Winlink – Distinguished Patriot Medal to WCARES members

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As those of you who attended the recent WCARES Monthly Meeting heard, WCARES members Steve K4CJX and Phil W4PHS received the Military Department of Tennessee Adjutant General’s Distinguished Patriot Medal for their “distinguished patriotic service”.

WCARES EC Ed Hudgens, WB4RHQ congratulates Steve and Phil.

From the ARRL news link: http://www.arrl.org/news/winlink-development-team-members-awarded-tennessee-military-department-patriot-medals:

Steve Waterman, K4CJX, was awarded “for his distinguished patriotic service as the Winlink Network Administrator,” citing his “vision, hard work, and dedication to emergency communication [that] contributed significantly to the disaster readiness and communications interoperability of the emergency responders across the United States and the world.”

Phil Sherrod, W4PHS, was awarded the medal “for his distinguished patriotic service as the lead developer for Winlink,” with “technical skill, hard work, and dedication to emergency communication [that] contributed significantly to the disaster readiness and communications interoperability of the emergency responders across the United States and the world.”

Packet Winlink with a TinyTrak4

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Jeff, WB5WAJ was looking into uses for his TinyTrak4 and came across this article by N3LUD describing how to use it with Winlink Express. Jeff has successfully used this setup for Packet Winlink with his Yaesu 7800 and says “The install is very straight forward. The radio has a 6 pin data jack. The cable connects to the radio and then to the TinyTrak4. This cable can be bought from Byonics. Then there is a USB cable from the TinyTrak4 to the computer.”

http://n3lud.blogspot.com/2013/10/tinytrak-4-and-winlink-rms-express.html

It is also worth noting that you don’t need a radio with a dedicated data port and can often make the connections to the mic and speaker/headphone jacks of a basic mobile radio or HT. Make your own cable using the information in your radio’s user or service manual or purchase one from a company like Byonics: cable selection chart.

For an overview of Packet, VA3ROM has a presentation on VHF Packet which covers scenarios, equipment and examples such as Winlink:

http://www.va3rom.com/docs/VHF Packet Radio.pdf

Winlink is an important capability for WCARES members so if you don’t yet have a Winlink Packet solution, try this out.

Santa Net 2019

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Tony, KF4KFQ will again be presenting the “Santa Net”, a great opportunity to entertain and introduce the younger set to ham radio.

The Santa Net will be on the air beginning at 7 PM CT on December 24, Christmas Eve.

Hams are invited to allow 3rd party traffic with Santa, report Santa sightings and other items of interest on Christmas Eve.

The net will be held on the 146.610 (-0.6 MHz, no tone required for the Santa Net) repeater and simulcast on 446.415 simplex and on Youtube; See the attached PDF for more details.

Dickson Co. MESH Networks presentation

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Dickson Co. Radio Club event – November 11

Dickson Co. AMATEUR RADIO CLUB Meeting Monday Nov. 11th.

The Dickson Co. Amateur Radio Club will hold their monthly meeting at 7:00PM CT at the Dickson Co. EOC in the Training Room. The EOC is located at 284 Cowan Rd. in Dickson. Pizza will be served starting at 6 PM.

Tom Delker, K1KY will have a presentation on MESH Networks.

All hams are invited and encouraged to attend.

Any questions visit: http://www.wc4dc.org .

VARA, a presentation by Tim, AD4CJ

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In addition to accepting the award for their 2018 November Sweepstakes win, Tim, AD4CJ gave a presentation on VARA. VARA is a software modem using orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) modulation.

VARA is capable of HF speeds comparable with Pactor 3. It does this using 52 carriers limited to 42 bps thus satisfying the FCC symbol rate requirements of 300 baud or less for any carrier. VARA uses a bandwidth of 2400 Hz.

VARA is available for HF as well as FM and can be loaded and used from within Winlink Express. Select Vara Winlink or Vara FM Winlink from the Open Session: menu in Winlink Express and follow the instructions in install it.

VARA is shareware; paying the shareware fee unlocks it’s full speed.

For more information or to download VARA for HF, FM as well as the documentation etc. visit https://rosmodem.wordpress.com .

Morse Code Tutor Build Event 2

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The second Saturday Morse Code Tutor build event was also well attended.

This posting includes pictures from the second Morse Code Tutor build event along with Cliff, N4CCB’s video of Dave, KI4PSR demonstrating the steps involved in the build! Links to the schematics, parts information etc. are included as well.

Check out the build video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0OqeIEH08k&feature=youtu.be

and find pictures and links below.

(Links to the schematics etc. are included below the the pictures.)

Dave’s 3D printed case:

KI4PSR's 3D printed Morse Code Tutor case

 

Links:

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WCARES_Morse_Code_Tutor_build_KI4PSR_MTC_1a_Schematic.pdf

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WCARES_Morse_Code_Tutor_build_Front_Panel_Wiring_rev1.pdf

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WCARES_Morse_Code_Tutor_build_Parts_List.pdf

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WCARES_Morse_Code_Tutor_build_HEADPHONE.pdf

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WCARES_Morse_Code_Tutor_build_SDcard_wiring.png

https://wcares.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/WCARES_Morse_Code_Tutor_build_All_traces_and_silkscreen_1a.pdf

Also see the following link at github for more details:

https://github.com/TemporarilyOffline/MorseCodeTutor

along with W8TEE’s talk:

https://github.com/TemporarilyOffline/MorseCodeTutor/blob/master/fdim-talk/MorseTutorTalk002.pdf

Morse Code Tutor Build Event 1

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This past Saturday saw a number of WCARES members take part in the first of two Morse Code Tutor build sessions coordinated by Dave, KI4PSR and Cliff, N4CCB. Dave put together a very nice kit of parts which included an update of the W8BH version of the W8TEE Morse Code Tutor adding a very nice printed circuit board and 3D-printed case. Some members soldered their kits while others assembled boards Dave had pre-soldered, wired and tested!

For those that have signed up, the second build session will be this coming Saturday, Sept. 21st at the EOC.

Pictures from the first session are included below.

TNQP is Sunday, 1 September 2019

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The Tennessee QSO Party is Sunday, 1 September 2019

From TNQP.org:

“The Tennessee QSO Party is an annual amateur radio event which takes place on either the first or second Sunday of September. All amateur radio operators in the great state of Tennessee are encouraged to participate as antennas around the world rotate and point to the volunteer state.

The Tennessee QSO Party is hosted by the Tennessee Contest Group. Each year tens of thousands of QSOs occur between Tennessee amateur radio operators and hams worldwide. Plaques are awarded for category winners.”

More information and the registration form for Tennessee stations planning to take part are here:

https://tnqp.org

Rules and resources:

https://tnqp.org/rules/
https://tnqp.org/resources/

Field Day 2019 – sign up!

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2019 Field Day will be held June 22-23, 2019 and the sign-up sheet for the WCARES 2019 Field Day event is here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSegdZcWWtWK-BdIA7wRvzm84H2S5biWytE2CqUwx6x8QhXaAA/viewform

Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC Saturday and running through 2059 UTC Sunday.

Building and testing a Windom

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Inspired by the recent presentation on Windoms, Dave, KI4PSR with the help of Jon, KK4AIZ, Rob, KM4SOA , Paul, KM4PT and Doug, W4DML, built and tested the design during this past Tuesday’s Portable Ops. Dave said the SWR was great, just as described by Ted, W3TB.

From Jon:
“Station was Icom 7300, with battery and solar panels. We were able to tune 20, 40, 80, & 17. I made one contact into Western Pennsylvania; on 7.255 – missed NC callsign. Got a 5.6 report!”

Photos courtesy of Dave and Jon: