Drone Footage of Tower Demolition

Great video sent by one of our UpstateHam.com contributors. Watch this tower fall!

Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4vghs8DxOE&feature=youtu.be


http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/drone-footage-of-tower-demolition/274982

147.39 Fulton Repeater - Fusion update from WN8Z

3/12/15 UPDATE from WN8Z; Pat:

The Fulton WN8Z/R, 147.390, went Yaesu System Fusion Wednesday evening. The first Fusion digital qso between WA2ISC  and myself was a complete success!

The repeater is currently set in "Auto/Auto mode. This means that digital in = digital out  & Fm in = Fm out. This setting will remain until Saturday evening, Mar 14 when the Ge Mstr II will go back in service. The system will remain inconsistent during the week as we experiment and continue working on upgrades in the repeater shack.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate soon for the antenna upgrade.

Analog audio quality is exceptional using the internal controller and I am very pleased with the digital quality.

As mentioned in my previous post - the repeater is on the air as supplied out of the

Amateur Radio VE exams

Saturday, April 18, 2015,  Amateur Radio VE exams.  

Registration is from Noon - 1 p.m. for Tech, General or Amateur Extra levels.

Held at the Liverpool Public Library, 310 Tulip Street, Liverpool.

Applicants  should bring 2 forms of ID, one with your picture; and  FCC exam fee of $14  (cash or M.O.).  

Exams are held quarterly and are sponsored by the Syracuse VE Team. 

Any questions?  Please call 698-4558 or VEexams@hotmail.com

More VE exam and training information here:
http://www.upstateham.com/p/you-want-to-be-ham.html

New time for the QCWA 6 Meter Net on the 53.05 repeater

The QCWA 6 meter net on Tuesdays will now begin at 7:00pm, a half hour earlier than usual. Please help spread the news and hope to hear you on the net. (Auburn, 53.05mhz, 71.9 PL)

from Brian KB2VSN

Newark 224.90 repeater upgrades

The 224.90 repeater in Newark has some updates according to the trustee N2TKR; Tom. The frequency is 224.90 (-), and a PL tone of 82.5 has been added. It is located at the same site as the 146.745 Drumlins repeater.  

It is on the air, with a new receiver and Tom has also added a link to the KA2NDW repeaters. I am receiving it full scale here, 10 miles south of Auburn and I can bring it up DFQ with 10 watts. Give it a try some time.

"Frozen Lakes on the Air" expedition (FLOTA)

KD2ETP; Steve is doing his “frozen lakes on the air expedition”; FLOTA, at Onondaga Lake this Saturday 2/28/15. Catch him on his HT on the KD2SL 146.67 repeater for details. See his planned times and HF frequencies listed below:

 - this will be my band plan for my frozen lakes on the air expedition this weekend. I will plan to get on the ice and set up between 10-11 am Saturday morning.

40m 7.285 (7210 at 3:10pm)
20m14.285
17m 18.115
10m 28.885

Starting at 11am and one hour on each of those frequencies will also have a HT and be monitoring 146.67 while out on the ice. Running QRP on my KX3 and a Buddipole antenna.

(UPDATED with a some pictures fresh from KD2ETP, N2DOW and WO2R)

Please give me a call!

Steve; KD2ETP

WN8Z with A Fusion demo at this weeks QCWA meeting

At the February QCWA meeting this Friday 2/27/15, WN8Z; Pat will be conducting a demonstration of his Yaesu Fusion Digital radios. Fusion is coming to several repeaters in CNY this spring. Come learn from one of the areas pioneers of Digital Voice.

The Quarter Century Wireless Asssociation (QCWA) meetings are held the last Friday of each month; 11:30 am at the Denny's Restaurant on South Bay Rd (corner of Lawrence Ave) in North Syracuse (near the Syracuse Airport). QCWA meetings are open to the public.

Check out this interesting web site!

Over the last several weeks I have had a few conversations with other Hams about how to share information with newer Hams or Hams just returning to the hobby after an absence of years. What is the best coax to use? Which connectors solder or crimp-on? How are you grounding your radio?

One of the most useful web sites that I have found for sound technical amateur radio advice is K0BG.com (link:http://www.k0bg.com/). I find myself going back to this site quite often. K0BG; Allen Applegate has done a very nice job pulling together a large amount of very detailed information.

Quoting Allen; "With safety as a byword, there are articles on amplifiers, antennas, bonding, impedance matching, installing hardware, mobile equipment, noise and RFI abatement, wiring, and much more. The suggestions contained on his web site are based on a best foot forward approach, from my experience". The site is well laid out and very easy to navigate.

There are several dozen topics down the left side of the page.
Some of my favorites are:
- Coax annd PL-259 connectors: http://www.k0bg.com/coax.html
- Grounds, RF & D.C.: http://www.k0bg.com/ground.html
- Installation Notes: http://www.k0bg.com/install.html
- Tricks of the trade: http://www.k0bg.com/tricks.html

....just to name a few! Check it out. I don't think you can go wrong spending a few minutes on this site.

Another source of useful Amateur Radio information is the LARC Bootcamp training series on the 4th Thursday of each month prior to their regular club meetings. Learn more at:
http://www.liverpoolamateurrepeaterclub.org/index.php

And don't be afraid to ask for help! ......and to the more experienced, don't be afraid to share some of that knowledge you have gathered through Amateur Radio. That's part of what makes this hobby great; sharing your experience with others.

The Rochester VHF Group

Are you interested in FM DXing and the world above 30 Mhz? The Rochester VHF Group has Monday and Thursday evening nets on both 2M and 6M. We have mentioned them on this site once before, but we heard some folks talking about this group and thought we should get out a link to their web site. The Rochester VHF Group is the oldest continuously operating amateur organization dedicated to VHF and above activities. Be sure to learn more about this group at the address listed below.

The group meets twice a week on the air for an open net. Why not give them a listen, better yet a check-in?

144.260 Mhz SSB on Monday's at 9pm 

50.200 Mhz SSB on Thursday's at 9pm

Learn more about the group at:http://www.rvhfg.org/

Learn more about System Fusion

There is quite a bit of discussion of Digital Voice (DV) modes on the local repeaters lately, especially System Fusion. There are several Fusion repeaters in the works here in Upstate NY and all are expected to be on-line before this summer. We found some helpful information from a club that was part of Yaesu’s Beta program and thought that we would share it on UpstateHam.com. The Yaesu System Fusions FAQ's can be found at the link below.

See our Digital Voice for Amateur Radio page at: http://www.upstateham.com/p/digital-voice-for-amateur-use-discuss.html

(then scroll down the page to the "Yaesu System Fusions FAQ's")

Drumlins Hamfest, April 18th, 2015

We just revived the Drumlins 2015 Hamfest poster. This is always a very good Hamfest, so put it on your calendar!
More information at : http://www.drumlinsarc.org/hamfest.htm

Digital Voice coming to CNY and the 147.39 repeater

Yaesu's System Fusion Digital Voice capability will be coming to the WN8Z 147.39 repeater in Oswego County in early 2015. WN8Z; Pat has reported that the new Fusion DR-1X repeater is on order and he hopes to have it up and running within a month or two. Pat now has the Fusion capable FTM-400DR mobile as well as the FT1DR handheld that he is starting to explore all the System Fusion capabilities with.

Several local Ham's in the area have also purchased new System Fusion capable radios in recent months and have expressed much enthusiasm for this new mode's capabilities. There are also discussions of the possibility of one or more other Fusion repeaters coming to CNY in 2015. There are also at least two System Fusion repeaters coming on line in the Rochester area, and one in Cortland later this year.

Stay tuned here for updates on Pat's progress on this exciting project, as well as news of other System Fusion repeaters in Upstate NY.

link to a System Fusion overview: http://www.yaesu.com/pdf/System_Fusion_text.pdf

Recent articles on digital voice for Amateur Radio:

The Spectrum Monitor; January 2015, (http://www.thespectrummonitor.com/)

Reviews of 2 Fusion Radios - QST Magazine; September 2014 (http://www.arrl.org/qst)

Monday Night Hobby Net - have you got a topic?

Check out the CNY Hobby Information Net; Mondays at 7:00 pm on the 146.67 (-) PL=103.5. (also linked to the KD2SL-53.67 mhz repeater for this NET)

What's your hobby? Model cars, Radio Control aircraft, Portable Operation, Model RR or Railfans, Auto restoration, Cameras, Kites; among others ......we want to hear your story and experiences.

On Monday January 26th we wanted to see if we could get people to discuss portable operations, QRP, and SOTA. What portable antennas have you used? What radios and power sources do you use?  Have you tried SOTA - Summits-on-the-Air? Where do you go, the beach, your deck, maybe the Adirondacks? Please come joins us next Monday Night and share your experiences. Note: other topics can always also be covered, after all this is your net...have at it!.

Varying topics are covered each week (no guns or weapons please...), so tune in or contact N2VZD, Tim for more information at N2VZD@AOL.com. (...and a big THANK YOU to N2VZD -Tim for bringing this NET to the airwaves)

145.15 added to the CNY VHF linked system today!

The KD2SL 145.15 repeater, (-) offset and 123.0 PL, has been linked into the CNY linked repeater system. This repeater has excellent coverage in the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County. Give it a try sometime!

THE CNY LINKED REPEATER SYSTEM:
147.000 + PL 71.9 Auburn - Cayuga County -W2QYT  (echolink node# 9188)
145.330 - PL 71.9 Remsen - Oneida County - KB2AUJ (temporarily un-linked)
147.225 + PL 71.9 Cortland - Cortland County -KB2FAF
146.970 - PL 103.5 Ithaca - Tompkins County - AF2A (TCARA)
145.150 - PL 123.0 Lafayette - Onondaga County - KD2SL (added 1/18/15)***
443.150 + PL 71.9 Syracuse - Onondaga County (MOST)

Blue Mountain Repeater update

Blue Mountain Fire Tower and antennas (1/13/15)

Nick Deyulio from the Bear Bait Radio Club sent us an update this week on the 146.865 repeater on top of Blue Mountain in Hamilton County (central ADK's). The repeater had some issues recently and has now been replaced with a temporary replacement while the original repeater is being repaired. Thanks to Chris; KD2BAD for braving the elements to go up top on January 13th to replace the repeater (check out the picture to the left). This repeater provides good coverage to the central Adirondacks where cell coverage is very limited. Thanks to the Bear Bait Club (and helpers) for this important north country repeater!

Nick also mentioned that there is now APRS capability from on top of Blue Mountain. See the clubs web page for more information at: http://www.bearbaitradioclub.com/index.html


Read more about this repeater in an older UpstateHam story here: http://www.upstateham.com/2013/05/new-2-meter-repeater-for-adirondacks_20.html

The Bear Bait Radio Club is also having a Amateur Radio Technician Class and VE test session on February 21st and 22nd, 2015 at the Clay Welcome Center on RT. 31, Clay NY. It's from 8-5 each day. Lunch will be provided. Contact Scott; WA2DTN for more info at: kb2bdb@twcny.rr.com

The club also provides Amateur Radio licensing classes several times a year. See their calendar for more dates and times at:http://www.bearbaitradioclub.com/main_003.htm#