Scott County VA ARES

Jim is the EC for Scott Co VA and the Drill he mentions will be on TWO DAYS, May 14 Friday and May 15^th Saturday. The main staging area will be in Fairview, VA and according to Jim, this is a tough place to get out with RF.  May 1^st I will take the Van with my yagi antenna and a packet station to Fairview VA and their ARES group will  test each of the other sites and see how well everything works.  Those who have working packet stations would be most welcome for the drill and test. This Drill is a good opportunity to use our stations and learn some new things and to make some new friends in another ARES group.

According to Jim, there should be quite a show going on during the drill and a lot of different agencies involved.  Sounds like lots of fun to me……

From: Jimmy L Flanary
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2010 11:17 AM
To: Mike Wechsler
Subject: Thanks

Mike,

I wanted to thank you for coming to our meeting last night. I didn’t get to spend as much time with you as I would have liked.

I had been putting down new flooring all day and I was just worn out. I am so sore today that I can barely move Hi Hi. I really wanted to go with you to get a bite to eat, but, I was just way too tired. I just wanted to go to bed and rest up.

If you can find out just who will be able to help us with the exercise and send me the names, I will get them on the list and turn it in on May 2nd. I don’t know yet just how many messages will be passed from the Fairview school back to the EOC and 911 Center, but, we always have a few just to make sure that everything works.

As I told you last night, the exercise will start at 8:00 A.M. and end at 12:00 Noon. Lunch will be served and hopefully everyone will have a full belly when they leave. It’s always a lot of fun and has been the last several years that we have been having these exercises.

I believe that packet radio is the wave of the future and I also believe that it is the best way to pass traffic that is sensitive in nature. It has always been a useful tool for communications, but, the invention of Winlink and Airmail make it an even more valuable means of communicating. Emergency Managers like to keep messages private and not available to the general public. Packet radio does just that.

Thanks again, Mike. I really appreciate all of your help. Hopefully, we will have our node on 145.730 by tomorrow evening. I am anxious to see just how it will work from the top of the mountain.

Very 73,

Jim Flanary  K4GV

Gone to Morganton NC hamfest this weekend….might fire up the packet station from one of the mountains.

73  Mike

WB5RMG soundcard interface

As promised, here are the pics and schematic for the VHF packet soundcard interface I built. Construction is in the standard Altoids tin box, quick and simple point-to-point wiring. I use this direct into my Yaesu FT-736, so it has the PTT signal on a RCA phono connector, and audio in/out in a 3 conductor plug. The radio interfaces on the right side, the cables on the left go to the laptop; separate plugs for audio in and out, and the PTT is derived from the RTS (pin 7) signal on COM1. I use this with AGWPE, and can connect multiple programs at the same time; such as UI-View32, AGWterm, etc…

WB5RMG soundcard interface

Inside construction - simple

The schematic is simple, click the image for a larger view – but it is just a scan from my shop notes… The switch provides a test position (right), off (center), and Program PTT (left). The LED illuminates when keyed by the computer. I also have a variety of additional boxes to interface with different radios, mostly to accommodate different connectors. The next version incorporates a VOX switch as described by Skip Teller (KH6TY) in his QST article from June 2009, on page 30.

Shop notes for interface (click bigger)

Build one of these, build a few, tell your friends – get digital, on the air .!.!.
73 for now /;^)

Site Update 20100306

OK Mike, I’ve added a few things to the sidebar: your twitter comments, the APRS map, the ISS locator, and a handful of links to other sites of interest… I’m trying to figure out how to add the little image in the sidebar (width = 180), but here is the same pic sized for a regular post (width = 500).
73 for now … /;^)

N4OFA with his SR-71 @ USSRC - 2008

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