab and club should either entity disband, dissolve, or go out-of-business; for example, what happens to the Club’s equipment. A club seeking to do the same would need legal counsel or know one willing to do pro bono work to write up a legal agreement.

The BiG Fab Lab is a 24-hour facility. Having a station control operator at all times is unreasonable. The club, with the help of a partnering company, developed a method to allow the equipment to be turned on for anyone to listen. To inhibit transmitting, the microphone port will be disabled by default. Once a lab member becomes licensed or holds a valid amateur license, that achievement will be added to their access card just as if they were qualified on any other piece of equipment. When the member swipes the card with that achievement, the microphone port will be enabled allowing that licensee to transmit.

Having access to a full shop is an amazing resource and opportunity to get ham radio out in front of like-minded people. If a similar shop is not nearby, opportunities for clubs to participate in “Maker Faires” are available too. The article in QST describes them as “one part festival, one part flea market, one part rock concert.” Makers are brought together in a hamfest-like environment to display their projects including: 3D printing, electronics and microcontrollers, robotics and drones, music and dance, homemade electric vehicles, art and textiles, cooking, science, woodworking, and blacksmithing.

One theme that kept popping-up in the article: focus on making, not operating. Visitors are not interested in watching a ham making contacts or ‘get licensed’ pamphlets. Take an indirect approach to ham radio. Makers want to see Wi-Fi and Bluetooth used for wireless data links, long-range data systems (data modes, packet), microcomputers and inexpensive tablets, ADS-B, weather satellite receivers, spectrum analyzers, cable and antenna sweepers, and SDR – to name a few. Makers are already familiar with these technologies. Promote these topics – which lead to discussions on getting licensed. Explain ways ham radio can add value to their projects. A new wide area network technology called LoRa has makers really excited to be able to send bidirectional wireless data between 0.3 kpbs and 50 kbps over long ranges. Hams have been doing similar networking with packet and mesh.

Each year, do a different project to keep people coming back. Some examples of projects include demonstration on the relationship between wavelength, frequency, and changes in VSWR. Explain how communication efforts in a recent natural disaster could have benefited by building an NVIS antenna for a particular band. Have a display prepared on antenna resonance with some hands-on activities. An SDR, antenna, and computer could show different signals on a spectrum display. Bring lots of Raspberry Pis, Arduinos, and circuit boards. Be patient as it may take some time to get a maker licensed. Who knows, they may become your club’s most active member.

I challenge clubs to contact these organizations and form a partnership with a local makerspace or participate in a maker faire. I found a number of maker spaces throughout the section including the Columbus Idea Foundry, dubbed “the largest makerspace on the planet” by Tech Crunch. Doing some searching on the Internet leads to maker faires in different parts of the state. Not only is the Wood County Amateur Radio Club pioneering in the maker arena, the Alliance and Massillon Amateur Radio Clubs are involved with the University of Akron Wayne College 3 (UAWC3) Lab.

Efforts to get ham radio into schools for younger adults is great. I think the buy-in from administrators is far too high because it does not fit into their method of teaching to the standardized tests. I’ve been a part of conversations where the feeling that recruitment in scouting programs has not been as favorable as anticipated. Efforts could be better utilized by sharing our hobby with makers, who tend to be younger adults and college aged students with a similar mindset.

Below are links related to makerspaces and faires:

Wood County Amateur Radio Club: http://wcarc.bgsu.edu/

BiG Fab Lab: http://bigfablab.com/

Ohio Hacker/Makerspaces: https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Ohio

Other locations: https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/List_of_Hacker_Spaces

Makerspace directory: http://spaces.makerspace.com/makerspace-directory

Maker Faires: http://makerfaire.com/map/

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 – February 2017 edition

February 15, 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/2017/02/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

Jeffrey Kopcak, MBA – K8JTK

Category Archives: ARRL Ohio Section

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – April 2017 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – March 2017 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – February 2017 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – January 2017 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – December 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – November 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – October 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – September 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – August 2016 edition

Ohio Section Journal – The Technical Coordinator – July 2016 edition

Ham radio and tech.