Will keep this brief as a photo is a 1,000 words and a 3 part video combining for 59 Minutes and 13 Seconds is worth I do not know what, but.....
You need to know what is going on within 902 and 928 MHz!
On September 30th 2024, I was invited to present on what is known as the 33cm spectrum to the Warren County Amateur Radio Club. This plan was hatched by the club president, Adam Koeble KD2YFY and I over the summer while attending the Sussex County Hamfest. I just needed a topic, but knew it would involve MeshTastic and something else interesting.
Thanks to the NextNav news brought to the attention of the amateur radio world by the ARRL, I think I had my plan. With not only the amateur radio community irritated, the commercial world is not happy with what they are attempting to do. Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation has something to see about this possible land grab.
In my video, I explain who are the major users and what they are doing between 902 to 928 MHz. Amateur radio is not as important here as some may think, as a secondary user for 39 years. But, those who are using unlicensed devices plus those using licensed frequencies with higher power here are pretty irritated should this NextNav plan get approved by the FCC.
My personal opinion is that there is enough spectrum to keep everyone happy, but amateur radio should lose secondary status and be given a few portions as primary users only. I would offer the following scenario.
927.000 to 927.500 MHz (Repeater Output Block)
902.000 to 904.000 MHz (Weak Signal Users & Repeater Input Block)
910.000 to 912.000 MHz (Amateur Data Experimenters Block)
This reduces from secondary status from 26 MHz of total spectrum down to only to less than 5 MHz of spectrum. The blocks above were chosen to protect repeater users as well as weak signal activities. It then dedicates a block to be used specific for any other use, such as modified use only for ISM repurposed devices for amateur radio only. These are my summarized comments submitted to the FCC before the deadline period.
A plan like this is more than fair, offers clarity for commercial users and easy to coexist with existing licensed users in almost every area plus provides a great incentive for unlicensed users to consider a path towards amateur radio or just stay as ISM users.
Let the rest of the ecosystem fight over the remaining 21 MHz left. Has the ARRL proposed anything? I would love to find out!
Have watch. I broke the video down into three parts and you can play them via a playlist or one by one:
Part 1 - Mostly just focuses on some history of the spectrum and how many devices are sharing the same spectrum across all users, licensed or unlicensed.
Part 2 - Gets into more details of the commercial users and breaks down spectrum used by different types of users, regardless of what they are doing as licensed or unlicensed users plus if they are commercial minded or not.
Part 3 - Focuses 100% on the very basics of MeshTastic, which uses unlicensed devices anywhere across the entire spectrum and by those that are not licensed and thus restricted to what they can do legally compared to the benefits of an amateur radio license holder, but will face other issues too!
It has been a while since an article has posted here, so this should be a good one involving a controversial SDR plus some 3D printing tips related to designing a simple enclosure for it.
Quick Summary: Saving you a 20 minute video
Why is everything about price? For usually under $30, this SDR can be purchased on a few websites like Aliexpress and I am NOT encouraging you to buy this. Why? It has infringed on the intellectual property of SDRplay in some regards. The driver used to get this and other similar MSI2500 chip based devices to work not made by SDRplay is needed.
Only until recent versions of the driver, cloned versions of the RSP1 could use the driver to work with software easily like SDRangel, but that stopped after SDRplay API version 3.7. I am glad that SDRplay built in some functions to only allow genuine SDRplay products to work with some of its software.
However, since reference designs have been made public on the SDRplay earlier devices, anyone can freely assemble different semiconductors to replicate a decent SDR. The device shown in the video uses separate band pass filters which is actually nice so the user can have spectrum specific antennae in use without the extra noise or complexity of electronic switching or the need for software to control that. This is why the SDR is so inexpensive.
Now that enough time has passed since I purchased these "clone" SDR devices and there are some improvements to protect SDRplay in place, now is a great time to get back to this.
Any SDR based around the MSI2500 and MSI001 are unique compared to the R820T, 828D and RTL2832U in that these support 10 MHz of bandwidth for around the same cost for those offering 3.2 MHz. Another example is this one in a smaller form factor around the same size as the RTL-SDR devices, but with the extra filtering loses the wider frequency coverage above 1 GHz.
There is an older video from 2021 where I showed how to get the SDRplay driver working with SDRangel below, but the new video instead focuses on an enclosure I designed for these 5 port SDR devices since I forgot to order them. The benefit however is a small case and simple design.
Here is the 2021 video talking about getting the SDRplay API to allow an SDRplay. Please note that this will not work any longer due to changes made by SDRplay, but there is an alternative version available called libmirisdr you can search for on your own or until I make a video about that.
Would you like the STL or OBJ or 3MF or STEP files for my case design? Please leave some nice and friendly comments in the video called Controversial SDR: Plus 3-D Printing Stuff and will see what happens next. :)
Each May and October going back to 2016, HVDN has analyzed repeaterbook.com data for digital amateur radio repeater deployments.
Today being the 1st of June and now officially in the "End of COVID" era according to United States Center for Disease Control, lets have a look at the latest data to kick off summer time in many parts of the world. Lets celebrate with some pie of all digital flavors!
Yaesu Fusion - Still the 2nd most popular (by volume) digital repeater with an impressive 9.97% growth over the reporting period. New radios like the FTM-300 and FTM-500 by the single manufacturer of Fusion equipment help drive reasons for more fusion repeaters around the world, with a total of 6 current production radios on the market. The least expensive Fusion capable radio is the FT-70 handheld for around $180 USD.
Icom D-Star - The good news is that Kenwood has the TH-D75 handheld radio ready to go to market later this year and will support D-Stat much like its earlier relative, the TH-D74. However, Icom is still the only main supplier of D-Star handheld, mobile or base radios. While the new Icom ID-50 handheld will also support D-Star, there are eight current or near production radios that support this digital mode and none of them cost under $200 USD. Icom D-Star has remained flat for repeater deployments at 1.79% growth but its worth noting like all digital modes, the internet or a repeater is not needed for digital mode communications.
DMR - How do we explain 12.46% period growth for DMR? More radios offered by more vendors and full tier 2 compliant handheld radios sold for as low as $30 USD such as the COTRE series of radios found on Amazon. While you do not need a repeater to use DMR or even the internet, the multi vendor ecosystem certainly is working for the adoption of DMR as the leading (by volume) driver of digital amateur repeaters.
P25 - Still a commercial standard and no inexpensive new radio equipment available, but digital repeater deployments are growing at 15.67% over the reporting period which shows promise. As commercial users retire phase one P25 equipment, expect to see more digital repeaters be put on the air globally. If the license for the P25 was as loosely enforced like DMR, we could expect to see P25 really grow fast over the next few years unless the new open standard M17 finally gets into production grade equipment.
NXDN - Another commercial standard generally deployed for non-critical users, there continues to be some decent growth by CAGR and not by volume of this digital mode offered by companies like Icom, Kenwood and others. There are still no very low cost radios available using NXDN, so expect this mode to just be a novelty in use across some pockets of amateur radio enthusiasts.
Get a slice of : What did you say about M17?
The good news is that repeaterbook.com now shows a total of five total digital repeaters using this open source mode. Currently there are the following:
N1KGN - Located at Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut (United States)
WX5RC - Located at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma (United States)
KC1AWV - Located in NHL Bruin's territory in Rockingham, New Hampshire (United States)
Its worth noting that two of these three repeaters are listed as multi-mode and are not M17 full time. The only one likely as a dedicated M17 repeater is Steve KC1AWV's since he is part of the official M17 development team.
There are two international repeaters with the secret one in Poland in Nowy Dwor Mazoweicki operated by the inventor of M17, the infamous Woj SP5WWP and the multimode capable VK3RCQ repeater located in Junortoun Australia.
By October, HVDN hopes to see a few more M17 repeaters on the air, but there are still no off the shelf M17 capable radios available for purchase which will continue to hold things back for M17.
However, there are some exciting things happening in the M17 community which will be more clear in the next few months to come. So, for now keep an eye on M17 but it will take a long time for this one to reach mainstream which is ok given there are no "current" commercial companies making available equipment to use M17.
Saturday November 13th was the ARRL Hudson Division Awards Lunch which recognized various achievements across the regional amateur radio community in 2020 and 2021 right here in the Hudson Valley and slightly beyond into Northern New Jersey, New York City and Long Island.
Many prizes related to the ARRL's branding of "Cycle 25" were given out all afternoon as well as the usual ARRL publications, including some donations by a latter to be mentioned award winner.
Ria Jairam N2RJ, ARRL Hudson Division Director, did a fantastic job in pulling this years event together along with the Orange County Amateur Radio Club and it was great again to have some form of in person event take place which the Amateur Radio Relay League was able to visibly lead.
Joe K1JT accepting an achievement award during the ARRL Hudson Division Awards Lunch from Ria N2RJ (Photo Credit: Joe CupanoNE2Z)
The first featured guest speaker was Dr. Joe Taylor K1JT, the inventor of so many of the low signal to noise ratio modes enjoyed by everyone involved in HF data communications via FT8 and FT4 as well as those with loftier goals via meteor, tropo-scatter and "Moon Bounce" communications who diplomatically befriend to make radio contact beyond our atmosphere such as JT65 and others.
Here is the new QRP Labs QDX SDR transceiver capable of FT8 plus other modes which we have Joe K1JT to thank which Neil W2NDG and Steve K2GOG of HVDN recently received and are quickly trying to build in time for WFD 2022 (Source: QRPlabs.com)
Following Joe was David NA2AA, the current ARRL CEO, and he talked about everything from major changes taking place within the ARRL to help modernize communication via video based content to better ways to engage the the population which Hudson Valley Digital Network has already been focused on since our inception in 2017. David's discussion was refreshing and encouraging.
In 2021, HVDN has 37% of our audience coming from where the ARRL needs help. David NA2AA wants to find more ways to even more closely focus on the 30-40 year old population. (Source: HVDN Leadership Team)
It was really great hearing more about the changes that are needed at the ARRL at the national level and also at the regional level straight from the top.
With the current ARRL CEO not being afraid to speak about his 11m days openly along with other topics which predecessors stayed away from, it should be exciting to see what is next within the ARRL, including "Project X", which hopefully HVDN can be a beta tester for via our upcoming events like HR3:2022.
The Hudson Division with Ria N2RJ and David NA2AA have lots of work to do and it was great to see them again in person along with an impressive number of section leaders at a sold out event with approximately 100 people attending.
David NA2AA talked about solar cycle 25 and its importance it can have for the hobby for more than the next 11 years to help us grow during a time where much of the amateur radio community is not getting any younger. (Photo Credit: Joe Cupano NE2Z)
So many amazing awards were given out during the event, including those for technical achievements such as David WO2X's remote station projects using NodeRed and Alan W2AEW's energy put into his wonderful YouTube channel with over 341 videos and 159,000 subscribers.
Alan W2AEW 2020 Technical Achievement and David WO2X 2021 Technical Achievement winners of the ARRL Hudson Division Awards presented on November 13th 2021 (Photo Credit: Joe Cupano NE2Z)
It was great to see one of the Hudson River Radio Relay leadership team responsible for the 2021 N2S station receive the 2020 Grand Ole Ham Award in part thanks to all his many years of being part of the amateur radio community Congrats Adam AE2AN on this award!!
Adam AE2AN sharing a few words during his 2020 Grand Ole Ham award reception thanks to Ria N2RJ and her wonderful children who helped keep things on track in the later parts of the afternoon. (Photo Credit: Joe Cupano NE2Z)
There were many other awards given which can be read about on the Hudson Division and sectional websites next they are updated, but lets close this article by highlighting the amateur of the year in the ARRL Hudson Division for this and last year since COVID prevented an awards meeting in 2020.
2020 ARRL Hudson Division Amateur of the Year: Richie Cetron K2KNB
Richie is well known to many members of Hudson Valley Digital Network since a few of us used to live on Long Island and became good friends with him over the years, especially through using the wide coverage W2VL 146.850 MHz repeater while commuting or while at home.
Richie won this same award in 2012 for his leadership following the Hurricane Sandy disaster that disrupted life for so many. Providing communications and social well being after a disaster like that was important and while Richie earned this award, he was quick to point out it was the work of many who made this possible.
Fast forward to 2021, Richie earned this same award for the year 2020 for similar recognition which also helped ensure social comfort at the height of the COVID pandemic.
While there were other amateur radio clubs such as the Mt. Beacon ARC and Overlook Mtn. ARC which also held social wellness discussions twice daily, the Long Island Mobile Amateur Radio Club which Richie is President of required a lot more effort to keep it running via many net control operators and many expensive to maintain repeaters which can be heard by all of NYC, Long Island, Westchester and elsewhere.
Richie is a wonderful recipient of an award like this and many amateurs can learn much from him in how he leads by example. Being President of LIMARC for now 11 years in itself is no easy task either, so this award is well deserved. Congratulations Richie!
Richard "Richie" Cetron K2KNB was awarded the prestigious 2020 ARRL Hudson Division Amateur of the Year award for his tireless efforts during the heights of the COVID pandemic. (Photo Credit: Joe Cupano NE2Z)
2021 ARRL Hudson Division Amateur of the Year: Steve Bossert K2GOG
2021 was a tough year and just like Richie K2KNB, the recipient of the 2021 ARRL Hudson Division Amateur of the year award earned this through his work in organizing a safe multi club, multi site special event called Hudson River Radio Relay.
The goal of the event was to help raise awareness for Bannerman's Island since they are funded by donations and tours. The pandemic affected the upkeep of the island and the surrounding communities of the Hudson River. With eight participating special event stations, the event helped bring together more than ten amateur radio clubs and our local communities in a time of little in person safe activities.
Steve Bossert K2GOG, one of the co-founders of Hudson Valley Digital Network and main organizer of the event, was given this award and is also the first award recipient in the ARRL Hudson Division for not being a current ARRL member. It was fantastic that that ARRL chose to honor Steve with this award and is also a great way that shows that the ARRL advocates for everyone involved in amateur radio and not just its current members.
While Steve has only been a radio amateur operator for 23 of his almost 41 years of age, he has learned a lot from mentors like Richie K2KNB and many others who were either at this event or sadly, have passed away into Silent Key land. Being able to lead and organize an event like this with so many unique challenges and personalities involved was a huge honor.
Success of the Hudson River Radio Relay event is widely captured in the local media and Steve was focused on highlighting so many of the people who helped make a first year event during a pandemic a huge success, even in challenging times, he barely spoke of himself. Here is a video of his acceptance and almost a the very end of a very nice lunch amongst peers of all ages.
The HVDN Notebook blog tries to remain very unbiased and focused on future relevancy around active lifestyles involving amateur radio without enforcing the beliefs or mission statements of certain national level advocacy groups.
It is the authors opinion that we enjoy a pretty great relationship with our local regional leadership when talking about the ARRL since they were more than happy to encourage what we did via our recent Hudson River Radio Relay special event which was led by a non-affiliated club in the ARRL ENY section.
As we get closer to Field Day and the end of COVID, looking back on our data analysis gathered over the last ten years about Field Day, it was a good idea to shift our attention to the status of battery operated field day efforts.
Certainly 2020 and this year are different when it comes to normal field day operations and is why talking about the differences between low power, battery powered and emergency stations is a good idea since many people will be still at home and possibly contributing to club overall standings.
Battery Powered
According to the 41 pages of ARRL Field Day rules for 2021, in section 4.2 it specifically explains:
This is very clear. If you are a club, such as HVDN who will be operating under N2HVD this year from POTA K-2084 for just a few hours on Saturday June 26th, or a non club portable group of more than two people in the Hudson Valley from a location only they can get to via backpack and foot power as a group of SOTA enthusiasts
This means that no matter how much battery capacity you have or output capability of our radio, if you wish to claim Class A - Battery status, you need to stay at less than 5 watts output if you will be sharing one callsign.
Operating at low or QRP power is a way to drive distinction to your club or group compared to being plain old "alpha" class running on some sort of other power system such as carbon fuel based generators.
If we look at the "Bravo" class of setup and its battery powered variant, it is also very clear how they differ for these smaller groups of amateur radio enthusiasts that are not going to represent a club or be more than two people.
No one here at HVDN is complaining, but simply offering an alternative to encourage distinction for your field day activities for this year and the future.
Being safe is paramount since the majority of those involved in amateur radio are those at highest risk of suffering from not being young any longer. For those who will be 1D from home this year and rolling your scores up to your favorite club, why not try a decentralized QRP field day instead?
Based on the public data shared from the ARRL, it is amazing that more operators do not try legitimate battery power operations in the field or even at home. The data below does not lie, unless the ARRL material is not accurate.
Look at the above chart. The most popular historic way to operate as a true battery powered station, using less than 5 watts is classified as 2AB and 3AB. This shows that HVDN is only part of a small crazy bunch of operators to attempt this likely in 2021.
There are even the 2 person 2B2B plus one transmitter 1EB and B1B classifications out there which have about the same number of crazy adopters.
So whats the point?
The total of entities operating as true battery powered stations is far too low and needs more to join the club compared to the larger "Alpha" cousins with the bubble based 1D's that will help again this year. which do not operate as battery powered.
The point is that there should really be a different classification for QRP power 5 watt stations as well as a separate class for those running from battery, but may wish to use more than 5 watts since radios like the Yaesu FT-891, Xiegu G-90 and a few others are pretty popular these days and are capable to run more than QRP power.
Low Power
Ever speak with a QRP operator about antennae or feedline? They will have interesting stories about how to optimize the gain from an antenna headed where they want it, find ways to save weight by avoiding certain types of antenna or even feedline and probably be more knowledgeable about patient operating practices or ways to be more efficient in getting as much RF to radiate outward rather then get burnt up as wasteful heat energy.
All this differentiation should be encouraged by the ARRL, but not confused by battery power. Nothing prevents anyone from dropping down in power to try QRP nor trying to be sustainable from just a battery.
If you plan to be 1D from home (again) this year, why not challenge yourself by running QRP from home if you can scrounge up a battery to run your radio from before Saturday.
Emergency Stations
There are many first responder or community groups that fall under the "Echo" class of operation for Field Day, but what makes them so different than a battery powered station? It is possible to run emergency and on battery, but this still means they are limited to only 5 watts.
If there was a long term emergency situation and the ability to charge batteries was not possible, would more EB stations be a good experiment? Perhaps the E class stations will not use a whole building generator used for many EMCOMM facilities and see what they can do from a battery and only run five watts.
Obligatory Antennae Stuff
Not always can we arrange the perfect antenna system and often the way around that is to transmit more power to make up for a lousy antenna.
Perhaps trying to optimize antenna as if everyone was using 5 watts would be an interesting experiment, especially since we have so many low signal to noise ratio modes and superior equipment available today capable of receiving weak signals.
Can we try to improve our antennae systems or try modes that reward low signal to noise ratios?
Hopefully the excuses of whatever you are already thinking about can be put aside and more people decide to try something new when it comes to field day.
It is HVDN's belief that that ARRL is taking us in the right direction during the strange times we live in, but they do not always do a good job of articulating the benefits, values and most important awareness things we should all be focusing on.
Oh, and did you want access to the nice 10 year database in excel that we compiled from the ARRL website?
Feel free to reach out to me at .K2GOG.@yahoo...com (remove the extra dots!!) and I am happy to share a copy with you of the 2010 to 2020 data that was used for the below two articles.
Bringing together so many amateur radio clubs focused on a single goal was actually a pretty special experience
Lets talk about the event and highlight some amazing achievements by our local amateur radio community who took part in the first annual Hudson River Radio Relay event, this year featuring Bannerman's Island.
HR3:2021 Top Op Award
Our goal as a collective group of 8 stations was to make 2,000 radio contacts in 4 hours.
While we fell short of this goal and only managed to generate 526 contacts, this was still amazing since that works out to more than 2 contacts per minute!
Brian N2BTD, John KD2PTX, James KD2VTM and Dane KD2SSS were the ones who did most of the heavy lifting that day.
They will have a lot to do next year to beat the score and fend off all other participants. Nicely done N2O OCARC Team!
From left to right, only a small part of team N2O John KD2PTX, Bruce KD2PSP, Erica N2TUC, Dane KD2SSS, & Stephen KD2JJY
HR3:2021 Individual Top Op Awards
With the N2O team logging the most collective contacts, it was Brian N2BTD (87) who just narrowly beat out Lloyd K2JVX (83) as part of the N2B team organized by HVDN for the most contacts overall. Third place goes to John KD2PTX with 59 total contacts.
What seemed to be the trend for Brian, Lloyd and John was to keep things simple. All only focused on voice modes and spent the majority of the time on 20m, but both John and Brian jumped to other bands and added even more contacts which helped them do so much amazing work.
While Brian and John both operated from fixed position mobile stations talked more about in the upcoming N2O article, Lloyd was stationary on Bannerman's Island also known as USIAP NY-047, POTA K-2079 and COTA K-00047 which will be talked about in a N2B specific article.
Lloyd K2JVX operating as N2B from Bannerman's Island - USIAP NY047's 1st activation!
HR3:2021 Grid Iron Gang Awards
A major focus of the Hudson River Radio Relay (HR3) event during the ARRL VHF Contest which overlapped our special event on June 12th was to see how many grids we could work as a group not only on VHF, but also on HF.
Steve K2GOG, the main organizer of the HR3, faced some disbelief that HF operators would share a grid locator, since that is normally something only done on VHF, satellite and some SOTA or POTA activations. As it turns out, this was not as big an issue as many had said it would be when making contacts on HF.
For the collective group of eight special event stations, a total of 134 grid squares were contacted in four hours and the N2O powerhouse team notched 77 grids.
Visualization of some of the grids worked per station as part of the first Hudson River Radio Relay
HR3:2021 Continental Distance Award
Possibly a surprise to those who were part of the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club who worked very hard to reach a total of 19 contacts was the fact that they had one of the few contacts across North America to reach the furthest.
All the way on the opposite side of the country in grid CN87 was KB7THX at 2,455 miles away and Al is who to thank for pulling in two of our special event stations in out on the west coast.
While the N2S station also happened to make contact with KB7THX twice and on 20m and 40m, it was the OMARC team who did it first according to our time stamped log and is why they are crowned the champion for the HR3:2021 Continental Distance Award thanks to this effort on 17m from Kingston Point Park in Ulster County.
They grew an antenna! The N2H OMAR team getting ready. Photo foreground of David KD2MQE and Sarah. Background Jeff KJ2DOC. Visit the OMARC Facebook page for more details.
HR3:2021 Global Distance Award
The overall global distance award proved to be hotly contested between the N2O, N2B and N2D stations each reaching more than 4,000 miles away.
Beaming towards the east from FN31 was a nice 4,318 mile contact by N2B on 20m CW to Elemer HA9RE in KN08 and on 20m SSB to Matt SP2IST in JO94 for 4,033 miles.
Just to the south of N2B was the United States Military Academy at West Point station on Constitution Island (USIAP NY073) operating as N2D. They managed to reach Tibi HA7TM using 20m FT8 in JN97 for a total of 4,277 miles.
It seemed we needed to possibly get into a six digit grid square locator to try and see who was the winner since it appeared as less than 41 miles separated N2D and N2B, but it seems that an error in the log that was later found showed that N2O in FN21 magically worked a 10m band opening 4,943 miles away into Brazil in grid GG43 thanks to PU5JVA on the other end.
The Orange County ARC team behind N2O seems like the team to beat next year!
The N2D team led by N2WU on USIAP NY073 as its first official activation along with other cadets looking on
Hudson Valley Heart Award
One of the major goals of the Hudson River Radio Relay event is to promote collaboration between our local community. In this case for 2021, the QSY Society and Mt. Beacon ARC worked together to make the N2S station at College Hill Park a success.
For the future, it is our hope that other pairings of amateur radio clubs or other organizations like local schools, emergency response or other groups can work together to win the next Hudson Valley Heart Award in 2022.
Here is a nice drone video taken by Sebastian KI2D who helped Scott W2NTV, Frank W2GIO, Adam AE2AN, Shirley N2SKP and so many others make N2S an example for our region.
HR3:2021 Squeaky Clean Award
The exchange for this special event was call sign, first name and grid square. Many participating clubs have a lot to work on when it comes to accuracy and completeness when it comes to information exchange.
Having these skills is important should amateur radio ever be needed for realistic emergency communications.
Details such as a first name and location could be extremely useful for difficult situations, especially if a club callsign was used and its not clear who the operator on the other end was.
Same goes for approximate location which is possibly even more valuable compared to exchanging ARRL sections as is done during the annual ARRL Field Day event coming up on June 26th and 27th 2021.
Of a total of 72 contacts, the N2N station operated by the Peekskill & Cortland Amateur Radio Association required almost no in depth analysis based on very complete logs. Random fact checking also proved a high level of accuracy by the PCARA team.
Team N2N showing how a well organized operating position helped them possibly win the squeaky clean log award in 2021. Indian Point Nuclear Power Station is in the distance.
HR3:2021 Digital Achievement Award
Our four hour long special event focused on promoting four different types of amateur radio technology.
Analog voice and Morse code have been around for a very long time, but newer counterparts such as digital voice modes like DMR or digital data modes like FT8 are growing in popularity and relevance to the modern amateur radio enthusiast.
The Crystal Radio Club who operated as N2V for the event should not fool anyone with its name since all but one of its contacts came on FT8 and split between 6m, 20m and 40m bands.
For the future, we will look at any special event station that is part of HR3 with the highest percentage of both any digital voice or digital data mode contacts made compared to the overall total they are able to log. Hopefully Paul K2PH and team can share the secrets of operating digital modes from the field so effectively.
HR3:2021 Hudson Valley Tough Award
Surely, having to deal with loading all the gear on a boat and operate from an island plus having to bring it all up and down more than 70 wooden steps would make for an easy award for N2B, but the Putnam Emergency Amateur Radio League (PEARL) seemingly had much tougher conditions to deal with as part of the N2U contingent located at Castle Rock Unique area as part of POTA K-5161 and K-2079 plus COTA K-00825 in grid FN31.
According to Diana KD2AEG, there was nearly 5 foot tall grass that needed to be flattened out to make a clearing for the antenna and operating tent.
After making quasi crop circles with repurposed 4 foot military mast and a length of paracord, they needed to also do some emergency Power Pole repairs to power up the radios.
While they managed only four contacts and three of those coming via Morse code, much was learned and they are deserving of this year's Hudson Valley Tough Award.
Those scary clouds and tall grass were just a few more things which did not prevent PEARL's N2U station from operating as part of Hudson River Radio Relay
HR3:2021 Awards Summary
HR3:2021 Top Op Award - N2O - OCARC
HR3:2021 Individual Top Op Award - N2O -N2BTD
HR3:2021 Continental Distance Award - N2H - OMARC
HR3:2021 Global Distance Award - N2O - OCARC
HR3:2021 Grid Iron Gang Award - N2O - OCARC
HR3:2021 Hudson Valley Heart Award - N2S - QSY Society & MBARC
HR3:2021 Squeaky Clean Award - N2N - PCARA
HR3:2021 Digital Achievement Award - N2V - CRC
HR3:2021 Hudson Valley Tough Award - N2U - PEARL
Since this is the first year of the Hudson River Radio Relay, we are going to allow each winner to create an award in the form of some sort of novelty that can be passed on to next year's winner, likely at some sort of official awards lunch for all those who participated in the 2022 event, for which we already have reserved the same special event callsigns.
Stay tuned for more details from each of our 2021 participants in an upcoming series of articles. The map below shows where all eight stations were located and direction of all contacts made.
Yesterday was the first annual Hudson River Radio Relay event. This year our fundraising theme was to support Bannerman's Castle Trust via GoFundMe and we managed to raise $1,418 in total with over $300 of that coming in the hours leading up to, during and just after the four hour event which took place from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern US time on June 12th
While we await the final logs from all eight of our participating special event stations to get compiled and posted to the HudsonRiverRadioRelay.com website, an initial estimate from casual discussion with most all the participating locations sounds like we should end up around 500 to 600 total contacts as a collective group.
There are so many positive things that will get mentioned about this event that will get published in the coming days along with lots of pictures and videos, but here is a quick snap shot just based on who visited each special event web page as well as the QRZ.com page for each of our eight callsigns.
Both metrics were measured from between May 13th and June 13th at 10:00 AM EST.
It was expected the N2B station would possibly gain the most attention as a never before activated USIAP island NY047, but the N2O station rivaled our flagship location mainly due to its various USIAP, COTA, POTA and SOTA designations along with an amazing number of enthusiastic members that promoted what they were doing.
Our three stations that were not aided by affiliation of the different "on the air" categories like islands, parks or summits such as N2H, N2S and N2V seem to have also been very popular too over the last 30 days of measurements and deserve a lot of credit also.
The three lowest elevation stations, some only a few feet above the river such as N2U, N2D and N2N are hidden gems that deserve much more attention considering how hard they worked and are all actually very rare locations that we need to help promote even more for next year.
Between these three stations, there was a brand new USIAP NY-073 on a US Army facility plus POTA K-2079, K-4582, K-5161, COTA K-00825 and the former home of the founder of Paramount Pictures.
What's Next?
Now that we have an official website visit metric posted just after the event, please go and learn more about each club and location they operated at during this special event by visiting HudsonRiverRadioRelay.com
More detailed articles from each station highlighting each sponsoring club and a list of total event contacts plus the winner of our Xiegu G90 package raffle will be coming soon, so please follow the HVDN blog for more details between now and ARRL Field Day which is just under two weeks away.
Since they have a HUGE network of expensive repeaters to maintain, they count on income generated from these social selling and buying events to keep things running.
HVDN loves to support anything that LIMARC does, since a few of us (K2GOG and W2NDG) were very active in that great club before we moved off of Long Island and up to the Hudson Valley.
Join us on February 28th at 9:00 AM Eastern for the 2nd time that LIMARC is doing a Virtual Hamfest.
Attendance is free and details are here at https://limarc.org/virtual-hamfest/
There are some excellent door prizes offered by many great organizations to help create more attendance, so feel free to check it out and see if we can get past the 1,000 person attendance limit the last Sunday of February.
Also, please do not forget about what we hope will be a return to normalcy with a real hamfest by visiting https://hudsonvalleyhamfest.com/index.html and take our interest survey.
The Kenwood TS-50 was a great radio in its day and still holds its own against modern radios over 30 years later.
When Kenwood released this mobile 100W HF radio back in 1993, it was in the early days of modern computer aided transceiver or CAT evolution.
This article explains how to add USB based CAT control to a vintage Kenwood TS-50 and maybe squeeze some extra life out of this great radio when it comes to digital modes.
Gathering Supplies
The bottom of the TS-50 has a small removable plastic disk that allows the user to access a 6 pin connector which the no longer available (and expensive) Kenwood IF-10D computer interface connected to along with the also expensive (and no longer available) Kenwood IF-232C serial converter.
The original Kenwood IF-232C accessory permitted the inverted TTL communications native on the TS-50 to work via standard RS-232 serial communications at a blazing 4800 baud which is more than fine for simple communications between a radio and computer.
While there are some other aftermarket solutions still available in 2020, there is a cheaper way.
For less than $20 in parts, you can add modern CAT control to your TS-50 for easier use of digital communication modes like PSK31, FT-8, FT-4, JS8CALL and so much more.
We will also not need to be removing that little plastic disk, so leave that alone.
To add modern USB CAT control to a Kenwood TS-50 you will need:
Both items can be easily sourced via Amazon.com and you will even end up with 9 more sets of wires and matting PCB mount connectors that you can save for some other projects. Mounting inspiration is illustrated and detailed below.
A small donation from the purchase link of either item is also headed to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Clublocated in the Hudson Valley to help them maintain its famous 146.805 analog FM repeater and to add to its treasury for future additions like a DMR repeater or advanced APRS digipeater plus support great events like ARRL Field Day, Winter Field Day and other special outdoor events.
Connections on the TS-50
The below photo diagram illustrates which of the six pins on the Kenwood TS-50 offers what function.
On the CP2104 USB-TTL UART serial adapter, we are going to need to attach the following wires.
For this to work, matching up the TX to the RX and RX to TX pins are needed between both devices.
While some other less detailed guides made it seem that only the TX, RX and GND pins were needed, on the recommended UART serial adapter, we also need to connect the 5V line for a total of 4 wires used. The remaining two wires from the 6 pin pigtail were just left for future use and taped up.
You will see the onboard green LED blink to show that communication is happening between the radio, TTL adapter and computer. You will not be able to see this LED since it will be hidden inside your radio if you install it the way that I did.
Mounting the CP2104 inside the TS-50
After removing all the outside case screws, go ahead and remove both covers of the TS-50. You may wish to use a piece of painters tape to hold the TS-50 speaker in place while you flip the radio chassis over.
There are not many places to put the TTL adapter inside the Kenwood TS-50 unless you want wires hanging out of the TS-50 which looks messy and unsafe, so now is the time to get organized. If you wish to be neat with this modification, you will need to cut a hole into the side of your TS-50 on the side of the bottom cover.
The support bracket for the TTL adapter was fashioned out of a brass corner bracket on hand and was insulated with a piece of heat shrink to ensure the metal to did not contact any PCB traces on the bottom of the TTL adapter.
Some zip ties were used to hold the TTL adapter in place, but another piece of heat shrink was used during final assembly to hold things in place. A screw and double nut were also used to attach the bracket to the radio for mechanical strength, but this is optional if you trust glue 100%.
Finally, some epoxy was used to fill up some small gaps left behind from cutting the TS-50 case so that the TTL adapter PCB can add additional structure to the finished modification.
To complete the assembly, simply route the connector end of the 6 pin wire between the front face and main chassis near where shown below.
You can then plug the connector into the radio and reassemble your radio carefully.
If cutting a hole in the side of the bottom cover of your radio, be sure to make sure your mounting bracket or the TTL adapter will not accidently squish board level components such as the picture toroid's.
Using the TS-50 CAT Upgrade
When using software like FLdigi, you can use the "hamlib" for control and select the TS-50 from the menu of supported radios. This is the easier path for CAT control.
Be sure to set your speed to 4800 baud and you select the correct COM port. Most other settings should be automatically found when using FLdigi and most other software.
After you have the software configured, then go ahead and power up your radio after connecting the USB cable to the TS-50 and into the USB micro port.
You should be easily be able to change frequency on the radio and have it track correctly in your software of choice.
Using a TS-50 on digital modes with CAT control
Adding CAT control only offers control of frequency and some other basic functions of your TS-50. This upgrade does not route any transmit or receive audio, nor does it offer PTT control.
It is possible to use the TTL adapter and a simple 4N26 optocoupler with the CTS wire to add on PTT, but its possible to accidently trigger transmit while the radio powers up or down when the USB wire is connected between the radio and computer, so this feature was left out of this article on purpose. If you wish to enable this convenience, that is up to you.
You can follow this article by HB9AMO to add PTT if you wish and by using the extra wires we taped up before from the 6 pin connector.
Routing of audio signals and PTT is done via the 8 pin microphone connector through your interface of choice such as a Rigblaster, Signalink or something like those devices.
Summary
So now that we have near total control of the TS-50 using only two sets of wires, one for CAT and one for audio/PTT, the old Kenwood TS-50 is much easier to use for digital modes.
It was decided that the Kenwood TS-50 was the perfect radio to use as part of an inexpensive dedicated digital data station for the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club and joint HVDN special events.
Given that the radio, computer, power supply, antenna tuner came from inventories held by both organizations, this was the perfect project to show how old and new can be used together to aid in digital awareness of amateur radio in the Hudson Valley and beyond.
If you enjoyed this radio, please support HVDN or OMARC with a small donation via the links below:
And, if you happen to be looking for a great portable case for your own go kit digital or otherwise, the Kenwood TS-50 along with its supporting cast of support components as a self contained digital station has a new home in this great 4U Gator Caseand if purchased, a small donation also goes to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club too!
You can see this in action at the upcoming COVID compliant Winter Field Day event at Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck between the hours of 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM Saturday January 30th and from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Sunday January 31st 2021.
