Montana's Ham Radio Forum

Howdy gang,

The old Icom Radio that has been doing packet for many years finally died again on receive. W7MRI got it going a couple years ago but it failed a few weeks back. Tam Kolar, logistics chief, at the State of Montana DES has a new radio, Kenwood V71A, and Buxcomm cable to the DSP-232 on orde. When it arrives I will get it operational. In the mean time if we have an emergency, the existing radio can be used for multiple operations... It is great to have backup equipment.

The APRS station needs a UPS power supply as when the monthly generator test by the National Guard is done, the main ham radio computer goes down. I have to get it restarted long with the packet/APRS programs. Andy the computer tech is getting this resolved along with update to Windows Seven on all three computers (Amateur Digital, Amateur HF, MARS Digital/Voice).

Finally, there are two new dual band amateur antennas to go up on the tower next to the DES for Amateur Radio. Dale, KA7MHP, the State of Montana Radio Tech, will set up a schedule and I will give him a hand for the install. Both antennas will be moved near the top of the tower in hopes to give better coverage. Results are forth coming.

I have been doing tests, updates, and check out the equipment at the State DES Amateur/Mars Voice/Digital, Lewis and Clark County EOC voice/digital, Lewis and Clark Alternate EOC Cogswell Building voice/digital, and St. Peter's Hospital Amateur radio voice/Digital stations. Operator manuls are ready for all station less the MARS station. I will work on that operater manul soon as I get the Amateur Stations up to date.

Everyone have a great and safe summer. i look forward to my 15th year on wild land fires mainly doing communications with my Incident Management Team/Single Resource and refueling the State of Montana Helicopters for initial attack. I figure I will do this until I am 70 years young and for 18 years before i see whether I will continue. I am still having way to much fun !!!!!

Forever young Bill K7MT
http://www.k7mt

Howdy gang - Good News !!!!

The new Kenwood V71A with Buxcomm Cable to the DSP-232 arrived and is fully operational at the State of Montana DES on packet. New radio sure has an excellent receiver. I hooked directly to W7TCK-2 on Mt. Belmont then to W7MRI-3 to leave a message for Don. I also sent and received Winlink messages via K7MT-10 RMS Packet Station along with Winlink using APRS Link on the APRS station. All is well with Winlink. Woo Hoo !!

I did hear a signal that the radio/tnc would not decode along with a dead carrier signal and a partical CW signal. i remember hearing that last year and hope who ever the equipment belongs to will fixed or take it down so as to not cause interference on the 145.010 packet frequency. That same signal has been heard for a couple years and if anyone can decode the packet and finds out who it belongs to along with letting them know the situation, that would be great. According my my limited DF experience, it is coming from North East of Helena. I only test the State DES, County EOC & Alternate EOC, and St. Peters hospital every two months or so and do not have time to track it down. Besides, I stopped getting on packet over two years ago.

Andy the IT tech said it will be about two - three weeks for the three new/used Window's Seven computers to be ready for all three radios stations. There is also a UPS coming for the Amateur Packet/APRS stations which are normally on 24/7 but monthly switching from commercial to generator & back have knocked the comuter down. That should all be resolved with the UPS in line.

APRS is back on line after the computer went down last month with power checks/switchover at the State DES. With the new/used UPS hopefully that will not happen again. So goes the best laid plans of mice and men !!!!!!

Cheers all and enjoy the packet station at the State Des if your so inclined.

Bill K7MT

Today i stopped by the Alternate Lewis and Clark County EOC at the Cogswell building to test the Amateur Radio Station. The packet station is working excellent with a Kenwood Radio, Tiny II TNC, and a IBM Laptop IBMT43 I donated to the cause.

I connected to W7TCK-2 (Belmont) then to the State DES Mail Drop with excellent success. I then connect to W7MRI (Don Heide) via W7TCK-2 and left him a message. To check out the new TRAM Workman Antenna we got a the Bozeman Hamfest a couple years ago and installed at Mt. Belmont, I connected to W7PX-4 Missoula, W7ECA-3 Great Falls, and KD7TQM-4 Bozeman and it worked great. After over two years on the mountain, the antenna is still working great on packet in spite of some criticism that has been aired based on pure skepticism,

The new V71A Kenwood at the State DES has excellent ears and connects via W7TCK-2 Belmont very well. The old ICOM had not so good ears and it did cause issues connecting to the State DES via W7TCK-2 Belmont. So the existing antennas half way down the DES tower are working ok for now and the new higher gain antennas will be installed near the top in one amateur time unit.

Donnie W7XY informed me that he will have his Winlink RMS Packet active on 145.010 at his new location in Great Falls. It can be accessed via W7ECA-3. Thanks Donnie and will be nice to see you back on line.

Enjoy all.

Bill K7MT
http://www.k7mt.com

There was a power outage at the State DES around 06 July, 2014 and the Amateur Radio computer had restarted and was waiting for password log in when I checked it this morning. I restarted the Pacratt for Windows program but it would not communicate with the AEA TNC. After runing the TNC off/on all was ok the it was communicating with the program. The com port was locked up at the TNC with the USB to Serial cable. Issue with this is that if their are any messages in the AEA's mail box, they are lost with the power off/on. Not a good situation.

DES Logistics Chief Tam Kolar is going to get some Uninteruptable Power supplies to keep the computers/equipment on line for the scheduled monthly power test (Commerical to Generator and back) and any unscheduled outages.

I did a quick communications check with Belmont, Missoula, Great Falls, and Bozeman. Bozeman failed to connect and I am not sure why. With the new Kenwood V71A on packet at the DES, communications is excellent. Mt. Belmont has had the same antenna for over two years and it is working just fine.

Don W7MRI informed me that he blocked one call a VK5 that was logging into Belmont. He check the callsign and it was the authors callsign for I believe the LanLink Program and was the default callsign. He contacted the ham using the progam and he put his callsign in and all is well. According to Don, that is the only call that was ever added to the block list since the packet node was put up many years go inspite of some individuals who would beg to differ and sumised is was a conspiracy theory. Sori to inform you the theory does not hold water as all is working just fine for a long long time.

Cheers All Bill K7MT

Bill

How do those of us in HLN get on Winlink now that your node is gone? Can I connect to BELMT then GTF in RMS Express? I tried that but it didn't work.

Howdy Bob,

I you remember, our local digital frequency is 144.970 and that is where you will find K7MT-10 RMS Packet connection to Winlink on the air 24/7 solar powered. You can use RMS Express, PacLink, or connect with any terminal program for manual entry or retreival of Winlink messages. It has been there for over two years.

If you are on APRS, you can use APRS Link to send and receive Winlink Messages up to 700 characters. If it is longer, you can make it part 1 of 2 and send in two parts. I even sent a EXEL spreadsheet comma delimited data in two parts, reveiving station imported into EXEL, made changes, saved it as comma delimited two parts, sent it back to me and I imported back into EXEL and the changes were all there. Pretty cool..

I tried W7XY RMS Packet to Winlink this morning 07 July, 2014 from the State DES but could not connect. Donnie has just moved to Great Falls and he said he will have it operational in one amateur time unit... That is a variable by the way..

Bill K7MT

Bill

Thanks, I had forgotten about 144.97. I saw k7mt-10 in my connect list in Packet WL2K but thought that was your old BBS. I connected to it tonight, no problems.

No problem Bob. I seen on the RMS Packet log to Winlink that you connected on 144.970 and everything worked fine.

I beacon my Winlink RMS Packet on APRS to show everyone that it is on 144.970 just like Donnie W7XY becons his Winlink RMS Packet to show it is on 145.010. One can check for local RMS Packet Stations to Winlink on APRS with the G command to WLNK-1. G2 would give you the closest 2 RMS Packet Gateways. G3 would give you the closest 3 etc. Then one can use RMS EXpress or Paclink to send and receive messages very fast.

I have had several hams thank me for beaconing it on APRS as they used it on 144.970 to send and receive Winlink messages. It suprises me some times how many folks traveling through our area use it.

Enjoy and have fun as it is meant to be.

Cheers Bill K7MT

Howdy everyone,

I listened today on 145.010 from St. Peter's Hospital, Alternate L & C EOC, and the L & C EOC and did not hear that interfering signal that sound like packet/CW but really distorted that has been emmitting from NE of Helena. Not sure why after two years that it quit transmitting about every 15 minutes, but it is wonderful to not hear it anymore.

Update report on the V71A at the State DES - I connected from St. Peter's Hospital, Alternate L & C EOC, and the L & C EOC via Belmont to the State DES and it worked great. i also connected to Missoula and Great Falls but could not again check to Bozeman. I noticed on the MH list that KD7TQM-4 had not been heard by Belmont for over 12 hours so maybe it was propagation. The packet antenna on Belmont is on the side of the tower facing Bozeman so it it clear of any obstruction that direction. The tower is directly in the way to Missoula and I could connect to Missoula with no problem at 120 miles with no problem. So Belmont is hearing and transmitting well 120 miles to Missoula with the tower in between and 90 miles to Great Falls. With all considered, I cannot provide a reason that Belmont is not hearing or connecting to KD7TQM Bozeman as I believe it is line of site..

Cheers all and nice to hear only crisp clear packet racket today on 145.010. Thanks to whoever or whatever got rid of the bad signal.

Bill K7MT

Howdy everyone,

This will be the last report on the State of Montana DES Status as the new Kenwood packet radio is working great.

With all the equipment installed and operational at ST. Peter's Hospital, L&C County EOC and L&C County Alternate EOC, I will only be testing these ARES Stations quarterly (Once every three months). Everything is really looking good after monthly testing over the last 6 months so it is good to go !!!! I will do the same quarterly testing for the State of Montana DES Amateur/MARS station testing of packet/aprs/voice/pactorIII Winlink/M110A with the Navigator Interface.

State of Montana DES will remain online 24/7/365 as the new Packet Radio (Kenwood V71A) is really working great and hearing Mt. Belont just excellent. It was nice to retire that very old IC-28 that gave its all over the last 20 some years. I will make sure Tam Kolar receives it for proper disposal.....

I will have to go out to the DES to install the software on all three computers when they are replaced with windows 7 computers. APRS/Packet/Mapping Program/RMS Packet/RMS Express/M110A for MARS Station Navigator Interface to name just a few. I missed a couple but the software is on site. When the UPS are installed with the computers, the computers should stay up during the monthly commercial to generator test. Fingers are crossed.

It has been a labor of love taking care of the State of Montana DES equipment over the last 20 plus years. Moving it from the old site downtown out to the Ft. Harrison site was really a challenge but we got er done !!!! I look forward to many more years of the same fun as it is meant to be.

Adding St. Peter's Hospital and the Alternate Lewis & Clark EOC this last year has also been a challange. So along with the Lewis and Clark EOC downtown, my quarterly testing will involve four stations with packet/aprs/Winlink/Voice hopefully all in one day. It could get more fun than that. Now all I have to do is get some more folks trained to run the equipment for EMCOMM and that will get done now that all is in place and fully operational. Woo Hoo !!! I look forward to the fun of doing EMCOMM training...

Cheers all Bill Erhardt K7MT
http://www.k7mt.com