October 2010 - Kingston Amateur Radio Club
Contents
1. At Smitty s Restaurant Princess Street Kingston Ontario The Kingston Amateur Radio Club meeting was called to order by our president Steve VE3KC at 7 00 PM VE3KTG Kristopher Allen Korzan a new Kingston HAM and visitor VE6CCL Robert Wilson were welcomed 1 The members present introduced themselves There were 21 members in attendance 2 There were no additions to the agenda 3 Minutes our president asked for approval of the June meeting minutes as published in the newsletter The motion was moved by Michael VE3PRW and seconded by George VE3GHK and was passed 4 Treasurer s Report The report was read by Doug VE3FFR We had a closing balance of 6246 40 after expenses Doug VE3FFR Moved seconded by Michael VE3PRW that the Treasurer s Report be adopted as read Motion carried 5 Old Business Chip has added the KARC Photo gallery to the web site and members can access and add photos No other old business 6 New Business a Fleamarket Nov 13 2010 Flea market will be held Nov 13 2010 at the base Museum hosted by Terry VA3TRM Setup at 7 00 AM Breakfast at the Garrison Golf Club at 7 30 Doors open at 8 30 For those wishing tables contact Terry at his new email address tmurphy27 cogeco ca b Newsletter Joan has retired from the newsletter and Assaf VA3PCI has volunteered to take on the position of editor There will be a presentation to Joan in October c Proposed amendments to Club Bylaws Steve VE3KC presented so2. contact me So check your basements and shacks and bring all the equipment you re no longer using If you need help just ask your better halves look forward to seeing everyone at the October 6th meeting and to hearing Phil VE3HST s presentation Until then 73s and good DX Steve VE3KC MEMBER ARTICLE Review of the Tigertronics SignaLink USB By Assaf Shool VA3PCI Overview In the pioneering days of PCs hams quickly realized the power of connecting their rigs to a PC via sound card and using inexpensive or free software to explore the world of digital communications Except that this often consisted of random connecters from liberated gadgets and homemade PC boards of not always the best construction The end result was often prone to picking up stray noise and breaking down as flimsy cables and questionable build quality gave out Most of us myself included have at least one of these contraptions laying around One solution is Tigertronic s SignaLink USB It s not inexpensive at about 120 retail but have found the reduced hassle cable count and high reliability is well worth it Let s take a look The Hookup Only 2 cables are really necessary for hookup see Figure 3 A standard USB cable to the PC and another cable from the SignaLink to your rig s accessory data or mic port The USB cable comes included but since the latter cable varies in type depending on what kind of rig is being used it does not Howeve
3. such as MMSSTYV an internal relay will engage the radio is keyed and audio will be fed in The DLY adjustment sets how long your rig will stay keyed after audio has stopped For some data modes such as packet you want this to be zero as to not miss a reply For others you may want it higher to prevent keying and unkeying the rig unnecessarily fast AUX Figure 3 Hookup couldn t be any simpler or could it The back of the unit provides us with 5 more connections The two easy ones are the USB and RJ 45 connectors which I have already discussed The other 3 find somewhat confusing and could have been labeled better The first 3 5mm jack is labeled SPKR It would seem logical to me that a jack labeled SPEAKER is meant to be connected to a speaker however such an assumption would be wrong This is actually an input jack intended to take speaker level output from your rig and feed it into the SignaLink It s actually a handy feature if you are connecting the SignaLink to your radio via its Mic jack which seldom feature receive audio output but for the rest of us it might seem confusing Audio Input or even just IN may be a clearer way to define what the purpose of this jack is The second jack is AUX or auxiliary which found confusing because have no idea if it is auxiliary input to the unit or an auxiliary output It could even be seen as perhaps a port for an auxiliary keyer However it is indeed an o
4. 0 Before you start the net please turn off the repeater identifier by issuing the key sequence 300 on your touchtone keypad If you don t have a touchtone keypad ask someone else to issue the key sequence for you Good evening This is callsign net control station for the Kingston Amateur Radio Club s Tuesday night Net My name is The Kingston Amateur Radio Club Tuesday Night Net is an informal net that meets at 1930 hours every Tuesday evening on the Kingston repeater VE3KBR 146 940 MHz with a 151 4 Hz tone required on the input 146 340 MHz We welcome participation by all amateurs Before continuing is there any emergency or priority traffic Please call now The purpose of the net is to take check ins to inform you of KARC activities to provide news from other radio clubs and news of interest to Radio Amateurs Information about KARC may be found on the web site www ve3kbr com or by contacting any of our club executive members will take check ins giving priority to mobiles portables and stations checking in via EchoLink or IRLP When checking in please give your call sign phonetically your name and location and indicate whether you have any traffic or announcements for the Net Are there any stations using EchoLink or IRLP wishing to check in Please call now Are there any mobiles wishing to check in Please call now Are there any portables wishing to check in Please call now Are there any base stations
5. Kingston Amateur Radio Club 2010 Executive Newsletter Editor VA3PCI Assaf Shool news at ve3kbr com President Steve Cutway VE3KC pres at ve3kbr com Vice Pres Chip Chapman VA3KGB vicepres at ve3kbr com Repeater Committee VE3KFS Les Lindstrom Chair rptr at ve3kbr com Treasurer Doug Richards VE3FFR treas at ve3kbr com Secretary David Sellick VE3DZE I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I VA3GST John Snasdell Taylor I sec at ve3kbr com I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I va3gst at kos net i i I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Past Pres Les Lindstrom VE3KFS pastpres at ve3kbr com VA3KGB Chip Chapman va3kgb at rac ca VE3JCQ John Wood 2010 COMMITTEE CHAIRS john686 at sympatico ca Two Metre Net Manager VE3KC Steve Cutway netmanager at ve3kbr com VE3MNE Don Gilroy dgilroy at cogeco ca P O Box 1402 Kingston Ontario K7L 5C6 http www ve3kbr com VE3KAR Clarendon Stn 147 090 MHz VE3KBR Kingston 146 940 MHz 151 4Hz Tone VE3KER Kingston VE3UEL Hartington packet node APRS node 145 010 MHz simplex 144 390 MHz FROM THE PRESIDENT First I d like to welcome Assaf VA3PCI as our new newsletter editor hope you ll give him the same strong support that you gave Joan Remember this is your newsletter You all do something related to amateur radio Share it
6. Tell the rest of us about it Thanks to the 23 people who made the effort to attend the September meeting and who participated in the discussion about RAC with Stephen Mayne VE3LWX RAC S Assistant Director Ontario North and East Region Our guest speaker at the October meeting will be Phil VE3HST who will talk about Satellite Tracking and NEOSSAT As Phil explains It will be about the satellite tracking research we do at RMC with our telescope system and the research we plan to do with our new NEOSSAT when it is launched in June NEOSSAT is a joint DND CSA satellite to track satellites and to detect earth approaching asteroids I ll bring our full scale model of NEOSSAT My presentation will consist completely of a series of jpg images Congratulations to Rob VE3RPF who was recently appointed as an Assistant Director for the Ontario North and East Region RAC We now have a local voice at the table Let s get behind Rob and all join RAC to make it a stronger organization Stephen reminded us that RAC is our national organization and we certainly need it with the ever increasing demands for our frequencies as was evidenced two weeks ago by a situation in Quebec the temporary assignment of primary amateur frequencies for a non amateur event that should never have been allowed to happen While on the subject of RAC they will be holding what they re calling a visioning meeting in Ottawa Oct 29 31 John Bartlett s document Transform
7. Time 30msto3seconds GiS Circuit Relay 1 Amp Max CO e Computer Connector Connector USB 1 1 2 0 Compatible Standard USB B type connector oer comedor _ Connectors Aux Speaker 3 5mm Mono Case ssid Extruded Aluminum 6061T4 aaa Operating Temp 30C to 60C For more information visit http www tigertronics com AGENDA KINGSTON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB INC October 6 2010 At Smitty s Restaurant back room 7 00 p m 1 Members introduce themselves 2 Additions to the agenda 3 Minutes of the September 2010 meeting errors omissions approval David VE3DZE 4 Treasurer s report Doug VE3FFR 5 Business arising from the Minutes 6 New business Power Supply USB Port Powered a Possible creation of a QCWA chapter to serve Prince Edward and Frontenac Counties b Appointment of Rob VE3RPF as a RAC Assistant Director Ontario North and East c Other items 7 Reports a President Steve VE3KC b Repeaters Les VE3KFS c RAC Rob VE3RPF d Net Manager Steve VE3KC e Web page Chip VA3KGB f KARC Newsletter Assaf VA3PCI g JOTA Oct 16 2010 Mike VE3TD h Fleamarket Nov 13 2010 Terry VA3TRM i Hearts and Flowers j Other reports 8 Date of next meeting Nov 3 2010 Assaf VA3PCI will talk about his radio scanner software 9 Adjournment 10 Break and 50 50 draw Guest Speaker Phil VE3HST MEETING MINUTES KINGSTON AMATEUR RADIO CLUB INC HELD ON Wednesday 1 Sept 2010
8. ill make the Mic hot and will transmit ambient sounds in addition to what you may want to transmit from your PC While potentially comical this may also lead to undesired consequences Using the unit can t speak for other OS s but for Windows XP to Windows 7 no software setup or drivers are required Just plug the unit into an available USB port and Windows will automatically install the built in generic USB audio drivers Obtaining ham radio software can be a trying affair often entailing soending hours scouring homemade web pages with dancing hula hoop girls and under construction images assuming the link to what you actually want hasn t become a 404 Error since 2004 when the page was last updated Thankfully TigerTronics has already done all this for you and the included CD comes with such handy programs as MMSSTV DigiPan AGW Packet software MixW WinPSK and other essentials If you want more the Tigertronics website has an extensive link collection to other popular programs decided to fire up MMSSTV and test the unit For configuration pointed MMSSTV to the device ID of the unit then adjusted the RX level on the SignaLink to bring audio to an acceptable level tuned my Icom IC 7000 to 14 230Mhz USB and images started appearing immediately Auto Robot 36 Robot 72 Scottie 2 SC2 180 DSP arc ums I Show with template Transmitting is also ver
9. ing RAC has been updated and posted on the KARC Freelist If you aren t subscribed and would like a copy send me an e mail lt ve3kc cogeco ca gt encourage you to read this document and make comments to RAC through the blog available at http blog rac ca Even if you don t have any comments read the blog and see what others are saying KARC will be participating in the 2010 Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air JOTA Oct 15 16 at Frontenac Provincial Park Mike VE3TD is a leader in the scouting organization and will be co ordinating our effort He is looking for volunteers Terry VA3KLG Doug VE3FFR and Chip VA3KGB have volunteered so far Youth is the future of amateur radio and this is an excellent opportunity to attract them The KARC fleamarket is set for Saturday Nov 13th from 08 30 to 11 30 at the Military Communications and electronics Museum Admission is a financial donation to the museum and tables are 10 each and can be reserved by contacting Terry VA3TRM lt va3trm cogeco ca gt Thanks Terry for organizing this again There will be a Club table that anyone can put fleas on with proceeds going to the Club Like last year the fleamarket will be preceded by a breakfast buffet at the Garrison Golf and Country club from 07 30 to 09 00 5 50 per person will run the talk in on VE3KBR ONTARS is also interested in having controllers from the museum early in the net to help promote the fleamarket Anyone interested please
10. ll be VE3SFD e Other items Phil VE3HST has been holding a Geometry net on KBR Sundays at 11 00 AM that has been going over well 7 Reports A President See the report in the newsletter b RAC Report No report c Repeaters Les VE3KFS said that both machines are running fine Les and Don VE3MNE will be headed north to add tones 151 4 to the KAR machine it will identify the same way as the KBR machine does The Simplex IRLP machine continues to operate smoothly The Quad repeater is still not up and running 73 will shut off the echo test if the problem crops up again d Net Manager Steve VE3KC thanked the controllers who kept the net alive this summer He said that check ins ranged from 8 to 18 and nets ran 17 to 56 minutes He thanked those who contributed trivia questions which he said was a popular segment of the net e KARC Newsletter Steve VE3KC referred everyone to the September newsletter that is now on the web site f WebPage Chip VA3KGB reported that the website is working well He is working on the photo gallery instructions He said that we have had a million and a half hits on the site for the year g FCARES David VE3DZE said that they had two lighthouse activations and one island activation 132 contacts The FCARES newsletter has just come out www fcares net h Hearts and Flowers the XYL of Bill VE3NFU is not well Warren VE3JPW is also unwell i Other Reports RAC has contacted Rob VE3RPF fur
11. me amendments to the bylaws published in the newsletter Article 1 For administrative and legal purposes the Head Office of the Club shall be located at the Residential street address of the President Article 14 Term of Office Executive members shall be elected annually at the December general meeting and shall hold Office for one calendar year commencing on the first day of January of the year following the election Regulation 2 MEMBERSHIP FEES The annual fees for Full and Associate membership in the Club shall be recommended by the Executive and approved at a general meeting This fee shall be payable on admission to Membership annually for the fiscal year January 1 to December 31 Any dues paid on or after September 1 shall be for the next fiscal period but shall not preclude the member from participating in the club business for the period of September 1 to December 31 of the preceding year Motion was made by Michael VE3PRW and seconded by Mike VE3TD the motion was passed The membership fee remains the same 20 There was a motion made by Phil VE3HST and seconded by Herman VA3QxX to allow a 10 fee for immediate family members living at the same address and the motion passed d JOTA and JOTI The floor was handed over to Mike VE3TD to explain about JOTA Boy Scout Jamboree on the air and on the Internet to be held at the Frontenac Provincial Park October 16 setup on Friday the 15 All HAMS welcome Call sign to be used wi
12. ormers The 3 extra jumpers JP2 JP3 and JP4 are there to help expand the unit s compatibility to work with virtually any radio use an Icom IC 7000 and it only took a few moments to connect the 4 jumper wires needed according to the provided diagram Once this was complete plugged the cable between the rig and the SignaLink and the standard AB style USB cable to my PC Although drivers are included on the CD any modern operating system recognizes it as a USB sound card and installs the built in drivers Extensive and well written setup instructions are available in the manual Note however the SignaLink USB does not offer CIV control of your radio but this isn t essential to getting the most from the unit The front of the unit is simple and easy to understand Starting from the left a red Power button is provided This is somewhat of a lie as the unit is powered at all times when connected to your PC via USB the Power button simply restricts transmit operation as well as operation of the remainder of the controls TX and RX dials provide simple volume adjustment Although the unit acts as a USB sound card and receives at all times even when powered off the RX adjustment knob is only effective when the PWR button is depressed The DLY knob takes a bit more explaining This unit keys the radio when audio output is present on its internal sound card The moment you begin transmitting with a program
13. r for a few dollars more 14 35 depending on the rig you can order one prebuilt for a plug and play solution You also have the option of building one yourself Tigertronics does include an unterminated cable to get you started For the rig end you will likely need some type of DIN connector the number of pins varying depending on which the type of radio being used You will also need to dig through various manuals and pinout diagrams to figure out which pins need to be soldered to what wires decided to spring for the premade cable One nice feature of USB is that an external power source is not required That s one less wall wart to add to the clutter and for me that is a big plus The only challenging portion of connecting this unit is setting the jumpers Inside see Figure 1 a 16 pin socket is present Small jumper cables are included in the box and you would bridge these across the socket so the correct pin such as audio out on the SignaLink is connected to the correct pin on the rig s Data Accessory or even microphone port Thankfully the included CD has extensive diagrams for many makes and models As well they offer plug in modules that are hardwired for particular rigs Tigertronics even throws in the Allen key you will need to open the unit Figure 1 Yellow jumper wires included configure the unit to operate with the IC 7000 in this case Notable features are high quality SMD construction and audio isolation transf
14. ther to his interest in helping them 8 Date of the next meeting is October 6th 2010 Phil VE3HST will talk about the Neosat satellite tracking system software he s working on at RMC 9 50 50 draw 18 00 worth of tickets was sold Terry VA3KLG won 9 00 and donated it back 10 Adjournment Roy VE3VJF seconded by John VE3GST moved to adjourn Motion carried During the break Rob VE3RPF took photos of those that brought Rockmites to the meeting for an article he s working on for our newsletter and TCA The meeting was followed by a presentation by Stephen Mayne VE3LWX RAC S Assistant Director Ontario North and East who spoke about RAC s future and answered the many questions presented to him by KARC members David Sellick VE3DZE Secretary Kingston Amateur Radio Club Inc FINANCIAL STATEMENT Kingston Amateur Radio Club Financial Statement Sept 2010 Income Membership 190 00 50 50 Draw 20 00 IRLP 30 00 Total Income 240 00 Overall Total 240 00 Bank Balance As of Sept 30 2010 6486 40 NET CONTROL SCHEDULE October 5 VE3CAK John October 12 VE3DZE David October 19 VE3JPW Warren October 26 VE3KC Steve November 2 VE3NFU Bill November 9 VA3PCI Asaf November 16 VE3SIQ George November 23 VE3TD Mike November 30 VE3VJF Roy December 7 VE3CAK John December 14 VE3DZE David December 21 VE3JPW Warren December 28 VE3KC Steve NET CONTROL SCRIPT Revised Apr 19 201
15. utput jack that lets you monitor receive audio from the rig Why they couldn t have just labeled it RX AUDIO or just plain RX is anyone s guess The last available jack is MON Ambiguity sets in again as it is unclear if it is meant to monitor received or transmitted audio A look at the manual shows it is for transmitted audio Again they could have labeled this TX MON Although these terms are explained in the user manual if you ever find yourself fiddling with this unit in the middle of the night or in the field it s quite inconvenient to have to start flipping through the manual after you have plugged your speakers into the Speaker jack and no audio can be heard Labeling problems aside setup is easy and the manual is well written in a detailed but easy to understand way It covers just about every conceivable problem and provides solutions would recommend reading it to get the most out of the unit and to avoid setup problems A few words of caution The SignaLink will key up your radio and begin transmitting whenever your PC sends sound to its internal sound card It doesn t know the difference between the Windows startup sound PACTOR and sounds from web pages recommend that after it s plugged in that you make sure that Windows or whatever OS you are using does not designate it as the default sound card In addition on some radios such as my IC 7000 keying the radio in any way even from the accessory jack w
16. wishing to check in Please call now Trivia Time Here s tonight s trivia question s Swap Shop Are there any items for the swap shop Closing Are there any additional check ins or announcements before end the Net That concludes this evening s Kingston Amateur Radio Club Tuesday Night Net Thank you for participating We had number check ins this evening 73 This is callsign returning the repeater to normal amateur use Please remember to turn on the identifier again after the net by issuing the key sequence 301 on your touchtone keypad If you don t have a touchtone keypad ask someone else to issue the key sequence for you
17. y easy After you have prepared your rig to transmit simply instruct MMSSTV to send out the image you want The SignaLink detects that there is audio present and automatically keys the radio and begins transmitting At this point you would adjust the TX LEVEL knob on the SignaLink and watch your rig s ALC indicator to calibrate the audio to an appropriate level The only hiccup encountered was with the free AGW Packet Driver For some reason cannot get it to understand that it needs to use the SignaLink for both transmitting and receiving It insists on using it for one function and using my PC s sound card for another worked around this by running a patch cable from the SignaLink s RX Audio port to the PC sound card s line in port don t have enough room here to cover the extensive library of software available to use Virtually everything I ve tested it with from Digital Master 780 included with Ham Radio Deluxe to ACARS decoding to HF Weather Fax software has yielded very good results Overall would give this unit 4 5 5 Specifications Audio Freq Response 100Hz 10Khz Limited by LPF Computer OS Windows 98SE ME 2000 XP Vista amp Windows 7 MAC OS 9 1 or later MAC OS X 10 00 or later Linux Computer Hardware aae Radio In Out Z 600 Ohm nom TX RX Levels are fully adjustable for compatibility with Hi Z and Low Z radio connections Auto PTT anoe Delay __ Adjustable Transmit Hang
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