The FediFridayWinlinkNet question of the week on 5/31/24 was “What is the most interesting or unique place from which you have operated a #hamradio?” We had some really interesting answers! See the list below.

• From the San Andres Fault right between the Pacific & North American plates
• From a boat in the middle of Oneida Lake in NY was the most interesting place I’ve operated
• Cubi Point Naval Air Station in the Philippines back in 1991, did not have my license at that time, but was instead using another HAM’s license
• Schwarzwald National Park
• Piney Grove Campground on the Tombigbee waterway. I usually run Field Day from the camp but I also listen to the marine bands while barges pass by between the Tennessee River and the Gulf of Mexico
• the dolly sods wilderness in WV — my favorite place!
• APRS On the beach in Waikiki near the Hilton Hawaiian Village
• KC4USV – McMurdo Station Antarctica
• House Mount lookout in Idaho during the 1989 ARRL Field Day. Two photos of mine from that event were featured on two QST covers. November 89 and June 91
• From the roof of a pink WW2 pillbox on the summit Pu’u’ohulu Kai, Oahu, HI
• West Coast USA, with an EFHW at 2ft above the ground running along a wooden guard rail.. working Japanese stations on 20m QRP CW as the mist rolled in
• sent APRS messages from ground via ISS
• 2 Weeks ago on a boat in Ireland, QRV with my X6100
• Copper Harbor, MI. Amazing place to operate
• an Engineers Without Borders trip to rural El Salvador; made ~3 contacts with a G5RV and my 706
• Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac National Memorial: POTA US-0784
• Probably a coffee shop running packet on my TH-D74
• As a DXpeditioner, I’ve operated from so many interesting places: ZD8 Ascension Island, JW Svalbard, VP2M Montserrat, FP St Pierre et Miquelon, ZC4 UK Sovereign Base Area on Cyprus
• I would say I had very nice experiences doing ham radio in the classroom with equipment that my students had built themselves

Here are the responses to the #FediFridayWinlinkNet question from 05/03/2024: What are your #hamradio weekend plans?

• Eight to ten POTA activations on Friday between Cheyenne and Gillette, WY. Sat I will be roving for the 7QP contest covering 7 Wyoming counties.
• HF & 6M digital
• No radio plans, doing chores and getting ready for a trip to see Mom
• Amateur radio satellites as usual.
• Winlink Activities for multiple Nets
• POTA activation if the weather allows
• None, working this weekend
• No plans yet
• messing around with my linbpq setup for #farpn possibly getting on the air Friday evening as my spouse is out of town and I don’t usually get on the air at night when she’s around.
• pota activations if weather allows, pota hunting if stuck inside
• POTA activation
• Deploy darkmode for our radio club website
• Region 7 is hosting the annual 7QP and I am thinking of visiting one of the local club participants.
• Probably some more 20m(day)/40m(night) JS8Call.
• Installing VHF/UHF in the RV
• Prepping for a wires-x talk. Anyone know anything about wires-x or have a presentation I can steal. I’m going from 0 to hero. I hope.
• Not sure I have any!
• Saturday, work on HF vertical. Sunday, Run For The Zoo communications volunteer
• Busy with yard tasks, so probably just some VHF monitoring.
• Get an antenna up on the ship in preparation for a sea voyage
• Attending a swap meet and hoping to get a PK-88 TNC hooked up and working
• Weather permitting, I’m hoping to stop by our first local hamfest of the season Sunday morning
• Prepare 6m antenna and mast for the start of Sporadic E season, and finish my PCB layouts for a K3NG Rotator controller.Currently on 318 Grids for VUCC 50Mhz, would like to get up to 350 this year.
• FT8 DX and local repeater monitoring

A couple of folks have asked for my configuration files for my LoRa APRS trackers and i-gates, so I thought I would just share them in a follow-up post. Be sure to read my first and second LoRa APRS posts.

Here is my tracker_config.json file:

{
	"beacons": [
		{
			"callsign": "W0RMT-XX",
			"symbol": "[",
			"overlay": "/",
			"micE": "",
			"comment": "",
			"smartBeacon": {
				"active": true,
				"slowRate": 120,
				"slowSpeed": 3,
				"fastRate": 60,
				"fastSpeed": 15,
				"minTxDist": 50,
				"minDeltaBeacon": 20,
				"turnMinDeg": 12,
				"turnSlope": 60
			}			
		},
		{
			"callsign": "W0RMT-XX",
			"symbol": "k",
			"overlay": "/",
			"micE": "",
			"comment": "",
			"smartBeacon": {
				"active": true,
				"slowRate": 120,
				"slowSpeed": 10,
				"fastRate": 60,
				"fastSpeed": 70,
				"minTxDist": 100,
				"minDeltaBeacon": 12,
				"turnMinDeg": 10,
				"turnSlope": 80
			}
		},
		{
			"callsign": "W0RMT-XX",
			"symbol": "b",
			"overlay": "/",
			"micE": "",
			"comment": "",
			"smartBeacon": {
				"active": true,
				"slowRate": 120,
				"slowSpeed": 5,
				"fastRate": 60,
				"fastSpeed": 40,
				"minTxDist": 100,
				"minDeltaBeacon": 12,
				"turnMinDeg": 12,
				"turnSlope": 60
			}
		}
	],
	"display": {
		"showSymbol": true,
		"ecoMode": false,
		"timeout": 4,
		"turn180" : false
    },
	"other": {
		"simplifiedTrackerMode": false,
		"sendCommentAfterXBeacons": 10,
		"path": "WIDE1-1",
		"nonSmartBeaconRate": 15,
		"rememberStationTime": 30,
		"maxDistanceToTracker": 30, 
		"standingUpdateTime": 15,
		"sendAltitude": true,
		"sendBatteryInfo": true,
		"bluetoothType": 1,
		"bluetoothActive": true,
		"disableGPS": false
	},
	"winlink": {
		"password": "ABCDEF"
	},
	"bme": {
		"active": false,
		"sendTelemetry": false,
		"heightCorrection": 0
	},
	"notification": {
		"ledTx": false,
		"ledTxPin": 13,
		"ledMessage": false,
		"ledMessagePin": 2,
		"ledFlashlight": false,
		"ledFlashlightPin": 14,
		"buzzerActive": false,
		"buzzerPinTone": 33,
		"buzzerPinVcc": 25,
		"bootUpBeep": false,
		"txBeep": false,
		"messageRxBeep": false,
		"stationBeep": false,
		"lowBatteryBeep": false,
		"shutDownBeep": false
	},
	"lora": [
		{
			"frequency": 433775000,
			"spreadingFactor": 12,
			"signalBandwidth": 125000,
			"codingRate4": 5,
			"power": 20
		},
		{
			"frequency": 433775000,
			"spreadingFactor": 12,
			"signalBandwidth": 125000,
			"codingRate4": 5,
			"power": 20
		},
		{
			"frequency": 433775000,
			"spreadingFactor": 12,
			"signalBandwidth": 125000,
			"codingRate4": 5,
			"power": 20
		}
	],
	"pttTrigger": {
		"active": false,
		"io_pin": 4,
		"preDelay": 0,
		"postDelay": 0,
		"reverse": false
	}
}

And here is my igate_conf.json file:

{
    "callsign": "W0RMT-XX",
    "wifi": {
        "autoAP": {
            "password": "1234567890",
            "powerOff": 10
        },
        "AP": [
            {
                "ssid": "networkssid",
                "password": "networkpwd"
            }
        ]
    },
    "beacon": {
        "latitude": XX.XXXXXX,
        "longitude": XXX.XXXXXX,
        "comment": "LoRa APRS IGATE",
        "interval": 15,
        "overlay": "L",
        "symbol": "a",
        "path": "WIDE1-1",
        "sendViaAPRSIS": true,
        "sendViaRF": true
    },
    "digi": {
        "mode": 2
    },
    "aprs_is": {
        "active": true,
        "passcode": "XXXX",
        "server": "noam.aprs2.net",
        "port": 14580,
        "filter": "m/50",
        "toRF": true
    },
    "lora": {
        "txFreq": 433775000,
        "rxFreq": 433775000,
        "spreadingFactor": 12,
        "signalBandwidth": 125000,
        "codingRate4": 5,
        "power": 20,
        "txActive": true,
        "rxActive": true
    },
    "display": {
        "alwaysOn": true,
        "timeout": 4,
        "turn180": false
    },
    "syslog": {
        "active": true,
        "server": "logservernamehere",
        "port": XXXXX
    },
    "bme": {
        "active": false
    },
    "ota": {
        "username": "",
        "password": ""
    },
    "other": {
        "rememberStationTime": 30,
        "sendBatteryVoltage": false,
        "externalVoltageMeasurement": false,
        "externalVoltagePin": 34
    }
}

In each case you will need to customize for your callsign and SSID, Winlink pwd, WiFi network, APRS-IS access, lat/lon, etc.

Please comment if you have any questions!

For the FediFridayWinlinkNet on 04/12/2024, the prompt of the week was to describe your most memorable QSO. Here are some of the responses.

• QRP CW contact with Australia via long path.
• always the QSOs with folks who had an interesting background that got them into radio or radio getting them to their careers – I recall one with someone who had gotten a sample of mylar material from the Echo 1 project (https://space.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/QuickLooks/echoQL.html) as a teen, due to an acquaintance of the family working on it.
• D-STAR QSO with a ham with the same surname in western England. Talked for 2 hours about everything.
• I’m only a month old, but my most interesting QSO was my first HF QSO. It was coast to coast via 10m SSB with K6AA at the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. I was so surprised I was able to reach that far on my handmade EFHW.
• Sitting down at an EME station of a local ham probably 35 years ago on 70cm and hearing my own echos off the moon.
• This past weekend I made my first QSO’s using a (tr)uSDX QRP Transceiver. I’m sure I have made more interesting contacts but this was memorable due to some rather unique operating challenges.
• Was driving on I-140 and saw what looked like a 2×3 call(non amatuer plate) as I drove by flashed “5” “2” with my fingers and he saw my plate and we had a short QSO.
• With an astranout in space.
• They are all interesting, fascinated by talking on the airwaves.
• Most interesting QSO was psk31 with a station in Italy when I was in Ecuador operating as HC1/VE7WYC, using a homemade mag loop that was sitting horizontally on the roof.
• The day I constructed my doublet I made a QSO with TX5S on 12m during their DXpedition to Clipperton Island. It only took two calls on 12m to get thru.
• Maybe my first real QSO which happened to be with the Queen Mary special event station.
• First PSK31 – had a nice first contact and good conversation.
• Working a VK station from a ship in the North Atlantic on 6M SSB using only a 1/4 wave whip magnetically stuck to the side of the ship.
• QSO’s with fellow Mastodonians!
• Not sure if it was my most interesting, but for a couple days in a row I was finding a merchant marine ship off the west coast of Africa. The station on board had a Taiwanese callsign. I got him in the log I think 3 times before I lost him. Exchanged a couple QSL cards too.

I’ve been experimenting with and using LoRa APRS for a couple of weeks now. Here is the first post I wrote about getting started with it. If you haven’t read that one yet, I suggest you start there. I’ve also been trying to learn a bit more about the LoRa modulation (or “Frequency Shift Chirp Modulation”) protocol.

LoRa Modulation

This video offers a very good introduction to the specifics. It is a bit mathematical, so be prepared for that, but also accessible.

LoRa APRS as implemented in the code by Ricardo CA2RXU uses a spreading factor of 12. If you watched the video you know that this corresponds to a symbol set of 2¹² (4096), or 12 bits/symbol. That is 4096 different chirp waveforms! LoRa uses a pretty interesting method to discern one waveform from another, and therefore decode the corresponding symbol. Watch the video above as the author explains it better than I can.

What I am really interested in knowing is how this modulation technique performs in real-world applications with beaconing positions at low power.

LoRa APRS Practical Use

I’ve been trying to use LoRa APRS in a variety of use cases. I now have i-gates set up at my home and work locations. I am also building a portable LoRa APRS digipeater and/or i-gate that I can deploy as needed to additional coverage. That will be the subject of a future post.

The i-gate in my office (W0RMT-41) in downtown Denver is on the 7th floor of my building against a window facing northeast, and uses one of the small “Hershey’s kiss” 433 MHz mag mount antennas on top of my filing cabinet. I would call it a compromise setup for sure.

I have a tracker in my mobile with a 10W amplifier, and a low-power (100 mW) portable tracker that I use while walking and running. I have re-cased the low power tracker since my last blog post, thanks to AG7U for providing the 3D printed case!

At 10W, my mobile tracker does very well in all of the areas that I drive on a regular basis. I get solid tracks that are much better than those I get using VHF FM APRS and the same smart beaconing settings. Here is a typical track from home to the office, before I installed an i-gate in my office in downtown Denver.

Since installing the i-gate in my office, I also get good coverage for the 100 mW tracker downtown. In this example, you can see where I parked my truck (W0RMT-46), the truck of another local amateur using LoRa APRS (AB0VZ-45), and my walk from the truck to the office (W0RMT-45).

And here is where it gets impressive, I think. I went for a run of about 5 miles from the office and wore the tracker in my running belt with the antenna against my back. I was curious to see if my office i-gate would receive my beacons. Part of this run is actually below the street grade along Cherry Creek, and then things open up a bit more once I get to the Platte River and head south. While there is certainly a bit of wonkiness in the below grade section, I would still consider this a full coverage track. Amazing, I think.

And here is a little 3 mile run from home while wearing the tracker in my running belt, with the terrain at or below the home i-gate. This track has great coverage. Remember- the tracker is only 100 mW!

Finally, I have been pushing the limits of the little 100 mW tracker in terms of power and terrain when running from home. I’ve done a couple of tests wearing the tracker in my belt as described above, and also while wearing it in the front of my running vest/pack.

Here are the tracks from two test runs, one (green track) with the tracker in my belt, and the other (blue track) with the tracker in my vest. The actual route is shown in red, as recorded by my watch.

To be fair, this was challenging for the little tracker as the run goes up on to a mesa above my home digi, and then out across the mesa. So there is no line of sight, and no good reflection surface either (as there is in the city). Here is the profile (out and back).

I’ve got a lot more testing ideas and I am looking forward to plaing with the portable digi/i-gate once I build that.

Isn’t amateur radio a great hobby? There are so many things to pursue and learn about. It’s fun when you open a new door and develop new skills and knowledge.

A local amateur operator (WB5PJB Gary) reached out to me recenty to see if I wanted to get involved using LoRa APRS on 433 MHz. Gary and I used to talk quit a bit years ago when were experimenting with D-STAR and D-RATS file transfers, but we had never met in person. I had played around with 915 MHz briefly using Meshtastic, and had a few of those boards but never really got into it. So when Gary reached out I though this sounded like a fun thing to dive in to and a good opportunity to meet him in person.

A group of amateurs in the South Metro/Douglas County Colorado area have been using LoRa APRS and setting up a network of i-gates which feed into APRS-IS. They have used this system to support a motorcycle ride in the foothills, and have had a lot of success. Check out the ARESDEC LoRa APRS web page for more details.

LoRa (“Long Range”) is a chirp spread spectrum modulation technique which can be used at low power levels. LoRa “encodes information on radio waves using chirp pulses – similar to the way dolphins and bats communicate! LoRa modulated transmission is robust against disturbances and can be received across great distances.” LoRa generally operates in unlicensed radio spectrum (e.g., 433 MHz, 868 MHz, and 915 MHz). Because LoRA is suited for small data packets that do not need to be transmitted and received at high speeds, it is a good fit for APRS. Using LoRa for tracking locations and feeding into the APRS system requires LoRa i-gates to connect to APRS-IS, hence this project.

Gary and I met along with Art (N0AIU – another north metro amateur operator) to set up some LoRa i-gates and trackers. The i-gate hardware are the LILYGO® LoRa32 433 MHz (version 1.6 through 2.1), and the trackers are LILYGO® T-Beam Meshtastic 433 MHz (soldered OLED version 1.0 through 2.1). These devices get programmed with firmware by Ricardo CA2RXU. He has both i-gate firmware and tracker firmware. These are programmed using VSCODE. Ricardo has good instructions for this on his github repositories. Power output for the boards is set at 20 dBm in the firmware, which corresponds to 100 mW. One can use an external amplifier to boost this up to 1W, 5W, 10W, etc if needed.

Thanks to Gary, I am up and running with the northern-most LoRa APRS i-gate in the Denver metro/Front Range area: W0RMT-40. It seems to be the informal convention of this group and mode to use higher SSIDs to distinguish from VHF APRS stations.

I’ve also got one low powered (100 mW) tracker (W0RMT-45) to mess around with, and a higher-powered (10W) tracker to experiment with as well.

I’m looking forward to using this system and experimenting a bit. I am impressed that my i-gate is receiving and decoding beacons from a low-power i-gate over 47 miles away at -123 dBm / -9.75 dB! Below is a profile for the line from a mobile tracker I received that is 34 miles away. It’s an advantageous line of sight for the mobile, but still an impressive reception and decode for a lower power tracker.

And finally, here is a quick test of the 100 mW tracker on the dash on my truck while making a short local round trip. It is amazing what such low power can do.

Next steps will be to install a tracker in my truck, and use another tracker in a smaller case (the Pelican case is temporary) while I am hiking and running.

I’m re-posting this from the 22 December 2023 FediFridayWinlinkNet so we can refer to it later and reflect on our stated goals.

What are your ham radio goals for 2024?

• Figure out how to make a Greencube satellite contact
• bring Morse skills up to 20 wpm, construct new/improved ham desk.
• Upgrade my gear, and in particular get an HF rig
• Complete my 488 AMSAT Gridmaster Award.
• Build a Raspberry Pi based WSPR transmitter for the 30M band.
• Getting faster at CW
• Set up some exteral antennas instead of the current loft ones
• CW ragchew QSOs, building a packet station, More POTA
• Restart my CW learning. Get at least one CW QSO and one CW POTA QSO.
• Set up a semi-permanent packet station for HF and VHF; operate out of my shack more
• just more QSOs than last year
• Get back on HF so I can do WinLink over the air and not on TelNet. Plus do HF APRS.
• My goal this next year is to have more field activations.
• Build Morse speed to 20wpm; build new operating position
• More POTA, get into radio orienteering
• Too many to count. SSTV, VARA on RPi, setup packet node, radio go-bag,…
• get a better power supply and optimize my shack
• Sell unused hamradio gear. Become proficient in CW. Operate more outdoors.
• 100 CW contacts per month
• Clean up my shack, Send out all the QSL-cards.
• Increase DXCC counttries to 250 confirmed and continue to improve operating skills and station in RTTY contests.
• My ham radio goals for 2024 are to use Olivia a LOT more and to become a regular user of SSTV

Anytone 878 vs Yaesu FT-5DR

Years ago, I did an analog APRS receive/decode comparison between the Yaesu FT-2DR and the Kenwood TH-D74a. It wasn’t even close – the Kenwood received and decoded far more packets than the Yaesu.

I now have an FT-5DR and while I generally like the radio, I still don’t think it has a great receiver nor does it seem to have great APRS decode capabilities. My Anytone 878 UV II Plus can also receive and decode analog APRS packets, so that led me to ask this question about comparing the two radios.

The Setup

Both radios were fitted with the Nagoya NA-701 antenna, which should control for the antenna variable. I cleared the analog received stations list from the 878, but for the life of me I cannot figure out how to delete all stations from the FT-5DR and I did not want to delete all 60 of them one at a time. I placed both radios outside on a patio table in my backyard, and let them receive APRS for 30 minutes. APRS TX was disabled on both radios, and the sub-band was of on both. I set the squelch on each radio to its lowest non-zero value. I repeated this procedure two separate times, with each receive test lasting 30 minutes. I then counted the number of unique stations received and decoded by each radio. I also counted the number of packets received and decoded by the 878, but I cannot do that on the FT-5DR as it appears to overwrite the last received packet from a station when a new packet is received and decoded from that station.

Results

In the first 30 minute test, the 878 received and decoded 12 APRS packets from 5 distinct stations and the FT-5 received and decoded 3 distinct stations. In the second 30 minute test, the 878 received and decoded 13 packets from 5 distinct stations, and the FT-5 received and decoded 2 distinct stations. So it would seem that the 878 does a better job of receiving and decoding analog APRS packets than the FT-5DR.

Thoughts

I’m not sure why the Yaesu HTs seem to underperform relative to others when it comes to receiving and decoding APRS packets, but it is a little troubling. Especially since so many amateur operators use these Yaesu HT’s for APRS. To be fair, the APRS user interface (UI) is much better on the FT-5DR than it is on the 878, but if it can’t receive and decode some data, that’s a problem. I wonder if the Yaesu mobile radios suffer from this same problem. I have an FTM-500DR but do not have an Anytone 578, otherwise I would compare APRS receive and decode on those two.

What are your thoughts and experiences with APRS reception and decoding on handheld radios?

Or: Don’t Hate on FT8

One of the great things about amateur radio is that there are so many different modes to explore and avenues to pursue. It is an amazingly diverse technical hobby. There is something for everyone, and FT8 has become that something for many amateur operators, much to the chagrin of a few curdmudgeons.

Without giving air to the critics, I wanted to share why I like to use FT8 (and FT4).

Reason 1:

In February 2023 I was diagnosed with cancer. After two surgeries and six weeks of radiation treatment, I am currently cancer free. But during the diagnosis and treatment time, I needed a distraction – something that was fun, but intellectually stimulating. One can only play so many word games on their phone. I had cut back on work and was spending a lot of time at home to recover. I had never used WSJT-X before then, but decided to get my Xiegu X6100 on the air and try these new-to-me digital modes. So I set up the radio with an EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) and got it configured to do FT8. This also forced me to figure out a logging solution (I ended up using N3FJP ACLog on Windows, along with Logbook of the World, QRZ logbook, eQSL, etc). I also set it up so that I could remotely access the PC interfaced with the radio, and use my Android tablet while I was stuck in bed. I’ve also set up FT8 on my Android devices using the FT8CN app, which is pretty fun to use. This whole thing proved to be great fun to set up, tune, and refine. And it was fun to operate while I was recovering. I made hundreds of contacts and learned a lot about propagation and my antennas during this time. Which brings me to the second reason I love FT8.

Reason 2:

Once I was up and about more, and had more time, I began to experiment with different antenna solutions. I have a small backyard with no tall trees, and can’t really erect a permanent antenna. So I bought a couple of different telescoping poles (this one and this one). I started playing with different setups for the EFHW (sloper, inverted L, vertical). A great way to assess and compare the performance of each configuration was to change it, then call CQ on FT8 on a band of interest, and examine the spots from PSKreporter. It is really amazing how much this helps understand an antenna’s performance. I spent a lot of time doing this with the EFHW, a G5RV, and some dipoles. I now have a very good idea of how each of my antenna setups will perform on a given band, within ionospheric conditions and constraints, of course. This has really helped me to understand practical RF propagation and my available antenna solutions.

Reason 3:

The third reason I love FT8 is that it is like theraputic operating. And this realization came to me while recovering from surgery or when I was too tired from radiation treatment to do anything else. One can be very casual or very concentrated when operating FT8. But seeing those grid squares fill in and then get confirmed (I use GridTracker) is very satisfying. And I don’t mean satisfying from a contest standpoint (at least not for me), but from a sort of puzzle-solving standpoint. It’s pretty cool to me to see a real-time map of all the contacts you have made on a mode by band.

I operate a lot of other HF modes as well (Olivia, PSK, VarAC, JS8Call, packet, and even SSB!) but I still like FT8 and FT4. At the end of the day, it is a hobby and it is all about having fun. Do what you enjoy and strive to be good at it. What do you like about operating FT8?

I wish I had a Winlink stack that’s free and open-source
(sung to the tune of Wishlist by Pearl Jam)

I use Winlink quite a bit, which is probably widely known since I run the #FediFridayWinlinkNet. The system is very reliable and robust with so many access points and modes. But like many Winlink users, I am not fully “bought in” to everything about it. By that I mean that there are a lot of changes that I would like to see. Here is a running list of my thoughts as well as some input from others (which I will try to update):

• Make RMS Express (and all Winlink clients), and all modems/protocols (e.g., VARA) free and open-source. It would be great if creative hams could fork, adapt, and improve all elements of the software stack. (Also on the wishlist of W1CDN, AI6YR, KC1PYT, K0STK, …)
• Do not require (even softly, as a nag) registration for RMS Express.
  • Note that I would be happy to support ARSFi if it was clear what they did, and if others could get involved and share their thoughts. But none of that seems clear from their website. And the only way to contact them is through snail mail?
• Develop modem software compatible with HF tri-mode servers that works on mobile devices (especially Android). It would be awesome to harness the power of modern phones and tablets to run a full Winlink stack (including clients such as WoAD, which should also be free) on a mobile device.

And below are some thoughts from other operators.

KC0BLK:

• Have officially supported clients for Mac and Linux
• Modernize the client interface
• Custom domain support
• Better client tuning support when using auto connect

…and we’ve got a least 3 votes for changing the name to anything but “Win…” lol

Do you have other ideas or things to add to the Winlink Wishlist? Please leave a comment and I’ll add them to our running list.

The question of the week for the 23 Feb 2024 FediFridayWinlinkNet was “What is your favorite antenna?” This question was submitted by Ben, AI6YR.

Here are the 30 responses:

• Doublet
• 80-10 EFHW, hamsticks
• All my antennas
• HF whip
• W4OP mag loop
• Parabolic
• Cubical quad
• no favorite
• EFHW
• Comet GP3, SBB-7, SBB-224
• EFHW
• Random wire
• Diamond X50
• J pole
• ATAS-120A
• EFHW
• EFHW
• EFHW, J pole
• 40m dipole
• Diamond RH-205
• Signal stick
• 20m dipole in L config
• EFHW
• Random wire
• EF random, EFHW, G5RV
• OCFD inverted V
• the one that I have any moment in time
• Whichever is convenient
• EFHW
• Dipole

Like many amateur operators, I have far too many handie talkies (HTs). I’ve cycled through many, and sold or given away many that I was done with. Some of those I wish I hadn’t sold (like the Kenwood TH-D74), but others I was glad to be rid of. I thought I would take a few paragraphs to talk about what I use day to day, and what I like and don’t like about these radios. I should note that I won’t discuss the HTs that I use in wildland fire communications as that is an entirely different purpose and topic.

On a regular basis and in addition to analog FM, I use DMR and Yaesu C4FM. To a lesser extent, I use P25 on amateur networks. Rarely do I ever use D-STAR any more, and then only via DVswitch and the mobile app on the phone.

I like using DMR. I’ve always liked the networks (specifically Brandmeister) and the architecture. I know, the digital audio is totally different than the richness of analog, but it’s still fun. And DMR was where I really learned about bridging and how I got into XLX reflectors.

For DMR, I mainly use the Anytone 878UV Plus II. I also use a Radioddity GD77 with the OpenGD77 firmware, and a Motorola XPR7550e. Of these three, I think the 878 is probably the best everyday choice. Yes, the 878 has its weird quirks, and the CPS (Customer Programming Software) is pretty bad, but the radio is fairly solid and easy to operate. And it sounds very good, both on receive and transmit. I also like the form factor and feel in the hand when operating. The OpenGD77 firmware is probably the most ham-friendly DMR firmware in existence, and is a pleasure to operate. But the hardware (Radioddity GD77) isn’t nearly as nice as the Anytone. I do like this radio as well, and keep one in the shed and use it while I’m out working in the yard. These radios as so inexpensive that you can have a couple and not worry about beating them up. In addition, both the 878 and the GD77 work very well with the Mobilinkd TNC4 for packet.

I don’t use the Motorola XPR7550e as much. It is a good solid radio, but is lacking a lot of the ham friendly features (like direct TG entry and persistence). I use it mostly on the Rocky Mountain Ham Radio region-wide DMR network where I am usually parked on one repeater/TG (Talkgroup) or roaming on a single TG.

For Yaesu C4FM (commonly referred to as “Fusion”), I use the FT-5DR. I also have an older FT-2DR, but it is relegated to my PDN (Personal Digital Node). The FT-5DR is a decent radio, and has a lot of APRS features. But to me, it feels pretty cheap. Indeed, mine has develoepd the dreaded case crack (or “mold line” as Yaesu likes to call it). It also goes through batteries very quickly. I always carry 2 extra batteries for this radio. I think my main gripes about this radio are the audio quality and the form factor. It does not sound very good, probably owing to the tiny size and small speaker. And it feels uncomfortable to hold an operate. I mostly use Yaesu C4FM because it is becoming more and more popular in our area, but I will admit that I am a bit of a reluctant user.

In my opinion, the Kenwood TH-D74 was the best APRS HT that I have ever owned. I should not have sold that. Kenwood’s APRS implementation and UI are much better than Yaesu’s, and the receiver in the Kenwood radios is much, much better than the Yaesu. I just wish Kenwood hadn’t gone with D-STAR as their digital mode of choice.

Finally, I use P25 a bit over a hotspot on amateur radio. For that I use a UHF Motorola XTS2500. I said I wouldn’t talk about wildland fire radios in this post, but I did it anyway. I also use this radio on fires, as it is one of the NIFC (National Interagency Fire Center) approved radios. This is a very solid older radio with great audio. The CPS is a real bear to deal with (read: it is horrible and not ham friendly), but the radio is awesome. On fires, I use it with a very large AA batttery clamshell that holds 12 batteries, but around the house I use an old rechargeable battery.

Anyway, as you can see I like HTs Maybe in a future post I will discuss some others, and talk about what we use in wildland fire.

Recently, my ARRL membership was up for renewal. I thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to renew so that I could have a (very small) voice in the way the League is operating these days. There have been many recent criticisms of the ARRL. The one that I have chosen to focus on is the League’s lack of commitment to making amateur radio more welcoming and inclusive for diverse individuals. In this aspect, I think the ARRL has been failing miserably. From photographs of a seemingly monocultural leadership and membership, to a lack of discussion about who engages in the hobby, the League is far behind the curve when it comes to understanding society and who our amateur operators are. Consequently, many places in ham radio remain unwelcoming to a large number of talented, well-meaning, and genuinely good people.

I wrote this open letter to the ARRL from my own position of privilege and the associated power that comes with being a cis-gender, heterosexual white male in our society. I have decided that my directive in life is to use my power and privilege to advance those voices who are marginalized or who have been historically minoritized by society. I do this in my professional life, and I think it is important to do this in our hobby if we are to flourish and grow. Indeed, I believe we must make the hobby more inclusive to avoid becoming irrelevant.

I sent the following letter (co-signed by 44 fellow amateur operators) to a group of leaders at the ARRL. Please have a read to learn my main talking points.

So it would seem that the League views developing welcoming and inclusive environments as “political” and will make no such statement. And it seems that they are a bit defensive about this (“the staff is diverse”). Notably, there was no response to my suggestion that the League elevate diverse voices by appointing diverse folks to leadership positions. That non-response speaks volumes, I think.

The work of making spaces welcoming and inclusive is only seen as political if one politicizes it because they disagree with the position or are threatened by the potential outcomes. Human dignity is not political. I see dignity as Kant wrote about it. Dignity is afforded to every individual based on their rational autonomy. But I suspect that a philosophical treatise on dignity will do very little to advance this position within the League. 

Of course, many inferences can be drawn from this limited response. But I will assert that if the ARRL does not embrace and welcome all of the creative, diverse, and active amateur operators into the hobby by foregrounding their work, we all suffer from the technical debt due to the lack of inclusion. And our hobby is at risk of becoming completely fractured and irrelevant.
Let’s keep this conversation going. I know that I will do so! Please feel free to reach me on Mastodon @bud_t@m.ai6yr.org

Addendum: Reply to the ARRL Response

I replied to the ARRL’s response with this:

David-

I want to thank you for your reply, and for writing about and promoting equity within the League. I’m sorry you saw my letter and suggestion to make a statement as “political.” It is clearly not meant to be. In my experience, people often politicize issues of equity and justice when threats are perceived. I would hope that our membership would see equity not as political, but as being a good and just amateur operator who shows dignity towards others. 

I am happy to be a member of the ARRL and will continue to work to create a welcoming and inclusive place for new and diverse amateurs, as I know you will too. I hope that we can work together towards this end. Please reach out if I can help the ARRL achieve these shared goals.

73 de Bud

Update: some thoughts on commenting

I’m happy that so many people are engaging with this post and talking about the issue. If you’ve left a comment but it has not been accepted, then you either a) engaged in name calling and/or use of profanity, or b) launched an ad hominem attack against me because you don’t agree with my position. I am more than happy to accept comments from those who disagree, and to have a discussion. But I will not give voice to those who engage in either of the above practices.

And for every disagreeing or combative comment I have received, I have received at least 4 or 5 comments in support of this letter. So that is a pretty good ratio! Though it is telling that many of those supportive commenters have reached out to me privately because they don’t feel safe voicing their support publicly. But that’s why folks like me need to speak up. Have a great day!

Welcome to my new amateur radio blog! I’ll use this space to share experiences and extend ham radio conversations.