August,
What y'all know about digipeaters? I just heard of them after a friend pointed me to this site:
https://aprs.fi
You can also see where ham radio operators are located. However, for
whatever reason, the only way mine shows up is if you search for the
WX4QZ callsign individually...it doesn't show up when I search for Little
Rock, Arkansas (where I'm located)...but you can see where I'm at.
Apparently you can enter a callsign of interest and identify its
current transmission location, among other things.
callsign distance last heard - EDT
WX4QZ 2.2 km 148° 2021-11-01 11:52:31
WX4QZ
Updated: 2021-11-01 11:52:31 (1d11h)
Position: 34°42.05' N 92°19.74' W
Last position: 2021-11-01 11:52:31 EDT (1d 11h43m ago)
2021-11-01 10:52:31 CDT local time at Little Rock, United States [?] Altitude: 76 m
Last path: WX4QZ>APRATS via DSTAR*,qAR,KG5CEN-1 (good)
I normally go through another mode called D-Rats, to transmit my data
every few minutes. However, the data rarely changes, since this is on the laptop computer at my residence. I don't have an app for when I'm mobile;
but I may end up selling my car later this month anyway, to pay medical bills...and if the upcoming eye surgery goes awry. The KG5CEN-1 node is
in Slidell, Louisiana, near New Orleans...I'm in Little Rock, Arkansas,
as noted earlier. Unless there are storms in the area, or an outage of
power or internet, my D-Rats station is up all the time.
As for your question, the quick answer is a repeater with the digital
modes. At one time, the repeaters were all analog...but most communications
are going to digital (phone lines, etc.), as they can't get the older
parts. But, with the massive fire at an electronics factory in Japan this
time last year, many items are no longer able to be manufactured (such as vehicles and electronics) because they can't get the parts.
The repeater (analog or digital) takes a signal and repeats it...so that
an individual in one part of a state or area can talk to an individual in another part of a state or an area. With repeater linking, that meant a station in northwest Arkansas could talk to a station in southeast Arkansas.
Most repeaters are "line of sight", so their coverage and distance may
not be that great. However, with the different bands and the frequency wavelengths, the higher the number, the greater the coverage. But, the max location I've heard of repeaters on is the 10 meter band, just above the
11 meter band, where CB radio is located. I've heard of repeaters on 6, 2,
and 1.25 meters, plus 70, 33, and 23 centimeters...all ham radio bands.
On the 1.25 meters, plus the 70, 33, and 23 centimeter bands (and on up),
ham radio operators access areas of the bands on a "secondary user basis" (another entity is primary user).
Ham radio operators can operate on 630, 160, 80, 75, 60, 40, 30, 20,
17, 15, 12, 10, 6, 2, and 1.25 meters...plus 70, 33, and 23 centimeters,
among others. The exact privileges are determined by one's license class (Novice, Technician, General, Advanced, or Amateur Extra). Most areas of
the world no longer require passing of a Morse Code exam to get an amateur radio license. While folks can still learn and use the Morse Code (or CW,
for "continuous wave"...the original digital mode), one doesn't have to
prove that they know it.
The FCC originally had 3 Morse Code tests...5 words per minute (WPM)
for the Novice or Technician licenses...13 WPM for the General or
Advanced Class licenses...and 20 WPM for the Amateur Extra Class license.
On April 15, 2000, the FCC deleted the 13 and 20 WPM Morse Code tests,
and on Feb. 23, 2007, the FCC deleted the 5 WPM Morse Code test. Two
weeks either side of the latter date, Vibroplex, which makes Morse Code
keyers, had their phones "ringing off the wall" for folks wanting to
buy Morse Code keyers!! Now, that people are learning Morse Code because
they WANT to, and NOT because they HAVE to, they are finding that "Morse
Code is FUN". An organization, known as FISTS, has had a resurgence in
members.
At a local hamfest over 5 years ago, they had a "CW Shootout At High
Noon", with 2 hams running 55 WPM!! On "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno"
on May 13, 2005, two ham radio operators, Ken Miller, and Chip Margelli,
beat the world champion text messager (SMS), Ben Cook, and his friend, Jason...with sending a message in CW at 29 WPM, faster than Ben could
transmit the SMS. The message?? "I just saved a bunch of money on my
car insurance". Every so often, I post a message in the ham radio message
areas on that.
The funniest examples I've heard of with Morse Code are as follows:
1) I asked one ham radio operator what his secret was to learning Morse
Code. He replied "I learned all the dirty words first". <G> I laughed,
and said "Well, you can't say them on the air, but if it helps, more
power to you". As it turned out, the following week, I was listening
on a VoIP mode (Echolink - noted below) to a club's Morse Code class.
The first characters they taught formed "the S expletive"...and I
thought "I'll be d@mned!!" <G>. But, when you looked at the dot and
dash pattern, it made perfect sense.
2) With hams, the males are known as "Old Men" or OM's -- the females
are known as "Young Ladies" or YL's (basically, girlfriends, or single females), or "Ex-Young Ladies" or XYL's (basically, a ham's wife). While
ham radio is a male dominated hobby, when it comes to making contacts,
the women "clean our clocks". <G>
The perfect example was at an event known as "Field Day" (the fourth
weekend of June), with the Radio Amateurs Club of Knoxville, Tennessee...
which had the callsign W4BBB. This female ham radio operator (I'm not
sure if she was a YL or an XYL), said the callsign stood for "Women
For Big, Blonde, And Beautiful!!" <BG>. The loggers couldn't keep up
with the "pile-up of contacts". Indeed, if you have the women at the
mic, and the men are logging, it's "game over". <G>
Anyway, these 4 OM's were at a restaurant table in Annapolis, Maryland,
telling each other dirty jokes in CW (Morse Code). This drop dead,
gorgeous, curvaceous, female walked up to them, and sternly admonished
the group "You boys need to watch your language. I teach CW at the Naval Academy across the street", and walked out. They were as red as tomatoes,
as she was copying everything they said!! <G>
3) This ham radio couple (an OM and his XYL, both were licensed), were
telling dirty jokes via AMESLAN (sign language). Two tables away, this
deaf couple, were reading everything that was signed!! <G>
Digital modes go much further than analog modes...and with integrating
the internet, one can talk worldwide. A related application is VoIP (Voice
Over Internet Protocol)...which includes the ham radio modes of Echolink
and CQ100. On the digital side, you also have reflectors (sort of like a deluxe version of a repeater), where people from all over the world can connect to it, for things like ham radio traffic nets. I have an Excel Spreadsheet, in Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific Time, with over
200 monthly nets on D-Star, Echolink, and D-Rats (noted below). Several
years ago, when I was living at H.U.D. subsidized housing for the disabled,
I was using an indoor 20 meter Hamstick Antenna, with my HF radio. Using
the mode of JT-65, on just 20 watts of power, I "worked" (made contact)
with a station in Utah over 1000 miles away!!
When you get band openings with tropospheric ducting (skip), or with
a solar storm and the aurora borealis, the bands can really open up
wide, and you can make worldwide contacts on the HF bands, and from
one part of the US to the other on the VHF and UHF bands. Last week,
a ham radio operator in Spokane, Washington, said he was able to copy
11 meter (CB radio transmissions) originating from Little Rock, Arkansas!!
There is another digital application known as "D-Rats", where ham radio operators can exchange messages, files, and chat in real time...especially
if the other individual is online at the time. They can also use it to
send email messages or messages via Winlink 2000...but I use GMail for the email, and a program called Winlink Express to do Winlink messages.
On D-Rats, instead of "Reflectors", they're known as "Ratflectors".
During traffic nets, many will use a certain ratflector (or a separate
"chat room") to pass traffic or chat during a net...or use that mode to checkin to the net.
With the Arklatex D-Star Net that I do on Tuesdays, I take checkins
via D-Star, D-Rats, Netlogger, the Facebook Group, and via email. Having multiple monitors is a great help in this regard.
Digipeaters are also used in another digital mode called packet radio,
using a terminal node controller (TNC)...ham radio's equivalent to a modem...although on HF, the max speed is 300 baud, and on VHF, the max
speed is 1200 baud. At one time in Arkansas, one would connect on 2
meters, but the backbone was on 6 meters...and that's how you could
connect to other packet setups across the state or region, with the
various "needed hops". Some packet BBS's now offer both RF and Telnet
access for licensed ham radio operators, which are useful for those
ham radio operators who don't have any packet radio gear, or don't
have a packet node in their area.
Daryl, WX4QZ
=== MultiMail/Win v0.52
... If ham radio operators eat ham, they're cannibalistic.
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (1:2320/33)
