1η Ημερίδα Ψηφιακών Επικοινωνιών DMR

Με μεγάλη συμμετοχή διεξήχθη η ημερίδα του Συλλόγου RSF Hellas για τις ψηφιακές επικοινωνίες VHF-UHF Digital Voice, με έμφαση στο DMR. Η διοργάνωση ήταν άψογη και αξίζουν συγχαρητήρια στον Δημήτρη SV1EDZ, τον Ανδρέα-Νικόλαο SV1GFH και τους λοιπούς συντελεστές. Η εκδήλωση υποστηρήχθηκε από τέσσερες αντιπροσωπείες πομποδεκτών (Helecom, Cobra, Freebytes, Δρυς) οι οποιοι παρουσίασαν σχετικά προϊόντα σε περίπτερα. 

Είχα την χαρά να συναντήσω αρκετούς συναδέλφους (SV1VN, SV1MO, SV1RD, SV1TN, SV1ZJ, SV1EML κ.α.).

Ιδιαίτερα αξιόλογη ήταν η παρουσίαση του τρέχοντος ελληνικού δικτύου επαναληπτών UHF DMR (SW1F, SW1G, SV4O, SV6G), της διασύνδεσης μέσω του BrandMeister, και της διαδικασίας προγραμματισμού των πομποδεκτών HYTERA για ραδιοερασιτεχνική χρήση. 

Δυο ακόμα αναμεταδότες παραδόθηκαν προς εγκατάσταση στον Χορτιάτη και στην Ιεράπετρα.

Κλείνοντας ο SV1EDZ ευχαρίστησε τον SV1RD για την συνεχή ενημέρωση μας σε θέματα ψηφιακών επικοινωνιών μέσω του γνωστού site DigitalMode. και υποσχέθηκε ότι θα ακολουθήσουν και άλλες ημερίδες με ανάλογα θέματα.

 

Thessaloniki NDB

Most radio hobbyists ignore that a Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) operates near former Alatini works in Thessaloniki. Its Morse code id is THS and it transmits continuously on 345 kHz.

Last week I visited the site of the beacon and shot a few photos.

Panoramic view from the North	No tresspassing sign
The eastern mast	Transmitter shed
Detail of insulators and pulleys	View from the East

This nice NDB has been in operation for decades. Although it is located on the approach to RWY 16 of Makedonia Airport (LGTS), nowdays is not used much by aviators. 

It is easily accessible from public spaces and roads, just south of Thessaloniki Music Hall, at 40.593600 N - 22.948100 E, so if you are in the area you may visit the site. 

CNSP30 balloon over Greece

Plot of CNSP30 balloon from HABhub

Today we had a daytime pass of CNSP30 balloon over Greece. Most previous passes took place during nightime so we missed the change to plot it. In the morning it appeared that the balloon would follow a southest course and pass over Attica, unfortunately it turned East and was better received in Larissa and Thessaloniki. The balloon transmits APRS packets using callsign K6RPT-11, which are gated to the APRS.IS network and then plotted at the HABhub tracker site. 

During the pass I run an APRS receive only setup and I enabled my connection to the APRS internet servers network with a filter to pass only K6RPT packets. Some of the packets uploaded were from my station, either received directly or over an APRS digipeater.

NASA releases research papers to the public

NASA published the following announcement, effectivley giving free public access to NASA research papers: 

NASA PubSpace NASA is using PMC to permanently preserve and provide easy public access to the peer-reviewed papers resulting from NASA-funded research. Beginning with research funded in 2016, all NASA-funded authors and co-authors (both civil servant and non-civil servant) will be required to deposit copies of their peer-reviewed scientific publications and associated data into NASA’s publication repository called NASA PubSpace. This exlcudes patents, publications that contain material governed by personal privacy, export control, proprietary restrictions, or national security law or regulations. NASA PubSpace is part of PubMed Central (PMC) which is managed by the NIH. You can now search NASA related articles archived in PMC at NASA PubSpace. PubSpace will be fully functional Fall of 2016.

Already over 800 recent research articles, published within 2016, have been uploaded in PDF format to the site, which uses the infrastructure of the US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health.

IOTA programme introduces paperless QSLs !

At last! The RSGB Islands on the Air (IOTA) programme shall implement paperless QSL credits, in cooperation with Clublog ! Last month Roger G3KMA published the following press release on the IOTA site:

One of the first actions of Islands on the Air (IOTA) Ltd., the new managers of the programme, has been to expand the application routes on IOTA’s existing software system to include Club Log QSO Matches. This is intended as the first step to the introduction of a much broader system of Paperless QSLing that is scheduled to be launched in the late Spring of 2017. Only a relatively small number of IOTA operations have been added at this time, mainly ones from islands which satisfy the criterion of one DXCC entity equals just one IOTA. This action was intended to provide a test run on how Club Log QSO matching would work in due course on the new IT system. Even so, modest as this approach is, more than 10,000 QSO matches were obtained in the first week, and the first IOTA 100 Island applications have been received using this option exclusively. As with all new IT enhancements there were a number of bugs and queries raised which have now been resolved. Finally, to make use of this additional feature, sign in to the IOTA website and go to https://www.rsgbiota.org/mycredits/ and click on Club Log QSO Matches. Bear in mind, this is not the full-blown system envisaged for introduction next year. We will expand the list of accepted operations over the coming weeks and months but, much as we would like to do more, it will be mainly in the area of recent operations from the rarer IOTA groups and, of course, ones that have uploaded logs to Club Log and indicated that they do not wish to delay or block IOTA QSO matching. G3KMA, 10 Jul 2016

Today I applied for an account on the RSGB IOTA site and wait for the passord from my local checkpoint.


In the meatime I spent a few hours in a holiday style IOTA contest operation as SV1XV/P from Lesvos Island, EU-049. Propagation was not great, and I notices short skip conditions, like working 5B4AIF on 28 MHz in mid-summer, indicative of a Sporadic E openning. Many thanks to Alex SV8QG for the support and logistics for this operation.