Good day surfers of the web!

I wanted to take a few minutes to give an update on the repeater projects, since it’s been about 2 months since my last formal update. As a refresher for those not in the know - the repeater that I run died not long ago (I wrote about that here.) When that happened a couple very kind individuals donated some money to help out, I started an official fund-raiser to fund repairing my machine, and some others as well, and I also opened up a shop selling merchandise to raise money for the same effort.

So first of all, the plugs - support some repeaters financially, or with donations of equipment, or by connecting an existing repeater to the Pride Network. Donations of cash, or commitments to connect existing repeaters to the Pride Network have the biggest and fastest impact!

if donations aren’t your bag, Buy some cool stuff to support the projects. In addition to getting some neat stuff, walking around town, going to club meetings, or heading out to a hamfest, while wearing the swag helps bring more attention to the effort, and can be very impactful in the long run!

On with the Update

First - if interested in the nitty gritty details, the financial status is available here. every dollar helps, so PLEASE DONATE!

Milestone 1 Successfully Completed!

We raised enough in cash and donations of parts that we were able to reach our “Level 2” goal for my N3VEM repeater! There were a couple very generous cash donations, and a decent number of sales through the shop, which helped purchase some of the needed misc. bits to get back on the air, plus a donation of a couple key replacement parts for the repeater that let us get the same? a replacement? repeater back on the air. The question marks are there, because while it’s in theory the same repeater, so much of it is now replaced parts, that its kind of like the old parable about the sailboat - if you’ve replaced all the timbers and all the planks over the course of a number of years, is it still the same boat, or is it a whole new boat?

Either way, we’re back in business at 100%!

This means that we are now more formally pushing ahead and have…

Milestone 2 Underway!

Milestone two, the KJ7OMO Repeater, has officially started! With some of the left over cash from donations and shop sales, I’ve already started building a “new” repeater for KJ7OMO. The core parts are already in hand, so over the next couple months I will mostly be buckling down and doing some physical assembly, basic machining on the enclosure that will house everything, programming of radios, etc. There will likely still be an additional $100-$200 worth of misc. hardware and connectors to purchase, so please keep the donations and shop purchases coming, as all of the funds raised are now being directed straight into this part of the effort.

Milestone 3 - Future

While nothing official has been decided, I am starting to put some stuff on the “workbench of the mind” while we’re working on the KJ7OMO machine. I currently have 3 machines in inventory, and am leaning towards building Milestone 3 around one of the Kenwood TKR-820 machines that I have on hand. These are older, but reliable, machines. Both of the ones I have were narrow banded, so I’ll need to either revert them back to wide-band, or maybe leave it narrow-banded and use it connected to a hot-spot of sorts to convert it to one of the various digital modes. In addition to the machine itself, we’ll also need to ultimately find a physical home and a trustee (i.e. the callsign it will operate under) for it as well. Lots of decisions to still be made!

Anyway, that’s the update for now! Thanks for stopping by!

I had a number of Molex pins to wire up recently. To make things easier I decided to use some 4-core signal cable I had but found that the insulation is so poor at resisting heat that soldering the Molex pins was a non-starter as it always ended up with bare wires. Of course, Molex pins are designed to be crimped… so off to eBay.

The latest addition to my toolbox arrived in a couple of days and made the job a lot easier.

From Top to Bottom:

• Bell System CK-14510-L11 Analog Multimeter
• Topward 8112 2MHz Digital Function Generator
• Philips/Fluke PM-6666 120 MHz Frequency Counter
• Tektronix CMC251 1.3GHz Frequency Counter
• Tektronix 2465 300MHz 4-Channel Oscilloscope
• Hameg HM5014 1GHz Spectrum Analyzer with Tracking Generator

Not shown are my RigExpert VNAs, the NanoVNA, the Koolertron 60MHz function generator, the Tacklife 30V 5A variable DC power supply, and handheld digital multi- and LCR meters. On the bench is the Weller WE1010NA soldering station. Oh yeah, and my Elegoo 3D printer.

I think its turning into a proper little radio lab! State of the art, circa 1982!

KM1NDY

 

I give it FIVE Soldering Irons! 

I found it on Amazon Prime.  The workshop scenes remind me of ham workshops.  The movie character Harry Caul was based on real-life Marty Kaiser.  Was Marty a ham? 

POSTSCRIPT (August 23, 2024):  Yes, he is a ham!   W3VCG!   FB.  Here is his web site: 

http://www.martykaiser.com/fbi1~1.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conversation

http://www.martykaiser.com/odyssey2.htm

Thanks to Roy WN3F for reminding me to watch this film.  Roy found a clip that is reminiscent of hamfests: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joM5VDCIQg8

Hello fellow travelers!

I wanted to take a few minutes to give an update on the repeater projects, since another month has rolled over. As a refresher for those not in the know - the repeater that I run died not long ago (I wrote about that here.) When that happened a couple very kind individuals donated some money to help out, I started an official fund-raiser to fund repairing my machine, and some others as well, and I also opened up a shop selling merchandise to raise money for the same effort.

So first of all, the plugs - support some repeaters financially, or with donations of equipment, or by connecting an existing repeater to the Pride Network. Donations of cash, or commitments to connect existing repeaters to the Pride Network have the biggest and fastest impact!

if donations aren’t your bag, Buy some cool stuff to support the projects - the margins are smaller, but walking around town, going to club meetings, or heading out to a hamfest, while wearing the swag helps bring more attention to the effort, so can be very impactful in the long run!

On with the Update

First - the financial bit. We’ve got a couple hundred dollars socked away towards our stretch goal of acquiring a Yeasu DR2X via the Yeasu repeater program. if less than 10% of the folx who follow me on Mastodon donate 5 dollars each, or each purchase a clothing item from the shop, we’ll make the goal so…

PLEASE DONATE!

Milestone 1

Goal 1

I also wanted to share the update on what is currently on the air serving as the N3VEM repeater, since goal 1 in the effort was to just scrounge together whatever I could, really fast, to get back on the air. It’s nothing fancy, but it has us operational in the meantime. What I scrounged together was essentially a pair of Kenwood TK-840 mobile radios that I already had, the small notch-type duplexer out of the dead repeater, the small PC that was running Allstar for the dead repeater, and a new RIM-Lite interface from Repeater Builder to allow me to use the PC and the Allstar software as the repeater controller.

Goal 2

While we haven’t quite reached the $ level for milestone 2, We are likely staged for success there, thanks to a recent ham-fest haul - I was looking at a Motorola repeater that a radio shop was getting rid of. The folx said it would be good for GMRS but they couldn’t promise it would work down to the Ham Bands, so they’d give it to me for $40. I’ve been considering putting a GMRS repeater on the air for family use anyway, so I figured why not for that money. In the interest of them wanting to pack up for the day, while talking they said they’d throw in a couple Kenwood UHF TKR-820 repeaters for free, since they weren’t having luck selling them. This model is old, and programming can be finicky, but for free, we can likely make it work. I also bumped into someone who works for that radio shop, who is willing to give me a direct replacement for my dead GR1225, so all I need to do is make arrangements with him to pick that up. So between the 2 Kenwoods, the Motorola that might tune down to the ham bands, and the promised GR1225, we’ll be able to get a proper used machine back on the air if nothing else.

My dead GR1225, and one of the newly acquired Kenwood’s:

A second Kenwood, and a Motorola CDR500 sitting on a shelf in my utility space:

Goal 3

This is the big goal! essentially raise a minimum of $700 to allow me to use that plus pitching in some of my own cash out of pocket to get a proper, modern repeater on the air. Did I mention that donations or shop purchases will help with that?!

Milestone 2

Milestone two, the KJ7OMO Repeater, officially begins in September, but with the recent haul of equipment we should be off to a good start. At a bare minimum, I should be able to package up my current temporary machine into a nice little 4U or so sized box, and get it, along with a new antenna and some coax, shipped out to her to get her machine back up and running. I’m hoping though to be able to do something a bit better than that, depending on how this equipment and future donations work out.

Milestone 3

While nothing official has been decided, I’ll probably start looking in ernest into what comes next while we’re working on the KJ7OMO machine this fall. Again, it depends on how the equipment and donations work out, but I suspect one of these current machines can serve as the basis for whatever this ends up being. The NR7WL club has an Allstar node set up, connected to the pride network already, so something I’ve floated with the club already was that it might be nice to find a place to put up one of these machines so that that node has an RF side as well - TBD!

Anyway, that’s the update for now! Thanks for stopping by!

First - the plugs:

support some repeaters financially, or with donations of equipment, or by connecting an existing repeater to the Pride Network

Buy some cool stuff to support my passion projects!

Field Day is During Pride Month!

Clubs that are so inclined, should use the opportunity to show that their club is welcoming to everyone, by flying the colors at their field day site! To encourage promotion of Pride at Field Day sites, I’m going to do a little last minute contest!

The Biggest, Boldest, Pride Display at a Field Day Site Wins!

To ‘enter’ send your pictures of your Field Day Pride Display to:

n3vem.radio@gmail.com

or post them to mastodon and tag me, @n3vem@mastodon.radio, in the post.

The winner will be chosen by a distinguished panel of judges (my family!), and will be able to choose any 3 clothing items from my Subversive Radio Shop to give to the members of their club or group that they think would most appreciate them!

fine print - winners will only be chosen from places I can ship too - see the shop for details on shipping locations for clothing items. All Items must be shipped to a single address, with the winner taking care of distributing the items to their club/group members on their own. Pictures should include enough in-frame to make it clear that the display is at an ARRL Field Day site.

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