2012 Antenna Shoot Out

I figured since we hear about this every meeting, here is the official results of this years antenna shoot out. The guy who took second looks awfully familiar.

http://www.3905ccn.com/newsite/files/pdf/shootout-2012.pdf

Where to hold your mic

Have you ever wondered where to hold your microphone when on the repeater? If you have ever had to adjust your volume when listening to different people talk, then you'll I am sure you'll agree it's worth thinking about.

Most of the manuals I have reviewed say hold the mic at 2 inches.

It's a good practice to never talk directly into the mic, head-on style. Hold it to the side of your mouth, or about 20 degrees turn off axis. This keeps all the air escaping your mouth from making a ("P" percussion), air style popping effect that is highly annoying to listen to.

Never exceed a distance of more than about 8 inches from the microphone. When you exceed about 8 inches, you need to increase mic gain which will inherently increase background noise and room reflection pickup. Not to mention you'll sound considerably softer to anyone on the other end without some sort of mic gain compensation.

For more info: google : repeater etiquette

If your deviation is too high several things can happen. You may get ‘break through’ onto an adjacent channel (‘bleed over’ in CB parlance). If the receiver (in the repeater) has a narrow filter (suitable for a lower deviation) the signal may be ‘chopped up’ with only parts of words being heard. You may also not be able to ‘access’ or ‘bring up’ the repeater (see below).

Rosters

By request, member rosters (click to enlarge)
2011:


2012:

K9EAM APRS i-Gate

The club recently installed a dual band antenna for the K9EAM DSTAR repeater at St. Norbert College.  The uhf DSTAR repeater is currently using this antenna and seems to be working rather well.  When we made the decision to install this antenna it was with the intent of using both vhf and uhf at the same time.  To test this an APRS i-Gate was installed.  A diplexer, cables, tnc, and a radio was donated for this project.  The existing power supply and computer for DSTAR were also used.

After fixing an interference issue the i-Gate has been running for a couple weeks and is hearing a lot of stations.  According to the internet site aprs.fi the station is hearing mobile stations out to about 25 miles.  It is also hearing digipeaters from Milwaukee, Sayner, Traverse City MI, Marquette MI, with the furthest one being in Pickford MI at 210 miles away.

Bob, KB8ZXE