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D-Star Update

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2022-04-27T08:15:03-04:00

It's been a long time since I did any updates on the blog or the website for that matter. I'll try to do better in the future.

So I have had a number of emails over the past few years asking what is my thoughts on D-Star at this point.

First, I think D-Star is a wonderful digital voice protocol for amateur radio. That being said, I think it is failing. Frankly, I kind of think digital voice for amateur radio is not doing very well at all.

Sure on HF there is FreeDV using Codec2 but not that much activity. On VHF and UHF there is DMR, Fusion and of course, D-Star. Activity on all of those three seems to be waning.

DMR caught on because of cheap Chinese radios (albeit poor hardware support) and the cost of D-Star radios being so high in comparison. Yaesu who was rather late to the digital party, came out with Fusion.

What Yaesu did right was provide at least one low-cost hand-held to make it easy for hams to get into digital. They also provided a lot of repeaters at a very low cost to clubs and repeater groups. What really helped was that a single repeater could do both FM and Digital/Fusion. D-Star repeaters originally could only do digital. Icom finally came out with dual mode repeaters, but they are very late to the party.

If you look at the current situation with Icom/D-Star, Yaesu/Fusion, Kenwood/D-Star and DMR (multiple suppliers) acceptance is rather mixed.

Kenwood has now dropped their D-Star handheld with no replacement announced. It was very successful among existing D-Star users, but did not find a lot of acceptance among new users mainly because of it high retail price. Did Kenwood drop it because of the current world-wide parts shortage or did they see a limited market going forward; that is the unknown.

Icom is down to offering one D-Star handheld. A very nice radio, but a very high retail price. Again, existing D-Star users will buy it, but is it going to bring in new D-Star users? No, I don't think so. Icom still offers two mobile radios and HF combo radios with D-Star but I have heard of some owners of those radios who never even tried D-Star.

Here in Cincinnati we have one D-Star repeater remaining with more to the north in Dayton. None in Northern Kentucky are remaining. There are still pockets of D-Star activity around the world, but I no longer see the growth.

Yaesu with their Fusion system is very affordable as Yaesu offers some entry level radios. I think I paid $170 for the Yaesu 2M mobile radio which was my intro into Fusion. The audio quality was better than D-Star or DMR, but like DMR did not have the data capability that is a nice capability with D-Star. But I still have trouble getting a digital contact on Fusion/FM repeaters unless I am using FM.

DMR seems to be doing about as well as Fusion. But I think both digital voice methods have kind of plateaued with slow growth.

So where does this all go? I don't know exactly. DMR is great for being able to get radios from multiple sources. Fusion capability radios only available from Yaesu, but the radios are affordable and unlike most Chinese DMR radios, there is real support and repair available in the US. Sure you can buy expensive DMR radios from Motorola, but then you have to pay a fortune to buy the programming software for the radios. Icom is just pricing themselves out of the market and D-Star growth appears at a standstill.

In a nutshell, generally speaking, hams just seem to be happy using FM on VHF/UHF. I'll keep watching and write if I see anything changing in the future.

First Blog Update in Over Two Years

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2020-08-09T08:17:40-04:00

Hard to believe it has been over two years since I last posted to the blog. Been very busy. Work was so stressful I decided to retire about a year and a half early. When the job starts impacting your health, it is time to go. Thought I would have more time for operating but I've spent the last year catching up on delayed home projects….then of course there is the grandchildren. Those kids take up a lot of time.

So what's new in ham radio? Well still active on DMR, DStar and Fusion. Actually starting to like Fusion. Activity seems to have trailed off on DMR. Heck for that matter, repeater usage seems to have declined. People do not like to talk. All I can think of is that people have forgotten how to carry on a conversation. All they know if how to text.

I have one friend who says, "no one is on the repeaters." I ask him, do you put out calls? "No" is his response. Well if everyone is doing what you are doing, just listening, then there will not be any activity. Someone has to start the conversation.

As for DMR, changed out all the "old" type hotspots and moved to three Pi-Star based hotspots. One I bought and two I built. One is on DStar, one on DMR and one on Fusion. In my opinion, these little Pi-Stars are great. You don't need one for each mode, that's just how I have them. One Pi-Star can be easily switched between DMR, DStar, Fusion, P25 and NXDN. The Pi-Star will also support going from one mode to another such as from DMR to NXDN. These things are great, not that expensive and highly recommended. You can even buy all the parts on Amazon and cases for them are also available on eBay.

For DMR radios, I have moved away from Connect Systems. Too many firmware fixes that do not fix the issues and do not work. I sold all my Connect Systems radios except for the CS750. I tried selling it on Facebook and eBay for $35 and no one wanted it. I then sold it to a local guy for trial and he did not like it and gave it back. Actually works somewhat OK now with the last update to the PC software that fixed a major issue. Took SIX months to get that issue solved. I complained about the issues so much on their FB page that the moderator banned me from the group. Said I was making threatening comments which was all BS. He even claimed that my post to sell the CS750 was a bogus post. Nope it was not. Even had the radio on eBay. No bids at $35 starting bid. So I guess I am just stuck with it, though I do not use it much. Mostly use it now to listen to what's left on FM fire/police and FM GMRS. Now that it somewhat works, is in great condition, if you want to buy it send $65 via Paypal. Contact me via the website if interested.

If you still want to buy a new Connect Systems radio, I suggest you buy it direct from Connect Systems. Some of the dealers for Connect Systems sell them at a premium. Their "value add" is programming the radio. Learn to program it yourself or get a code plug from someone else and just load it. Buy direct and save money. Jerry is nice guy and does provide good service. However he has to rely on Co-Value (the Communist Chinese manufacturer of his radios) to fix the firmware and PC software. Therein lies the problem.

In my opinion there are much better radios for DMR then Connect Systems that are now available. I especially like the Anytone radios. Yup, made in Communist China but they work very nicely and are at very competitive prices and have far less serious issues with the firmware. There are many quality vendors offering Anytone radios. BTW, the programming software is also so much easier to use and you do not need to have Excel in order to upload contacts to the radios, another drawback of Connect Systems.

As for Fusion, Yaesu has made their radios very affordable. Seriously, you can get a basic FM/C4FM Fusion radio for well under $175 for single band, and around $200 for dual band.

The thing that I believe stalled DStar adoption is that Icom kept the price of DStar radios too high for too long. Heck, they are still to highly priced in my opinion. I like DStar, but for hams wanting to try digital voice modes on VHF and above, DMR and Fusion are much more affordable.

This Summer I hit another milestone with VUCC getting over 175 grid squares. So I applied to the ARRL for the endorsement, but still waiting on my sticker. Some might not think that is a lot of grid squares, but my 6 Meter antenna is a dipole in the garage attic. Not too shabby I think. Last year actually made a contact with the Canary Islands with that set-up and I have it confirmed. Now that 6 Meters has pretty much shut down for the Summer, I have moved back to HF.

Started playing around with JS8 chat. Looks rather interesting. Might help get some young people interested as they love chat on their phones and tablets.

That's it for now. I will have to get more into updating the blog a bit more frequently. In the meantime, get on the radio and start talking.

Finally VUCC on 6 Meters

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2018-05-17T07:29:37-04:00

I finally was able to get the last few grid squares the other day to obtain a VUCC Award on 6 Meters.

One thing about using the ARRL LoTW is that they turn the award around very fast. I applied yesterday and today it shows the award issued. The cost for applying the QSL credits was under $15. Now if I had to pay the postage to get paper QSLs, it would have been much more expensive. Really like LoTW.

Now to continue working more grid squares during the Summer E season and get the next endorsement.

VUCC - Getting Real Close

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2018-02-22T12:36:55-05:00

This past December was really good for E propagation. Moved from JT-65 to FT-8 which is much better for making contacts over JT-65 on the VHF/UHF bands. JT-65 was too slow as the band can change so quickly at the higher frequencies. In any case, as a result, I only need three more grid squares for VUCC. I can probably do it on ground wave, so if you are in reasonable proximity to Cincinnati, but outside of EM79, send me an email if you can arrange a schedule to try making a contact on 6 Meters with FT-8.

DMR Update

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2017-09-12T11:18:38-04:00

Recently I received a Disqus reply to one of the blog posts. Because it was anonymous, I did not approve for it to be published here. If you cannot post your name or call, then it must not have been a post they thought was worth sharing.

The question was what did I now think of DMR. So I will answer that question.

DMR is like FM on steroids. The audio is very nice. You can talk to other via networked repeaters like EchoLink. Radios are certainly cheap just like FM. Other than that, I cannot really say too much more.

Sure there are a lot of repeaters., Pretty much on par with DStar. Fusion is still behind and heck, you still don't find many people on Fusion. I guess some are just content to stay on FM.

However, DMR is now very mature in the amateur market. I still do not see radios capable to interfacing to a computer beyond using the computer to program them. There are still no software packages like D-Rats for sending text or data over a DMR radio. MARC created a sandbox for people to experiment, but after two years has anything come of it? Not that I have seen or could find. If you know of something, please let me know.

Yes, DMR is fun to talk on. So is DStar and Fusion. But again, for all around versatility, DStar is still at the top of the heap in the amateur ranks.

I just wish the radios were more affordable. This is where I see Icom and now Kenwood making a mistake. The cheap Chinese radios are allowing DMR to grown in amateur radio, while the high price of DStar has stalled the growth on that mode. Fusion, well the radios are affordable, but they are so late to the digital game that it is just as stagnant as DStar, but does not have the footprint that DStar and DMR now enjoy.

So there it is folks. My current opinion.

Why DMR is succeeding

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2017-02-14T17:33:38-05:00

A Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

As many of you know, I am a big fan of DStar. Sure it has some limitations, but for versatility, it is the best for ham radio in my opinion, because it was designed for ham radio. Fusion can make that same claim, but I do not see the versatility there.

DMR is a commercial standard adapted to amateur radio. It seems to be the least flexible for amateur radio, but seems to be growing the fastest at this point. The reason why is what I will try to answer.

DStar was the first digital mode that received wide acceptance in the ham community. It has a slow start, but after a few years, really began to take off. It had P25 as some competition, but P25 never really caught on. Radios were expensive and really appealed to a group in ham radio that felt they needed to have interoperability with police, fire, EMA and other government agencies. I know a lot of emergency agency people and they wanted nothing to do with interoperability with amateur radio. They are the professionals and we are amateurs and the radio kingdom was not going to be intermixed.

DStar caught on with many of the amateurs who like to be on the leading edge and willing to pay for the equipment to be on the leading edge. Because of DStar's design, there were also hams on jumped on the app development bandwagon and created applications for chat and emergency communications like D*Chat and D-RATS. DStar also integrated into APRS very well with gateway software referred to as DPRS.

Because Icom continued to be the only provider of DStar equipment (only recently did Kenwood create a DStar radio) the prices stayed very high….too high for too long and this is where I believe Icom made a critical marketing error.

People began to deploy DMR repeaters. Mostly used Motorola repeaters taken out of commercial operation. They were pretty reasonable and there were used DMR radios coming to market as commercial owners upgraded their radios to newer DMR technology. But then the Chinese entered the market with digital handhelds for under $200. The leading edge crowd started to buy into DMR. Then when the Chinese started shipping handhelds like the MD-380 for a little over $100, many of the trailing edge hams and more budget minded hams (aka cheap) started entering into DMR.

DMR repeaters really started to grow. New networks developed. Hotspots were developed for DMR (and also Fusion) and more people started to flock to DMR.

When hams were looking to try digital, they had a choice of DStar at over $400 a radio, or DMR for a little over $100. Heck, now you can buy an MD-380 for under a $100.

Icom did reduce the price of their radios around $300, but it was too late, DMR had taken the momentum away from DStar.

While all this was going on, about a little over a year ago, Yaesu entered with Fusion. Yaesu offered clubs Fusion repeaters for $500. The issue is that Fusion repeaters can do FM or Digital and many clubs bought them as cheap replacements for FM repeaters. Our club has three with only only just recently being enabled for digital in addition to FM. Now Yaesu did price their radios a bit better than Icom. I think their cheapest mobile Fusion radio is around $139 now and I bought mine when it first came out for around $169 at Dayton in 2016.

Yaesu was too late to the table. Fusion use is rather limited. Most people are still venturing into DMR and to a lesser degree, DStar now.

Here is what is sad. I have said this before, manufacturers should have backed ONE standard.

Second, manufacturers have the capability to make a radio that does multiple digital modes. Why not do it people?

Yaesu, you can hang onto Fusion and Icom can hang onto DStar, but the majority of hams going into digital today are going with DMR because it is affordable. Icom, you kept the DStar radio prices too high for too long. Yaesu, you just took too long to enter the digital marketplace. You would have been better served by backing DStar.

Now the best thing for all the manufacturers to do is to come out with a DStar/DMR/Fusion capable radio at an affordable price. If not, DStar and Fusion may become the next Betamax (old folks will understand that reference).

So in summary, the reason DMR is succeeding right now is the price of the radios. It will continue to grow for that very reason.

Only need Alaska on 40M

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2016-11-27T06:36:37-05:00

The other day, I was finally able to work a station in Montana on 40 meters using JT-65. This morning I saw that the QSO was verified on LoTW. Excellent!!

Now I just need one more state, Alaska, in order to achieve WAS on 40M and WAS Digital on 40M. I keep looking for Alaska and calling CQ KL7, but nothing yet.

So if you are an Alaskan station on 40M, please drop me a email if you can help with a sked on 40M.

General Update & Thoughts

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2016-11-20T06:12:06-05:00

Here are some updates on my activities and observations on ham radio.

Ten-Tec - It seems that many are starting to give up hope that we'll ever see a return of Ten-Tec. No news from the new owner. He has had the company now for about a year and we still have not seen the start of amateur radio production and sales. The "store" has noted it is under construction for months. It does not take that long to build a website so we have to assume that there is nothing to sell. I wonder if Elecraft has become the new "Ten-Tec" in terms of being an American manufacturer hams can rally around.

Digital Voice Modes (DStar/DMR/Fusion) - Kenwood is now selling their new DStar/APRS radio. The radio looks sweet, but the price is just out of the range of many. Hopefully we'll see the price come down over time.

I have to wonder if Icom has lost real interest in DStar. I love DStar. It is a great mode designed specifically for amateur radio. It can do all sorts of things that modes like DMR or even Fusion cannot do. I think two things have really caused the growth of DStar of slow to a trickle.

First, DMR and cheap Chinese radios. Let's face it, a ham can get into digital voice for a hundred bucks. If DMR radios were $500 and up, DMR never would have exploded. Sure some buy those expensive Motorola radios, but a vast majority got into DMR with low-cost radios. I use DMR and the problem I see with DMR is that for the most part, DMR is just digital voice. There are no digital messaging programs developed for ham use. Most DMR radios have no connection that would allow the radio to connect to a computer to allow for digital messaging (think DRats with DStar). It is just digital voice and networking of repeaters. The DMR sandbox has really produced nothing revolutionary. In fact, I have not seen any announcements of folks even using the sandbox to create new DMR add-ons. Yeah, they have the hotspots and dongle to allow access for those without DMR repeaters nearby, but that is about the extent of it.

Second, cheap Fusion repeaters from Yaesu. Amateur clubs and organizations bought these repeaters in droves when Yaesu offered them for $500 each. So money that may have gone to a DStar repeater purchase, suddenly went to Yaesu. I mean why not? $500 for a repeater that would do FM or Fusion. Another issue is that most of these repeaters are being used for FM only. I bought a Fusion radio at Dayton this year. It was their low cost mobile and got it for $169 as I recall. I think it is lower now. Trying to find someone to talk to on Fusion digital is almost impossible except during their weekly Fusion net with very few check-ins by the way.

We also have a P25 repeater in the area. I don't have a P25 radio, but I can monitor it. There is very little P25 activity on that repeater.

Again, because we have so many competing digital modes, the activity is rather limited since everyone is spread out among multiple digital voice technologies and repeaters. It has become not only difficult to find someone to talk to on Fusion, but also on DMR and DStar. Sure, you can find someone on the national or state level, but just trying find someone local to talk to is a challenge.

I wish hams would have agreed on one standard and moved forward with a single digital technology and united everyone instead of creating this fragmented mess.

Multi-protocol digital radios - Here is another beef. You would have thought that manufacturers like Icom, Yaesu and Kenwood would have come out with a dual band radio capable of DStar, DMR and Fusion and even P25. But sadly no. However, it looks like some hams have taken this on themselves and starting to just do it without the big three. Albeit the radios are expensive, but still cheaper than buying multiple single technology radios. Hopefully the big three will have taken the hint and will create something to fill this much needed void in the market.

HF and Digital Modes - Sunspots maybe down, but the activity on digital modes is still happening and very strong. DX is even great on the digital modes. So if you are still chasing countries and DX contacts, move to digital as there is still plenty of DX there.

Dayton Hamvention — Finally the Hamvention is moving and away from that dump called Hara Arena. Have to reserve judgement on the new location until this coming May. I am optimistic. I am sure the Hamvention committee is working hard to make this a success. Even if the first year is a little rough, it will not discourage me as they will learn from the issues and make it better the second year. Looking forward to Dayton again in 2017.

SDR Radios - If you have not played around with an SDR radio, think about giving it a try. I have an Afedri and a Funcube and both are fun to experiment with as there a a number of free programs out there that you can try. Even transceivers are moving in the direction of SDR. Icom has taken a real lead incorporating SDR technology into their radios.

With Thanksgiving this week, I hope all my fellow hams have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving. Remember to give thanks to God for all the goodness in our lives.

Website Changes

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2016-06-05T09:42:39-04:00

I decided to pull the Cincinnati repeater listing today. First, it was way out of date. It was the only part of the website that was written in HTML. Changes and updates just took too much time.

With many of the repeaters having changed from FM to some sort of digital mode like DStar, DMR, Fusion or P25, the listing just was not accurate.

So until I can find a better way to maintain the repeater listing and easily update the constant changes, the Cincinnati Repeater Listing has been deleted from the site.

DStar, DMR and Fusion Observations & Comments

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2016-06-04T06:19:40-04:00

I've not had the chance to play with Fusion for two weeks. I've had DMR for just about a year now and DStar for a number of years. So here are my thoughts thus far.

First, DMR is now growing fast and catching up to DStar in terms of number of users and repeaters. What has contributed to the growth are a number of very low cost DMR radios from China. Without the cheap radios, I don't think the growth would have occurred. At this year's Hamvention, I heard one vendor was selling the Tytera MD-380 for $99 and R & L had them inside for $110. Pretty cheap and easy way to get into digital voice.

Alinco announced their DMR radio is coming out so they will be the first mainstream amateur radio manufacturer with a DMR radio. Price is still unknown.

Yeasu's Fusion system has caught up with DMR and DStar in terms of the number of repeaters. In fact, Fusion might have the largest number of repeaters. This is because Yaesu was offering them for $500 and $600 to clubs and many club bought them to replace their older repeaters. I mean for $500 a piece, who can refuse. Trouble is that many of those repeaters were installed in FM mode only. However, in my area about four are dual mode FM/Digital so there are a number of Fusion systems that I can hit and actually use digital voice.

With DMR, there are three wide coverage repeaters in my area. A third system just came on-line a few weeks ago. So I have plenty of repeaters to experiment and chat on.

DStar has four repeaters in the area and I have been using them for quite some time along with the DVAP dongle.

Here is my impressions so far for each of the digital technologies.

DStar still has the most flexibility. Because the radios are designed for hams, they allow greater flexibility. All DStar radios have a data port making it easier to connect the radio to a computer or tablet and use an application for texting and file transfer. There are a number of applications written to make use of this feature and include, DRATS, DChat and Ham Radio Deluxe.

None of the three DMR radios I have include a data port. There are still no text for file transfer programs that I am aware of for use on DMR in spite of the fact that MARC has a DMR sandbox available for over a year to provide for such development. So DMR is still pretty much a digital voice method/and some quick texting within the radios and that is about it.

Fusion, I believe has the ability and I believe some radios have a data port, but my FTM-3200 does not. I also have not found any text/file transfer applications for Fusion.

DStar can still pass APRS information to the APRS network. DMR cannot do this and Fusion cannot do this.

As for repeaters, amateurs can easily build their own DStar repeaters. You cannot do this (or at least easily do it) with DMR or Fusion. I believe I read where one ham was able to do it with DMR, but other than that, I have heard nothing more about home brewing a DMR repeater or a Fusion repeater. Heck, at this point, why would you even consider building your own Fusion repeater when Yaesu is almost giving them away?

The cost of a DStar repeater from Icom is moderately expensive, but less than $2,000 for controller and one band. DMR used repeaters are about the same and the new repeaters are very expensive. Fusion again is almost free at this time, but pretty soon Yaesu will stop giving them away.

Depending on where you live, you probably have access to a DStar repeater close by. With DMR, there are many areas that are very well covered, but then again there are some states with very low to no coverage. Heck, look at Missouri where one of the largest cities in America, St. Louis is still without a DMR repeater! Or course with Fusion, the repeaters are now all over the place, but again, many are just in FM mode. Seems Yaesu should have made the repeaters so that they ONLY worked in dual automatic mode. That was a big marketing error in my opinion.

Let's talk about voice quality. The way I saw others ranks voice quality was that Fusion was supposed to be the best, followed by DMR and then DStar. I guess in theory that should be true, but practically, that is not the case from my observation. Side by side, it is hard to tell a difference in audio quality between DMR and Fusion. I just don't hear any difference. DStar is a very close second to DMR and Fusion. DMR and Fusion seem to have more low response than DStar. DStar does sound slightly crisper to me. In any case, just not enough difference in my opinion to make any one of the digital methods any better than the other when making a purchasing decision.

Digital voice recovery. You have all heard about R2D2 with DStar. It is the sound the signal makes when it is not strong enough to decode. DMR has something similar that sounds like a high pitched motor boat. I have not heard what happens when a Fusion signal is getting too weak to decode. I explain later why that is.

The one thing I really like about DStar and Fusion is the use of call signs. So when someone transmits, I see their call on my display. In fact, I also see the calls of the repeaters. With DMR, being a commercial standard that hams are using, the radio has an ID that is associated to the callsign. The display however is not automatic like it is with DStar and Fusion. If you program the radio with other users callsign and radio number, the radio is then capable of displaying the call. Now most of the commercial DMR radios are limited to storing 1,000 or less contacts. Only Connect System radios can go up to slightly over 65,000. Since I have two Connect System radios, I can load all 35,000+ DMR contacts into my radio. This is a manual process and has to be repeated every so often to keep the radios up to date.

Usage of the three is widely different at this point. DStar has kind of leveled off though DStar radios were selling well at Dayton and Kenwood is coming out with their DStar radio this Fall. DMR use has exploded as I mentioned previously due to the availability of low cost radios. Fusion on the other hand has few users compared to the other two. I wonder if the low cost of the DMR radios is having an impact on this. So far with numerous calls on Fusion repeaters, I have only had one person respond. The only other activity has been weekly nets and those have sparse checkins.

So all three work. It depends on the area you live at this point as to what technology you go with because you want a repeater and you want others to talk to. Many are going with multiple technologies if their budgets can handle it.

Check the repeaters maps to see what repeaters are available in your area. But even if you have Fusion repeaters in your area, and a lot of them, just remember, if you are like me, that does not mean a lot of hams in the area are going to have radios. If you have DMR or DStar repeaters in your area, there is a good chance there are users so you are probably safe going with either or both. If you are cheap like many hams and have DMR repeaters in your area, pick up a Tytera MD-380.

Oh, and for DMR, you want to find someone in your area who will share their "code-plug" with you. A code-plug is just the terminology used in DMR which means the programming file. You can also find them all over the Internet for your area. Just download, enter your call, and some other basic information, load to the radio and start talking.

I'll comment about networking of the three technologies in another upcoming blog.

Dayton Hamvention 2016 Recap

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2016-05-27T08:18:33-04:00

This year I was able to attend the Hamvention for only one day. I was on a business trip and did not get back until Friday night at about 11:00 PM. But it was great to still be able to attend the Hamvention for at least one day. So here are some of my comments about this year's Hamvention.

First, the Hara Arena is rapidly decaying. There are all sorts of rumors about Montgomery County wanting the property to the county fairgrounds. There are also rumors about the owners losing money, taxes owed, etc. Clearly there is no money being put into any upkeep of the facility. The condition of Hara this year was the worst I have even seen.

Restrooms were filthy and poorly maintained. Two of my friends used the outside port-a-lets because they were cleaner than the bathrooms!

Attendance was down quite a bit. I am guessing it might have been as low as 16,000. From what I heard from other hams, the place is just too unattractive and turning off many from attending.

The parking lot that host the flea market is also deteriorating. The pavement is crumbling in many places. Very few garbage cans were placed in the flea market. As a result, you saw piles of old electronics abandoned on the ground. Guess the XYL told them to sell it or leave it.

We tried attending the Yaesu Fusion forum, but the room had to be in the mid 80's so it was just too hot to sit in there. Apparently Hara's air conditioning was not working or they could not afford to turn it on. The rest of the forum rooms were also too warm. No forums this year.

Since Yeasu came out with a very affordable Fusion radio, the FTM-3200, I purchased one from Ham Radio Outlet (HRO). At $169 it will give me the opportunity to evaluate and compare the various digital voice methods commonly being used on the VHF/UHF bands. I'll write a blog with a comparison between DStar, DMR and Fusion soon.

Speaking of DStar, Kenwood was showing their new DStar, APRS, FM dual-band handheld. It is supposed to be available around November of this year. This has been rumored since November of last year so it now appears to be reality. Now that a second major manufacturer has begun selling DStar radios, that should put to bed all that FUD about DStar being proprietary and only an Icom standard. The radio looked great as it uses a color screen. The problem is the list price is supposed to be north of $600. Needs to be in the $300 range or it is going to be out of the reach of many hams.

The Europeans were there showing off their concept of a multi-digital mode VHF/UHF radio that supports DStar, DMR, Fusion and FM. The radio is tentatively priced between $800 to $1,000. Kind of high, but might be worth it as everything will be built into one radio. If a group of hams can pull this off, surely Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu can do it also. It's just a crying shame that all the manufacturers could not agree on one standard instead of creating the division by having so many different digital modes.

Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) was showing the JT-65 capability that will soon be added to the DM-780 application within the HRD Suite of fully integrated applications. That is the best ham radio application out there for someone who wants software to do it all. Spoke to Rick at HRD who said they have over 50,000 paid users! If you build and maintain it, they will come!

While on the subject of vendors, there was also a reduction in the number of commercial vendors. For that matter, even the number of flea market vendors seemed down but the rain might have forced many to just give up.

There were a number of niche vendors there showing off their products and there was just too many of those new products to talk about here. More SDR radios, more digital voice hotspots, and a host of other things being discussed on many of the forum boards at eham, QRZ and Yahoo Groups.

All I can say is that DARA better find a new venue fast and find a way to invigorate the Hamvention.

Update on Everything

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2016-01-22T16:14:00-05:00

Yes I know I have been a bit quiet on the blog recently. And this is really not about everything. I've actually been fairly active on DStar, DMR, and JT-65. Messed around with a few other modes like CW, FSQ, and of course FM on 2 and 440.

Looks like Connect Systems has finally gotten close to finishing the firmware on the CS750 handheld and CS800 mobile radios for DMR and FM. Still a few bugs but they are almost there. Still would like to see the CS7000 which promises to support both DMR and DStar. Now wouldn't it be nice to have a radio that did all the digital modes and FM? Well they say they can get there but want to do DMR and DStar first.

Yaesu Fusion is out there and a number of people/clubs bought their repeaters at the special price of around $500. However, our club only has them in FM operation. I think a lot of clubs did the same thing. Not many people using them for Fusion. Seems like DStar and DMR seem to be the predominant digital modes. DStar still in the lead and there is still so much more activity on DStar than DMR in my opinion. In any case, for voice, they both do a nice job. When it comes to more than voice, DStar is still the choice.

I am sure you all read where TenTec changed hands yet again. Fourth owner in two years. But we have to face it, the old TenTec is gone. The new owner of the assets of the old company promises a new more invigorated TenTec with great products. So we'll see. However, I would not expect anything new for at least a year. There is a lot of work to do to basically start the company from scratch.

Rumors were that Kenwood was going to announce a DStar radio around Thanksgiving. So far, just the sound of crickets.

Another rumor is that Alnico is going to introduce a DMR radio for hams. So we'll see if that comes to fruition.

Since most of the nation is facing snow and cold, you might as well get on the air and communicate with someone. Ham radio was meant for cold Winter nights. So take advantage of the season and get on the radio!

DMR - It's Not Personal

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-11-03T11:12:55-05:00

I don’t know why, but some people take criticism of technology personally. Maybe its because they spend money on some technology product and if someone else makes negative comments about it, they feel they must defend it as if they have to defend and justify their financial investment.

Take my comments on DMR. I have people, one in particular, that attack my comments on DMR as if I am personally attacking them. How silly.

Yes, I use DMR. I also use DStar. Not using any other digital (primarily) voice technology right now because it gets too costly to get one of everything. My real criticism of digital technology as it relates to ham radio is that the manufacturers could not decide on ONE technology to use. This fragmentation is frankly keeping a lot of hams from adopting digital and thus they are staying on FM. So while a town like Cincinnati has two DMR repeaters, two DStar repeater stacks, a P25, and a couple of Fusion systems, there are just a few hams on each system. Most are still on FM. So instead of the digital users expanding, you find most of the digital users using FM.

I did buy a couple of DMR radios because we got a few DMR repeaters and the radios were CHEAP! Had it not been for CHEAP, I would not have branched out into DMR.

But that has not changed my basic beliefs too much about DMR. Yup, sounds a little better than DStar but not overwhelmingly better. If you have the latest generation DStar radios, they should very good. So does DMR.

It is still difficult to find a conversation on DMR compared to DStar. Even on the DMR North American talk group at times.

Yeah, DStar has that R2D2 noise when the signal gets weak. When the DMR signal gets weak it also distorts but sounds different, so the only difference between the two is the sound of the digital signal when it gets weak. That does not make one better than the other.

The DMR networking is nice, but it is not as flexible as DStar. If the DMR repeater owner does not offer a talk group, you cannot connect to it yourself. With DStar you can connect to any reflector you like. Just program it into your radio.

With DMR you must use a commercially manufacturer repeater. I’ve asked many times, and there is no way to home-brew a DMR repeater. With DStar, a hundred dollar board, a computer and a couple of FM radios, you can build your own DStar repeater.

DStar has all sorts of applications that allow you to send text and files over the radio. I have not seen anything like this readily available with DMR. I think Motorola might offer something, but not something that is open source and could be used by anyone without a license fee.

DStar requires you to register a call sign. DMR requires a registration/serial number. To get a call and name to show up with a DMR transmission, you would have had to program a person’s registration/serial number into your radio along with that person’s name to get it to display. With DStar, when a person transmit, it comes with their call automatically. The DStar user can also program his radio to display on your receiving radio something like “Bob in Detroit” or “Bob on ID51A.”

With DStar, if your radio has a built-n GPS, when you transmit your position is sent and also sent to the APRS network. Have not seen that capability with DMR.

So it all comes back to this DMR is a commercial standard that hams are trying to make work in amateur radio. But as of yet, it is still lacking what DStar has now. Will it get to the same point as DStar is at now, I don’t know, we’ll see but the current state of the DMR technology does not seem to allow that kind of flexibility.

If you don’t agree with me, fine. You don’t have to attack me personally over my comments. If you have better information like “there is now a DRats-like program for DMR” then let me know about it. If DMR moves to registering call signs and they display with each transmission, let me know. If you can easily home-brew a DMR repeater, tell me about it.

However as of now, DMR is a digital voice system, sounds nice, is networked and any ham can use it inexpensively with the Chinese radios; provided you have a local DMR repeater.

Blog Responses

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-07-28T09:12:58-04:00

I know some people don't always agree with my blog posts, especially when it comes to the DStar, DMR, Fusion, P25, etc. discussions. Everyone has their own favorite digital voice method.

Now I approve or reject the comments people make not because they disagree with my opinion, but because they may not really add to the discussion, they are promoting equipment purchases from a particular vendor, or they are offensive.

For example, the other day I received a post that referred to the users of a particular digital voice method as.....well let's just say, that person referred to them as participants in the Special Olympics.

This is so wrong on so many levels. First, just because you do not like a digital voice method does not mean you have to make fun of those users with derogatory comments. You can rip up on the digital method, but making fun of people and tearing them down because they use something they like is really sick in my opinion.

Second, it was extremely offensive to those with disabilities. My wife works with special needs children and making fun of them was very offensive to her.

I understand that not all amateur radio licensees have the proper maturity to conduct themselves appropriately, but let's try not to make personal attacks and make fun of people going through life with severe challenges.

DMR in North Carolina

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-07-06T12:11:50-04:00

Well I decided to bring the DMR radio with me to Surf City/Topsoil, North Carolina during vacation. I elected this radio instead of DStar since there are more DMR repeaters in North Carolina than DStar repeaters. In fact, with the number of DMR repeaters shown in this and the surrounding state, I thought DMR must really be popular.

I had all the DMR repeaters programmed into the CS750. So I was well covered. While I thought I would be able to hit Jacksonville, NC and Wilmington, NC repeaters from the beach area, I was only able to hit the Wilmington repeater.

The first night I got here, I had a brief conversation with a couple of gentlemen on the Southeast talk group. But since then, in spite of repeated calls on Southeast and the local talk groups, I have not received any calls or heard but a few brief conversations.

I really thought there would be a lot more activity on DMR in this area given the number of repeaters.

Continues to demonstrate that if you want to get into digital, and actually have someone to talk to, get a DStar radio for now.

DMR so far

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-06-22T11:20:07-04:00

I have had DMR for almost a week. A big thanks to Dan, KC8ZUM, for helping me get started with a simple code plug (radio programming) that got me up and running on one local repeater. It helped me understand and learn to program these DMR radios.

I have now programmed in all the Ohio DMR repeaters and posted my code plug on the CSI DMR radio groups on Yahoo in order to help others. I will continue to program in repeaters in other states as I get time. Frankly, DMR programming is a bit laborious.

In any case what I can say is that DMR has advantages and disadvantages to other digital voice modes. When I get some time, I intend to create a spreadsheet outlining the pros and cons as I see them.

Here is my biggest disappointment. It is hard to find anyone on the radio to talk to. The North American timeslot I was told is the busiest. It is very quiet. For a mode that proponents claim is exploding with growth, it is awfully quiet. I've even called on the Worldwide and Worldwide English timeslots without success. Called on local, not a soul responds.

Now I have had a few conversations on North America, but if I were creating my own impressions of DMR on use alone, my guess would be that only 20 to 30 people even owned a DMR radio.

Where is everyone? Maybe I just cannot hear them over the sounds of crickets chirping.

DStar versus DMR - First Impressions

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-06-17T09:09:27-04:00

Well I like to experiment with new things in amateur radio. While I continue to voice my disappointment with the lack of a united digital standard in amateur radio, I have resigned myself to the belief that we are going to have multiple digital methods in use for sometime until the market, if ever, determines which digital method will win out....which of course may never happen in the foreseeable future.

Since the price of new DMR radios has come down quite a bit, mostly because of the cheap Chinese radios, I decided to order one. I did not actually place an order until we had a few DMR repeaters in the area. I mean why buy a radio without anyone to talk to?

I ordered a CS750 which is a Chinese built radio by Covalue and marketed by Connect Systems in California. Connect Systems is also the company trying to produce the CS7000 which promises to support both DStar and DMR. The reason I purchased this radio is because it is low cost and second, because Connect Systems will service it if there is an issue with it.

So here are the first impressions with a radio and digital method I have used in less than 24 hours.

First, I have been told that DMR adoption is exploding with repeaters and users. Not my experience. I was told by a current DMR user that the North American talk group was one of the busiest. Not many people answering calls and not a lot of activity. I had a few QSOs, but compared to DStar Reflector 30 (which is just a regional reflector), there is no comparison. I have not found any activity yet on the DMR Midwest talk group or any of the local talk groups. In other words, where is everyone?

Second, audio quality between DStar and DMR is about equal. I really do not hear any significant difference. I will give to DMR that it seems to recover faster than DStar which means you do not hear the "R2D2" sounds when DMR becomes marginal.

Third, programming DMR is laborious in my opinion compared to DStar. With the newest generation DStar radios, about the only thing you need to program is your call. All the current DStar repeaters are pre-programmed into the DStar radios and the newest DStar radios have a GPS which will locate the closest DStar repeater for you. No guessing when traveling. DMR does not seem to have the ability to have such a function. I do not see anywhere where you can store the GPS coordinates of the DMR repeater.

The software that came with the CS750 is not nearly as easy to use as the Icom DStar programs or even Chirp. When I tried to import repeaters and contacts into the CS750 software, instead of appending the new contacts and repeaters to the existing contacts and repeaters, it just overwrites what was already there. This means I have to really do the cut and pasting with Excel first before trying to do the import. Yikes, more work.

Fourth, DMR does not seem to have the ability to let users build their own repeaters like you can with DStar. So as I understand it, the cost of a DMR repeater is about $1,800 minimum. I am not sure if that includes the networking gear to allow it to connect to all these various talk groups. Yes, you can easily build your own DStar repeaters and some have done it for a few hundred bucks.

Fifth, as far as I can determine, I also do not see an ability to use an external program like D-RATS to send digital messages and data through the radios. Maybe that is coming. We'll see.

Sixth, there does not seem to be a way, or maybe any availability, to provide hotspots. This would allow someone who does not have a local repeater to still be able to access talk groups from home, car etc.

Finally the biggest issue is the use of a registration number instead of a callsign. So when a user is transmitting on DMR, you do not see his or her call, you see a number. We are hams, we have calls and we use our calls. Surprising that DMR could not be modified to use a call instead of these registration numbers. Now you can get the call to display instead of the registration number, but that requires you entering in the user call along with the registration number into the contacts list. It's all manual. With DStar the call is always displayed.

So in quick summary, while DMR is useable, it is not nearly as ham friendly as DStar. That's because DStar was created for hams, but hams. DMR was created by commercial interests for commercial users and we hams are trying to make it work for us.

I will continue to use both and report on my experiences and findings in the future.

Dayton Hamvention 2015 has come and gone

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-05-18T10:00:19-04:00

Another Dayton Hamvention has come and gone. While the weather was warm, there was still the usual rain. Not too bad though as it usually came later in the day on Friday and Saturday.

I did not get too many pictures this year. Just take a look at some of the previous years picture I have on the site to see what it looks like at the Hamvention. But what pictures I did get are pretty funny.

I attended this year with Rod, WI0T, and Russ, WB8ZCC, but Russ only made it on Saturday. Seems he came down with one of those 24 hour bugs on Friday. We all ran into an old friend from the UK, Rod, G3KEL. We met Rod about 10 years years ago at the FDIM get together which runs in conjunction with the Hamvention. Rod missed the last two years so it was good to see him return.

As for new products. Elecraft introduced their new K3S which has more improvements over their previous K3. Nothing really new from TenTec, Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood that has not already been introduced.

CQ Magazine actually made it there and they sure scaled down their booth to a tiny single unit. Some new subscribers asked when they would get their first issue and I heard them being told "about 6 weeks." Think those new customers might be surprised. I did enjoy watching some other current subscribers having lively discussions about delivery and refund issues.

The folks working on the FreeDV/Codec 2 were there showing a small box that will allow encode and decode of FreeDV digital voice without the need for a computer. $200 bucks but the creator did not feel the need to bring them to sell at Dayton! Seriously, that was a bad move. WI0T and I would have each bought one on the spot.

Algoram was showing off their open HT platform. Only issue there is you have to use it in conjunction with your smart phone! That alone turned me off....on to next booth for us. Give me one piece of hardware to carry, not two.

AES was absent again. So that left more business for R&L, HRO, Main Trading, and the rest of the retailers. AES just not what it used to get back in their glory days.

ARRL had a nice exhibit as usual and they always had a number of visitors.

DStar forums were always packed, but folks, quit mixing the newbee information with the information for more experienced DStar users. How many times must we have to listen to the basics presentation!

Good news is that there are now over 3,100 DStar repeaters in the world and still growing. So when people say DMR and Fusion are growing, well they have a long way to go. So if you want to talk to someone no matter where you travel, you might want to get DStar.

DStar's open platform is clearly demonstrated at Dayton. Plenty of add-ons and even non-Icom radios. You won't find things like DVAPs, Hotspots, etc. for DMR and Fusion. While DMR and Fusion may have slightly better audio due to using about twice the bandwidth, those other digital modes still do not have the flexibility of DStar.

The flea market was the usual disappointment. Mostly consists of equipment that should be in a landfill somewhere or recycled for the metal and plastic. Prices for dirty old crap were high. I mean you might as well spend a few more bucks and get new equipment with a warranty.

BTW, some of the vendors inside were selling those Beofeng dual-band handhelds for $29 with charger and battery! Who says ham radio is expensive?

Ham Radio Deluxe confirmed that JT-65 will be added soon to their DM-780 application within HRD. HRD just gets better and better. It's a bargain for what it does and the number of radios it can support. Buy it and pay the annual subscription.....it's worth it!

The big news are the flyers around the Hara Arena saying some remodeling will be taking place for 2016! Great news as Hara is really bad looking. It almost appears that maintenance is just not being done. In one area inside we noticed the roof leaking. More good news in that the air conditioning appeared to be working. So while it looks bad, at least it was reasonably comfortable inside.

All in all, we had a great time and look forward to the next Hamvention in 2016.

Finally! DXCC 15 Meters

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-03-24T17:02:53-04:00

Finally received the last needed eQSL on LoTW for DXCC on 15 Meters. The ARRL processed it right away and I received the certificate in the mail about a week later. LoTW really makes it easy and a lot less expensive to earn operating awards.

So now I move on to the 20 meter band and also DXCC on CW only. I am about 12 QSLs away from the awards for both CW and just the 20 meter band.

Simple 100 watt transceiver and a vertical antenna is all I use.

BTW, I got a QSL for South Sudan the other day with this modest set-up.

Just one more country!!!!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-02-23T18:51:03-05:00

Worked some new countries this weekend on CW. Concentrated on 15M so I could maybe get DXCC 15 Meters. Well as of this morning, I got four new countries verified on LoTW which brings my total to 99! Ahhh, come on, just one more!

CQ Magazine Replacement - RadCom

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-02-07T17:48:58-05:00

As I wait for the refund I requested on October 2, 2014 (which I am sure I will never receive from CQ Magazine), I did decide to go ahead and subscribe to RadCom and also become a member of the RSGB. My packet of information arrived today. Gosh, they send you a pin, key-chain, pen, coaster, membership certificate, catalog, welcome letter and a copy of the February edition of RadCom. Officially my membership and subscription starts March 1, so I guess I got the February issue as a bonus. Nice magazine, great articles....so it's a good replacement for CQ Magazine and a nice supplement to QST. While the membership is pricey compared to QST/ARRL and even CQ magazine, at least it will arrive on-time just like QST and not like CQ Magazine which is such a waste of money at this point. Give Radcom/RSGB at try if you are looking for a CQ Magazine replacement.

New Digital Application - EXChat

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-02-03T05:53:04-05:00

There is a new FREE digital application out and hams will find it to be useful and fun. It’s called EXChat and uses DominoEX and the digital method of transmission.

What makes this different from other digital mode applications is that it mimics how many of us use texting and chat programs over the Internet and on our cell phones. So this application will be particularly interesting to kids as we try to attract new blood into amateur radio.

If you want to get to it and give it a try now, go to:

http://www.qsl.net/zl1bpu/MFSK/EXChat.htm

There is no install, just unzip the files into a directory (C:\EXChat for example) on your C: drive and start it up. All you then need to do is enter your call, select the sound card for outgoing and incoming audio and the comm port to use for PTT. Takes a few minutes to set up. You can very the baud rate to match conditions, but the application defaults to 11baud.

Rod, WI0T, and I have been using it to chat away on 40 meters each using 25 watts and vertical antennas. Rod is in St. Louis area and I am in the Cincinnati area. We have used 22 baud with great success which equals about 140 words per minute.

How EXChat differs is that it creates a chat environment by sending sentences and acts just like a chat or texting program. You type out a sentence, hit return and away the message goes. You can chat with a group on just one-to-one.

Give it a try with a friend or group of friends. I think you like it.

Wow, been a while since I posted - CQ Magazine again

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2015-01-22T15:04:41-05:00

I cannot believe it has been more than six months since I posted anything. Well had some family issues to deal with, but hopefully that is settling down a bit.

The CQ Magazine saga continues. The delivery of the magazine (paper edition) did not improve at all last year. When October came around, I'd had enough. I sent CQ an email asking to cancel my subscription and refund the balance of my subscription.

They replied that they would extend my subscription three months. I said no thanks, extending a magazine which is always late was not compensation, that I really just wanted my money back.

Since that last email, no replies, no refund and no magazines.

Yes, they did cancel my subscription. I have not received an issue since September. But I have not received a refund and all emails asking them to respond and send a refund are just ignored. You cannot have it both ways CQ, either send the magazines on-time, or send my money back.

I still have an on-line subscription which I did to get the CQ Plus digital only content, but that expires this summer. But CQ also just cancelled the CQ Plus offering so now I will not get that either. Things are pretty hosed up at CQ.

So if you have money to risk and enjoy companies who abuse you as a customer, by all means, renew or sign up for a new subscription. But it you want value for your money and get what you paid for, then you might want to reconsider giving CQ Magazine any of your money.

CQ Magazine, same old, same old

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-06-16T16:47:42-04:00

Remember CQ telling us that the combined March/April issue was going to get everything back on track?

Remember the promise the May edition would arrive before Hamvention? Mine didn’t, it arrived after the Hamvention.

Well, here it is June 16th. Still no June issue of CQ. In fact, last Friday, I received the July issue of QST.

You see magazines are supposed to arrive some time the month before the publication date on the magazine.

So if you are a ham vendor who advertises in CQ, see about getting your Christmas advertisement in the October issue so people can see it in November or December when the magazine may or may not come out; who knows for sure.

Also noticed on the May issue mailing label, it no longer shows my subscription expiration date is which is both interesting and concerning.

I hope they make it, I really do. But they have handled this ordeal so poorly that I just don’t think they are going to make it since they have alienated so many of their customers.

If they make it another five years, I will be surprised.

TenTec Advertising, or lack of any

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-06-15T07:38:30-04:00

I was surprised when I was paging through the July issue of QST, that there were no advertisements from TenTec!

Usually when someone stops advertising, that is not a good omen. I know they are moving their facility, but that is not until Fall so why stop advertising? A very curious situation indeed.

Within the past few years we saw them bring out a crippled QRP rig, drop their high-end transceiver, add a couple of new open source software based QRP radios, but have added no new kits in quite some time.

I hope this does not mean TenTec is having money issues and therefore cannot afford to advertise.

Radio Shack Earnings

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-06-10T08:16:37-04:00

Radio Shack reported earnings today. They were again negative and the loss was almost double what the analysts had expected. The stock now sells for almost $1.00 a share. Actually it is around $1.35 this morning in pre-market.

The CEO blames the loss on a slowing of electronics sales. Well duh.

Did anyone ever consider the possibility that Radio Shack does not have the products people want? I cannot buy products I need if you do not have them in the stores.

Radio Shack lost its way a long time ago and it is suffering a slow agonizing death. Again, I doubt they will be in business 5 years from now.

Important lesson here. When you abandon your customers, your customers will abandon you.

Thinking about buying Ten-Tec? Might want to wait until September!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-05-04T09:11:22-04:00

Ten-Tec is moving their headquarters. As a result, they are saying that they are going to have a big sale in September. Here is the announcement from their website:

Dear Ten-Tec customers and friends,

Hamfest at Ten-Tec has been cancelled this year due to our plans to relocate in early fall.

After enjoying 46 years in our headquarters on Dolly Parton Parkway, we are actively seeking a new location in Sevierville that will offer more modern and energy-efficient facilities, a new showroom, and a much-needed upgrade in working environment for staff.

Our current facility and property are already under contract, and, as a result, they will not be available for our annual Hamfest open house and flea market. And, chances are, in September we’ll be neck-high in boxes and crates preparing for our move.

So, in lieu of our weekend Hamfest, we’re planning to celebrate the entire month of September with a moving sale, offering not-to-be-beat discounts and incomparable specials on Tentec.com.

Stay tuned for more details about the moving sale. And, in the meantime, come see what’s new at Ten-Tec at Booths 548-550 at Dayton Hamvention, May 16-18.

Jim Wharton, NO4A

President

So my advice if you are thinking of buying one of their radios at the Dayton Hamvention or sometime during the Summer, try and hold off until September and get a discount. Sounds like you’ll get a much better price if you can wait until September.

More reasons for DStar over DMR

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-04-29T13:56:35-04:00

I have been following Jerry Wanger’s comments on his work designing a DStar handheld to be introduced later this year. Jerry is president of Connect Systems and has already designed and selling a DMR radio at an affordable price. Now he wants to make DStar radios more affordable.

Jerry hopes to have a radio that can be upgraded to other digital methods so that one hand-held can work on a variety of digital methods including Codec2.

On the Yahoo discussion there were some comments he made about having to pay DVSI for using the codec as well as having to pay Motorola for license fees for Mototrbo (or related technologies) which is Motorola’s implementation of DMR. So apparently DMR is not always DMR and while Mototrbo is DMR, DMR is not always Mototrbo.

Don’t believe me? Take a look here: http://www.motorolasolutions.com/US-EN/Technology_Licensing/Standards-Based+Licensing/DMR+Essentials+Licensing+Program

There are no license fees for DStar other than for the DVSI codec.

So DStar is DStar. A completely open standard.

DMR is open, or maybe not if you have to pay Motorola license fees. But maybe license fees are only if you use Motorola’s implementation of DMR which means DMR is not DMR and can very from manufacturer to manufacturer depending on how someone may want to proprietarily enhance their “version” of DMR. What a freaking nightmare.

But people like Northwest Digital Radio, DutchStar, and now Connect Systems are all making or in the process of making DStar radios proving again that DStar is completely open.

You would expect this since DStar was designed by amateurs for amateurs specifically and only for the amateur marketplace.

DMR was designed by commercial interests for a commercial marketplace without consideration for amateurs. Hence why with DStar you register your call and you can use any DStar Gateway anywhere with any DStar capable radio that you programmed your call into. With DMR you register EACH radio.

A Hamvention Blessing

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-04-24T06:43:39-04:00

This was posted by Bill Cahill (AD8BC) on Facebook. Not sure if he wrote it (now verified that yes, Bill actually wrote this) or if Bill reposted something written by someone else. But this “blessing” pretty accurately sums up the Dayton Hamvention. For those of us who attend each year, each line should bring a smile to your face.

A Hamvention Blessing:

Bless the Hamvention, oh Lord we pray,
Heal my feet after walking three days.
Bless the HARA Exhibit Halls,
And the cobwebs that hold up its walls.
Protect me from the lead in its peeling paint,
The McCormick Place it surely ain't.
Bless the old radar detectors that Mendelson’s sells,
Oh my God, what is that smell?
Bless the custom hats in various hues,
And tubes of knockoff Krazy Glue.
Bless the guy with the antenna hat,
And the other guy in the Hat of the Cat.
Bless Gordo giving us exam study tips,
And we pray this year there is no Poopocalypse.
Bless our old friends with whom we chat,
And why are there no Yeasu hats?
Bless the scooters in the lot that roll,
And get caught in the big potholes.
Bless the barbecue sandwiches on which we dine,
Oh God - Remind me to get another PL-259.
Bless the forums about the F.C.Commission,
And Bob Bruninga telling us “it’s Packet, not Position.”
Bless the time I spent with my radio club,
And the beer I drank at the HARA Pub.
With memories of vacuum tubes aglow,
As I drive away down Needmore Road,
Oh Lord I can truly say,
Thank you for these three days in May.

TenTec's Website

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-04-20T08:03:47-04:00

TenTec’s website proudly proclaims “Ten-Tec equipment is made & manufactured in the USA!”

Isn’t that the same thing? Shouldn’t it say “Ten-Tec equipment is designed & manufactured in the USA!”

Second, what about the Chinese stuff they are selling now? Where was that manufactured?

Are DX Stations using paper QSLs to generate income?

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-04-02T10:55:04-04:00

I am still amazed that after a number of years of successful operation that more DX stations are not using LoTW. In spite of some complaints, it is easy to install and use. Many logging programs now support LoTW so you can easily and quickly upload QSOs from the logging program as the logging programs handle all the intermediary steps.

One example that I use the the logbook program within Ham Radio Deluxe. After I complete a contact, I upload the contact or during contests, I can submit groups of contacts.

It is easy and you only have to pay a nominal fee if and when you request an award like DXCC.

So I wonder if the real reason DX stations are not using it is because they like to get your paper QSL along with a few dollars. Then they can keep the money, and send a card back to you via the bureau. I hope this is not happening, but my fear is that’s why so many are still not using the ARRL LoTW.

Paper QSLs are nice, colorful and cool to receive, for awards LoTW is the least expensive, quick and easiest way to get QSL confirmations.

It’s the 21st Century people, time to change.

CQ Magazine - In a Death Spiral?

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-03-31T14:12:08-04:00

Today CQ has announced that the February edition will NOT come out in print at all. Everyone can get a free pdf copy of the February issue from the CQ Magazine website. NOW the March/April issue will be sent out in Mid-April.

This is the third delivery promise as the last two were not fulfilled.

I believe CQ Magazine will not exist in a year. I think the "production problems" are in fact a money issue. They don't have the money to print the magazine. Don't know anything for sure, just my belief and opinion.

The reality is that hams are losing faith. No one who knows about the delivery issues are going to subscribe. Advertisers are not going to pay for ads that people are not able to see. A digital ad does not have the same impact or retention as a print ad.

All this has gone on far too long and as a result, I think it puts them into a death spiral.

I hope it does not happen as I have about two years remaining on the subscription, but that's how I see it. Too bad, they were a great magazine and I enjoyed reading it.

That's my opinion, if they are still a going concern next April, then I will take it all back. We’ll see!

DXCC on 10 Meters

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-03-17T08:00:22-04:00

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

Great St. Patrick’s Day present. When I got up this morning I checked LoTW and low and behold, I finally got the 100th electronic QSL to give me the needed magic 100 countries for DXCC on 10 Meters.

I immediately submitted the award application. LoTW make is so incredibly easy and fast and no messing around with sending paper QSL cards.

The next DXCC awards I will be working on are 15 Meters only (13 QSLs to go) followed by 20 Meters only and CW only.

That should keep me busy for awhile.

BTW, these awards are all worked with simple antennas (mostly vertical and a few with a tri-band trap dipole installed in the garage attic) and power at 100 watts or less. Nothing fancy is required, just a lot of patience.

Airlink Express - A Hidden Gem for Digital Modes

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-02-16T06:30:52-05:00

The other day I was having a QSO with a guy who said he was using Airlink Express for his digital mode work.

Airlink Express? Never heard of it, but I love trying out new software. So I did a search and found the site for the software. How did this little gem remain so elusive for so long?

The software can be found at http://www.airlinkexpress.org and is freeware, but contributions are solicited and appreciated.

The software is very easy to set-up and use. It supports PSK, MFSK and RTTY. It also has a built-in logbook and has some basic radio interface to grab frequency. Like most digital mode applications, you can create all sorts of macros to make it more efficient to use.

Airlink Express seems to be a very capable program and so far I have used it to make several contacts on PSK. I have to still try using it with the other modes but I am it will work equally well.

Give Airlink Express a try as I think many of you will like it.

Getting Back on the Air

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-02-08T19:02:37-05:00

Since we moved into the new house, I found little time to get my antennas back up.

I got a VHF/UHF antenna up in the garage attic back in December, but still did not have any HF antennas up. The weather has just been terrible out.....you know, the Al Gore Global Warming lie that gave us seemingly endless cold and snow.

So years ago I bought a three-band trap dipole at a hamfest in St. Charles, Missouri. After the move I just could not find it....until yesterday.

Well I got it put up in the attic today and it does a respectable job. Not great, but at least I am back on the air now on 10, 15 and 20 meters until the weather gets better in a few months and I can get the rest of the antennas up.

Getting there, slow but sure.

The Late Great Radio Shack Store

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-02-07T06:05:20-05:00

I once heard a motivational speaker say, “if you don’t like change, then you are really going to hate extinction.”

Never were truer words spoken. Change is necessary and inevitable. In fact, I like change and get nervous when there is no change as that means we are not moving forward.

So it will seems strange when I make my next comments. This is about the change that is supposed to be going on at our local Radio Shack stores.

When I was in school I worked at Radio Shack. Actually worked there for over five years. Still have my Tandy Corporation five-year pin somewhere around the house.

Back then I always felt that Radio Shack was very poorly run. Oh, it was successful, but they could have been so much more successful. They NEVER had enough stock of popular items. Thus forcing the stores to repackage the display unit for sale.

They did change with the times somewhat. When I was there in the 1970’s, they wanted to be the number one retailer of audio equipment. Then, in the 80’s and 90’s it was computers. Late 90’s and currently it seems that cell phones are the big push. So they do change with the times.

Radio Shack used to have repair centers. They wanted to be like Sears and service and repair all the goods they sold. I don’t think they do much of that now as I don’t think they have local or regional repair centers anymore. I guess people just throw away broken electronics now.

Once they had their own brands. The stereos and CB’s were “Realistic” and “Micronta” for test equipment and there were other house brands they sold. Now most in-house brands are simply labeled “Radio Shack” but they have very few in-house branded items now. What they do have that is privately labeled are accessories for the electronics made by others.

There sales have continued to drop. Last time I looked the price of a share of Radio Shack stock was under $2.50. Penny stock status so to speak. Clearly they are now in trouble.

So we all saw with the Super Bowl ads that they are now leaving the 80’s behind and bringing in the new. Frankly, I was confused by those ads. Because I think Radio Shack left the 80’s a long time ago. With it, they left their customer base.

My current company is transforming as it should. They call it “transformation without disruption” meaning they know they have to evolve, but not at the expense of losing our current customers. We need to become something new, and we are, but we will still market and support the products our customers still want today. Therefore we can grow to meet the new demands, but not abandon our current customers.

This is where Radio Shack went wrong. They left their current customers behind each time they made a transformation in the past. They are about to do it again. This time I believe they will not survive. In my opinion, they will be gone within five years, maybe a bit longer, but they will be gone soon.

The reason being they keep forgetting their old customers. Want an audio or entertainment system now; do you go to Radio Shack? Need a computer; do you go to Radio Shack? Need a radio or communication equipment, do you go to Radio Shack? How about a cell phone, do you still go to Radio Shack?

Parts for an electronic project? Accessories?

They still have some items but in general, once they abandoned a product vertical, they dropped their customers.

We all know in business that it takes a lot less money to keep a customer then to get a new customer. With each change Radio Shack makes, they have to spend a lot of money to acquire a new set of customers. This time I don’t think they have the financial ability to do it yet again.

Welcome to hospice Radio Shack.

Ordered a TenTec Rebel

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-02-02T13:33:42-05:00

Well I decided to order a TenTec Rebel to have something new and different to try. Seems some of the shortcomings of this radio are being addressed by hardware add-ons and modification to the radio programming by hams who have a lot more programming experience than me.

Let’s hope some third-parties out there will offer mods at the Dayton Hamvention this year.

The radio is sold out right now, so I’ll have to wait for TenTec to produce another batch. Hopefully I will have the radio in the next few weeks as the TenTec website says availability will be in early February.

Old Ham Radio Movie

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-01-18T05:14:45-05:00

All hams might enjoy watching this old 10 minute movie clip from 1939 that showcases ham radio.

http://youtu.be/FB8wLl_g66M

Enjoy!

Hams aren't spending enough on their hobby

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-01-16T08:13:38-05:00

Hams are obviously not spending enough money on their hobby.

In recent weeks this has become more evident. As a result, companies are going under. Some are cutting back on products or product introductions.

First, we recently saw CQ Magazine cut back on the number of paper magazines they publish. They even cut back on the electronic editions eliminating World Radio altogether. Now, one magazine remains in paper format - CQ Magazine. The December 2013 issue arrived for most hams around mid-January. Obviously they are having some financial issues.

Second, Tokyo Hy-Power announced it is in bankruptcy and not coming back after a re-org. They are done.

When we look back a little further we see other troubling signs.

Ten-Tec is no longer manufacturing a high-end HF transceiver. Kenwood has yet to introduce a digital radio either in competition to DStar, or an actual DStar radio.

Yaesu cut back on the annual hat give-away at Dayton replacing it with a cheap mousepad instead.

Many vendor booths at Dayton are empty. The flea-market is half of what it used to be.

Radio Shack no longer exhibits at Dayton like they did for years.

All this has happened at a time with the number of licensed hams continues to grow.

People we need to help keep these folks in business. Patronize their businesses or lose them.

Beware of Wouxun and other Chinese Radios

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2014-01-05T22:11:58-05:00

I just received this email from Ed Griffin at Import Communications concerning Wouxun Radios and his dealings with them over the years. I have no reason to doubt the truth in his email.

This makes me wonder why anyone would spend any more than $50 for one of the cheap handheld radios. I consider them throw-aways because if they break, they cannot be practically fixed, and you just throw them away.

Paying almost $300 for a Chinese transceiver is insane. If it breaks, there is no support. Don’t be stupid. Buy quality American, Japanese and European built equipment. Not the Chinese junk unless of course it is $50 or less.

Here is Ed’s email in its entirety:

I'm Saying Good Bye to Wouxun

Dear Customer,

About five years ago we pretty much put the name Wouxun on the US map as the first major importer of their radios, selling three hundred to five hundred per month. Wouxun.US, our web site, still averages over one thousand hits per day.

Wouxun-China has always been a pain in the rear to deal with but I have now had enough. When their flop of a dual band mobile came out, I made a simple announcement on my web site that I would not be selling it because it did not meet my expectations. Even though I didn't say it was the piece of junk it really was, Wouxun still took offense and decided they would no longer have dealings with me. For the past two years, I've continued to sell their radios, buying them directly from the factory under an assumed name.

I wired payment for five hundred radios on Oct 1st, 2013. These radios were supposed to be in stock and shipped right away (before the Hong Kong Electronics Show). After waiting until mid-December on this shipment, I gave up. I asked that the order be cancelled and a refund issued. I didn't know if I'd ever see that money, but they did send it back. Of course they did not pay the transfer fees, so I lost $115 in the process. I guess I'm still lucky considering.

From the beginning, Wouxun has offered no warranty support for defective radios. Although they were willing to repair any radio, they wanted me to bring them to China so they would not have to pay any kind of duty or return shipping. I actually did this with one batch but like so many things, they just don't get it. To my customers, I was replacing a defective radio with a brand new radio. When Wouxun made the repairs, I got a used radio in return. They could never understand that this was a problem to me. Perhaps I'm lucky that I'm only sitting on five hundred defective radios.

ALL Wouxun dual band radios have an internal defect that the factory refuses to address. They know there is a problem, they know how to fix it, but they will blame the problem on everything in the world except what it really is. Without warning, any of their dual band models can "lose memory". One day when the radio is turned on, it will revert to speaking Chinese and the display will show channel numbers instead of channel names. Often the programmed channels themselves will be gone. Reprogramming the radio may restore it for a short time but often it's cured for only one off/on cycle.

I've been told by experts that there is a chip in the radio that gets new data written to it each time the radio is turned off. They say a decent chip will make this cycle a million times before failure. I have many radios returned with this problem that have been in service for as little as two months. Wouxun is aware of the chip but they blame the problem on after-market programming software or anything else they can think of. This problem has existed for years. Before I knew exactly what caused the problem, I suggested they place this chip in a socket for easy repair. That's never happened. They won't spend an extra ten cents to end the problem.

Starting January 1st, I will no longer offer any kind of support or warranty on any Wouxun radio. I assume Wouxun will make repairs to items returned to the factory, but since I've had no contact with them in two years, don't take my word for it. Wouxun.US, aka Import Communications, will continue to sell Wouxun accessories as long as there is a demand. I will warranty these items out of my own pocket as I always have. But no radio support or warranty after January 1st.

All existing KG-UV6Dv2 radios in stock will be sold at a very reduced price to get them out of my way. The link below will direct you to the sale page.

For the past year, I've been working with Anytone to make a dual band HT that is more suited to the US market than most Chinese imports. This radio is now in production and I have a deal with Anytone to be the only US distributor. (bulk orders / dealer inquiries are welcome) This model is the AT-3318UV-A and has some features that everyone will welcome. The AT-3318UV-A is now on sale at an introductory price. Please check it out at the link below.

The AT-3318UV-A model will be followed by the AT-3318UV-C, a true dual band radio. It will receive two signals at the same time and it will even cross band repeat. This radio will sell in the price range of the KG-UV6D.

The X1M-Pro, an all band, CW & SSB QRP transceiver continues to evolve. It is developing a good following so take a look at it on my web site.

Getting something like twelve hundred hits per day, I plan to keep Wouxun.US active. (unless someone makes an offer I can't refuse) So Wouxun.US and ImportCommunications.com will continue to bring you the best products we can find. I will continue to try my best to offer good prices and service and look forward to keeping you as a customer.

As always, thank you for your past support.

Regards,
Ed Griffin

Clearly from reading the above, there is no support or repair for Wouxun and probably other Chinese made radios regardless of the name on the radio. Buyer beware.

DStar Audio Samples Added to Website

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-12-28T10:43:55-05:00

If you would like to hear samples of DStar audio, I have added them at the bottom of the DStar information page. These samples were recorded directly from an Icom ID-51A handheld using the built-in recording capability of the 51A. These are actual unaltered recordings.

You can listening to them by clicking here and going to the bottom of the webpage.

Digital Voice in Amateur Radio - Still a Fragmented Mess

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-12-14T09:29:50-05:00

While D-Star still reigns king as the digital voice standard in Amateur Radio, there is growing fragmentation in the ranks. Everyone has their own biases as to which one they like. Everyone throwing fud around trying the make the other guy’s choice look inferior. Yeah, I have been somewhat guilty of that too.

But it is amazing the number of choices out there. Icom with D-Star and Yaesu with its System Fusion are the only manufacturers making equipment specifically for hams. Those who want to use P25, DMR, NXDN have to rely on getting equipment from manufacturers who are concentrating on the commercial markets.

Then of course there is the Open Codec projects. All the systems mentioned above use a proprietary codec. Open Codec is an attempt to create a codec free of license fees. No ham manufacturer has adopted it and it seems to be only used on the HF bands right now using a software application that has to reside on a PC/Mac/Linux system.

In any case, Icom and Yaesu have put their digital stakes in the ground. Kenwood and the others continue to sit on the sidelines I guess waiting to see where the chips fall.

I just wonder how long the inevitable shake-out with the digital voice technologies will take. It could be years and years. One thing is for sure, the longer it takes, the longer it will be for the vast majority of amateurs to move from FM and adopt digital. No one wants to buy a radio that is going to end up an orphan.

Moved to New House

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-11-20T16:17:37-05:00

Been away from blogging ham radio activities for a few months. Hardly any time since we recently moved to a new home, well new to us, after 23 years in our other home.

What a major pain - especially for a ham radio operator. Cannot believe all the electronic stuff I accumulated over the years. Had to take all the antennas down at the old house and still have to erect them at the new house.

So right now most of my ham radio activity is on the repeaters using D-Star and FM.

I’ll blog when I am back on HF and 6 meters when I have time to put the antennas back up and run all the antenna cables.

Jerks in Ham Radio

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-07-25T13:07:58-04:00

Someone, I suspect another ham, sent me an anonymous email message about an error that appears on my website. I checked it out and this anonymous person is correct.

However, his response was very rude and just unbecoming of any rational adult. Honest mistake that I would have been happy to correct right away had this person not been such a jerk. The error is not technical in nature, so I am just going to leave it in there until someone who acts like an adult can respond in an appropriate manner. So happy hunting!

I also decided to implement a new website policy. Anonymous emails will not be read. They'll go directly into the bit-bucket, better known to most computer users as trash.

JT-65 on Six Meters

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-07-06T10:19:24-04:00

This Independence Day extended weekend has been great for 6 Meter propagation. Quite a lot of activity with the digital mode JT-65 on 50.276.

Ten-Tec Discontinues Omni II

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-07-02T12:34:19-04:00

I received an email from Ten-Tec announcing they have sold the last Omni II transceiver and have discontinued the radio. The text of the email in its entirety follows:

Dear TEN-TEC Ambassadors & Friends,

We hope everyone is having an enjoyable summer experiencing all the thrills of DX and working QRP. Your friends at TEN-TEC are busy as usual making ready the new Rebel 506 for delivery in late July. Dayton was a huge success this year with sales exceeding 2012. We thank you and also the wonderful group of Ambassadors who helped us in the booth this year. We could not have done it without you.

As time is marching on we are beginning to make plans for another TEN-TEC Homecoming Hamfest September 27th & 28th. This is always a huge event and preparation will begin before we know it to welcome our guests from far and near. Check the web site and watch for further information and news as time draws nearer.

On a rather sad note, about the time you read this message, we will have sold out of the last 566 Orion II transceiver. Unfortunately, due to the availability of some very critical parts plus skyrocketing prices for difficult components, the staff at TEN-TEC decided to discontinue this product. This does not mean we will not trade or sell used and demo Orion's and Orion II models. We will continue service and support this product as we have done in the past with all TEN-TEC products. Is a new Orion III on the horizon? There are plans for several new TEN-TEC products lined up for the future but at this time no concise decision has been made for another Orion transceiver.

We are very pleased with the results of our efforts on the Argonaut VI with matching 418 linear amplifier. Check out the product review in the August QST and Rob Sherwoods testing www.sherweng.com. More fantastic news: This year, a pair of Eagle transceivers will be working as W4S at Ft. Pitkins on Santa Rosa Island off the coast of Pensacola in July for another IOTA contest.

As always the staff here at TEN-TEC continue to welcome your support and participation in the TEN-TEC user nets that meet every Sunday. The TEN-TEC 40 meter SSB net will start first at 20:00 UTC on or about 7.260 LSB and the 20 meter SSB net will follow at 21:00 UTC on or about 14.325 USB + or -

Sincerely & 73

Your TEN-TEC Sales Staff

I have to wonder about Ten-Tec in recent years. Elecraft is running rings around them. Elecraft can bring new products out faster than Ten-Tec. Ten-Tec's new QRP transceiver not only took an extremely long time to make it to market, but when it finally was available for sale, it arrived crippled without the 60, 12 and 6 meters bands. When I asked a gentleman working the Ten-Tec booth about it at the Dayton Hamvention, I received a very smart-a$$ answer.

He stated that the case was too small to put in the additional bands! So I asked how your competitor Elecraft was able to do it AND have space for battery, tuner and 2 meter module? He said go ask them.

I did, they told me they are capable of superior transceiver designs. So there you have it.

But I digress.

The real issue is the lack of a follow-on model. Now there is no high-end transceiver from Ten-Tec. Based on the amount of time it took them to bring out a new Argonaut, who knows when we'll see anything that might replace the Omni II.

Too bad for a company once so highly respected with a fiercely loyal customer base. If you can't change fast enough and are not nimble enough in this competitive world, if could mean the death of the company. I do hope not.

But there appears to be a downward direction for Ten-Tec. To the best of my knowledge they have not had any new kits or refreshed the kit line in over 10 years. They started selling Chinese made QRP CW radios - yikes! Are you kidding me? What happened to the Made in America focus? Ten-Tec needs to recapture their mojo fast.

Dayton Hamvention 2013 Recap

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-05-21T09:08:50-04:00

Another Dayton Hamvention has come and gone.

The weather was pretty nice most of the time, though there was a quick shower on Saturday morning. Attendance seemed on par with last year. Noticed that a large number of people taking the amateur license exams were passing.

There were a number of vendors missing this year. AES, Ham Station, Scanner Master were the vendors I noticed. But some of the indoor display areas had isles completely empty. Not a lot, but very noticeable to those of us who go to Dayton annually.

Again, as last year, there were a large number of empty flea market spaces. Also, as usual, most of the stuff being sold in the flea market is junk that no one would even put on eBay. It seems to be a recurring theme that the good stuff that will bring increasing bids goes to eBay, while the junk that no one really wants is brought to the flea market. Prices for the junk in many cases is too high and unrealistic. Why would I buy a beat-up and scratched radio with questionable history for $100 less than I can buy one new? But people don't seem to mind bringing that same junk back to hamfest after hamfest. Seems to me, you take what you can get quickly and move on.

As far as the big-five at the Hamvention.

Icom's exhibit was packed as usual. DStar is still hot and growing rapidly. At the DStar forum they indicated that world-wide, there are now over 2,000 DStar repeaters and 50,000+ DStar registered users. The reports that you see on dstarinfo are only for U.S. Gateway 2 registrations and do not include the other gateway infrastructures. So clearly, DStar is even bigger than many of us thought. Icom as usual had a separate DStar display that was packed with people all the time. The ID-51A dual-band DStar radio was flying off the shelves with most vendors sold out by Friday night. HRO some how got another 50 for Saturday and they blew out. This radio has all the world-wide DStar repeaters already loaded. It can program the nearest repeater using its built-in GPS. As usual there was much interest in all the Icom HF offerings.

Kenwood's display seemed lightly attended. The only "new" thing they had was a $7,000 HF rig so since that is way out of the budget of most hams, it was not creating much excitement. Fact is, I have never witnessed such a dismal crowd at the Kenwood display. Probably because there was nothing new.

Yaesu was not giving out their traditional hat. They were giving out mouse pads instead. Yawn. Their display was also lightly attended, though not as bad as Kenwood. Hardly any interest in their new digital VHF/UHF handheld which is finally for sale. The woman who was manning the position could not say much about it. Still no repeater offering from Yaesu. Frankly, Yaesu's entrance into the digital voice world has been a disaster. Yaesu, wake up and go with DStar as that is where the momentum is in the worldwide market.

The DMR Mototrbo folks are trying to make everyone think DMR is overtaking DStar, but their booth was no where to be found. Someone told me yesterday it was located in the ARRL area. I was in the ARRL area at least four times, and did not see them at all. Frankly DMR has so many issues that DStar is continuing to rule and outgrow them. The DMR radios are a nightmare to program. Each radio has to be registered and not the more simple method of registering the ham call sign only. TDMA is reported to having problems when the distance is more than 45 miles. It does not seem to do integrated data and voice as some say it is "capable" of doing. It's not the right technology for ham radio. It's a commercial standard for a commercial market. But some people continue to push a square peg into a round hole.

TenTec was fairly busy all the time. They had a new computer controlled CW QRP radio. Boring. Yet another CW QRP rig for the market (I have a picture of it on the Hamvention 2013 Photo page on this website). Does anyone have any ingenuity? Their new QRP radio the Argonaut VI was not creating a lot of excitement. Many hams have shied away since it is a crippled radio missing 6, 12 and 60 meters. In this day and age given the technology, how can you create an HF radio with missing bands?

Elecraft was packed as usual. Their influence in the U.S. ham market is obviously growing. The fact that they continue to create new products and rapidly bring them to market is why they create excitement at the Dayton Hamvention year after year. TenTec needs to take a lesson from them. They created an all-band QRP rig in a smaller package than TenTec that can also include an antenna tuner, battery and 2 meter module. Why TenTec cannot do the same is beyond me. Elecraft was also not offering any discounts because the demand for their products is so high.

As for other vendors.

Flexradio had a lot of visitors to their booths as usual. Still showing the 6000 series of radios and software, but still no deliveries. Mel K0PFX told me that he has had his order into Flex now for a year and still no radio. The Flex1500 and Flex3000 are still the most economical way to get into an SDR transceiver.

Ham Radio Deluxe is doing well and has a growing following since the new owners have taken over. Great full-featured product for rig control, digital modes, logbook and satellite tracking.

LNR Precision was showing a dual-band CW QRP radio - again yawn - BUT the real exciting thing was a quad-band SSB and CW QRP radio that they will be offering around the Q3/Q4 timeframe. 5 watts and very small. This was really neat and supposed to be less than $500 when offered for sale. Watch for an announcement at http://www.lnrprecision.com.

Silent System is a tiny Japanese company who is offering a very small QRP PSK transceiver with built-in display. Connect a keyboard, antenna and power supply, and you have a fully-functional PSK station. The only issue I saw was the power output was only 100 milliwatts. The price was under $300 as I recall and you can get more information or order it at http://silentsystem.jp/handypsk.htm.

The FreeDV/Codec2 folks had a nice display in the main arena. They even showed a concept of an open source digital voice handheld.

Palstar was showing their new TR-30 5-Band SSB/CW (full QSK) touch screen transceiver. Great idea, but not yet available, but it should be later this year. My only concern is the price as they quoted it would be around $1,600. Maybe a little high if it were all band, but for only 5 bands I think it is a bit overpriced.

GRE America was there and yet not there. They used to have two booths in the past. One for scanners and the other booth showcasing Alinco. This year it was a combined single booth and none of the usual GRE America folks were there as it looked like all Alinco staff manning the booth. GRE made some of the best scanners in the past. But the parent shut down the scanner line and it looks like GRE America is trying to become independent and restart scanner manufacturing. Not sure where they are in that process.

The ARRL had a lot of visitors to their usual large display. Again, there was a great focus on youth in ham radio.

I expected to see more SDR (software defined radios) this year. WinRadio's booth was scaled down. Bonito had their integrated SDR/Control application on display and it looked very interesting, but I expected to see a few more vendors.

Summary - In general the Hamvention is THE hamfest of the year. But clearly the continued poor economy is keeping away vendors and some hams. Another thing that might be keeping away hams is that there just wasn't anything really new to generate the interest in going. Prices on radios and the like were not as good as they have been in the past. Even the cheap Chinese radios were not discounted as much this year. In fact, some of the radios offered could be purchase for less money on Amazon.

I would also suggest that the Hamvention start giving new and smaller ham radio vendors the chance to come for the first year for a very discounted price ($100?) on a first-come-first-served basis for the open slots on the inside. It's a shame to see those precious spaces sitting their empty. I know new upstarts that would love to come to Dayton, but find the cost too much for their budgets. Come on Hamvention committee, let's give them some assistance while growing the Hamvention with new products.

It's Hamvention Week!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-05-12T19:52:50-04:00

Not only is it Mother's Day today, but it is also the start of Hamvention Week!

Can't wait to head up to the greatest ham radio show on Earth.

Rod, WI0T will be coming up from St. Louis, Missouri to join me for this annual expedition to Hamvention.

I'll post a report on the Hamvention early next week so stayed tuned.

The Upcoming Hamvention

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-04-25T08:27:30-04:00

I always get fired-up for the Dayton Hamvention. It's really is a great time in spite of the fact the Dayton Hara Arena where the Hamvention is held each year is truly a dump and in disrepair. I bathrooms stink since the ventilation is poor. The parking lot where the flea market is located is still in fairly good shape.

The sad fact is that I cannot think of anywhere else in the Dayton area where they could hold this event. So for the foreseeable future, I guess it is stuck at Hara.

The fun part is meeting all the hams from around the world and running into people you have talked to on DStar.

Then there are the vendor hams working the booths trying to sell their latest and greatest products. I just love seeing new equipment, new features, and new innovations. New product introductions at Dayton always intrigue me.

There are rumors this year that AES (Amateur Electronic Supply) will not be attending Dayton. Frankly, if you are a major vendor of amateur radio products and you are not at Dayton, it speaks volumes. It sends one of three messages.

One, they really don't care about meeting their customers at Dayton, or two, they are having financial difficulties and cannot afford to attend, or three they are not competitive against the other vendors at Dayton. It's all just speculation since they have not stated their reason for not attending.

AES tries to push I think what they call their "Superfest" but from what I have read, it's not very super and mostly attracts a mostly local crowd.

AES used to be THE ham radio retailer. But they seem to have lost their luster years ago. I think they even closed a few of their stores as they do not seem to have the same number of retail outlets as they did years ago. I guess other vendors such as Ham Radio Outlet, Gigaparts, R&L and the like have taken their toll on AES. Too bad.

In any case, Dayton should be fun and I will post pictures of the Hamvention to the website again as usual.

Hope to see you there!

DStar versus DMR

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-03-13T08:39:42-04:00

Recently I have noticed a few people promoting DMR as the DStar replacement. So I have been looking into DMR a bit. Some of you may have read about Mototrbo which is Motorola's marking name for the DMR technology.

I intend to do a more in-depth comparison here between the various digital technologies. Not just DStar versus DMR, but also look at whatever Yaesu is coming out with, APCO25 and Nexedge/NXDN.

So I signed up on Yahoo Groups with a few of the DMR and Mototrbo groups. Via radio reference website, there even is a link to listen to one of the DMR networks/repeaters.

One of the first questions I asked on the groups, "can you build you own DMR/Mototrbo repeaters?" In other words, is it practical?

The answer I got was basically "no" that it is not practical and they way to get a repeater is to "get some of my friends together to share the cost." Also, not practical.

Now with DStar you can build a repeater yourself very easily. You need two transceivers with packet ports capable of supporting 9600 baud packet, a hotspot board and a computer. So here is what it cost to build a home-brew DStar repeater that a couple of folks in a local radio club are considering building.

Two single band Alinco radios. $279 each. Moencomm GMSK Node Adapter (hotspot board) at $120 and a computer, in this case a Raspberry Pi with Ethernet Adapter ($35 for the RPi and $30 for the Ethernet adapter. Total cost of the DStar repeater is $743 using all new equipment except for the duplexers and antenna which the club already has for the old UHF FM repeater days.

DMR well for a new repeater, since there are not a lot of used repeaters, about $3,000.

The other issue I see as a problem is with DMR each radio has an ID that has to be registered and is tied to the callsign of the user. This appears to be a real issue with sharing equipment and callsign routing, that is not an issue with DStar.

Also DMR programming is very complex. Mainly because DMR was meant for the commercial market. There are things that need to be programmed like "talkgroups" which do not exist in ham radio. If I read correctly, since all repeaters in a network are tied together, all transmissions go out over the entire network. There seems to be no way for an amateur operator to connect and disconnect the repeater to the network or network of choice. This is all easily done in DStar.

So here is what it really comes down to. DMR was designed for the commercial user in mind. DStar was designed for amateur radio. One fits better than the other. Both are open protocols except for the Codec which in both cases is proprietary. Both sound equally good.

DStar has over 1,000 repeaters world-wide. DMR less than 100. DStar has thousands of users world-wide while DMR has about 300.

DStar current generation radios can be used without any programming except for entering in the callsign of the user. DMR has to be programmed.

Clearly, DStar is way ahead. The question among many is will it remain there. DStar users say yes and DMR users say no. It's the 21st Century version of the code/no-code argument all over again.

Misguided Hams on eBay and Mototrbo

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-02-22T06:55:27-05:00

I was doing a search on eBay the other day for DStar equipment. I came across this posting. Actually the person had a couple of beat-up commercial items up for auction using this or a similar description:

50 watt 32 channel VHF 136-174

You are bidding on the next technology in digital FM communications. Once I figured out that Motorola commercial Dmr was cheaper than my icom dstar equipment, i sold all my dstar repeaters and gear!

No kidding! Yaesu is coming out with DMR radios soon, but motorola, hytera, vertex already exist. DMR is an open ETSI standard and is legal on the hambands. You can buy a complete repeater new for less than $2000, and mobile rigs for less than $500. This technology fits 2 voice / data channels into 1 repeater! To do this with an icom dstar stack you would need 2 rp and 1 contoller - would cost $4500! Lets face it Dstar is 10 year old technology now.

Yes motorolas software is $250 - but it programs every version of mototrbo mobile and portable. The ham software costs $50 for each model of radio!

Once you've used commercial gear on the ham bands you will never turn back!

See my other auctions for a mototrbo repeater.

I have licensed cps and will program for free for winning bidder, or radio ships with 162.400 and 162.55 wx channels.

Included in auction but not pictured is new mobile bracket and new oem power cable. Radio is in mint condition and never seen mobile use.

Due to the technical nature of this equipment and the potential to brick the unit - No returns! all sales final.

Now I left the grammar and spelling as is. Let's analyze all these claims.

This used and beat-up stuff is supposedly cheaper. The current bid was $200 for a single-band radio with no warranty. I can now buy a NEW DStar radio single band for less than $300 with warranty. Why would I want to buy used stuff without warranty for $200 or more as the bidding is not over? Oh, and that under $300 DStar radio also has a built-in GPS unit.

Then I have to buy the programming software for $250. So now we're at $450 or more. Cheaper? No.

Actually the person says that all software for Icom cost $50 a radio. Not true at all. In many cases, Icom gives you the programming software for free. Or, in all cases, you can use the FREE software from Chirp to program them. Oh, Chirp does not support this commercial crap.

DMR is an open standard. OK, so is DStar. No difference there, but the poster leads you to believe there is. In both cases the Codec used for digital communications is proprietary. Again, no difference.

The other claim, once you have used commercial gear on ham bands, you'll never turn back. Well I have, and because it is not made for the amateur market, I did turn back and will never use commercial surplus again. It is not supported by the manufacturers for amateur use. It is made for commercial markets so it does not have the same flexibility for amateur use. Oh it works, but not worth the aggravation or expense.

The seller will program for free. Great, now that you have the radio, you want to change the programming? Good luck. In most cases, you'll be lucky if you can actually buy the programming software.

Finally here is another myth. The technology is 10 years old so it is outdated. Not true in being outdated. Yes, it is 10 years old, but it is technology designed specifically for hams! All this commercial garbage is designed for markets other than ham radio. Second, if I use that logic, in 5 years when something else comes out for the commercial market, then this Mototrbo stuff the seller is trying to get rid of is also outdated.

Sure, this commercial stuff fits 2 voice/data channels into one repeater. Yup, but at twice the bandwidth of DStar! Doh, didn't tell you that did he/she!

So he sold all his DStar stuff and went to Mototrbo. Great, who is he talking to? Yaesu has yet to begin selling a Mototrbo for ham radio and apparently whatever it is Yaesu will introduce for hams is not the same at Mototrbo. There are darn few DMR repeaters compared to thousands for DStar. Nothing for this Yaesu ham mototrbo stuff.

Hams have a choice. You can go with DStar with over 1,000 repeaters worldwide. Use a PROVEN technology used by thousands of hams around the world. Use a technology designed for hams by hams.

Or……

You can use Yaesu's commercial equipment, adapted for ham use. Designed without hams in mind. With hardly any users. With maybe a couple of repeaters. No one to really talk to. Price of their equipment still unknown, unless you want to use this "refurbished" commercial junk which is still at a price close to DStar's NEW with warranty equipment.

BTW, one only has to look at Yeasu's record of going against the tide. In the U.S we developed IRLP and Echolink. Yaesu went against IRLP and Echolink and created WIRES. Yeah, that's the useless "WIRES" button Yaesu still puts on their radios. No one barely uses WIRES outside of Japan.

Going against an established trend in Amateur Radio is stupid. Yaesu should have adopted DStar which is already well entrenched around the world.

In any case, don't be fooled by outlandish claims by people trying to dump used commercial gear on unsuspecting hams. Unless or course you are looking for a new boat anchor for your bass boat.

Worked All States with JT-65

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2013-02-12T06:40:56-05:00

Checked LoTW this morning, and what do you know? The final QSL from Hawaii using mode JT-65 finally came through.

Of course with ARRL's LoTW system, applying for awards is so easy. So right away I applied for the award and paid the $15.00 fee.

This is the 4th WAS award that I will have. I have one WAS using only paper QSL cards; another WAS using electronic confirmations only from LoTW; another WAS using all digital modes; and now another WAS using only the digital mode of JT-65.

If you have not started using LoTW, consider doing it now. LoTW makes it much easier and less expensive to obtain QSL confirmations when chasing operating awards. So please consider jumping on the 21st Century bandwagon and use the technology that the ARRL is providing to all hams around the world.

Upcoming Live D-Star Broadcast

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-12-19T17:15:27-05:00

This was sent to me via the website, so I thought it might be interesting to those of you using DStar or considering adopting THE digital standard in Amateur Radio which of course is DStar.

The website http://w5kub.com will be doing a live internet broadcast called "D-Star Live" on Dec 29th from 1600 until 2000 UTC. Ray Novak, N9JA, Sales Manager for Icom, is flying in for this event and there will also be a few other special guests. Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC, the co-inventor and developer of the DV Dongle and DVAP Dongle, will take part in the Internet broadcast. We will discuss all aspects of DStar. There will be a chatroom on the video broadcast page where those interested in DStar can ask questions for the experts to answer. Please visit the website or join the Facebook broadcast page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/279273778772594/ for more details.

Above information courtesy of W5KUB.

Argonaut VI - More bad news

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-12-18T07:26:39-05:00

This morning I received an email from TenTec making the official announcement of the Argonaut VI, even though I noticed it on their website yesterday.

Well the radio is crippled more than I thought at first. I did not notice that they also left 60 meters off their radio.

So the radio is missing 60, 12 and 6 meters. Why would anyone produce a radio with missing bands in this day and age? Not too long ago TenTec was able to produce a radio with all those bands, with only 6 meters missing. It was the predecessor called the Argonaut V. So instead of moving forward and offering more, TenTec is offering less for more money.

What were those people thinking?

TenTec Argonaut VI vs. Elecraft KX3

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-12-17T12:26:43-05:00

Back in July I wrote about TenTec and how I think they are losing their innovation an appeal.

Well I guess their latest product, the Argonaut VI confirms my opinion. The new Argonaut was recently listed on TenTec's website and now available. The price is a whopping $995. One hundred more than my worst guess.

Here are the problems. The radio is not a complete HF radio. Second, the price is very high for what you get. Three, the radio is not competitive.

The Argonaut VI is missing the 12 meter band! It also is missing the 6 meter band. How can a company be taken seriously is you leave off one of the HF bands? It cannot.

I will tell you my suspicions. I'll bet that TecTec originally planned on making this radio 80 through 10 meters. But when QRP folks heard about this, they raised a stink for the 160 meter band to be included. Since they were so far along with the design, they had to give up something so they sacrificed the 12 meter band for the 160 meter band. In my mind, it's a crippled radio and not complete with an almost $1,000 price tag to boot.

Frankly, the radio should have been designed from the beginning to have 160 through 6 meters. The decisions on this radio were poor from the start.

Now let's look at the Elecraft KX3. Assembled the radio retails for $999.00, just $4 more than the new Argonaut VI. Unassembled it sells for $899.

The KX3 comes with 160 through 6 meters. So it is complete. The KX3 also does RTTY and PSK31 which are not features of the Argonaut VI.

Elecraft has also noted that it is supposed to be introducing a 2 Meter module for the KX3. You can also get an optional internal auto-tuner and use a battery pack to go truly mobile. None of these are possibilities with the Argonaut VI.

When I brought up the lack of 12 meters and 6 meters on the Argonaut VI radio to the TenTec folks at Dayton, the response was that there was not enough room. When I asked how it is that Elecraft can build a radio that is smaller and with more features than the TenTec Argonaut VI, they answer was a rather rude, "I don't know, you'll have to ask them."

Really? TenTec wants me to go to a competitor and ask them how they can make a superior, more full featured radio than TenTec and at a better price. I can only guess the answer. It would be something like, "we have superior engineering" or " we build better products" or "we create better designs."

In full disclosure I am or was a TenTec fan and promoter. I have owned a number of TenTec radios over the years and still have an Argonaut V which is very nice.

I do not own any Elecraft radios so I do not believe my opinions are biased. If anything, I would be biased towards TenTec. But with this recent debacle, I am less biased and very disappointed in TenTec's lack of innovation and progress with the new TenTec Argonaut VI. I say avoid it and wait another 5 years or so when they can maybe make a competitive product again at a competitive price.

Something to blog about…The Raspberry Pi

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-11-13T07:12:12-05:00

There has not been a lot to blog about lately. Until now.

I cannot remember where I learned about this recently, but I came across a little electronic device/computer called the Raspberry Pi.

The Raspberry Pi was developed in the U.K. by a foundation to provide a simple, inexpensive platform for youth to learn programming. The Raspberry Pi is a computer on a board about the size of a deck of cards that can run Linux. Here's the best thing. It SELLS for $35.00 (USD).

Hams have taken to this little computer and have developed all sorts of uses for it. Controlling repeaters, DStar DVAPS and Hotspots, APRS Digis, Packet Digis, Multimode device, etc. The possibilities are endless.

The little computer in the most current version (there was an earlier version) which is the "B" model with 512MBs of memory, two USB ports, an HDMI port, composite video port, an audio out port, and an SD Card slot that serves as the storage. You can add a powered USB Hub to add more USB ports to add external disk, CD/DVD player etc.

The bad news is that demand is so high, that you have to wait weeks or months to get one. They cannot manufacture them fast enough. If you want one right away, you can get them on eBay, but you'll have to pay a premium to get it right away. I ordered my first one off eBay for about $56 with $5 for shipping. You can order them from Newark (www.newark.com) here in the U.S. for $35, but you'll wait sometimes when they are on back-order which is most of the time.

You can get basic information at http://www.raspberrypi.org/ but be sure to do a search on the Internet to see what hams are doing with the Raspberry Pi or RPi for short. There are also a number of Yahoo Groups with more information on hams experimenting with this little computer.

Currently, my Raspberry Pi is running a DStar DVAP. It runs "headless" meaning without a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I use my other computers to do a ssh session into the RPi which is just like sitting in front of a directly connected monitor.

I have seen other experimenting with marrying the RPi to a TNC-X to make a self contained little packet station. But don't forget, there is software out that to turn that little computer into a repeater controller! A $35 repeater controller folks!

So take a look and read up on how this little device is helping make positive changes to amateur radio. Oh, and I have two more on order from Newark.

More on the Digital Wars - Icom DStar versus Yaesu Digital

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-09-22T10:51:51-04:00

I recently saw that Icom has announced two more radios with DStar.

The first is the ID-51A which is a dual-band (2meter/440Mhz) FM and DStar radio with GPS built-in. The entire DStar repeater database is loaded in a memory card. The GPS allows you to find DStar repeaters that are close to your location. The GPS will also capture your location and send it automatically to the DStar repeater system and using DPRS, feeds the location to the APRS network.

The IC-7100 is another “DC to Daylight” frequency coverage radio that has the usual modes plus DStar. Even has a touch screen.

Yaesu, who first showed their FT-1DR at Dayton. The FT-1DR is a dual band handheld with yet another digital voice mode that is intended to compete with DStar.

Well here we are now almost to October and still no Yaesu digital radio. Frankly, this radio is probably pretty much DOA. I would advise anyone who may be considering such a purchase unless you are looking for a fancier FM radio than what Yaesu already offers.

The Yaesu effort on their digital technology was so lackluster at Dayton, it actually caused a flurry of DStar purchases at Dayton. Many vendors sold out of DStar radios by mid-day Saturday.

Plans for new DStar repeaters actually accelerated following Dayton. There was just no excitement for the Yaesu offering. With DStar exploding in usage and acceptance, buying a Yaesu radio for digital usage means no one to talk to. Just because they came to the digital table late, does not mean it is superior to DStar.

Yaesu has made a huge mistake in going against the tide. They can claim their stuff is newer and the other stuff is older, but DStar sounds incredible in terms of voice quality and handles data with ease with half the bandwidth of Yaesu.

The radios keep coming from Icom and it is just a matter of time before another manufacturer jumps on the DStar bandwagon because that is what hams are buying.

Look at Yaesu’s WIRES Internet linking. No one uses it….well, I think maybe five repeater systems in the U.S. Over here we use Echolink and IRLP. Kenwood implemented Echolink into some of their radios. Smart manufacturers either create a market or go with the market. Yaesu did neither.

Such a waste.

Thoughts on TenTec

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-07-09T17:22:14-04:00

I have been a big fan of TenTec for a long time. I like to be able to buy a radio that is made right here in the United States with excellent support if it is ever needed.

In the past I have owned a Paragon II, Omni 6+, Jupiter, an Argo V, and even a few of the QRP kit transceivers.

The Jupiter was a favorite of mine for working digital. It was just a great rig for PSK, Hellschreiber, MFSK and the like. It was also a dream to use on CW as it had no noisy relays. Wish the Japanese could figure out how to get rid of the relays. Guess their engineering is just not up to par with the Americans.

The Jupiter was also one of the first ham transceivers to have updatable firmware. But it seems that the Jupiter is coming to an end at TenTec. Their ads have not had the Jupiter featured for sometime. This is only a guess, but I think once the existing stock is gone, they will announce the Jupiter is discontinued. Too bad, nice radio at a once good price point.

TenTec seems to have moved to higher priced radios now. The Eagle, the Omni and the Orion are out of reach for the average ham. They are bringing out a new replacement for the Argo V, but they crippled the radio by leaving off 12 meters and not including 6. They claim a space limitation. Really?

Seems that Elecraft can engineer a smaller radio, with the same power output that includes all bands including 6 meters and still have a place for batteries if you want to backpack. Why is TenTec going backwards? The price is still unknown, but I am guessing $899 which would be fine if it included all the bands.

The other issue is their CW QRP radios. They are importing them from China! A once proud U.S. manufacturer has sold out to the Chinese. Really, they could not have built such a radio in Tennessee?

TenTec, please get your focus back. U.S. made and innovation. Leaving off bands for "space limitations" is not innovation in my opinion.

Got to love the ARRL LoTW

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-07-08T08:15:44-04:00

I know some people hate the ARRL's LoTW. They say it is not easy to set-up and use. They even complain it has too much security. The reason of course is that people cheat, hence the security.

Frankly, I have found LoTW to be easy to set-up and use provided you follow the directions. I have also posted positive reviews of the LoTW on various websites like eHam. After the posts, I get emails from people saying that it is too hard to set-up and some even say that I MUST help them set-up LoTW since hams have always been a helpful group.

So I always email them back and offer to help, but I also ask some basic questions. Funny thing is with the complainers, I never get a response from them. Here are the "complex" questions I have asked.

"Did you follow exactly the steps outlined in the ARRL installation document?" I mean the installation tutorial is a step-by-step procedure that if you follow it, it will work.

"Did you apply for the certificate and did you receive it yet?" Pretty basic starting point right?

Never hear from them again. I even offered to go to one guy's house to set it up since he lived near me. No response.

Seems funny that people complain, you offer to help, and they don't respond. I guess they really don't want to set it up and just want to complain.

In any case the ARRL finally got the CQ Magazine WPX Award implemented within LoTW. Well what do you know? I had 472 QSLs available for the WPX Mixed Award. I applied right on line. Simple and easy.

That makes the third award I have received using the ARRL LoTW. This is a great thing.

If you are not using LoTW yet and like to work towards operating awards, I suggest you do so soon. Apply for the certificate, then follow the set-by-step instructions. It's easy and you can get a lot of QSLs for a lot less money than the paper QSLs. It's a great thing.

More English Language Abuse

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-05-30T07:22:06-04:00

I found this one on a ham radio group at Yahoo Groups. The person posting this is referring to how long it has taken for a new radio to come to market. This one struck me as very funny.

"Out of patients..... The Icom 208H is well priced and does all the frequencies that the 920 does anyway. End of story…"

If I am reading the above correctly, it seems the guy is a physician because he apparently has run out of patients. I guess he must have cured them all and now has more time for amateur radio.

Maybe next time he'll run out of patience.

;-)

Kenwood D710 APRS Radio

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-05-26T07:01:32-04:00

If anyone out there is interested in APRS or in Digipeating through the ISS (Space Station), I've added additional information on my APRS Information webpage how I am now using the Kenwood D710 APRS dual-band radio to run on APRS on 144.39 and digipeating through the ISS on 145.825 at the same time using the dual-band function of the D710.

I picked up the D710 at the 2012 Dayton Hamvention from Ham Radio Outlet. What an excellent radio. So if you are interested, click on the APRS Information link on the left side of the page.

Have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.

Dayton Hamvention 2012 Recap

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-05-21T10:10:42-04:00

Another Dayton Hamvention has come and gone. I spent Thursday night thru Saturday afternoon with Rod WI0T and Russ WB8ZCC at the Hamvention. Thursday evening was the usual pre-Dayton drinking festivities. WB8ZCC suffered with a headache on Friday.

The good news is that the weather was great. It was the first Dayton Hamvention in recent memory where is did not rain at some point during the weekend. In fact, the skies were blue and beautiful and temperature in the 80s.

The crowd seemed about the same as last year to me, but then on Monday I was listening to the Dayton DStar repeater and the hams there said that the attendance was up this year to around 25,000 people. That means growth again. Great news for the Hamvention going forward.

Flea market vendors were down again. That's OK since most of the vendors who did come had nothing but junk at premium prices. I suspect a number of them toted the stuff home since they apparently think their junk is worth just a little less than buying something new with a warranty. I just don't understand what people are thinking with these asking prices. Some say it is because of eBay, but I don't believe it. Most of this stuff was junk and most of the stuff on eBay is of decent quality, or at least that is my experience.

In any case I anticipated that there would be a big crowd at the Yaesu booth looking at their new digital handheld radio the FT-1DR/E. To my surprise, there was very little interest and no crowd whatsoever. Just the usual people stopping by to get their free Yaesa hat (by the way, someone told me that in Japanese, Yaesu means "free hat." In any case, when I tried discussing the new digital offering with the Yaesu people, about all they could tell me was that "it is not P25 and not DStar."

From what I can tell the bandwidth is twice as wide as DStar, hence faster data speeds, it has a built-in GPS, and that it is capable of taking and sending very low resolution pictures. Since the handheld cannot display the picture I am not sure what the full benefit is with that function. Furthermore, even if sending it to a base unit allowing them to view it on a PC, the picture is so low in resolution it would not be worth much to me. The radio does attach the position of the radio to the picture so you can return to the place where it was taken. In marketing we would call it flash and trash.

It does allow for a micro SD card to back-up data and store GPS positions just like the current DStar handheld radio the ID-31. It also has digital ARTS, but I have never seen or known anyone to use ARTS on their analog radios.

There is no mention of call-sign routing or being able to use the GPS function to transfer position to the APRS network as there is today with DStar.

You can apparently send Group Short Messages and we all know it is not easy to send messages with the keyboards on anyone's handheld….at least not fast.

It appears that this Yaesu digital radio is really just trying to migrate a commercial technology into ham radio. We all know that DStar from the ground up was designed specifically for amateur radio. So now you have a choice between a technology designed for amateur radio and one designed for commercial users and shoe horned for you. An easy selection in my opinion.

So Yaesu was not selling any of the radios, with little excitement from amateurs, with no one to talk to because of zero Yaesu digital capable repeaters, why would you buy it? Again, I think Yaesu made a big mistake with this direction since DStar is already an established digital standard that works extremely well in spite of Yaesu's attempt to create FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) by saying it is old technology. Don't believe it folks.

Well I had to have some fun with Yaesu and mock their poor decision to go in another digital direction. WI0T, WB8ZCC and I did wear some yellow T-Shirts I had produced prior to the Hamvention that said "DStar, THE Digital Standard for Amateur Radio" on the front and "DStar Accept No Substitutes" on the back. We wore them the entire day on Saturday. People loved it for the most part. A few made negative comments, probably the old hate to change CW forever crowd. We also wore them at the Yaesu booth and stood around talking. Yaesu folks didn't seem to care and since most people passed on taking a look at their new FT-1DR/E, the average ham didn't even get the meaning.

In summary, it looks to me that the Yaesu digital offering is DOA.

On the other hand, DStar is alive and well with tremendous and growing interest at the Hamvention. The DStar gatherings on Thursday and Friday nights were packed with hams. Icom gave a presentation on the history of DStar that was very interesting. It outlined why they selected the Codec and GMSK for the base of DStar. Once you listen to that presentation, it all makes sense.

The DStar education forum was also packed with hams eager to learn about the DStar technology and all that it can offer.

Many of the vendors of DStar equipment had sold most of the on-site DStar inventory by Saturday morning. The ID-31 handhelds were the first to sell-out as that is the latest and greatest easy to use DStar handheld complete with GPS and the entire DStar repeater database. With the GPS, the ID-31 can automatically find and program the radio for the closest repeater. Of course since it has the built-in GPS, it can also send your position to the APRS network. So DStar is growing very rapidly now and just exploding in growth. With close to a thousand world-wide DStar repeaters now and all 50 states covered, it is no wonder the digital excitement is with DStar and not Yaesu.

TenTec showed off the new QRP transceiver and the new QRP amplifier. The amp looks very interesting. The QRP transceiver is missing 12 meters. TenTec said it would not fit. Huh? So Elecraft can bring out a 10 watt QRP radio with 160 meters up to 6 meters in a smaller box and TenTec cannot even get all the HF bands to fit into a larger box. Very puzzling to me.

Alinco showed off their new SDR transceiver. Frankly, it looks like their regular HF transceiver without the panel and with a computer to control it. No comparison to the Flexradio SDR radios.

Flexradio showed off their new and coming new SDR radio. This is aimed towards the money crowd with a price to be around $7,000. Out of my league, but I am sure it is going to be great.

Kenwood showed their new 990 HF radio. Wow, this thing is a monster and rumored to be around $10K list price. Again, for the money crowd, but the radio looked great.

Go to my Dayton Hamvention 2012 Photo Album for pictures of all the new offerings.

The ARRL booth was crazy with activity and helps to create a lot of excitement around ham radio.

W4PC and the Ham Radio Deluxe gang were there to show off what is coming in the new 6.0 release. They had a line of people waiting to pay $60 for support and the next HRD version 6.0 which of course will start the paid subscription model of HRD. HRD is by far the best radio control, multimode and logging program out there supporting all the major radios with one license. I know hams are use to mostly free software. But if we want people to continue to support and develop their software, we're going to have to start paying them to do so. There is nothing more frustrating to me than to use and like a program, only to have the author drop support because it takes up too much of his free time. These guys and gals need to get compensated for their time. Let's support HRD folks.

There were also many vendors selling all those new cheap China radios. Many people were buying the Wouxun, Baofeng, TYT and some other weird name radios. Hey, they're pretty much cheap throw-a-ways. I mean were else can you get a dual band four or five watt handheld with rapid charger for $65 bucks?

So we had a great time and there is so much more to talk about. After all there are hundreds of vendors and I would wear my fingers out typing comments about all of them so I just tried to hit the highlights.

I know gas prices are up, but the trip to Dayton each year is well worth it.

New Baofeng UV-5R Radio

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-05-14T07:30:30-04:00

I had been looking at the new Baofeng UV-5R (pronounced either as Mao-Fang or as Bao-Fang - who knows with these Chinese names) UV-5R dual-band VHF/UHF handheld. How can you pass up a 4 watt handheld with charger for under $65 bucks? You cannot, I mean at that price, the darn thing is almost a throw-a-way if it ever breaks.

Believe it or not, I actually ordered and received mine from Amazon.com. About $62 delivered since I have their Prime Service.

Did not take too long to unpack and put it on the air. The first thing was programming the radio. I used the free open-source Chirp software which is much better than the free software Baofeng provides as a download. The radio also used the same programming cable as the Wouxun Chinese radios which I already had.

Once programmed it is somewhat intuitive. The instruction manual is pretty sparse as far as how to program and use the various features.

BTW, the radio is capable of transmitting outside the ham bands and is FCC Part 90 accepted. So you can use this radio for things other than amateur radio.

In any case, I have programmed some of the various amateur repeaters in the area and gave it a try. The first thing I noticed is that is has a built-in time-out-time. It is factory set at 15 second. I kept getting cutoff during conversations so I changed that to 45 seconds pretty quickly.

Audio reports are good and on receive it sounds very good. I even programmed some of the local police/fire frequencies into it to listen and it picked them up very well so the receiver seems to be more than adequate.

The display can change colors based on what the radio is doing. It is factory set to glow orange on transmit, blue when actually receiving a signal, and purple is the squelch is open and there is no signal.

On the charger, there is an LED that flashed quickly between red and green when there is no radio or battery being charged. That is really annoying. There should be no light on the charger when it is not charging in my opinion. It also glow red while charging and green when the battery is charged. You can charge the battery while attached to the radio, or even charge a stand-alone battery.

This is a great radio for a great price. Cheaper than the Wouxuns that everyone seems to be snapping up. For the new Technician wanting to get a new radio when they get their license, for less than $65 this is a great starter radio.

Oh, if you need help with the radio, there is a large group on Yahoo Groups that are there to help with any questions. As I said, the manual is not very good, so the group is your extension of the manual.

Let It Be Known/Ham Radio Deluxe

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-05-04T10:41:03-04:00

Let it be known to all hams that today, Friday, May 4th, Rod, WI0T, actually spent money and purchased version 6.0 of Ham Radio Deluxe.

As many of you know, money in Rod's pocket usually never sees the light of day. So today is a historic event.

We are hoping Rod continues to free up cash at the Hamvention in a few weeks. It will surely help stimulate the economy and put the U.S. back on the track to prosperity for sure.

BTW, Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) is an excellent full-featured radio control (multi brands and models of radios), digital multi-mode and logbook program. To learn more about this incredible program suite, go to:

http://www.hrdsoftwarellc.com/

In my opinion, HRD is a much better value than other paid radio control programs such as the N4PY application since you only have to purchase one license for ALL radios and the license key is not dependent on the individual computer it is installed on. What other programs like N4PY do not offer with their application which HRD does, is the logbook and the digital mode program.

The HRD folks will be at Dayton so stop by and visit their booth.

Looking forward to Dayton Hamvention 2012!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-05-01T12:36:43-04:00

The Dayton Hamvention is just a couple of weeks away. The excitement is building. Seems manufacturers have been holding off on announcing new products instead preferring to make the new stuff public at the Hamvention!

The product pricing is great at Dayton. Anything you could possible want can be bought at the Hamvention.

Plenty of friends to meet, food to eat and alcohol to drink! Three days of fun!

I'll let you know what I saw, bought and saw at Dayton. So visit after the Dayton Hamvention to read my comments and see the pictures.

More Poor Spelling and English from Hams

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-04-30T09:31:51-04:00

Wow, so a ham sent me a note about the new repeater he had set-up. Very nice of him to send a note.

When I went to QRZ.com to look up his call, here is what he had written on his profile page. I have deleted the information from his post that would have identified him. I used the letter "X" in the following post to show what I modified and I also substituted (name) for their actual names.

"MY SELF WITH XX8XXX (name) AND YY8XXX (name).CO SPONCER A REPETER IN THE NORTHERN KY. CINCINNATI OHIO AERA IT IS A OPEN TO ALL REPETER. THE FREQ.IS XXX.XXX TONE XXX.Xhz IT HAS AN AUTO PATCH AND BACKUP POWER SYSTEM. CALL ANY OF US FOR THE AUTO PATCH CODES. PLEASE FELL FREE TO USE THE SYSTEM ANY TIME."

Here is a better way to write this with spelling and gammar corrections:

"(name) XX8XXX, (name) YY8XXX and I co-sponsor a repeater in the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati, Ohio area. This repeater is open to all amateurs. The frequency is XXX.XXX with a +5 Mhz offset and a XXX.X Hz tone for access. The repeater has an auto-patch and a back-up power system. If you would like to use the auto-patch, please call us for the access codes. Feel free to use the repeater anytime."

Seriously folks, what is the general public going to think about amateur radio and amateur radio operators in general if they read information on our hobby written in horrible English and spelling? Especially when we are talking about the spelling of very basic words such as "area."

I would also like to mention that the use of all caps is the Internet equivalent of yelling. Come on people, learn to use the shift key.

Is the above example representative of the kind of English, spelling and writing skills that they are teaching in our public schools? If so then the future of our country and amateur radio is frightening to me. No wonder the United States is losing its competitive advantage in the world.

CW should not have been the filter. Maybe a test that included the writing of a simple English composition should have been given along with a test on theory and rules.

WAS Digital Modes Only

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-03-22T10:10:31-04:00

The ARRL just processed my Worked All States (WAS) Award for two-way communication with all 50 states using digital modes only. That is my third WAS Award.

I have my original award using paper QSLs only, then I did it again this time using only electronic QSLs from Logbook of the World (LoTW), and now WAS using Digital Modes only using all electronic QSLs. Next on the WAS bandwagon will be WAS using just RTTY. Only four states away from that one.

I am also working on DXCC on 10 Meters only. At 89 countries now and have worked enough, just waiting on the QSLs in LoTW to come through. People, please do the uploads to LoTW. It is much easier and cheaper than paper QSLs.

Hams need a course in English

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-03-06T08:20:30-05:00

I remember the now settled discussion about CW testing to get a license for amateur radio. Seems many thought that removing CW meant the dumbing down of amateur radio. I'm here to tell you that the CW test requirement had nothing to do with dumbing down amateur radio. Seems it was already here.

Anyone who reads the forum postings on QRZ, eHam, Yahoo Groups and the like should be a bit shocked at the butchering of the English language. People do not seem to know how to spell or the correct usage of words such as "their", "they're" and "there." Some use "and" when they meant "an." One of the latest violations are from people who use "prolly" when they meant to use "probably." I have even read where people use "know" for "now" and vice-versa. I could go on and on.

Seems that the dumbing down occurred long before the dropping of the CW test since many of these posts are from hams that have been licensed for more than 10 years.

What prompted this little rant today was the post I read from a ham who wrote this: "Is it because it's and ICOM pattend?" First, I cannot even figure out what he means by "pattend." The rest of the poor excuse for a sentence is just mess of the English language. So elimination of the CW testing is not dumbing down amateur radio. I think it is our crumbling public school system.

Then there are those who do not know how to use the "Shift" key on the keyboard. They type in all caps which is the Internet equivalent of screaming. Simply put, if you do not know how to properly type, then please don't make postings on the bulletin boards.

Come on hams, we can do better!

The Yaesu Mistake

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2012-01-02T16:20:15-05:00

Happy New Year!

Last week I was getting ready to head down to Atlanta to visit my daughter and her family. Atlanta is a great place to visit, especially if you are into D-Star. Heck, the whole Southeast area of the United States is a D-Star haven. But I digress.

I read a post on the TAPR APRS SIG about Yaesu finally introducing digital radio. It looks like they are going to bring out something that is based on P25. P25 is a digital mode developed for the United States Public Sevices - as in police, fire, government service, etc.

Now Icom introduced D-Star a number of years ago. D-Star was developed for the amateur radio community and developed for an international market. P25 is a digital method developed for the U.S. government market and not a worldwide market and hardly developed for the amateur community. D-Star is a completely open standard. The only thing proprietary is the digital Codec. Not a big deal.

There is a well established and growing D-Star presence throughout the world. So now Yaesu is going to come along and hose things up by introducing something different. What's next, Kenwood coming out with their own digital mode?

Yaesu's actions are nothing short of nuts. Why not go with what is already established and a defacto standard in the amateur community? What are they trying to create, the Beta/VHS war of years ago?

One amateur on the list who will remain nameless commented that he never got D-Star and thought it was stupid. Why? Because if could not interoperate with the U.S. public service systems! Well I have got news for him and everyone else. The police and fire agencies are NEVER going to link their communication systems with amateur systems. Thinking this is nothing but foolish. Each service will stand on its own. So that kind of blows the whole need for one common system for digital. Heck, even in the U.S., the railroads have chosen their own digital system. There is no standard across all services. Each service picks its own standard.

D-Star has become the standard. What a mistake for Yaesu to not have jumped on the D-Star bandwagon. Remember, Yaesu is the same company who went with "Wires" instead of Echolink and IRLP. As a result of that horrible decision, almost no one uses Wires. Yaesu is making another mistake trying to go on its own. This can only benefit Icom.

Here it is! My newest DXCC Award

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-12-14T07:46:13-05:00

Received my DXCC All-Phone contacts award a few weeks ago from the ARRL and took it to the framing store to have it framed. Got it back yesterday. The local store does such a great job with the framing.

Second DXCC Award

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-11-26T15:40:48-05:00

Just received my certificate for DXCC - Phone. The first DXCC award I received was for mixed contacts back in 2003. This award was for all phone contacts. The next closest award I am close to is DXCC on 10 meters (still need 20 confirmed contacts) and all Digital (still need about 45 confirmed contacts). One thing for sure is that the paper the award comes on now is rather flimsy. The first award from eight years ago had much heavier paper stock.

SD Radios (SDR) and my new Flexradio 1500

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-09-25T07:44:29-04:00

I remember when the Flexradio 1500 came out a few years ago. It really interested me and at the introductory price of $599, I almost bought one back then. However, I lost interest when it seemed like forever between the announcement of the 1500 and the eventual shipments started.

My buddy Russ, WB8ZCC, has become very interested in SDR and we used to banter back and forth about SDR and my concern with investing in a radio that was dependent upon a computer. What happens in 20 years when the hardware still works, but the manufacturer does not support the newer operating systems? Second, I just like knobs and a display on the radio.

Well you can imagine Russ' surprise when I told him I ordered a Flexradio 1500! I figured if I could get 10 years out of it then it would not be a bad investment.

I have to tell you that I am rather impressed with this little box. I have used it on SSB, CW, a bunch of digital modes like PSK, JT-65, and Hell, and even used it to receive DRM broadcasts on shortwave. The radio is just fun to use and so far I have not missed the lack of knobs on the radio.

Even with only 5 watts on this radio (the other Flex radios are higher power), this thing is pretty impressive. On SSB with 5 watts, I got a 58 report from a school station in Wyoming. Not to shabby. The Flexradio supplied software is really comprehensive. Through the use of virtual audio cable and virtual comm ports, you can use all sorts of external programs like MixW, HRD, DM-780, FLDigi, etc. and all through one single USB cable. Neat! No more interfaces and multiple USB/Serial cables.

So take a look at Flexradio and if you have the bucks, you might want to dip your toe into the world of SDR with the Flexradio 1500. You can find them at http://flexradio.com

Made it to Dayton after all!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-05-26T15:43:07-04:00

As it turned out, I was able to go to Dayton this year on Friday. Just had to cut it short in order to get back to Cincinnati in time to pack up and head to Atlanta for the weekend. So here are some quick observations.

Vendors in the flea market were down substantially from last year. Still good, but a lot of open spaces. My personal opinion is that the fee for a space is too high for a casual seller. DARA should open those spaces each day of the flea market on a first-come-first-served basis for $20. A small seller cannot make a profit for what DARA currently charges.

I missed the explosion of the sanitary sewer on Saturday. What a mess it must have been. I am sure the smell was not any worse than normal. Hams really need to change their diets!

OK, now for the good stuff. Flexradio was hot and hard to get into their booth to look at their stuff. So I really could not get in to see if there was anything new. Whatever they had was creating a lot of excitement.

Yaesu did not have any hats this year. Something about them getting stuck in customs....yeah, right. Well no hats meant that traffic in their booth was down quite a bit.

TenTec was showing the new Eagle transceiver. Looked nice. Price is too high especially compared to the new Kenwood TS-590S which seems to be very similar in performance.

Icom and Kenwood had their new radios there. Icom booth was crazy as usual and Kenwood picked up on activity.

D-Star was still creating a lot of new excitement. The dedicated D-Star booth was always busy. D-Star is really picking up in popularity. Once you get on it, you don’t want to get off it. D-Star and digital is the future of ham radio.

ARRL was also busy as usual. They have an excellent presence at Dayton.

Byonics had a lot of new items for APRS and continues to generate a lot of excitement. Peak had a lot of reconditioned weather stations to go with the home APRS stations at an excellent price.

Wouxun radios were being snapped up quickly. At $85 to $105 depending on model and vendor, people were buying them like crazy. I heard many vendors sold-out of the Wouxun radios quickly. If you got one, find the KG-UV Commander Software as it is much easier to use than the crappy software from Wouxun.

GRE/Alinco had large booth. The exciting thing there was that they will be bringing out a new 900Mhz/1.2Ghz dual-band handheld. That is great and could help 900 Mhz take off. I noticed a growth in repeaters on that band, I just don’t know what radios people are using to access those repeaters. Well it appear Alinco is coming to the rescue.

Looking forward to next year and being able to spend more time there in 2012.

APRS and Hamvention

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-05-19T08:09:02-04:00

I always love this time of year. When all the hams start coming into Dayton, my APRS station map becomes absolutely cluttered with the icons of stations using APRS. It is so cool to see all the hams traveling to Dayton.

Many hams don’t get APRS, but I find it to be a lot of fun and it is always interesting to see who is traveling through the area. Fun stuff with the hobby.

Looks like I will be going to Dayton

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-05-19T08:07:08-04:00

Looks like I will be going to Dayton this year after all...if but for a few hours on Friday.

Russ, WB8ZCC and I will be heading up early Friday and coming back mid-afternoon. So it looks like my record of attending Dayton will not be broken.

I will try to post some Dayton pictures on the website for those who may have to miss it this year.

No Dayton Hamvention for me this year...Bummer!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-05-05T10:39:39-04:00

Well it had to happen eventually. My string of going to the Dayton Hamvention was destined to be broken eventually.

I think I have not missed a Hamvention in close to 20 years. Ever since I moved back to Cincinnati from St. Louis I believe I have made every Hamvention. This year though I will be unable to go.

It appears my darling daughter scheduled our grandson’s first birthday party the same day as I usually attend Dayton. Of course I have to make my grandson’s first birthday party.

So no Hamvention for me. No spending a bunch of money on more toys I could do without. No collecting the annual ARRL Hamvention button. No smelling restrooms. No fun with the ham radio friends.

I will miss going this year. See you there next year!

Dayton Hamvention 2011 Possibly a Bust?

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-03-22T17:43:33-04:00

It's no secret that most of our radio and associated equipment comes from Japan. With the recent terrible disasters in Japan, I cannot help but wonder what effects it will have on the annual Dayton Hamvention. Usually Dayton pricing is the best pricing of the year, but if radios are now going to be in short supply, why discount them heavily?

Many manufacturers have been without production capabilities for a number of weeks and who knows how long it will take for the country to recover. However, I believe that Kenwood may be immune somewhat from the effects since they do most of their manufacturing in Malaysia and not in Japan.

In any case, amateurs all across the world are praying for our fellow hams and non-hams in Japan for a speedy recovery.

Experimenting with JT65-HF

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-03-14T07:24:25-04:00

Just started experimenting with JT-65 HF after reading the QST article. A little different than most soundcard programs and I am able to receive and decode transmissions. Have not transmitted yet, as I am still feeling out how the program works. Looks promising though.

Why buy radios if you are not going to use them?

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-02-22T09:21:49-05:00

Each and every year I attend the Dayton Hamvention. I don't think I have missed a year in the past 20 years. I watch people buying new handheld radios like they are going to stop manufacturing them any day now.

Then, when Dayton is all over, the repeaters are relatively silent. What are you people doing with these radios? Just listening to nothing? I don't get it.

Hams are in this hobby to communicate. So why aren't we talking on the repeaters anymore?

Not to mention, when I go to the meetings of my local ham radio club, the room is usually filled with 50 or more people, and you're lucky if you hear even 10 of those people on any of the club repeaters at any time during the week.

Come on people, get on the radio. Talk and make friends. Learn something interesting about others. Communicate something interesting about you. If you are going to be a ham, then act like a ham and use the flipping radios!

SunSpots - Are they back?

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-02-19T09:20:06-05:00

I am not on the HF radio every day, but Russ (WB8ZCC) sent out an email yesterday that 10 meters was open. So I turned on the radio and did hear a number of Western Europeans on the air being worked by countless U.S. hams obviously starved for a DX contact.

Maybe after a prolonged wait, Mr. Sun is finally starting to cooperate with us patiently waiting hams. Now I can start working on my endorsement for 200 countries confirmed. Right now as I recall, I am at 118. So with a little help from the Sun, I might be able to get it this cycle.

The New Site - Hope you like it!

duffy@wb8nut.com — 2011-01-31T17:37:05-05:00

I have again updated the WB8NUT website and used a website development program called RapidWeaver. It runs on the Apple Mac. I just bought the Mac in December, 2010 and found this excellent application to create websites. It makes it much easier to maintain and add content in the future. So you can count on the site growing in the future.

Also, some of the Photo Albums are empty right now, but I plan on adding photos to those soon as time permits.

Thanks for visiting and I hope you visit again soon.