Steve Silen WB6KWL from San Anselmo will provide a presentation about the Air Force Military Auxiliary Radio System. If you plan to attend please let us know by emailing to rsvp@w6sg.net so we can make sure to have enough pizza.
73 de WA6UDS
The loss of parts our simulcast system is a significant event and the full response will take some time. The first phase was determined by a hard date when we had to be out of Big Rock and San Pedro Ridge. That date was met. We have removed all our assets from those sites.
The current state of the K6GWE Simulcast System is that it now has two nodes. Mt Tam, and Mt Barnaby. The input and PL tones for the receivers have not changed Mt Tam is still 179.9 and Mt Barnaby is still 167.9. Coverage in northern Marin county is less than it was but a number of folks who used the Big Rock site can get into the Mt Barnaby site and I recommend you try it if you have not. There has been some anecdotal evidence that the Mt Barnaby node is timing people out after about 30 seconds. We are investigating the cause of this but be aware and drop your carrier more often than you usually do when coming in through that node.
The next phase of the process is to incrementally improve what we have. To do this we are looking at two options. The first is to add the Big Rock PL tone to the Mt Tam node. This won’t have any effect on coverage but it would be let people set up for Big Rock access Mt Tam if they can hit it. The second option is to set up a temporary receive only node up in the Novato area. We have the hardware to do this and are evaluating possible sites.
At the same time we are pursuing the next phase which is to add one or more full simulcast nodes to bring us back to a set up with as good or better coverage than what we had. This is a more long term process.
I want to thank everyone who has volunteered to help. Some of you have been doing the physical work and some have been doing the cranial work on this. Some of you have not yet been tasked with anything but we are still in quick fix mode and your skills are more appropriate to the next parts of the solution.
I finally want to thank all of you for your support in all its forms including donating time, money and most of all patients.
More news will come when I have it
73 de wa6uds
Curtis Ardourel
President and Membership Chair
Marin Amateur Radio Society
Hello, radio colleagues—
It’s that time again. Please RSVP, one way or the other. See below.
On Saturday, March 7th at 1100, we’ll have our sixth annual public service meeting. It’s a debrief on how things went last year, and what improvements we can make. It’s an awards ceremony, with those who worked at least 3 events getting their Gold Stars. It’s a pre-brief, with an outline of what to expect in 2020, with a signup list for you to reserve your space on the events you want to work. It’s a training session, with tips on radio protocol, battery management, antenna setups, and solar-panel arrangements. Of course, we will get the latest update on our repeater system, now that we have lost the Big Rock site.
We will unveil the new user-friendly public service section of the MARS website—Dale Komai KK6ZOE, Larry Bradley KK6QPE and Curtis WA6UDS have devoted many hours to its development.
We will also view the professional-level video on best radio practices that is being crafted by our own TV personality, Brian Cooley K6EZX.
As usual, we will have valuable give-aways for all comers. We’ll have a raffle for two Yaesu VX-4R radios and two of the spiffy MARS club jackets with reflective stripes—and a few other inventive, smaller prizes.
A free lunch?! How can you miss it?
Please RSVP to RSVP@w6sg.net we’ll need to know how much food to buy, and how many rolls of raffle tickets we’ll use up!
We’re looking forward to work with you all again,
Michael Fischer K6MLF and Rob Rowlands NZ6J, public service co-coordinators
On 3 December we received an eviction notice from our landlord for the San Pedro Ridge and Big Rock repeater sites. We have communicated with the landlord and there is nothing we can do to reverse their decision. We must have our equipment out of these sites by 30 January 2020. This did not entirely come out of the blue. We had been in discussion with the landlord as they wanted us change our insurance for the sites but while we were working to meet their request they chose to evict. The assumption is that they need space on their towers and low rent tenants like us would be the first to go. Evidently we are not the only ham repeater to have their tenancy ended.
What does this mean?
What this means is that the VHF Simulcast System on 146.70 will have to be re-engineered. It also means for the time being that the UHF 443.525 on San Pedro Ridge will go dark until we can relocate it. We are assembling a Repeater Recovery team to deal with the short term and long term actions required to deal with this blow.
Our first task will be to clear our equipment from the sites.We are putting the team together to do this now.
Our second task will be to engineer the first phase of what replaces the Simulcast System. This is being planned now and I don’t yet know what it will look like. I will keep you up to date when I know more.
Our third task will be to find other sites where we can put our repeaters and rebuild our Simulcast System. While the first two have to happen before the end of the month this third task will take some time.
What can I do?
Since we have to act quickly and this situation requires action on several fronts at once we need your help. If you have experience with industrial radio communications systems to help with the redesign and construction work; Real Estate law to help identify owners of potential sites and negotiate with owners about our use of their sites; Personal contacts with the boards of directors or technical committees of other repeaters in the area, particularly in the east bay, again for possible sites.
Since our Repeater Recovery Team is working full tilt right now if you have any the resources discussed above please contact me at WA6UDS@arrl.net and I will pass your info on to the team. Of course as we know more I will send out additional reports.
73 de WA6UDS
Curtis Ardourel
President and Membership Chair
Marin Amateur Radio Society
On Jan 5, 2020, Michael Fischer K6MLF took this photo of Mt. Tamalpais from Diaz Ridge trail near its intersection with Miwok Trail. Muir Woods can be seen below and Windy Gap is just past the farthest white house on Panoramic Highway. The Tam West repeater is located to the left of the radar dome, while the Tam 440 and Tam input to the simulcast system are on the Middle Peak. APRS iGate is in the Gardner fire lookout on East Peak, and Cardiac Hill is just beyond the bare ridge crest on the far left of the photo.
The 2020 Annual Public Service Awards Luncheon And Briefing is scheduled at the Alto Clubhouse on Saturday, March 7th from 11am-2:30pm. This photo was taken at last year’s awards luncheon and briefing.
Happy Holidays, Volunteers and Interns!
Click here to download your December Volunteer View newsletter. Learn how:
• Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service volunteers hone their communications skills at the Dipsea and other local events, page 1
• Curiosity about government led a UC Santa Barbara graduate to intern with Supervisor Rodoni’s team, page 1
• A former educator uses her skills to help youth when they get into trouble, page 3
We have an amazing anniversary of service this month: 40 years! Congratulations and gratitude to Herman Frentzel (40 years) and fellow volunteers Ray Person (25 years) and Gregory Felton (17 years), who take this month’s top three anniversary slots. Among them that’s 82 years of helping others.
New things are coming your way in the coming month. With the January 2020 issue we’ll talk about rebranding the volunteer/intern program and updating the newsletter. Change is afoot and we look forward to sharing our new names, logos, and look of the newsletter – all done with volunteer input and expertise.
As we welcome winter and wrap up 2019, sincere thanks for your continuing commitment to the County of Marin –
Anne Starr
COORDINATOR OF VOLUNTEERS
AStarr AT marincounty.org
tel 415 473 7167
Joy Fossett
STUDENT INTERNSHIPS COORDINATOR
JFossett AT marincounty.org
tel 415 473 7447
County of Marin
Human Resources Department
Civic Center Volunteers
3501 Civic Center Drive, Suite 415
San Rafael, CA 94903
CRS Dial 711
fax 415 473 6557
Posted for the benefit of our local ham radio community.
Source: George Ure’s Urban Survival Blog
Dec 28, 2019
No, you don’t need to know Morse Code to be an effective ham radio operator.
SKN comes on New Years Eve. It’s “Straight Key Night.” We’ll get into that, in a second.
First a pitch for learning Morse code. Light signaling (silently), having another way to communicate in event of a stroke or voice stifling injury. Even without the joys of Morse ops on the air, there are some damn good reasons to learn it. SOS?
There’s a lot to be said about being one us “digital-direct” humans. Because although the baud rates may be a quarter to half of what an old Model 19 teleprinter will throughput, Morse is all between the ears where there’s little to go wrong or “break.”
Let’s start with what a typical “modern” ham shack looks like. Here’s Operating Position #1 in my office:
There’s a 43″ monitor for Mr. Old eyes to log contacts and for digital ham modes. In answer to the unasked question (go with me on this), yes, hams send pictures (via slow-scan TV) often heard as a warbling sound on 14.230 MHz (USB).
And we use PSK-31 – a kind of Internet chat workalike, except we use radio instead of ISP’s. No internet needed. And for more exotica, try other modes like JT-65 or FT-8.
Michael Fischer K6MLF films Milt Hyams KM6ASI describing a portable Yaesu radio configuration at the MARS Critical Mass Training held in San Rafael on Dec. 15, 2019.
Photos provided by Michael Fischer K6MLF.
