[CALV-AUXCOMM] AUXCOMM Meeting on Tuesday, Sep 17 and EOC Improvements

[Shawn Donley]

The All,


Our monthly meeting is this Tuesday, Sep 17, 7:30PM at the Calvert Services Building.


I’ll be giving a presentation on the Narrow Band Emergency Messaging System (NBEMS) and associated FLDIGI.   Hopefully we can get a few stations configured for this mode and try it out.


Side note:  


Bill, N3XMZ and I installed a new radio system at the Calvert EOC last Friday.  The new gear consists of a Kenwood TM-V71A and a pair of RemoteRig terminals.   This equipment was purchased by the county several years ago to assist with Beta testing for our new proposed system deployment on the new county towers (which has yet to happen).  


The RF deck of the V71 is located in the old radio room where we had our old Kenwood 2M transceiver.   The V71 control head is at our RACES position in the EOC.   The RemoteRig terminals are connected by a dedicated (not on any network) CAT5 cable running between the EOC and the radio room.  So now you have full control of the radio (frequency, bands, volume, squelch, etc) right from the EOC seat.


The RemoteRig hardware and firmware also provides a virtual RS-232 port connection between the locations.  So we have a TNC in the radio room hooked up to the V71 and communicating to the RemoteRig terminal at our EOC seat.   The DB-9 COM1 connector on this RemoteRig terminal can be hooked to a computer running Winlink Express or just a simple terminal for packet communications.    The COM1 is set for 9600 baud, no parity.


Using my laptop with WInkink Express at our EOC seat, we successfully sent Winlink Packet messages to several internet email addresses through the KA3POX-10 gateway on 145.750 direct running 5 watts.   We also ran straight packet looping through the K3CAL-10 digipeater (yes, it’s back up too).


We’re hoping to get the OK to install Winlink Express right on the County’s PC at our EOC seat rather than have to bring a dedicated laptop.


We also checked the EOC antenna using a good VHF/UHF SWR meter.   On 2M, the SWR was 1.2 to 1.   Of course the coax could have so much loss that the SWR looks good but little is getting to the antenna, but at least it’s not hurting the radio.   Often a 2M antenna will function on 440 as well.   An SWR check showed 1.3 to 1 at 444.935 MHz.


N3AE

Calvert EC