MOST needs Ham Volunteers!

 The Milton J. Rubenstein Museum of Science and Technology (often referred to as the MOST) is a museum located in the Armory Square neighborhood of Downtown Syracuse, New York. The museum includes multiple exhibits, a gift shop and a domed IMAX movie theatre. It is located in the former Syracuse Armory.

The Most is in need of Volunteers to man the Amateur Radio station. It is open from Wednesday thru Sunday 10AM-5PM. Please have anyone interested contact N2OMK, Bob at: (315) 487-2650 or Andy Slaugh - KB2LUV at: KB2LUV@arrl.net

The Amateur Station consists of a Kenwood TS-870S as the main HF rig, a all mode 2M/70cm, another 2 meter mobile, and an Ten-Tec SDR receiver. We have several computers, a mock up Telegraph system, and many handouts and old rigs for viewing. Antennas consist of a 20/40 meter trap vertical, a 40 (tunes most 40-10) meter Inverted V, and an 80 meter dipole. The 2 meter mobile has a 3 element yagi, and the all mode is on a egg beater. the SDR is on a discone. We have great plans for the future of the station, but we need volunteers to make it happen.

Interested persons MUST be trained on the proper use of the equipment. They can not just come in and operate without being certified as a Volunteer of the MoST.

For more info on the museum and the station, see:

http://www.most.org/

http://www.most.org/2_ee_telecomlab.cfm

Skyline Amateur Radio Club Cortland Hamfest

Skyline Amateur Radio Club Cortland Hamfest & Technology Fair
Saturday, June 14, From 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM
at the Cortland County Fairgrounds - Our 32nd year!

Talk-in on the 147.780/180 K2IWR repeater {PL 71.9}
www.skylineradioclub.org or e-mail kb2luv@arrl.net

Admission: $5.00 per person (12 and under free)
- Outdoor flea market included with admission -

Indoor Flea Market - $5.00 per 10’ plus admission
- Indoor flea market is first come, first served -
Dealer tables - $10.00 ea, plus admission—8’ space, includes electricity

Travel directions {signs will be posted}: I-81 to exit 12; turn left on to Route
281 South. Turn left again on to Fisher Ave, (8/10 mile) then right on to
Fairgrounds Drive.

From Ithaca: Route 13 North to Route 281 North. Turn right onto Fisher Ave,
then right on to Fairgrounds Drive.

For your GPS: 4849 Fairgrounds Dr. Cortland, NY 13045

VE tests start at 9:00AM—no late entry allowed.
Walk-ins welcome, although pre-registration is
appreciated. Please e-mail kb2luv@arrl.com;
indicate which test you wish to take

Advanced SKYWARN Class for Hams

There will be an Advanced SKYWARN Class for Amateur Radio Operators in North Syracuse. This course is for those individuals who have previously taken the Basic SKYWARN class.

Binghamton National Weather Bureau meteorologist Dave Morford will provide the training Saturday,  May 31, noon to 2:30 p.m. at the North Syracuse Community Center, 700 South Bay Road, North Syracuse, NY. You must pre-register for this class. 

Any Questions should be directed to David, W2DER: W2DER@yahoo.com

or see the full CNY Skywarn training schedule and register at:
http://www.weather.gov/bgm/outreachSKYWARNtraining

Upcoming SKYWARN Training

Spring and Summer are prime time for severe weather outbreaks in Upstate NY. You can help out by becoming a SKYWARN Spotter.

The National Weather Service office in Binghamton has both Basic and Advanced SKYWARN Training coming up in CNY over the next several weeks. You must register in advance for these classes. This is an excellent service that HAM's can provide to the local community.



See the full CNY Skywarn training schedule and register at:
http://www.weather.gov/bgm/outreachSKYWARNtraining

Learn more about the Skywarn Program at the National Skywarn web site:
http://skywarn.org/about/

Upstate NY Skywarn Amateur frequencies:
http://www.weather.gov/images/bgm/skywarn/sky_freq.jpg

New D-Star repeater - message from KA2NDW

For those of you who have d-star or are thinking of trying d-star. I have added a D-star hot spot access point at my repeater site (near Waterloo, NY). It's on 446.125 simplex and runs about 20 watts. It's normally connected to reflector 20A which is located in NJ and is the northeast gateway. Feel free to try it and if you want to connect to a different reflector you may disconnect from 20A and connect to any one you want.

For those who are not up on d-star or do not have a understanding of it here's a little back ground. You need a digital d-star radio to use it. If you listen to the hotspot on 446.125 all you will hear is data bursts with an analog radio. Digital signals go farther than analog,  which means less power goes farther.

Short of a digital radio you can get on d-star with a dv dongle connected to your computer. If you have a laptop you would be able to use it any where you can get an internet connection. This works by connecting through the internet which makes it so you don't need to be near a d-star repeater or hot spot.

D-star users seem to be growing as well as hots pots and repeaters.

 73 -

Mike  KA2NDW

KA2NDW repeaters:

145.470  -     no pl

 449.075  -    no pl

 53.470   -    82.5

d-star     446.125

 Learn more about D-star: http://www.dstarinfo.com/

Success!!! .....at the Auburn Ham Swap Meet

Update 5/3/14 - Great swap meet today! Thanks to Jim WT2W and his crew! Even with the threat of rain there was a very good turn out. Lots of interesting stuff. I sold a few items and saw many others selling lots of goods! ....and they raised over $400 for a local food pantry. We are already looking forward to next year!

Thanks guys!


2nd Annual Auburn Ham Swap Meet

When?   Saturday May 3rd, 2014 (first Sat. in May)

Time?    7am to noon

Where?  Located at the old GE plant parking lot,  the location is next to the McDonalds Restaurant

             GPS location is :  357 Genesee Street Auburn 13021

      

Admission is $3.00 at the gate or a bag of (unexpired) canned goods.  All proceeds will be donated to a local Food Pantry.

Come join us at a great little Saturday morning Swap Meet (mini-hamfest).

There are no shelters, food or bathrooms.

However, McDonalds is 100 ft east of the Swap.

Hot coffee and rest rooms are available next door.  If it rains, plan accordingly

Questions? Email Jim WT2W, meyerbookbinding@gmail.com

Sell from your trunk, tailgate, or bring a table. This was a fun event last year, so tell all your friends.

Interesting APRS story..........

A local amateur friend, AB2MS, Todd Brown shared an interesting story with me on our Monday morning commute a few weeks ago. I was very impressed by the story and asked Todd if he would write down the story and send me a few pictures to post on our blog. His story follows (with a few edits and only two of 5 pics):
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We all get random emails, usually spam or something that doesn’t get much more than a glance. But sometimes those random, unexpected emails can lead to an adventure. On April 8, I received an email with the subject “Balloon from U-Mich down near you”. I thought it sounded odd, just out of the blue, but the subject drew me in to read it:

Todd,

de Dave KB3EFS up near Alexandria Bay. A High Altitude Balloon from U-Mich Ann Arbor is down near you. See http://aprs.fi/#!call=a%2FAETHR1-1&timerange=172800&tail=172800 
It looks like the area is a swamp or a forest. I can get you contact info for the group at U-Mich if you or others want to go get it.

73
Dave
KB3EFS

The balloon was tracked on APRS so the whole journey was online for all to see.
Clicking on the link, here is what I found:

Seems the balloon had quite the trip, reaching almost 40,000 feet and over 120 MPH! So where is it?

About 11 miles east of me, just west of Central Square, not a huge trip to go out there. But what about the terrain? Where did this thing decide to end its parachute decent back to earth? I could hope for an easy recovery, but I knew I wasn’t that lucky…… so I bring in the satellite view! Ugh, out in the middle of nowhere, and where does that creek go? Oh, looks like it spreads out into a swamp. Great news during spring thaw…… So where to begin? Looks like a farm to the west of it. Farms are a good place to start looking for land owners and info. 

So Saturday rolls around, nice warm sunny day and I follow the directions my GPS I giving me to get to the farm. I first met two of “the boys” tinkering on a car. I explain the situation and they point to “ma and pa” down sawing firewood. I drive past the house and see the apparent owners. I again explained the story to “pa” and he told “ma” to stop her chainsaw and come over so I could retell the story again. After having heard it they seemed quite cooperative and I was sent off with another one of the boys in a manure covered farm truck. He guessed it was in the swamp, but was determined we get closer so maybe at least a glimpse of the payload could be seen and the actual location could be determined. After stopping to say hi to everyone on the route (farmers know EVERYONE around) we drove up a field as far as he dared and set out to find us a balloon. I had plugged the coordinates into my handheld GPS, so we had a general idea of where it hopefully was. 

Skip ahead a half hour after pushing through brush and stepping in mud, and the GPS points ahead to the left…….. right into the swamp. We trudged further ahead, skirting the muck (for the most part) and suddenly stepped into mud up to our knees. A little further and through the trees we see what looks like a bunch of plastic sheeting. Could it be? The GPS is pointing right at it. We already were wet up to our knee, so it was time to get a closer look to be sure. Sure enough that’s all it could be. Now I’m thinking how far I had trudged, how long I had already spent looking and the fact I was already wet. One thing to do now……… empty my pockets, hang my backpack with camera in a tree and go for it. I brought the cellphone as it was waterproof and luckily my Leatherman. 

Getting close, I can see the payload:

So how do I get that down from up there in the tree? Parachute cord! I mean it looks like it’s tangled around a few branches, why not! Well, after straining the cord as much as I dared and not wanting anything to snap back and knock some teeth out I tied it off and thought. Leatherman! I still had my Leatherman in my pocket. It has a saw. So I wade over (now wet almost up to my chest) and realize the tree is more than twice the diameter of the little saw. Who am I to let that stop me now?

I finally had the prize at ground level and could grab it and make my back to the guy waiting at the edge of the swamp for me. 

All in all it was quite an adventure. It shows the use of APRS tracking the balloon, and my digipeater was the closest station to the landing site. I guess it also shows how crazy and / or determined I was. The guys at U-Mich Ann Arbor were quite happy I retrieved their payload which was a tiny radio / GPS / TNC unit and it now could be re-used for more educational purposes. They sent me a prepaid envelope to send it back to them and included an 8’ balloon to pique my interest in trying my own launch.  

I encourage everyone to visit http://www.projectaether.org/main/ to learn about these balloons and their use in research and education. They have a lot of info and videos to check out, plus they announce launches so we can watch for another to come this way. I just hope it lands in a better spot next time. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Todd, Thanks for sharing this cool story! 

Help with SDR# software

I have heard many people asking questions recently about using SDR # software with RTL-SDR dongles and other Software Defined Radios. I personally have struggled with finding guidance on how to optimize the many parameters in the SDR# software.

Well I found a link to a great blog posting that does a nice job explaining many settings in SDR#. Find that blog post here: http://tylerwatt12.com/tips-for-using-sdr/

Using SDR# is pretty cool once you understand the settings and get them adjusted properly. So don't give up on SDR# or your dongle without trying some of the tips in this article.

Good Luck and 73!

A link to our previous SDR post with helpful links: http://www.upstateham.com/2013/10/software-defined-radio-sdr-info.html

Echolink Update on the 147.00 repeater

Form Jack - W2QYT:

There has been a recent update on the DTMF (TouchTones) disconnect command for using Echolink on the the 147.00 repeater.

The DTMF disconnect command has changed from # to 73.

Upcoming VE exam in Syracuse (Liverpool)

Amateur Radio VE Exams are being held on April 19,2014 at noon, at the Liverpool Library, 210
Tulip Street, Liverpool N.Y. for licensed Ham Radio operators preparing to upgrade or  those working to obtain their new Ham ticket.

Registration: Sargent Room 12-1 p.m.  
You will need two forms of ID, one w/your picture, and $14 fee (W5YI-VEC)  cash or M.O.
Walk-ins are allowed. 

Questions,contact the Syracuse VE Team : VEexams@hotmail.com

Thank you. 

Viv, WA2PUU - Syracuse VE Team Contact 

The Syracuse VE Team conducts exams every quarter. Contact them at the e-mail address above if you have any questions.

Missing Ham equipment - HELP!

Please be on the lookout for some radio equipment that was stolen in Cayuga County in the last 30 days.

This equipment may be in the Auburn/Syracuse/Rochester area.......please watch for it!

Comet CAA-500 Antenna Analyzer
Kenwood TS-50 HF Mobile/base radio
Kenwood AT-50 Auto tuner
Ranger RCI 2950 10 meter mobile radio

If you have heard of or seen this equipment, or have questions about it,  please contact Tim, N2VZD at N2VZD@aol.com or give him a shout on the 146.67 KD2SL repeater.

Thanks for your help!

Ham Radio magazine archives

Have you ever wanted to find some of those old Ham radio magazine articles? Well, thanks to the Internet you can now have access to copies of hundreds of old Ham radio publications. These archives are searchable and contain a lot of excellent information that is still very relevant to our hobby. Check it out!

Archives with free downloadable copies of several old Radio magazines:

Ham Radio was a monthly amateur radio enthusiast magazine published in the United States from February 1968 to June 1990
Link: https://archive.org/details/ham-radio-magazine

73 Magazine (also known as 73 Amateur Radio Today) (OCLC 22239204) was a United States-based amateur radio magazine that was published from 1960 to 2003. It was known for its strong emphasis on technical articles and for the lengthy editorials in each issue by its founder and publisher, Wayne Green.
Link: https://archive.org/details/73-magazine

ARRL members also have free access to the QST magazine archives dating from 1911 to 2012
Link: http://www.arrl.org/arrl-periodicals-archive-search 

Old Radio & TV Broadcast publications - very interesting history......
Link: http://www.americanradiohistory.com/

Tropospheric Propogation on VHF/UHF

Tropospheric propagation describes electromagnetic propagation in relation to the troposphere.

The service area from a television (TV) or frequency modulated (FM) radio transmitter extends to just beyond the optical horizon, at which point signals start to rapidly reduce in strength. Listeners or Viewers living in such a "deep fringe" reception area will notice that during certain conditions, weak signals normally masked by noise increase in signal strength to allow quality reception. Such conditions are related to the current state of the troposphere.

Tropospheric propagated signals travel in the part of the atmosphere adjacent to the surface and extending to some 25,000 feet (7,620 m). Such signals are thus directly affected by weather conditions extending over some hundreds of miles. During very settled, warm anticyclonic weather (i.e., high pressure), usually weak signals from distant transmitters improve in strength.

Learn more on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation

Cool Tropo websites:

Tropospheric Ducting Forecasts:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html

Tropospheric Ducting explanation and how to use:
http://www.dxinfocentre.com/propagation/tr-modes.htm

Auburn's 2nd Annual Ham Swap Meet is coming!

2nd Annual Auburn Ham Swap Meet

When?   Saturday May 3rd, 2014 (first Sat. in May)

Time?    7am to noon

Where?  Located at the old GE plant parking lot,  the location is next to the McDonalds Restaurant

             GPS location is :  357 Genesee Street Auburn 13021

      

Admission is $3.00 at the gate or a bag of (unexpired) canned goods.  All proceeds will be donated to a local Food Pantry.

Come join us at a great little Saturday morning Swap Meet (mini-hamfest).

There are no shelters, food or bathrooms.

However, McDonalds is 100 ft east of the Swap.

Hot coffee and rest rooms are available next door.  If it rains, plan accordingly

Questions? Email Jim WT2W, meyerbookbinding@gmail.com

Sell from your trunk, tailgate, or bring a table. This was a fun event last year, so tell all your friends.

AC2GE - Dexter N.Y. Repeater is changing frequencies

A Note from Julie and Will....................

Date: 3/10/14

Subj: Repeater frequency change

Hi to you all,

As of the end of this week the 146.76- repeater will be no more. Due to much interference from other repeaters with the same frequency, and interference from other electronics with that frequency (ever go by a gas station with that frequency on?), it is being changed.  The new frequency will be 147.030+ pl 151.4.  The repeater will be deactivated as of Wednesday evening and will hopefully be back up with the new frequency on Thursday evening.

Thank you for your patience at this time!

Julie (KC2ZTG) & Will (AC2GE) Covey