[Amateur-SIG] Amateur SIG Announcement

[Todd Collins]

Attention all parties interested in Amateur Radio, digital communications, and the convergence of computers and radio!

Tuesday August 1 at 7:00 pm at the DMA headquarters on Valley Street is the next DMA Ham SIG meeting.  The topic this month will be APRS.  

This exciting technology uses packet radio technology to offer amateurs a way to track the position of a ham radio station.  The possibilities are endless, including tracking volunteers during a search and rescue mission, aiding in a bike race or foot race public service event, sending or receiving weather data, and communicating via short text messages.  

The set-up is easy and you may very well have everything you need to get started in your junk box ... or go the easy route and get a rig with a built in TNC (the device that makes it all work).  A new Kantronics TNC sells for around 100 bucks and other solutions are even cheaper.  GPS units are getting cheaper every day, and for around 100 dollars you can have a device that will serve you well for APRS or you can carry around by itself for routine driving, biking, or hiking.  

Here is the rough agenda, depending on how much I can get working between now and Tuesday:

1.  Demo of a Kenwood suite of VHF/UHF radios that have built in packet radio capabilities, including built in TNCs.  I will connect a TH-D7a handheld to a Garmin GPS unit, and attempt to get that to talk to a TM-D700a mobile that will be wired to a computer running the free software UIView.  Combined with an old copy of DeLorme Street Atlas I had on my shelf, I can generate some great maps and display the location of the portable unit along with all of the other systems in the greater Dayton area (depending on how good of an antenna we can jig up at Valley Street).  

2.  I am trying to get a Kantronics TNC working, with a completely miserable radio.  I may just junk that project and connect it to the 700a for fun, no matter what I will bring the device and the test connector lash-up and we can play with it.  Perhaps a better versed ham can play Elmer and tech this old dog a few tricks.  

3.  We will bravely try to send a message through the APRS network and receive it back via e-mail!  And if we are lucky, make it work the other way.   This free service allows for short e-mails and we will go through the process and see what happens.  This is relative to propogation from Valley Street, or maybe we will turn my PC into a Winlink server for a while and send messages via the handheld. The joy of experimentation!  

4.  We will take a brief tour of the GPS world, a refresher for most of you but feel free to ask questions or bring the rest of us up to speed, as the case may be.  

5.  We will touch on Winlink2000;  I am setting up a Winlink station at home for public use thanks to my location high up on a hill near the new mall in Beavercreek.  This is a complete topic for another day but I will answer any questions and try to get the software installed on the desktop I am bringing so we can look at it, if you want.  

If you have never seen APRS, this is a "must-go" meeting.  If you have gotten out of it, come by and get refreshed on what the APRS community is up to.  If you are an expert, please come to share your experience and help me fine tune my system!

Contact me for more information at :  toddc at woh.rr.com
Go to www.dma.org for info on DMA and to get involved in this exciting and fun organization.  All are welcome, you are not required to be a member of DMA to attend a meeting.  
Directions to DMA Click Here

73
 
Todd Collins N2TUN
937-545-7015
toddc at woh.rr.com
n2tun at winlink.org  for testing and fun only




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