I was upstairs noodling around and happened to use my iPad/Flex to see what was going on in the Magic Band. Sure enough, I saw a few SSB QSOs (nothing on CW) and saw that FT8 was hopping. By the time I got downstairs and fired up FT8, things were fading, but it was still pretty active. And 20 minutes later it is all gone! Such is life on 6m.
Thanks for the QSO from LA, Parker (W5AAD)!
After having a gloriously easy time setting up my Kenwood TM-D710G and DRA-50 the other day with both the RMS Express Client, and eventually the RMS Packet software to get my VARA FM gateway up and running, I ran into a puzzling snag trying to get my IC-9700 working with RMS Express + VARA FM on my CF-31 Toughbook.
Normally my IC-9700 and Toughbook are dedicated to satellite radio, but I really wanted an alternative radio setup for VARA FM that I could use to check my RMS Packet gateway was functional. I figured it would be a no brainer install VARA FM/RMS Express and use that setup.
Unfortunately, I ran into two problems. The first was very minor — VARA FM only supports baud rates up to 19K. The IC-9700 was set to 112K (Satellite guys like a higher baud rate because of Doppler corrections). That was an easy change to drop the IC-9700 baud rate down to 19K. As soon as that happened, I had PTT access.
The next problem was not as intuitive. While the rig PTT was working, no modulation was produced, despite being in “FM D” digital mode and having the DATA MOD set to USB. I could tell VARA FM was producing the sound output, because I could swap the output to the Toughbook speakers and hear the modulation.
I ultimately fixed the issue by opening up Windows Sound Mixer and discovering that the internal IC-9700 sound device “USB Audio CODEC” was MUTED. Why, I don’t know, that’s not something I would have done. But I had never used the sound interface in the IC-9700 before, and apparently when Windows recognized that device, it muted it.
Nothing was wrong with VARA-FM or RMS Express at all. It was entirely an issue between Windows 10 and the CF-31 Toughbook.
I’ve been a Winlink Express user for many years. Up until just a few days ago, always on HF. The interest in HF meshed with my believe that disasters are mostly either local or regional. Sure a hurricane or winter storm can take out the internet and power in a region, but it doesn’t bring everything down everywhere. You just need to be able to hop over the impacted area. HF is perfect for that, and I tested and used a Winlink Express client regularly.
For a long time, I’ve been looking to try out a VHF Winlink connection, but there are very few gateways in the local area. Yesterday my goal was accomplished when I was able to connect to N1ASA-10 on the other side of the bay. Being used to the slow speeds of HF and old style packet, I was blown away by the VHF connection speed.
Today the goal was to stand-up a RMS Packet station on my side of the bay using VARA-FM in the wide mode along with a Kenwood TM-D710G and Masters Communication DRA-50.
I was immediately drawn to the RMS Trimode software and figured that was the universal solution, but quickly discovered that was pretty much for HF use. A process of elimination lead me to RMS Packet, which I installed. After entering some information on myself, and discovering the checkbox to use VARA-FM, I was up and operating! Honestly it took perhaps 15 minutes including the time I fumbled with RMS Trimode.
Here is my RMS Packet software running (and I now show up on the Live System Map for RMS):
Next step is to install the software on a dedicated miniPC and set things up to run 24/7 (I have a 100 Ah battery that is charged by solar, plus a gas generator runs for extended failures. Even if I don’t have local internet, I can act as a relay outside the region to HF stations that are working.
After getting my VHF antenna back up in the air, I was able to hook my Kenwood TM-D-710G up via a DRA-50 Digital Radio Adapter to my PC. I downloaded a copy of VARA-FM, and used Winlink to receive my first message via a VARA-FM station (N1ASA-10 on 145.050)
On the TM-D710G, I verified that my radio was setup for B-side external data (Menu 918), which is the right-hand side of the display. I then changed to 9600 bps data speed (Menu 919). {ED: I can never remember how to enter the menu, and the trick is to press the “F” button, the push the big knob in (the VFO/Channel knob). That will bring up a list of all the menus in the radio, and 918 and 919 are in the “AUX” menu}.
On VARA-FM, under Settings/VARA Setup, I changed the FM System to “WIDE” (Setup is also the menu where you put in the license key).
Under Settings/SoundCard, the Device Input was set to “Microphone (USB PnP Sound Device)”, and the Output was set to “Speakers (USB PnP Sound Device)”.
Finally, under Settings/PTT, I selected PTT via “RA-Board” to match my DRA-50 board.
According to the log, with N1ASA in Narrow mode, and my system in Wide mode, we transferred at almost 5600 bps.
And a “Ping” looks like this:
A Drive Level Calibration was run and produced the following:
I discovered today that I had not used Winlink Express since late 2019, and therefore I could no longer log in. Restoring things was simple, I just made a Telnet connection and the system restored me.
With that accomplished it was time complete the upgrades and to install a new high-performance modem, VARA-HF. It does have a free evaluation mode that will run at reduced throughput, but I decided to purchase a license ($69) and am awaiting details on how to enable it.
Despite my username expiring out, upgrading to the latest Winlink Express was simple and retained all my prior settings for my K3s. All I had to do was configure the VARA-HF soundcard settings, close it down, then open Winlink Express (which automatically launches VARA-HF). Gone was the older internal Winlink Modem, replaced by a “Vara HF Winlink” choice. Opening that presented me with the familiar “Session” window, and I was able to update the forecast and channels via the internet.
I found a familiar station in Nova Scotia on 40m, and quickly established a connection via RF VE1YZ. A tweak of the TX modulation level and I was on the air!
I ran across a brief post from Jim, N3JT, in the January 2021 Solid Copy (CWops magazine), that described a online mapping tool that shows hams around the point you choose. I chose FN41fn, and saw the following (after zooming out a bit):
Pretty cool tool! Available here: https://haminfo.tetranz.com/map
The Naval Academy station was transmitting on 7,535.0 KHz, while listening to 7,028.0 KHz. I was able to work NSS on CW today at 17:46 UTC. (Subsequently worked NSS on SSB 7.536.5/7.197 MHz, and NAF on SSB 7.542/7.275 MHz)
Boy, is it hard to get a non-ham call and frequency logged in DXkeeper (but doable). I understand QSLs can be exchanged through K3LU, their QSL manager.
I was pleased to hear yesterday that I had been nominated and sponsored for membership in CWops. I’m member 2903.
I’ve been active for the past seven weeks in their CWT (mini contests that run every Wednesday at 1300, 1900 & 0300Z (actually Thursday in the states). I suspect that helped to get recognized.
Since I love teaching, and their mission is education and getting folks involved in Morse Code, I am thinking of helping this fall.
From time to time I will post my LotW counts as a record of what has been going on over time. The last time I posted was in January of 2020, when I had reached 8,000 confirmations and August of 2019 when I had 11,000 entries.
By the way, LotW had 1 Billion QSOs in the database in December of 2018. So in the 28 months since then, LotW has added another 350 million QSOs, a rate of about 12.5 million QSOs a month!
So here we are in April of 2021, and I’ve added another 2,000 QSOs, and 1,000 Confirmations:
The CWOps group runs a mini contest called CW Test (CWT) on Wednesdays. I’ve participated in the last five and have found a slow but steady improvement in my score. So far I’ve been in the Search & Pounce mode, but I’m starting to recognize call signs of those not running 40 WPM and up the first time. I still get thrown a bit by the short-codes used for the membership numbers like A=1, T=0, N=9, etc.
No matter what, it’s a bunch of fun and I look forward to it each week. I’ve managed to bump into N3JT, Jim Talens, CWops member #1 in the contest a few times now (my hand starts to shake when I work him). Someday I will try the 0300Z event to see what 80m and 160m are like.
Edited: I actually tried the 0300Z CWT last night for the first time (it starts at 11 PM local time on Wednesday night). I was amazed at how busy 40m was. 80m was not quite as productive, but there were still plenty of stations to work. I used my Flex6000M with the Maestro remote head in my bedroom and headphones to avoid waking my wife up. I was scribbling calls, times, membership numbers, and frequencies down fast and furious. Sort of fun to run a contest in my jammies!
