K1BJ-10 RMS QRV

Brian, K1BJ (with the assistance of W7RE) has just installed an RMS gateway at his QTH and is looking for testers.  I changed my packet gear around and my Winlink client is down but I can connect and get a full scale signal here.

K1BJ-10    144.420 Mhz     1200 baud

 

FCC Slaps Down Amateur Emcomm

I gave this one the once over and filed it when it came through my email last week, but the recent storm of postings and comments elsewhere got me to look it over again.  On October 20th the FCC issued Public Notice DA 09-2259 warning that no one in a paid emergency services position may operate on the ham bands during drills or other non-emergency operations.  While the lawyers will have to argue over the definition of “pecuniary interests”, the FCC is sending a clear message that they see Amateur Radio as a hobby, not an emergency communications service.  We talked about this issue in past classes where dispatchers and other government employees received their ham licenses.  We assumed that it was ok for these folks to use amateur radio on shift, as long as it was not their primary job responsibility.   DA 09-2259 says we were wrong.  If you are an emergency services employee you can not use the ham bands for drills or other related activities while you are on the clock unless there is a bona-fide emergency, OR you have received a dispensation from the FCC.  Keep an eye on this one.

Maple Falls RMS QRV

Ron W7RE in Maple Falls has his new RMS packet Gateway up and running on 147.420 at W7RE-10 running 1200 baud.  A list of the Whatcom County digital stations (that I am aware of) can be found at the MBARC Digital Group Stations page.  If there is any local digital service missing from the list, let me know.

Whatcom County H1N1 Info

Whatcom County has established a local H1N1 informational web page for the public at http://www.em.whatcomcounty.org/go/site/2040/ The root address is a link farm- I hope they can clean that up soon

D-Rats Update

Dan has revamped the D-Rats web site.  The Address remains http://www.d-rats.com/ however.

Some quick-links to pages of interest on the D-RATS site are:

The RELEASES page.  Where you can find the latest stable release for Linux/Win/Apple OS.

The BETA page where the latest (and older) test versions are available for download.

The MANUAL page is a “web only” reference at this point, and is in a near constant state of revision.  The important points of how to install, configure, and operate D-Rats are here.

I will be giving a training session on D-Rats with a live RF demo at the Blaine ACS meeting Wednesday Sept 16 at 7pm at the Blaine city hall.  Bring your notebook PC and if you have one, a D-STAR HT with cable and we will get you running on RATS. NO RADIO IS REQUIRED to run and learn the program.

Tech Classes Nov ‘09 at AMRE

The following is the text of an email I sent to ARRL-VEs and past instructors for the Technician License classes in Whatcom County.

Hello VE’s and Instructors!

This morning N7BA, AE6K and I met with representatives of the American Museum of Radio & Electricity in Bellingham to work out the details of their offer to host classes and exams for new Technician Licensees. The following is a summary of our plans.

+The classes will be the same format as we have done in the past- Two consecutive Saturdays of question drill PowerPoint presentation followed by the ARRL-VE exam immediately on the second Saturday (at 3 pm).

+Instructors will be local volunteers from the Amateur community (usual folks and/or new folks- join the fun!)

+Registration and payment for the class/books will be handled by the Museum staff.  Payment for the exam will be handled by the Exam Coordinator (probably me but the job is yours if you ask nice   The exams will be open to all (not just the Tech students).

+The cost will be $30 for the class and book (W5YI as we have used in the past).  No separate museum admission or membership is required to take the class.  The exam fee is $15 as dictated by the FCC/ARRL.  Books are available in the Museum library if the student can’t afford the cost.

The first of hopefully many regularly scheduled class/exams will be 9am-3pm NOVEMBER 14 & 21 with the exam time at 3PM on the 21st.  You may register in person, by email, or by telephone with Anne at the AMRE  360-738-3886  Anne@AMRE.US

WHY are we doing this???????????????

1)  We all love to teach and share our enthusiasm for the Amateur Radio hobby but dealing with payments and book orders is a CHORE.  I am happy to pass that off to the folks at the AMRE.

2)  The Museum will have books in stock so interested parties can stop by and buy one any time.

3)  The American Museum of Radio and Electricity is an amazing resource that we are lucky to have in Bellingham.  A relationship between the Amateur Radio community and the museum is really a “no-brainer” that can only benefit both groups. We are looking forward to more joint activities.

4)  The facility has lots of room and will give us the ability to physically separate the exam graders from the examinees.  People who completed the exam will have a lot of neat stuff to look at instead of hanging around (and distracting) the remaining examinees.

5)  There is a complete working HF station, VHF/UHF station, and more visual aids and doo-dads than you could possibly haul to any other class location.

6)  Lunch options have always been miles away from our other class sites- there are several choices within a block of the museum.

-  The only negative I can think of might be the parking.  The meters are NOT used on Saturdays so parking is free, but spaces might be limited- I don’t know how busy it is on Saturday before 9 am so I hope it won’t be too troublesome.

We are limiting the class to 25 participants to make sure we are not overwhelmed.  I am sure we will fill that number and be in need of every VE that can attend on Nov. 21st so please mark your calendar now and come down to the Museum at about 1430 on that date.

Thank you for your help and 73,

Brian / KNØN

Communications Towers Felled in Snohomish Co.

The terrorist organization ELF is claiming responsibility for the destruction of two AM broadcast radio towers near the city of Snohomish, Washington early Friday September 4th.  The station owners are offering a $25,000 reward for info leading to the capture of the perpetrators.

Seattle Times

KOMO TV

CERT Class Starting 9/24/09

CERT class#42 will be held THURSDAY EVENINGS starting on September 24, 2009 at BELLINGHAM TECHNICAL COLLEGE.

contact  Monica Valandani Program Office Coordinator (360-752-8447 or

mvalandani@btc.ctc.edu) for more information and to register.

Washington Guard / Blaine ACS Joint Ops

"Dino" (right) Calling Camp Murray on HF from ACS Van; Ryan K7RGK demonstrating ACS gear.

On Thursday August 6th a group from the 143rd Combat Communications Squadron based at camp Murray came to the airport in Blaine for a joint communications exercise with members of the Blaine Auxiliary Communications Service.  The military was testing an extensive range of communications gear designed to be kept packaged and ready to deploy when called upon by the State of Washington.

TSgt Gardino (KE7AGK) and Jim KP2X in Interop tent

The comm systems are split into two parts.  There is an interoperability unit that provides radio comms from HF through 900 MHz and can link among them using the Raytheon ACU-1000 communications switcher.  The setup includes a 36 foot carbon fiber mast and a slick device for raising and lowering the antenna package.  There is also a Motorola Quantar UHF repeater with handhelds for local staff comms.

Satellite Comms

The second package is a satellite unit that provides IP and telephone services via a four foot diameter dish.  Included in this package is a cellular telephone server/transceiver and 100 mobile phones.  When the Micor HF radio in the interop tent revealed a bad coax connector, the solution was to run a simple twisted pair from the ACU-1000 over to the sat-stack allowing for changing the Camp Murray link from HF to Ku band digital satellite link.  Captain Gonzales invited Chief Haslip to contact the C.O. at Camp Murray from his P25 handi-talkie using the Blaine PD frequency and  it worked just great.

All of the gear is stored in rugged Pelican cases and is transported in two trailers, each pulled by a Ford Crew-Cab Pickup.  Smaller generators are a part of the package but in this instance there was a separate truck that pulled a larger generator.  The staff consisted of a Captain and nine sergeants, who had all systems on line about 90 minutes after rolling in.  No doubt that time would have been cut considerably if we had not been underfoot and bombarding them with questions.

Mike Haslip W7MDH and Capt. Gonzales waiting for the phone-patch

By the end of the day the list of suggestions for additions or changes in the gear was growing, but they were all mostly minor things like coax adapters and test gear.  I was very impressed with the quality of the electronics and even more impressed with the caliber of the crew.  This is some very complex equipment and these guys know how to use it.

RadioReference.com

This site has a lot of frequency data for scanner listeners.  They also recently added a number (900+) of  live audio feeds of public safety frequencies around the world.  Most information is free, with a paid option for down-loadable frequency lists.  There are also public forums accessible from the main RadioReference.com website.