[CTSARA] [GNARC] Projects and Activites: An Idea and InformalSurvey

Wed Aug 19 05:27:32 EDT 2009

Greetings all,

I've been licensed for about a year but didn't do much with it until
recently, so forgive me if this is a 'dumb' idea...

There are a number of repeaters in this area going up I-95, westchester,
stamford, norwalk, etc.  Why not link them all, or at least a few of them?  

I don't know about other machines but it seems there isn't much daytime
activity on the Stamford repeater (at least from my (limited) experience).
In contrast, LIMARC (which as I understand it operates several linked
repeaters on Long Island) almost always has a good conversation going.  

Let's say you did a 3 way link- WECA (westchester) - SARA (stamford) - GNARC
(norwalk)... this would cover a good chunk of southwestern CT, greatly
expanding the number of operators that might be listening at any point.

Ideally this would be done with RF and site-to-site links for optimal
resiliance in emergencies, however that is of course expensive, so if this
were to be tested it would seem like VoIP would be the way to go at least in
the short term.  It seems to me (and of course I could be way wrong) that it
would greatly increase the utility of the area repeaters for very little
effort...

Plus which this provides an opportunity for another fun acronym :)  Perhaps
SCAN- Southern CT Amateur Network?

On another note, I'd also be interested in app_rpt related stuff.  I figured
I was probably the only one that had even heard of Asterisk...

just my 2c...

-----Original Message-----
From: Franklyn A. Ballentine, jr [mailto:art.ballentine at gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 1:00 AM
To: ctsara at mailman.qth.net; gnarc at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [CTSARA] [GNARC] Projects and Activites: An Idea and
InformalSurvey

replies below
73
Frank B. - KB1QZH

On Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 7:35 AM, Curt Seaton<seaton.1 at netzero.net> wrote:
> Good day Franklyn.  I applaud your desire to get things going and I 
> think they are, it is tough to get folks to devote a lot of interest 
> in some of these projects with this being the peak of 
> vacation/summer/other interests other than ham stuff.  It will pick up 
> more after the kids return to school and things settle down after Labor
Day, so keep reminding us all.

I'll give you the vacation thing but after the kids return to school!?!
Grab the Tech question pool and some lemonade and put them to work!!  I
remember one comment on Field Day from the Ham Help Desk, essentially, put
the kids in front of keyboard and let them go nuts on
PSK31 and other similar modes.  It's just like text messaging.  Who needs
AIM when you have ANTENNA GAIN!! (Sorry, bad I know)

And to go off on a quick tangent: What do people thing of universal ham text
messaging that was mention in the last QST or so?

> I have several things going on that are 'working' now, and will need 
> to continue to generate interest as folks become interested and find 
> time to devote to these new fun things.   I have the "FOX" that was 
> working then the power connector broke on the radio and I will repair 
> it by weeks end and have the "fox" running loose somewhere, that will 
> get some players on foxhunting and that will be fun as well as 
> preparing all of us for 'stuck transmitters' or jammers.  The Dstar is 
> already on from the Norwalk Hospital as a repeater and will shortly 
> have the gateway connected and that will spur on some different 
> activity for those interested in persuing another operating mode, and 
> if one were to search ebay and sites like that they will find Dstar 
> equipment for about 300ish plus shipping to begin to play with this 
> mode.  We are planning on a presentation of Dstar at the GNARC meeting 
> in Sept, not confirmed yet, but that can offer some insight as to spawning
some interest there and all of it's modes.

I hope you don't do something evil like put three foxes in close proximity
to each other.  I don't think we're ready for spread spectrum fox hunting.
I doubt Cablevision or telecomm providers would take kindly to ham hunting
down that Wifi hotspot that's causing interference.
This, of course, leads to a question, how do you hunt for digital
transmission that might possibly have an analog component?

I'm still waiting for the ID-1 and a IC-910H to come down.  You know I like
my high speed data.  With talk of a D-Star satellite next spring, I think I
could be swayed.

So how long until September's talk is confirmed?

> So, yes, keep going, and yes, set up another food place, if you feed 
> them, they will come does work.....    I think we should consider 
> posting some of your ideas to some of the other radio clubs in the 
> area also, consider the FARA and CARA and I'm not sure who all else, 
> how about the SARA sister club in Westchester????    This is the kind 
> of thing to bring more activity to those willing and interested.   
> Maybe an email to all the listed hams in the area as obtained from 
> QRZ.com or such????    Many hams are not members of any club and 
> therefore would not have access to your suggestions for persueing some 
> of these ideas, yet they may well be interested themselves.......   
> Tis always difficult to 'spread the word'   BUT by all means "go for it".

Funny you mention other clubs.  So apparently the Valley ARA in Shelton got
wind of this and is interested how this goes along.  If anyone knows who to
contact at WECA, CARA, GBARC, FARA, etc please let me know or, better yet,
forward this thread.
According to QRZ, there are 1646 amateur call signs in Fairfield County.
I've got no clue on how to suck out loads of data from QRZ.com, Any web
gurus out there

> Later
>
> Curt
>

> Franklyn A. Ballentine, jr wrote:
>>
>> I'm not sure if this is the best way to go about this.  Heck, I'm not 
>> sure emailing both lists at once is a good idea, but here goes...
>>
>> As some of you may or may not know, I've been wanting to get more 
>> group\local projects and activities going, especially on subjects 
>> that don't seem to get a lot of attention.  Few Saturdays ago, a 
>> meeting was held concerning this at Wilson's BBQ.  I do apologize 
>> again for the short notice but i though it was a good start.  I 
>> definitely would like to do it again and take over another fine 
>> dining establishment in the area.
>>
>> I haven't been a ham for long and please don't take this as rude, but 
>> things seem slow.  Please correct me if I'm off base.  I guess what 
>> I'm aiming at is a way to increase activity.  Can't raise interest in 
>> this fine hobby\service if the current crowd isn't doing much 
>> (besides community service) right?
>>
>> One other thing I'd like to throw out there is just an informal 
>> survey of interests\topics relating to what's above;
>>
>> Ham radio in the schools
>> Microwave
>> Satellite
>> D-Star
>> Packet
>> Other digital modes (DominoEX on FM for example) Wifi and other high 
>> speed networking technologies (Microwave Engineering Project for one 
>> or whatever can be snagged of Ebay) VoIP (Echolink, IRLP, Asterisk & 
>> app_rpt \ communication interoperability) One beer and\or Fanta 
>> projects
>> VHF+ weak signal
>> Bending equipment to the will of the ham SDRs Other
>>
>> So thanks for your time,
>> who's in?
>> and don't hurt me.
>>
>> 73
>> Frank B.
>> KB1QZH
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