Reminder - Educational Radio Net Wednesday night 8:00pm PSRG 146.96
For the new folks on this WA-DIGITAL list, the Summer of Digital Fun Series
finishes up this Wednesday on the PSRG machine, 146.96 (-600 kHz offset, 103.5
tone)in Seattle.
All are welcome.
Make no mistake, the Educational Radio Nets will continue and the Digital Series
will also continue, but for things digital, probably once or so per month as we
keep exercising with these amazing modes.
I was tempted to talk about the Automatic Position Reporting System, APRS - a
tasty flavor of packet radio. Just eavesdrop on 144.39 for a sense of how
popular this mode is. However, it seems the last couple of weeks have seriously
challenged the group which has been winnowed down to just a few players. I hope
folks will pursue APRS on their own or contact me off list for any help they
might need with that system - it is really a blast. For lots of help including
a well developed Elmering program, check out http://www.nwaprs.info/ or just
look at the cool maps at http://aprs.fi/
So, for this last Summer Session we'll have more digital fun with a recap of
what we've done through the summer. Please begin the net with FLDIGI up and
running with acoustic coupling between your radio and the computer.
The best way to enjoy the Educational Radio Net is to have your software set up
and running as the net starts at 8:00.
If you have an interface, hook it up to your two-meter rig, otherwise use
acoustic coupling with a microphone feeding shack audio into your computer and
the rig audio softly coming out of a speaker in the room with you fairly close
to the mic.
If this is your first session, no problem. Pull the software off the WA-DIGITAL
files section and install it. Tune in and we'll go over set up of the software
during the session. The software is on the WA-DIGITAL yahoo group. If you are
using VISTA, please load the version FLDIGI 3.11.4-WinV. When the update went
to 3.12.4 for all windows systems, something bad happened, and VISTA stopped
working. There are Linux and Mac versions of the software as well - just Google
NBEMS or go to http://www.w1hkj.com/ .
Posts 2 and 3 go into setting up for FLDIGI. The first part of Post #4
describes the set up for acoustic coupling. IF you are set up for acoustic
coupling, you should see a difference in the waterfall as you open and close the
squelch on the rig you are using to monitor the PSRG machine. If you don't, go
to the CONFIGURATION menu and the AUDIO tab, then devices to point the software
to the audio source.
We will start out tonight with a blast of MT-63 preceded with an RS-ID to
automatically switch your software to the correct mode and frequency, so get
ready to receive on the output of the PSRG machine, 146.96. Remember to setup
FLDIGI with menu item CONFIGURATION, then under the ID tab to check the box next
to "TRANSMIT MODE RSID" and "RSID SEARCHES ENTIRE PASSBAND" Finally on the main
receive screen, be sure and check the little box up in the upper right corner of
the screen labeled "RS-ID" so that a green light is visible indicating you are
ready to switch modes and frequency when the signal is received. This feature
has to be turned on each time you want to use it - mostly to keep from being
wrenched out of an ongoing QSO by receiving another RS-ID.
If you have trouble with copy during the net, you might check the input of the
repeater to see if that is better for you. Several folks sent messages last week
suggesting that.
See you on the Net.
Hopefully this will be just the beginning of some great digital adventures.
I would like to suggest we continue using the WA-DIGITAL mail reflector to
schedule digital QSOs with other folks, also don't forget
http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/ to set up SKEDS or WSPRNET.ORG to monitor your
received whisperings.
Also, please consider joining the Pennsylvania NBEMS group via Echolink on a
local repeater or in the privacy of your home computer. The Pittsburgh hams have
been having a net using about 50% voice and 50% MT-63. We may join them by
Echolink by connecting to W3YJ-R (node 177325) at 5:00pm Sunday evenings (8:00pm
Eastern Time).
After the 5:00pm net I would like to suggest we retire to the SEA machine on
145.010 simplex. (just "Connect SEA" and then type "TALK" to join the group and
//ex to leave (the instructions come up when you join.)
As the fall comes on, I would like to suggest we dive into some of the major
pieces of software available and checkout all that they are capable of - I'm
thinking of MULTIPSK which does way more than just PSK, and HAM RADIO DELUXE -
HRD with D780 for digital modes - a beautiful piece of software.
Our continuing thanks to the PSRG for the use of the repeater for this net and
so many others that enhance our radio community.
vy 73 de WR5J
Curt Black
black@nwfirst.com
As a reminder, here is what we covered this summer:
Blog Post - #1 Intro to Digital Communication, Software and Modes Wednesday,
June 3, 2009
Blog Post - #2 Intro to FLDIGI – Install, Setup and Mode Selection, Wednesday,
June 10, 2009
Blog Post - #3 Using FLDIGI – Starting with PSK-31 and Transmitting a Good
Signal Wednesday, June 24
Blog Post - #4 More FLDIGI – RTTY, the WRAP Utility and RS-ID, Wednesday July 1,
2009
Blog Post - #5 WSPR – Weak Signal Propagation Reporter, Wednesday July 8, 2009
Blog Post - #6 MMSSTV/EasyPAL, Slow Scan Image Transmission, Wednesday July 15,
2009
Blog Post - #7 Digital SSTV (week 2) EasyPAL, Wednesday July 22, 2009
Blog Post - #8 WSJT-JT65A – Terrestrial HF, Wednesday July 29, 2009
Blog Post - #9 WSJT-HS-Meteor Scatter, Wednesday August 5, 2009
Blog Post - #10 Packet Radio Using Flex32, Wednesday August 12, 2009
Blog Post - #11 Packet Radio Using AGW Packet Engine, Wednesday August 19,
2009
Blog Post - #12 WINDRM – Digital Voice and HRD/DM780, Wednesday August 26, 2009
OK - we didn't really do WINDRM - take a look at the blog post and you will see
why - we still might give it a try, but it is the same modulation approach used
by EasyPAL and that didn't fly very far through the PSRG machine - However, we
did very well with an after-net on the 444.550 WW7SEA machine - as in perfect
copy and 22dB S/N ratios. We've got to find out what that is about...
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