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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
The Ohio Section lost a friend and advocate last month. Announcements came from our Section Manager regarding Jim Yoder – W8ERW’s passing. Jim was my predecessor in this Technical Coordinator role.
I met Jim as the TC when he gave a presentation on Ham Radio MESH. In 2014, I was wiring a series of articles published in club newsletters on Raspberry Pi’s and Software Defined Radio (SDR) receivers. Jim had read one of those before presenting at the meeting. Discussing MESH ahead of his presentation with a group at the meeting, he stopped and said to me ‘you’re someone I need to talk to.’ Now I was in trouble.
After the presentation and over the next few days via E-mail, he was recruiting me for a Technical Specialist appointment within the section. ‘We need more Specialists familiar with digital modes and newer technologies.’ I didn’t know much about the technical side of the section but Jim answered all my questions and saw the appointment through. He encouraged to remain in contact and let him know things I was working on. He promoted my work and presentations in the Ohio Section Journal.
Jim lived in northwest Ohio near where I had previously gone to school. Though I left the area, I was making regular trips to Wood County ARC club meetings. We always talked about meeting up at a meeting or getting together while out that way.
Sometime later, changes in Jim’s personal life took him away from the Ohio Section to the North Texas Section. This left his cabinet position vacant. As I was told, Jim liked the work I had been doing and, being a younger ham, would bring down the average age of the Section appointees. He recommended me to fill his position. Boy, I was really in trouble. That was eight years ago this month.
Though Jim had left the Section, he was always there to make sure all my questions were answered and that I didn’t get into too much trouble. I definitely messaged him more than a few times asking how things should be handled and “what should I do about…?”
As I was managing to figure out my new role, we didn’t communicate as much. I took his comments as an opportunity to balance out the Technical Specialists with knowledge in digital and newer technology to form a more well-rounded group. I ran into him again in the Section booth at Hamvention. Figuring he was up for the trek to Hamvention, he informed me he was relocating back to the Section.
He maintained his Technical Specialist appointment throughout his moves and once again became a valuable resource to the Ohio Section. We finally did meet at a club meeting when he presented on MESH and demoed MESH devices.
During the lock downs, on my crusade to knock things off my ham radio to-do list, I purchased and flashed a MikroTik hAP ac lite device to finally be a part of the Ham Radio MESH network. Bring there are no other nodes near me and not having any high-profile equipment, I couldn’t do much with it. Jim allowed me to tunnel my device over the Internet with his in Fremont. This afforded me the ability to interact with devices within RF range of his and access services provided by those nodes. He promoted a new use of technology in ham radio called Hamshack Hotline. He created and maintained a list of users in northwest Ohio and later expanded to the entire Section.
MikroTik hAP ac lite
Jim still emailed me interesting topics, things he found, and things he was working on. One of his last was linking northwest Ohio (which I’m linked into) and southwest Ohio MESH clusters. At that time, they had 111 total nodes and were expecting to add more with the demos at Hamvention this year.
Thanks, Jim, for all the knowledge, Elmering, help, being a supporter, and generally being a friend. Rest in Peace, W8ERW/SK.
I was talking with our Section Manager because he was having trouble getting E-mail through to me. During the conversation he mentioned the ARRL’s E-mail forwarder has been having issues for a while. My most recent round of issues started about the 4th of July. The forwarder service provides the callsign[@]arrl[.]net E-mail addresses.
Though I’m receiving most messages, the SM had issues, I’ve had some issues sending to other users. Here’s an example of a message the “sender” might receive, the person whom sent a message to an arrl.net user when the message was not delivered:
<K8JTK@arrl.net>: host mx1.forwardemail.net[138.197.213.185] said: 421 Try
again later; If you need help, forward this email to
support@forwardemail.net or visit https://forwardemail.net ; Please note we
are an email service provider and most likely not your intended recipient.
(in reply to end of DATA command)
A key indicator is “forwardemail.net.” Forward Email is the service used by the ARRL for the forwarder.
Also, people don’t read those messages and just say “your E-mail is bouncing.” Being the IT person that I am: what is the error? Users being users: “I don’t know, I didn’t read it.”
I recall maybe two other times I’ve had issues with the forwarder. Technical Specialist Jason – N8EI manages the mailing list for his club. He says they see delivery issues quite often with the forwarder including messages not being delivered and club messages being flagged as spam despite having all the necessary verifications in place (known as DKIM). When users complain they don’t receive messages, his club requires an alternative, non arrl.net, address.
If you are looking for better free E-mail account, I have been using a free Zoho Mail personal account for the past four years. Zoho is geared toward business accounts and services. I’ve noticed little-to-no unexpected downtime compared to the provider used at my work (*cough* *cough* Microsoft *cough*). I found Zoho after getting fed up with other big-name free E-mail services. The last straw was when an Outlook free account stopped being able to receive mail. When people complain about G-Mail flagging legitimate newsletters as spam or not being delivered at all, I’ve always received them using Zoho Mail. I use Fastmail (paid) for my personal domains. Both are fantastic services.
Though legitimate messages are being blocked through the arrl.net address, I have been receiving a ton of spam. Mostly from APAC (Asia-Pacific) countries. Maybe it’s related to the ‘issues.’
As for my alternatives: me at my callsign dot radio *or* me at my callsign dot org – will work.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Hamshack Hotline is a private free to use VoIP telecommunications phone service put together for the ham radio community by hams. It is a way to enhance communication between ham shacks and even Emergency Operation Centers. I, and other Technical Specialists, have written many articles in the OSJ about this service. It’s a great use of technology to enhance communication, even if it doesn’t use RF.
Cracks started to show problems when Hamshack Hotline had a falling out with members of their board and support platform moderators. It’s their project and they can run it however they want. I no longer recommend nor support this project. Unfortunately, they are the largest ham-based telco provider.
Hamshack Hotline has many features including “RF Links” which are extensions that dial into a AllStar Link node. Termed RF links typically because the ASL node is connected to a repeater or simplex radio.
After linking my multimode system to Hamshack Hotline, some HH users reported being disconnected after 30-40 seconds. I didn’t experience disconnects using my extension and neither did the majority of users. Doing some troubleshooting, I had those users try other RF link extensions to see if they were disconnected after the same length of time. Users confirmed the same experience on other RF links. It wasn’t only limited to my configuration.
Back in March 2021, I opened a ticket with the HHOPS helpdesk identifying symptoms my users were experiencing. This ended up being an exercise in futility. Included in my what-I-do-know details, I listed callsigns and extensions of users on HH whom experienced disconnects. Those details could possibly be correlated to a specific HH server, device type, device model, or manufacturer. It was like I traveled to another dimension. The support person thought I owned all those extensions (and callsigns? – I guess) experiencing the issue. What a total waste of time. Ticket was closed by the helpdesk as an issue with the devices experiencing the problem.
Fast forward to March 2023, I get a support ticket from Hamshack Hotline saying my node is sending out “SMS beacons” across the network. “This can cause all phones that are sms RFC compliant to drop the call after approximately 30-45 seconds into the call.” Guess they found the cause of what I originally reported two years earlier. SMS (same standard as SMS text messaging) beacons sent by AllStar Link nodes caused phones on HH to hangup. It went on to indicate changes on a HamVoIP based AllStar node is a two-line configuration change. Changes for other software, such as native AllStar Link, is more involved.
I run a hub on Virtual Private Servers (VPS) in the, so-called, cloud. My system runs native AllStar Link. I’m unable to run HamVoIP since that distribution is for Raspberry Pi/ARM processors only. Additionally, recent major updates have further separated HamVoIP from AllStar Link. They’re almost two different systems. Not to mention HamVoIP has been accused of license violations. These made me uneasy about the future of the HamVoIP project and I’ve contributed to the ASL project. As a result, I moved my personal node from HamVoIP to native ASL.
Following provided instructions by Hamshack Hotline, reached out to them because I’m not running HamVoIP on my hub. I was put in touch with another person that had the “fix” for ASL. Two things were needed to disable SMS beacons: (1) create a private node for Hamshack Hotline connections. A private node in ASL are the reserved node numbers 1000 through 1999. I did this anyway on my hub. (2) Disable pushing CALLERID to the RPT module. RPT is the module that handles ham radio functionality in Asterisk. As one would expect, CALLERID contains unique data about the caller. When used with RPT, this is typically extension, node, or callsign information.
Having a decent level of experience working with Allstar configuring hubs, nodes, IAX clients, softphones, and desk phones, I knew messages were pushed to other connected nodes and devices. These exchanges show up as a list of connected nodes on a status page such as Allmon or Supermon, within apps, on a display, in logs, in the Asterisk CLI (command line interface), on the ASL website, etc. I didn’t have the need to know this exchange was done via SMS messages, but knew there was some mechanism used for reporting information to other connected nodes. I had seen references it was an “SMS message,” but never confirmed.
My former Hamshack Hotline extension
While working with the person provided by Hamshack Hotline, the comment was made: ‘this is ham radio, I don’t know why we’re using SMS text messages.’ Taken aback, said ‘that’s how the network knows about other connected nodes.’ This person, who came up with (at least) part of the solution to fix this SMS beacon issue, didn’t know or understand Asterisk clients exchanged information with other nodes. I’m always irked by required mandatory changes where they don’t understand what they are changing, the broader impact of said changes or to even ask the question and address concerns. I blew it off and gave their solution a whirl.
Below are Asterisk and AllStar Link extensions.conf examples. These are from various documentation sources showing different ways ID information is passed to the RPT module. 50394 is my hub node and used as an example node number.
As I’m working through the provided Hamshack Hotline configuration changes for ASL, I realize their proposed changes will cause problems. Omitting CALLERID means the connection exists but there is no indication of the call in RPT or facilities that use RPT. Users would will no longer see their connection on dashboards and sysops no longer have the control to disconnect individual HH users.
Lack of control and visibility is big problem for me as the sysop of a hub to see who is connected in case of problems. Users will dead key/forget to unmute, not press the # key when they are done talking, or some another innocent mistake – most of those happen during a single net – or someone is being a lid. I’ve used logs to validate reports and contacted users providing information about a situation which they’re likely unaware.
I raised my concerns to Hamshack Hotline about the solution not being good for sysops to control their systems. I was blamed (again) that my system ‘wasn’t working like the others’ because ‘no one else is having the same problems with these changes.’ My guess, results were confused with the HamVoIP distribution or that ASL v1 didn’t act the same as v2 (which I am using). Not having the time and being frustrated (but still respectful), I did not investigate further. Hindsight being 20/20, I had some false hope my feedback would be used to devise a better solution. I can’t be the only one voicing similar concern. In reality, they didn’t care.
Last day of Hamvention, traveling back home, I get a message from Hamshack Hotline that my RF link extension is in violation, been disabled, and in danger of termination if not corrected. Somewhere between March and mid-May, it became mandatory to participate as a HH RF link, I needed to provide a “clean” transmission (without SMS beacons). The insanity wheel began to spin all over again: here’s the solution. I’m on ASL. Contact this guy for the ASL workarounds. That doesn’t meet my requirements. Too bad. Ugggh.
Finally, a Hamshack Hotline Sr. Engineer provided some details but stopped short of offering alternative solutions or a middle ground compromise. He indicated specific issues were caused by different “flavors” and versions of AllStar Link. There can be multiple reasons that cause SMS messages to be sent, not only registering CALLERID with RPT. Admitted there was pushback from others complaining about call signs not showing up in “third party” software such as Allmon and Supermon.
Hamshack Hotline tracked the issue to “SMS RFC COMPLIANT” phones. “Newer phones are compliant.” Beacons being sent from Asterisk/ASL are (apparently) not RFC compliant. When a non-compliant SMS message is sent to a compliant phone, that phone simply hangs up or drops the call. “Older discontinued Cisco SPA phones are no longer RFC compliant” because the SMS RFC “changed” after the time those phone models were discontinued. Hamshack Hotline changed models of phones they support. Newer models follow the current SMS RFC specification. Lastly, did state I could submit a new RF link extension request if I ever change AllStar flavors.
It’s not only “third party” applications but the Asterisk RPT module doesn’t show the connection either. I provided examples of this. Presumably he is talking about HamVoIP being a working “flavor” of AllStar, which I cannot run on my servers. Hamshack Hotline admitted concerns were had by others and from all accounts, did nothing about those concerns. I mean at a minimum, reach out to the AllStar Link project in the hope of solving this problem globally for all current and future users whom want a HH RF link extension. ASL is open source and on GitHub. HH could even create a fix and do a pull request (request their code changes are brought into the main code repository) all on their own. I see no evidence this was attempted.
A middle ground solution could have been proposed to simply disconnect the ASL private node assigned to Hamshack Hotline extensions. It’s not great as other HH users could be confused as to why they no longer hear the net or conversations. I still lose logging. Suggest running HamVoIP on a separate Raspberry Pi and connect it over the Internet to the main ASL hub. Not great either as I am using VPS’ in a commercial datacenter for reliability, resiliency, and access to better resources. Though it wouldn’t be my first device not in the same datacenter. I’ve also heard of Raspberry Pi installations hosted in data centers for rent. Somehow, HH could make a note stating users may experience disconnects when using my node. Regardless, no alternatives were suggested or offered.
As I had family issues to tend after Dayton, my patience was razor thin but I don’t think it would have made one bit of difference. We came to an impasse. The Sr. Engineer stated my RF link extension would be reclaimed. I responded back to reclaim my phone extension as well. I have no desire to be a part of or further support Hamshack Hotline. This experience and complaints from users whom have received similar treatment, I do not recommend the use of Hamshack Hotline.
There are currently two alternative ham radio telco solutions, Hams Over IP and AmateurWire. Based on prior knowledge, I’d imagine these systems could encounter a similar situation. I reached out to both for comment. Roger from AmateurWire responded indicating users have not complained about any similar issue but they have a smaller userbase of about 200 extensions. He indicated the situation would not be handled the same as Hamshack Hotline.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
As Technical Coordinator for the Ohio Section, I oversee the section’s Technical Specialists. We are here to promote technical advances and the experimentation side of the hobby by encouraging amateurs in the section to share their technical achievements in QST, at club meetings, in club newsletters, and at hamfests and conventions. We’re available to assist program committees in finding or providing suitable programs for local club meetings, ARRL hamfests, and conventions within the section. When called upon, serve as advisors for RFI issues and work with ARRL officials and other appointees for technical advice.
Technical Specialists are a cadre of qualified and competent individuals here for the “advancement of the radio art,” a profound obligation incurred under the rules of the FCC. TS’s support myself and the section in two main areas of responsibility: Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and technical information. They can specialize in one or more areas or be generalists with knowledge in many areas. Responsibilities range from serving as consultants or advisors to local hams or speaking at local club meetings on popular topics. In the Ohio Section, there are 14 qualified specialists.
RFI/EMI (electromagnetic interference) includes harmful interference that seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a radio communication service such as ham radio or public service agencies. RFI sources range from bad power insulators, industrial control systems, nearby transmitters or poorly made transmitters, personal devices like computers, monitors, printers, game consoles – to grow lights, failing or poorly made transformers, and those devices hams brag about getting for cheap from China. Our Technical Specialists would offer advice to help track down interference or locate bozo stations when called upon. Technical information is wide-ranging, everything from antennas to Zumspots.
How can we help? The knowledge and abilities of YOUR Technical Specialists are really quite impressive:
Amplifiers
Antennas (fixed, portable, emergency operation)
Antenna systems such as towers, guying, coax/feedlines, and baluns
Boat anchors (tube technology)
Computer systems – Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi
Digital voice and data modes – including D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, NXDN, P25, APRS, IGates, packet, TNCs, MT63, FT8/4, Olivia, PSK, etc.
Direction finding
Electronics and circuits, including teachers whom have taught electronics classes
Former repair technicians
Home brew
Internet linking (Voice over IP, aka VoIP) – Echolink, AllStar/HamVoIP, DVSwitch, PBX/Asterisk
Mobile installations – HF, VHF/UHF, antennas
Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS) – Fldigi and Flmsg
Networking – AMPRNet, routers, port forwarding, ISPs, firewalls, mesh, microwave
Power supplies
Propagation
Repeaters, controllers, and high-profile systems
RFI caused by power lines and consumer appliances
RF safety
SHARES stations (SHAred RESources – Department of Homeland Security HF radio program)
Software Defined Radios (SDR)
Tower safety
Professional certifications such as Motorola Certified Technicians, Master Electrician, Certified Journeyman Electronics Technician, General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL), ETA certifications, and Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) certifications and affiliations. Marine Radio Operator Permit holders.
This impressive list of qualifications are available resources to all in the Ohio Section. Looking for guidance in one of these areas? Need a program for your club meeting? How about a technical talk or forum at a hamfest? Assistance or direction on a project? My contact info is near my picture and on the arrl-ohio.org website. I’ll assist getting you in touch with an appropriate Technical Specialist.
With July around the corner, my favorite event, 13 Colonies Special Event will be on the air July 1st (9 am) – July 7th (midnight). There are 13 special event stations, one for each of the original 13 colonies. Three bonus stations include GB13COL (Great Britain), WM3PEN (Philadelphia), and TM13COL (French). A station does not need to work all 13 colonies to receive a certificate. The three bonus stations do not need to be contacted for a clean sweep. Good luck!
Earlier this month, I was recognized by the Virginia Emcomm group for participating in Winlink Wednesday for 100 weeks and received a nice certificate to commemorate the occasion. Ohio has 5 stations, as of this writing and by my count, in the WW Century Club. The original NCS, KW6GB, informed me about the net when I attended Winterfest in Annandale, VA while on a business trip. The baton has since been passed on to KN4LQN. It is an interesting concept and a way to keep activity on Winlink. As a result of doing peer-to-peer (P2P) Winlink messages for this net, I found I have a pretty good communication path into Virginia and the D.C. area. See my write-up on Winlink nets.
Steve – K8BBK and myself after receiving recognition for work on the club website in 2007. Picture by N8ETP.
It is with great sadness that I report two longtime members of the Wood County Amateur Radio Club became silent keys. Stephen “Steve” McEwen – K8BBK became an SK on March 10, 2023. Steve was one of the leaders that revived the club in 2005 after the formation of a local ARES group. After one of the ARES meetings, Steve asked me if I had any ideas to make the club [WCARC] better. I was annoyed (still am) with outdated club websites. At that time, the club’s website was just that. An example, the repeater system PL had changed some years earlier but the website still listed the old one. Soon after that conversation, I’ve been maintaining the club’s website though I’ve returned back to the Cleveland area. Steve also got me to give my first ever club presentation on the topic of Echolink.
Steve was always engineering something. He worked as a Chief Engineer and later CEO for Henry Filters, a local industrial coolant filtration company, until he retired in 2001. Visiting his home, he practically had a full machine shop in his basement. His house had systems he engineered including a radiant floor heating system.
Myself and Bill – WD8JWJ with my nomination of Life Membership in the Wood County Amateur Radio Club in 2012. Picture by N8ETP.
William “Bill” Wilkins – WD8JWJ became an SK a little over a month later on April 27, 2023. I can’t say exactly when I met Bill for the first time, it was probably at one of the breakfast meetings. Between cracking jokes and giving insightful advice, he was a person anyone could talk to. He had stories from co-owning a local video rental business for nearly 30 years, known for its selection of nearly 30,000 titles. I remember when he announced they were closing the business at one of those breakfast meetings. It would be the end of an era for a long-time local business.
When I returned back home after attending BGSU, I would regularly make it out for their breakfast meetings and, on occasion a presentation. Giving a presentation at one such meeting in 2012, Bill recognized me for service to the club with a nomination of Life Membership in the Wood County Amateur Radio Club. I’m eternally grateful to be honored with a Life Membership in an amazing club by such a respected member of the club.
Enjoy the hamfest in the sky, guys. Goodbye and 73, Steve and Bill.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Another Hamvention has come and gone. Unfortunately, my dad, N8ETP, didn’t make it as he is recovering from a medical procedure from earlier this year. I was flying solo again. As most of the OSJ readers are in Ohio, Dayton is a few-hour drive for most of us. It’s almost exactly 3 hours from my QTH to the hotel.
After dinner Thursday night, I went searching for digital repeaters – NXDN and P25 in particular. RepeaterBook didn’t have NXDN repeaters in the Dayton area. Guess I didn’t need to bring that radio. There was a P25 repeater I found last year and could hit from my hotel. Listening to conversations, there was mention of a P25 repeater at the Xenia site but I wasn’t able to find the details for it last year. This year, I found the Miami Valley P25 Ham Radio Network website. Their site lists repeaters on the network, including the information I needed for the Xenia site.
P25 is another digital standard used mostly by public safety agencies. It’s similar to DMR in that there are 7-digit IDs, talkgroups, and zones. Instead of a color code, P25 has NAC or network access code. Like DMR, P25 was also developed for commercial use and then adopted to ham radio. The statewide MARCS system, Greater Cleveland Radio Communications Network (GCRCN), and Northwest Ohio Regional Public Safety System are all P25 systems. There aren’t many “ham friendly” P25 radio options. Most are repurposed/used commercial radios from Motorola, Harris, or EF Johnson.
Crystal set
According to their programming guide, Miami Valley P25 sites have been upgraded to “version 2” programming of their repeaters. This may be why the talkgroups I had from last year were completely different for the Dayton repeater.
With tower sites in Shelby, Miami, Champaign, Montgomery, Greene, and Warren counties, the “MVP25” is an interconnected network of UHF (440) P25 repeaters. Each site has backup power and each repeater can operate independently when a network link failure occurs. Sites are linked with direct network connections that presumably don’t use the internet. No cloud services of any kind are utilized. The network can only be accessed via RF. No hotspot and no MMDVM connections are possible.
Reading and programming my Motorola XTS radio for the MVP25 network, I learned more about options in the software. One example is “selective squelch” which will only unmute the radio for transmissions on the selected talkgroup. Their programming template and examples helped me understand their objective and made programming easy.
Each repeater has an “MVL” (Miami Valley Link) talkgroup which is heard on all MVP25 linked repeaters and a “STE” (site) talkgroup for conversations on the local repeater. MVL is the primary talkgroup on the repeater. Users wanting to carry on a conversation locally can override the MV talkgroup by using the STE talkgroup.
Crystal set designer and builder (Vietnam veteran hat)
They recommended using the bank switch (A-B-C switch) for switching talkgroups on a single repeater site. In the context of my radio, Bank A = Zone 1, Bank B = Zone 2, Bank C = Zone 3. This was a neat idea because, for example, channel 5 in zone A & B would be the Xenia Hamvention repeater site. Zone A would be the programming for linked communication using the MVL talkgroup. Zone B would be the local site talkgroup for each repeater. Selecting channel 5 (Xenia) using the channel knob, then selecting bank A would be Xenia MVL talkgroup configuration, Bank B would be Xenia STE talkgroup configuration. Channel 8 would be the Dayton site. Switching to A would be the MVL talkgroup and B would be STE Dayton local.
Since my radio is front panel programming capable, Zone A was the FPP (I didn’t see a way to change this). In their programming guide, bank A became B. Bank B became bank C. Their template had the same exact “UCOM1” (UHF P25 simplex frequency) frequency for every channel in bank C. I took this to mean it’s a ‘flex’ bank in cases of radios that have a reserved bank. I didn’t lose anything because “UCOM1” was also channel 1 in the MVL and STE banks.
Previously, I had only used my P25 radio with my MMDVM hotspots. Programming multiple sites on the same network was a new experience. I learned about copying the current selected entry and export/import to make copies of zones. Kudos to the admins, designers, and those whom wrote the programming guide. It is well thought out and the guide made a lot of sense.
Friday, I hit the flea market. I wasn’t looking for too much this year – either new or used. I was in the market for a second set of Motorola CDM radios. I am using a UHF CDM for an AllStar node and I have a VHF model too. I would like to pick up a second set for spare radios. Also was looking for a second UHF XTS and a new to me VHF. No one was giving them away.
George – W5JDX and Mike – VE3MIC from AmateurLogic.tv along with Chip – K9MIT
In the “coolest thing I’ve ever seen at a hamfest” category was the life-sized crystal set someone built and had on display in the flea market. There were no plans, no diagrams, no anything. It was all in his head. Nothing written up. Nothing diagrammed. The only thing powered was a solar powered amplifier for received audio. If you didn’t see this thing in the flea market, you missed out. The builder didn’t have a name or call displayed unfortunately.
I wanted to hit the inside stuff on Saturday, but instead ran into George – W5JDX and Mike – VE3MIC from AmateurLogic in front of the ICOM booth. Helped them do some recording for their latest episode (which should be out by the time this is published, episode 181). Then we all hung out with Chip – K9MIT of “Chip Stick” fame from Ham Nation and Mike’s cousin (forget the call). A good time was had by all.
Didn’t spend a lot of money this year at Hamvention. Emile would approve (joke for ALTV viewers). Talking with groups and vendors got the wheels turning on some ideas – such as devices to use with my MESH node. On my way home, I stopped by the secondary hamfest called MicroCenter and spent some money there on some deals they had.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
For my January article, when I saw KE8VIY’s presentation demonstrating receiving and processing ADS-B aircraft broadcasts using SDRs, it inspired me to explore mine again. I’ve had a request or two to cover them here in the OSJ. There was also discussion about them after my recent presentation for Cuyahoga County ARES.
Software defined radio, or SDR, is a technology that replaces analog components such as mixers, filters, amplifiers, and detectors by implementing them in software. Like most communication systems, an antenna receives the signal passing it to the RF hardware. RF hardware, on receivers especially, is a wide-band VFO with a typical range from a couple MHz up to about 2 GHz. The IF, or baseband, is sampled by an analog-to-digital converter converting the signal to bits. Software is used to control frequency range received and process the digitized signal. Signal processing is often handled by a PC, smartphone, or tablet. However, some have powerful on-board processing. The processed signal is then handed over to the sound interface for listening with ordinary speakers or headphones.
Signal processing could be as simple as selecting AM or FM and listening to an analog radio station. Processing could include a chain software to further process a received signal. Examples would be to decode digital modulation, such as P25 or DMR, then pass human intelligible audio to the sound interface. Other processing may turn received data into text in cases such as ADS-B, POCSAG (pagers), APRS, and packet reception.
Most common are SDR receivers. There are transceivers, like the HackRF One, and many ham radio offerings. Probably the most well-known vendor is Flex Radio because they’ve been doing government work and have been in the ham radio market for a long time. Other ham offerings include Elad, Xiegu, and the big-name radio manufacturers like ICOM, Kenwood, and Yaesu.
I’ve used the “RTL-SDR” for about ten years. These use the low-cost Realtek RTL2832 chipset and commonly sold under the name “NooElec R820T SDR & DVB-T NESDR mini.” Originally designed for DVB-T reception (European digital broadcast TV standard), it was found these could be hacked into a general 3 MHz wideband receiver. These were a focus of my series of articles called “Dongle Bits” published in 2015.
NooElec RTL-SDR dongle (nooelec.com)
NooElec SDRs were inexpensive at $20 each. At that price, I bought a bunch. A pair were almost always in use on my main desktop PC for trunked radio decoding of the statewide MARCS and regional GCRCN radio systems. A couple were in the shack for playing around doing radio things and another couple were in the travel bag mostly for trunked radio decoding while traveling.
A problem with early NooElec SDRs, they were not frequency stable. “Warm-up” time was needed in order to stabilize frequency reception. Sounds like tube radios. Some recommended 45 minutes to an hour for them to warmup. Seemed excessive. I didn’t see much change after about 15 minutes.
PPM offsets for my dongles ranged from the lower 40’s to upper 50’s. When these dongles are used (as intended) to receive an 8 MHz (or so) wide DVB-T broadcast, a couple PPM isn’t going to make a huge difference. Receiving a 12.5 kHz wide P25 signal, 50 PPM will put the receiver on a different frequency.
If I heard police or fire sirens and wanted to fire up Unitrunker with the RTL-SDR dongles, it would be 2-3 minutes before signals could be decoded intelligibly. It would take that long for the dongle to warm up enough to fall within range of its determined PPM. I lived with adjusting PPM/offsets because ten years ago, I was too cheap to buy the TXCO controlled dongles.
Since whenever I started with RTL-SDRs, a number of mine have gotten destroyed over the years. One shattered when I dropped it after Dayton a number of years ago. Another was no longer detected when plugged in. Most recently, one had some kind of firmware corruption which caused the device ID to change making it no longer recognized by drivers.
RTL-SDR blog v3 dongle (rtl-sdr.com)
After Guy’s talk on ADS-B, I went and looked at the prices of RTL-SDR dongles. The price of TXCO controlled dongles had fell to $33. These are quality ones released by the RTL-SDR Blog site available through Amazon. TXCO were $60+ ten years ago when I went the cheap route. TXCO RTL-SDR dongles have an oscillator to stabilize the tuner to within one or two PPM. I bought a round of frequency stable dongles to replace the RIP ones and remaining working dongles. Another advantage to these RTL-SDR.com dongles, they come with an SMA connector as opposed to the MCX connector on the NooElec dongles. SMA is a standard antenna connector used by many ham radio manufactures for handhelds.
TXCO dongles are worth it. Since they’re much lower in price than they used to be, there’s no reason to screw around with ones that don’t have a stable receiver. Now, starting Unitrunker it takes seconds to start decoding P25 signals. Product description indicates there is passive cooling. I will say they do get quite warm.
Some programs I’ve been mentioning throughout: Unitrunker is a program for decoding trunked radio protocols through discriminator (tap) audio or an SDR. It can decode APCO P25, EDACS 4800/9600, Motorola Type II, and MPT1327 systems. One device monitors the control channel, another device is sent to receive voice traffic on other frequencies. Unitrunker can’t decode voice traffic itself. Another program, such as DSDPlus, decodes voice frames.
DSDPlus (often stylized DSD+) decodes multiple digital audio formats including P25 Phase 1, ProVoice, X2-TDMA, DMR/MotoTRBO, NXDN, and D-STAR (no audio). At one point, DSD did decode D-STAR voice frames because I played with it on a D-STAR net and the net controls were quite impressed. Maybe it was an addon or beta that never became part of a final release. I remember compiling it in CygWin, a Linux terminal on Windows before Windows had WSL. DSDPlus offered a “Fastlane” program which afforded more frequent updates and faster access to new features for a small donation.
Both programs have not had releases in years. Unitrunker’s last release was in 2017 and DSD’s last official release was in 2015 – with the last Fastlane update in early 2020. Unitrunker has, what I call an “eternal beta,” version available in a Google Group. I haven’t seen any reference to that Group except in the Radio Reference forum. One must be accepted to the group in order to access the download. When I played with the beta a few years ago, I had problems decoding the MARCS system which I didn’t have using the latest available 1.0.33.6 legacy version.
Another program I started using which does the job of Unitrunker, DSDPlus, some recording & streaming addons is called sdrtrunk. It has a really nice feature set. Though, I think it’s really setup to be a different program than Unitrunker. It was overwhelming first listening to a radio system.
Different talkgroups were coming out of the left and right channels, it doesn’t follow conversations on successive transmissions, displayed talkgroup labels use the Radio Reference Alpha Tag, not Description tags which Unitrunker uses. When a transmission on a talkgroup ends, Unitrunker will linger for subsequent transmissions on the same talkgroup. If there are no more keyups on that talkgroup within a few seconds, it will move on to another active talkgroup. Sdrtrunk will immediately jump to another active talkgroup when a transmission completes – making it hard to follow back-and-forth conversations. It seems like only talkgroups of interest should be loaded and not a whole statewide system. Alpha Tags are shortened descriptions intended for radio displays versus the full Description of a talkgroup. Both are fields in the Radio Reference database. An example of an Alpha Tag is “18-CCAN” which is short for “Community Care Ambulance – Cuyahoga,” the description. Description means a whole lot more to me about the agency. I didn’t find system technical details such as peer sites listed in the program.
sdrtrunk (github.com/DSheirer/sdrtrunk)
One thing I did notice right away, the decoder built into sdrtrunk is much better than DSDPlus. I’ve heard no garbled transmissions. Whatever they are doing to auto adjust for PPM and to decode voice frames works much better. I still like Unitrunker and it’s recommended in the Radio Reference forum for system mapping. If I can figure out these issues, sdrtrunk seems like a better option especially since it is multiplatform and more of an all-in-one solution.
I posted a number of projects using RTL-SDRs on my site over the years, including ones for receiving ADS-B, APRS, and P25 trunked radio. There have been minor software changes to Unitrunker in later versions, but it still works.
Coming up on May the 4th be with you, Technical Specialist Jason – N8EI will be giving a presentation on the GAP Titan vertical antenna. The Lancaster and Fairfield County Amateur Radio Club – K8QIK will be hosting the meeting at the Fairfield County EMA building. Jason will be there virtually but stop by if you’re in the area. Jason has many excellent presentations including ones already presented for the 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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Time is running out! No, not on some great offer but to complete station evaluations – if you were grandfathered and still haven’t completed one. I’ve covered this topic previously describing two different ways and methodologies for tackling this requirement. First using the exemption formula and math, second demonstrating online calculators and “worst case scenarios.” This time I’ll use available data for my station.
Remember:
Any station built or modified (change in power, antenna, operating band/s, moving the antenna, changing the antenna, etc.) requires an evaluation to be performed at that time
Stations built before May 3, 2021 (and not modified) have until May 2023 to perform an evaluation
FCC exposure rules haven’t changed
Hams are no longer categorically excluded from performing evaluations
Nothing is submitted to the FCC. Calculations only need to be available when a station inspection is performed.
Calculations for HTs are the responsibility of the manufacturer
Determined by coax length, type of feedline, loss per 100 feet, and power into the line. Power out of the radio, less feedline loss, before antenna gain.
dB Loss Of Cable Per 100 Ft. At The Desired Operating Frequency. In HF calculations, I used the lesser loss value which slightly increases the safe distance in my calculations. Example: calculating 7 MHz, used 5 MHz rating of 0.3 dB.
Length of Cable in Feet: 144
Power into Cable in Watts (out of the radio): 40
Gain of Antenna in dBd is not important here as it’s used to calculate antenna ERP and not needed
Each compliant antenna/band combination is marked green, meaning actual distance exceeds the minimum safe distance for an uncontrolled environment in that situation. Overall rating: station is compliant.
It’s fairly easy to complete an evaluation following the detailed instructions and walkthroughs. The most time consuming for my shack was looking up antenna and coax specifications. I had documented coax lengths when setting up the shack.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
I finally did it. What would that be? Over the Christmas holiday, during my time-off, I cleaned and organized the shack. Unseasonably warm weather at the end of December made this job much easier. I don’t know how many years I’ve been threatening to do this. PC problems kicked off the whole cleaning process and I (finally) upgraded to Windows 10. N8SY pointed out: shouldn’t you be upgrading to Windows 11? Yeah, no.
Dust, dead bugs, miscellaneous parts from various projects, all the baggies, twist ties, and boxes are all cleaned up. Using small stackable plastic containers with lids (available at the local superstore) organized computer parts, Raspberry Pi parts, radio cables/accessories, and keep parts of a project together. Some time ago, bought a Power over Ethernet (PoE) network switch from a co-worker. Finally set that up and it’s now powering my Cisco phone used for Hamshack Hotline, Hams over IP, and AmateurWire. In addition, gained more Ethernet ports as those were in short supply.
Parts of the shack were reconfigured. I wanted a spare/second power supply. Astron stopped making their desktop switching supplies with analog meters. I found an SS-30M with analog meters on QRZ and purchased it from a local ham. That supply will be used to power network radios for AllStar Link and Wires-X. An old laptop is put back into service running the Wires-X node, full time. Wires-X was previously running on the same PC I use for operating and I didn’t want to keep that one running all the time.
I did much soul searching in regard to the shack PC. It is coming up on 10 years old. A Micro-ATX PC, Intel Core i5 4th generation (they’re up to 12th gen), 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD, and Windows 7. Due to family commitments and as a result of the shack being declared a disaster (by me), I wasn’t operating much the last 2-3 years. Most of 2022, I operated Winlink making few other contacts.
My intention was to get some operating time over the holidays and didn’t plan to spend that much time redoing things. While operating, quickly remembered ongoing problems with the PC. Cluttered with apps I was testing or no longer used, miscellaneous documents from net reports or drills – these were the least of my problems.
Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny (Lenovo)
It had serious audio issues. As someone who operates mostly digital on the HF bands, this is incredibly annoying. The Windows audio subsystem, at times, simply failed to start where a red X would be shown over the speaker icon in the system tray. This prevented any audio program from functioning. Rebooting once (or twice) would clear that issue. Random receive cycles in WSJT-X (FT8) would not decode any stations. RX cycles before would decode fine, a number following would also be fine. The waterfall looked OK (not distorted). However, at seemingly random times, there would be 0 decodes. I started to pray that a fresh install would clear these issues.
In recent years, I’ve been using smaller desktop form factor computers. Not needing to replace poor included motherboard peripherals (other than graphics cards, separate issue), NVMe M.2 storage (very fast solid-state drive), and use of USB devices, I don’t need many full sized PCs. Included motherboard peripherals, like sound and Ethernet, are very good and don’t need to be substituted with expansion cards as was the case 20 years ago. M.2 SSD storage comes in a very small form factor: 22mm x 30, 42, 60, 80, or 120mm with read/write speeds of 7,000-7,500 MBps. Good 2TB NVMe M.2 storage devices are available for $150.
IBM had an excellent reputation for producing solid hardware. That soured a little when they were sold to Lenovo. I’ve had good luck with Lenovo devices at work compared to other vendors. Lenovo’s ThinkCentre PC line are enterprise orientated machines offering mid-to-high specifications. Even though older models have reached end-of-life, Lenovo still releases BIOS updates. In comparison, most vendors release a new motherboard followed by maybe a handful of BIOS updates during its lifecycle. Continued BIOS updates address compatibility problems and patch exploits. I’m impressed their end-of-life PCs are still updated.
M.2 Solid Sate Drive – 22mm x 80mm (Wikipedia)
I looked at and purchased “renewed” Lenovo ThinkCentre Tiny PCs from Amazon, an M900 & M910Q. Amazon renewed are pre-owned and refurbished PCs resold to keep E-waste down. There are condition guidelines published by Amazon. However, as I found out, quality is left to third-party sellers and varies greatly.
This form factor measures 1.36″ x 7.20″ x 7.05″ weighing in at 1.3 lbs. (M900). Renewed M900 specs: Intel Core i5 6600T, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512G SSD, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, and Windows 10 Pro 64 for $422 (purchased late 2021). M910Q: Intel Core i7-6700T, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD, DisplayPort, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows 10 Pro was $349 (purchased mid-2022). They’ve come down quite a bit and are now $180 and $274 respectively.
While you get the chassis, motherboard, and CPU (presumably) from Lenovo, everything else is stripped from these renewed PCs. M900 had ADATA SSD and RAM, though a fairly well-known discount name they’re not OEM parts. The M910Q came with a “KingFast” M.2 SSD. That’s right, just KingFast – no model number. The M900 came with a Lenovo branded power supply while the M910Q came with an aftermarket supply that makes an audible sequel when powered. I suspect generates interference, too.
I’ve had issues restoring disk images to the KingFast drive – Acronis complains it can’t read the drive at times. Both included a keyboard and mouse but they are no-name junk. These ThinkCentre’s likely came with Wi-Fi cards from the manufacturer. Those cards are removed and substituted with USB dongles. While I am not using nor did I test any of the dongles, USB dongles for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are generally bad only working acceptably at short ranges. Additionally, I cannot tell original configurations of these machines because service tags and serial numbers are removed.
Initially purchased these for Homelab projects (virtual machine hosts) and situations where I need a physical Windows machine when a virtual machine wouldn’t cut it. Thought these might be a good replacement for the shack PC. After using them and seeing the poor choice of components, wouldn’t trust these for much of anything. If one desired to go the route of renewed PCs, I would invest in known good replacement parts which adds to the cost. Additionally, the CPUs were only two generations newer than my existing PC. I scrapped the idea of using these or similar “renewed” PCs for my shack.
Beelink SEi8 Mini PC (Beelink)
What about new? Brand new machines like these would be great solutions in a car, camper, mobile shack, or boat due to their small form factor. With regard to USB, I need a minimum of six USB ports. While USB specifications and devices are supposed to be compatible, in practice this is rarely the case. To avoid headaches, I require USB cables controlling essential and important components (SignaLink, CI-V, mixers) be plugged directly into USB ports on the motherboard. I only use USB hubs for things I don’t consider essential (radio/scanner programming cables, RTL-SDR dongles). ThinkCentre Tiny PCs have 4 USBs in the back and 2 in the front. That number isn’t going to work for when I want to use additional devices.
I looked at Intel’s Next Unit of Computing (NUC) offering and mini PCs from BeeLink. They too did not have a sufficient number of USB ports. Using more than one small form-factor PC would be another idea. Unfortunately, don’t have room for another monitor and keyboard. If I ever found a quality keyboard, video, and mouse switch (KVM, or just the K and M), it may solve that. Also, power sources in the shack are becoming scarce. Not to mention current economic issues like higher prices, supply chain issues, shortages, and limited stock. I decided against a new PC until I discover better options or will revisit this when the economy rebounds. HA!
Deciding to keep the same PC, it was wiped and Windows 10 – LTSC installed. No hardware upgrades were performed. There wasn’t much debate for staying with Windows or going to Linux. Programs I use run natively on Windows, such as: radio programmers, scanner programmers, Winlink, Vara, Ham Radio Deluxe, and GridTracker.
Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) is designed to keep the same functionality while not changing operating system features over time. LTSC is a decrapified version of consumer Windows 10, and it’s from Microsoft. It has none of the advertising. No Microsoft Store. No Cortana (virtual assistant). Telemetry still exists based on configuration screens. I used Group Policy Editor and Registry Editor to disable telemetry. A Pi-Hole, or similar, can block tracking at the network level. Consumer support for Windows 10 ends in 2025, LTSC is supported until 2027. Note: people confuse LTSC with the IoT version of Windows 10. This is probably a Microsoft branding issue. They are not the same.
An LTSC license is expensive at $210, or more. Though I did see a China based seller listing them for $19!!? – Caveat Emptor. I purchased through CDW. I’m willing to pay for bloat to be stripped from my Windows operating system. If you don’t want to play the license, that version can be found by doing some digging. I tried a number of the ways to remove bloatware in consumer versions of Windows 10 with programs and random scrips found online in the past. Removed crap often returns as part of “feature updates.” Windows 11 does not yet have an LTSC version and the reason I did not upgrade directly to 11, possibly released later this year.
A clean install of Windows 10 resolved my audio issues and my WSJT-X decode issues are gone as well. On Windows 7, switching between or launching applications would cause hesitation in applications that were running in the background. Opening the browser would cause digital programs to stop transmitting for example. That too is gone in Windows 10. I am happy with the results post upgrade.
Allow apps to access your microphone for ham radio sound card programs
There are some important settings to note in Windows 10 related to ham radio sound card programs. I’m overzealous turning off access to things that don’t need access. Most everything in Settings ? Privacy I have turned off. Doing so prevented ham radio sound card programs from functioning correctly. Programs such as: Echolink, Fldigi, DM780, FreeDV, WSJT-X, Vara, etc., etc., etc. Operating ham radio sound card programs in Windows 10 (and likely 11), Microphone access must remain enabled. Even though none of those programs are listed as accessing the microphone. While labeled Microphone, this setting prevents programs from accessing all sound input devices. These are input devices listed under the Recording tab in Sounds. Programs like SDRs use output from one program as input for TX, a double whammy.
Close any programs using sound devices
Go to Start -> Settings -> Privacy (Privacy & security in Windows 11) -> Microphone
Set “Allow apps to access your microphone” to enabled/on
Re-open programs that were using audio devices and sources
Sound card digital programs will now work. If there are still issues, move on to troubleshooting audio levels and verify correct audio sources are chosen in the respective program’s settings.
In Windows 7 and my guide for settings levels when using ham radio sound card audio programs, I recommended setting levels to 50%, or half. Some pointed out manufacturers indicated to choose the decibel scale, not the percentage scale I was referring. None of the references said why users should use that scale over percentage. After all, the slider didn’t change switching between the two scales.
After doing some digging and testing, figured it out. Different versions of Windows use different scales – even for the exact same audio device. The 50% setting will likely be different between Windows 7 and Windows 10.
Used my SignaLink to obtain these dB ranges:
Windows 7 – speaker (transmit audio): -128.0 dB to 0.0 dB
Windows 7 – microphone (radio receive audio): -192.0 dB to +30.0 dB
Windows 10 – speaker (transmit audio): -128.0 dB to 0.0 dB
Windows 10 – microphone (radio receive audio): -96.0 dB to +30.0 dB
Different scales for a SignaLink USB microphone device on Windows 7Different scales for a SignaLink USB microphone device on Windows 10
In this case, speaker ranges are identical with -10.5 dB being 50% for both operating system versions. However, microphone input at 50% on Windows 7 is +24.0 dB. On Windows 10, +24.0 dB is roughly 96%. A wide variation and I noticed the level difference right away. Understanding this helped me translate my audio settings from Windows 7 to 10. I did find a Microsoft Learning document explaining Default Audio Volume Settings pointing out the differences in different versions of Windows.
I am very happy the shack is no longer a DMZ. My sound card digital programs are working again and I have a clean desktop install – for now, lol. Haven’t yet been consistently operating due to work and family commitments. When you do find me on the air, I’ll be (likely) logging contacts for Volunteers On The Air.
I would like to formally welcome the newest member of the Technical Specialists group, Ronald – NQ8W. He comes to us with a number of ETA International certifications in electronics, computers, and wireless communication. Ron is a former Master Electrician with degree in Mechanical Drafting. He obtained his GROL and has Emergency Communication certifications. When I talked with Ron a while ago, he was very pleased with the work of our Technical Specialists and wanted to give back with his skills. Welcome to the group!
Speaking of the Specialists. Earlier this month, I was invited to be the guest speaker at the Cuyahoga County ARES meeting. The topic: me, the Ohio Section Technical Coordinator. Not long before I was appointed Technical Specialist, I had no idea there was a technical organization at the section level. After being appointed TC, a group in Columbus asked for me to speak about ‘what does the TC do?’ Out of that came an opportunity to educate hams about the ARRL Field Organization and the work of our Technical Specialists. I had a great time at the Cuyahoga ARES meeting. There was plenty of discussion on technical topics and RFI stories (I cover troubleshooting techniques) after the presentation. If your group would like to know more about the technical and experimentation side of the Ohio Section, send me an E-mail.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
I’ve traveled for work to our other facilities and taken advantage of training related travel. We were thinking I would have more travel opportunities. However, due to business need, sequestered to our homes for 2 years, and the freaking economy – it hasn’t happened. I had the opportunity to attend a work conference earlier this month and it gave me ideas to promote ham radio.
Work conferences are an opportunity to attend sessions and talks to gain skills, education, knowledge, keep current with industry trends, and network with others. If you’ve been to forums at Dayton, work conferences are 2/3/4 days of forums focused on an industry or segment. These could be: sales, information technology, manufacturing, human resources, C-Suite topics, project management, or general trends – like how work-from-home has changed and challenged work in the last 3 years. Similar to indoor vendors at Dayton, companies will sponsor booths with giveaways, swag, and maybe an opportunity to find a new job.
A number of co-workers and myself attended a conference called CodeMash in Sandusky at the Kalahari Resort (near Cedar Point if you’ve never been). This year was CodeMash 10000 (binary for 16). It was my first time at this conference. The conference is developer (programmer) focused but had tracks for information security, data, and career development. There were fun things to do including board games, laser tag, a maker space, evening events including casino night, and access to the resort’s indoor waterpark. The full conference runs four days in two halves. The first two days are called the “Pre-Compiler” consisting of two four-hour sessions per day. These are deep dive table-top exercises, discussions, and hands-on labs. Second two days are more byte-sized (see what I did there?) one-hour talks.
For work-related conferences, travel and accommodations are often paid for by the employer because these are training and educational sessions related to employment, job description, or a particular project. The employer hopes attendees return with new ideas and out-of-the-box thinking.
Depending on conference, cost can be way above beyond one’s means to attend on their own. CodeMash tries to be reasonable allowing individuals to attend at their own expense, if desired. A full 4-day ticket is between $800-$1,100 and the 2-day between $400-$550. Booking rooms through the conference at Kalahari offers discounted rates over normal nightly rates, though attendees can opt to stay at near-by hotels to be more economical. Kids have their own events called KidzMash, free with a registered adult.
Presenters for this conference are chosen by submitting abstracts to the CodeMash committee. If chosen, presenters get a free ticket to the conference as compensation for presenting. Sponsored sessions are hosted by companies sponsoring the event – these are listed as such and were on the last day. Presenters can plug their business and/or employer as their company is likely covering remaining costs. At least one presenter said they were there on their own dime as their employer “didn’t see the benefit” – and yet their lab session was standing room only.
Intro to Docker session. I’m way in the back row on the right. Twitter: @OtherDevOpsGene
I figured I wouldn’t have much time to play radio as the schedule was pretty grueling with breakfast at 7 am and sessions wrapped up around 5 pm each day – not including evening activities. In the past, I’ll bring at least one radio, a mobile radio if I’m driving and know I’ll
have extra time. Though I was driving and staying at the resort for this conference, I brought an HT, hotspot, and a couple RTL-SDR dongles because I like monitoring the Ohio MARCS-IP public service system. I was not expecting to have ham radio interaction during the conference.
First day of the conference at breakfast, this guy sits down at my table. It looks like he’s got a Yaesu Fusion radio with a whip antenna. I asked him “ham radio?” He says “yep, you?” “Oh yeah.” Talked with Dan – AD8FY about ham activities and his experiences as a pilot. He informed me there was an unofficial UHF simplex frequency and there would be a number of hams at the conference. This did surprise me as I wasn’t expecting it but again, first time. Feeling pretty good about the conference and some connection to ham radio.
During one of the Pre-Complier sessions, learned there was a Slack instance for the conference. Slack is an instant messaging platform available on just about every device. Slack started out as a professional communications platform (like Microsoft Teams or Google Chat) but became accepted as a community platform for things such as this conference. In addition to messaging, Slack can do VoIP calls, video calls, file sharing, and text messaging in channels (like a conference room) or to individual users. A feature I like is persistent messaging allowing people to see prior messages after joining. For example, I joined the Slack instance on the second day of the conference but I was able to see messages from the previous day. This is different from other chat services which only show messages sent after one has joined the channel.
Guy – KE8VIY SDR live demo, receiving ADS-B broadcasts
CodeMash’s Slack had many different channels: events taking place during the conference, discussions around hotel reservations, and water park. Announcements – changes, cancellations, updates, and general information. General discussions. Major cities had channels for attendees from those areas to network, such as #cleveland. Pre-Complier portion of the conference had a channel for presenters to post their slide-decks and labs. Slides channel for presenters from the second-half of the conference. Hobby channels included beer, wine, music jam sessions, and ham radio. Oh, really?
KE8VIY asked to have a #ham-radio Slack channel. Ten people conversed about radio and when they were monitoring the simplex frequency. Call signs seen: WX8TOM, WX8NRD, KD8NCF, KE8VIY, and myself. I found out later KD8NCF gave a presentation at the conference on Real-Time Web Applications.
Thursday afternoon, while heading to an afternoon one-hour session, saw this guy (that’s his name too) outside one of the conference rooms pointing an antenna around. Figured he was doing Wi-Fi hunting or something. He too had a HT with him. This was Guy – KE8VIY. He was preparing for his presentation later that afternoon using software-defined radio to decode ADS-B (aircraft broadcasts). Though he was unsure there would be any aircraft to track as all flights were grounded earlier due to a possible cyber-attack.
I told him I would be attending his presentation. Knowing a ham was doing this session helped swing my decision in his favor because there was another equally interesting session on another hobby of mine, homelabbing. That decision paid off because not only was Guy’s presentation excellent, it got the wheels turning on more ways to promote ham radio. “Tracking Aircraft with Redis & Software-Defined Radio” (GitHub repo) was the presentation.
I’ve never used Redis. Reading up on it, the technology works mostly in-memory as a structured data store, often as a caching service (session, page, message queue) or key-value database. According to Wikipedia, Twitter uses Redis and Redis is offered by the big-name cloud providers AWS, Azure, and Alibaba.
Guy’s slides were professionally done and visually appealing. Coupled with the slides, his personality, humor, and live demos, (if I didn’t know anything about it) he made ham radio seem fun and interesting. He stated he is a new ham and excited about what he’s been able to do processing radio signals. The audience was highly engaged asking questions and feedback was positive from hams that saw the presentation.
Most maybe thinking: you don’t need a license to receive ADS-B, how is this related to ham radio? That’s the tie-in. He worked in history of digital signals, formats, and all the things rooted in ham radio: Morse Code, RTTY, and APRS. Then demonstrated how he used a modern technology platform and a radio to capture and process digital signals, all at a developer conference. Well done!
There are a lot of slides in his deck. Due to the one-hour time limit, the first 30 slides and some diagrams were covered. He utilized Dump1090 for turning signals into raw data. Then used Redis (also his employer) to process, store, and make data available to consumers.
These things fit my thinking of how ham radio should be promoted. Promoting to kids is admirable and exposing them to activities early in life is a great way to maybe hook them later in life. Credit to my parents because ham radio was one of those activities and it happened to stick. Though, I seem to be the exception rather than the norm. There are other things my parents had me join in school that didn’t stick and I really don’t miss those activities. A way kids get their license is part of a school program or curriculum. How many carry on and renew their license after 10 years is up? Retention needs work. Chances are better if family members are active and involved.
Guy – KE8VIY SDR live demo, ADS-B broadcasts shown on a map
I have been a huge fan of initiatives by the ARRL and clubs to use Makerspaces as a way to breathe new life into the hobby. Makers are like-minded people whom like to learn, create, and invent as does the experimentation side of ham radio.
Gainfully employed individuals would be my next target audience – you know, if I were on a committee. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-45-year-olds – those looking to keep themselves busy – whether they’re single, don’t yet have a family, or had their kids graduate college. These individuals have disposable income for equipment and time that can be devoted to learning and operating.
A conference like CodeMash is a near perfect match for promoting ham radio to technically minded individuals, including kids. Not having any statistical data, I would say the median age was probably mid-30’s, early 40’s. Obviously, there were younger and older individuals. With few exceptions from my interactions, participants were gainfully employed as their companies were picking up the tab for them to attend the conference. There were an estimated 1,400 attendees at this year’s conference. (attendance was still down from previous years, close to half). That’s 1,400 technical people, a great audience to promote ham radio.
Does a conference you attend offer a communications platform like Slack? Ask for a ham radio group to be created. Post a simplex frequency for general chit-chat. Maybe organize a meetup during meal time or after events that day to network with other hams. Maybe non-licensed people will drop into the channel or drop in at the meetup. Maybe they’ll get bit by the bug and be looking for an Elmer.
Think about current job responsibilities, technologies or services your company provides. Guy, in the spirit of ham radio, took an existing technology, re-purposed it to receive signals and turn the data into events, maps, and an API (application programming interface, used for integrating with other applications) from aircraft broadcasts.
How can a technology you’re created, are familiar with, maintain, or work with become an interesting presentation that ties in ham radio? Figure that out and maybe you’ll get a free ticket to a conference with the employer picking up the tab for travel expenses!
I brainstormed examples using technologies seen at the conference to do radio related things:
Real-time data processors like Kafka for mapping propagation
Networking skills and technology to improve resiliency and security of mesh networks
Table-top-exercise to recover from a disaster. Assume all existing connection and authentication methods are non-existent.
Receive signal data from a distributed radio network
APIs to administer digital systems with many connections
Automate test-cases and frequent software updates with GitHub pipelines
Incident response to handle compromises of repositories or stolen credentials
Docker & Kubernettes to build simple, easily deployable applications
Can the “cloud” fit the general directive of not relying on other technology? How to handle and recover from outages?
Designing web apps to replace multi-platform applications
Write the next white-paper
Create technical documentation standards
Development work isn’t part of my daily responsibilities since I changed jobs a number of years ago. Initially wasn’t too sure about the conference. In reality, I learned a lot about technologies I hadn’t yet explored on my own. Ham radio connections made it a much better experience and hope to attend next year. Let me know if you’ve done something to promote ham radio in a similar conference-type setting to like-minded (non-ham) individuals or used modern technology platforms to improve and better ham radio.
Thanks for reading and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK
NOTE: an article written by Bob – K8MD on a portable operation during a work trip was included in the printed edition. That is available by the full edition links at the top of this post.
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
I’ve been the Webmaster for a handful of ham radio sites since about 2005 (excluding my own personal site). Dale’s Tales for December 2022 really hit home. That’s how I became webmaster for most of those sites. Complaining about the accuracy and timeliness (lack-there-of) on posting information to the club’s site. It is the way people interested in the club or a prospective ham radio operator – first interact with the club. If the site hasn’t been updated in years, newsletters aren’t current, hey the autopatch hasn’t worked in 20 years but still detailed on the site, I’m moving on to the next club’s site. Consider it the first impression the club makes on a new or prospective club member. Much like a job interview, first impressions count.
While I’m not here to talk about keeping websites updated – though every club and organization should, I’m here to talk about a related topic: SPAM.
Also referred to as “junk mail” they are unsolicited messages, usually sent in bulk. The name Spam came from a Monty Python skit about the canned product of the same name.
If you’ve ever put an E-mail address out onto the Internet, you know the barrage of spam messages inevitably received. Plain text E-mails are harvested by bots that scour pages on the Internet, looking for: username@somedomain.com. One day, that address will be harvested too. Once collected, they’re used by spammers directly or sold to spammers by data miners. The receiving end sees endless messages about dating sites, vitamins, Black Friday deals and the like. These messages are easy to spot. Most are caught by spam filters. Ones that make it through feel like a personal space violation.
Webmasters, such as myself, use techniques to minimize that harvesting. Those include contact forms and captchas where the user fills out a form with their name, callsign, subject, whom they want to contact, and message. Captchas are those things where you have to click all the images containing a crosswalk, select all images with boats, or type some words. This, along with monitoring interactions with the captcha dialog provides a confidence level the submission is by a real human being (not a bot) before the message can be sent. Another technique is to encode E-mail address in a method not recognizable to a bot. When a user clicks the link, the result returned to a browser is a usable E-mail address. Some Content Management Systems (CMS) handle this automatically or with the assistance of a plugin. QRZ requires a user to be logged in to see E-mail addresses, saying a bot wouldn’t have a QRZ account. I use a substitution method on my personal site making the user complete two relatively simple tasks:
Callsign@a-r-r-l.net (callsign found elsewhere, remove dashes)
SPAM (Hormel Foods)
Another variation uses: K8JTK(@)arrl(dot)net. When a bot harvests the address above, the spam message is sent to a domain that doesn’t exist (a-r-r-l.net). A real ham would know what a callsign looks like. They substitute my callsign for “Callsign” and remove the dashes in the domain name, voilà.
Those techniques are good for keeping E-mail harvesting spam bots at bay on web pages. PDFs, such as club newsletters, are still an issue because there is no easy way to mask E-mail addresses. All this falls apart when humans are paid to bypass techniques put in place to stop the machines from harvesting. Spammers have gotten very creative. Not only harvesting E-mail addresses but techniques used to reel people in.
Most of the ones I receive that make it through look like the message below. Achieving the result of my site linking to crap commercial site legitimizes the commercial site. This leads to additional traffic and improved search result ranking for the commercial site. Search engines take into consideration the legitimacy of a site by how many other sites it considers reputable, are linking to that other site. Don’t fall for these! I have [redacted] parts of the message to not give press to these spammers and scammers.
Subject: jeffreykopcak.com
From: [redacted, company name]
Date: 8/18/21, 6:43 PM
To: Jeffrey < [redacted, another E-mail address] >
Hi Jeffrey,
I hope you're doing well! I came across your page and noticed you included some information about security resources and password protection:
https://www.jeffreykopcak.com/posts/
I thought you may be interested in a guide our team created on ways to protect your family and home with the internet:
https://www. [redacted, company name commercial site] .com/blog/harnessing-the-internet-to-keep-your-family-and-home-safe
With the rise of smart home technology, tracking devices and general online communication, the need to have access to high-speed internet and increased safety precautions is more important than ever. We wanted to help provide more information on steps families can take to improve their security.
Our guide includes
Tips on Surveillance Systems and Securing Your Internet Connection
Using the Internet to Stay Safe
Alternative Internet Resources
Would you consider adding our resource to your page that I listed above to help spread awareness on online safety?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts when you have a chance to take a look!
Gratefully,
Jess
Jess [redacted, last name]
Communications Coordinator at [redacted, company name]
info @ [redacted, company name] .com
First sign this is a scam, I didn’t ask for or solicit this type of content. Second, the link they refer to on my site is a listing of all postings I’ve made to my site. They don’t reference a specific post meaning they didn’t read anything. Their search terms landed on my “all posts” page. References to “security resources” and “password protection” were likely OSJ articles I wrote. Third, I’ve looked at some of these provided links (on a VPN of course), the information is generic garbage containing basic information and often links to their other garbage posts.
If I’m in a mood, I’ll E-mail them back saying ‘sponsored content is $300K/per link/per year.’ No takers, lol.
This is one of the best I’ve seen:
Subject: [redacted, ham club webmaster's name] and [redacted, ham club president's name], [redacted, ham club name]
From: Stacey [redacted, last name] <s[redacted, last name] @ [redacted, their club] .org>
To: [redacted, E-mail addresses]
Date: Tue, 06 Dec 2022 17:58:48
[redacted, names of ham club officials],
My name is Stacey [redacted, last name] and on behalf of the [redacted, their club name] for Girls, I wanted to let the [redacted, ham club name] know your web page was a big help to our club! This one - [redacted, ham club web page]
For the month of December, our club is exploring the history of innovations in science and technology with a 'famous inventors and inventions' lesson. The girls are currently learning about the history of the radio, including early broadcasting techniques and amateur radio, and how it impacted society. Your web page led us to some great information on amateur radio to incorporate into our lessons, so the girls requested I reach out and let you know :)
As a thank you, I wanted to pass along this reading on the history of the car radio our member Nicole found. It's a fantastic timeline of radio and audio systems throughout the years, covering the early stages for military use and evolving into the radio we know today with the invention of the vacuum tube. The additional reading on historical broadcasting and the golden age of early radio was really neat for the kids to learn about too. This is it... https://www. [redacted, commercial website] .com/articles/the-history-of-the-car-radio/
Nicole was very excited to share it with you! She thought it would make a wonderful addition. Will you let me know if you're able to include it for her? I know Nicole would be delighted to see she could help! (We meet Thursday evening, if you can add it by then!) She's really enjoyed working on this project and is even in the works to get her HAM license! Looking forward to hearing from you!
Wishing you a very Happy Holidays,
Mrs. [redacted, last name]
https:// [redacted, their club] .org
There weren’t the usual red flags. It’s well written. Their club could be completely legitimate. It’s about kids (won’t somebody please think of the children!) and they gave a name to their member, Nicole, to humanize her. They mention ham radio a couple different times meaning they read the site or the person writing this has familiarly with the subject.
(homestarrunner.com)
Red flags: The E-mail address this message was sent to, I’ve never used anywhere. The person harvesting E-mails strung together some text. They did not even grab the E-mail address that I use on that site. One could have surmised the text they saw equated to an E-mail address. As it turns out, they guessed correctly. Second, the ‘commercial website’ is an auto title loan agency and the content of the article is not well detailed. But I could enter to win prizes in their holiday giveaway! I am not spamming the club’s visitors with links to a loan agency. If I saw links like these on another club’s site, I’m not joining. Third, the implication of a deadline or sense of urgency (by Thursday evening). This is the same way people get scammed by those calls where ‘there is a warrant out for your arrest and you must pay $X00 now or the sheriff will arrest you in 10 minutes.’ I ain’t buying it! DELETE!
If I had to guess, assuming their “club” is completely legitimate, in an attempt to raise some cash, they are involved in soliciting traffic for commercial sites. They get paid by the number of sites that post the URL driving traffic to that site and/or increase that site’s’ search ranking. Their campaign deadline was Friday and the reason for the urgency getting links posted by Thursday evening. Did I mention I could enter to win 30+ prizes in their holiday giveaway?
I write about this to bring awareness to the rest of the ham radio webmasters and club officials. These solicitations come across looking legitimate. Do not get taken by or caught up in these scams. If these links have been posted to the club’s site, remove them like yesterday. The club isn’t asking for these solicitations, posting them can’t be beneficial to the organization.
Thanks for reading. Happy New Year! 73… de Jeff – K8JTK
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 Tom – WB8LCD 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 Tom 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 Ohio 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).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Even though it happens once a month, Windows Updates are a pain. On “Patch Tuesday,” the second Tuesday of each month, Windows users hold their breath. Will my machine come back from the brink? Sometimes issues are bad enough where updates are released “out of cycle” or “out of band” meaning at other times during the month. This month was one example. An update caused more issues requiring a follow up patch to be released after 11/8. Depending on the operating system used, the pain came in different ways.
Performing a Windows 7 fresh install today, Windows Update will not work. It’s broken. The way updates were released and authenticated changed drastically from Service Pack 1 to the point Windows 7 went end-of-life. This installation procedure brings Windows Update to a working state, if you need to build a Windows 7 machine for some reason. Note: since Windows 7 has completely reached end-of-life, Microsoft is not releasing updates and it is recommended to use a supported operating system. Once you get past that, checking for updates 87.5 times and applying the 8,392 updates for the next 6 hours was always fun.
Windows 10 has streamlined updates where there aren’t nearly as many updates on a fresh install and the process doesn’t take nearly as long. Due to users putting off or just not applying updates on older versions of Windows, updates and reboots are now forced on users. Forced to the point where users claimed their machines rebooted while they were actively using it, loosing hours of work. Instead of the user choosing when to apply updates or do a reboot, they implemented a band-aid allowing the user to set when they’re likely to be using the computer. This does not help as options are severely limited. Then there’s the quality of updates. Crashes, Blue Screens of Death (BSOD), broken functionality, missing documents and files, printing problems, hardware and device issues are regular occurrences.
I heard on a podcast once, speaking of a botched Windows 10 update which removed ‘old files’ from users documents and pictures folders. Beta users reported the exact problem to Microsoft before the problem became widespread. The commentator made the remark that Microsoft’s attitude was: only a small number of users reported the problem, we’re not going further investigate or solve the problem. When Microsoft rolled out the update to all Windows users, the ‘small number of users’ became a very large angry mob of users. Microsoft didn’t invest the time to resolve, what they thought to be, a fringe case and resulted in a lot of negative press.
As hams, we often have Windows machines at remote locations (towers, buildings, club houses, shacks). Whether these are running Echolink, Winlink Express, Wires-X, or some other service that requires a Windows machine. An Echolink node can be run on a Linux-based solutions such as AllStar or SVX Link. Wires-X and RMS Express require Windows.
The out-of-control nature of forcing Windows Updates and reboots cases grief for the owner, admin, or Technical Committee. The machine will be left at a site logged in and running desired applications. When Windows Updates happen, often a reboot is required and the machine automatically reboots. If the admins follow good security practice and set a password for the account, after rebooting the machine will stop at the logon screen. Prompting someone to enter the correct password. While waiting for a log on, the service provided by the machine will remain offline until the program can be restarted. Nodes will be offline for any local users wanting to access those resources or remote users wanting to connect into the node.
Windows automatic updates disabled
The developer could create a Windows Service which are background programs able to start at boot. Services are not allowed to interact with the desktop since Windows Vista. Changing settings would be a problem if the program can’t interact with the desktop. Doing automatic logon isn’t a great option, even if the machine locks automatically after a minute. Need access to the machine? Just reboot it. Automatic logon would only be viable if the machine is secured in a locked cabinet or room.
Clubs have reached out and I’ve provided options for gaining control of Windows Update. One way is to disable Windows Update until someone is available to run updates manually. Disabling automatic updates will allow services to remain available while providing the flexibility of doing updates when an admin is available.
Disabling updates does not mean ‘never run updates.’ This is to control when updates happen and have scheduled downtimes. An admin must remember to run updates on a regular schedule – during a club meeting or site visit, for example. Not updating the system can have consequences including the network connection being disabled due to machine compromise in situations where the machine is on the site’s shared Internet, a corporate network, or school’s Internet connection.
The second option in the post is for clubs running Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise editions. In these versions there is a built-in way of disabling updates by way of the Local Group Policy Editor. No additional software required, my favorite.
To open the Local Group Policy Editor, start by pressing the [Windows key] + [R]
For Open, enter: gpedit.msc
Click OK
In the Local Group Policy Editor left pane, navigate to: Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update
On the right pane, double-click Configure Automatic Updates
To disable automatic updates, select Disabled
Click OK
Close the Local Group Policy Editor
For other configuration options of Automatic Updates, see steps 5 & 6 in option #2.
Going into Start -> Settings -> Update & Security, Windows Update will say in red “Some settings managed by your organization” and “Your organization has turned off automatic updates.” Though “Last Checked” will show a recent time, it will say “You’re up to date” regardless if updates are available for the system or not.
To manually update Windows, click Check for updates in that same Settings window. Windows Update will begin by checking for updates. Then download and install available updates.
Leave plenty of time for updates to finish. Reboot when required. Log on, apply other program updates, and restart necessary programs. Programs that should start after log on can be added to Startup Items. Machines with Solid-State Drives will apply updates in about a half-hour. Spinning drives, especially slower ones (4200/5400 RPM), will take much longer to apply. SSD and MVMe drives will apply updates quicker due to their much faster read/write speeds. Gain control over Windows Updates to gain control of nodes and services going down randomly until the Tech Committee can arrive on site.
Running Windows Update manually
WTWW, a shortwave station run by hams, gained a following in the community for carrying ham radio related content – original programming, simulcasted live shows, and podcasts. As of November 9, 2022, it has gone silent. According to a report by Amateur Radio Newsline, “Ted Randall, WB8PUM, cited difficulties in meeting the station’s ongoing expenses. Based in Lebanon, Tennessee, WTWW provided a wide range of programming at 5.83 MHz along with music and amateur-radio content at 5.085 MHz.”
The station went on the air in 2010. The flagship show “QSO Radio Show” broadcast live from Hamvention for many years going back to the Hara Arena days. The station ceased transmissions on shortwave but has plans to remain online with broadcasts available on their website. They hope followers make the transition from shortwave to web content.
I discovered another service like Hamshack Hotline and Hams Over IP, called AmateurWire. It was started around the same time as Hams Over IP. AmateurWire is available for general amateur use. In correspondence with the administrator, Roger – KE8LCM, this is an experiment for him learning how to run a VoIP service.
My direct extension on AmateurWire is 1140 if you would like to reach me. There is a trunk between AmateurWire and the Hams Over IP service, meaning users of each service can dial users on the other service. To reach a Hams Over IP user from AmateurWire, prefix the Hams Over IP extension number with 304. My DVMIS extension is 9004 which has links to Hamshack Hotline, Hams Over IP, and 12 other ham radio networks.
‘Tis the season for Santa nets! Get children, grandchildren, and neighborhood kiddos in touch with Santa! The Santa Net is held every evening between Thanksgiving and Christmas on 3.916 MHz at 8:00PM eastern time.
If HF is not available, the DoDropIn Echolink conference is hosting the Santa Watch Net on Christmas Eve! It begins at 6:00PM eastern on the 24th and runs about 4 hours.
Based in Colorado, and available on Echolink, is Santa on the Air. It runs now through December 9th. Times vary, see their QRZ post.
Third party traffic is always on the nice list for all Santa nets!
Thanks for reading. Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year! 73… de Jeff – K8JTK
Hey gang,
