Podcasts about ctcss

T2B – VHF/UHF operating practices: FM repeater, simplex, reverse splits, Access tones: CTCSS, DTMF, DMR operation, Resolving operational problems, Q signals. 59:17

T2B – VHF/UHF operating practices: FM repeater, simplex, reverse splits, Access tones: CTCSS, DTMF, DMR operation, Resolving operational problems, Q signals. 59:17

In this episode we talk with Rex, KE6MT, the SOTA (Summits On The Air) program manager for California.  Rex gives us an update on the SOTA program and why you should be interested in this great aspect of ham radio.  In the last segment we talk about the Wilderness Protocol and how, while it's a good start, its just not very practical.  We define a new proposal called the Adventure Radio Protocol which uses CTCSS tones to signal various type of activity on the air on a common frequency of 146.580 MHz.  Of course, as a HRWB episode, we also turn this into a hardware project that is a PCB that can handle the tone decoding and alerting.  The Adventure Radio board can be used at a base station, remote receiver or on a repeater system to alert listeners for traffic or emergencies. Check out adventureradio.info for more details.  

Foundations of Amateur Radio As a new amateur one of the initial perplexing issues you're confronted with is setting up your first radio to talk to the local repeater. The question is so common that it's almost an invisible rite of passage to a new licensee. While I'm a fan of learning, there is plenty of that to go round and setting up your radio to talk to a repeater shouldn't be a hurdle to getting on air and making noise. Ignoring the whole repeater thing for a moment, let's consider your radio. It doesn't matter if it's a handheld, a base station, a boat anchor or something else. To participate in the whole repeater experience, you need to tune your radio to hear it. Technically, if I told you that you could tune to a local repeater on 146.750 MHz, that would be enough information to get you going, but this depends entirely on a set of standard assumptions that are likely not obvious to you. Let's explore what's going on. Given that frequency, you can set your radio to 146.750 MHz and in most cases, you'll be able to hear the repeater. To actually participate, you would need to do some more work to get your transmitter to be heard. As I said, standards are what makes that possible, but like every human endeavour, caution must be applied. As Andrew Tanenbaum said: "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from." With that in mind, let's proceed. Before you start yelling, I'll add caveats at the end. Armed with a repeater frequency, you have enough information to get on air, but it assumes that you know a couple of things. So let's delve into those assumptions. For starters, there is an assumption that you're aware that to operate a repeater you must transmit on a different frequency than what you're listening on. Why that is the case is a whole other discussion which I'll leave for today. There is the assumption that you know that the two frequencies, one for listening, one for transmitting, are separated from each other by a known distance, a so-called offset. You're also assumed to know that this offset is fixed but different for each band. There's more, but let's start here. For your radio to transmit on a different frequency than you listen, you must tell it to. In many cases tuning your radio to a so-called repeater frequency will already do this for you, but not always. You might need to specifically program your radio for repeater operation, or turn on the offset mode, or use two memories, or some other thing specific to your radio. Read The Friendly Manual, I know you know how. The next step is to look at the band you're on. In this case the 2m band. This means that the standard says that the difference between the receive and transmit frequency is 600 kHz. I'm studiously ignoring other bands at this moment because, standards. At this point you know that your radio should be tuned to 146.750 MHz, it should be in repeater mode and the offset should be 600 kHz. That's when the next question arises, should that be plus 600 or minus 600? Guess what, another standard. If the receive frequency is less than 147 MHz, the answer is minus 600 kHz. If it's more than 147 MHz, it's plus 600 kHz. Notice that I didn't specify what happens if it's exactly 147 MHz? That's because nobody knows. Seriously though, the local repeater owner will know, but you can try either and get your answer. Now for the caveats. Let's start with the 147 MHz cross-over exception. This isn't global, for example repeaters in California use several different ranges for such a cross-over point. I also didn't tell you about repeaters on other bands because the offset depends on where you are. In many cases the 70cm repeater offset is 5 MHz, but in Europe it's mostly 7.6 MHz, unless it's 9 MHz. The 10m repeater offsets are often 100 kHz, but sometimes they're 1 MHz, similarly the 6m repeater offset is 1 MHz, except when it's not. The point being that starting with a receive frequency, there's a great number of assumptions, many of which you'll need to discover for your own location. A great resource which I've mentioned before is the brainchild of Garrett KD6KPC, the repeaterbook.com website and app, maintained by a global group of volunteers, which lists many repeaters and their specific settings, frequencies and locations. So, armed with this knowledge, I expect that you can now find a local repeater and make use of it. When in doubt, contact the owner and ask for help, they're a friendly bunch. Remember to say thank you! So, what excuse do you have not to get on air and make noise? Oh, before I forget, if you don't hear anything, or if transmit isn't doing what you expect, check that you've configured CTCSS, another assumption. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

When I bought my first Airspy, I realized that I was really starting to get serious into the SDR side of the hobby.     Before my Airspy's, I was buying the cheap SDR's that did not have a TCXO and would seriously drift.  It was a joy to start using the Airspy receivers.   Since then, cheap RTL style SDR's with TCXO's have come out on the market that reduce the drifting issue.   If you are looking for a reliable Software Defined Radio that works right out of the box, then you want an Airpsy SDR.     What You Need to Know Airspy devices do not require special firmware applications, like Zadig to install. Most SDR software supports Airspy products. If you used SDR#, then you already have experience with their products There are a plenty of community plugins for SDR#, including audio processors and recorders, CTCSS and DCS squelch options, DSD plus interfaces, frequency managers, screen readers, DVR or time shifts, etc. SpyServer is another piece of software that is offered by the SDR Airspy community. Airspy receivers support firmware upgrades I purchased my first Airspy years ago and have added more Airspy products to my SDR collection. I'm using my AirSpy mini with SDR trunk on my MacBook. There are Airspy receivers for HF and VHF. Others to VHF and UHF. A Spyverter will allow you to monitor HF from your VHF/UHF SDR   ====================================

Every month I answer your questions on the podcast. If you have a question you would like me to answer, please leave me a voicemail at 516-308-2885 or by visiting www.scannerschool.com/ask Don't forget to join us on YouTube on the first Tuesday of every month for our live Q&A session.   Click here to Subscribe! Questions answered on this week's podcast Wayne has a few questions about CTCSS and PL Tones Dennis is looking for tips about setting up a scanner at a remote location Gary would like to know when to use the "Force Write Database to Scanner" option when programming his scanner in Sentinel Roger is looking for information about filters in the SDS series scanners   ====================================

Foundations of Amateur Radio One of the topics I've been talking about lately is the idea that we might be able to measure the performance of your radio in some meaningful way using equipment that can be either obtained by any amateur, or by introducing a process that allows results to be compared, even if they have been generated differently. Recently I came up with a tool that automatically generates a spectrogram of an audio recording. That on its own isn't particularly interesting, but it's step one in the processing of an audio signal. In addition to the spectrogram, I also created a tool that generates a tone frequency sweep, think of it as a tone that changes frequency over time, let's call it a sweep. If you combine the two, you can generate a spectrogram of the sweep to give you a starting point or baseline for comparison. You can build on that by using your radio to transmit that sweep and record the result using a receiver. In my initial experiments, I used an RTLSDR dongle to receive the audio with some success and a boatload of spectacular harmonics, but I wanted to find a better, more accessible way to do this and during the week I realised that my Yaesu FT-857d that's sitting in my shack, is connected to a perfectly functional antenna and with a few settings it could do the job perfectly. One of the biggest issues with my RTLSDR setup was squelch. That is the difference between what is a legitimate transmission and what is noise. Set it too high and you hear nothing, set it too low and you hear everything, including background noise. Since the VHF or 2m noise levels are quite high at my location, or QTH, I normally have the squelch completely closed. This is fine if you're normally using a strong repeater, but if you're attempting to receive a weak hand-held, that's never going to work. As any self-respecting amateur I was dragged down the path of last resort to read my user manual where I discovered that in addition to CTCSS, a way to transmit a tone to open a repeater, there's also a setting called Tone Squelch or on my radio TSQ, which will keep my radio squelch closed, unless it hears the CTCSS tone from another radio. Truth be told, I had to read a different user manual to discover how to actually set the CTCSS tone on my handheld to test, but that's just adding insult to injury. It has been a while since I read any manual, even though I try to get to it once a year or so. I blame it on the lack of field-day camping. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. So, combining all this, the spectrogram generator, the sweep, CTCSS, and adding a Raspberry Pi with some website magic, if you're interested, an AWS S3 bucket, I now have a service that listens on a local frequency, opens the squelch if it hears the correct CTCSS tone, records the incoming signal until it stops, then generates a spectrogram from that audio and uploads it to a web site. None of this is particularly complicated, though I did have some bugs to work through. I've published the code as a branch to my existing frequency-response project on github and I've asked my local community to experiment with what I have on-air before I start doing more far reaching experiments. For example. If I were to tune my radio to a local repeater output frequency, rather than the simplex one I'm currently on, I'd be able to record and generate spectrograms for each transmission coming from that repeater. If that repeater was connected to the internet, using AllStar, IRLP, Echolink, DMR or Brandmeister, or even all of them, the global community could send their audio to my recorder and it could generate a spectrogram on the spot. If using that repeater, you played a sweep into your microphone, or used your digital audio interface to play the sound, you could then compare your signal path against others and against the baseline response. One of the issues with doing this is that much of the audio that travels across the internet is pretty munched, that is, it's compressed, frequencies are cut-off, there's all manner of interesting harmonics and the value of the comparison appears limited at best. Once I have my multi-band HF antenna, which I'm told is still being built, I intend to set this contraption up on HF where we can do point-to-point recordings and we end up having a direct comparison between two stations who transmit into my frequency-response software. I should add some disclaimers here too. At the moment I'm only using FM. The intent is to get this to a point where I can compare any mode, but when I move to HF, I'll likely start with Single Side Band and go on from there. One other annoyance is that any user needs to configure CTCSS to make this work, which is yet another hurdle to overcome, not insurmountable, but I like to keep things simple when you're starting to learn. Also, the harmonics still show, even on an analogue radio, so there's plenty more to discover. In the meantime, what kinds of things can you think of to use this for? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

In this episode of the Yaesu The Radio Show we discuss the different modes of signaling that can be used beyond CTCSS or DCS.

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 23rd of May 2021 The news headlines: Final details on EMF from Ofcom Cathryn, M0IBG inducted into the CQ Hall of Fame RSGB National Radio Centre re-opens   Ofcom has updated its web page at ofcom.org.uk/emf stating its final decision on EMF. The RSGB is updating its advice so check rsgb.org/emf. You will find revised guidance and the RSGB calculator has been updated in line with the Ofcom calculator changes. The 2021 Inductees to the CQ Amateur Radio, Contesting and DX Halls of Fame have been announced. Of particular interest to UK radio amateurs is the inclusion of Cathryn Mitchell, M0IBG into the Hall of Fame. Catheryn is the Academic Director of the University of Bath Doctoral College and recipient of the 2019 Edward Appleton Medal. She is also one of the trustees of the RCF amateur radio charity and a corresponding member of the RSGB’s propagation committee. Congratulations. The RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park will re-open on Friday the 28th of May. It will be open each day, other than Wednesdays, until further notice. The RSGB is delighted to support Bletchley Park as it welcomes visitors again. Visitors to Bletchley Park need to pre-book and pay via their website so the Society is unable to offer its free entry voucher to RSGB Members whilst that system is in place. Visitor and volunteer safety is the priority so whilst the radio room will be open for the demonstration of amateur radio, visitors won’t be allowed inside the radio room. Only NRC volunteers will be permitted to operate the GB3RS station. The RSGB looks forward to welcoming visitors to the National Radio Centre again. The RSGB Awards Manager has reviewed the current 50MHz awards offered by the Society. It was decided that the existing 50MHz Two-Way Countries and 50MHz DX Countries awards are significantly duplicating each other. The plan is to amalgamate these two awards into one single 50MHz Countries award, whilst keeping all the incremental levels of award. If you’ve been working towards either of the current 50MHz awards you will have until the end of the year to complete them. A new award for 50MHz operating will be launching soon. GB7LA has moved to a new location new the centre of Lancaster. It is now operational on 439.3625MHz output and 430.3625MHz input. The CTCSS tone is 82.5Hz. The repeater is analogue FM only at present and is connected to the North West Allstar Group. Reports are welcome. In 2020, thousands of new people gained their Foundation licence and many progressed through the licence levels. RSGB Membership is at its highest for ten years. How do you think we should support new licensees at every level and retain this momentum of people enjoying amateur radio? The RSGB’s survey ends at midnight today, Sunday the 23rd of May. Please take a few minutes to add your voice to the 900 people who have already given their views at rsgb.org/survey.   Now the DX news Ennio, IW1RBI and his team will be active as 3A/IW1RBI from Monaco between the 27th and 30th of May. They plan to operate on the 30 to 6m bands using FT8 in Fox and Hound mode. SSB and CW will also be used. QSL via Logbook of The World, direct to IW1RBI or via logsearch on Club Log. Daniel, 5R8RP has moved to Nosy Be, AF-057, an island off the northwest coast of Madagascar. His current setup includes a vertical multiband antenna for 40-6 metres. Phil, F5TRO and his wife Ann, F5BSB are relocating permanently to Reunion Island, AF-016. Their new callsigns are FR8UA and FR8TZ respectively. They will operate mainly SSB and CW, with plans to be equipped for 80m to 23cm. QSLs via Logbook of The World or direct. Anders, OZ3ACB will be operating as SM7/OZ3ACB from Ven Island, EU-137, at various times during the summer, especially during the weekends. QSL via Logbook of The World, logsearch on Club Log, eQSL or direct to his home call.   Now the Special Event news Today, the 23rd of May, Worthing & District ARC will operate GB1SCW as part of SOS radio week. The station will be on HF, VHF and UHF bands using various modes. Details are on QRZ.com. Now the contest news With different parts of the UK having different lockdown restrictions, please make sure you follow the appropriate regulations. Several contests now accept portable entries, so please check the contest rules. Above all, please follow relevant national and local restrictions. Today, the 23rd, the third 70MHz Cumulative contest runs from 1400 to 1600UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Tuesday the SHF UK Activity Contest runs from 1830 to 2130UTC. Using all modes on the 2.3 to 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday it’s the CW leg of the 80m Club Championships. Running from 1900 to 2030UTC, the exchange is signal report and serial number. Next weekend it’s the CQ World Wide WPX CW Contest. It runs for 48 hours ending at 2359UTC on the 30th of May. Using the 1.8 to 28MHz bands the exchange is signal report and serial number. Next Sunday, the 30th, The UK Microwave Group High Band Contest runs from 0600 to 1800UTC. Using all modes on the 5.7 to 10GHz bands, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. The UK Six Metre Group Summer Marathon runs until the 1st of August. Exchange your 4-character locator.   Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Friday the 21st of May. We had another wild week with Sporadic-E bringing most of the excitement on the upper HF bands. Transatlantic multi-hop Es brought USA contacts to many UK stations, mainly on CW and FT8, although there were some SSB ones too. The Sporadic-E action is always welcome on the HF bands during this time of year as activity can be otherwise low. So, make the most of the Es this month as it can tail off as the season goes on. The Sun refused to play ball last week with the solar flux index firmly in the mid-70s with few sunspots. Region 2824 is now on the Sun's visible disk. However, it is not too complex and should only be a threat for an isolated C-Flare in the short term. Geomagnetic conditions have been generally relatively settled with a maximum Kp index of three. On Thursday it rose to five due to the solar wind from a coronal hole. The solar wind speed increased to 400km/s and the Bz went sharply south. Next week, NOAA predicts the solar flux index will remain in the mid-70s. Geomagnetic conditions are predicted to remain quiet with a maximum Kp index of two. This could all change though if we have any solar flare activity with associated CMEs. Daytime F2-layer maximum usable frequencies are struggling to get above 18MHz, although this is compensated by the extensive Sporadic-E openings. Hopefully, these will continue to bring inter-G action, and short-skip from Europe and even further afield.   And now the VHF and up propagation news. Struggling temperatures and deep lows crossing the country means that the next week is likely to see a continuation of the unsettled conditions with showers or spells of rain, together with quite windy conditions at times. It also points to the mode of choice moving towards rain scatter again. However, there are hints of a change coming after midweek with high pressure moving into the western side of Britain, but leaving a chilly northerly over much of the country, perhaps a few showers. The high does not look particularly strong for Tropo since it forms in cold air, to begin with anyway. That leaves the Sporadic-E prospects to discuss and with the jet stream picture remaining favourable, there should be opportunities, but it's probably optimistic to expect it to be as good as the week just past, where the US was workable on CW with a modest antenna at times. The Moon declination is negative again, so shorter visibility windows and lower peak Moon elevations are the order of the day. This is compensated by path losses falling to a minimum as we reach perigee on Wednesday. No significant meteor showers this week so continue to be active around dawn for the best random meteors. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.  

GB2RS NEWS Sunday the 17th of January 2021 The news headlines: RSGB publishes EMF Calculator New AllStar Gateway in North Lancashire Enter Construction Competitions! As agreed with Ofcom last month, the RSGB’s EMC Committee has published its EMF calculator, which incorporates the Ofcom calculator but adds a front end specifically for radio amateurs. It is currently an evaluation version, so the EMCC welcomes feedback to help it move towards a final one. You can download the calculator from the EMF page at www.rsgb.org/emf. Recently, the MB7IMB repeater came on the air in North Lancashire. It is a simplex AllStar gateway on 145.2375MHz narrow FM, with a CTCSS access tone of 110.9Hz. The North West AllStar Group has been formed, linking AllStar nodes and repeaters throughout north-west England. The group is encouraging the use of the repeater. All that’s needed is a standard 2m FM transceiver with CTCSS capabilities. If you have a node or gateway they welcome links to the system. The group has a Facebook page where you can find out more. Have you entered the RSGB’s ‘Get on the air to care’ construction competition? The deadline is the 1st of February. Your project can be hardware, software or a system and may be based on a kit. If you made something during the autumn lockdowns, over the holiday season, or are in the middle of something during the current restrictions, you could win £100 if you enter the competition. Send a short description of your project to gm.dept@rsgb.org.uk and include a few photographs, a video if possible and any related circuit diagrams. Whether you’ve just got your licence or you’ve been a radio amateur for years, you’re encouraged to take part. If you enter this competition you can also resubmit the same project to the 2021 RSGB Annual Construction Competition. Very low frequency enthusiast Joe, VO1NA reports that Stefan, DK7FC copied his 50-character EbNaut message transmitted from Newfoundland on 8.271kHz, with a radiated power of 10mW. We believe this is a new record for amateur transatlantic VLF. Joe’s tower supports a VLF rotated L, which is 10 metre average height and 100 metres long. The RSGB is delighted that 4,000 people have taken amateur radio exams via remote invigilation. This number covers exams at all three licence levels. We know that all radio amateurs will be encouraging as people progress and enjoy the diversity of amateur radio. Could you be the RSGB’s next President? Do you have the time and skills to serve on the Society’s Board of Directors? We’re into the final weeks of the nominations process for the RSGB elections, which will end at 2359UTC on the 31st of January. In addition to these two roles, there are three Regional Representative vacancies in Regions 2, 6 and 12. Each post-holder has indicated their willingness to stand for election but applications are also welcome from all RSGB Members living in these particular Regions. For more information visit www.rsgb.org/election. The results will be announced at the RSGB’s online AGM on Saturday the 24th of April. The Dayton Hamvention will not take place for a second year. Sponsored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association, it was set to take place between the 21st and 23rd of May in Ohio. The committee said the show would return in 2022 and hinted at a QSO party for Hamvention weekend. The 80m RSGB National Radio Centre net continues to run each weekday at 10.30 am on 3.727MHz. The NRC volunteers have run 260 of these nets since March 2020 to support radio amateurs. They are keen for people to call in during the current lockdown. Get on the air and have a chat – they’d love to hear from you!   South Dublin Radio Club hosted Michael O’Connell from the I87 Astroshot Observatory to the club’s first online live lecture of 2021, via Zoom. The lecture is titled Amateur Observations of Meteors and is now available to view on the club’s YouTube channel. Michael’s presentation covers Meteors, Meteor related radio phenomena and how radio techniques are used by amateurs to detect and track meteors. Now the special event news Hull and District Amateur Radio Society is celebrating 100 years of amateur radio clubs in the Hull area with a year-long special event station, callsign GB1OOH. The station will operate most days throughout 2021 on bands ranging from 160m to 70cm and using different modes. Further details about the station and QSL options can be found on QRZ.com. During 2021, the British Railways ARS will be celebrating its 55th anniversary. They will be running the special event call GB0LMR, operated by BRARS member Mark, G1PIE from Preston in Lancashire. Bands of operation will be 40 to 10 metres using PSK-31, PSK-63 and SSB, plus VHF/UHF. Further information is on QRZ.com and www.brars.info. Now the DX news 4L1PJ is the callsign issued to Peter, 4L/G4ENL. He expects to operate SSB on various HF bands for the next few years while on work assignment in Svaneti, Georgia. QSL via N4GNR. Bo, OZ1DJJ will be active in his spare time as OX3LX from Tasiilaq Island, IOTA reference NA-151, until the 30th of January. QSL via Logbook of The World, Club Log’s OQRS or direct to OZ0J. Garry, 2M1DHG is active as ZC4GR from the UK Sovereign Base Area of Dhekelia for the next two and a half years. He operates SSB and digital modes on the 40, 20 and 10m bands, typically between 1700 and 1900UTC a few nights a week. QSL via EB7DX. Now the contest news Please remember to check before the contest for any new rules due to lockdown and social distancing, which may differ around the world. The RSGB strongly advises obeying your national and local government’s advice. On Tuesday the 1.3GHz UK Activity Contest runs from 2000 to 2230UTC. Using all modes, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. On Thursday it’s the all-mode 70MHz UK Activity Contest. Running between 2000 and 2230UTC, the exchange is signal report, serial number and locator. Next weekend the BARTG RTTY Sprint runs from 1200UTC on the 23rd to 1200UTC on the 24th. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is simply the serial number. The UK EI Contest Club DX CW contest starts at 1200UTC on the 23rd and runs for 24 hours. Using the 3.5 to 28MHz contest bands, the exchange is signal report and District Code. Don’t forget, the UK Six Metre Group Winter Marathon runs until the end of this month. Just exchange a signal report and locator. Now the radio propagation report, compiled by G0KYA, G3YLA & G4BAO on Thursday the 14th of January. Well, no one predicted last week’s geomagnetic disturbance. In case you missed it, the Kp index rose to four on Monday the 11th January. This was caused by the arrival of an interplanetary shock wave from a coronal mass ejection on the Sun, which occurred on Thursday the 7th. NOAA had been predicting a settled Sun, which shows just how unpredictable our nearest star can be. The CME’s effects on the ionosphere were quite startling. The Chilton Digisonde data, as plotted at propquest.co.uk, shows that the predicted MUF over a 3,000km path dropped to below 14MHz by 1530UTC, although it did recover to more than 18MHz within an hour. That night there were widespread reports of visible aurora, but the ionosphere had recovered by Tuesday afternoon with the Kp index back to one by 1500UTC. Other than that element of ionospheric excitement there has been little to report, with the solar flux index down as low as 72 by Thursday the 14th with zero sunspots. The only other noteworthy event has been widespread winter Sporadic-E, which saw 12, 10 and six metres become wide open to Europe this the week. Next week, NOAA predicts that the solar flux index will remain in the mid to high 70s. The STEREO spacecraft show a coronal hole is about to rotate into view around the Sun’s eastern limb. The high-speed solar wind from this, and other polar coronal holes, may cause the Kp index to rise to four by Sunday the 17th and we may not see a recovery back down to two until the 21st. So it looks like the latter half of the week may be best for HF DX. And now the VHF and up propagation news. The current unsettled spell of weather should have taken a brief pause on Friday but may have returned this weekend, with an active front crossing the country, followed by a transient ridge in the second half of the weekend. These ridges are rarely good for widespread Tropo and the unsettled regime returns for the bulk of the coming week. Strangely enough, you can find temporary enhancements of Tropo conditions parallel to, and just ahead of, approaching weather fronts. It’s marginal but can make a difference to scores in the VHF/UHF UK Activity Contests. But GHz band rain scatter is probably a more reliable mode for the next week. The unsettled story also implies some strong jet stream activity, so it’s still worth a look at the usual Sporadic-E bands of 10m and 6m for one more week, although this is probably our last chance before the mode returns in force in April. Moon declination turns positive again on Tuesday, so we’ll have increasing Moon windows and peak Moon elevations this week. With apogee on Thursday though, path losses will be high. This trend of high declination and path loss only starts to reverse from May 2022, so get used to it! 144MHz sky noise is low. There are no significant meteor showers this week so continue to check pre-dawn for the best random meteor contacts. And that’s all from the propagation team this week.

Today we're talking about a classic, the Uniden BC780XLT.  This radio came out in 2000 and it shook up the scanner radio market.  Learn why the power that was behind it made it a go-to scanner for many people at the time and what was available for this model on the aftermarket.    What You Learn in this Week’s Podcast: Learn what the BC780XLT could do right out of the box.  The BC780XLT was strictly analog. You can put a Motorola trunk system in the same bank as conventional frequencies.  You can't mix two trunk systems in the same bank but you can mix conventional and trunking together. This model allows you to search out CTCSS and DCS tones.  You can program 500 channels in 10 banks. It works well as a weather receiver You can program scan delays that are built-in per channel, and you can have a limit hold on each frequency. This scanner has channel alerts. A very cool feature is this scanner’s versatile RS232 serial port. You have a tape-out on the back of the radio Program searches are built-in. You can pre-program ten search ranges and have selectable step sizes. The display was revolutionary for the time. There were many aftermarket software options for this model. People took this scanner with them and actually used it as a portable radio. Aftermarket Accessories Include: Protective carrying cases for portable use There was a way to have internal battery packs powering the scanner. AM and shortwave broadcasts modification An automatic mute with an RF sensor mod. Remote head kit. All session notes with links to the items we talked about can be found on our website at www.scannerschool.com/session119 You can help support Scanner School by visiting our support page at www.scannerschool.com/support Don't forget to join us for our weekly net on Zello. For info, visit https://www.scannerschool.com/zello

Foundations of Amateur Radio On Thursday the 3rd of July 2008 at 6 minutes to 7 at night a developer called Dan KK7DS started to scratch an itch and published the results. The next morning before breakfast Dan added more. Since then about a hundred people from around the globe have contributed to that project. Some people made little changes, others made large contributions over many years. In all, on average, the project saw a change every 29 hours over more than a decade of contributions. On the 16th of July, less than two weeks into the project, it got a name, CHIRP. It's been translated from US English to Spanish, French, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian and the Queens English. From the beginning of talking to a single Icom IC-92 radio, CHIRP today supports 27 different Icom radios, 36 different brands of radio, hundreds of different radios in all, with new ones being added every couple of months or so. The software runs on anything that will run Python, that includes Windows, OS X and Linux and it does it with an extremely modest footprint and it's free, free in cost and free as in Open Source. If you're not familiar with CHIRP and you have a radio, then it's time to get to know this tool. It makes it simple to program your radio, to configure settings and to make backups of your current channel listings. I should mention that this is not just for hand held radios, there are plenty of HF base station radios supported. When you run CHIRP it presents you with a window where you have a spreadsheet view of the channels in your radio. You can download the channels from your radio or upload new ones. Changing a frequency is as simple as clicking on the frequency and typing a new one, with a full-human-sized keyboard, rather than the poor excuse for a dial-pad your radio has. If your radio supports it, you can supply a human readable name, configure offsets, CTCSS and tuning step size, the mode and several other properties. If you're unsure where to get started, CHIRP even comes with a list of frequencies to get you on your way. You can create different configurations for different types of operations. For example, if you're into SOTA, you can make a configuration file that has all the relevant SOTA frequencies, but when you head back home and want to use the local repeater network, you can build a set for that. If you visit a different state, another country, or if you want to copy your channels from one radio to another, you can with CHIRP. If you want to get started, there's a Beginners Guide, a list of frequently asked questions and you'll find information about what cables to use, specific errors and issues you might encounter and if you're a software developer, you'll find information on how to contribute. If you want the ability to program your radio on any computer, you can download a boot-able CD that will run CHIRP without installing it and if you need help, there's an active mailing list, going back to 2008, an up to date wiki, issue tracker and of course, you can download the source-code, if that's your fancy. CHIRP makes all that possible because one amateur wanted to scratch an itch. What's itchy in your life? I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Foundations of Amateur Radio Mistakes are common in all aspects of life. Sometimes they are only known to you, other times they are public knowledge and open to ridicule and lambasting. Getting on air for the first time is an accomplishment and often the initial source of mistakes, mishaps and great frustration. Once you've made it on air, the reception to this feat is often underwhelming, people around you don't appear to appreciate the amount of effort you went to in order to key your microphone and for others to be able to hear that. If you've been in this community for a while it's easy to forget what is involved to make that first contact and to dismiss those around you who've managed to obtain their license, acquire their equipment, install and configure it just so and to actually achieve the first visible milestone in their amateur radio journey, though technically it's audible. If you've never done this, or if you have but have delegated it to the historical backwaters of your mind, here's an outline of some steps and mistakes along the path of making your first contact. The first question you're likely to ask is, which radio followed quickly by, from where? Then, if you're like me and many other starting amateurs, you'll have set up your radio for operation on the local 2m or 70cm repeater, you're likely to have some kind of vertical antenna with the microphone gain and squelch set just so and have your radio set for FM. I'm skipping over power, the electrical type, but that in itself can be a feat of endurance. After hunting around for a list of relevant frequencies, you might also have set up something like CTCSS to ensure that your signal actually gets acknowledged by the repeater. If that's not enough, you'll also have made your radio use an offset which makes it receive using one frequency and transmit using another. There's possibly more things you've had to do to make this work and not be subjected to the ire of the local repeater troll who appears to delight in telling you off when they feel you've done something wrong, like leave the roger beep activated or some other infraction. If you did manage to achieve all these things and actually made your first contact on the repeater, congratulations and welcome to the hobby! Take a breath, you did well. After a while you're likely to become more familiar with your radio and start exploring the local bands. You might program another repeater into your radio and even experiment with local simplex frequencies. Each of these activities brings a new experience and new mistakes. For example, not all repeaters use the same offset, or even an offset in the same direction. Not all repeaters have the same CTCSS requirements. If you're using a simplex frequency, remember to turn off the squelch - don't ask me how I know - so you have a chance to actually hear the other stations, even if you are using FM as the mode. The process of getting on air as a first time user can be daunting, with many different points of failure along the way. Ignore the trolls, try your best and ask for help if you get stuck and celebrate your accomplishment when you manage to make a contact. My point is that achieving all this isn't trivial and it would be helpful if that's remembered from time to time. It's easy to dismiss an achievement made by another, but much more rewarding to celebrate it. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Diese Sendung wurde im Schopf der “Schopfis” vorproduziert. Als Gäste mit dabei sind der Aschi und der Turi von den Schopfis. Wir reden über CB-Funk und das Free Radio Network. Die beiden erzählen von ihren Erlebnisse und ihren Erfahrungen mit CB-Funk uind FRN, bei dessen Aufbau in der Schweiz Aschi tatkräftig mitgeholfen hat. Musik: Bruderliebe – Nichts bleibt, wie es ist The Clintons – Abcrombie Jeans Pontifex – Endlich der Regen Wasnlos.ch Projekte: FRN :: Aschis Webseite zum Thema Free Radio Network Wikipedia: CB-Funk :: Nachlesen, was Axel so während der Sendung live wikipediert hat. Midland K40 Antennen :: Wikipedia: Personal Mobile Radio auf 446 MHz :: Nicht zu verwechseln mit Professional Mobile Radio (auch "PMR", TLA FTW!) Bearcat Scanner :: Wikipedia: Free Radio Network :: Wikipedia: Freenet ist gleich drei Dinge auf einmal! :: Nur leider drei verschiedene Dinge... Offizielle Webseite des Free Radio Networks :: Free Radio Network in Deutschland :: FRN Android-Client :: CB-Funken mit dem Natel! Forum und Software: :: Zello :: Push-to-talk im Internet as a Service Schweizer CB-Funk Organisation :: Wikipedia: Continuous Tone Coded Subaudio Squelch :: Wikipedia: Digital Code Squelch :: FRN4Pi Gateway-Software :: Free Radio Network Gateway für den Raspberry Pi PiCQ Gateway-Software :: Free Radio Network Gateway für den Raspberry Pi Aschis Erfahrungsbericht mit PiCQ :: Homepage der Schopfis :: File Download (161:00 min / 162 MB)

Diese Sendung wurde im Schopf der “Schopfis” vorproduziert. Als Gäste mit dabei sind der Aschi und der Turi von den Schopfis. Wir reden über CB-Funk und das Free Radio Network. Die beiden erzählen von ihren Erlebnisse und ihren Erfahrungen mit CB-Funk uind FRN, bei dessen Aufbau in der Schweiz Aschi tatkräftig mitgeholfen hat. Musik: Bruderliebe – Nichts bleibt, wie es ist The Clintons – Abcrombie Jeans Pontifex – Endlich der Regen Wasnlos.ch Projekte: FRN :: Aschis Webseite zum Thema Free Radio Network Wikipedia: CB-Funk :: Nachlesen, was Axel so während der Sendung live wikipediert hat. Midland K40 Antennen :: Wikipedia: Personal Mobile Radio auf 446 MHz :: Nicht zu verwechseln mit Professional Mobile Radio (auch "PMR", TLA FTW!) Bearcat Scanner :: Wikipedia: Free Radio Network :: Wikipedia: Freenet ist gleich drei Dinge auf einmal! :: Nur leider drei verschiedene Dinge... Offizielle Webseite des Free Radio Networks :: Free Radio Network in Deutschland :: FRN Android-Client :: CB-Funken mit dem Natel! Forum und Software: :: Zello :: Push-to-talk im Internet as a Service Schweizer CB-Funk Organisation :: Wikipedia: Continuous Tone Coded Subaudio Squelch :: Wikipedia: Digital Code Squelch :: FRN4Pi Gateway-Software :: Free Radio Network Gateway für den Raspberry Pi PiCQ Gateway-Software :: Free Radio Network Gateway für den Raspberry Pi Aschis Erfahrungsbericht mit PiCQ :: Homepage der Schopfis :: File Download (2:41 min / 162 MB)

Foundations of Amateur Radio A regular question from people who go on holiday is: "Which repeaters should I put into my hand held radio?" If there was infinite amount of memory and time, the answer would be simple - All of them. If it were that simple, I wouldn't be talking about it and you wouldn't be asking the question, so given that it's not that simple, what options do you have for dealing with this question, generally an hour before you pack up your suitcase to leave on that trip to another location. For me, my first effort was to try to find a list of repeaters for the new location. Failing that, I ventured onto the national association and downloaded their list, which I might add, was woefully out of date, but I wasn't to know that when I found it. I then fired up a copy of the cross-platform CHIRP programming software, pushed all the repeater frequencies into my radio and called it a day. I did have the benefit of a radio that was able to group memories into separate so-called banks, which allowed me to be able to select a particular bank for each state, my own state, VK6 was, and I might add, still is, in bank 6. VK5 is in bank 5 and so-on. The advantage of this arrangement is that I can select a bank, set my radio to scan in just that bank and I can hear all the activity that's happening within range of my hand held. Pretty useful when you're on holidays in a new location. If your country doesn't quite break-down into neat little groups like that, or if you cannot break your hand held radio memory into banks, you might have to come up with a different strategy. You could for example, create your own equivalent banks, 100 to 199 is bank 1, 200 to 299 is bank 2, etc. Or if you have 50 states to worry about, you might allocate 101, 201, 301, 401 etc. to state number one and so on. Of course that will start an argument about which state is number one, but I'm sure you can work that out for yourself. Another suggestion is to query the local license database, in Australia the ACMA database, and get a list of currently licensed repeaters. If that's not your style, you could download a mobile phone app, something like Repeaterbook. You can even link your mobile to your radio and have the app set up the frequencies for your location. One suggestion I came across the other day is to do none of this and to just program in all the possible repeater pairs. There's not that many possibilities and setting your radio to scan will unearth any activity on what ever standard pair is being used at the time. This won't get you completely out of the woods, since some repeaters require a CTCSS tone of some description, but several hand held radios have the ability to decode the tone. You could get fancy with pre-programmed tones in different memories, but I'll leave that as an exercise for you to imagine. In the end, finding amateurs in a new location is a lot like finding amateurs in your home town. They're around, you just need to find them. Visiting a local club works at home and it works just as well while you're on holiday, sometimes even more-so, since you'll be a visitor and many clubs like to be on their best behaviour for new comers. One thing I can categorically state is that programming your radio manually is really something that you should try and avoid. Not because it's not possible and not because it's not a skill you should have, but because it's error prone and there's nothing quite as frustrating as programming in the wrong frequency without having the ability to fix it when you're in the field. One tip. CHIRP allows you to create as many different frequency files as you like. There's nothing wrong with making one fit for purpose for this outing and having a different file for your home location, or for a specific contest or DX activity. A final bonus tip. CHIRP generally uses the microphone and headphone sockets for most hand held radios. Setting the volume correctly is a must. If you set the volume too low, CHIRP won't work, since there won't be anything to decode. I'm Onno VK6FLAB

Today we spoilercast the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and then talk FCC Rules changes for FRS and GMRS radios.  If you have a walkie talkie from the past 20 years, this probably means you. Links from this episode: - FCC considers reform of Part 95 rules for personal radio services - FCC FACT SHEET Part 95 Personal Radio Service Reform - GoTenna - Automatic Packet Reporting System - APRS.fi - The pros and cons of CTCSS - NASA: Eclipse 101 - Amateur rocket team launches rocket to 73.1 miles - Top Gear : Robin Reliant Space Shuttle Challenge - Top Gear - BBC

What use is an F-call? Last week I talked about computers and the Foundation License. There is a blanket perception being perpetuated that computers, radios and your Foundation License don't mix, are not allowed and if you were to be so foolhardy as to connect your computer to your radio, you'd be subject to all manner of retribution from the ACMA. Most of this is based on hear-say and misunderstanding. There's nothing stopping you from connecting your computer to your radio and for example have it read the current frequency and mode and store that in your logging software. There's also nothing wrong with using the computer to change the frequency and mode on your radio, when you click on a DX cluster entry and it changes the settings on your radio, or if you were to use it to deal with the Doppler shift to match an overflying satellite. Computers can also be used to set-up memories, CTCSS codes, preferences and other settings supported by your radio. It can be used to show waterfall displays and to decode signals as they come in. You can use a computer to do audio filtering, digital signal processing and all manner of CPU intensive activities. You can run a CW skimmer, to decode Morse as it comes past, connect it to a wide-band receiver and listen to many frequencies at once. None of this has anything to do with your Foundation License restrictions, or with the LCD for that matter. Onto other things. The LCD states that: "if the emission mode is 200HA1A (or 200 Hertz, Amplitude Modulated, Single Channel, Telegraphy for aural reception - i.e. Morse Code or CW), the information to be transmitted is sent by the use of a manually operated Morse key;" This is stopping you from using your license to send out an automatic beacon. The aim is to have you as a human, still in the loop. A manually operated Morse key means that you have to actually push it with your hand. There's nothing preventing you from using an Iambic Paddle mechanical, or electronic. As long as you're still punching out the code. With the advent of Software Defined Radios, the separation between computer and radio is becoming even more diffuse. If your radio is a computer, another myth does the rounds. "A Foundation Call cannot use Software Defined Radio." This is untrue. If your SDR was manufactured commercially then you're good to go. Seriously. You still have the same restrictions on modes and bands, power output and the like. You cannot send computer generated digital modes, though you can decode them. The computer in this equation is no different from the previous examples. Being an F-call is fun, you should try it sometime. I'm Onno VK6FLAB.