Here in the Pacific Northwest, consistent summer weather is fleeting. We (only kind-of) joke about Summer starting after Independence Day. When we lived in Woodinville, WA and the city was new and wanted to impress its new taxpayers, they held an Independence Day fireworks display just down the road from us on the grass expanse of JB Instant Lawn in Redmond, WA. The funny part was we only saw about half the fireworks; half the time the firework went off inside a cloud (but it was a very pretty cloud for a few seconds). But I digress.
My good friend Bill W7NWP pinged me about my project plans for Summer 2021. Good question, and I need to plan ahead so I can get some reasonable percentage of the following wish list completed. Especially I need to have all the parts ready to go.
Some of these experiments are "across the shop" that I can conduct with dummy loads in lieu of antennas. I haven't developed a network of kindred spirits within radio range of my shop just yet, so I'm a solo experimenter on many of these experiments. If they work out, my plan is to build up a loaner system or two, and try to convince someone else within radio range to put my loaner package on the air and experiment with me. Networks of more than one are always more fun.
Kind-of in priority:
- VHF/UHF omnidirectional antennas mounted on antenna poles on the back of the shop, with coax run into the shop. The exact number of poles and the exact antennas, to be determined after an inventory of what I have on hand. But there will be at least six poles with antennas.
- Need to develop a sturdy, repeatable, easy to fabricate brace for the poles.
- Need to decide how to secure the base of the poles - needs to not move, drain water, look decent.
- The roofline at the back of the shop is approximately 15 feet, too tall for me to comfortably work on a ladder. I'm seriously considering renting a scissor lift for a week. Pricey, but likely I'll only have to do this particular job once.
- Major requirements - antennas, coaxial cable
- Experiment with VARA FM - VARA FM is is a very promising new data mode in Amateur Radio, very robust, can achieve data transfer speeds up to 25 kbps. I'm especially interested in integrating VARA FM with TCP/IP software to run email, web browser and server, file transfer, etc.
- Major requirements - Suitable radios (flat audio input / output), suitable audio adapters, Windows computers
- Experiment with New Packet Radio - New Packet Radio is a new paradigm in Amateur Radio - it's fast, native TCP/IP, and has built-in repeating / networking.
- Major requirements - Computers to mate with the NPR units, and time.
- Experiment with Yaesu DR-1X Repeater - Originally I purchased this repeater to experiment with the NW Digital Radio UDRC modification that added D-Star capability to this repeater... and 9600 bps packet radio! But now it looks likely that VARA FM will far exceed 9600 bps with the UDRC modification, so I'll probably keep the DR-1X "stock audio" and experiment with VARA FM.
- Multi-band APRS Station - Now something of a thing because K7GPS is "putting the NW APRS band back together". This will be homage to my late friend Richard Ball N7RIG. I want to get multi-band APRS digipeater system back on the air, doing something useful.
- Major requirements - Tri-band antenna for 144 / 222 / 440 MHz
- Experiment with Bridgecom BCM-220 radios for 9600 bps / VARA FM - Bridgecom claims that the BCM-220 (and all their BCM series radios) provide flat audio at the high-density D15 connector on the rear panel. I'm not aware of anyone who's actually done this / tried this for higher speed data communications with the BCM series. I have two Bridgecom BCM-220 radios. As far as I know, the BCM-220 is the only mobile 220 radio currently in production with a flat audio connection.
- Major requirements - BCM-220 radios, suitable audio adapters
- (updated) Get familiar with Winlink; set up a dedicated Winlink client node and perhaps set up Winlink as a pseudo Bulletin Board System to send and receive messages peer-to-peer. Preferably set up Winlink using one of the Linux apps and run it on a Raspberry Pi.
- (updated) Almost forgot - a friend reminded me. Experiment with RadioMirror (as discussed in Revisiting RadioMirror)
The primary requirement for Summer 2021 is to actually enjoy the new shop and use its vast capabilities. Summer 2020 was spent mostly moving in and organizing, so I'm really looking forward to having a lot more fun in Summer 2021.
I'll talk more about plans in Part 2.
Thanks for reading!
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Bellingham, Washington, USA
2021-03-29