One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Tech companies can’t seem to figure out how to make money on perpetual licenses. Shareholders still want a return on their investment and those companies remain full steam ahead on subscriptions. In a rough economy, companies are refocusing limited resources on efforts that will make money versus directly improving offerings available for free or nearly free.
CentOS was a community developed and supported enterprise operating system forked from Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) in 2004. Similar to Fedora, CentOS was an upstream source to Red Hat but without licensing fees. An upstream source means features are available in lower Linux operating system distributions first, then picked up by ones like Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This method offers more stability as features would have been deployed on and issues fixed with a significant number installs in a community-based operating system before being added to an enterprise class operating system.
In Ham Radio, the IRLP project used various versions of Red Hat including Fedora Core and CentOS most recently. CentOS, at the end of 2020, announced the distribution would be discontinued to focus on CentOS Stream. The community’s response was overwhelmingly negative. Many enterprise systems were based on CentOS to avoid licensing and subscription fees now prevalent in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (though individuals can obtain a development subscription at no-cost). IRLP moved to another known stable distribution, Debian.
Rocky Linux (rockylinux.org)
What’s the difference between CentOS and CentOS Steam? I’m still not quite sure. The Wikipedia article on the 5-year-old operating system doesn’t say much other than it’s a “midstream” between Fedora and Red Hat. That’s what the original CentOS distro basically was. Midstream isn’t an officially recognized term referring to flow of packages and features. My searching of the term kept bring up the oil and gas industry. I did find Stream being noted as a “rolling release” operating system in an old Wiki entry now on Archive.org.
A rolling release operating system is continually updated compared to fixed versions or release cycles. This is similar to how Microsoft is updating their Windows 10 and later “operating system as a service” platform with ongoing release updates. These are the numbered versions “YYMM,” later the “YYH1” and “YYH2” versions. No enterprise appliances I’m responsible for migrated to Stream. They all went to Red Hat.
One of the CentOS founders, Gregory Kurtzer, shortly after the announcement of development termination, launched a successor to CentOS called Rocky Linux. I like their “about” line on their website: Rocky Linux is an open-source enterprise operating system designed to be 100% bug-for-bug compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux®. An operating system touting their bugs. Didn’t see that one coming. Not that I’ve been looking for bugs, but I’ve been using Rocky as a way to test application deployment and configurations before I break our QA environments and need the VM (virtual machine) team to redeploy the Red Hat appliance.
AlmaLinux (almalinux.org)
Another alternative is AlmaLinux. Both Alma and Rocky are binary-compatible releases for Red Hat providing freely available production-grade enterprise operating systems. “The Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation (RESF) has been created to organize a community around enterprise, research, academia, individuals, and other institutions to collaborate on building and maintaining the open source tools that these organizations need.” AlmaLinux OS Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit. The 501(c)(6) non-profit classifications are business leagues, chambers of commerce, and real estate boards.
In another subscription move (and major sh- show), Broadcom purchased VMware. VMware, known for its virtualization technology, is also largely used in the enterprise. Though a free, but limited, tier was available for those whom prefer it as their virtualization platform at home.
Virtualization allows multiple operating systems, instances, and containers of different operating systems and applications to be virtualized and run on the same physical machine. Physical machine specifications are often beefier with more CPU, RAM, and storage but allow those to be carved off for applications that need only a fraction of those resources. Those applications could be remote access, network controller, monitoring, web servers, personal storage, media, mail, databases, etc. All run on the same physical hardware but do not affect other virtual machines or other applications running on the same hardware.
Broadcom re-positioned the VMWare brand and its products to the largest businesses through rapid transitions to subscriptions and outrageous subscription pricing. In addition to high-cost subscriptions, they are no longer issuing or honoring perpetual licenses previously purchased by businesses.
Perpetual licenses are licenses obtained by making a one-time purchase upfront and are valid indefinitely. In contrast, fees are collected the entire time you want to continue using a service, often yearly, for a subscription. This is also a way to control – vendor doesn’t want to offer or maintain a product anymore or subscriber takes a position the vendor doesn’t agree with: subscription terminated.
Though, at the end of May, Broadcom reversed course announcing VMware Workstation Pro and VMware Fusion Pro are available for free personal use once again. Being a favorite of self-hosting and homelabbers, including hams, many use VMware at the core of their server and virtualization needs. A Homelab is running a server (or multiple) in the home, hosting several applications and/or used for testing applications.
Proxmox Cluster (proxmox.com)
If you’re (still) looking to move off VMware or just looking for a virtualization platform, like everything else, there are options. Proxmox Virtual Environment or XCP-NG are Free and Open-Source alternatives. I have been using Proxmox for over three years and haven’t looked back. At first, I needed tutorials for attaching network attached storage shares and how to setup VLANs in the GUI. It’s been a breeze after that. I’ve been impressed how easy it is to do backup & restores and snapshots for easy rollback of changes. Often, I’ll take a backup from one instance and deploy it on another instance for testing or upgrades.
I haven’t used XCP-NG but know it is a fork of Citrix XenZerver, which maybe familiar to those whom have worked on Citrix systems. The interface is modern looking and a favorite of Tom Lawrence of Lawrence Systems. Tom puts out a ton of excellent tutorial and review videos on his YouTube channel. Most of this content also apply to homelabbers.
Arguments are made that subscriptions work better for business and not so for individual consumers. However, consumers seem to favor subscriptions on music, video, and gaming services – not when it comes to software platforms and operating systems.
There have been rumblings of Microsoft turning Windows into a subscription-based operating system. Microsoft keeps pushing things to the cloud while companies are starting to shift back to on premise. I think a Windows OS subscription is sustainable for businesses but not for consumers. Consumers still think the OS is free – just look at the amount of advertising in consumer versions.
Lastly, in an evolving story, Microsoft wants to use their AI (artificial intelligence), called Copilot, to create a searchable history of everything done on a Windows computer, dubbed Windows Recall. Great, another attack and spying vector. It’s not like Microsoft has the best security track record. Windows Recall was intended to be turned on by default. However, after consumer and privacy advocates pushed back, MS re-engineered this feature to be opt-in with better data protection and access controls or it can simply be removed. Still creepy.
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Despite the severe weather briefings for August 5th in northern Ohio showing a slight risk of severe storms throughout the area, didn’t have storms near me. The August 6th briefing was shaping up about the same. Though there was a chance of tornadoes, it was under 10%.
On an otherwise bright, sunny, and warm day, I left work ordering food to be picked up 30 minutes later on the way home. As I was driving home, with the windows open, on I-90 to the west side of Cleveland, a tornado warning had been issued. As I approached my exit, a stark contrast to the current sunny conditions, I was facing a blackened sky looking west. “Oh, this isn’t going to be good” I thought. Hoping it was far enough away that I could pick up my pizza and make it home before the storm hit.
After getting off at my exit, still a half-mile away from the pizza shop, I was stopped at the intersection of Hilliard and Canterbury near my house. The wall of rain hit just about 3:52pm. Hurrying to pick up my food, quickly running in an out, I was drenched. In the 3, to maybe 5, minutes I was on Hilliard, picked up my pizza, and made it back to that same intersection, a large tree had come down across Hilliard Blvd.
Tree down on Hilliard Blvd at Canterbury Road (Westlake, Ohio – taken 8/9/24)
Not only was there debris from trees and branches being blown around all over the place, trash and trash buckets were being blown around too as some residents had already put their trash out to the curb in anticipation of pickup the next day. I made it safely home as I only had to travel a block and a half. The intense part of the storm blew through in less than 15 minutes. Staying in my car, the worst had yet to be discovered. As I made my way from the car into the house, I discovered many large tree branches had come down in my backyard.
After storm, before cleanupAfter cleanup
My wire HF antenna was about 100 feet long strung between two trees across the backyard. I figured it was a goner. Maybe the branches were far enough in the back of the yard that it somehow missed it. Even if it was brought down, wouldn’t be the first storm where I’ve had to replace my antenna. I didn’t get lucky twice in one storm. Without going to survey the damage just yet, I could see pieces of wire dangling so I knew it was not in one piece anymore.
A little while later going out to look, the fence post used to connect the coax feedline to the antenna feed point was snapped off at ground level, brought down by a tree branch coming off a neighbor’s tree. Landing perfectly on the post like those branches were placed there. Don’t know if my antenna was ripped down by the fence post being destroyed or from being in-path of a large tree branch flung across the yard, which would have been no match for a wire antenna. Between trees in my yard and the neighbors, there were 4 to 6 large branches sheared off from the upper parts of 70′ trees.
RIP feedline and antennaBranches sheared off
Luckily, no damage to any other property and no one was injured or worse. Damage to my HF antenna and setup is extensive. The post would need to be dug up and replaced, the entire run of coax from the shack replaced, and a portion of the PVC housing needs to be replaced. There was also some electrical in a separate run out to the post. Dad (SK) and I worked to install all of this about a decade ago over a summer. To make matters worse, I may lose my antenna supports as at least one tree is severely damaged and need to be assessed.
In my completely amateur observation, seems like straight line winds, if nothing else. There weren’t any branches twisted off trees so I don’t think it was a tornado. In the coming days, many in the area had trees removed and debris cleared.
My street had power throughout but the opposite side of the block was without until the weekend. By night time, it was obvious many did not have power because there was a hum of generators running in the distance. That area lost power due to the tree that fell where I was minutes earlier and other significant damage not far away.
Reports released by the National Weather Service office in Cleveland on the August 6, 2024 storms show one tornado dissipating a half-mile from my house. Would it have kept going, it would have passed over my house and probably a contributing factor to the damage in my yard, others on the street, and damage seen on Hilliard. A second tornado kept along the shoreline but came within a mile and a half of the QTH. There is a quite impressive video from a beach cam in Vermilion showing the approaching storm and fury as it makes landfall.
The shack itself was not damaged by the storm, though it has been on my to-do list to replace. Not sure when I’ll be able to rebuild but will be off the air indefinitely.
Damage on Hilliard Blvd, east of Columbia Rd (Westlake, Ohio – taken 8/9/24)Damage on Hilliard Blvd, east of Columbia Rd (Westlake, Ohio – taken 8/9/24)Damage on Hilliard Blvd, east of Columbia Rd (Westlake, Ohio – taken 8/9/24)Damage on Hilliard Blvd, east of Columbia Rd (Westlake, Ohio – taken 8/9/24)
As posted on the ARRL website and highlighted in my June article, the ARRL fell victim to a ransomware attack in May. It was revealed the payout was a $1 million ransom. Well, not so much the ARRL but their insurance paid out. Initial asking was a multi-million-dollar ransom. Since the ransom holders did not have access to any significant compromising data, it was reduced to $1 mill.
It has been stated the ARRL does not collect any data that’s not already public (largely data the FCC has on file for our licenses) information on its members, we’re not at risk in this compromise. However, the article notes, employees of the ARRL may have had their private data leaked (such as social security numbers) in records kept as part of employment.
For all the benefits pitched to get companies ‘moving to the cloud’ and using ‘AI,’ not the least of which include user credential protection – knowing when bad guys are attempting to gain access using employee credentials to compromise systems – and malware protection for cloud services and endpoints. It is good knowing those protections stopped and prevented the spread of malware. Wait, what… the ARRL’s cloud systems were compromised too? Well, that worked out well. These features are smoke and mirrors and provide little to no actual protection.
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
As if I needed another reason to talk about computers in here. Our Great Lakes Division Director, Scott – N8SY, informed me that ARRL HQ added items to the Technical Specialists responsibilities. In particular, ones beneficial to clubs needing direction with their website, E-mail, and storage. The new responsibilities are to:
3. Serve as an advisor to local clubs on web design and maintenance. 4. Serve as an advisor to clubs on web storage and email.
Many in the section’s technical crew have the knowledge or already do these things for their own club. Some ideas for storage and E-mail would be things like: how do we share files, collaborate and coordinate projects and activities. Next year’s Field Day perhaps? Maybe a way to keep in touch with the membership – such as a mailing list or Google Groups. Maybe the previous person responsible for these activities abandoned it, moved away, or otherwise left the club. We can work with and advise another member on ideas to revive that activity.
A solution many might be familiar with and use at work, SharePoint, is not something available to clubs for free or nearly free. There are Development (DEV) tenants for free but have limited lifetime and functionality. A solution such as groups.io has nearly all the features of a SharePoint site (up to 100 members for free) and not nearly as bulky. A club might decide to “roll their own” – self hosting services while retaining full control of their data – at a provider already available to the club.
Web sites can be beneficial to clubs. They are often the first interaction with potential new members and they keep existing members updated with the latest happenings, activities, and repeater information. A site with outdated information can leave potential members seeking a club that pays more attention to those details. With Content Management Systems (CMS), it’s easier than ever to build and maintain a website.
Responsive website automatically adjusts to different screen sizes and viewports (W3Schools)
According to BuiltWith, WordPress accounts for 44% of the 77.5 million sites running a CMS and Wix is second at 10.5%. Choosing a CMS has become a popular option because little to no coding is required. Hosting providers offer easy one-click installation solutions, too. One can easily make a site with WordPress by inputting some information and selecting a good template to display information in an attractive manner.
Get in touch with myself or one of the Technical Specialists to advise a club on any of these areas.
Previous look of the Wood County Amateur Radio Club site with left navigation on a mobile device
Personally, I use WordPress for my personal site and HamNationDSTAR.net – which I still maintain though no longer involved with the show.
Back in my day, I learned to use FrontPage to maintain websites. Though, schools were showing how to “build” web pages, and doing so, by exporting pages through Word. After taking a college class on HTML & CSS and working professionally as a programmer, I eventually realized the quality of code generated by that company’s products was (and still is) an abomination and entirely too bloated.
The Wood County Amateur Radio Club site started out as and remains my project to keep my web page skills going. It was first a FrontPage site. Then about 2008-2009, I rewrote the entire website by hand. To use buzzwords: “I optimized code.” Took out things that were generally being frowned upon in web design. The navigation pane and content pages were two iframes (pages within a page). Landing directly on a content page would not display the navigation iframe. As a workaround, I redirected the visitor to the homepage, which then loaded everything.
However, portable devices became much more popular. While WCARC pages would still work on smaller screens, it did require a lot of pinch-and-zooming because the navigation was static on the left side of the page. I knew about “responsive” websites because WordPress and other CMS’ I’ve used automatically render differently depending on screen size (phone, tablet, computer screen, TV, etc.) and orientation (vertical vs horizontal). I finally had some time to dig in around the beginning of this year.
When I rewrote the site the first time in ’08-09, I converted the site to use CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, a way to stylize and display elements within a web page). That saved a lot of time making the site responsive. If I wanted to make a different font selection or choose a different default size, that change is made in one place – while not having to edit a bunch of files/pages individually. With some exceptions for one-off style differences, all the styles are defined in the CSS.
I started out, as I often do, at W3Schools. They have a ton of how-to’s for different programming languages and real-time-editors to see modifications. The How TO – Responsive Top Navigation got things in motion. I took their idea and added my own touches to it. I changed the coloring to match the previous navigation, showing different colors to indicate when an item is hovered over and the current page the visitor is on. Then added icons to beautify the menu items. A camera for pictures, newspaper for the newsletter, people for meetings, and so on. The club has a Facebook presence and kept an “f” logo present in the navigation as well.
New look of the Wood County Amateur Radio Club site with collapsed navigation bar on a mobile device
A program that helped me render pages on my portable devices is called Cx File Explorer. My phone and tablet are Android devices. Using that app, I could save the file to my Network Attached Storage (NAS), then refresh Firefox or Brave browser on the Android device and see my changes instantly. I did not have to continuously upload the file a remote web server, for example. Cx creates a local web server on the device to serve up files as web pages to browsers on the device.
After the navigation changes were completed, moved on to sizing elements differently based on screen size and screen orientation. Font size on the header was too big when the navigation bar collapsed. I added font size changes for the header when the navigation bar is collapsed.
I wanted a way to have multiple elements that were spread out on a large computer screen to automatically display vertically when viewed on a mobile. On the home page, for example, these are the radar image, current time, solar activity and propagation near the bottom. On a computer screen, they are one next to the other, spread out horizontally. On a mobile, they stack themselves vertically such that they are one on top of the other.
The club calendar on the home page caused me the most grief. I like the monthly layout to note when events are happening and I want event titles to be seen. After many hours were spent futzing trying to get a one-size-fits-all, I couldn’t. The calendar size on a larger screen would not render well on a mobile device and vice-versa.
After fighting with the calendar for quite some time, came across an old post that gave me ideas. Have the monthly calendar displayed on larger screens and agenda view on a mobile screens. My prayers had been answered! That was the idea I needed.
Google Calendars offer different views (week, month, agenda) when embedded into a web page. Their helper generates different code based on the chosen options. That post gave me the idea to display the monthly view and hide agenda view on larger screens. Hide monthly view and display agenda view on smaller screens. Voilà.
After some weeks working on all the changes, I uploaded them and made them live. They’ve been running for about six months. The Wood County ARC site will render on a screen size as small as 450 pixels wide and renders to a max size of 3000 pixels wide and, of course, everything in between. Many people have thanked me for making the WCARC site work quite well and not crash their computer – meaning it doesn’t load an ungodly number of external resources and useless plugins. The site loads very little from external sources and most things needed to render pages are hosted on the Wood County Amateur Radio Club server itself.
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
As Technical Coordinator for the Ohio Section, I oversee the section’s Technical Specialists. We are here to promote technical advances and the experimentation side of the hobby by encouraging amateurs in the section to share their technical achievements in QST, at club meetings, in club newsletters, and at hamfests and conventions. We are available to assist program committees in finding or providing suitable programs for local club meetings, ARRL hamfests, and conventions within the section. When called upon, serve as advisors for RFI issues and work with ARRL officials and other appointees providing technical advice.
Technical Specialists are a cadre of qualified and competent individuals here for the “advancement of the radio art,” a profound obligation incurred under the rules of the FCC. TS’s support myself and the section in two main areas of responsibility: Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) and technical information. They can specialize in one or more areas or be generalists with knowledge in many areas. Responsibilities range from serving as consultants or advisors to local hams or speaking at local club meetings on popular topics. In the Ohio Section, there are 12 qualified specialists.
RFI and EMI (electromagnetic interference) includes harmful interference that seriously degrades, obstructs, or repeatedly interrupts a radio communication service such as ham radio or public service agencies. RFI sources range from bad power insulators, industrial control systems, nearby or poorly made transmitters, household appliances, personal devices like computers, monitors, printers, game consoles – to grow lights, failing or poorly made transformers, and devices hams brag about getting cheap from China. Technical Specialists can offer advice to help track down interference or locate bozo stations when called upon. Technical information is wide-ranging, everything from antennas to Zumspots.
How can we help? The knowledge and abilities of YOUR Technical Specialists are really quite impressive:
Amplifiers
Antennas (fixed, portable, emergency operation)
Antenna systems such as towers, guying, coax/feedlines, and baluns
Boat anchors (tube technology)
Computer systems – Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi
Digital voice and data modes – including D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, NXDN, P25, APRS, IGates, packet, TNCs, MT63, FT8/4, Olivia, PSK, etc.
Direction finding
Electronics and circuits, including teachers whom have taught electronics classes
Former repair technicians
Home brew
Internet linking (Voice over IP, aka VoIP) – Echolink, AllStar/HamVoIP, DVSwitch, PBX/Asterisk
Mobile installations – HF, VHF/UHF, antennas
Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS) – Fldigi and Flmsg
Networking – AMPRNet, routers, port forwarding, ISPs, firewalls, mesh, microwave
Power supplies
Propagation
Repeaters, controllers, and high-profile systems
RFI caused by power lines and consumer appliances
RF safety
SHARES stations (SHAred RESources – Department of Homeland Security HF radio program)
Software Defined Radios (SDR)
Tower safety
Professional certifications such as Motorola Certified Technicians, Master Electrician, Certified Journeyman Electronics Technician, General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL), ETA certifications, Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) certifications and affiliations, and Marine Radio Operator permit holders.
This impressive list of qualifications are available resources to all in the Ohio Section. Looking for guidance in one of these areas? Need a program for your club meeting? How about a technical talk or forum at a hamfest? Assistance or direction on a project? My contact info is near my picture and on the arrl-ohio.org website. I’ll assist getting you in touch with an appropriate Technical Specialist.
Hamvetion Recap
Original 1964 Collins Communication Van at Hamvention
Another Hamvention has come and gone. This was emotional because this was the first since my dad passed, N8ETP. Hamvention was something we did together. He didn’t go last year because (we didn’t know it at the time) he was suffering from post-operation complications. He was looking out from above because I had no shortage of company on this trip. I checked into the hotel, then went to dinner. Immediately met a father and son on their first trip to Hamvention. We talked about the show, past shows, what to expect, and some pro tips. Ironically, the dad was released from the hospital a week prior after recovering from an infection. If they’re reading, I apologize I don’t remember your calls – send me a message and I’ll add them later.
Figuring the rain would keep attendees away Friday morning, traffic was worse than anticipated. Busses were stuck in with those trying to get into on-site parking, causing delays and lines at the high school. It took over an hour from the high school until I got into the fairgrounds. Broke out the poncho for the first time in a number of years.
After being admitted, checked in with the ARRL Ohio Section/Great Lakes Division table to say howdy to our leadership and swap stories. Shortly after leaving the booth, ran into George – W5JDX and Mike – VE3MIC from AmateurLogic.TV and spent the rest of the day hanging out with those guys. Due to rain, George didn’t do any recording until after we grabbed some lunch. Hilarity insured behind the camera as well as in front.
I left about 4pm to get ready for dinner. At dinner, I ran into George again. We were chatting and before we knew it, realized it was 8pm. We had intended on going to the D-STAR evening gathering but didn’t make it since we were having a big time.
Saturday, ran into Mike – this time in the flea market – and we walked a good portion of it in the morning. Mike and cousin Jerry were going to head back home around noon. I walked the rest of the flea market because that was something dad liked to do too. Before leaving, talked with some inside vendors I wanted to speak to.
Inside the Collins Communication Van
Shopping list was sparse this year. Only thing I was really looking out for was a place that built ham shacks/outdoor buildings. The camper converted into my existing hamshack really needs to be replaced. I didn’t see any builders there. Rest of the shopping list was “nice to haves” – radio with a TNC for APRS or Winlink. Maybe other APRS gear. Couple Motorola pieces of equipment I’ve been looking for. Been wanting to get a D-STAR radio with the latest features. I took advantage of a show special at DX Engineering and picked up an ICOM ID-52, mainly because the restrictions (by ICOM) were lifted on the show specials.
A ham in the area, whom I’ve gotten to know, was looking to unload some of his gear. I picked up a used ICOM IC-746Pro and Micro Keyer. Fortunately, I was able to try out the radio before I bought it. Doing some research online found out the most common problems with the 746 are the display backlight goes flaky, eventually crapps out, and a dead transmitter. Both were non-issues.
This ham did say the tuning knob might be loose. It didn’t seem much different than my IC-7000. Upon using it at home, there might be an issue with the knob because it does repeat the same frequency numbers over and over again on occasion. I’ll look into tightening or cleaning the knob/encoder to see if that resolves it. It’s not a big deal because most of my operation is digital and I use remote control through a CI-V cable.
Otherwise, it’s been working fine on Winlink. There are a couple differences I like in my 7000 over the 746. Main one being it keeps switching back to USB from D-USB for digital operation. Functionally, it’s working as expected.
A stop at Micro Center in Columbus on the trip back home is required for some post-Hamvention spending. The Columbus location is a bigger store than my closest location on the east side of Cleveland (Mayfield Heights), which means they have more stuff out on display. I needed some larger capacity USB Flash Drives and they had a Lenovo ThinkPad on sale. I’d been having trouble with my existing laptop failing to charge the battery. I found out the Columbus store is a larger location because it is the flagship store for Micro Center as their headquarters are about 15 minutes away. That store will have items not (yet) available at other locations as a test to see if an item sells out.
The same general themes kept popping up before the show and at the show from other attendees: ‘this maybe [my] last one’ and ‘show specials can be found online.’ With the economy in the crapper and inflation in its current state, it’s getting even more expensive to attend Hamvention. $500 and up for a single room in the area for the weekend. With other local events, such as grade school sporting tournaments and antique flea markets, hotel rates are higher due to demand. There were a couple issues at my hotel too. While the staff tried to make it right offering bonus points, the issues still shouldn’t have happened when you’re paying that much for a room. An inconvenience for what was supposed to be an otherwise enjoyable time.
Hamvention show specials, for the most part, can be found online too. Not all distributors bring a lot of gear (inventory) to sell – except for maybe the most popular radios and models. Heil Sound is one vendor most people I know reference because we were involved with Ham Nation. Back at Hara Arena, they had an entire side of Audio Alley with equipment and inventory for sale. Heil Sound had a 6-foot table this year showcasing headset and some microphone offerings. They, like many others, are relying on distributors for show specials and handling of inventory – which goes back to the show specials are also found online. MFJ wasn’t there because they ceased production as the show was getting underway. I heard in the flea market: ‘sellers are looking for top dollar and buyers are looking for the cheapest deals.’ Things weren’t flying out of the flea market either.
Despite that, according to the Hamvention website, this year’s event was record-setting attendance at 35,877. I will always be of the belief “if you’ve never been to Hamvention, you need to go at least once in your life.” It’s more of a social and nightlife gathering, with vendors putting new gear ‘under glass’ at the show.
ARRL Network Incident
Not to bury the lead but I figure I would touch on the announcement posted on the ARRL website regarding the “serious incident involving access to our network and headquarters-based systems.” This incident was big enough news to make an online Cybersecurity trade publication, SecurityWeek. I don’t know anything more than the information made available in the league’s post but I suspect the last paragraph in the SecurityWeek article is the reason.
From the Information Security side, in this day and age, where everyone wants things to be convenient – conveniently accessible resources, conveniently ways to order things online, convenient ways to make membership changes, convenient apps to use – it’s not a matter of “if” something will be compromised, but “when” will something be compromised. The “when” for the ARRL happened to be right before Hamvention.
As noted in the ARRL post, people are asking if personal information is compromised – they haven’t said “yes” but it seems very likely. How an organization comes out looking in these trying times comes down to how they handle their responses – how they improve security posture, how they communicate the extent of the breach to its members, reporting to regulators/investigators, services offered to those concerned about their personal information, how they clean up and recover, making sure it doesn’t happen again, etc. If true, the “ARRL does not store credit card information anywhere on our systems, and we do not collect social security numbers” which helps with regulators and government but leaves privacy minded individuals who do not wish for personal details, albeit “publicly available,” to fall into the wrong hands.
Yes, this absolutely should not have happened. In a perfect world, it wouldn’t have happened. We don’t live in a perfect world and not everyone is perfect despite how some present themselves.
From my own experience, working with vendors and Managed Service Providers (MSPs), it takes a lot of extra work to make sure what they are telling you is correct and make sure what they do is correct. ARRL does use Microsoft services and they’ve had their share of scathing reports of inadequate security practices recently. I work with a lot of different Information Technology (IT) teams. The number of analysts (and management) that know very technical details about systems they are responsible – is remarkably low. When an analyst doesn’t know their system, doesn’t know how modifications affect that system, how would they know if a modification opens their organization to attack? Maybe an employee was thinking they were doing their job but clicked a password stealing link or downloaded a fake invoice containing a malicious payload (malware that performs malicious activity). The latter is often due to a lack of proper training in security practices for general employees. Again, these are only my experiences and observations working in IT.
The ARRL posting has been updated several times as recovery progresses and systems come back online. This disrupted most ARRL IT systems including phone systems, Logbook of the World (LoTW), VEC application processing, some magazine resources, store orders and shipping. LoTW data is “secure” presumably meaning no uploaded contact logs have been lost. The arrl.net forwarding system was not affected but I’ve been moving off it due to messages being bounced previously.
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
One thing that has kept me busy this year is work. We’ve been traveling for deployments and other work projects. Pilot sites get someone onsite to make sure the transition goes (relatively) smoothly. In addition, cutovers for other sites and other systems have been occurring off hours – early mornings or late at night. One of the perks of traveling for work is the ability to extend a trip using personal time.
The first trip was an M&A (merger and acquisition) in East Hartford, Connecticut last March. One reason I wanted to extend this trip was because East Hartford is about 15 minutes away from Newington – otherwise known as the location of ARRL HQ.
I like to drive and this was a drive at 9 hours. It ended up being more like 10 or 11 with stops and detours. Extending this trip, partially because of ham radio, and getting to drive means I take a lot more ham radio stuff. I put on music and will switch off listening to VHF & UHF. I have an ICOM IC-2820 radio with a homemade cigarette lighter power cable. Using the cigarette lighter (now called an accessory port) is more than good enough to power the radio especially when listening more than transmitting. Since this wasn’t my car, the install has to be very temporary. Most accessory ports are fused at 10A. That limits me to low or medium transmit power. Low power (5W) draws 4A and medium power (15W) is about 7A (a little less on 2m). No reports of alternator whine either.
I know there are those who make lists of repeaters when traveling. With electronic sources such as RFinder and RepeaterBook, it’s easier more than ever to import repeater data into radio programming software. The Travel search in RepeaterBook makes it even easier by selecting a travel route or highway. A problem with that feature is the repeater owner or a contributor to RB have to tag a repeater as being accessible on or from a particular route. I-80, which I traveled through most of Pennsylvania, only lists 25-2m/440 repeaters end-to-end. I traveled 270 miles of I-80 in PA. That seems low.
Instead, I use band scan memories or scan edge memories. To me, it’s easier than making banks of repeaters for different cities along the way. Scan edges are memories available on most modern radios. Set the start and end frequency and the radio scans frequencies in-between, stopping on any signals received. Once it hits the end frequency, returns back to the start frequency and begins scanning again. These memories are often notated as “xA/xB,” “xL/xU,” or similar memory locations noting beginning and ending frequencies respectively.
The 2820 is capable of dual-band operation with two receive frequencies at one time. On the left side of the radio, I had a scan starting with 144.000 and ending at 148.000, which covers the 2m ham band. On the right side was 440.000 – 450.000 for the 70cm ham band. The “step” setting determines frequency increments. 15.0 kHz step starting on 144.000 will then scan 144.015, 144.030, 144.045, and so on. A step of 5.0 kHz starting on 144.000 will then scan 144.005, 144.010, 144.015, etc. Most 2m ham band repeater plans are 15 kHz and 25 kHz on 440. I stick to those as my step settings.
Setting the step to 5 kHz catches more transmissions in cases where a repeater might be coordinated on a non-standard frequency or simplex conversation had on a weird frequency. It does take much longer to scan and the radio will stop on much more interference from the car or other near-by transmitters. Not worth it to me setting such a small step value.
In this day and age, noise will be an issue and the scan will stop frequently. Stopping frequently can be further reduced by turning up the squelch or attenuator, but you’ll miss weaker signals. Some radios have a ‘skip’ (sometimes called “lock-out”) function that will skip over problematic frequencies. I use the radio’s “scan resume conditions” to resume scanning 10-seconds after arriving on a signal. This is nice so I don’t have to keep messing around with the radio while driving. If there is an interesting conversation, it’s one button to stop the scan to remain on that frequency.
Before someone says ‘you should have flown,’ a co-worker did fly out of Cleveland. Since there are no direct flights to Connecticut, he flew from CLE to ORD (Chicago) then onto Connecticut. With layovers and delays, he left the same time I did from Cleveland and arrived only an hour sooner than I did. If I would have cut out my own detours made in New York, probably would have beat him there.
Unfortunately, this was a grueling trip. Driving wasn’t really bad until I got to Scranton, PA, but it was still a lot of driving. We were on site Friday through Tuesday, working 10-to-12-hour days. Didn’t do much operating on the front end of this trip. Once we ate and got back to our rooms, it was time to get some sleep and do it all again the next day. We got it done, though. Left the site Tuesday a little after 2pm and tried to catchup on rest. I planned a ARRL HQ visit the next day, Wednesday, March 20th.
I took a bunch of pictures outside of the towers and arrays. Apparently, they don’t give tours of HQ anymore (except virtually). I was pretty disappointed. When they did give tours, you could see things such as the ARRL Lab, testing equipment, ham radio archives, and outgoing QSL Bureau. Not to be had this time. Headquarters lobby and bookstore were open and the only parts accessible.
On my last visit with the family, by the time we got to the visitor’s station – W1AW, storms were on their way in. I made calls on HF but made zero QSO’s before NJ1Q had to shut down the station. Being one of my first few times on HF was really bummed not to make any QSO’s and learn how things worked. A year after that trip, I got an HF station setup at the home QTH – which my dad had a big hand in setting up.
Studio 3 operating positions. I operated as W1AW from the station at left.
This time was quite different. No storms to worry about. I had over an hour – probably an hour and a half – operating as W1AW in Studio 3 with a Yaesu FTDX9000D, Heil Microphone, and Alpha 9500 amp running about 600 watts. I don’t remember which antenna/array they had be working on. Operated mostly on the upper part of 20 meters, around 14.290. Changed frequencies once or twice to avoid other stations that were coming up out of the noise. Had a great path into Ohio as I worked many stations from the Section. Those in Northeast Ohio informed me I missed the two inches of snow. Dodged that bullet. Unfortunately, didn’t note exactly how many contacts I made. I had 40+ contacts after an hour, probably 50 or so QSOs in total. If you happened to make contact, QSL cards are available direct to the ARRL HQ mailing address.
I had such a good time operating that I stuck around even longer and talked with Joe, NJ1Q – Station Manager and Trustee. Fascinating person to talk to. He had finished testing, fixing, and was packing a portable station for a school contact with the ISS in Colorado. Spoke to him about their digital setup including Winlink station. I’ve previously used W1AW on HF to exchange messages from the home QTH. “It must be working,” said Joe. It sure is. Wish I had their racks of digital equipment in my shack and towers in my backyard. He also gave me some tips for things to try with some issues I am having. A veritable fountain of wisdom.
For being at the visitor’s station, you now receive a certificate for either visiting or operating. Remember to bring a copy of your valid amateur license in order to operate. The certificate was something carried on since the centennial 10 years ago. I didn’t receive one on my last visit. We figured out it had been 11 years (2013) since my last W1AW visit and certificates started just after that.
The remainder of that trip was non-ham radio activities. One of the wide-area linked repeater systems with 10 sites had a pretty bad hum. The owner and some users were trying to track it down. I don’t own a repeater but it is a thankless job.
Snapshot from video I took – near the end of totality, 4/8/2024
Couple weeks later, I was in Waco, TX. Since I was flying, I took the IC-91AD HT with me but didn’t have much time to use it. I take hardly any ham equipment when I fly because I don’t want to deal with TSA.
Waco was in the path of totality for the April 8th Eclipse. I thought about extending the stay but decided against it. Good decision because they had storms. Contacts at the site wanted to see my pictures from Ohio because it turned out to be a crummy day for them. I also heard car rentals were up around $600/day in Dallas.
Speaking of the Eclipse, I took the day off and contributed to HamSCI by transmitting and uploading spots for WSPR. I had to make preparations to get my camera setup and had family coming over. Since I wasn’t seeing many special event stations on the DX Cluster in the morning, left the radio to do WSPR spotting. Maybe HamSCI will be at Dayton/Hamvention and I’ll talk to them about the data gathered from Ham Radio stations.
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
A couple months ago, the ARRL published news regarding the FCC amending Amateur Service rules. This change, which went into effect on December 7, 2023, removed the symbol rate (baud rate) restriction replacing it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit on many HF bands. This change allows for greater flexibility, faster communication speeds, and greater options for digital modes on the low bands. Waivers are no longer needed in times of emergency temporarily granting faster communications such as later PACTOR modes.
Replacing the baud rate restriction with a bandwidth limitation on digital transmissions has brought more activity to the bands. More hams are experimenting with PACTOR. Winlink stations are utilizing the bandwidth to send in even more weekly net check-ins.
With the additional activity, there have been some unintended consequences. Stations are not checking to see if the frequency slice is available before transmitting. Other fly-by-night stations are not minding the volume level delivered to the radio leading to over modulated signals. To be fair, these have been happening for a long time and are not new challenges to efficient digital operators.
The problem with digital operation has gotten so bad the FCC is stepping in and considering a competency test for operating. Passing the test will result in issuance of digital endorsement for existing, valid, Ham Radio licensees. “This initiative will clean up the digital ham bands” according to Polly Ester at the FCC.
Winlink Wednesday check-ins (KW4SHP)
The proposed rulemaking will involve candidates completing a written exam – similar to licensing exams given for Technician, General, or Extra. A second portion will involve a lab demonstrating the candidate can operate a station within accepted limits.
Written exam is expected to be taken from a question pool of 255 questions. The randomly selected 25 question multiple choice exam can be taken at any existing VE test session. Lab portion will be administered through FCC contracted testing companies that will be able to accommodate their testing requirements.
Debate was had if the FCC was going to administer the lab on their own or contract that portion out. Prior to the VE program, exams were administered when the FCC came to town. Restarting that program was explored. However, it was decided testing centers will conduct the lab portion.
Lab portion consists of using different software, computers, and radios – demonstrating operating ability to configure popular software applications on Windows, MAC, and Linux machines. Radios by common vendors will be selected at random. Radios could be anything from modern SDR radios to boat anchors – with none of the common connectors for digital operation. Proficiencies demonstrated include: adjusting sound levels from the computer, checking audio and transmit levels using radio meters and indicators, listen and check for other signals nearby, what to do when another station does not check if the segment is clear, selecting power output appropriate for the radio and duty cycle. Finally, operating in a crowded band. Details have not been released by the NCVEC if software simulating these activities will be available for practice.
Licensed operators whom have passed the written and lab portion will receive their digital operating endorsement and can operate digital at legal limit. Operators will be required to re-test every three years to refresh skills and demonstrate proficiency.
Stations without the endorsement will be able to operate digital at a maximum of 5 watts ERP. A second option of 10 watts will be available provided the station pars with a “monitoring” station. The monitoring station provides timestamped screen shots showing the segment on the waterfall which the station was operating. This screenshot of the waterfall and textual output of the segment will show there is no monkey business at a place called shenanigans. This evidence will prove stations are who they say they are and are following regulations.
Fines for stations operating without an endorsement or those with an endorsement, but not following proper protocols, will be based on frequency. For example, operating on without an endorsement on 14.233 will be $14,233 in fines.
These new regulations should lead to less interference, more contacts, and not blowing up equipment because someone is running full power at 100% duty cycle.
Thanks for reading, April Fools, and 73… de Jeff – K8JTK
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Imagine you own a 200 foot AM broadcast tower. Then one day – it’s gone – and no one listening to the station noticed. That’s right, the whole tower was stolen. Or was it? Earlier this month, a story spread through international news about WJLX-AM in Jasper, Alabama. A posting on the station’s website recounts this tall tale. WJLX is primarily an AM station on 1240 with an FM translator on 101.5 at a separate location.
The article published in Radio World notes a lawn mowing crew was sent to the transmitter site to do cleanup ahead of a new shed being built. When the crew arrived, they noticed something odd. There was no radio tower. Vandals stole everything in the building, cut guy-wires and managed to make off with 200 feet of radio tower. The incident was reported to police on February 2nd.
Many of us Hams have radio towers and know they are not easy to put up much less take down and remove. There’s a lot of time and coordination involved. This story already sounds kind of crazy.
For those not familiar with how broadcast translators are licensed, translators are commonly used for AM stations to simulcast audio on an FM frequency, ‘translating’ the AM signal to FM. A translator is tied to a primary (or parent) station. A 50,000 watt AM station in Cleveland – WTAM 1100 – is translated to 106.9 FM locally. The AM transmitter must be operational for the FM translator to remain on the air. Translators also have weird callsigns. WTAM’s FM translator is W295DE. If the AM station went off the air, so goes the FM translator.
WJLX AM transmitter site, photo “taken within the last two years” (Radio World)
These lower power FM translators help fill-in where coverage maybe lacking or as a way to gain more listeners on FM. They help lower power AMs fill in when the station is required to change antenna pattern at night or go completely off the air in the evening. It’s an additional way to generate revenue from advertising when the station would normally be silent.
FCC rules state the FM translator must be shut down when signals from the primary station are not being re-transmitted. Exceptions are daytime-only Class D AM stations which must have had an operational transmitter in the past 24 hours. WJLX is a Class C AM station (classes explained).
Even if vandals truly downed the tower, there would be evidence of the tower falling (landing) in any one direction or activity in one area from it being brought down vertically. To transport the tower, there would be evidence of cutting torches, saws, or disassembly. A good broadcast engineer will know their transmitter is off the air through remote monitoring before listeners call up complaining they can’t hear their favorite station. The post to the station’s website says the tower was “stolen without a trace.” The tower was reportedly steel, not copper which is what thieves desire at transmitter sites. This story is becoming very bazaar. That’s when I started poking around the Internet.
First came across Geerling Engineering’s video. They are in my subscriptions list because they had an informative tour of the KMOX-AM tower (St. Louis, Missouri). It’s a father/son YouTube channel where the father (Joe) has been in broadcast engineering for a lot of years.
Some points made in their video: the WJLX website and branding lists only the FM frequency and no mention of the AM frequency. Weird if the primary station is supposed to be AM. The dad goes on to make similar points about downing the tower, removing it, and the improbability of someone stealing an entire tower. In addition, he found filings noting the station was not well maintained.
Another video points out broadcast engineers in the area knew the AM signal had been off the air for some time. One user looked at Google Street View and noticed in October, 2022 there were two towers – one for WJLX-AM and a nearby tower for another station. The Street View car went by again in March, 2023. One of the towers is gone, WJLX-AM. The General Manager claims power was installed and operational until the theft. He provided power bills as evidence to the police. This video too mentions that logo/branding only includes the FM frequency.
Both reference this video posted 11 years ago showing the station “operating questionably.” It’s someone in their car on the property of the AM transmitter. They are listening to the FM translator, then switch to the AM station and the signal is completely silent. Per the FCC rules, with the AM offline, the FM translator must be offline as well.
Lastly, but probably most importantly, is a video posted by William Collier. This video is NSFW (not safe for work) – due to language. With his friend, they documented the state of the transmitter site on February 10, 2024 – about one week after the supposed theft. In 4K video, they document lots of evidence the site is in disrepair and has been abandoned or unused for a long time. In another video on the topic, someone sent William satellite images showing the tower shadow being visible in 2019 and 2021. There is no tower shadow visible in October, 2023.
WJLX AM transmitter site after the alleged theft. Tower pedestal to the left of the building. (William Collier)
William’s video shows the doghouse (transmitter building) being dirty with muddy floors and the door hanging off the hinge. There’s no evidence of someone or some people walking around inside to remove the seemingly heavy transmitter where brush would be trampled in front of the door. Same goes for the base of the tower. Many guy-wires are underneath overgrown weeds and brush. If the supposed landscapers came out to cut down brush, they did a pretty poor job as it’s clearly still overgrown. Nothing indicates a tower existed or was “downed” a week earlier. Required fencing to keep people away from the tower is overgrown in parts, missing in others. Probably the most telling, the power meter connection looks as though it hasn’t been used in months, if not years
Radio World wrote a follow up article to William’s video but the General Manager stands by his version of the story. This whole thing stinks. No one reported the AM signal being off the air because it had been off for months to years. The thread at Radio Discussions is quite entertaining and has even more speculation.
The station is seeking $60K through a go-fund-me campaign for a new AM tower and transmitter as it was uninsured. This is one campaign I’ll not be donating. I discourage and recommend others do not donate as well. Of course, the legacy media was all giddy about the station being back on the air after the FCC denied the request to remain on the air solely using the FM translator. Someone at iHeart Media in New York heard the story and is leasing the station one of their HD signals out of Birmingham.
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
This is, by all accounts, my 100th article for the Ohio Section Journal! It’s coming a month late as I didn’t count the announcement of my father’s passing in September of 2023 as an article. I’ve been thinking about doing something special for my 100th. As per usual, short on ideas. I thought back and remembered being asked a question by fellow Volunteer Examiner, Tom – W8KYZ. He asked me some time ago ‘how long does it take for you to write an article for the Ohio Section Journal?’ I didn’t have a good answer because I really hadn’t paid attention. At the time I recall saying “probably 6 hours.” In reality, it’s double that. After Tom’s question, I started taking notes and being self-aware of my writing process to put together an article. Here is my 100th article on how I write for the Ohio Section Journal.
In the beginning. Dating back to middle school (or as some call it, intermediate or junior high school), I liked to write. I had some good English teachers. Mr. Holland in 6th grade and Mrs. Mann in 7th grade. Mr. Holland had his own library of Reader’s Digests. We were encouraged to read articles, write summaries and include our own thoughts. Mrs. Mann did the school newspaper as an extracurricular. I did activities and layout. Her teaching style in class also made it fun to learn. Have to give credit to mom because she was my proofreader in elementary and middle school. I think writing is one of her traits I inherited.
Sophomore year of high school I had a very strict English teacher, Mr. Scherma. I could do common MLA (Modern Language Association) citations and punctuation structure, though college, in my sleep because of his class.
I’ve always believed if I don’t understand it, I can’t explain it to others. Another credit to Dr. Vernon for my International Business grad school class. We did a lot of writing in his class. He took that philosophy a step further. Be able to make arguments both for and against something, then provide alternative solutions proves you really understand a topic.
I’ve read a number of PC magazines over the years starting probably not much before middle school. Some of my favorite writers were Steve Bass (PC World) who was always a fun read and interjected a good level of humor and sarcasm in his articles. Another would be John C. Dvorak (PC Magazine). I can’t say he’s been right about a lot of his predictions, “… experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things” (Dvorak Uncensored). I do share a level of skepticism over tech hype – as does John. He’s given great writing advice which stays in the back of my mind. John is also a master troll (one whom posts causing maximum disruption and argument, particularly online). I wish I could pull off some of his schemes.
(Technologizer)
Before I started writing for the Ohio Section Journal, the previous Technical Coordinator, Jim – W8ERW (SK) saw my writings in club newsletters. I was doing a series on Raspberry Pi and RTL-SDR dongles called “Dongle Bits” in 2014 – 2015.
Ohio Section Journal. When I was appointed to be the Technical Coordinator by our previous Section Manager, Scott – N8SY (now Tom – WB8LCD), it was stated section articles had to be something ‘ham radio related.’ Mine started out ham radio related but took liberties doing articles on things closely related to ham radio such as computers, Windows, and Linux. In the same way a club meeting might include topics or announcements on useful smartphone apps, space and plants, and other electronics, I reach into my background for other technical topics. I’ve done System Support for Windows and Linux environments, System Administration of Linux systems, programming on a Linux platform, and currently networking and security.
My thought is, well, I have to do 12 of these per year. Even that’s way too much ham radio for me. In branching out to cover Information Technology or Information Security topics, maybe an IT or InfoSec professional might come across an article and check into this ham radio thing. As it turns out, readers like the variety too.
Post Script is released the weeks when a Section Journal is not published. It consists of mostly articles from other publications and submissions received by the Section Manager. Articles are summoned from Section Cabinet members for the Section Journal on a monthly basis.
How do I find a topic? They start out as things I’m interested in or working on – things others might find interesting as well. Brainstorm sessions happen anywhere: while I’m at work browsing the internet, working on something in the shack, watching a presentation on a topic, giving a presentation and a question was asked, watching an online video, new or different technology I’m playing with and experiences (good and bad), heard a different perspective on a subject, current topics or events, etc. Some months I didn’t do that much ham radio and rather talk about a computing project I’ve been working on. I always promote anything the Technical Specialists are working on or doing.
As the month rolls along, I’ll make a note to myself ‘this would be an interesting OSJ article.’ I do have a backlog of topics but rarely do I pull one from that list. As I’m learning new things, I rarely write about them immediately because I don’t care for “initial impression” (aka unboxing) type material. I would rather provide insights from (at least) a couple months of using something to find quarks, see how bugs and updates are handled.
I do bump articles. I planned to do topic X, but Y seemed more interesting and pertinent at the time. A recent example, I was planning to do my February 2023 article on my Windows 10 shack upgrade for January. After attending a conference, which included some ham radio topics, that became the published article for January. I wrote a new article and bumped the original to February.
On occasion, I’ll do a collaboration. Ones that come to mind are the write up of the Wood County Amateur Radio Club and the BG Fab Lab (I’m a WCARC member). I coordinated a trip out to Bowling Green to coincide with their breakfast meeting and ham radio training class. I talked with club members about the partnership, took pictures, and observed the training class. Unfortunately, the partnership has since dissolved between the WCARC and the BG Fab Lab.
During National Parks on the Air, Technical Specialist Bob – K8MD wrote the article on the Perry’s Monument activation. I did an article on Winlink nets where I solicited input from net control stations for details they would like to share about their net and let them review a final draft before publication.
If someone poses a question to me, that is often the basis for an article (October 2019 on Line A). I’ll confirm with them I can publish their name and call sign as part of the article. Most people don’t mind. I do want to be respectful of those whom may think their question is silly, stupid, don’t want the attention, or just wish to remain private.
I’ll revisit topics. Two years is the minimum between publication and republication, unless there is a development or someone poses a question. It’s never the same article. It will be changed, if only slightly, in favor of better wording, include more details, or latest updates.
John C. Dvorak
One evergreen is “writing a newsletter article for your club or the Section Journal” (July 2017 & November 2019). A reason for revisiting this topic is because it encourages the sharing of advances and learning, which is one of my responsibilities as Technical Coordinator. Another exception is every June, I feature and highlight the skills of our Technical Specialists to remind readers they are an available resource for club meetings and hamfests. This is another responsibility of mine.
Learning time is hard to quantify and not included in my time estimates. My article on the WPSD Pi-Star replacement includes over a decade experience in digital modes when I started using them in 2009, using Pi-Star since 2018 when I bought a ZumSpot, and learning about WPSD in January 2023 when I saw the segment on AmateurLogic. Anything HF or digital HF has been learned since I built my shack in 2014.
Timelines. This, of course has changed over the years as different editors have taken over or has been adjusted to meet their demands. Currently, the Ohio Section Journal comes out the last weekend of the month. Articles can be submitted anytime during the month. Deadline is few days or so before publication, more if the SM is traveling.
When do I start? This depends. A collaboration or I have free time to get a draft written could be a month or more. Collaborations are worked on earlier in order to have enough time for those involved to review a final draft for changes. It’s rare for me to have a finished product turned in more than a few days ahead of the deadline. Normally, I start a few weeks ahead. Sometimes the week of. On a couple occasions, the night before it’s due.
Getting in mine in “early” is a phrase that does not exist in my vocabulary. Section Managers can probably count on one hand how many times I’ve been early. I am the worst at getting my article in early and even hours past the deadline at like 2am. I’m terrible and I know it. I apologize to them when we talk about the OSJ. I do try to make my article an easy drop-in for their template.
Writing process. I don’t consider myself a good writer. I don’t. From draft to published edition, the flow rarely changes. Wording, clarity, and phrasing are another story. I will post an example in the online version of this article. I saved all six revisions of the second paragraph in my September 2022 article. This article was on running multiple copies of Fldigi and Flmsg at the same time. It shows progression from initial draft to published version and changes made during each revision.
>>> 9/22 article revisions can be viewed here. <<<
LibreOffice Writer (libreoffice.org)
My writing process starts out as a stream of consciousness style of writing. Get in front of the keyboard for about 4 – 8 hours and just type. Not often in one sitting, broken up over some days. Less so when a deadline is looming. While brainstorming, I often have an organizational structure thought out ahead of time. A large portion of wiring time is due to reading things like Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRMs), looking up details, supporting information, and validating my recollection. My style, especially early on, follows the same form as the Five-Paragraph Essay format taught in grade school.
Once my thoughts are down, I’ll start to revise the article. Depending how I feel for editing, 2 – 3 revisions are done on the computer. The rest are on paper. I’ll print the article, do a read-through marking changes, input those changes into the computer, print the article again, rinse and repeat 4 – 6 more times. 2 – 3 read-troughs are in my head, another 2 – 3 verbally.
I’m not well versed in proper sentence structure. I remember the big things like avoiding run-on sentences, sentence fragments, don’t begin sentences with conjunctions or “so,” or ending sentences with prepositions. The conjunction one goes out the window if it makes a point. Whatever seems natural is published. Editing process is about 4 – 6 hours.
OMG! Who is printing things in the current year? Me. If you go back and read through some of my early OSJ articles, they are really rough. I was doing all writing, revisions, and editing at the computer. I got complaints about editing, wording, and spelling. I am my own worst critic. The comments were not unfounded because those articles were hard to re-read and sucked. I needed to make a change. Went back to what worked for me in school. Printing and proofreading – over and over and over and over – again. Now when I re-read my articles later, I think “there’s no way I wrote this, it’s too good!”
I start writing in LibreOffice Writer, except when I start writing in the shack which has Microsoft Word. I start in LibreOffice because my primary desktop and laptop run Fedora. All writing, links, and editing are done using Writer. No graphics are included at this point. When editing is done, I use a Windows virtual machine with a local copy of Microsoft Word. Word Doc is the format requested by the Section Manager in Times New Roman, 12-point font.
Text is pasted into Word using “keep text only” or unformatted text. This removes any unnecessary formatting from Writer. I never directly convert Writer to Word using the Save As option. I’ve used Writer and predecessors, there have always been conversion (formatting) problems going directly to Word. The Document Foundation states a lot has been accomplished solving formatting issues. I still see conversion problems around image sizing, positioning, and cropping.
Word’s spelling and grammar checker is far superior and I use it for final touchups. That is to say, Writer has a spell checker that’s not very good and completely lacks grammar checking. I’ve noticed quarks (bugs) in Writer’s spell checker that hinder my editing process. For example, a misspelled word will not be underlined with the standard wavy red line to visually indicate a word not recognized. Copy and paste that exact same sentence into a blank Writer document and the wavy red line appears for the misspelled word. Haven’t figured out why that happens and I don’t ever use the ‘ignore/ignore all’ option.
Though I may gather images during brainstorming, I don’t go looking for graphics or images until everything is formatted in Word. During the writing and editing process, I only work with text and links. Inserting images at the end doesn’t waste space in the printouts and I avoid any conversion issues going from Writer to Word. When media from other sites is used, I’ll caption it with the domain or username as it is not my work. Most often, Size and Position Text ? Alignment is Square. Then group the caption and image together.
Paint.net interface (fixthephoto.com)
Taking my own pictures, I’m a huge fan of Cannon imaging products since I started using them at our high school TV station. I use a Cannon Rebel SL2 primarily. When I don’t want to use the nice camera, an old Canon PowerShot SX210 or my Google Android Pixel phone does the job at places like Hamvention. Don’t think I’ve included too many scanned items, but an Epson Perfection V100 Photo is used. Editing, cropping, resizing, bluing parts of images and pictures, I use a free program called Paint.Net and, on occasion the Linux equivalent, Pinta.
The inclusion of hyperlinks in articles has been amazing for me. Instead of having to cite something or take additional time explaining, I link the reader to a place they can read or research something I’ve mentioned. It takes about 30 minutes to an hour to convert, do final spell/grammar checking, insert and caption images, and verify links work correctly.
In total, it takes me an average of 12 – 16 hours to do an OSJ article. The quickest one in recent history was six hours on Spam Campaigns, draft to final version. Normally, this process is spread out a few hours per day over at least three days. I E-mail the article and images to the Section Manager. Then it magically appears is the published version of the Ohio Section Journal. I don’t know much about the processes once I send my submission.
Web Edition. After the OSJ is published and emails go out to members and subscribers, I publish my article to my site. From Word, I do a Save As ? Plain Text. The key to this conversion: in the File Conversion box, checking “Allow character substitution.” This removes “smart quotes,” apostrophes, multiple periods, and dashes Word likes to insert – substituting them with web friendly characters for online publishing.
I don’t use the HTML Save As option because my method keeps the online version clean from the needless formatting and useless tags inserted by Office products. December’s article was 6 KB of plain text. After formatting the article and creating links for my website, 8 KB. Comparing exporting to HTML in Word weighs in at 54 KB – of needless crap and highly inefficient rendering, if you ask me.
My site is a WordPress content management system (CMS). I have boilerplate text at the beginning of each post (article) describing how to subscribe and links to the full edition. Then paste the exported text, recreating text formatting and links in the CMS. I upload and caption the same images. Always after the OSJ is released is when I hit the “Publish” button to make the version live on my site too.
After publication. Generally, I receive no feedback on a per article basis. That is fine because people still call me out when I do make mistakes. I receive comments when people see me in person at hamfests, presentations, and occasionally over the air. Readers generally enjoy the stuff I write and topics covered.
Ironically, the most feedback I receive are from the non-ham topics. Some of you complained about my series on preserving legacy media (August, September, and October 2021). I received more messages from readers who wanted to share their tips, experiences, and services used to rescue data from legacy media. It was under ten messages but more than any other article or series I published.
I’m likely blacklisted with a vendor or two. They’ve messaged me displeased about one thing or another. When asked what they had an issue with, they don’t respond. Manufactures have never given me anything anyway because I do, and have, refuse units for review. If a product is worth purchasing or is something a lot of hams are using and might have technical questions, I purchase the product on my own. Representatives often come across as jags but I remain professional. Seriously though, make better products.
I receive a lot of “I don’t understand it, but it’s interesting” feedback, even from my own dad. I attempt to grab attention in some way. It’s a balancing act though. Many readers are not all very technical, others want me to do deep dives including all kinds of technical specifications. I shoot for a middle ground of knowledge an average user might need. At least a basic understanding of computers helps to understand my articles. If someone walks away with a piece of knowledge they keep in the back of their mind for the future, my job here is done.
When I did longer articles, I make an effort to shorten them. This is not one of those articles. A friend suggested splitting longer ones across multiple months. Depends how I feel. I try to keep them shorter (2-3 pages, before graphics). Some want even longer articles. Thank you and I’m flattered, but this takes up a considerable amount of time as-is.
Not that all feedback isn’t humbling, a couple stick out. My brother shared a story where someone at his company messaged him asking if he knew me (same last name). Obviously, he did. They told him they enjoyed reading my Section Journal articles. Unfortunately, I don’t know the name of this person. Ralph – K8HSQ messaged the Section Manager and myself saying “I enjoy your articles in the OSJ newsletter very much. Whenever I see your article being announced in the email, I read it immediately. If it’s not listed, the newsletter gets put on the “read later” pile.” Roy – K8RWH always says he is “your #1 fan in Ohio.”
I don’t even know how to react to that other than to say – thank you! I always ended my articles the same: thanks for reading. I’m always honored you take time out of your busy schedule to read anything I have to say. This also comes from another teacher I had and talked about recently, Mr. Hoty. ‘No matter what the viewers say or complain about – your audio stinks, the picture sucks, wrong about this – just let them vent and calmly say “thank you for watching” because at least their watching.’ With that…
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Finally, a step in the right direction allowing ham radio to modernize – being able to use and develop new data communication methods and have greater flexibility encouraging experimentation. Last month, an announcement from the ARRL recapped a ruling made by the FCC to amend the Amateur Radio Service rules. Commissioners voted unanimously to remove the symbol rate (baud rate) restriction replacing it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit on the HF bands.
Émile Baudot was an engineer and inventor of the first means of digital communication called the Baudot code in 1870. Instead of using dots and dashes as used in Morse Code, he invented a system of bits to represent each character when transmitting messages over a telegraph line. The “baud” unit was named after him. Baud is the number of symbols transmitted per second across a medium. Baudot’s system allowed for multiple transmissions over a single line.
In modern electronics and computing, baud is often associated with serial communication. Most of us remember or have used serial ports. Stating a serial port operates at “9600 baud” means that serial port can transfer up to 9600 bits per second.
Telephone modems, such as those used to access BBS’ and early Internet, had baud rates that matched bit rates. As technology developed and faster communications were demanded, modems used multiple signaling events. The V.32 ITU-T standard allowed for data transfers at 9.6 kbit/s or 4.8 kbit/s at 2,400 baud. This means there were 4 or 2 signaling events respectively occurring at 2,400 baud to achieve the transfer rate.
In their decision, the FCC stated “baud rate limits were adopted in 1980, when the Commission amended the rules to specify ASCII as a permissible digital code. The Commission adopted the limits so that ASCII signals would occupy no more spectrum than traditional radioteleprinter signals associated with the use of Baudot code (FCC Amends Amateur Radio Rules for Greater Flexibility).”
Hams are (for the time being) limited to 300 bauds on the 2200m-12m bands. 1200 bauds on 10m. 19.6 kilobauds on VHF (6 & 2m) not exceeding 20 kHz. 56 kilobauds not exceeding 100 kHz on 220 and 440. A symbol rate is not specified for 33cm and above (97.305).
The ARRL’s petition asked the commission to delete all references to a symbol rate and establish a bandwidth limit of 2.8 kHz for data emissions below 29.700 MHz (2200 and 630-meter excluded). FCC commented that amateur radio can still play a vital role in emergency communications, but is hindered by current baud rate limitations. This ruling removes the old standard of ‘how much data can be sent per second’ replacing it with ‘how much data can be packed into 2.8 kHz of RF spectrum’ on the HF bands.
2.8 kHz occupies the same bandwidth as common side-band (voice) signals seen on HF bands. Even though sections permit wider transmissions (AM, FM in portions of 10m), the limit is imposed uniformly across all HF bands. 2.8 kHz was decided upon because placing the limit below 2.8 would preclude some modes that are already legal.
Radios that do not have a specific “digital” mode setting use SSB when transmitting digital signals from a computer or other device. Radios capable of SSB can be used when newer data modes are made available if offered in a traditional sound card configuration and the radio doesn’t have a hard roll off at 2.7 kHz that cannot be adjusted. Newer ICOM radios (like the 7300) and Software Defined Radios can transmit full bandwidth. Offerings may decide to use standalone hardware or a modem with the assistance of a computing device to transmit and receive signals.
Pactor 4 Radio Modem (landfallnavigation.com)
The ruling did not change anything else. Only symbol rates below 29.7 MHz are affected. 6m and up are unaffected and remain at the published symbol rates in Part 97. The commission proposes removing baud rate restrictions in favor of bandwidth limits on MF, VHF, and UHF too. Band plans and sub-bands remain the same. Digital portions remain digital portions, voice remains voice. Band plans are not something the FCC rules on either. Band plans are typically established by gentleman’s agreement among hams. 2.8 kHz is a maximum. A single PSK or FT8 signal is not going to start utilizing all 2.8 kHz – though some operators act like it. Stations must still set audio levels correctly to reduce digital splatter from their station.
The ARRL previously stated they are in favor of bandwidth limits on other bands but wanted to review limits that might be imposed. I believe it gets tricky with modes of varying bandwidths. For example, many would probably say most popular on the 2m band is FM, including repeaters. There are 2m SSB sub-bands too. 6m is similar with the low-end being DX windows and the upper end being largely FM and repeaters. Could there be multiple limitations implemented per band? DX windows get a 2.8 kHz limit while FM portions are limited to 15 or 20 kHz? Maybe. One problem with this theory, existing permitted legal bandwidths (e.g.: 100 kHz) would be excluded. These and other considerations are likely being reviewed by the ARRL.
An immediate effect of the bandwidth ruling permits later PACTOR modes. In nearly every hurricane or disaster where hams are involved with emergency communications, the FCC would grant a waiver allowing greater than 300 baud transmissions. This temporarily allowed PACTOR III & IV transmissions, which are faster and more reliable than other modes. No more symbol rate waivers will be needed. I’m noticing more Winlink RMS stations in the U.S. listing 2750 Hz VARA HF. There was some question whether 2750 is legal under existing rules in the U.S. and these new listings could be in anticipation of the upcoming changeover.
PACTOR-III has a “data rate of up to 3600 bits per second and a symbol rate of 100 bauds” while PACTOR-IV is “capable of a data rate of 5800 bits per second … [at] a symbol rate of 1800 bauds (Amateur Baud Rate NPRM).” PACTOR-III would be permitted. PACTOR-IV, which does not occupy anymore bandwidth than PACTOR-III, is prohibited and not spectrally efficient.
The new rules go into effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register. The document was published on December 7, 2023 with amended Part 97 rules. The new Part 97 HF bandwidth rules go into effect January 8, 2024!
One of the responsibilities of the Technical Coordinator in the Ohio Section is to submit something for the Section Journal. The Section Journal covers Amateur Radio related things happening in and around the ARRL Ohio Section. It is published by the Section Manager Tom – WB8LCD and articles are submitted by cabinet members.
Once my article is published in the Journal, I will also make it available on my site with a link to the published edition.
You can receive the Journal and other Ohio Section news by joining the mailing list Tom has setup. You do not need to be a member of the ARRL, Ohio Section, or even a ham to join the mailing list. Please sign up!
If you are an ARRL member and reside in the Ohio Section, update your mailing preferences to receive Ohio Section news in your inbox. Those residing outside the Ohio section will need to use the mailing list link above. Updating your ARRL profile will deliver news from the section where you reside (if the leadership chooses to use this method).
When logged in successfully, it will say “Hello <Name>” in place of the Login button where <Name> is your name. Click your Name. This will take you to the “My Account” page.
On the left hand side, under the “Communication” heading (second from the bottom), click Opt In/Out
To the right of the “Opt In/Out” heading, click Edit
Check the box next to “Division and Section News.” If it is already checked, you are already receiving the Ohio Section Journal.
Click Save
There should now be a green check mark next to “Division and Section News.” You’re all set!
THE TECHNICAL COORDINATOR
Jeff Kopcak – TC
k8jtk@arrl.net
Hey gang,
Pi-Star was great. It solved big problems for hams wanting to use VHF and UHF digital modes around 2016-2017. Personal hotspots were becoming popular. Consisting of a digital interface (modem) board capable of transmitting and receiving digital modes such as DMR, D-STAR, and System Fusion. These transceiver options are low power at about 10mW. The modem interfaced with software to manage network connections. Many devices were created for the popular Raspberry Pi or Arduino single-board computers using the GPIO headers. Others were USB-based devices that could be used with a desktop computer running any operating system or plugged into a Raspberry Pi.
The hardware was pretty solid. Software, not so much. Nearly each group attempted to make their own software distribution. In general, this failed as users couldn’t get the software to work consistently and settings didn’t work as expected – even across users with similar setups. Many didn’t have monitors connected. VNC, a remote desktop sharing application, was used. VNC generally works well desktop-to-desktop, but not desktop-to-mobile. These problems weren’t helping promote digital modes and personal hotspots.
Then along came Pi-Star. Created and maintained by Andy – MW0MWZ, it solved nearly all those problems. On the hardware site, Pi-Star supported every digital modem in a single platform. MMDVM is the software capable of “speaking” different digital mode protocols and managing network connections. It came with a web front-end that did everything needed to configure and manage devices, update network settings, update device firmware, and have a nice usable dashboard. Ultimately, the Pi-Star platform superseded all previous attempts at a viable interface for digital ham radio hotspots.
On the Pi-Star site, version 4.1.5 dated October 2021 is the latest image available for Raspberry Pi. However, 4.1.6 is available through the update sequence pistar-update then pistar-upgrade at the command line, both prefixed with sudo. Pi-Star 4.1.5/6 release is based on Raspbian 10 (buster) which has reached end-of-life. Raspbian, the standard Raspberry Pi operating system, follows the Debian release schedule. Debian 10 is out of standard security updates and into LTS (long term support). Raspbian does not offer LTS.
If you’ve read my column long enough, you know the majority of vulnerability issues can be avoided by keeping systems updated and patched. I’m also reminded of the time when I went searching and found there are Pi-Star’s accessible directly from the Internet, with the default password. What could possibly go wrong?
By all accounts, and as of this writing, Andy is no longer maintaining Pi-Star. Looking at his post count in the forums: zero in 2023 and ten in 2022. There are very few updates to GitHub repositories in the last two years, which are used to update Pi-Star devices. I’ve seen references to lack of updates due to lack of interest. Pi-Star is also lacking the latest additions to MMDVM including M17 and FM for boards that support those modes (usually through firmware updates).
The next iteration of Pi-Star (or fork) comes to us via W0CHP, called “W0CHP-PiStar-Dash (WPSD).” I learned about WPSD when AmateurLogic ran a segment in January on this new offering. I started using it shortly after. Though it was early on in the project, WPSD was labeled “not for the faint of heart” by the author.
It was really rough around the edges. I had to debug scripts in order for updates to run successfully. The dashboard would show the modem in “TX D-STAR” when only P25 was enabled. There were issues with the configuration file manual editor too.
Regardless, development is very active. WPSD has become much more stable and now considered the Pi-Star replacement. Alot has changed in the time I’ve been using WPSD and presume things will continue to evolve.
One such change, there was an option for installing WPSD on top of an existing Pi-Star installation. That option is no longer available or supported. The distribution must be flashed directly to an SD card (flash memory), exactly like Pi-Star.
I always recommend using a new card or different SD card from the current, existing installation until everything is working as the user expects. Having the old (original) card available allows switching back easily in case of problems or need to reference something from the previous installation.
Pi-Star with Nextion display (ailunce.com)
A recent blog post by the author called out people who claim WPSD is an “overlay.” At one point, it could have been installed on top of an existing Pi-Star installation. WPSD is not an overlay. It is its own software distribution.
WPSD works with most Raspberry Pi offerings (Zero, Zero 2, 2, 3, 4, …) including the Orange Pi and Nano Pi Neo variants. The Raspberry Pi Zero W 1.1 is not really recommended for use but it will work. The Zero W 2 is recommended instead. A Zero W 1.1 needs extra configuration steps after flashing the SD card. These include: creating a wpa_supplicant.conf and placing it in the /boot partition. Waiting at least 30 minutes for the image to boot and configure itself before accessing the dashboard. Steps are detailed in the link above.
While using WPSD with my Pi Zero W 1.1 it is quite a bit quicker, taking about a minute to save changes on the configuration page of the dashboard. Compared to the Pi-Star which took two to three minutes to save changes. Pi Zero W 2s are still very hard to find. If you can find one, a male header strip still needs to be soldered to the GPIO. Pre-soldered ones are nonexistent.
Not only is WPSD on a supported operating system (bullseye, Debian 11) but there are a TON of enhancements and updates over Pi-Star. Though the visual layout has changed, it’s intuitive enough for any existing Pi-Star user. Changes I noted right away were the addition of M17 support (though I don’t have any capable devices) and Nextion support built-in. Nextions are displays and/or touchscreens that can be attached to the modem or added through a TTL serial converter, such as those based on the CP2102 chipset. Adding Nextion support to the original Pi-Star was a terrible experience using hacky scripts that had to be run a couple times before the drivers and software could be usable.
WPSD Live Caller mode
Non-exhaustive list of enhancements: full APRSGateway support. DGId support. DMR Roaming Beacon Support for repeaters. Caller details include name and location. Talkgroup names are populated. On the fly changes of talkgroups/rooms/reflectors/networks including ability to pause networks for attending nets or quieting a busy mode. Live Caller mode which is a browser based (virtual) version of a Nextion display. Ability to disable cron (scheduled) updates. Updated dashboard including wider, bigger, updated fonts, user configurable options including CSS styling and fonts. Full dashboard display or Simple View with only RF and gateway activity. Configurable number of last heard stations. Configuration/Profile Manager, similar to OpenSpot, where the user can save multiple versions of a setup and restore them based on use.
A Profile Manager feature was added to WPSD, which did not exist in Pi-Star but exists in the OpenSpot devices. This allows the user to save device settings into a profile to be recalled later. These could be travelling profiles, or ones specific to a mode, network, or configuration for a net. Initial implementation of this feature did not backup saved profiles when using the Backup/Restore feature. Only the current active profile would be backed up or restored. Now, within the last two months, Backup/Restore saves ALL device profiles in the backup archive.
That is an example of the constantly evolving nature of this new WPSD distribution. Updates happen quite frequently. WPSD was updated nearly daily for a long time. Updates still happen quite frequently but at the pace of about once a week, maybe more.
Speaking of backups, it’s not recommended to use migrated configuration files or backups from Pi-Star, due to differences. If Pi-Star files are used with WPSD and there are issues, the user will be required to begin configuration from scratch.
One change I do not particularly care for is the requirement to use DMRGateway. In Pi-Star, I used Direct Mode which is the selection of a single DMR Master. For example: select BM_3104_United_States for Brandmeister and TGIF_Network for TGIF as the DMR Master. I liked this for two reasons: this functionality is similar to how a repeater would operate and it simplifies codeplug programming for talkgroups with the same TG ID across different networks. Ohio Statewide is 3139 on multiple networks meaning I only had to setup Ohio Statewide once. Though it seemed most users did use DMRGateway in Pi-Star.
DMRGateway supports simultaneous connections to six networks. With all those network connections there must be a way to differentiate which network is to receive a transmission. That way is through “prefixes,” a single number prepended to the talkgroup number. DMRGateway doesn’t appear to use a prefix for Brandmeister, 3139 would remain 3139. TGIF talkgroups are prefixed with a 5. 3139 would become 53139. HBLink prefix is 8. My HBLink would be 831983 instead of 31983.
WPSD Dashboard
If you’ve programmed a codeplug for a DMR radio, it’s not as easy as just making a new contact with the prefix. Adding the contact to an RX group, creating new channels, and reorganizing or creating new zones are all needed. Maybe I’ll purge the ‘nice to haves’ in my codeplug as I typically only use a handful of talkgroups or just make a new simplified codeplug for use with WPSD.
Changes have been made to the scripts and tools. Commands rpi-rw and rpi-ro have been removed. These were used to switch between a read/write file system and a read-only file system. There has been debate whether a read only file system corrupts any less or shortens the lifespan of the SD card when left in read/write mode. Pi-Star was constantly changing from read only to read/write during settings changes, updates, and hostfile update cycles. Mine seemed as though it could never successfully change from read/write back to read only after an update. Eliminating those scripts just ‘fixed’ those resource busy messages.
Pi-Star scripts that began with pistar- have all been removed and replaced with a smaller set of wpsd- scripts. It was great because all WPSD updates were taken care of by going to Admin -> Update. Though, a recent change has removed operating system updates from that feature. Admin Update only updates WPSD currently (probably due to those lengthy Raspbian kernel updates). To update the operating system, SSH to WPSD or go Admin -> Advanced -> Tools -> SSH Access. After logging in (same credentials used to login to the Admin or Configuration dashboards), at the command line, enter (capitalization is important):
sudo UP_OS=1 wpsd-update
As with Pi-Star, if an update fails or installation becomes borked, re-flashing the SD card with the latest available image will bring the device to a known working state. Remember to save a new backup before updating! WPSD images are updated more frequently than Pi-Star. Updates released since the image was published won’t take quite as long to apply.
There is a lot to read, including some edge features that have been removed, on the WPSD page (linked above). Comparing WPSD to Pi-Star (‘this used to work on Pi-Star,’ ‘when I revert back to Pi-Star this thing works,’ etc.) is verboten when asking for support. The main page on W0CHP’s site is a blog detailing direction and state of the project as well as reasons for changes. I recommend Pi-Star users update to W0CHP-PiStar-Dash – if nothing else, for the supported operating system and OS package updates though there are many improvements and welcome features.
Hey gang,
