RAM - Repeaters & Technical

10/24/2024

This episode of the Ham Radio Workbench podcast is well worth a listen. Normally they go on and on about screwdrivers and soldering irons but one of the regular hosts lives in South Carolina and was in the path of Hurricane Helene and got walloped. (the power company doesn’t expect they will have power to him before Christmas! Luckily he had solar and batteries).

Find out what works and doesn’t work in a disaster and why you want to have a radio with dual receive (spend the extra $$).

You can listen to the local repeater (N2GE) at https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/42258.

(I’m expecting to be deployed to his county next week to help with recovery. )

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08/10/2024

What are the chances someone has a GPIB- USB adapter laying around that they aren't using that they like to sell us cheap? We have a couple of pieces of test equipment with GPIB (General Purpose Interface Bus aka IEEE 488) outputs and being able to control them from a PC would be a great thing especially as one has a failing CRT. A GPIB connector looks like the old Centronics parallel printer connector (but with 24 pins instead of 36) so you might have one and not even realize what it is!

08/09/2024

New demo board made for the next Basic course.

07/22/2024

What is it? A silver plated brass pipe that forms part of the adjustable 1/4 wave stub in a duplexer. Why am I showing it to you? We need to put new threads on the end; anyone got a 3/8-40 die we can borrow for an hour? (Yup its an odd size not found in your typical consumer T&D set).

For bonus points we need a replacement nut thingy (sort of looks like a collet) that screws onto the pipe to clamp down the invar rod that passes through it. We have the locking nut off the top but the big part self destructed (all brass so it's easy to work and also easy to OVERwork - IYKYK). Any ideas as to a source or even the correct name? And yes I've checked McMaster-Carr.

07/18/2024

I can't afford it and don't know what I would do with it but I want it. I really want it.

07/18/2024

Attempting to refurbish some older duplexers. Starting by polishing up the lower half of the resonator and the fingerstock that connects it to the upper half of the resonator. You should be able to see a difference between the original units and polished ones

06/23/2024

There's a bargain listed on Ebay right now if you are interested in HamShackHotline or the WAN Groups IP telephony service. A lot of 5 SPA525G phones Price per unit is less than $60 each (that's Cdn and includes shipping)

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/315318674624?itmmeta=01J11BZMB0733HFFDNCC2JGHHB&hash=item496a7524c0:g:vz0AAOSwcGBl9D18&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4AX8xGtMDgyOaZk4X9SWa9q1MaQFs17nno2cKZQDGOI8OxBV5B0P%2FRcokt6oDYiJWR%2BPHDSqwI%2BbBfcCUC1O7i%2BwEnwTvo--D%2BPKVx4RQ%2Fqk7AOcK9DD3E2OICiih6DibvP4v6tnu5fulV8UkmRSkL28W20BPP%2BI7CaEXK0XuTDGUoeyp548cssR6vnmDQyDLDBzJUUE0Hul5J2bDqbzGFqcQfavJuX357TIJUURet5sZjqwHgSbnvXei8OMYgSD7U%2BlxM7JS1LmLbVyKZxPTMyGzarbR4VGPuKhXVTAZpLo%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9zF_quIZA

The SPA525G is a really nice unit as it can handle multiple lines so you could be connected to BOTH HamShackHotlLine and the WAN system at the same time. Also it has WIFI built in so you can just plug it into power and connect wirelessly. It uses 5VDC so if you add a 12VDC to 5VDC step down module you can pack it in your Go-Box and run it on the battery.

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Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 5 Cisco SPA525-G2 5-Line Business IP Phone Color Display Wi-Fi Bluetooth at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

06/17/2024

For that Ham you love that enjoys the occasional candle.

05/22/2024

Finding yourself needing a new DMM? The options available were covered in great detail on the latest HRWB podcast. The presentation is also available athttps://119903037-913958412748140496.preview.editmysite.com/uploads/1/1/9/9/119903037/hrwb_multimeter_talk_by_doug_k6jey.pdf

In this episode we have our good friend, Dr. Doug Millar, K6JEY, join us to talk about multi meters, what they do and buying recommendations.  Every ham radio operator or DIY electronics fan needs a good multi meter.  But should you spend $20 or $200 on a meter and what's the difference?&n...

05/18/2024

Derek Hay is that you in this picture?

05/10/2024

Major geomagnetic storm on the way. Take cover (or at least precautions)

Space Weather Canada (also know as the Canadian Space Weather Forecast Centre) offers services for monitoring, forecasting, and analyzing space weather activity and space weather effects on technology. Located at the Geomagnetic Laboratory of Canada in Ottawa, this program is supported by NRCan (Nat...

05/09/2024

Interested in Hamshack Hotline and wondering where to get an IP Phone that will work ?

$50Cdn each on Ebay right now with free shipping
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/196260985753?itmmeta=01HXF1H51Z2RWE674DNMEZ5QX5&hash=item2db210fb99:g:eH8AAOSwNoJl2TDj&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4HH44IoUrCo%2FdPAXZeM4%2F3aAMrxgjDSTFbHm0StHwVlCcISQj8y9P8TkJD%2BvKQX6RG0mHIYvA8%2B0ZaMD64PMCudBNgpe9V9AFCuXAig4vy85wnYvEWgccCCGRaH1QMLgoG3yrfDQ84mev3WvP18QtSKX7xBUrhhfKoP3B3YCGSQKUqa7ogRFUNzw2VrxjMS0ms7cBwb7dIDHI9RUOTIpNXD5C2HGEuIHDDCLVKOW%2FuEhdDTy1J94%2BDJ0%2F9A0la%2BxGHEWpfdg3%2FUe8kOo%2B17RM7fFNj5baYK7MMVlHalLDWjv%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR47RxOHrYw

https://wiki.hamshackhotline.com/doku.php?id=kb:supported.endpoints

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for - (GRADE A) 10x Cisco Linksys SPA942 IP Phone Telephone WITH BASE&HANDSET&AC at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

04/03/2024

Listening to the Ham Radio Workbench podcast (and if you aren't; you should be) gave me an idea. Sort of a mashup of the Worked All Winnipeg award and the Walmart Parking Lots On The Air program; The Brewpubs on the Air (BPOTA?) event. There's 10 or so in town (and at least one distillery with a cocktail room) and with the magic of AllStarLink we could join Kenora or well I guess the whole world. Nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon. There is always non-alcoholic options at these locations if you wish....

02/11/2024

Today the RAM tech team installed the kenwood TKR750 repeater and removed the MSR2000 repeater on ve4wrs. William ve4vr showed earlier and stripped the roller rack of all the POE and dell PC hardware. After his reinstall of new network router and new shelf for all the POE , the RAM team began their equipment install of the TKR750, Pi and RA42 , Astron psu. Starting at 1:30pm and completed by 2:30pm. Thanks to the RAM tech team coordination the install went smooth. Power output tweaked on the tkr750 after duplexer losses to 24.5 watts output and I know this repeater Tx is on 145.45000 mhz. The issue of repeater sounding thin or no bottom end response has been fixed. I believe the issue with 127.3 hz tone squelch has also been fixed. A good listening/ transmit audio test at this Sunday 9pm Net should confirm. Thanks to all for showing up today...

VSWR: 1.22 TO 1
TPO : 24.9 watts
Frequency TX : 145.450 mhz

02/05/2024

If you ever find yourself in the GTA find the time for an hour at A-1 Surplus https://www.google.com/maps/place/A-1+Electronic+Parts/@43.6173911,-79.5609777,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x882b37ffd57797d5:0xbe1138594b665d7e!8m2!3d43.6173872!4d-79.5584028!16s%2Fg%2F1tfrbtjh?entry=ttu

https://www.a1parts.com/

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01/22/2024

Today a team of volunteers reinstalled the VE4TMP machine at the Manitoba Housing building at 529 Country Club Blvd. (147.090+ 127.3/127.3)

This is on AllStarLink connected to the Winnipeg Hub along with VE4CNR on Dugald and VE4WRS on Osborne (so no matter where you are in the city you should be able to hit one of them). We are interested in getting some coverage reports so try it out. We know it works great out to Brookside and east to the Seniors.

Its collocated with VE4AGA (224.880- 127.3) connected.

Its callsign will soon change to VE4STC (Sturgeon Creek). Both the STJ calls were not available and looking around for a nearby geographical link we decided not to use VE4ASS (Assiniboine). Because we are classy like that.

It will also serve as the site for the UHF Links to Starbuck and Morris but both those need a little more work. Many thanks to all who helped but especially to Jamie Hill trucking who supplied the big truck with the hydraulic lift that saved all of us having to lift a very heavy cabinet in and out of the truck.

01/14/2024

Today, 4 individuals from the RAMB tech crew attended VE4MIL at Milner Ridge and corrected a non-functioning power supply. This was causing the links between Milner Ridge and Falcon Lake, as well as the repeater connection from Milner Ridge to the network hub to be non-functional. Milner Ridge is now connected as well as Falcon Lake. Let us know how it is working. Thanks to Wyatt VE4WDZ, Bill VE4AAZ, Nicholas VA4NJF and Dan VE4DRK for the sub-zero trek to the site.

01/04/2024

We were informed at 9:47pm on Wednesday that a number of our data nodes have gone down.

UptimeRobot 2
Monitor is DOWN: VA4WAN OSB - South Osborne - 601 Osborne St, Winnipeg - UptimeRobot Go to monitor → VA4WAN OSB - South Osborne - 601 ....
7:41 AM|
UptimeRobot 4|
Monitor is DOWN: VE4UMR DSTAR - University of Manitoba - 75 Chancellors Cir, Winnipeg - UptimeRobot Go to monitor → VE4UMR DSTAR - Universit...
7:40 AM
UptimeRobot 2
Monitor is DOWN: VA4WAN TRA - Prairie Mobile Tower - 1475 Dugald Rd, Winnipeg - UptimeRobot Go to monitor → VA4WAN TRA - Prairie Mobile Tow...
7:40 AM
UptimeRobot 2
Monitor is DOWN: VE4UMR YSF - University of Manitoba - 75 Chancellors Cir, Winnipeg - UptimeRobot Go to monitor → VE4UMR YSF - University of ...
7:39 AM
UptimeRobot 2
Monitor is DOWN: VA4WAN WSC - Seniors Clubhouse - 598 St Mary's Rd, Winnipeg - 2024-01-03 07:39:45 TIP: Resolve incidents, write a post-morte...
7:39 AM
UptimeRobot 2
Monitor is DOWN: VA4WAN STV - St. Vital Centre - 60 Chesterfield Ave, Winnipeg - 2024-01-03 07:39:40 Doing maintenance? No worries, just set up ...
7:39 AM
UptimeRobot 2
Monitor is DOWN: VA4WAN UME - University of Manitoba - 75 Chancellors Cir, Winnipeg - UptimeRobot Go to monitor → VA4WAN UME - University of...
7:39 AM

Tech crew, went on line and determined the issue is. At the OSB site and is most likely a router issue.

At 9:40am Thursday a RAM member attended the OSB site and determined that the router which is services 7 radios and a controller was constantly rebooting it self. The normal power cycle did not solve the issue. The unplugging of everything (in case a device is causing the issue) did not solve the issue.
Conclusion the router needs to be replaced.

Unfortunately, the main tech person is on holiday in Florida & the back person works full time and is on call in the evening. The volunteer tech people teaming are working on the issue and will resolve as quickly as possible.

This happened at an unfortunate time, as we are just switching over the semi-weekly nets to repeaters on the AllStar network. And these repeaters are the ones affected.