September 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
The Monday Night SBE Chapter 73’ of the Air AllStar/Echolink NET is making the transition to the new connections very well. We hope you will join us some Monday night in the future. We are soon hopefully going to in addition to the WØGV 448.975 repeater adding the 449.625 WØKU repeater that we were on before. We are planning on moving it to Mount Chief in Denver since KXKL FM (KOOL 105) vacated a space in the “basement” of the building. It will also be connected to AllStar via facilities provided by Tracy, KIØHC. More to come on this in the future.
Speaking of AllStar, Skyler, KDØWHB help me to put together my raspberry Pi3 portable node to carry on trips with me. The node is easy to transport and sets up quickly in a hotel room. I then can connect either via the Wifi to my IPad, or a network cable plugged into a system. On my last trip to Steamboat Springs I used it to talk back to the Denver repeater and linked AllStar system. I hope that many of you will look into connecting to us with one of these very transportable system.
More on the Raspberry Pi3. See this article for how to use a Raspberry Pi as a ham radio TNC: https://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm
I hope you got to view the “Great American Eclipse” on August 21st. I spent the days prior building a really easy “sun funnel” to put on my reflector telescope for safely viewing the event. In Denver we expected a 92 % occlusion of the sun. Glasses 2 weeks before the event were easy to find. But the week before, they were nowhere to be found. A pinhole projector of course would be usable, but I wanted a better look in magnification. So after a search on the internet I found how I could build a funnel to attach to my 4.5 inch reflector telescope. A trip to an auto parts store later I came back with a standard easily available oil funnel and some hose clamps. Then after a visit to a local Walmart for a cheap shower curtain, I built this:
The Plossl eyepiece fitted into the smaller end and the bigger end of the funnel with the shower curtain (2 layers) “screen”.
My 4.5 inch Konusmotor 130 reflector, with sun aperture cover and the sun funnel showing the first aiming at the sun as the eclipse started
Here are some views taken with my cell camera of the eclipse as it progressed here.
The Eclipse at its maximum here in the Denver area
Pretty amazing! Our tree acted as a “pinhole” projector!
A closeup! Pretty cool!
How I built my sun funnel:
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/Build_a_Sun_Funnel_v4.pdf
More pictures of the eclipse on 08/21
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=90796&src=nha
This is what the eclipse looked like from 72000 feet as seen from
The EOSS (Edge of Space Sciences) high altitude balloon flown from central Wyoming by the Colorado based group (www.eoss.org). See the entire video of the shadow moving across that part of the country at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oom8jEDAdT4
Good friend and “transmitter” whisperer J Steve Wilde, KI6FEO, took a trip out to help troubleshoot and find some issues we were having at a site here in Colorado. Steve is an expert at tuning filters and getting things running in the best way possible. He solved a couple of issues and did some fine tuning in our bandpass filter at this site. Steve really has the touch when it comes to tuning high power filters and getting everything operating within parameters. Steve, myself, and Rich W9BNO, worked for several hours on the transmitter, RF “plumbing”, the filter, and other issues and finally got the station running back at full power and stabilized. We are hoping to make further improvements and doing more work at this site in the future. THANKS STEVE and Rich!
Steve working on tuning the high power filter at the site southwest of Pueblo CO
Getting the parameters well within proper operating limits! GREAT JOB STEVE!
As I have written in previous editions, I love it when you see ham radios used in TV shows and movies. This month’s capture features a shot of detective Danny Williams (played by Scott Caan) using what looks like a Yaesu FT-60 in one episode.
With today’s laptops and computers serial ports are becoming a thing of the past and sometimes makes using some older ham gear interfaces a bit of a challenge. You can always use a USB to Serial adapter to make the connections needed, but most of these will use something like “COM 10 or 11” to interface the software to the ham equipment being used. Older software will sometimes only have COM 1-4 available in a pull down menu. There is a way though in Windows to make happen what is needed in these cases. Going into “Control Panel”, then to Device manager look for “Ports”. Look there for the USB device that the computer has listed that you want to use. Double click on that and then on “Port Settings”. Another window should open then you will select “Advanced”. You will get a dropdown that will allow you to look for another port number. Selecting a Com number that matches your software requirements will solve the problem. Virtual Com 11 becomes whatever Com you need. GREAT TIP I read about on the internet! This will help with many older serial devices used by ham operators to keep good stuff running (at least in the current versions of Windows. I wish it were that easy in Linux! J
By the way, another picture of the Eclipse taken by Sam, in Rocklin CA during the event. I forgot to include it above.
Here is a beautiful mobile installation done by our friend Robert KC8GPD. Robert also is helping us out as a contractor for sites here in CO. He installed a Motorola Analog Spectra 70cm rig and a CB SR89MC radio in his Suzuki Grand Vitara. He hopes to replace these radios soon with a Connect Systems CS800D (the dual band model)! Stay tuned!
IMPORTANT NOTE: We are going to make yet another move as we transition more to the ALLSTAR system, 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 on this web site.
ONE YEAR AGO:
http://www.smpte-sbe48.org/wp/2016/09/
TWO YEARS AGO:
http://www.smpte-sbe48.org/wp/2015/09/
THREE YEARS AGO:
http://www.smpte-sbe48.org/wp/2014/09/
I will be adding more to my website archives here soon.
AND
Don’t forget the SBE Chapter 73’ Of The Air
AllStar (and Echolink) Hamnet, every MONDAY EVENING
At 7pm Mountain time (9pm Eastern) for radio discussions, both
Broadcast engineering and amateur radio.
Details on how to
join are at http://www.ke0vh.com/net/net.html. I hope
You will be able to join us and share your engineering and
Ham exploits! 73’ es God Be With You!
