at www.w3gmsrepeater.com as it has a lot of information including technical articles, pictures
of I-95 users in action, and repeater etiquette and history. Now here on the workbench we
focus on answering general amateur radio questions and discussing topics of radio theory and
operation. Additionally, we'll be asking each station to make some general comments about
what you did in amateur radio in the past week. So when you check in, please indicate if you
have a question. And even if you don't have a question tonight, I ask you to check in.
After all stations have checked in, we will go into our general comments portion of the
workbench using a round table like forum, kind of like what we do on Thursday nights. Then
after each station gives their general comments, we will then move on to stations with questions.
After the question is heard, I'll call out to the workbench for a station to answer the question.
Once the question is answered satisfactorily, we'll move on to other stations with questions.
So please remember, the workbench is the time and place to ask those in-depth questions,
so please don't hesitate to ask. Keep in mind the question portion of the workbench is a
direct to net. So I ask that you wait to be recognized by me, the net control station,
before beginning a transmission. And this is just to help us handle your questions efficiently
and keep the net running smoothly. However, there may be times where two stations need
direct communication for additional questions or general statements or just general follow-up.
So I ask you to do that if it's necessary and just pass it back to net control afterwards.
We do have a few quick things to remember here on 985. And the first one is to click. wait
and then talk. This is to ensure that we don't miss the first few syllables of your transmission.
Also, we need you to let up on your PTT from time to time, something like this. Peter has
a three minute timeout timer. And finally, at the end of your transmission, turn it back
to net control. Before we begin, I'd to thank all the other stations for volunteering as
hosts for the workbench. If you'd to host the workbench in the future, please reach out to
one of us and we will get you on the schedule. Lastly, please join Phil, KC3C, I'd be this
Thursday at 8 p.m. as he is hosting this week's of the 985 Thursday Night Roundtable. At this
time, we're going to start the check-in process. And as much as hate to admit, I've been away
from the radio, so I don't know a lot of the newer call signs. So may ask you to repeat
some call signs. Feel free to say them phonetically. I may ask for that as well. And you could
say your name as well during the check-in process. That just helps me keep the log. nice and
smooth. There also may be some long pauses on my end as I'm just filling out the log
here and keeping track of everything. So I'll be back shortly after my little pause there.
We'll begin now. Remember to indicate if you have a question for the group. So we're going
to start with our digital check-ins at this time only. So stations using All-Star or EchoLink
wishing to check into the 985 workbench. Please call now. This is W3MOW. Whiskey 8, Charlie
Romeo Whiskey, CR. No question.
This is W1RC, Marblehead, Massachusetts. No questions standing by.
All right, very good. acknowledge CRW8CRW and Mike W1RC. Do we have any other digital check-ins
for tonight's workbench? Please call now.
No additional digital check-ins. We'll start with regular check-ins. So all check-ins, all
check-ins at this time for the 985 workbench. Please call now. This is W3MOW. Whiskey Alpha
3, Victor Echo Echo, WA3ZEE Ron, Westchester. Good evening, Mike. Thanks for doing an
3 Delta Zulu, Mexico. I'll be listening, no questions, I'm in and out. Just wanted
to give you the payroll check-in credit.
NAA-3CW, beautiful edge of town, Parksburg. WA3KFK, John. JZ3, OOK, the edge of somewhat
beautiful Oxford.
KD3AIS, Tim and Malvern.
K3FHA.
and three C-R-E Charlie.
AC3SQI, no question.
Very good. Let me run down the list here. Nice list on this beautiful Monday night. We have
Ron, W-A-3-V-E-E. And then we have Dylan, K-3-D-Z-M with In and Out. Dylan, thanks for checking
in tonight. Glad to hear you. And then we have Chuck, N-A-3-C-W. Then John, W-A-3-K-F-T.
Then Bill, K-C-3-O-O-K. Then Tim, K-C-3-A-I-S. Then John, K-3-F-H-A. Then we have Charlie,
N-3-C-R-E with a question. and Wayne is our current tail gunner, KC3, SQI. Do we have
any other stations wishing to check in to the 985 workbench? Please call now. This is W3MOW.
Okay, great. Nothing heard at this time. So we have one question on the docket tonight,
so that's okay. So feel free to chew the rag when you're telling us your comments for the
week here. I'll run through the list as we have it. Feel free to write it down. Make
note of who the station is before and after you so you can make your comments timely.
But if you forget who either precedes you or comes after you. and there's a little bit of
silence, I will direct it. That's my job tonight. So here's the list as we have it. We have two
digital stations tonight. So starting at the top of the list, have CR, W8CRW, and CR will
turn over to Mike W1RC. And then Mike, you'll turn over to Ron, W A3VE. Dylan's in and out
tonight. So Ron, you'll turn it to Chuck, N A3CW. Then John, W A3KFT. Then Bill, K C3OOK.
Tim, K C3AIS. and John K3 FHA, and Charlie N3 CRE, and finally Wayne R. Tailgunner KC3 SQI.
Wayne, you can turn it over to me, W3MOW. All right, CR, good evening to you. Happy Monday,
beautiful day, beautiful week. Over to you. Good evening, sir. W8CRW, this is W3MOW.
Good evening, Mike. Thanks for taking the chair and good evening all. This is CR and just a
regular normal week, nothing out of the ordinary, 985 activities and a couple other nets. With
that, let's go to Mr. Mike up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, W1RC, WHCRW.
Good evening to everybody on the workbench tonight. This is W1RC with a new signal, a new way
of getting into 985.
New way of getting in, I guess. I got my awesome. figured and set up and working and using good
radio and good audio I hope and looking forward to providing a better signal so you guys can
hear me without having to figure out what I'm trying to say through echo. experience getting
this thing done and of course it's only started. fact I found an app. I gotta reset this thing.
I got a timer here somewhere that's not very long.
That timer may be in the node or I'm not sure where it is but I'll find it and I'll fix it.
I found an app for my... called Node Remote and it's exactly for... type of operation.
But boy, thought getting a node set up was difficult. This thing looks like it's even
worse. I wonder if anybody on here has any...
any experience with an app called Node Remote. Looks like it'd be great when I get it working,
but boy I gotta tell you it's gonna be fun. With that over the wrong, WA3VE and the Monday
night workbench is W1RC.
Good Mike, W1RC up in Marblehead, Massachusetts. WA3 VEE here with the group. All very good.
First of all, Mike, it's great to hear you. We'd love to hear more of you. I know you're
busy, but if you're still down at the base, maybe on mobile we can hear you again. If you
need any assistance setting that up, just let us know for sure. I got plenty of help, as
you know, on 985. So great to hear you. Thanks again. A couple things here. status and then
also some announcements. As you know, we have field day coming up. We've had two Zoom meetings
and hopefully we've had almost everyone attend. However, there are a few people who
have not been able to attend or perhaps tied up with other things. if you're not either
of those and you just kind of forget, make a note of it. We'd love to have you in the
Zoom meeting so you kind of know what's going on for field day. The next Zoom meeting will
be Saturday night, not Friday night, it will be Saturday night at nine, correction, at
1900, that's seven p.m. local time, 1900, seven p.m. local time this Saturday night. If you
are on the email list for Joe for field day, you have gotten already, you should have gotten
a link to that. Also, you should have gotten a link to the past recording of the last meeting.
So please take a look at that if you have not. That will bring you up to date. There some
things in there that are requested that if you express an interest in field day, stand by.
You may be on a pseudo action list, so please try to make it to the Zoom meetings if you
possibly can. That makes a great team effort for sure. It'd go much, much more smoothly.
So secondly, I made it up to the site on, it was Saturday, and we did some antenna
work up there. I checked out the... all the antennas, the antennas look pretty good, however,
we're working here and then, now and then, on raising and repositioning a couple of
the antennas. So that's the activity currently. I had a chance to look at an 857 Yesu radio,
very interesting. Didn't get very far with it. I wanted to turn it over to its owner,
and also it has full output power, so you may be hearing more about that. Also, delivered
some radios to Chuck for the Go- one radio at least so far for the Go-To Station and I'll
be handling the 40 meter station over there at Field Day. Looking forward for some really
great participation. Relatedly... Just keep us to a minute, but there is so much going
on. I'll try to be concise. This Friday night at 7 p.m. the Pottstown Area Amateur Radio
Club is holding their meeting. We are inviting them cordially and officially to participate
with us on our field day since they are not doing field day this year. They're a great
bunch of folks. For some I know it's a tremendous drive, especially from the southern part of
the county and this is not... This offer is not extended in your direction unless you
want to take advantage of it. But if you could join us for a meeting with those folks, I'll
be presenting what we did at last year's field day, our winter field day, and like I just
said, officially offering them to come over and operate with us. There some good CW ops
in that group as well, and we could certainly use the points. So. Again, you'll be hearing
more about field day. That's been pretty much the basis or the extent of my operations over
here at the VEEQTH and also more to come on that. So with that, sorry to take so long
Chuck, but like I said, we get to cover some very important things here. Chuck, take it
over. NA3CW and the group, WA3VEEO. By the way, before I do turn it over, one last thing.
Mike, I'm going to send you a recording of what you just sounded like in your transmission
from Marblehead, Massachusetts through All-Star, so you'll see that in your inbox. Finally,
Chuck, finally, N-A-3C-W-A-3-V-E-E, it's all yours. Are you really sure? I see intermod
is among us, so intermod rules apply. WA3VE, this is NA3CW. I also was up there at the field
day site. We're playing with antennas, checking out the two tribanders and the dipoles and
such. So we don't have any nasty surprises, at least not from them. So we're looking pretty
good there. Ryan lent me the FT-710, which is a very interesting pile of automation,
I can tell you. I've learned to receive it, change bands and play with filters and whatnot.
I have not transmitted with it yet, but I have to kind of set it up in my station a little
bit, but I'll soon be doing that. I figure I could figure out an old Kenwood, but this
thing was a different animal. So I needed... A little bit more familiarity. If I'm going
to be the go-to coach, the go-to coach at least ought to know the radio. So I'm working on
that. We're making progress on Joe's tower. We're getting close. And I won't steal Bill's
thunder because it's truly his, but we're getting really, really close to getting that thing
ready to rock and roll and stand up. Operations, usual 985 activities, mobile operations as
I'm driving around.
the 75 meter PMAM pre-net and net, was just miserable yesterday because we had a major
solar or geomagnetic event going on, so the propagation was awful, just awful. but we got
through it with nine contacts and nine check-ins and we got through it with the help of online
receivers. But they seem to be lining up on weekends, anyway. So over to John. WA3KFT,
I hope you got your 100 watts cranked up warm. This is NA3CW. W-A-3-C-W, 100 watts, W-A-3-K-F-T
here. All right, well, we're ruling around in our mind various and sundry things about
field day. Marple Newtown has a club meeting Thursday night of this week, and the topic,
of course, is field day. And it's gonna be a new location for the club for field day.
They did spring field day at that. at the church, but not the June field day. So we're having
our club meeting at the church where we're going to do field day. So we get familiar
with the territory and so forth. And we will probably cross some T's and dots from I's
and what have you as far as what we're going to do and where we're going to do it and so
on and so forth. I have a couple of rigs that I should bench test before dragging them out
to field day. One's an ICOM 120 and the other's an ICOM 7. And both of them are old, but to
the best of my knowledge, both of them work. The 720 we used last year, and it worked flawlessly.
So we have two possible radios there, and I don't know what category we're going to be
in this year. I am in the process of adding another antenna to my collection here. outdoors,
upright, and so forth. And I'm getting talented about putting PL-259s on RG-8 coax. do have
some special tools from DX Engineering that makes life a whole lot easier. still have to
solder them.
on COACS PL-259. So with that, over to Bill. KC-3-O-OK. WA-3-KF-
WA3KFT, KC3, okay. And you are making it over.
Yeah, Bill, you sound great. Okay.
Thank you. tower, I actually think the last time.
did work on the triangular.
week.
get so close to the end.
The ham shack is all trimmed, painted and...
I have to bite the bullet and settle on what the operating station's going to look like,
where it's
in here. KC3AIS, KC3OOK.
Thank you, Bill, KC-3, O-OK, this is KD-3, AIS, Tim and Malburn. Last week in ham radio
I took the advice of the previous workbench I believed. You only know I couldn't look at
10 meter on the website and know what the conditions are for me. I struggled to hear 10 meter and
I called into 985 and two fine fellows helped me to confirm that I'm not crazy that I couldn't
hear things on 10 meter and then they tried to connect with me on simplex on 10 meter.
And that was also helpful because they could hear me or part of it, but it was informative
that I was being... positive for me as I make it gives me more motivation to get my general
and it does lead me to a question so I will add to add a question to tonight's list.
over to K3FHA this is KD3AIS.
3F8 check. Thank you, Tim.
for a take.
I was checked into a few nabs.
realized they didn't.
you
So that's
N3CRE. My question is, I am looking to pick up a shortwave receiver, like if I can. Somebody
I know is interested in getting into radio, and he'd to do some shortwave receiving.
And I said, well, there's things out there, there's receivers that you can scan through
like all the bands and find things. And I was just looking what kind of model number
people know of that does that type of work. N3CRE. And I guess that's my question. And
I guess I'll turn it over to Wayne, KC3, SQ. Kilo on three, Delta Zulu Mike, I have a quick
interjection if that's alright.
with the station that was coming through. K3DZM, I was listening here and I heard that kind
of question about a shortwave radio. There's a lot of good options, but I'm going to give
you my personal favorite recommendation. Go pick up an RTL SDR-V4 on Amazon. They're
like 40 bucks. You plug them into your computer, them up to a nice long wire, and you will
hear everything in the world. jump in and mention that. I've mentioned it before on other
nets, but those little things for 40 bucks are amazing. I have like five of them.
Uh, entry CRE. What was that model number?
All right, we're going to stand by real quick there, Charlie. So we got your question, we
got the recommendation, we'll hit on it here in a second. I just want to finish out the
general comments portion of the net real quick. We only have Wayne left and then we'll get
right into the question portion. So no big deal, but we're just going to move through this real
quick and then we'll get back to the question. So Wayne, go ahead and give your comments for
the week. KC3SQI, this is W3MOW.
Okay, am I making it over the internet or intermod?
Yeah, Wayne, you're doing pretty good. did hear noise on a few signals, but I don't know if
just, the intermod stopped. I'm not a good detector of it, but you're sounding good right now.
Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, got a new tunable, 80 to 6 meter.
antenna that I'm going to be setting up and trying. to probably going to be doing some
testing here in the near future as to which one gets out better and which one works better,
the tunable antenna or the random wave and fit dipole or and fit vertical. So that's about
all of The radio I've been doing, other than that, I put new battery cable connectors on
the pickup because the ones that I had on there kept working loose and I don't have to jump
out of the truck and go up to the front of it and wiggle those cables and jump back in
hope it started. So hopefully that's done. And we'll turn it back over to you Mike,
M3MOW, I mean W3MOW, this is KC3SQI.
Okay, very good Wayne, thank you. Good evening. KC3SQI and the workbench is W3MOW. I don't
really have much to add for general comments. Obviously I've been off the radio for a little
bit and I got a new vehicle and I don't have a mobile set up yet but maybe that'll change
in the future. I might do what W1RC did and make myself a little all-star note because
I do have a Pi 3B somewhere around here that I could probably make one. So that would be...
what I would be working on in the future as far as ham radio goes. I would also like to
maybe pop by the field day event on field day and bring my oldest son and just hang out
with the folks on 9-8-5 for a few hours. I think that would be really fun. So I may do
that as well. But that's all I really have to add. I want to thank all the stations for
checking in tonight and giving your general comments. It's always nice to hear how busy
we are here on 9-8-5 and kind of see how expansive the hobby is and it just goes to show that
there's a lot of knowledge here on 985. So with that said, heard Charlie, we heard your
question there about the shortwave receiver. I know Dylan popped in and said the RTL-SDR,
which is a little USB dongle that you plug into your computer. And they are very popular.
So that was a go-to from Dylan. I don't know if he backed out again, but I could definitely
get you a model number or something like that and send it your way via email if you're good
on QRZ. But with that said, do we have any other stations with comments for Charlie about
a shortwave receiver, maybe the digital versions or analog versions? Please call now. This is
W3MOW.
Chuck, good evening to you. Good evening Mike and thanks for driving the bus. I have a question,
a question for a question. This person that's interested in listening to shortwave, is
he computer savvy? How comfortable is he working with computers? The little RTL SDRs, they
work pretty well, but you have to do it through a computer. That said, there's a plethora,
I love that word, plethora, makes your tongue fall out, of online shortwave receivers
that you're all set up with a radio, with antenna, with a whole ball of wax, and you can listen
to it through a browser without buying anything at all. Or, is he just looking for his very
own shortwave radio, self-contained kind of radio. End of my questions, back to net.
Very good questions as always Chuck. Go ahead Charlie, you can pick it up and pass it back
to Chuck if you need to.
I don't believe he's computer savage. I think it'd be more of a standalone with a antenna
type of thing. I don't think, I'm not even sure he has a computer. If he can sit on this,
he can sit on his cell phone. N3CRE back to net.
Alright Chuck, I'll send it back to you and you and Charlie can go back and forth and then
I'll pick it up afterwards.
Yeah, very good. That's an important distinction because that takes out the RTL-SDRs or any
of the SDRs. Yeah. if he... The other thing is, I don't know if you've done much listening
on shortwave and the shortwave bands other than Ham's, and maybe he wants to listen to Ham
radio. If he wants to listen to Ham radio... he will probably need a radio that has ability
to receive single sideband. A lot of the cheaper ones don't. The other thing is the location
and the matter of an antenna. If you have just a little self-contained radio with a whip antenna
on the HF bands, you're not really going to hear that much. The shortwave world is not
what it used to be. And I can say that because I used to work in it. There used to be national
broadcasters from everywhere beaming English into the United States, and it was a whole
different world. But they don't do it anymore. Very few shortwave stations are beaming international
broadcasting to the United States because they're all doing it on the internet, of course. And
it's very expensive proposition to maintain a shortwave station or pay somebody else to
maintain one, you know, buying time on somebody else's transmitter. So pretty much the only
thing you're going to hear in the shortwave bands these days, hang on a second.
Pretty much all you're gonna hear in the shortwave bands these days are some creaky preachers
from some mountain state somewhere doing questionable theology. Ham radio operators, most of which
are on sideband and a few odds and ends, but I listen around from time to time and...
For English language, I also assume you're looking for English language. There's a fair
bit of Spanish on there, but not much English. So just trying to, again, put some boundaries
on expectations. That's why I was thinking about it would be good for no commitment
to do it online, listen to some of the online receivers. There are many of them. But if...
Like if I lived in the middle of Parksburg with a handheld receiver and a whip antenna,
pretty much all I'm going to hear is all the noise of Parksburg. Back to you Charlie, if
that's alright. Entry CRE and A3CW.
Okay Chuck, answer, okay. Yeah, well, okay. So, it looks like I gotta learn more about
this RTL-SDRs and look into that and then see if that's something that I may want to
suggest to him. I can see what you're saying about, know, in today's age, you know, it's
like you're gonna receive locally and you don't have a lot of stuff going on. around the world,
it may not be interesting. But I'll look into this, what's been suggested, and I'll see
if that's something that will work. All right, well thank you Chuck, N3CRE. Just one more
comment. The RTLSDR is something that plugs into a computer, so it's got to start with
a computer.
Okay, I understand.
All right, I do want to just call out to the workbench to see we have any other comments
for Charlie before we move on. If you do, please call now. This is W3MOW. WA3VEV Mike?
Go ahead, Ron. Good. Charlie, I might, Mike, if I might indulge also, if I can go back and
forth with Charlie here for a second. What price range is your friend looking at? N3CRE. Also
great to hear you, Charlie. W-A-3-V-E-E.
I don't know if that's an issue. You know, he's not going to go out and spend a thousand bucks,
but you know... think he's interested enough to pursue it a little bit.
Well, alternative to the RTL-SDR and that is a great, great possibility. I've got a couple
similar ones here right in the shack. There are a couple regular shortwave radios on the
market that he can find. You can generally get these for the low 100s for sure. One
particular brand is an Eton, E-T-O-N, Echo, Tango, Oscar, November. And there are similar
radios above and below in price point. If this is a passing interest... Obviously, maybe
on the lower side. If it looks like it's a serious interest, then an Eton might be one
particular radio he may look at. I have one here as a backup radio for emergency communications
here in the shack. It's a general coverage receiver. And it is, as I mentioned, a general
coverage shortwave receiver. So that's another possibility. No computer involved, but it's
just a regular... tabletop shortwave radio. There are a couple others that split my mind
right now. I would think one is called a TechSun. T-E-C-H-S-U-N. That may be another one to
consider. And there are others. I'm good on QRZ. If you want to send me an email, I could
probably go back and forth with you. They are more at length for regular tabletop. Not
very expensive, but relatively good value. Good. to maybe very good, not excellent, but
good to very good reception and coverage. Anyway, that's my input. Back to you, Mike.
W3MOW WA3VE.
Okay, very good, Ron. Do we have any other stations for comments regarding Charlie's question,
please?
3FHI
Go ahead, John. Mike, I have a small Texan and a handheld unit and with the whip antenna on
it, you gotta have somebody pretty darn close to get much, at least most of the times. I
haven't tried it in the middle of the night, might work better then. The problem with a
lot of those things is the antenna, so your friend really has to be willing to put up,
you know, 50, 100 feet of wire. trees in order to get anything almost no matter what you
have. Also, I wanted to mention that eBay has used communications receivers on there
that are general coverage and they have ones that are made by ICOM and other name brand
manufacturers that are used and typically it seems like they're three or four hundred dollars.
to get a really first rate communications receiver, but they gotta be invested in putting up an
antenna or else they're not gonna get anything no matter how good the radio is. Back to you
Mike, W3MWK3FHX.
Okay, very good, John. Thanks for your comments. Any other stations?
MOW real quick, mic again.
Go ahead, Rod. One last comment here. I'm looking right now, Charlie, on eBay. And the filter
I put in here very quickly is a shortwave, all one word, shortwave receivers. And one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. The ninth one down is one that I have personal
experience with. It's a Kenwood R1000 shortwave. AM single side band and CW radio with power
cord. I have one in my lab, I had one in my initial radio shack down in Delaware when
I was still living with my folks back in the 1800s. a good radio. $218 bucks buy it now.
$39 delivery, but that's a good radio. it looks like it works. That's an example. That's
one example. You could take a look at others out there, but that's a very good, that's
one very good radio. No computer involved indeed. This came out long before computers were a
household name and item and aggravation as well. Mike, back to you. W3MOW. WA3VE.
Okay, very good Ron, thanks for your comments. yeah, Charlie, I'd have to echo what Chuck
said about the online SDRs. I just remembered the one, and I know it's a very common one
that everyone uses. It's if you just Google K3FEF, it's a gentleman up in northeast Pennsylvania
that runs an SDR receiver online, and it works really good. You could get it on your cell
phone, you could get it on a computer. And yeah, if your friend is really interested
in listening, that would be the first step before... getting their own setup, I would say. So check
that out. K3FEF is the call of that gentleman who runs that Web SDR service. And you could
just Google also Northern PA SDR, and it's the first one that pops up. So there we go. Thank
you, Charlie, for checking in. Thanks for your question. And I do think we have a question
from Tim, so we'll get that going here. Tim, if you're still with us, KD3AIS, good evening
to you. This is W3MOW. Thank you, Mike. This is Tim, KD3AIS. My question comes from what
I did in the last week, which was trying to listen to 10 meter and having a very, very
faint signal, although I could barely realize there was a signal. And from speaking to
some different people, understand FT8 might be used to listen to a weak signal on 10 meter,
and it looks like on other bands as well. So my question is, is FT8 appropriate for what
I'm thinking? And then I can see online a whole bunch of things about best guide to FT8, FT8
for beginners, but hoping to leverage the knowledge of the group. Does anyone have suggestions
for me if I want to start trying FT8? Thank you.
Okay, very good question there, Tim. Let's see if we got any stations wanting to get
us started here on FTA. Please call now. This is W3MOW.
AC3SQI
Okay Wayne, good evening to you. Go ahead and take it away. One of the things that you can
do is go to the W3GMS repeater website and look down through there you'll find a primer
for how to set up and run FT8 with your computer and your radio. on there by Harvey.
I saw a lot of them on YouTube, but a lot of those left me going scratching my head
more than I thought I should. But the one from Harvey, he watched it through it very
well. So that's one thing that you can do to you know, get started and yes you do pick up
a lot more low level signals because it is a low level type of digital signal. So with that
I'll turn it back over to you Mike, W3MOW, this is KC3SQI.
Okay, very good, Wayne. Thanks for your comments. Do we have any other stations with comments
for Tim? Please call now.
T3, okay, comment.
Go ahead, Bill, with your comments.
question for Tim. Yeah, the...
5300 and then 9700, not sure which radio.
Thank you Bill, that's a good question. My radio is a Yesu FT-991A. So maybe those instructions
from Harvey will give me the concept, but maybe not the particulars. that
Alright Bill, thanks for your comments. yeah Tim, I do have an FT-991A as well. And I
think I found my instructions on YouTube or actually there's a website. if you just, I'm
sure I can look it up for you, but if you Google FT-991A FT-8 there's a pretty good website
on how you have to configure the radio and your computer system and all that fun stuff.
It's pretty extensive but... think there's a lot of good resources online to get you started
in it. Just a question for you. Is this your first time kind of experiencing FTE? Do you
know what FTE is? And is that like the first digital mode you're kind of experiencing or
looking to get into? Back to you.
Thank you, Mike. Yes, it is the first digital aspect that I've been looking into. I'm just
a technician, and so I have limits, and that's why I was looking into it.
I guess I would say I originally got into ham radio thinking that I wouldn't want to use
the computer or kind of like with a purist mentality. But I'm sitting right next to a computer that's
easily connected and I'm, I don't know if I'm a tech expert, but I'm certainly tech capable.
So even just mentioning here that the instructions are specific to the radio are helpful because
I wouldn't have understood that had I not heard this tonight. Back to you.
Okay, very good. mean, the basic thing is once you get your radio set up for your computer
and vice versa and you get all the settings situated, then your world of digital radio
kind of opens up, I would say, because you can use the, you can use FTA, which is kind of,
in my opinion, very boring because it's just a handshake that happens, you know, in a minute's
time. Then there's, you know, JS8 call, which is kind of like FTA, but you can actually have
a keyboard conversation with someone else. And then there's the whole other suite. know some
others can help me out with it. But the local Chester County Ares Races uses it for their
digital communications. So basically, once you have your radio set up, you can kind of dip
your toes in all the other aspects of digital radio. But I did look up, I think, the resource
that I use for the FT-991. And I will. send it your way if your email is good on QRZ.
Back to you.
Thank you, Mike. My email is good on QRZ. it's interesting that you mentioned JSA Call because
I also watch some videos from the tech prepper who's some guy out in Arizona and he's working
on JSA Call and all kinds of things like that. So I think I will go ahead and learn the
FTA at least to start and dip my toe into that and would appreciate you emailing what you
have when you have time. uh... and again i thought that on toward it
Very good. have the website up here and I'll log into my email and shoot it your way. Do
we have any other comments for Tim regarding the 10 meter digital stuff? Please call.
WA3VE.
Go ahead, Ron. good Mike W3MOW and KV3AIS WA3VE just to clarify a couple things the
CKAR group and most MCOM use NBEMS for the digital communications they they don't use
the the WJTX suite to my knowledge at least not the local local guys here in Chester County
they also use what's called Farah FM and they also use wind length. So those are the
digital modes that they use. Totally different from the FT8 and the Joe Taylor suite of
programs. On a broader basis, Tim, you mentioned something at the very beginning. And I think
this kind of overrides or I guess... goes over everything about whether or not to use
digital or not or whatever. And you mentioned that you're having a tough time hearing signals
on 10 meters. Well, most may know, but there is repeating, we're at the end of a very severe
geomagnetic storm. And what I would suggest is a website called spaceweather.com. Yes,
there is weather in space. Not the kind we have here on Earth, but there's weather in space,
mostly geomagnetic from the sun. And what's happened is that we have had some pretty
bad ejections, geomagnetic ejections, emissions from the sun that have completely disrupted
radio communications. And so if you're having trouble hearing signals on the low bands...
Check spaceweather.com. They have a bunch of metrics on there that I have yet to learn
about because I've got to do a presentation in October for the Pottstown group that I mentioned
earlier. That's how I learn stuff. I learn it to teach it and then I know it for sure.
But in any event, they explain all these metrics on there. check first if the bands are dead,
check first to see what's going on. coming from Mr. Sun because there's been a lot of
activity recently, namely in the past week. It's one of the most severe that we've had
in a long time and it definitely will kill communications. So just an FYI there. Back to you Mike, W3MOW
in the group, WA3VEA.
Yeah, very good Ron, that's a very interesting point. guess another good thing to mention
to Tim is obviously the time of day could dictate how great you're receiving signals on 10 meters
as well. So that's also something to think about. We'll send it back to you Tim for any follow
up you have. KD3AS, this is W3MOW.
Thank you Ron and Mike. Yet another good resource, Ron, from the spaceweather.com, which I had
never heard of before. Certainly I found that to be true that when you teach something you
learn it more solidly than just learning it yourself.
To be honest with you, I don't know the best time of day to talk on 10 meter other than...
think it's better during the day, but I have no idea. Can somebody please help me and tell
me when the best time is?
I can get it started on...
Yes, Rala, that sounds good to get a start on that. And Ron, would you be able to also go
over, let me see here, like, and this I think is good for the group, it's good for me, it's
a good refresher. But like let's say you go on QRZ and the first thing that pops up is
that little terrestrial data, the solar terrestrial data that comes up. And can you kind of explain
maybe what you would want to look at there? on that little pop-up to tell you if the bands
are good at that given time. Over to you, Ron. W3VE, this is W3MOW.
good, Mike. I'll do my best. This is the kind of stuff I'm still learning myself and I'll
admittedly being very humble here but very honest at the same time. As I just mentioned I'm just
learning this stuff myself because I find it fascinating enough to be able to do a presentation
on it. So yes, when you go to QRZ, one of the first things you do that I do down here when
I come down and operate any kind of HF I get a couple things going. I get some of the DX
sites going. Another reason why I have all these monitors here, because there's something on
every one when I'm operating usually that is HF, and especially doing any kind of contesting
or serious HF work. I get DX Summit going, DX Heat, a couple of these other websites
where I can actually see what the propagation looks like in real time. I have something
called HamClock also, which is a really good resource for... seeing, well, where are the
paths right now? What's hot on 14? What's hot on 10? Well, is 20? Is 10? Is 15 hot? And to
where, and so on and so forth. And another resource, as Mike pointed out, is the little panel that
comes up. Usually it's in the very first row of feature sites on QRZ. and that is the solar
terrestrial data. Now keep in mind that that is a general indicator from someplace. I
don't know where it's from. I don't know where URZ is based. I should know because I've talked
to the administrators before, but I it might be California. Don't know. But in any event,
that will give you an idea of what the propagation is good. during the day and night again, I
don't know where their day and night is. I mean, there's, the continental United States,
we know there's four time zones. So, worldwide there's 24, I don't know where that's based.
So, generally speaking, I use HamClock and some of the DX sites to find out what's going
on. And the thing, the other metrics in there, they will give you the solar flux index, which
right now is 140. signal and noise and so on. There is another site that escapes me right
now. I think it's the Kent County Standby. County amateur radio group in Delaware. And
they have a very good explanation of what these numbers mean. If I can find that location
and site, I will send it over to you, Tim, but it's all very good. But basically how
it works, On 40 meters, for instance, 7 megahertz, you can talk to somebody anywhere, any time,
day or night. That where happens to determine is determined by time of day and basically
the RF ceiling, which is the DEF1 and F2 layers of the ionosphere. During the day, that ceiling
is fairly low, especially recently. with the geomagnetic activity that's been going on,
there's a lot of ionospheric absorption of signals. So signals just don't get repropagated when
they hit the ionosphere. They get absorbed. And that's what's going on. There's so much
ionization in the ionosphere. And Chuck, please correct me on any of this stuff. I welcome
it for sure. This is my understanding and recollection. It's been a while since I looked in the books
at this stuff. But anyway, during the day on 40 meters, you're talking pretty regionally.
You're talking up and down the East Coast. You're talking to almost any county in Pennsylvania,
lower New York, Maryland, Virginia, in that area. At night, this time of night, don't be
surprised if you're talking to Europe, because the band goes what's called long. During the
day, 20 meters is pretty much your DX band, same with 10 meters, and also 24 megahertz,
18 megahertz. 75 meters, stand by again. 75 meters, 3.5 to 4 megahertz. That's 80 meters
and then 75, of course. During the day it's pretty useless. It's just like AM radio pretty
much. You know, you're not going to hear a lot long distance because the ceiling is, the skip
just isn't there. At night you can talk great distances on 75 and 80. So there's also something
you want to check out called maximum, and this is the stuff that we forget when we do our
licenses, and admittedly, a lot of us old timers, I'm speaking of myself primarily, forget this
stuff also, but maximum and usable frequency and minimum usable frequency for communications.
One last thought on that, I hope this is not too much, but basically. When I explain ham
radio to people, I say we can talk to almost anyone, anywhere in the world using a particular
mode of communications. It might be as simple as Morse code. It might be as complicated as
slow scan TV. Any time of the day on a particular frequency. So that's very specific words,
but that pretty much explains it. Again, I hope this isn't too much, but Mike, you asked a
dangerous question, so you got a long answer. You got a VEE answer. Sorry about that. And
again, Chuck, correct anything I said. Absolutely. Back to you, Mike. W3MOW, WA3VE.
No, Ron, it was very good. just wanted to start the conversation because it's always a nice
little refresher, kind of like a back to the basics type deal for myself. I can't speak
for everyone, but for myself, it's always interesting to learn that kind of stuff. So that's really
all I wanted you to get into there. Did we have any other comments there regarding anything
we talked about? Please call.
F3 is checking in too.
Okay Jim, very good. I'll add you to the log and go ahead with your comments.
Yeah, very good. And good evening everybody. I've been listening for a while here. I'm on
my way home from a camera club meeting. But anyway, the one thing, and I don't know if
you covered this Ron, but you are right Tim, that 10 meters generally, and all this stuff
is generally, 10 meters generally is gonna be better during the day and maybe not even good
at all at night. Matter of fact, 20, 15 and 10, that range of frequencies. All tend to
be a little better during the day than at night, so when things are really good, sometimes 20
meters will stay open all night long and that kind of thing. And, oh, there's something
else. We're sitting here waiting. Oh, and of course right now, know, Ron's comment about
any time of day there's usually some frequency or whatever you can use to get across.
navigation was pretty well shut down. Oh, I know what I was going to comment. This morning
I get on CW locally on 10 meters so we're only going 10 miles ground wave and we have no problems
almost no matter what. I'll often tune around and one place to check to see if a band open
is about...
Good.
digital frequencies and there I almost hear something near hear anything even
Very good at all. Back to you there, Mike, and thanks for hosting tonight. AF3Z.
Absolutely, Jim, glad to do it and thanks for checking in on your way home from your camera
function tonight. Let's see, Tim, I don't know if I asked you for follow-up yet, so I'll
send it back to you to see if you have any follow-up regarding everything we talked about. So
back to you, KD3AIS, this is W3MOW.
Thank you Mike, W3MOW, this is KD3AIS Tim. Yes, that is tremendously helpful. Ron, Jim,
Mike for asking the question, everything. I realized that that chart, that little square
on QRZ is a similar one to the one that's on the 1010.org that I was looking at also. So
it comes from somewhere. And this is all extraordinarily helpful. I have a little piece of paper that
I've been taking notes on and I ran out of room on it. So that just tells you how helpful it
was. So I have no more questions. This was helpful to me. And I will turn it back to W3MOW. This
is KD3AIS.
Okay, very good, Tim. Thanks for checking in tonight. Thanks for your question. Glad we
could help you out. And of course, everyone on 985 is resource, so don't hesitate to ask
anytime you're on the repeater for any assistance. And of course, keep us updated on your progress.
Let's see. Before we close down the net for the evening, do we have any questions that
we didn't hit tonight that we could get answered before we close down the net? If you have one.
Please let us know and give us a call, W3MOW.
All right, nothing heard. Let's see, we're going to call all stations now at this time,
see if we can get a couple more call signs on the check-in list. So if you've been listening
to the net and you haven't had a chance to check in and you want to be added to the MOW list
for June 2nd, I'd love to have you on the list, so please call now. This is W3MOW.
KC3YTD.
All right, I got the KC3 YTD Steve. think that's right. Thanks for checking in tonight.
Do we have any other stations wishing to check into the workbench?
Okay, nothing heard. think at this time we're going to shut down the workbench. I want to
thank all stations for checking in tonight and giving your general comments about amateur
radio. Again, it just showcases how active we are here on 9-8-5 and all the knowledge
that we have and all the interest in the hobby. So it's good for stations that are out there
listening to show that we are a neat little family and a smart family at that in amateur
radio. So again, thanks for that. Thank you for asking the questions tonight. We only had
two on the docket, but they're very good questions that had a lot of good dialogue back and forth.
Got some folks hitting the PTT, and that's what this night is all about, is asking questions,
learning, refreshing memories, and all that fun stuff. So thank you to all stations that
participated in that as well. Also, we have a very big thank you to Joe, W3GMS. for
allowing us to use the repeater for the workbench. And of course, even though the workbench is
closing down, feel free to use the repeater at any time, including after the conclusion
of this net. Keep the old hut up there on the hill, nice and warm. Keep it going. Keep
the electricity bill up. I know PECOs get more expensive, so Joe likes the bill going up for
sure. So keep it active and keep it fun. And then remember to join us this Thursday at
8 p.m. for the 985 Thursday night roundtable. That's a very good time and Phil will be hosting
on Thursday. So that'll be it for tonight. We're going to close down the workbench. Again, thank
you all for checking in and having fun tonight. I wish everyone a great week ahead. 7-3 for
now. Good night. This is W3MOW, now clear for the evening. 7-3 all.
WA3ZEW1, what is she calling? One RC, WA3ZEE. Sounding good on All-Star, Mr. Mike.
Thank you. I'm using my Motorola XPR7550. That's digital radio. It's got a thousand memories.
It's a great radio.
keep that, which I'm going to need, so I can't use the SL300 on a can, not if I want to be
agile. Did you get those links that I sent you to those two videos?
and thank you for that. I really do appreciate that. I have not had a chance yet to look
at them. We added three new furry friends this weekend to our house and we've been very busy
with them. They're very energetic. We are experienced cat people so we know what to do
but basically we're enjoying them. But they've taken me away from everything radio for a little
bit except for this. So I've also had some other activities for field day I had to address
today. thanks for sending those things. I will probably take a look at them in the morning
first thing once I get my coffee. So yes, thanks for sending those over. And I think I mentioned
to you earlier this morning when we first talked on Joe's machine this morning that between
what you just sent, and what you went through to set up your node and what Dylan, K3DZM
who I think you heard earlier on the radio here, he was responding to Charlie N3CRE's question
about shortwave dongles and things like that and listening to shortwave and all. But anyway,
between what you guys did and also what Rich has put together as well, WA2ZPX. I think
we can piece together all this stuff and we can actually come up with a real single point
solution for setting up an all-star node, which is what I'm after. So always something to
do in amateur radio. I've never had an activity in my entire life of almost 74 years where
it's been so every day I'm learning something. I'm junior in this with respect to you and
Joe and everybody else. I'm only in this 52 years, but every day it's learning something.
And I will learn something watching the videos. So thanks for sending those over once again.
Go ahead.
You're nobody's junior. Don't don't give me that
That's one of the best laughs I had this evening. Excellent. Well, thanks very much for those
kind words, Mr. Mike, indeed. Well, I'll tell you, one of these days I'm hoping to get freed
up enough to get up to Nearfest. I'm not one of those idle guys like Joe, W3GMS, and Joe,
know you're listening. But nonetheless, hope to get up there and actually shake your hand
in person for sure. sounding good and I think I wrote to you or I mentioned to you that
I sent that. Let me just make sure it went. Bear with me one second. So I check here right
on my shack computer and yes, I did send you, yes, I sent you the clip of what you sounded
like for that entire transmission. Now, the thing, the qualifier here is that the repeater
to me is dead full quieting. I've got a very good shot to the west. The repeater is 17 miles
away, like I mentioned, it is dead full quieting to me here. So it's almost a clear shot over
that 17 miles. And so when I listen on RF, it's a pretty good report. And of course,
that was digital, so I could receive that very, very well here as well. So hope you got that
clip. That's what you sound like through Joe's machine. And that's a... Again, it is not
directly offline like Joe would do, but it's a pretty good representation. Go ahead.
You haven't checked my email since you mentioned that you sent it. I will check it later and
I'll listen to it. Thank you for doing that. Yeah, I think that between a few of us over
here, we could put together a really nice little resource that we could then put on the website
and then send a link out. Don't send the material out, send a link out and make people come
to the WF3 GMS. repeater website. Let's get a little bit of publicity for the website.
We have something good. I did a... I these guide to writing Motorola code plugs for
DMR radios, the Moto Turbo radios. And I didn't know anything about it when I started, but
the guy worked.
I gotta fix this timer, it's a pain in the butt. As a retired Motorola engineer, Bill, anyone
be. And it's a step by step, you know, your number one sit down, you know, this what you
gotta have, this is what you gotta do, and you start here, and this is how you do it. And
you know, step by step. been through a million of those when I was working and I know Joe
and Chuck also have as well in our design engineering and my procurement manufacturing engineering
past, past lives. Boy, yes, procedures. Oh, yeah, very familiar with those. In fact,
as a tech writer for HP for six years while I was getting my engineering degree at Drexel
University in Philadelphia, yeah, I remember writing those. So yes, no stranger to that
at all, Mr. Mike. So very good. Well, it's great to hear you. Like I said, it's a pleasure
to hear you with the fidelity as you'll hear here. So it's all very good. I looked up that
radio also. That's a very interesting piece that you have there. And as we mentioned,
I think Joe mentioned also, I think I heard him after I got to where I needed to be this
morning. I think I heard him talking to you as well. if you have an extra bunch of change
in your pocket, which is almost all that you need to buy one of these Balfangs, like this
UV-21, I think is like, you can get two for like 60 bucks or like a $30 radio. And like
Chuck would say, I think I mentioned this to you earlier, they're brought as a barn door
as far as receive is concerned. It's not a high performance radio, but it does the job.
The beauty is you're only talking to your node right there. So if you have a radio node, like
I have a Shari PiHat, mine's a Shari PiHat 3. It's out in the van. I can hit it, of course,
from down here in the station down in the basement. But nonetheless, from probably almost a half
a mile away. But it... The touch-tone capability right on the front can't be beat. as I mentioned
to you, and I remember saying this to you, once you get the touch-tone capability, you will
never look back. So you can get one of those radios for 30 bucks or less, even if you do
a radio like Joe's got, think his UV-5R is, I think, 20 bucks. So it'll be probably one
of the best 20 bucks you ever spent. You drop it in water or you know. You drop it in what
Joe calls a porcelain insulator. And we all know what that is. You know, won't cry over
a spilt milk or a ruined HD because it's not that expensive. in any event, I never thought
I'd see the day in amateur radio when that would be the case, but it is. So in any event,
the keypad is the main thing there. So that's all very good. So sounding good, Mike. That's
all I gotta say, W1RCWA3VE.
Yeah, I've got two of them. I picked them up at the MIT flea market and I think they were
10 bucks with the chargers and everything. I just brought them home. They were cheap. I
thought, well, maybe I can get them. My wife used one and she's got her license. And my
daughter, my daughter's K1TG, 10 bucks. But I never figured out how to program them. Very
good. Go on the website, Chirp My Radio. Chirp like a bird chirp. C-H-I-R-P. Chirp My Radio.
And let me make sure I'm giving you the right info here. Let me just verify that. Oh, I
know I was going to send that over to Charlie. I have another website here. I need to send
that over to SCRE. Let me see here. Chirp My Radio.
Yeah, it's, if you just do a Google of Chirp, Chirp My Radio, what you'll have is you'll
have that website, chirpmyradio.com. It's a free download software program. And what
you do is there's a cable you need for your radio, which is fairly inexpensive. You'd
probably pay more for the cable than you'd do for the radio. That's a deal, I'm telling
you, that's great. But bottom line is that you hook it up to your computer, you put this
stuff in like a spreadsheet in SHRP. You put in like your Boston repeaters. And I even
have some of the CAPE repeaters programmed into my radios because of course, as you know,
I go to the CAPE every once in a while, not often, but I have the CAPE repeaters programmed
and the repeaters along the way. Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York State, New Jersey, PA,
etc. And I just go put those in. But I have a different program called RT Systems. That's
actually, you have to pay for that. It's about 49 bucks for the software and the cable. But
the chirp all you need to do is download the program, fill in the spreadsheet for the repeaters
of interest, buy the cable. and then be able to download it from your computer and the JIRP
program right into your into your Balfang guide.
I got cables too. got lots of Baufeng cables. We bought a bunch of the 16 channel UHF
radios for Deerfield Fair. We use them up there. They were cheap. What did I pay for them?
We got 20 of them for under 200 bucks from Amazon. Brand new in the box. And they work fine up
there. And if they don't work, you toss them in the garbage. Exactly. We just used a bunch
of UV-21s for an event down here called the Mud Mozi. And it's basically a run-walk through
a partial marshland in northern Chester County. And a good friend of mine, Tom, KC3TMT and
I have a treasure chest of Balfang radios that we lend out to the to the folks doing the radio
communications for that, it's a 5K race basically is what I want to get to. And it seems work
flawlessly. I mean, like I said, you're getting $25 radio performance or $30 radio performance,
whatever it is. I've never seen a radio cost more than 30. Well, yes, I have actually. I've
seen some for 60 bucks. But these Balfangs have really increased in quality. since the
very first ones that came out. There used to be a joke, and you probably heard this, that,
what band does a Balfang UV-5R operate on? And the answer used to be, the punchline used
to be all of them. Go ahead.
I heard that one before too. Well, I don't know, I always like good quality stuff. Like
Collins Radio stuff. I always like Collins Radio. I just like quality. I hate cheap
garbage. But, you know, they work and they serve a purpose. even I have a couple of them.
The price was right. think it was 10 bucks. Might have been less, because I might have
beat the guy down. I don't know, it's sure when I have a lot of fun doing that. But they're
here and I don't think I've ever used them, but they're here. I dig them out and play around
with them. But I like this Motorola XPR 7550. This radio, somebody paid about 1200 bucks
for this radio, but it wasn't me.
I almost radio in here that I ever pay this price for. And a lot of my test equipment
people say, oh my goodness, you must have a lot of money. I said, well, I know about that.
But they said, they look at the bench and they say, boy, you got all this HP equipment and
everything. And I say, yeah, but most of it when I got it didn't work. So I had to fix
it to get it to work. And that was part of my technician at heart forever type mentality.
I think I'm almost over fixing a lot of. things right now. just want to enjoy it now at this
point, but yeah, I know exactly what you mean. yeah, it's the Sharp program should work
very, very well for you. Like I said, it is a, I think it's an open source program.
And those kind of bother me a little bit always because, okay, somebody's tweaking this somewhere.
Is the program, next program going to be the same as the last one? And what control is
there? somebody that tweaks it totally didn't screw it up, know, that kind of thing. I don't
know, but in any event, it seems to work for a lot of people. I must have, over here, I
must have, all the radios I have, I must have about 25 different RT systems programs for
the various radios. I'm in the same vein, the same vein of thinking as you. I really like
a good quality radio. when I'm doing serious work, but if you're just like the other day
we were doing some antenna work up at the field day site and just for communications You
know if you're just point-to-point communications. you know can you turn the beam this way and
I'll look at the SWR and we're separated I'm in a trailer and the guy at the beam is at
the beam and so on and we can't hear each other by voice of yelling, even if that's effective.
So we're using an HD and a discrete frequency. And I mean, it just works. You're right.
For the purposes like that, for something casual like that, these things can't be beat for
the value. No question about it. One last question. Do you know what model radios that you actually
got for 10 bucks? Were those the UV5Rs? W1RC, WA3, VEE.
SW1R, yeah, I believe they are.
These are workhorses. Like I said, they've got a lot of emissions, but if you're just
using them for a particular purpose, you're in good shape. So very good, Mr. Mike. It's
good to hear you. Great to have a conversation. I was just about ready to fire off a message
to Joe, and it will be pretty much entitled. It'll be very short because I'm getting tired
and I need to go horizontally polarized with no emissions. I'm going to say, Mr. Mike sounds
great on 985. So all very good. anyway, enjoy All-Star like I said this morning when we talked
on the radio on Joe's machine here. It's probably one of the best features, if not the best feature
that we have that is not part of the core operating portion of the repeater. Go ahead.
Yeah, very good. I gotta go see my wife's calling me for something in the other room. So, but
yeah, we'll talk more about this. But I do like All-Star very much. I like the audio quality.
That's very important and it's good. It's great. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with
it. 73 for now. WA3VEE signed W1RC and Marvel head mass now clear. Mr. Michael let you run
I'm going to shut it down here too pretty soon since I get this message off to Joe. So you
have a good night great talking to you as always enjoy it always and I know I know now with
the connectivity you will not be a stranger on 985 for sure. W1RC WA3 VEE73 have a good
night.