the spirit of ’76 and ’88 · the spirit of ’76 and ’88 february newsletter of the lake erie...

The Spirit of

’76 and ’88 Newsletter of the Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association February 2015

Kimberly A. Miller, KD8YSY, and Ken Kane, KG8DN, Co-Editors

At MiMi’s Restaurant on Tuesday, February 24th

Jim Yoder, W8ERW ARRL State Technical Coordinator

Featured Program Speaker

Has your neighbor complained about RFI in his cable TV feed during your DX competitions? Want to know how to boot a

wireless MESH Network for Field Day or the Tr iathlon?

You can hear how these are dealt with and more from Jim Yoder, W8ERW, at the February LEARA

meeting. “I’m also interested in recruiting you guys,” commented Jim in a recent interview. “We need

many hands to cover this State when technical issues arise.”

Jim, who hails from Tiffin, Ohio (Seneca County) will be presenting our program at MiMi’s Restau-

rant in Parma on Tuesday evening, February 24th. “The toughest part of my job is getting a ham’s neigh-

bors to be nicer neighbors. Sometimes we call in Newington (CT) to help, but that’s not typical.”

We will meet as usual at MiMi’s, 7528 Broadview Road, Parma for our dinner meeting. Dinner is at

6:30 pm and is all inclusive (including taxes/tip!) for $15 per person, payable when you ar-

rive. Dinners all include non-alcoholic beverage, salad bar, soup and dessert, and one of the following en-

trees: marinated chicken breast, roast beef, baked white fish, or rigatoni and meatballs.

Please make reservations for your entree choices no later than on Monday, February 23rd at 9:00 am

to the LEARA website or to Marv Grossman (440-248-0031). We hope to see you at the meeting on Tues-

day, February 24th!

http://www.leara.org/meetings-and-events/dinner-reservation

The Spirit of ’76 and ’88 ~ 45 Years of Service to the Community February 2015

February

Boy we are in it now! Lots of snow,

cold temperatures and everything that winter in

Northern Ohio can bring. It seems as if I have

spent more time with the snow blower than in my

shack during the previous few weekends. Howev-

er, there is a glimmer of hope in the forecast as the

weatherman is telling us about temperatures above

freezing in our near future.

Waking up this morning a little after 7:00 AM, I

made a pot of fresh coffee, let the dog out for a

few minutes then made my way to the shack with my full coffee cup. I

turned my HF rig on and was pleased to hear many strong stations on ten

meters.

I had a very nice QSO with UT7HA in Northern Ukraine. Vlad and I dis-

cussed our weather, our station equipment, our age and professions, and

some ham radio activities that we particularly enjoy doing. I could not

help thinking once again about our opportunity and access to the world

with ham radio. However, we are slowly approaching another propagation

dry-spell as we progress through this current sunspot cycle. The day-

to-day changes are not perceptible-but they are there! The changes first

have the biggest impact on the 6 meter band, next, 10 meters.

A few years ago, daily openings on 6 meters would not be so unusual for

one or more regions of the country, now that type of opening is becoming

a welcome but somewhat unusual event. The 10 meter band will begin to

behave very similarly in the near future. The openings will likely have

less intensity and tend to be limited to small geographic areas. Also, the

duration of the opening to any one specific area might last for only a few

minutes! Not very good for “rag-chewing.”

(Continued on page 3)

The Lake Erie Amateur Radio Assn., Inc., LEARA, is a not-for-profit [501(c)(3)] organization dedi-

cated to Amateur Radio and Public Service. Club information packets and applications for member-

ship are available from Marv Grossman, W8AZO, 440-248-0031, or may be downloaded from our

web site at www.leara.org. Annual membership is $25.00. LEARA’s address is: LEARA, PO Box 22823, Beachwood, OH 44122-0823.

LEARA is an ARRL-affiliated club. When you join or renew the ARRL, LEARA benefits monetar-

ily if you do so through the club. Send ARRL Applications/renewals to Club Treasurer Dave Foran,

WB8APD, 5439 Nan Linn Dr. Willoughby, OH 44094-4365. Make the check payable to LEARA,

not the ARRL.

Membership Meetings are held the last Tuesday of each month (except December and June) at

a Cleveland-area restaurant to be announced each month in the newsletter. The LEARA newsletter

usually arrives near the middle of the month. Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m. The meeting begins at

7:30 p.m. Meetings are open to all interested persons. You may attend without eating, but reserva-

tions are typically required if you do wish to eat. Call Marv Grossman, W8AZO at 440-248-

0031 to leave a message.

Trustees’ Meetings are on the second Saturday of odd numbered months at 9 AM in a fir st

floor room at the Highland Hills Village Hall, 3700 Northfield Road. Meetings are open to all cur-

rent members of LEARA. The trustee meeting location is slated to change beginning March, 2015.

OFFICERS

and TRUSTEES

Gary Zimmet

President WA8TJL

440-446-0402

Bryan Torok Vice President

N8OOF 440-871-5456

Jeff Kopcak

Vice President K8JTK

[email protected]

Bob Winston

Secretary W2THU

216-771-3314

Dave Foran

Treasurer WB8APD

440-942-0618

Eric Jessen

License Trustee N8AUC

440-734-3146

TRUSTEES

Mike Cegelski K8EHP

216-252-6640

Jeff Garvas

[email protected] N8YNR

216-496-3928

Marv Grossman W8AZO 440-248-0031

Bill Hess K8SGX

440-286-9779

Ken Kane KG8DN 440-338-8078

Jim Ozello N8XDO 216-475-7218

Eddie Stevens KD8FTS 440-888-9536

TRUSTEES EMERITI Al Amster

Don Raith

Fred Collins

John Radney

Pat Shreve

Al Severson

W8TTY (SK)

N8DJG (SK)

W8ADW(SK)

KC8FOC(SK)

W8GRG (SK)

AB8P (SK)

POINTS OF CONTACT

Kelly Manuk “Sunshine”

KC8UIX

216-459-8523

Eric Jessen

Radio Officer N8AUC

440-286-9779

Bryan Torok Radio Officer

N8OOF 440-871-5456

NEWSLETTER

The Spirit of ’76 & ’88 is published

monthly except in December.

Contributions must be received by

the 2nd Sunday of the month

except on months with

5 Sundays and 5 Tuesdays

when the 3rd Sunday

will be sufficient. Editor: Ken Kane, KG8DN

E-mail: [email protected]

Proofreading: TNX to

W8AZO, N8YNR, & KD8YSY

The Prez Says by Gary

http://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orghttp://www.leara.orgmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]

February 2015 The Spirit of ’76 and ’88 ~ 45 Years of Service to the Community Page 3

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

8 ARES® Cuya. 9 10 ARES®: 7pm OHHF

8pm OHDEN

11 7pm Dist 10

ARES 147.015

8:30 Skywarn Simplex Net

146.475

12 8pm LEARA VOICE ’76

9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

13 14

15 16 17 ARES®: 7pm OHHF

8pm Cuya. ’41 8pm OHDN

18 8:30 pm Skywarn

Simplex Net

146.475


9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

20 21

22 23

9am MiMi’s

Reservation

Deadline

24 LEARA at

MiMi’s in

Parma

6:30 pm

25 8:30 pm Skywarn

Simplex Net

146.475


9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

27 28



4 8:30 pm

Skywarn ‘76

Practice Net

Then 146.475/S


9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

6 7

8 ARES® Cuya. 2pm Maple Hts.

Daylight

Savings Time

Begins

9 10 ARES®: 7pm OHHF

8pm OHDEN

11 7pm Dist 10

ARES 147.015

8:30 pm

Skywarn ‘76

Then 146.475/S


9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

13 14



18 8:30 pm

Skywarn ‘76

Practice Net

Then 146.475/S


9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

20 Spring

Begins

21


8pm OHDEN

25 8:30 pm

Skywarn ‘76

Practice Net

Then 146.475/S


9pm LEARA

DIGITAL ‘88

27 28

29 30

9am MiMi’s

Reservation

Deadline

31 LEARA at

MiMi’s in

Parma

6:30 pm

On

Monday,

April 13,

2015 —

NWS Cleveland Skywarn Spotter Training at Mayfield Village Center

6622 Wilson Mills Road, Mayfield, OH

Limited Seating — 216-443-5700

NO Registration is Required.

February

My DX QSO with Vlad, UT7HA, and others may become nearly impossible on 10 meters as

we sink into the low periods of the sunspot cycle. The only benefit of being in the low part of

the sunspot cycle is equipment for both 6 and 10 meters becomes available and inexpensive. So, if you have

some plans to get on HF and have some fun, particularly, on the higher HF bands, do not wait too long!

Asking you again, as I did in October--You did get your antenna up, didn’t you? What are you waiting for?

Sunspots? My antennas are up and working as well as the conditions allow. It is not snowing at this time,

and my driveway is clear. Now, back to my winter-time projects on the workbench.

73, Gary

(Continued from page 2)

Prez

cont.

March


LEARA MEETING AT MIMI’s

January 27, 2015

Amateur Radio at Gilmour Meeting Pix TNX KD8YSY


LEARA “On The Air” Club Net Information

by Bill Schultz, AC8CO, and Carl Gedeon, KB8VXE

The Digital Communications Net is held every Thursday on LEARA’s 146.880 (-600 kHz offset, PL 110.9) repeater.

The Wednesday Skywarn Practice Net

Skywarn season runs from March through Sep-tember. Skywarn The practice nets are on Wednesdays at 8:30 PM on LEARA's 146.76 re-peater. If you would like to give us a hand please contact us at [email protected]. Be sure to

visit the web page at www.ccskywarn.org.

Thursday Net NCOs

The LEARA Net operations committee is composed of the Net Control Operators (NCOs). Bill, AC8CO, and Carl, KB8VXE, are the present committee co-chairs:

We can always use more LEARA Members to become Net Control Operators (NCOs). It’s not that difficult to do. It’s a GREAT way to learn the voices and call signs of the members of the club as well as the visitors of the ham community. Why not give the NCO slot a try? It's an easy to learn job that is very important in emergencies (see also the Skywarn Net). Your help is really needed!

So, if you are a LEARA member, please consider joining us as an NCO. We meet every Thursday, we learn to lead and test our radio skills, and we all want to help you be the best! Contact Bill ([email protected]) or Carl ([email protected]) via email to join us and get started. We look forward to your participation!

Bill, AC8CO

and

Carl, KB8VXE

AC8CO BILL KD8TWG DAVID

K8JTK JEFF KD8VHP WILL

KB8VXE CARL KG8DN KEN

KC8TJH JEANNE N8AUC ERIC

KD8ACO DAVID W2THU BOB

The Thursday Club Net is held on our 146.760 MHz (- 600 kHz offset, PL 110.9) repeater. For the month of January, 32 people checked in to the Net:. Thank You ALL!

Remember if you missed a net, check out the web page for a recap of the trivia and discussion questions.

For March & April, the tentatively scheduled NCOs are:

AC8CO Bill KB8PEC Greg KD8YDG Bill

AC8RV Brian KB8VXE Carl KE8ZZ Ed

AD8WS David KC8FQV Mark KG8DN Ken

K8ARP Arp KC8TJH Jeanne N8AUC Eric

K8EHP Mike KD8ACO David N8UPZ Bill

K8JTK Jeff KD8FTS Eddie N8UUC Dave

K8SAS Steve KD8NPD Mark W8IE Ed

K8SHB Joel KD8QMP Tom WA8TJL Gary

K8WHB Bill KD8TWG Dave WB8QLT Linda

K8WLF Fritz KD8VHP Will WB8ROK Ed

KA8BSA Keith KD8WLM Joe

02/26/15 Jeanne KC8TJH

03/05/15 Bob W2THU

03/12/15 Ken KG8DN

03/19/15 Jeff K8JTK

03/26/15 Eric N8AUC

04/02/15 Will KD8VHP

04/09/15 David KD8TWG

04/16/15 Carl KB8VXE

04/23/15 Jeanne KC8TJH

04/30/15 Bob W2THU

http://www.ccskywarn.orgmailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


Upcoming Hamfests and Conventions

from www.arrl.org

Volunteer Exam Dates and Locations from www.arrl.org

02/15/2015 Mansfield Mid-Winter Hamfest Location: Mansfield, OH Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: InterCity Amateur Radio Club Website: http://www.W8WE.org Learn More 02/22/2015 WASHFEST 2015 (20th Annual Event) Location: Castle Shannon, PA Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Wireless Association of South Hills Website: http://n3sh.org Learn More

03/15/2015 TMRA's Hamfest and Computer Fair Location: Perrysburg, OH Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Toledo Mobile Radio Association Website: http://www.tmrahamradio.org Learn More 04/11/2015 Cuyahoga Falls ARC's 61st Annual Hamfest Location: Cuyahoga Falls, OH Type: ARRL Hamfest Sponsor: Cuyahoga Falls Amateur Radio Club Website: http://www.cfarc.org/hamfest.php

Learn More

02/15/2015 | Elyria OH 44035-1343 Sponsor: American Red Cross Location: American Red Cross Time: 1:00 PM (Walk-ins allowed) Learn More 02/27/2015 | Cleveland OH 44106-1712 Sponsor: W8EDU Location: Glennan 313 Time: 6:30 PM (Walk-ins allowed) Learn More 03/12/2015 | Stow OH 44224-4097 Sponsor: Cuyahoga Falls ARC Location: Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library Time: 7:00 PM (Walk-ins allowed) Learn More 03/15/2015 | Elyria OH 44035-1343 Sponsor: American Red Cross Location: American Red Cross Time: 1:00 PM (Walk-ins allowed) Learn More 03/27/2015 | Cleveland OH 44106-1712 Sponsor: W8EDU Location: Glennan 313 Time: 6:30 PM (Walk-ins allowed) Learn More 03/29/2015 | Cuyahoga Falls OH 44221 Sponsor: Cuyahoga Falls ARC Location: Buckingham Commons Club House Time: 5:00 PM (No walk-ins) Learn More

http://www.arrl.orghttp://www.arrl.orghttp://www.arrl.org/hamfests/mansfield-mid-winter-hamfest-3http://www.W8WE.orghttp://www.arrl.org/hamfests/mansfield-mid-winter-hamfest-3http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/washfest-2015-20th-annual-eventhttp://n3sh.orghttp://www.arrl.org/hamfests/washfest-2015-20th-annual-eventhttp://www.arrl.org/hamfests/tmra-s-hamfest-and-computer-fairhttp://www.tmrahamradio.org/http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/tmra-s-hamfest-and-computer-fairhttp://www.arrl.org/hamfests/cuyahoga-falls-arc-s-61st-annual-hamfesthttp://www.cfarc.org/hamfest.phphttp://www.arrl.org/hamfests/cuyahoga-falls-arc-s-61st-annual-hamfesthttp://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/elyria-oh-44035-1343-74http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/elyria-oh-44035-1343-74http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/cleveland-oh-44106-1712-32http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/cleveland-oh-44106-1712-32http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/stow-oh-44224-4097-33http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/elyria-oh-44035-1343-75http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/elyria-oh-44035-1343-75http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/cleveland-oh-44106-1712-33http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/cleveland-oh-44106-1712-33http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/cuyahoga-falls-oh-44221-5520http://www.arrl.org/exam_sessions/cuyahoga-falls-oh-44221-5520


K8JTK

aircraft have full ADS-B implementations. For example: I would see a call sign but no position data. My receive range (depending on aircraft altitude) was east of Toledo to the PA border and south to Canton. Visit my write-up on this project: ADS-B Decoding with ADSBSharp and VirtualRadar Server. The second project is a little more compli-cated but it helped me understand how trunked radio systems work. With the FCC narrowband-ing mandate in certain RF spectrum, many pub-lic service agencies have decided to “go digital.” In my area the MARCS-IP system and the Greater Cleveland Radio Communications Network are most popular. Both are P25 trunked digital systems. P25 is a specification for voice and data transmission. Trunked radio systems operate by having a radio send data to the control channel requesting communication on a talkgroup. The control channel directs all users of that talkgroup to a specified channel. When the user is done transmitting, all radios switch back to monitoring the control channel for further instructions. This is done seamlessly and allows many users (agencies) to use a small set of radio frequencies. Users only hear the conversations on their assigned talkgroup and not other users on the same system. Scanners that receive these systems run $500 and go up from there. Using two RTL-SDR dongles and software (mostly free), I’ve been able to receive P25 trunked systems for about $65. One dongle monitors only the control chan-nel and other dongle(s) jump frequencies to re-ceive the digital voice modulation with a program decoding the audio. I can have as many voice receivers as I want whereas a scanner cannot be expanded. Most I’ve heard of is eight. There are some drawbacks like portability. Find out my experiences in my P25 Trunked Tracking post.

Jeff Kopcak, K8JTK, Provides Article #6 of 6 in his Series

Dongle Bits (What you’ve always wanted to know about those new microprocessors

but were afraid to ask…)

6. Wrapping Up: ADS-B, MARCS-IP, Scanners

The holidays were a busy time at the K8JTK laboratories with a couple RTL-SDR pro-jects. The RTL-SDR is the European TV tuner dongle that was turned into a software defined radio receiver.

Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel seasons and I wanted to decode ADS-B data to see how many aircraft were flying around. ADS-B stands for Automatic Dependent Sur-veillance - Broadcast allowing aircraft to be tracked by ground stations and provide situation-al awareness to nearby aircraft. This is part of the FAA’s NextGen project and mandated by agencies across the globe. I saw this project in the January 2014 edition of QST written by Robert - W9RAN. He covered building a Collinear Array for the ADS-B frequen-cy of 1090 MHz. I used one of my ham anten-nas. The RF signal received by the dongle is turned into data packets by a program called ADSB# (included in the SDR# download). Virtu-alRadar receives those packets, decodes the data, and plots aircraft on Google Maps. This setup can work with a Raspberry Pi and I hope to try this in the future. Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I saw 25 aircraft flying around Cleveland on average. I think the most I saw was 48 at once. Not all

From QST January 2014

http://www.jeffreykopcak.com/2014/11/30/ads-b-decoding-with-adsbsharp-and-virtual-radar-server/http://www.jeffreykopcak.com/2014/11/30/ads-b-decoding-with-adsbsharp-and-virtual-radar-server/http://www.jeffreykopcak.com/2014/12/12/p25-trunked-tracking-and-decoding-with-unitrunker-and-dsdplus/


Fresh Baked Pi Raspberry Pi foundation released new models over the last couple months. The big-gest news coming at the beginning of February: the Raspberry Pi 2. This model comes with a quad-core CPU and 1GB RAM offering a six times speed improvement, still at $35. Initial re-ports are it is a lot faster!

Along with the new Pi2 came a new version of the Raspbian operating system with optimizations and a new look. In the near future, Microsoft will be releasing a version of Win-dows 10 Embedded for the Raspberry Pi 2 FREE OF CHARGE! (See the Raspberry Pi 2 link above.) That’s A Wrap! A goal behind this series has been to expose many hams to newer technologies and younger people to ham radio. These technologies are getting young people interested in experiment-ing, programming, and even Ham Radio. On podcasts I watch, I’ve heard “I want to get my Ham Radio license” by 20 and 30 year olds like I’ve never heard before. These are young people interested in experimenting, making things, building things, and hacking things -- all of which are the foundation of Amateur Radio. Making has evolved into writing software, send-ing a chip a set of commands and analyzing what is returned, or analyzing packets; then figuring out, “What can I do with this?” I saw a great technology round-table over the holidays and they talked about getting kids into technology. Many of the methods apply to Ham Radio. As a builder, you build something and presume what will happen. Then something different happens and now you have a mystery to solve. “Why did X happen and not Y?” A new theory develops and sucks you in. This is exact-ly how the Raspberry Pi, RTL-SDR, and every project surrounding them came to be. It is my opinion that we, as the Amateur Radio commu-nity, need to encourage, capitalize, and focus efforts on younger makers and hackers to get

them licensed.

As this is my last planned article, I would like to take time and thank the newsletter editors for thinking this series was worth publishing and recreating all the links I included. Thank you to those who told others about this series. I got a ton of feedback and couldn’t be happier that oth-ers have found this interesting and sparked them to start experimenting. Most of all, thank you for reading. Jeff Kopcak, K8JTK

From raspberrypi.org

Raspberry Pi 2

http://www.raspberrypi.org/raspberry-pi-2-on-sale/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywvv-T_fRCo&t=31m38shttp://www.raspberrypi.org

LEARA The Lake Erie Amateur Radio Association 44 Years of Serving Greater Cleveland Since 1969 -

VOICE REPEATERS:

146.76/R- Highland Hills (Requires 110.9 Hz tone) 146.88/R– IRLP Lakewood (Requires 110.9 Hz tone) IRLP Node 4282 224.90/R- Lakewood (141.3 Hz tone) 444.40/R+ Macedonia (Requires 131.8 Hz tone) 444.70/R+ Lakewood (131.8 Hz tone)

INTERNET:

● www.leara.org ● To subscribe via e-mail, send a message to: [email protected]

Put subscribe in the subject area and your name and callsign in the body.

Those who subscribe via e-mail will not receive a paper copy.

ARRL Headquarters January 16, 2015

Ten years of work within the ARRL Michigan Section have culminated in an Amateur Radio antenna bill that mirrors

the "reasonable accommodation" provisions of the PRB-1 federal pre-emption policy.

Michigan Gov Rick Snyder signed the measure, Senate Bill 0493, into law on January 15, creating Public Act 556.

Senator Rick Jones sponsored the bill. ARRL Michigan Section Manager Larry Camp, WB8R, said Michigan is the

31st state to have a PRB-1 bill on its books.

"The current PRB-1 Team has been working for 3 years to get this accomplished," he said. "Our bill endured four

votes on its way to becoming law - Senate and House committees and the Senate and House floors. Each vote was

unanimous."

The most pertinent language in the new Michigan law, which comes directly from Part 97.15 of the FCC Amateur

Service rules, states:

"An Amateur Radio Service station antenna structure may be erected at heights and dimensions sufficient to accom-

modate Amateur Radio Service communications. Regulation of an Amateur Radio Service station antenna structure

by a local unit of government must not preclude Amateur Radio Service communications. Rather, it must reasonably

accommodate those communications and must constitute the minimum practicable regulation to accomplish the local

unit of government's legitimate purpose."

The new law also provides for an advisory committee that may be established jointly by the Michigan Section and

other state organizations, such as the Michigan Municipal League and the Michigan Township Association. Camp

said the advisory board could become involved at the request of the amateur, the community, zoning board, or repre-

sentative associations as required. "The purpose of having the Michigan Section and the ARRL named specifically,"

Camp said, "is to ensure that the technical information that the advisory committee receives is accurate and pertinent

to the questions at hand." ...

Michigan Passes Antenna Accomodation Excerpt from www.arrl.org

Make Him Smile Again!

Pay Your 2015 Dues!
http://www.leara.orgmailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribehttp://www.arrl.org

the spirit of ’76 and ’88 · the spirit of ’76 and ’88 february newsletter of the lake erie...

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