Network Assisted Communications for HAMs

Network assisted communications for amateur radio operators. Making good use of avaiilable tech.

     Amateur radio repeaters and networks.

As licensed amateur radio operators we have access to stand-alone repeaters as well as repeaters and gateways linked by various forms of network infrastructure. Amateur repeaters and gateways are owned and operated by amateur radio operators using licensed amateur radio bands/frequencies. 

There are thousands of repeaters and gateways into networks exclusively for licensed amateur use around the World. There are amateur radio transponders / repeaters on satellites and even the International Space Station has a VHF/UHF cross band repeater for licensed amateur operators. 

Some repeaters and gateways have backup power so they can remain operational during times of power failure, but the vast majority do not. The range and coverage provided by amateur repeaters and gateways is limited and there are large areas where there are no amateur communication services available. 

    Extending coverage using existing 'non-amateur' infrastructure.

The largest network of radio gateways in the World with the greatest coverage available to the public has to be the global mobile telephone/data network. It is comprised of millions of 'cell tower' sites around the Globe with over 1.5 million in the UK alone. Each cell tower site is effectively a multi user radio gateway installation linked into Global network communications infrastructure. Some people seem to think using the cellular phone/data networks is 'not radio communications' but they are indeed mistaken. The cellular networks operate using radio frequency energy propagated through free space, which by definition is most certainly radio communication. It is correct to say this is not technically Amateur Radio as it does not use licensed amateur radio fequencies/bands but it can be put to good use by amateur radio operators to communicate to/from locations where there is no access to licensed amateur radio repeaters or gateways. The vast majority of cell sites are operated as primary communication systems with full backup power and multiple network connections providing reliable global communications most of the time. 

Of course in times of major disasters or when the network infrastructure fails for some reason an independant self powered amateur radio station will often become the primary means of emergency  communication, as long as the operator has prepared for such an event and has backup power available.

    Make good use of the technologies available.

It makes perfect sense for amateur radio operators to make use of this vast network of supported infrastructure to communicate when they are in areas that are beyond amateur repeater / gateway coverage or have restrictions that prevent them erecting antennas and using amateur radio equipment.

This is where mobile phones, network radios, tablets, laptops and other portable devices connected to the Global communications networks via cell tower sites and WiFi access points or hotspots can be used with a wide range of software / mobile device apps allowing the user to stay connected to the amateur radio networks gateways and repeaters around the World. 

Using software / applications such as Echolink, Peanut, IRN(teamspeak), DroidSTAR(Android & iOS), DudeSTAR(PC), DVswitch, and many others the licensed amateur operator can easily be connected to amateur networks and communicate with other licensed hams using a wide range of equipment almost anywhere on Earth. The coverage is expanding rapidly with the deployment of satellite internet  

    Communicating with multiple modes across multiple networks.

One of the most innovative networks that provides inter-linked communications between licensed amateurs using a wide range of modes, networks and equiuipment is the FreeSTAR network. This brings together a diverse range of technologies such as DMR, Dstar, YSF, WiresX, NXDN,  P25, IAX, M17 and network linked analogue repeaters and gateways. 

 Have a look at freestar.network for more informations and details of how to connect with whatever equipment You have handy. 

Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery Disaster Memorial.

MM7WAB/P working other licensed amateur radio stations from the commemorative cairn enclosure at the Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery disaster site on Sunday 13 June 2021. Many thanks to the stations that worked me on 2m FM simplex and via the FreeSTAR network during this activation.

(Location NS6097 1250). KNOCKSHINNOCH CASTLE Colliery

Location: New Cumnock
Types of Coal: House and Steam
Production Commenced: 1944
Year Closed: 1968
Year Abandoned: 1969
Workforce: Average 578 : Peak 755
Peak Year: 1956

Shaft/Mine Details: 2 shafts, 187m and 128m deep

Details in 1948: Output 900 tons per day, 264,600 tons per annum, stoop and room working. 580 employees. 3 screens for dry coal. Baum (Simon Carves) type washer. No baths, but canteen available. Steam powered cranes and machinery. Electricity from public supply. 

Pithead baths were added in 1949, and also served neighbouring pits.

The photographs below were taken on 1st day of activation, Sunday 13th June 2021.

 

Clear signage at road end of pathway.

 

Pathway suitable for wheelchair or mobility scooter access.

The enclosure has a wide gate for ease of access and is well cared for.

The commemorative cairn at the Knockshinnoch Castle Colliery disaster site.

Sighting pillar showing headings and distances.

View towards crater site over the sighting pillar.

Detail of the stone at front of memorial enclosure.

View across location of the crater.

The disaster occurred on 7 September 1950 when workings driven too close to the surface allowed a peat basin at the surface to burst into the mine, the ensuing inrush trapping 129 miners underground, of whom 13 subsequently died. Most of the trapped men were heroically rescued through workings connected to the neighbouring Bank No. 6 Colliery. 

The accident occurred about 7.30 p.m., whilst the afternoon shift was at work, on Thursday, 7th September, 1950, when a large volume of liquid peat suddenly broke through from the surface into the No. 5 Heading Section of the Main Coal Seam. The inrush started at the point where the No. 5 Heading, which was rising at a gradient of 1 in 2, had effected a holing at the outcrop of the seam beneath superficial deposits and had made contact with the base of a large natural basin containing glacial material and peat. The liquid matter, rushed down the steeply inclined heading and quickly filled up a large number of existing and abandoned mine tunnel drifts and roadways as well as several working places. This inundation of liquified peat /moss cut off the two means of egress to the surface from the underground workings of the Knockshinnoch Castle colliery.

There were 135 miners working underground at the time. Six men working near the main shaft bottom quickly escaped to the surface by way of the downcast shaft before it become blocked, while 116, with all means of escape cut off, found their way to a part of the mine then unaffected by the inrush, leaving 13 persons missing. The 116 men trapped below ground were rescued after an incredible rescue effort by miners and rescue teams from as far afield as Edinburgh and Liverpool lasting more than two days. 

The 13 men who sadly lost their lives in the disaster were;

1. John Dalziel, 50 Loader Attendant
2. James D. Houston, 46 Coal miner
3. Thomas Houston, 40 Coal miner
4. William Howat, 61 Switch Attendant
5. William Lee, 48 Coal miner
6. James Love, 48 Coal Miner
7. William McFarlane, 36 Coal Miner
8. John McLatchie, 48 Shotfirer
9. John Murray or Taylor, 33 Coal Miner
10. Samuel Rowan, 25 Coal Miner
11. John Smith, 55 Coal Miner
12. Daniel Strachan, 38 Fireman
13. John White, 26 Coal Miner

Further information:

Scottish Mining site page: (enquiry, reports and extensive information including links to newspaper reports of the accident, rescue and recovery operations.) http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/370.html

The Rescue: Timeline and information on the rescue of 116 trapped miners: https://newcumnockhistory.com/mining-minerals/coal-mining/knockshinnoch-disaster-1950/the-rescue/

Video footage of a news report on the disaster from British Pathe news:  https://youtu.be/SnYOKy6_7Uc

Pathe News clips: https://youtu.be/6DHjZcTXO1A

Canmore site information link:  http://canmore.org.uk/site/80656

The disaster was dramatised in 1952 with the release of the British film, 'The Brave Don't Cry', starring John Gregson, Alex Keir and Fulton Mackay.

. o 0 O 0 o .

Proper use of "BREAK" call on amateur radio.

Many amateur radio operators are heard calling "Break" incorrectly. 

 Break should only be used to signify there is high priority / emergency traffic. For example, a QSO is in progress between two or more stations and another station needs to report an accident, incident or other emergency situation that requires assistance.

When the station currently talking stops transmitting the station with the accident report or emergency traffic should key his transmitter and call, “Break" The other stations should immediately acknowledge the breaking station and allow them to pass the urgent traffic.

The term break in amateur radio communications is commonly misused by new operators and old-timers alike. These operators often incorrecly use a "Break" call as a signal that they wish to join the ongoing conversation, use the frequency to make a contact or to simply make their presence known. For these types of interruptions the operator should simply wait for a gap between transmissions and give their call sign once. When the operators using the frequency are at a suitable breaking point in their conversation, they will acknowledge the new station and call them in.

 Most amateur radio operating guides instruct to only use a "Break" call in an emergency or life threatening situation. Many amateur radio clubs, groups and repeater systems have operating procedure guidelines that amateur station operators should follow. These are guidelines and not rules or laws, they are proper etiquette. Operators who do not follow proper etiquette are often frowned upon or ignored by other stations.

To avoid any confusion calling "Break" should only be used in urgent or emergency situations. 

If You wish to 'break in' to an ongoing conversation, and there is No accident or emergency assistance required, You should simply give Your callsign once and wait patiently for one of the stations to bring You in. 

If the frequency, channel or repeater You wish to call on has no current traffic a "Break" call should only be used in an emergency situation to alert other stations that there is an accident, incident, emergency or life threatening situation requiring urgent assistance.

When calling "Break" in an emergency You should be prepared to give information relating to the type of emergency, the location of the incident and state what assistance is required. This information will enable stations receiving Your emergency Break call to pass the required information to emergency services or other organisations that can provide the required assistance.

73 de MM7WAB

Amateur Radio Protocol & Procedures - Why do so many get it wrong?

 It is amazing how many experienced amateur radio operators seem to have forgotten the basics. 

Simple things like getting callsigns in the right order during a QSO or when calling a specific station.

You only have to listen for a short time on the amateur radio bands to hear stations giving their callsign followed by the callsign of  the station they are calling or handing it back over to during a QSO. This is of course the wrong way round. When in QSO or calling a specific station You should first give the callsign of the station You are calling followed by Your callsign. It is easy to do this correctly and there is no reason to get it wrong. 

Giving impossible signal reports is also becoming more common. 

Anyone who has listened to the amateur bands during a contest will be well aware of false 'You are 5/9' signal reports.  I have heard many poor excuses for why this is done during a contest and it seems to be generally accepted that fake signal reporting is fine during a contest. 

Whatever excuse is used during a contest there is NO good reason to give false signal reports the rest of the time. If You were Really being received as a proper 5/9 (Readability 5 = Perfectly clear and understandable) there would be no reason to be asked a second time for Your callsign or to repeat information. 

Incorrectly using QRZ instead of CQ when calling for a contact.

Calling on amateur bands for a contact by giving Your callsign followed by QRZ instead of CQ is a very common mistake. QRZ and CQ have specific meanings! QRZ should NOT be used instead of CQ.  QRZ should only be used AFTER a station has called You. QRZ means "who is calling me" 

These mistakes (and many others) are heard every day from supposedly experienced operators who should know the correct procedures and protocols. There is no sensible reason to get the basics wrong. 

I have often thought that there should be some sort of refresher course every few years to remind operators of the correct operating procedures and protocols as this would help them to correct their bad habits and do it right.  

Look up the Amateur Radio Q codes and use them properly, it is easy to use them correctly & there is no reason to get it wrong. 

If it is worth doing at all it is worth doing it Right.

73 de MM7WAB 

Beware of 2TB Clover CM201hi external USB3 hard disk devices. Something not quite right...

 A good friend recently bought a new external USB3 2TB hard disk that was behaving strangely from the first time it was plugged in. It was initially plugged into a USB3 port on a Windows 10 machine.   When plugged in the LED on the case flashes to show the device is active. After a significant wait time, sometimes the PC 'sees' the drive and identifies it as a Clover CM201hi external USB device but reports the size as Zero. Sometimes the PC sees it as a USB storage device with size listed as 1.8TB but Most of the time it reports the device as USB storage with no other information. 

We have tried using various hard drive repair/recovery software and forensic analysis software/hardware to interrogate the device. 

We managed to get the drive to start up a few times (with start up delays of between 20 minutes and 2 hours) On performing a device block scan we got reports the drive had read/write errors on almost every block. After between 5 and 11 hours of block scanning (between 80% and 98% of all scanned blocks reporting errors) the drive then fails completely and appears to be 'unplugged'. 

It has some very strange information listed on the label. Quoted information below copied exactly as shown on label.

"During format preocess our hard disk will choose exFAT automatically as default efficient format. Please DO NOT select NTFS maually, this format is not supported by our hard disk, will cause disk crash." 

"QC Passed. Hard Disk Formatted already before packing & shipping. there is no need to reformat when first use."

"Special attention to our products (partitions are not supported), partitioning will cause damage to the hard disk. For safer and longer service life, use it directly as one independent partition"

There is also a second smal label that says "YP005 2TB" on the packaging.

---------------

If You are looking for a new USB3 hard drive it would be best to get a known brand that has good user reviews, proper specifications listed by the manufacturer and does not have the strange limitations quoted above from the device label.

After much hunting online I did find some information from a few people who have managed to get these drives to work. They all reported that the performance is very poor, significantly slower than most USB2 storage devices. These drives are also very unreliable, suffering with read/write errors and loss of data after a only a few weeks of use.

Buyer Beware : 

Always research the item You are looking at and check user reviews before parting with Your funds. 

If in doubt, Don't ! There are plenty of good branded devices out there to choose from. They may be a little more expensive but when it comes to data storage an unbranded, unknown device that saves money will often have a short working life and lose Your precious data, if it works at all.  

73 de 'Hairy' Paul.

Identity Theft on DMR networks.

 If You have seen my callsign MM7WAB on a DMR network monitor or repeater dashboard recently but did not hear my voice, there is a pretty good chance it was Not a legitimate transmission from me! 

I realised someone else was pirating my DMR-ID / Callsign when I saw my callsign appear on my local repeater dashboard with the source shown as 'Net' a few minutes after I had made a test transmission into the repeater and gone QRT. This was a big red flag to me for two reasons. 

#1: All of my legitimate transmissions into the repeater are listed with source as 'RF' with associated RSSI information and I have Never accessed the repeater via any other means.

#2: My DMR radio had been swtiched OFF a few minutes before the illegal transmission appeared over the 'Net' connection into the repeater. 

At first it was assumed that someone had made a mistake entering their DMR-ID on their new radio or hotspot and that they would realise it was wrong and correct their mistake. 

After a few hours of reseaerch I have found several transmissions recorded in various online system logs at times when I was actually operating SSB or Digimodes on HF, on local 2m analog FM nets or working stations on other Non-DMR systems. Many of the pirate transmissions on DMR using my callsign have been logged when I was not even 'On-Air' at all.  

Someone else has been illegally using my DMR-ID / Callsign from a location in England 400 miles South of my QTH for at least the last month. 

Surely there must be a way to stop this sort of identity theft and illegal activity on DMR systems, after all the DMR system was originally designed for commercial/business users so there should be some way to manage the system to ensure illegal operators are removed. Unless of course the system management features were broken when DMR was adopted/modified for amateur radio use. If this is the case then I will simply delete all DMR related data from my radio and use it purely for good old fashioned analog FM operation and working satellites instead. 

There are plenty of other network supported systems to use instead of DMR. 

If all else fails with exclusive amateur network assisted modes like DMR my friends can still contact me on the Network Radios channel suite, Southern Ireland Repeater Network and a few other well maintained channels on the Zello-PTT platform where each user is 'trusted in' to transmit and every user connected to each channel has a recorded history of transmissions on the channel. This makes it easy to check any reported issues and moderators, administrators and channel owners have granular access controls with the power to easily block pirates or abusive operators from the channels when required. 

I still personally prefer the simplicity of good old fashioned analog RF communications without network assistance and fancy codeplugs or software applications but I have also enjoyed operating over a selection of network assisted simplex communications platforms. Some are better than others, many have proved to be badly implemented or hard to manage and none of them are 'perfect' but when poor propagation conditions and excessive noise levels make normal RF operation impractical, network assisted communications platforms do have their place in the communications enthusiasts toolbox. 

: If I continue to use DMR or not depends on how well the system is managed and how well the DMR system can deal with identity theft and stop illegal users masquerading as legitimate licensed operators.

73 de MM7WAB 'Hairy' Paul. 

 UPDATE:  The offending operator that was illegally using My registered DMR ID was tracked down and it appears that they had incorrecly entered their own DMR ID when programming their DMR codeplug and setting up their new DMR radio. With a little assistance from a friend their mistake was corrected. They contacted me with an apology and the problem was resolved. 

When setting up a new radio, hotspot or other device always double check the information You have entered is correct to avoid issues like this from arising.

I have now returned to using the DMR network assisted communications system.

73 de MM7WAB

It's life Jim! But not as we know it. COVID Lockdown

With Scotland and many countries around the World currently in a state of Lockdown, day to day life has changed dramatically. For some people all they see is the negative effects of restricted movement, closure of workplaces, schools, parks, churches etc and separation from friends and loved ones. For others there are some positive effects.

It may sound a bit odd but as huge numbers of people around the World are having to stay at home many of them who are licensed amateur radio operators have dusted off their HF communications equipment and are keeping themselves, other hams, radio enthusiasts and short-wave listeners, occupied during these difficult times.

Although we are at the bottom of the 11 year solar cycle and radio propagation conditions are rather poor many amateur radio stations, myself included, have been enjoying a significant increase in activity on the amateur bands since the COVID-19 virus lockdown has brought many of the dormant stations back on air.

Over the past couple of years I have lost count of how many hams I have heard stating 'the bands are dead'. Some have given up trying, packed away their HF radios or even sold off their gear!
Of course many embraced the challenge, focussed on the lower frequency HF bands, continued to 'chase the propagation' and make good use of the often brief band openings to work distant stations.

My own amateur radio operators license (UK Foundation License) limits my power output to 10W ERP and I do not have fancy radio equipment or large antennas placed high above the ground for optimum efficiency.

I have been making the best of what I have in the space that is available to me. Using home-brewed wire antennas made from scrap copper wire (an vast improvement on the two 10M plastic coated steel washing lines I made my first HF contacts with!) My antennas are strung between home-brewed towers build from recycled timber with the tallest standing at 29ft 6in tall. None of my HF antennas are at their optimum operating height above ground. This is especially noticeable on the lower frequency bands where wavelegths are longer and antennas low to the ground incur losses making them somewhat inefficient. So my meager transmitted signals need to be put the best possible use.
This means utilising enhanced propagation effects whenever possible.
Simple thangs can make a big difference. While working one band on HF, using a seperate receiver to monitor other bands for openings.(I use a 40year old Yaesu FRG-7) If You do not have a dedicated HF or general coverage receiver a cheap SDR receiver or online Web SDRs can be used to keep an ear on other bands for activity.
Following the Grey-Line to maximise the chance of making contacts with distant stations has worked very well for me with over 8000 successful QSOs in my shack log and over 4000 logged on QRZ. Maximum distance so far being just over 10,500miles to Norfolk island off the East coast of Australia!  Not too shabby for a bunch of home brewed wire antennas pushing 8W.
At this point in the solar cycle the main ingredients required for working DX stations are time, patience and persistence. 

If You have HF gear sitting gathering dust, now would be a good time to blow the cobwebs off it, throw a wire up in the air and have some fun while there are lots of stations with plenty of time spare on the air.

73 de 'Hairy' Paul MM7WAB