Category Archives: Digital Communications

Packet Radio Upgrades

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We’ve recently upgraded our packet radio capabilities here in Santa Barbara. Very popular back in the 80’s, packet lost much of it’s appeal with the advent of the Internet and email. However, for those of us interested in digital modes, packet radio is making a comeback. Unlike out normal HF oriented digital modes, packet lets us communicate with email like messages between users locally, and users of other packet systems around Southern California and beyond. The K6TZ-3 packet station on La Cumbre Peak offers a PBBS (SBPBBS) system for messages and a Digipeater (SBDIGI) for relaying packet messages to other systems. It runs on a Kantronics KPC3 TNC and broadcasts on 145.050 at 25w. It has incredible reach easily reaching other packet stations down the coast of California. Recent modifications were to add KA-Node capability. This allows us to connect to out KN-Node (SBNODE) and connect to other KA-Nodes. You can connect from node to node to “chain” a connection from here to almost anywhere within a reasonable distance. Similarly, others can reach us from remote locations the same way. I also installed two of my own packet stations here locally. They are mostly for fun and have nowhere near the coverage the La Cumbre Peak station has. However, they allow me to have my own mailbox system and people can leave me a message on my own systems. Packet radio is far from dead. In a SHTF emergency, packet capabilities will allow 100% accurate text based messages to be sent quickly and easily. In my opinion, this is an extremely valuable skill to have and even if its popularity is not what it once was, it enhances our capabilities as individual amateurs as well as a club. It isn’t as complicated as it may seem, and is actually fun and challenging. We discuss and operate packet on the Tuesday night SBARC Digital Modes Net, so if you have an interest, be sure to check in. – Brian K6BPM

Mesh Network Status – April 9th, 2016

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Our three nodes at Gibralter Peak are working extremely well. We have members linking up from Goleta to Carpinteria and several points in-between. There are about 5 nodes online now and another 5 or so coming up soon! The node for the club station is programmed and ready to go, but installation on the mast was delayed because of rain. We still need to raise funds to build out the La Vigia site on the Mesa. We need 2 or 3 Ubiquiti Nanostation nodes there and a ToughSwitch network switch. All the equipment will cost us about $400 and any help our members can offer will be greatly appreciated. If you can help with a donation please click here. Our next step will be to connect over the mountain to the Santa Ynez Valley. We’re very lucky to have access to all the great repeater sites that Bill W1UUQ has spent many years cultuivating. This enables is to to some great things with emergency and general communications of all kinds and we hope to utilize these assets wisely to enhance our communications abilities.

Windows Audio Issue and *NEW* Permanent Fix

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This week a bug report rocked the digital modes ham world.  Apparently the Texas Instruments audio chip used in many popular devices had a conflict with many version of Windows and was ruining receive performance on all digital modes.  This was especially troubling since it affected many popular radios and audio interfaces including: All Icoms with built in USB Audio All Kenwoods with built in USB Audio All Yaesus with built in USB Audio, as well as the SCU-17 Interface All Signalink USB’s For a few days after the discovery, there was a known workaround that fixed the issue temporarily.  Today, a permanent fix was discovered which solves the issue even after the computer is restarted.   This YouTube video details this new permanent fix but for those who want just the facts, here’s what you have to do to optimize Windows settings to fix the bug.  These instructions are from Tigertronics, the makers of SignaLink, however the steps should work with any of the affected devices or radios: 1 – Right-click the white colored speaker icon located in the lower-right corner of your desktop and select “Recording Devices” from the pop-up menu. 2 – In the new window that opens, click one time on the SignaLink’s “Microphone – USB Audio Codec” sound card to select it and then click the “Properties” button. 3 – In the Properties window that opens, click the “Levels” tab. 4 – Right-click the percentage display to the right of the Level slider and then select “decibels”. 5 – Lower the Level slider to “0db” or as close as you can. This is “-0.4db” in Windows 7. It might be slightly different in Vista, Windows 8 and 10, but in any case, the closet value to 0db will work just fine. Note that you can use the left/right arrow keys to move the slider once you’ve clicked on it. This might be easier than using your mouse. 6 – Click OK, then click OK on the Recording Devices window. 7 – That’s all there is to it!

Digital Mode Emergency Communications

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Last evening (May 5th) we were introduced to digital mode software that is used for emergency communications during the ATV Digital Modes Net . While digital emergency communications use essentially the same types of software and protocols as popular digital modes, additional software is used in emergencies when it is necessary to send specially formatted information and when accuracy is vitally important. The official name for this is NBEMS, or Narrow Band Emergency Communications Software. Many amateur radio operators involved in everyday digital HF communications are also proficient with NBEMS as well. It is a good skill to have, and it is not just limited to HF. Many times 6m, 2m and 440 FM are used for NBEMS as well. Last night we focused on the most familiar of these formats, the ARRL Radiogram. If you took your technician test in recent years, you were probably introduced to the radiogram and how it is used. If you don’t remember it, that’s okay, because hardly anyone actually knows how to send or receive one. You send it from one station to other stations monitoring the frequency. What they receive actually looks like a regular telegram! It can be printed and delivered, or the recipient can follow the instructions requested by the sender. So how is a radiogram used? Let’s say there was a major earthquake and Santa Barbara was cut off from normal landline and cellular communications. How would you let friends or relatives know you were okay? Well, you could get on HF if you have that capability and try and contact another ham somewhere and ask him to relay the information to someone for you. Hopefully the other operator will get the information right the first time, because it entirely possible you won’t be able to contact that same operator again.  But what if you could send the equivalent of a telegram? Then you would be assured that phone numbers, addresses, whatever information you need to pass would be sent with 100% accuracy and the message relayed to your friends or family. This is the purpose of a radiogram. Emergency communications are important. At least a few people in Santa Barbara should know how to send radiograms and use the other emergency message protocols. In an emergency there may be a need to send accurate data to a distant location and have confidence that it will arrive where it is intended. If this interests you, check out the ARRL website… Continue reading →

Digital Voice Modes Explained

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Below is a link to a YouTube video from Ham Radio Now dated March 3, 2015. This video features an interview with the inventor of FreeDV, a digital voice mode we often discuss and operate on the ATV Digital Modes Net.  The video runs about 70 minutes, but if you are at all interested in digital voice, it is extremely interesting. They discuss the current “state of the art”, new hardware products, and research into new VHF/UHF modes. The last 20 minutes or so are particularly interesting as they discuss a new implementation of TDMA in ham radio VHF/UHF communications that has the potential for completely redefining how repeaters work.

Digital Mode and ATV Net Time Change?

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Tonight on the Digital Mode and ATV Net we are going to request input from participants about the idea of changing the net times from 8:30 pm – 10 pm, to 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm. The original time was chosen back when there was another ATV net running in another county that ended at 8:30. After that net was over, some on those participants moved over to the SBARC ATV net. These days there is very little discussion (if any) about ATV, and much more about digital voice and special modes and the participants are mostly local club members. So there is no particular reason why we cannot start the net a little earlier and end a little earlier. It is the opinion of the net control that  we may be able to attract more participants, and more participants can stay longer, if we start and end at a more convenient times. So what do you think? If you have any opinion on this please weigh in by leaving a comment below.

ATV Special Modes Net – February10, 2015

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We had a great turnout this week with 9 check-ins to the net. Several Club members have recently purchased new Yaesu digital VHF/UHF radios, so this net is becoming the place to come to learn about this exciting new twist on day to day FM voice communications. Everyone that has experienced using this special digital mode cannot stop raving about the clarity and total lack of noise. Often, when two or more members go off to another frequency to experiment with digital, it is difficult to get them to come back! As we continue to experiment and test we’ll devote a portion of this net to talking about digital FM each week. During the past couple of nets we have also been talking about operating with JT65. To many, this low power, weak signal mode seems somewhat boring, so we talked about some of the finer points this week. Low power, weak signal operating can really become an art form if one takes the time to explore it deeper than face value. Once you learn basic operation, it is not unusual to hear about operators using incredibly small output wattages in the sub-1W range and making thousand mile contacts. We also talked about using JTAlert, an add-in product for JT65 that adds a lot of additional functionality and convenience to the two major JT65 applications. JTAlert can be freely downloaded at http://hamapps.com/. If you are a JT65 user, this is a useful addition to your setup. It offers a full macro system, callsign lookups, log book interface, and even allows user to user real time chat.