I wonder if either of the followers of this blog wonder what happened with the Signalink unit I had ordered as mentioned in my April 2nd posting. It arrived and I did manage to attach the self stick, non-skid feet to the bottom of the unit just before I left for NE PA to move my mother to assisted living here in Ohio. Between the move and a number of ER visits with both mothers, little time has been available to play with the new toy.
I had acquired a MFJ TNC/MIC switch with a PK232 TNC at a hamfest which of course I never got hooked up. I thought it would be perfect for switching between the Signalink and a mike. Downloaded the manual and removed the cover from the switch box. Totally different. Manual was for Revs 8 & 9. My switch box must have been Rev 0. Checking continuity indicated that the switch box was jumpered for a Kenwood and I planned on using it with ICOM rigs. I searched the web and from different sites downloaded many copies of the manual. All turned out to be for Revs 8 & 9. Even checked with MFJ.
Finally bit the bullet and started to reverse engineer the unit. After I had a schematic of my unit, the next challenge was to figure out how to configure for ICOM 8 pin round plug. Mission accomplished, I think. I still have to change the connector on the switch box TNC cable to an 8 pin round connector to mate with the cable form the Signalink. At this time, the connectors are sitting on my desk waiting for me to fire up a soldering iron.
I attempted last night to check into a SATERN net that is on the Summit County ARES repeater. The FT-8900 that I have been using as net control for the ARES net on the repeater had changed settings for unknown reasons and I could not get in. I made a quick switch to the backup ICOM IC- 48A and I still had problems. After a few minutes of panic, I remembered that I had the switch box connected to that rig and sure enough, the switch was in the TNC position, not the MIC position. Mike PTT works in either switch setting. I did get checked into the net, some what embarrassed by my technical difficulties.
After the net I had to figure out how to get the FT-8900 out of the "Internet Connection Feature" mode that it had gotten into. Once I read in the manual how to get into that mode, it was obvious how I got there and how to get out of it. For future reference, the "Internet Connection Feature" mode (WIRES) is toggled on/off by pressing the 'left volume knob'. Since selecting the right or left dual receive display for transmit is done by pressing the 'channel select knobs' which are above the volume knobs, I assume I got into the unwanted mode by pushing the wrong knob trying to select the left side which I leave on the ARES repeater. It would be real nice if you could lock out unwanted features on radios.
Stay tuned for further updates on this saga. Also, leave me know if you need a schematic showing configurations for ICOM and Kenwood on a MFJ 1272BX unit with a single 30 pin header and no silk screened labels on the board.
zeke, AB8OU
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
AB8OU Comment on DStar for Emergency Communications
After reading the discussion on 'Dstar and Emcomms' on the eham's Emergency Communications forum, I posted the following comment. Since I had planned to post here on the same topic, why waste time writting it again.
From my reading of the comments on this forum, it appears that many assume that DStar infrastructure is only the repeaters and link to the internet. I consider the actual physical DStar radios in the hands of hams to be the most important part of the infrastructure. If you don't have radio's to talk to others, there is no communications.
Looking at some crude numbers, there appears to be about 700,000 licensed hams in the US and about 22,000 repeaters. This works out to about 32 hams per repeater, assuming every ham gets on a repeater. From the ICOM offers, it appears that they feel that you need 10 users minimum to keep a DStar repeater on the air. My quick and dirty count showed about 300 DStar repeaters in the US. At 10 users per repeater that works out to about less that 0.5% of the US ham population. With 32 users per repeater, market penetration goes up to almost 1.5% of the US ham population with approximately 10,000 DStar radios. If the adage that "The first thing every ham does when he receives his license is to buy a two meter handheld." is true, two meter FM probably has greater than 90% market penetration.
Questions that need to be considered are;
1. How many DStar equipped hams could you turn out in a disaster situation including consideration that only 25% of your group will be available in a disaster?
2. How many of your government and other served agencies have DStar equipment installed as compared to VHF/UHF FM?
3. How many DStar radios can ARRL provide under their HAMAID program to a disaster scene?
4. How many of the walk-in or mutual aid hams will have DStar radios with them?
5. How many owners of DStar radios will be willing to leave their expensive radios behind when their shift ends?
Having gotten in to ham radio when the AM/SSB war had reached the point where the technical superiority of SSB was being accepted, it still took almost 10 years and the availability of much less expensive SSB gear before SSB dominated the HF bands. Even so, most HF rigs today still include the ancient modulation mode.
In the ARES group that I am a member of, I am not aware of any members that have DStar capability. One or two may have DStar capable radios but have not seen any reason to spend the extra dollars to add the DStar board.
Until DStar has significant penetration in the ham population, basing an emergency communications plan on it would appear foolhardy at best.
zeke
From my reading of the comments on this forum, it appears that many assume that DStar infrastructure is only the repeaters and link to the internet. I consider the actual physical DStar radios in the hands of hams to be the most important part of the infrastructure. If you don't have radio's to talk to others, there is no communications.
Looking at some crude numbers, there appears to be about 700,000 licensed hams in the US and about 22,000 repeaters. This works out to about 32 hams per repeater, assuming every ham gets on a repeater. From the ICOM offers, it appears that they feel that you need 10 users minimum to keep a DStar repeater on the air. My quick and dirty count showed about 300 DStar repeaters in the US. At 10 users per repeater that works out to about less that 0.5% of the US ham population. With 32 users per repeater, market penetration goes up to almost 1.5% of the US ham population with approximately 10,000 DStar radios. If the adage that "The first thing every ham does when he receives his license is to buy a two meter handheld." is true, two meter FM probably has greater than 90% market penetration.
Questions that need to be considered are;
1. How many DStar equipped hams could you turn out in a disaster situation including consideration that only 25% of your group will be available in a disaster?
2. How many of your government and other served agencies have DStar equipment installed as compared to VHF/UHF FM?
3. How many DStar radios can ARRL provide under their HAMAID program to a disaster scene?
4. How many of the walk-in or mutual aid hams will have DStar radios with them?
5. How many owners of DStar radios will be willing to leave their expensive radios behind when their shift ends?
Having gotten in to ham radio when the AM/SSB war had reached the point where the technical superiority of SSB was being accepted, it still took almost 10 years and the availability of much less expensive SSB gear before SSB dominated the HF bands. Even so, most HF rigs today still include the ancient modulation mode.
In the ARES group that I am a member of, I am not aware of any members that have DStar capability. One or two may have DStar capable radios but have not seen any reason to spend the extra dollars to add the DStar board.
Until DStar has significant penetration in the ham population, basing an emergency communications plan on it would appear foolhardy at best.
zeke
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