The KE0VH Hamshack for October 2017

Once again, my new email address is now ke0vh@outlook.com. I have changed it due to some problems with access and my cell phone. Please make a note of it! J

Thanks to my buddy Chris, WXØPIX for this information:

Long Island Ham Radio Operator Helps Relay Messages From Hurricane Victims In Puerto Rico – CBS New York https://www.google.com/amp/newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/09/22/ham-radio-hurricane-maria/amp/

Hurricane damage and OSHA violations! J

Several humorous statements from the guys who posted these pictures such as “Can you hear me now”? and “just adjust the picture as so and the tower is plumb!”. Wish I could claim the brainpower for those captions.

Well I am back from my trip to the Chattanooga TN area to visit my Mom and stepdaddy Lester. Had a great trip on the Vulcan! I used the AllStar phone portal to keep in touch with guys back in Denver and Kenny K4KR in the NW GA area as I went and came back. I ran into thunderstorms on the way out near Paducah KY and then storms and COLD rain on the way back around Colby KS to Denver the next weekend. I used the AllStar phone portal and took my Baofeng HT with me to keep in touch while in the Chattanooga area using the W4YI repeater and Kenny’s AllStar node. And I want to thank Tracy KIØHC, Greg WB7AHO and Kenny K4KR for keeping me company on the ride and helping me with a couple of tech problems with the motorcycle I had on the trip. Basically it seemed I lost my charging system and had to get a couple of jumps on the trip to Chattanooga, and I had to buy another battery and battery tender while visiting my Mom and friends but I made it back home just fine. Really enjoyed the trip and catching up with friends and my family. My Uncle gave me a really great Motorcycle rain suit that literally saved me on the way back with the severe thunderstorms and COLD RAIN back into Denver!

Dressed for bad WX on the motorcycle!

Loved taking the “state line” pictures!

The VERY FIRST radio station I worked at as a teen-ager!

The Vulcan at WFLI, Lookout MT, Chattanooga TN

Into Georgia, and a visit to Chickamauga Battlefield near Kenny in Chickamauga

Yeah about 2700 miles all said and done when I returned home. AND, now the charging system on the Vulcan is working again. More on that later. Note the HT holder on the right handlebar. Not real sure if I will ever make such a long ride again, or at the very least not try to do 1350 miles in two days both directions. 12-14 hours a day on the bike was just too long. Guess we will see!

Also, I had APRS KE0VH-5 beaconing for the trip and Rich NØEB tracked me and the statistics of my trip. Now I was using a phone ap to do so as I hadn’t time to set up radio, but it worked just fine and served the purpose. My wife, mom, uncle, Kenny, Tracy, and several other friends kept up with my progress as I motored across. Thanks Rich for sending me these stats:

“There and Back Again” A motorcycle trip, not a Hobbit tale! KEØVH-5

By the way, one morning on the trip I went to have breakfast with Kenny K4KR! Thanks for the great waffles breakfast buddy and the visit to the K4KR hamshack. I of course had to see the K4KR AllStar Node 45649. Kenny’s setup for his simplex node is really neat and clean and operates very well on his 2 meter simplex frequency. Nicely done Kenny!

The K4KR AllStar node radio, power supply, and Raspberry PI3

Kennys AllStar audio interface between the radio and Raspberry PI3

And speaking of AllStar, I used my portable node from the hotel room I stayed in at Steamboat Springs. The node utilizes my IPad connection to the internet and can be of course signed into a Wi-Fi from your hotel or home. I also use my node at home by connecting into my wired network with the Raspberry PI3’s capabilities to do either. Talking into the network with my Baofeng HT to the VX-170 node radio is easy and gets you on the air from wherever. Thanks again to Skyler for helping me set this up. If you missed the earlier article and descriptions of setting this up go to my archived 2017 August “KEØVH Hamshack article listed link below in this edition.

The portable KEØVH_AS2 (my second AllStar node) portable AllStar kit box and Raspberry PI3

The IPad acting as the bridge to the internet plus the Terminus software to do different functions with the Wi-Fi connection to the PI.

We put in a new Bandpass/notch filter in our Steamboat Springs facility thanks to Steve (KI6FEO) at American Amplifier Technologies. As I wrote about last year AAT supplied the bandpass filter for our Denver station and it has worked flawlessly! So when we needed a new filter at 11000 feet in Steamboat we called Steve. Proofing unfortunately will have to wait until next year due an early October snowfall of 24 inches at Steamboat. Just didn’t make it in time this year. AND, thanks to Steve as these filters he builds with AAT are really superior to anything I have seen before. I will be requesting these filters exclusively from now on due to the workmanship put into each one of them and the performance. Steve goes the extra mile (or hundred miles) essentially to build the filter to the specific needs of the station. This filter has a notch built into it to reject another close adjacent (in the same building) station. Note the cooling fan on the top. This is a high altitude site (11,000 feet AMSL) so you can get these with or without the cooling kit as needed. Great stuff Steve and the folks at AAT!

The new bandpass filter in at Steamboat Springs, and KEØVH connecting it up!

We also installed a new bandpass/notch filter at our station in Colorado Springs and this time a receive filter since we are on the edge of reception for the station being repeated. This is another site that we just obtained and moved the station essentially from a mountain top to a much better site down in the city to fill in a hole between our two 100 kw stations south of Colorado Springs and in Denver. This site is also right on the southwest side of the city with mountains between the higher power sites so reception was tricky.

The new bandpass transmit and receive filters install at another site

When we put in this station the signal indicator on the BW receiver was reading in the 19-20 dbuV range. This site is right under multiple 100 kW stations on Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs. Lots of RF to cause interference overload. With close adjacent signals. As you can see below, the signal basically doubled in strength, and multipath improved, really improving our repeated signal with the new receive filter. AGAIN, great job American Amplifier Technologies.

IMPORTANT NOTE: We have completed our transition to the ALLSTAR system, and we have with a better connection for those of you using ECHOLINK, which will stay in place, but simply move to another ECHOLINK NODE.

Henceforth, those of you coming in via ECHOLINK, please use Echolink node KD0WHB-L, or number 985839.

I will be keeping a link into 9615 IRLP for special use by those who only have an IRLP link capability at this time. BUT it will not be the main link anymore due to problems it has been having cross connecting into ALLStar.

You will find that the audio coming thru the new ECHOLINK 985839 is much better than the other IRLP reflector too.

NOW, if you want to get on AllStar directly,

1st, see if there is already an AllStar repeater on the air near you. Email me if you want help on this.

2nd, you can build your own portable AllStar node out of a RaspberryPi3 which of course is readily available. Email me for more information on this.

3RD and most immediate, you can (you will have to register anyway), you can get on the AllStar Phone Portal via your cell phone very easy.

Go to https://allstarlink.org/ and sign up for an account. Once you have that, (it usually takes about 24 hours to register) and you have an AllStar PIN, you can use the phone portal to get on the net. Think of it as a long mic cable to connect your microphone (cell) to the system linked to a repeater (or several). I can send you an auto dialing script once you have your PIN. Makes it very easy, audio is great, simple to use and no more having to employ a laptop.

BTW, you can also get the Echolink APP for your phone and do the same thing if you don’t want to use AllStar. As stated above, please start using the Echolink node 985839, or KD0WHB-L

SEE back issues of my articles available now! Copy or click these links into your browser to see previous installments:

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201702Feb.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201703Mar.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201704April.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201705May.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201706June.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201707July.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201708Aug.pdf

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201709Sep.pdf

ONE YEAR AGO:

http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack20160910SeptemberOctober.pdf

TWO YEARS AGO: