After many years of being out of the media saddle, I’m finally getting right back into it!
Grey Days is a short concept video that I had been thinking about for some time. With having been laid off recently (yep, that happened), I’ve been able to get back in touch with my creative side.
Without further ado, here it is. Enjoy!
Seems I had made a mistake a few months while back. I was attempting to push another ancient netbook back into service running Linux so that I could mess around with setting it up as a webSDR using my Nooelec Smart v4.
While I was playing with some settings in the software, the dongle locked up and I couldn’t get it to work again. It got a bit toasty and I figured I had fried the thing. All troubleshooting pointed towards that being the case. No amount of reinstalling the software, unplugging/re-plugging the dongle, or rebooting the PC seemed to work. This project was put on the back burner.
Fast forward to this past week, I found the dongle after a recent move and had the idea to see if maybe it could be coaxed back to life. I installed the dongle and SDR# on another, more powerful laptop. No dice. It wasn’t being detected by the software. Defeated, I made the decision to order a new one. This time the Nooelec Smartee v5 (the one with the bias-tee that allows in-line devices to be powered directly from the dongle).
Installed the new dongle and it didn’t seem to work either. What the hell?!
I double-checked that the firmware was installed. It was. Reinstalled SDR# just in case. Pressing the start button wasn’t doing anything. Then I remembered the source settings in the menu, set that to “RTL-SDR USB” and it fired right up. Phew! The new one wasn’t dead!
Then I had the idea to try the older dongle again. You guessed it, it worked too! Not sure why it’s still not being recognized by the ancient netbook, but it’s a good lesson in checking your settings, even if you think you’re right.
So now I’ve got 2 Nooelec SDR dongles. I was planning on getting one with a bias-tee for some futures projects anyways, so it’s not like it’s really an issue.
What it does:
This station listens for and decodes APRS packets from other stations and “gates” them to the internet. These other stations can be mobile (vehicle or pedestrian) or fixed stations (like digipeaters).
When APRS is being used, any other APRS-capable radio can decode the packets being sent out (either natively on the radio, or through connection to a computer of smartphone). So if you and a friend are using APRS in the middle of nowhere and are within simplex range of each other, you can receive positional information or messages on your radios from each other.
But that only works for certain things. If you’re looking at using APRS for tracking your buddy, but they’re outside of simplex range, you would need to employ a digipeater. They listen for APRS traffic and re-transmit those packets to a wider area. This is very similar to how regular amateur repeaters work for voice operations. The repeater is in a prime location and can usually transmit at a higher power level using better antennas for better range. APRS paths usually allow for multiple hops between digipeaters to not only help with range, but also to allow for a higher chance of being picked up by a station running an I-Gate.
Which brings us to I-Gates!
Now, for example, if you’re looking at tracking your progress during a roadtrip, then an I-Gate is a must! Some digipeaters have them built-in already, while others do not. It depends on what equipment is available to the digipeater owners, the local network needs, and a few other factors.
If you traveled from Montreal to Las Vegas and were firing off packets every 60 seconds or so, there should be stations well away from your location that can see where you are. The only thing is, those packets are heard, displayed when received (maybe logged in a file somewhere), and that’s it. Throw an I-Gate station into the mix and everything that it hears is uploaded to the internet. Connecting to the internet allows positional information to be viewed on sites like aprs.fi.
That’s what this thing does:
This I-Gate regularly receives packets digipeated from VE3OCR-2 in downtown Ottawa, as well as simplex packets from nearby mobile stations. Checking the information for VE3OCR-2, it can be noted that it is not gating any data to the internet, just repeating it back out over RF.
There are other stations in the area that digipeat AND gate, such as VE3SHQ located at the Scouts Canada Museum further to the west.
And then you have my IGate. It does not digipeat over RF. The only thing it does is listen for packets, and then upload them to the internet.
Ok, it actually does a bit more than just that. I do have a set of repeaters set up to display on aprs.fi and when I go camping and plan on doing long range testing, I usually place markers to help others see where I will be operating from. There are even airport markers that I was testing out awhile back too.
This I-Gate is set to beacon every 30 minutes. I’m not entirely sure if that position is sent out through other digipeaters with an I-Gate or not (pretty sure that’s an option that can be enabled/disabled by each digipeater). Not that it fully matters as it shows up on aprs.fi and likely isn’t of much use to anyone to know where it is anyways, It’s more akin to behind-the-scenes infrastructure than anything else.
The parts:
This setup takes up a bit of space and it could definitely be run on a Raspberry Pi with an SDR dongle instead, but I appreciate keeping old tech alive and running. The laptop is from 15ish years back and is woefully inadequate for running most modern software and the scanner is from sometime in the mid-90’s, but it’s a scanner. It just sits and listens on whatever frequency you point it at, and it just works. The SlimJim antenna is hooked into the BNC port at the rear of the scanner (not pictured) and is currently strung up in a nearby window in a very temporary fashion. A second SlimJim will be arriving in the next few weeks with a 16′ length of coax so that I can hard mount it outside the apartment. That being said, I’ve been blown away by how well the current antenna setup receives packets over the stock telescopic antenna that came with the scanner, even with it being mounted indoors.
Below is a comparison of the receive-capability of the setup from 2 different months in 2024:
At some point in the future I’d like to deploy a full digipeater + I-gate solution, but that’ll have to wait until I can find a decent QTH location much further out from other local digis.
While out camping last week, I ended up messing around with the radios again ( as one does when they’re by themselves in the woods). A week prior to leaving home, I set up some APRS objects indicating my operating positions, times, etc, so that people who may be interested might try to catch me on the air. I also posted about the info for this outing to Reddit, but some people on the internet sometimes don’t seem to understand what you’re trying to accomplish. That’s another story entirely.
I had the FTM-200 manpack set up in the car and running off battery power. I was mainly just seeing what repeaters I could hit while driving to my first camping spot at Silent Lake Provincial Park. The radio was also firing off APRS packets every minute or so in the background. I managed to make simplex contact with another operator (VA3JPS) between Khartum, ON and Denbigh, ON who was a few minutes ahead of me on the road. We chatted for awhile before I had to make the turn onto Highway 28 towards Bancroft. It was an enjoyable conversation and both of us had good reception and readability.
The first full day out, the weather was quite bad. I managed to get up on time, got the stove all set up to make breakfast, then checked the weather forecast. It was overcast when I got out of the tent, but was supposed to have been sunny. It was going to rain soon, HARD. I made up some oatmeal and as soon as I was done cleaning everything up, the rain began.
The rain lasted a few hours and enough came down that the ground was one big puddle. As a result, it coated my tent in mud, and even flung up enough to get the inside muddy too (downside to having some mesh walls). I couldn’t do much of anything for a while in the tent except for work on some crossword puzzles and have a nap. Once everything cleared up I went for a hike. I had missed my morning comms target, but figured I’d be able to do a bit of repeater testing while out in the forest.
The repeater for Bancroft, ON (VA3FOY) is ~20km away from the park. The results were better than I had anticipated. Some of the test locations were up high, while some were down near the lake shore. I used a GPS app on my phone to get a position reading at each location before transmitting on the radio. I only ended up testing up to km 9 of the trail (it’s something like 17km for the entire length and I entered the trail just before km 2) as the sun was beginning to go down. Due to being delayed by the downpour in the morning, I was running a bit late. I ended up exiting the trail just a few minutes before sundown. I had my headlight with me, but luckily didn’t need it. As a result of getting back late and being extremely tired I decided not to do any further long range comms attempts that night.
The next morning I again decided not to make any attempts at long range comms. The tent was dry, but still needed a really good cleaning and needed to be dried out again before being packed up to move to the next park. It took ~40L of water to rinse the mud off, but the sun was out and I was able to let everything dry while making breakfast on the stove (this time eggs and breakfast sausages). I got everything packed up, had a good conversation with someone from a neighboring site, and departed for Ferris Provincial Park.
There was no one at Ferris when I arrived. Seems they close up the gatehouse after 2PM this late into the season. There was a note posted on the gatehouse indicating that a pass would not be required to be displayed in the vehicle or at the site as long as the site was booked. Seems that sometime in the last year they made the move to a fully digital system at Ferris. All the posts at the sites where you put your permits were replaced by new ones that only have the site number on them. First time I’ve come across this. Not a bad way to go.
Upon getting to my site, I began to unpack and setup camp once again. I left the radio on in the car and was listening to the local repeater (VE3KFR) as some locals were chatting. I even deployed the new solar kit I’ve been working on for the last few months for the first time (more on that later).
I managed to make the comms window for this night, but did not get any responses. That’s just how it goes. Attempts were made to connect with some Winlink stations that were fairly close, but I was unable to get into any of them using the manpack and Arrow II antenna. I was able to hit the VE3PBO repeater in Peterborough as I had the year prior, and had a QSO with VA3NW for a few minutes. This was all done using the new solar kit to power the radio.
The next night was more of the same. Attempted long range contacts and Winlink connections to no avail. Managed to catch a net on the VE3PBO repeater. Seemed like it was an after action type of net regarding an emergency exercise that had been held recently. I did not participate, but it was an interesting listen.
I had also went on an excursion outside the park during the first day at Ferris. I decided to test the range of the VE3KFR repeater during that time. I also did the same when I left the park for home on the last day.
The next morning I got everything all packed up again and was on my way home. But not without a few stops first!
During this trip I had taken pictures of the power meter on the FTM-200 to gauge how much power was used during each session. For whatever reason, I’ve not been able to find all of those pictures, so I’m unable to publish any data on how well the battery did. All I know is that the 9Ah battery that I normally operate with powered the radio at 25W output with APRS going and a few QSO’s here and there while driving to these parks and back and never ran out of juice at any point. I want to say there was at least 6 amps used off the top of my head, but can’t be 100% sure. As far as the solar kit goes, there’s no way I’d get close to its rated capacity in the 2 days I used it.
Test results during the trip below:
It was a bit of a weird outing. Wish it could’ve been better, but not too bad overall. Managed to get a good hike in, some exploration, and got to test out some more radio capabilities.
This is my watch. There are many like it, but this one is mine!
This Casio G-Shock GW6900-1 was bought 8 years ago in August 2016 when I first moved to Vancouver, BC. It has seen much use (and abuse) during that time. The strap has finally decided to start giving up. It’s still held on really good, but will eventually fail completely, and I have no desire to lose this particular watch. The watch has also been banged around so much that it is quite shiny.
Instead, I made the decision to see if I could get a new strap for it. I had been looking at a Maratac NATO strap as a replacement (having used them on other watches previously), but the cost of adapters for this watch model is a little bit on the stupid side of things (~$40 CAD for a set, plus the cost of a strap). I did manage to find a genuine replacement strap and bezel for it on eBay for a much better price and decided to go that route instead. While I would’ve liked the upgrade to the NATO strap, the stock strap has never caused me any issues.
First step was pulling everything apart. The second step was cleaning EVERYTHING. Pretty sure there is sand from every body of water I’ve swam in and hair from every pet I’ve come into contact with in the last 8 years inside this thing!
All better! Looks almost as it did when it was new. There is a bit of fogginess under the crystal. This is normal for solar G’s. The solar panel off-gasses. Could be wiped away with a cloth but it doesn’t bother me and I don’t want to pull the module out. Maybe someday I will.
The manpack radio setup is complete (and honestly has been for some time now)! The remaining bits that I needed were a shorter length of coax to connect the remote antenna connector and a LiFEPO battery. I opted for a 1 foot length of LMR-195 (slightly less loss and more rigid than RG58) and a 9Ah Bioenno battery. I did also opt for a N9TAX SlimJim antenna for this kit. An in-line power meter was also added to the setup. For some reason Yaesu decided not to have the voltage be available on the radio’s screen for some reason, despite it being available on rigs of the same age and class as this one. Bit of a failure there, IMO.
I managed to get out for some testing at various points throughout the summer in its mobile configuration (just the radio sitting in the shotgun position in the car) with some good results. I also ended up taking it with me while I camped at Ferris Provincial Park in September to see what kind of range was possible with this rig. I chose Ferris because the campground is on top of a drumlin and would have better line of sight to distant stations
The antenna used for testing was the Arrow II. I did have the SlimJim on hand, but wanted the best range possible this time around. The SlimJim has been tested previously and was found to work decently in an urban environment with stations fairly close.
The results of my testing are below:
After 3 days out running at 25W, including 2 days at camp and 1 day operating mobile from the car, this rig only used 5.78 Ah of juice from the battery’s 9Ah capacity. This was with APRS firing away every 60 seconds on the second VFO while driving and sporadically (likely every 10 min or so) while at camp, and with voice being used as well.
The weekend prior to the above outing, I was out and about with the manpack. A single packet was received in Pennsylvania on its first hop by station N3TJJ-7, a total of 257.7 km away. To date, this is the furthest simplex contact I’ve been able to make (automatically sent, but I still count that) and was very likely due to tropospheric ducting and also helped by the elevation of both the transmit and receive sites.
All results from my testing have been added to the page for each respective repeater on Repeaterbook.com.
maltosekincaid.com 