Technical

Ben Jackson, N1WBV, writes on the Bristol Co. Radio Association mailing list:

If you have ever thought about becoming involved with AREDN (https://www.arednmesh.org/) but also wondered “Well it sounds interesting, but who would I communicate with around the South Coastal MA Area?” I am happy to report that I have established an outdoor node just a touch N/NNE of UMass in FN41lp.

What is AREDN? AREDN is the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network which provides a way for Amateur Radio operators to create high-speed ad-hoc data networks for use in emergency and service-oriented communications.  This is often done via consumer or “pro-sumer” 802.11 wireless networking gear running custom software. Currently, there are mesh networks in Rhode Island and they reach as far as Tiverton, and there is an emerging effort on Cape Cod.

As I am always over engineering things I have also opted to make my node 100% solar powered and I’ve also put it up at 20ft AGL. Right now, I am putting it in “open Beta” and I want to let people know about it, however, I will expect it to randomly go down for testing as I am still hammering out bugs.

So if you have a 5GHz directional WiFi Access Point, please point it my way on Channel 149 of your 5GHz dial; and if you WANT to grab a 5GHz directional access WiFi Access Point, (especially if you have a tower!) please just let me know and I would be happy to point you in the right direction. I am also working out a full Bill of Materials (BOM) for what I assembled my node for.

73

Ben, N1WBV

Bruce Tinkler, N9JBT, writes on the stars-radio list:

RCA Interview Tuesday June 11, 9 p.m. ET.

A Lifetime of Wireless Propagation Research: In-Building, Underground, Tropospheric, You Name It!

Featuring Dr. Robert Johnk

Robert (Bob) Johnk (M’91 – SM’07) received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Colorado in 1990, where he specialized in electromagnetics and antennas.

Bob recently retired as research engineer from the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (NTIA/ITS) where he was engaged in advancing the state of the art in radio-channel propagation measurements/analysis and mentoring new engineers in the art of measurement science.

During the development of the FirstNet National Public Safety Radio System, Bob conducted research on in-building wireless propagation and methods for improving in-building public safety communications. Prior to joining NTIA/ITS in 2007, he worked at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado for 17 years, where he was the leader of the time-domain fields project.

Bob has received best paper awards from the IEEE EMC Society, NTIA, and NIST. In 2011, Bob received the IEEE EMC Society’s Technical Achievement Award for his work “in the development of free-space time-domain measurement techniques”.

Bob has also received a U.S. Department of Commerce Silver Medal award for his work in Public Safety communications. Bob is a Life Senior member of the IEEE and a member of both Eta Kappa Nu and Tau Beta Pi.

This interview will be conducted by RCA President-Emeritus, John Facella.

REGISTER HERE

Rusty Moore, K1FVK, writes on the Sci-Tech ARS mailing listL

We just passed the one year anniversary of the great 2023 balloon turkey-shoot, during which the USAF downed a Chinese spy balloon plus three small unidentified balloons, one of which was almost certainly K9YO-15, a radio-equipped pico balloon flown by the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade. Today the press reported that NORAD is currently tracking another small unidentified balloon, but has determined that it poses no threat to national security. As soon as I heard about this I did a quick check of SondeHub and whatddaya know, there’s K9YO-7 on the same track, over the same area, and at the same altitude as the mysterious unidentified balloon everyone is talking about. The media reports characterize it as a small Mylar balloon, about 50 feet tall (which I take to be the estimated overall height from payload to top of balloon), with a 2-foot square box hanging underneath. None of the news stories I saw mentioned anything about the K9YO balloon’s presence, or about the existence of amateur balloons in general. Surely NORAD would be checking the amateur ballooning maps, wouldn’t they? For that matter, so should serious news teams. Journalism ain’t what it used to be.

CBS News report on the balloon: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/military-tracking-balloon-western-us-military/

—K1FVK

Andy Stewart, KB1OIQ, writes:

Hi Everybody,

I have released a new version of the “Andy’s Ham Radio Linux” (AHRL) software collection: version 25a

The previous version (v25) had over 10,100 downloads in about a year.

AHRL is based on Xubuntu 22.04. All of your favorite software has been updated, and a few things have been added, including:

* GridTracker
* some software from the M17 Project
* SDRangel
* Arduino 2.1.0

For more information, and a download link: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kb1oiq-andysham/

I’m really looking forward to seeing folks and giving a talk about AHRL at Hamvention 2023.

Have fun (!) and 73,

Andy

Seth Kendall, KC1PZY, writes on the New England Sci-Tech mailing list:

We plan to hoist up our payloads as high as we can over [New England Sci-Tech] this Sunday (May 7th) at 1pm.  The payload will be running the full repeater setup and live video transmission for flight.

We’d like to invite anyone who might have line of sight with NEST to try calling in once we start the event to test the functioning and propagation.  Keep in mind, the repeater uses low power HTs with homemade Slim Jim antennas, so do not expect the level of performance achieved by the real NEST repeater.  It is also expected to get significantly better signal up in free space during the flight than it will on the ground.

We are putting out a call to see if anyone has a long, sturdy gopher pole or extendable mast that could be temporarily mounted on the roof and hold 5 lbs. up vertically without bending.

To participate, here is what you need to do:

1. Set up your UHF/VHF radio to these frequencies:
   1. Uplink (your transmit): 446.05 MHz
   2. Downlink (your receive): 146.55 MHz
2. Use the best dual band antenna you’ve got, or two single band antennas with duplexer.  Antenna height will help a lot.
3. Write down your distance from NEST and include it in the exchange.
4. We’ll try to have someone calling CQ as W1STR during the test and writing down contacts and distances.
5. If you’d like to come join us at NEST during the event to help with setup and operation, come join us around noon.  We’ll either be in the makerspace or on the roof.  We can order some food as well.

We are also looking for a volunteer to try receiving the video signal from some place with direct line of sight that is further than right down the street.  Ideally 1-5 miles away (not expecting the kind of propagation we’ll get up in free space).

1. If you’d like to volunteer, let me know. 
2. You’ll need a laptop with Windows.
3. You’ll need to come into NEST either on Saturday or Sunday so I can give you the receive antenna we are testing, the receiver hardware, and help you set up your computer to input and view the video feed.
4. You’ll need to find a place with direct line of sight (that’s the hard part).

Paul Graveline, K1YUB, of Andover, MA, will present at the 40th Annual AMSAT Space Symposium in Bloomington, Minnesota, on October 21-22, 2022. Paul will present in a session on the CubeSat Simulator.

The symposium will feature:

* Space Symposium with Amateur Satellite Presentations
* Operating Techniques, News, & Plans from the Amateur Satellite World
* Board of Directors Meeting open to AMSAT members
* Opportunities to Meet Board Members and Officers
* AMSAT Annual General Membership Meeting
* Auction, Annual Banquet, Keynote Speaker and Door Prizes !!

The Crowne Plaza Suites, 3 Appletree Square, Bloomington, MN, is centrally located between the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, Mall of America, Minneapolis Zoo, and Nickelodeon Universe Theme Park. Crown Plaza Suites provides a complimentary scheduled shuttle to and from the airport.

Additional information about the 2022 AMSAT Symposium can be found at https://www.amsat.org.

From nediv.arrl.org:

ARDC has approved a request for RFI hunting equipment for each of the seven sections in the New England Division.  The funds should be received in the next few weeks and orders placed for the equipment soon after.  Included is both an antenna set and an HF/VHF/UHF transceiver with a spectrum scope.  Distribution to each section will accompany training on the equipment.  In addition, some high-end equipment will remain in the custody of the Division for sharing when needed in addition to any the ARRL Lab will provide on loan.  Any questions can be directed to Rob, k1UI, Assistant New England Director, Spectrum Protection and Use.

Boston amateur and AMSAT member Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, is mentioned in the September 8, 2022 issue of The ARRL Letter. He describes a tool called JPL Horizons, an online solar system data and computation service that provides access to key solar system data for solar system objects such as asteroids, planetary satellites, planets, the Sun, and select spacecraft:

From The ARRL Letter:

When NASA’s Artemis I rocket launches for its mission to the moon this month, you’ll be able to track it using 70-centimeter beacons known as Outstanding MOon exploration TEchnologies demonstrated by NAno Semi-Hard Impactors (OMOTENASHIs).

Omotenashi is Japanese for welcome or hospitality, and it describes the 70-centimeter beacons as small spacecraft and semi-hard landers of the 6U CubeSat format which will demonstrate low-cost technology to land and explore the lunar surface. OMOTENASHI will be one of 10 CubeSats to be carried with the Artemis I mission.

Brian Wilkins, KO4AQF, says that with the Artemis Real-time Orbit Website (AROW), anyone with internet access can pinpoint where Orion is and track its distance from the Earth, its distance from the moon, the mission duration, and more. AROW is available on NASA’s website and Twitter account. AROW visualizes data collected by sensors on Orion that are sent to the Johnson Space Center’s Mission Control Center in Houston during its flight. It will provide periodic real-time data beginning about 1 minute after liftoff through the separation of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket’s Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage, approximately 2 hours into flight.

Once Orion is flying on its own, AROW will provide constant real-time information. On the web, users can follow AROW to see where Orion is in relation to the Earth and the moon, and follow Orion’s path during the mission. Users can view key mission milestones and characteristics on the moon, including information about landing sites from the Apollo program. Also available for download will be an ephemeris, which provides trajectory data from the flight.

AROW will also provide a set of Orion’s state vectors — data that describes precisely where Orion is in space and how it moves — for inclusion in these tweets once Orion is flying on its own. These vectors can be used for data lovers, artists, and creatives to make their own tracking app, data visualization, or anything else they envision. For more information, read https://www.nasa.gov/feature/track-nasa-s-artemis-i-mission-in-real-time/.

AMSAT member Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, adds a second online tool, called Horizons. The JPL Horizons online solar system data and computation service provides access to key solar system data and flexible production of highly accurate locations for solar system objects such as asteroids, planetary satellites, planets, the Sun, and select spacecraft. Horizons is provided by the Solar System Dynamics Group of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Fitzgerald says to use “OMOTENASHI” as the Target Body. You can find information and the online app at https://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.

— Thanks to Brian Wilkins, KO4AQF; Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P; NASA; JPL Horizons, and AMSAT.