New England QSO Party May 6 & 7

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The NEQP is a great time to check out antenna systems and offers a moderately paced opportunity to work new states and countries.   You’ll find a wide variety of participants, from newcomers to experienced contesters, all interested in making contacts with New England stations.

We’re working to make sure that all of the New England counties are active again this year and would appreciate your help.  Get on for at least an hour or two and join in on the fun.  Please let me know if you can put in any time at all so we can work on activity from the rarest counties.   Will you be QRV?   Let us know which county you’ll be on from with a message to info@neqp.org

Oh yes, the NEQP is also lots of fun when mobile.  Every time you cross a county line the action starts over again.   It’s amazing what a 100w radio and mobile whip can do.

The QSO Party is 20 hours long overall, in two sections with a civilized break for sleep Saturday night.  It goes from 4pm Saturday until 1am Sunday, then 9am Sunday until 8pm Sunday.  Operate on CW, SSB and digital modes on 80-40-20-15-10 meters.   For each QSO you’ll give your callsign, a signal report and your county/state.   Top scorers can earn a plaque and everyone who makes 25 QSOs and sends in a log will get a certificate.

Last year we had logs from 179 New England stations and 300 more from around the country and world.

The full rules are here ->  http://www.neqp.org/rules.html

Raspberry Pi Net 1st & 3rd Monday at 0230 UTC on REF038C

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Now that the W1AAD DSTAR repeater is back on the air, there might be some interest in participating in (or listening to) the Raspberry Pi Net which meets on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the Month on Reflector 38C.

You can change the link over to 38C by keying your rig and pressing the “*38C” DTMF keys, or by adding a “REF038CL” to your UR list.

Please be aware that the repeater will automatically relink to Reflector 69C after 25 minutes of inactivity, or you could put it back there when you are done by sending “*69C” or using “REF069CL” from your UR list.

There is also a rather active Facebook Group called “Raspberry Pi Amateur Radio” with almost 3,000 users. https://www.facebook.com/groups/251260325054240/

W1AAD Software Updates Complete

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The W1AAD repeater software upgrades have been completed.  We now have full G3, DPLUS, and ircDDBGateway features.  The new G3 features are pretty obscure and don’t operate without purchasing the latest Icom gear like the ID-51APLUS2, so the repeater not usually be in that mode.

The repeater will normally be in the ircDDBGateway mode and connected to Reflector 69C, which services CT, RI, and Western MA.

You can tell what mode the repeater is in by viewing the “Dashboard” status screen, or by the voice announcements.  A female voice means ircDDBGateway, and a male voice means pure Icom G3.

W1AAD running ircDDBGateway Mode

W1AAD running Pure Icom G3 mode

 

 

W1AAD Back on the Air — more upgrades to come

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The W1AAD repeater rejoined DSTAR service tonight at about 6:30 PM when it was linked into REF069C for the first time since early January.  Immediately, traffic was heard from all the other repeaters in CT/RI that are linked into 69, so things are working.

This is only the first step in the upgrade, getting the latest Icom G3 software running on the new computer gear at the site.  Over the next few days ircDDBGateway services will be added and the dashboard will be set up.  So don’t be surprised to hear the repeater up/down for the next couple of days.

We are the 63rd G3 level repeater running in the world!

Thanks to Pete W1LAB, Ted W1GRI, and Bob WB4SON who have been spending a bunch of time working on this upgrade over the past four months.  Pete, Ted, Bob and Paul K1YBE have donated equipment or funds to get this done at no expense to the club.

W1AAD repeater — the business end

W1AAD Dashboard

Tracking subgroup holds second meeting on March 18

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A group of NCRC members interested in solving various antenna tracking issues met with Paul K1YBE for four hours this past Saturday.  The objective was to hack into a surplus SeaTrac TVRO dish system usually used to track geostationary satellites on moving vehicles (ships, cars, etc.).

The gang was successful in getting the dish into the “search” mode where it started searching the sky for one of the DBS Satellites.  At this point the communication between the dish platform and controller was captured so that the messages could be analyzed.

It was fascinating to move the dish platform around and see the Inertial Measuring Unit automatically adjust for that motion, keeping the dish pointed to the same part of the sky.

Tracking crew observe controller signals

The Dish Platform includes a full Inertial Measuring Unit