Rich is leading the charge. He’s been on vacation for the last two weeks but he should have just gotten back. If y’all are serious, organize a meeting after the 26th and Rich and I will be there to speak from the pulpit on conduits.
We need the SIG to select an initial antenna design to run past the landlord. Something small and simple. Once it’s up and they’ve moved on, we can add to it later. The conduits themselves will be oversized.
Sounds like the ball is rolling! Let me know if I can help with anything at all. I will be available for certain any day until the end of August.
ELab pc is windows7/8.
Would not recommend plugging your usb into this machine.
Needs a full rebuild and update to win 10.
Currently there’s no network connections in the 102 front area.
There is wifi.
I would be glad to donate a 3.1 series apple Mac Pro that is running linux with 12G ram. It’s a really good machine that I was using in my shack until recently. I also have a broadband SCG folded dipole HF antenna, 5/8-wave 2M/440 base antenna, and various accessories like wattmeters to donate. I’m eager to get something happening in the space but it doesn’t seem to be clear who can push the feedline/conduit issue through to completion. Thanks, K5JCJ.
Unless something has changed recently, the emcom network in Austin is based upon Broadband Hamnet. Mesh networking on 2.4 GHz and 5GHz.
We’ve talked about installing one or more nodes for that as well, or the alternative AREDN system ( which is more active in our area at present. )
In case anyone missed it, see -
I was referring to the microwave systems.
I have no idea what you’re talking about with UHF nodes. Packet on 70cm ?
From what I can see, packet is pretty much dead, outside of APRS.
Sounds like a good use for an RFID interlock.
Or just lock up the microphones.
Except digital modes. We’ll have to do something about that too.
I saw the random wire when I was there today. I have some spare Rg8x that we can feed through that hole for the time being and string an antenna from the trees like you have the wire. I’m worried about using the wire as is due to the limited tuning range of the built-in Icom tuner and lack of a counterpoise, but if I run the coax outside then we can put something more resonant up for a while until we get to the roof.
I might go back this weekend and try to clean the rigs and actually setup the operating position a little better than it is now. But we will be on the air before we know it!
The plan is to turn the desk so that the operator faces the fire closet. Widow on operator’s right.
The box for the conduits will go on the fire closet wall above the desk. ( outside the closet… )
That was the plan unless it’s has changed.
My understanding is that most of the current ham mesh networking is with the AREDN system. When I went out to meet @bpamplin at the Plano Radio Club for field day we had a very nice conversation with a ham (unfortunately his name is slipping my mind) about their current system, his mobile nodes, and the some of the plans for nodes they have warehoused waiting to be deployed.
Of course we could set up both systems, I’ve snagged a couple of the old linksys routers over the past few years so it would be fun to do something with them.
At the Arizona Science Center the W7ASC shack was setup with two operating positions they were basically a little desk with a button and a code practice oscillator built in, a mike jack for each radio, and a keyboard in a locked drawer. Above that is a cabinet with a bottom shelf where the PC, screen and mouse lived then two more shelves for radios, tuner, rotators, and where the mics lived when not in use. When you come in to work a shift you’d open up the cabinet pull out the top piece of plexiglass and the mouse and pull out the KB. if you wanted to work digital you were good to go, if you wanted to work phone you had to pull the mic out and plug it in. Seems like a really simple way to keep things contained.
It would also be nice to have the old BYO radio bench setup again more or less how it was.
I’m pretty sure there was one or more manual tuners in the black plastic bins, and I know there were a couple in the boxes of Walt’s legacy that @richmeyer brought in at one of the last sig meetings.
That needs a redesign.
Coax connectors at eye level pointed straight out are not good. We need to keep the cables along and parallel to the wall. Same for power. Place all the connectors on the bottom of a box, mount the box to the wall.
What’s the problem with how it was shown in the photo?
Sitting at the operator position and having cables in one’s face.
We have two fresh spools of lmr400 I donated for the cause.
From the photo it appeared to be higher but I suppose you were probably there at the time and saw it. I think that setup looks good if it is high enough to not be in the way. In my opinion, putting the connectors aiming down would make it hard to see their function/label and make connections when necessary. But all of that can be decided in due time.
I think that LMR-400 is planned for the on-roof portions out to the antennas.
Last time I talked with Rich he was planning on purchasing six (?) pre-fabricated N-N cables to connect the two boxes. Both boxes will have N feedthru connectors so we can use any of them at most frequencies of amateur interest. We can fit the ones for HF with N to UHF converters and cap the rest while unused.
Labels on the outward facing part of the box, connectors on the bottom. Easy enough.
With stiff coax, the cable was very much in the way at the old station.
