More Goodies From Dan

Dan Smith, author of the D-Rats data communications program for D-Star radios, has released a new application for programming of iCom radios.  As with D-Rats, Dan is sharing his efforts with the community as an open source project and welcomes your input.  As an IC-2200 owner I applaud Dan for taking on the challenge of taming a very “computer unfriendly” design. D-Rats is now in version 0.2.x testing by the way

Dan’s post from the Yahoo D-Star Group follows.

Hi all,

I’ve been working on a tool that aims to accomplish the following goals:

- Program as many ICOM radio models as possible with a single app
- Be open-source
- Be cross-platform
- Support open data formats

The result is CHIRP (CHIRP Handles Icom Radio Programming) and is
reasonably functional at this point. It supports the following radios:

- IC-2820H
- IC-2200H
- ID-800H
- IC-91AD
- IC-92AD

Currently, it just imports/exports the memory contents to a CSV file,
with attributes like Name, Frequency, Tone, and Duplex. More will come
in the future, but I think this is a good start.

It’s very rough, and probably very buggy. I have reverse-engineered the
clone protocol and memory formats by just sniffing the wire, so I’m sure
there are plenty of errors at this point. However, if you’d like to
give it a try and report back, it would be much appreciated. If you
have the ICOM-supplied program for your radio, it wouldn’t hurt to make
a backup before you play.

It’s not much yet, but I feel confident that I can turn it into a
reasonable replacement for the jumble of commercial options available.
If you’re interested, check it out here:

http://chirp.danplanet.com

I’m posting this here because people have expressed a desire for this
functionality in this forum. If you know of other places that would be
appropriate for an announcement, please let me know.

Thanks!

–
Dan Smith
dsmith#danplanet.com, s/#/@/
www.danplanet.com
KK7DS

Problems for Digital Ham Software

Some posters on a Google Group http://groups.google.com/group/fdmdv are reporting that a key component (MELP.DLL) has been pulled from distribution on the Internet.  The codec is an integral part of several digital TX/RX applications that are used by Radio Amateurs.  Speculation is that the file contains proprietary code and that it was pulled from distribution.  I learned of this issue when I went to the www.ARVideoNews.com site to order the DVD “Digital Voice for Amateur Radio” for the MBARC Digital Group.

Training Opportunity for RACES Members

In an effort to share training resources and opportunities, I’m forwarding this to you for RACES/ARES.  I’m told the class is filling up quickly.

Dawnette

Dawnette M. Chadwick, Coordinator
Whatcom County Medical Reserve Corps
Whatcom County, WA

Hi everyone, Just a quick email for a SAVE THE DATE  August 22 & 23 for
the FREE Field Traumatology Workshop for CERT, MYN, MRC, School
Counselors, Clergy, Hospital, Mental Health, CISM team members and other
who are interested in learning how to work with people who have been
impacted by disasters or other events.  We are bringing a nationally
recognized trainer from Minnesota, Dr. Dan Casey, to teach this 2 day
workshop.

I’ve attached the flyer and will send more information in a day or so…
but I didn’t want to wait any longer to get the word out.  I am still
looking for a location and will get that to you as soon as I know.
Please send this email out to your larger network to let everyone know.
We intentionally scheduled with one day during the weekend and the
second day on Saturday.  We recognize that some of our volunteers may
have to take their own time and couldn’t make it for 2 week days.  This
was the best scheduling we could do to accommodate those who want to
come.

If someone is interested in registering or wants more information,
please have them contact me.  Thanks… this is a wonderful opportunity
for us and we are looking forward to it.  Thanks
Mary

Mary Schoenfeldt
Public Education Coordinator
City of Everett
Office of Emergency Management
425-257-7965 0ffice
425-330-7326 Cell phone
2811 Oakes Avenue, Everett Wa 98201

–
Dawnette M. Chadwick, Coordinator
Whatcom County Medical Reserve Corps
Whatcom County, WA

Help Needed for RAGNAR July 26

The RAGNAR relay is a foot race that will start in Blaine at 8 am on the 26th and will wind south through Whatcom County during the day.  WC RACES will be providing communications at checkpoints along the route and several more volunteers are needed.  Please contact KC7UHN or KC7GX to sign up.  Blaine ACS is covering the start and north checkpoints.  The race continues through Skagit and Island Counties.  Comms will probably be on Mt Constitution 2 meter repeater.

Ham Map

There is a cool GoogleMaps “Mash-Up” over on N4MC’s Vanity HQ website. Once at the site, select the “N4MC Ham Locator” in the left panel.  The tool takes a zipcode and displays a map of the area with a plot of licensed Amateurs from the FCC database.  Thanks to Mark KJ7BS for highlighting this site in the SKCC July Newsletter.

Local Ham on July DXpedition

Yuri Shushkin N3QQ of Bellingham, member of the Sudden Valley ARC,  will jointhree other Amateurs on a DXpedition to Chuginadak Island (KL7) from July 21 to July 27. Their website includes details on their trip and planned operations.  Good luck Yuri!

Summer Hiatus for MBARC & DG

I missed the June meeting of the MBARC Digital Group but was informed by KA0WFI that the current slate of officers was re-elected for the next term by acclamation.  Other business dealt with Field Day preparations.

REMINDER: The MBARC and the Digital Group do NOT MEET in July or August.  We will see you at the next DG meeting at the Ferndale Library at 7 pm on Tuesday September 16th.  Chuck and I have discussed organizing an informal DG get together during the summer however.  Feel free to post comments or suggestions or email them to us.

The MBARC, including the Digital Group, is invited to the MBARC Picnic on the afternoon of Sunday August 24 at Matt’s (KC7UHN) Smith Road property.  Mark your calendar- details will be posted here closer to the event date.

 

FD 2008 was a HOT Event

The Mount Baker ARC operated Field Day 2008 at Berthusen Park northwest of Lynden, WA this year.  The group operated as class 3A with a CW Station, SSB, and Digital positions.  AC7UM also set-up and manned a V/UHF satellite station.  An estimated 40 club members participated in the event over the three days of June 27 - June 29 from set-up to tear-down. Pictured at right is Mert, AC7KY operating in PSK-31 mode at the MBARC Digital Group tent.

The SSB and Digital operators were hearing a lot of stations but had difficulty being heard.  Perhaps our antennas were not performing up to snuff.  Everyone struggled with the 90 degree heat on Saturday and during tear-down on Sunday.

Despite the heat and the mosquitoes at dusk, I think every one had a good time.  We learned a bit more about the radio and antenna gear, and that the big generator does not have an alternator and has to have a battery charger applied to avoid conking out at 0600. There were many non-ham visitors during the event- I would estimate 20 or more, many of whom were interesting in getting licensed.

As part of the planned activities, the Digital Group tested some CW decoding software to copy the Field Day Bulletin as sent by the ARRL.  The Multi-PSK program proved very adept.  KA0WFI made contacts on VHF Winlink2000 and on HF using Pactor 3.  KN0N tried briefly to raise a QSO on D-Star simplex but got no returns.

 

WL2K Whitelist Notice (IMPORTANT!)

Synopsis from KN0N- WL2K has a spam problem. Beginning Aug 1 any email sent to your @winlink.org address that is not from a domain (blahblah.com, etc)that you have entered on your white list, will be rejected and not delivered to you.  The easy fix- Get in the habit of adding the text //WL2K in the subject line of every email you send to a @winlink.org address.  This will let the email through the filter and it will be delivered, even if you are not on the receiver’s whitelist.

 

 

From WL2K email bulletin:

 

IMPORTANT - ATTENTION ALL WINLINK 2000 USERS - IMPORTANT

 

Beginning August 1, 2008 all users with amateur callsigns will have their whitelist feature activated. Using the whitelist will no longer be optional.

 

Any message to a user from Internet must be from a sender’s address or domain name that is in the recepient’s whitelist or else the sender must include the character sequence //WL2K in the subject line of the message. If //WL2K is found in the subject line the message will be accepted and forwarded to all of the recepients of the message with amateur callsigns.

 

If the sender is not in the recepient’s whitelist and no //WL2K is found in the subject line the message will be rejected with a reference to the Winlink WEB page where instructions for sending WL2K messages will be found. Whitelist notices will no longer be created and forwarded to recepients.

 

There will be certain exceptions. Messages from the saildocs.com, sailmail.com, and mwxc.com domains will be accepted unconditionally except where a recepient specifically blocks the domain name in their whitelist.

 

MBARC Field Day Activities

MBARC Field Day 2008

The Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club will be participating in the ARRL “Field Day” exercise from Saturday June 28 at 11 am until Sunday June 29 at 11 am.  Complete details, operator sign-up, and a map to Berthusen Park (Northwwest of Lynden) can be found on the MBARC site.  We will be operating THREE stations for the duration of the event- Side-Band (Voice), CW (Morse code), and digital/misc modes. Members/non-members, visiting hams, and the general public are invited to observe and participate.  Please see the MBARC site for sign up details if you want to reserve an operating mode/time.  For liability reasons, ONLY MBARC members are allowed on site for set-up and tear-down.

Set-up will begin on site at 4 PM Friday June 27 for MBARC members only.

Operations will run for 24 hours starting at 11 AM Saturday June 28.  The general public and visiting hams who are not club members are welcome to visit during this time.  VIP tours will be given Saturday afternoon.

Break-down of the site will begin at 11 AM Sunday June 29 for MBARC members only.