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PLACENTIA HERITAGE DAY PARADE

Parade date is October 9th 2021.

Contact Person:  marklgarrett@yahoo.com 

Ham Operators meeting:  7:00 AM at Tuffree Junior High

The Parade starts at 9:30 AM

Parade End:  estimating at 12:00 Noon

Band Review is on Palm Drive. 

The parade starts at Yorba Linda Blvd and Kreamer then heads up Kreamer to Golden where it ends.

There will be booths and displays in Tri-City Park along with a car show.

We are requesting Dual-band radios just in case we need them. We will be using the OC RACES repeater during the parade to provide complete coverage. 

Repeater 449.680 MHz (-) PL 131.8 Hz 

Simplex 145.645 MHz.

Expect to spend 5 hours to support the parade.

Mark.   KG6CAV

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HAM RADIO CONDITIONS.


 

Source for the information shown on this page:
Paul L Herrman (N0NBH)

US Ham Bands. shows you the table of ham radio frequencies.

Common Country Call Sign Prefixes. This is the first letter you see or hear in any call sign.  This first letter indicates which county the station has a license to operate.  Example:  For the Untied States the letters  AA, AK, K, N would be the FIRST letter in the person’s call sign for a person who has a license given by the United States FCC.

U.S. Frequency Allocation Chart. This is a very complicated looking graphic chart that should be viewed enlarged and shows how all the radio frequencies are chopped up for different uses and modes of communication.

 

Created October 5, 2020

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Programming The Baofeng Radios

Programming the Baofeng (Chines) radios can be a real challenge.  Here are some recommended web sites and devices that we hope will help you.

Baofeng Cheat Sheet

What I like about this cheat sheet is all the information is on one page.   https://w7apk.com/baofeng

Baofeng Programming Cable

There is a programming cable available if you have a computer to program some models of the Baofeng radios.

The cable is called: BTECH PC03 FTDI Genuine USB Programming Cable for BTECH, BaoFeng, Kenwood, and AnyTone Radio.

 

 

 

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Yorba Linda Ham Radio Operators Welcome

If you are a ham radio operator and live in the city of Yorba Linda, California, please consider joining Placentia, California RACES.  We  already have about 3 Yorba Linda ham radio operators that are active in our RACES group.  The reason for this is it seems that Yorba Linda does not have a RACES group.

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Placentia RACES & CERT Members Received Training June 8, 2019

The Orange County Citizens Corps Preparedness Exercise took place June 8, 2019, at Saddleback Junior College.  This one day class offered learning activities in the following areas:

  • ICS TTX
  • Damage Assessment
  • Patient-Carry Obstacle Course
  • Triage
  • Stop the Bleeding
  • American Red Cross / OneOC Overview
  • Map Your Neighborhood
  • OC RACES
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Digital Modes Petition RM-11831 generates debate

Winlink may be forced to close shop on HF in the USA.

Technology website The Register has now published an article on RM-11831 written by Thomas Claburn which covers some of the arguments, see
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/04/05/amateur_radio_spectrum/

The founder of the research center NYU Wireless, New York University Professor Theodore Rappaport N9NB, has issued a press release which can be seen at
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nyu-wireless-founder-predicts-proposed-fcc-rule-will-grow-amateur-radio-hobby-and-inspire-future-engineers-300825114.html

The QRZ forum on RM-11831 has received a large number of posts, see
https://forums.qrz.com/index.php?threads/new-digital-petition-at-the-fcc-rm-11831.652589/

Read the Petition for Rule Making RM-11831
https://ecfsapi.fcc.gov/file/100918881206/PETITION%20
FOR%20RULEMAKING.pdf

Read comments submitted to FCC
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?limit=100&
proceedings_name=RM-11831&submissiontype_description
=COMMENT&sort=date_received,DESC

Comments on RM-11831 should be submitted to the FCC by April 29 at
https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/express

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Winlink may be forced to close shop on HF in the USA

Winlink is…

…a worldwide radio email service that uses radio pathways where the internet is not present, and is capable of operating completely without the internet–automatically–using smart-network radio relays. Winlink provides its users email with attachments, position reporting, weather and information bulletins, and is well-known for its role in emergency and disaster relief communications. Licensed Winlink operators/stations use both amateur radio and government radio frequencies worldwide. The system is built, operated and administered entirely by licensed volunteers.

FCC Petition RM-11831 Threatens Amateur Digital Operations Like Winlink

Winlink may be forced to close shop on HF in the USA, explained below.

April 5, 2019–The FCC has opened for comment RM-11831, a proposal for rule making that would do two things the the US amateur radio rules:

1) remove paragraph (c) of 97.221. This would disallow narrow-bandwidth ARQ modes of 500 Hz or less from outside the specified 97.221 sub bands for automatically controlled digital stations. This will require all US Winlink HF gateway stations, regardless of mode/technique, to only operate within these narrow sub bands.

2) modify the wording of 97.309(4) thusly:
(4) An amateur station transmitting a RTTY or data emission using a digital code specified in this paragraph may use any technique whose technical characteristics have been documented publicly, *such as CLOVER, G-TOR, or PacTOR,* (remove *-*, add the following:) and the protocol used can be be monitored, in it’s entirety, by 3rd parties, with freely available open source software, for the purpose of facilitating communications.

This effectively eliminates Pactor 2, 3, and 4 from the US amateur bands unless SCS steps up and publishes complete technical specifications, including their proprietary signal processing methods, and produces an open-source monitoring program allowing on-air eavesdropping by third parties (not likely).

The Winlink Team will have to produce monitoring software for an unconnected eavesdropper for WINMOR, ARDOP. VARA’s author must do the same. The alternative is for Winlink to close shop for US licensees on HF amateur bands, or to eliminate B2F compression for messages sent by US-licensed amateurs. This will cause US users of all modes to suffer much longer transmission times by a factor of 2-10 times. Limits would not be placed on other users.

See and read the new proceeding from the link below. The 30-day comment period opened on 28 March. We have prepared a document containing useful arguments you may paraphrase for your comment filing. The formal ARSFI Motion to Dismiss RM-11831 and Petition for Rulemaking is also here for your review.

https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/search/filings?proceedings_name=RM-11831&sort=d…

Unless we receive support from users on this serious threat, Winlink may be forced to close shop on HF in the USA. US and non-US users and gateway operators are urged to educate themselves and file a comment soon!

Sincerely,

Lor Kutchins, W3QA
Winlink Development Team
President,
Amateur Radio Safety Foundation, Inc.

 

 

Posted April 14, 2019

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Posted February 28, 2019

Please attend the next OCRACES meeting this coming Monday, March 4th, at 7:30 PM, at OCSD Communications & Technology Division, 840 N. Eckhoff Street, Suite 104, in Orange. Fountain Valley RACES Chief Radio Officer Alan Hill, W6ARH, will talk about loop antennas, which is a very interesting topic.

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Kenwood TH-D72 APRS Checklist

The following checklist was created from a YouTube video “Basic setup for APRS operations with the Kenwood D72” by Don Arnold.  I really recommend you view this video.  The reason I wrote this list is because there are about 10 APRS setup steps.  I seldom use this radio and when I do, I want a quick check list to ensure the APRS is working.

  • * Turn Internal GPS On
    • * “F” Key = 1 “Int. GPS” (note that “F” key changes APRS menu items.)
    • * Turn ON.
    • * Confirm that “iGPS” appears upper right of screen.
  • * Turn Battery Saver OFF
    • * Press MENU
    • * Select RADIO = Menu 1
    • * Go to MENU = 110 = “Batt. Saver”
    • * Select OFF.
  • * APO OFF (automatic power off)
    • * Press MENU
    • * Select RADIO = Menu 1
    • * Go to MENU = 111 = “APO”
    • * Select OFF
  • * Set the DATE
    • * Press MENU
    • * Select RADIO = Menu 1
    • * Go to MENU = 194
    • * Enter correct date.
  • * Set the Time
    • * Press MENU
    • * Select RADIO = Menu 1
    • * Go to MENU = 195
    • * Enter the correct time.
  • * Set the UTC
    • * Set the UTC
    • * Select RADIO = Menu 1
    • * Go to MENU = 196 = Auxiliary, Time Zone, UTC
    • * Set to -7 Daylight Savings (for California)
    • * Set to -8 Standard Time (for California)
  • * Set the int. GPS
    • * Select GPS = Menu 2
    • * Go to MENU = 201 = Int. GPS = Operating Mode
    • * Sub menu = Battery Saver = OFF
  • * APRS Setup – BASIC SET
    • * Select APRS = Menu 3
    • * Go to MENU = 300 = Call Sign
    • * Go to sub menu “My Callsign”.
    • * Enter your call sign.
  • * EXIT OUT OF MENU
    • * Enter 144.390 = APRS Frequency for the USA
  • * Press TNC button. (this opens the TNC)
    • * Look at screen. You should see “APRS12”.

Now Lets confirm that the radio is “seeing” the GPS satellites and the APRS circuits are working properly:

  • * OPTIONS
    • * Press POS key which will show degrees, minutes seconds. Make sure the small circles just to the right of each is blinking on and off.
    • * You can press the radio joy stick to see your Altitude.
    • * Target Point is another display. Target Point is recorded in the HT.  Up to 5 points can be stored.  (Its accuracy is not good enough for Geocaching.)
    • * You can view the log memory used.
    • * You can view satellites.
  • Beacon
    • * If you have manual beacon set, press “BCON” key to send your position.