In order to provide high capacity, easy to use volunteer emergency communications services, we have built with our own funds and are now making available for general Amateur use the second phase of our new D-Star 90+ kilobit data network.  This technology moves Amateur Radio back to where the FCC rules say we belong- advancing the state of the radio art. 

D-Star L-Band 100k BPS Amateur Radio Access Point List Twin Cities Metro 6/15/08

1. KC0TQI  East Ramsey County, 250' AGL 1.2 DD   1299.000 - MNSTP - Sponsored by Twinslan/Mining ARC etc   - 172.16.0.20/24 is the web server- DV 1285.100    *** .20 might be down 5/26/08 *** - the repeater is still up ***

2. WD0HWT Minneapolis South/MSP Airport/MOA  - 200'AGL - - 1298.000   DD only 172.16.1.1 is the repeater, 172.16.1.20 is the web server (/24)

3. KE8TX 1251.000 DD 172.16.2.1 Minneapolis Downtown East - 400' AGL - Excellent range so far - thanks Roger and Peter and folks from HC Mobile Corps + Dan Skripka and Doug Reed+ Max - web server on .20

4. 1299.300 DD WB0ZKB3-  Minneapolis Downtown NE - Sponsored by Greg K and Alan + DV which we tested 6/22/08

5. 12??.?? DD Portable repeater owned by Alan

6. 12??.?? DD Portable repeater owned by Alan

7. NY9D 1249.000 New DD system for St. Paul #1 Site - test mode- 6/08 172.16.4.1 and 172.16.4.20 /24

8. Bloomington  
145.250 K0UW
443.450 K0UW
????  DD

Sponsored by Erik Jacobson N0SVX

9. West Metro
145.150 K0FVF
442.900  K0FVF
Sponsored by Greg Kitchak N0GEF

10. U of M- Moos Tower Minneapolis

443.425 +  W0YC   DV  -Run by the Gopher ARC. 

11. Anoka Radio Club

2M, 440, DD, DV

Reported to be on the air in test mode.

The above screen shots were captured "live off the air" from the Linux appliance servers located "behind" each repeater.  They supply mail, conferencing and DNAT uplink services.  On our systems, this allows more than one ID-1 to have a data session more than one ID-1 at the same time.  This is not possible with just the stock repeater controller.   Thanks Max and Kelly. 

Minnesota D-Star Emergency Data Network News

News: 7/25/08:

The next workshop is tomorrow at the Golden Valley location, 9AM till around 5PM. Main project it to try and get the next D-STAR data repeater ready for install in St Paul and whatever else we can do in our preparations for the RNC and the MTC Marathon.

News: 720/08: All the parts needed for the St. Paul Downtown #1 Site are in hand, thanks to the grant for Dan Skyrpka and the support from Metro Skywarn.  The machine is now running in test mode- the D-Star is up we need to add on the packet.  We got a new radio for that. 

News: 7/16/08: At our "test" repeater/node site we are having stray RF issues (?) which are causing our Linux Thin Client system to crash.  So Max added in the capability to reboot if there is a kernel panic.  This seems sensible as we are all about reliability.  The very long (50 foot) stock Ethernet cable on the RP-1D might be a factor. 

Max:     "This is the command I put in rc.local to get the kernel to reboot after a panic:

  echo "5" > /proc/sys/kernel/panic

Normally, that value is 0 - don't reboot automatically, changing it to a non-zero value causes the system to reboot after that many seconds. A good thing for remote or hard to get at servers. There are other ways to do the same thing, sysctl being another."

News: 7/3/08: Our new St. Paul Downtown #1 repeater/node site has been approved by the site owner.  So we have a cabinet and are building up the equipment as we speak.  The plan is to have it installed by 8/15 at the latest.  It will support D-Star DD mode and have a packet gateway. 

News: 7/1/08: It is being reported there is a new State Van under construction that will be used for emergency medical response.  We would like to get that van set up with D-Star equipment as well, and test it this fall at the Marathon.

News: 6/30/08: We got copied on a note today from the Minnesota Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, who had the following advice on which ICS/NIMS courses to take:

"Simply, if you are an active participant in an event you need (ICS) 700,100, and 200. If you are making decisions about how the resources are used, requesting or sending, or leading resources, you need the additional training of the (ICS) 800, 300, and 400 courses"

News: 6/23/08:  Alan has made some homebrew 1.2G cavities.  These go along with the homebrew 1.2G beams.  We are going to pester him to make a duplexer next. 

News: 6/23/08: Dennis Boone, KB8ZQZ. who wrote Trivnetdb for us way back when,  has fixed the Trivnetdb source distribution site

http://www.kb8zqz.org/trivnetdb/

News: 6/22/08: We can report the RP-1D units do support DHCP pass-thru.  We tested it this morning.  Doug Reed, N0NAS was supervising, so there was no funny business.  By the way the Icom manual says to use uppercase letters only for the repeater call sign- the manual is right.  Peter, KD8GBL, also had the idea to test PPPoE - that works as well.  The idea is that can be used for many to many ID-1 connections via the repeater.  We do that today with DNAT, but it has to be set up in advance.  We tested two ID-1s talking to our newest repeater via PPPoE- thanks Radio City. 

News: 6/21/08:  The ARRL-ARES 6/20 E-Letter is reporting the following, which is encouraging - he is viewing the Icom ID-1 as yet another tool in our toolbox.

There is new software entitled JNOS for passing e-mail messages over Amateur Radio during emergencies:

<http://ronhashiro.htohananet.com/am-radio/packet/jnos.html>

Readers can download the program, and try it as noted in the documentation. Configuration is simple: it takes only ten to fifteen minutes editing in your call sign, password, and log-on banners to get started. The beauty of JNOS is the sending and receiving of e-mail messages over the Internet as well as Amateur Radio seamlessly. It can print incoming e-mail messages on a printer unattended, one message to a sheet, just like a fax machine.

JNOS will also take advantage of the ICOM ID-1 in digital data mode, and I'm in the process of testing and documenting that configuration.

At some point, I'd like to implement this at Hawaii State CD and Oahu DEM, when a sufficient critical mass has been implemented. -- Ron Hashiro, AH6RH, Honolulu, Hawaii State Civil Defense RACES

News: 6/17/08: 

The next packet & radio workshop will be Sunday June 22. The location for this workshop is Golden Valley. The workshop will run from 9AM until 5 or 6 pm

The focus of this workshop will again be on various D-STAR projects. We have a lot of work to do getting ready for some installations this summer. I am NOT going to have much in the way of test equipment and tools available. But if you have small projects we'll still be trying to help you complete them. If you tell me ahead of time you need something special, maybe I can bring it.....

The location is 1710 N Douglas Dr, Suite 285, Golden Valley, 55422.

 From Hwy 100, north of I-394, exit on Duluth St. Go west of Hwy 100 about 1/2 mile to Douglas Drive. You will go south from Duluth St and watch for the railroad tracks. Immediately on the north side of the tracks is a long, low, 2 story office building on the east side of the road. We'll be in Suite 285 but you will need to knock on the outside door or ask on 146.520 simplex for entry. If on Hwy 55, go north on Douglas Dr and it should be the second railroad crossing.

If you want a map, Google search for:

   1710 North Douglas Drive, 55422

If you are worried about getting lost, the Duluth Street exit from Hwy 100 is the best. You go west on Duluth St and it ends at a T intersection. Turn left, go south a few blocks and you will come to the railroad tracks, the building on the left is the one you want. Very hard to miss this way....

I hope to see you there! The next workshop will be in July. Come this Sunday and help choose some dates.

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.

News: 5/28/08:  There is a list of projects building for our next open work session. 

Formally test and document DCHP pass-thru on RP-1Ds.  Does it work?  The jury is out.  We are reading reports both ways. 

Build D-Star system #4.  We need power, a cabinet, Linux system, etc.  System #4 will include a Packet gateway.  For the moment, System #4 is our lab repeater, though Alan might bring his portable repeater.  We are assigning 172.16.4.1 and .20 (/24) to the new system and might use 1249.000.   

System test the new 2008 server that Peter built.  The existing one then goes into hot standby backup status.  We could also test multiple ID-1 to ID-1 connectivity  to see if two server uplinks could be used at once.    In production in a disaster, we might have ten remote stations, each accessing two remote servers as an example at once.  This would let us support multiple served agencies. We will run two live ID-1 to repeater uplinks in 2008.  We should have six repeaters to choose from. 

System test the two new vans.  Antennas in these as well as the internal Ethernet and 802.11 capability will need to be verified. 

News: 5/25/08: We are getting offers to borrow more high end mobile communications vans for the Marathon.  As of right now, a new 50 foot mobile fire command center may be joining our "fleet", and we are also working on the MN State Mobile EOC van.  If both had D-Star ID-1s, they could tie into our database trailer at the finish line via our repeater systems.  We can loan them equipment out of our radio pool for the event.  It might be nice to have say five ID-1s going back to one ID-1 at the database end.  We have DNAT on our repeater back end systems set up to support multiple uplinks from multiple remote databases.  We continue to not be fans of the databases co-located with repeaters model. 

News: 5/17/08: The American Radio Relay League has announced a change in direction for the organization.  There is a new "Fifth Pillar" - technology.  This is a timely move, as this heads off a very strong movement in the organization to become largely an historical society.  As someone who owns more than 75 history books this is OK, but was causing trouble in several key areas.  One is with the recruiting of young people who expect us to teach them current technical skills, the FCC rules, which reference "the state of the radio art," and served agencies, who are tired of hearing about the limitations of 30-80 year old radio operating modes, given the other choices  they have.

ARRLWeb: ARRL NEWS: ARRL Introduces "Fifth Pillar" at Dayton Hamvention®

News: 5/16/08: We have seen a 15% failure rate on the little five dollar RJ45 F-F adapters that go on the Ethernet pigtails on new out of the box Icom ID-1s.  If the Ethernet seems "dead" on yours, try a different adapter.  Spare ones of these are a handy item to have if you need to extend RJ45 cables anyhow.  These cables are used for other applications, such as microphones and serial cables.  It is helpful to own an RJ45 crimper as well.   

News: 5/15/08:  At the last work session we issued an ID-1 radio to Max, who is able to now drive around and test the systems.  We have at least 10 D-Star repeaters in Minneapolis/St. Paul.  One issue- can we get these listed in the ARRL Repeater Directory?  The issue for us is the DD machines by themselves are not technically repeaters and also do not do well on shared frequencies.  So our systems need to be coordinated, even though they are simplex.  

News: 5/11/08:  We have long suspected there is not a lot of spare emergency room capacity in major US cities, based on our experience at the Marathon here.  A story in USA Today on 5/6/08, while having limited scientific validity (one random sample was taken) showed that Minneapolis had five empty emergency room beds.  Other cities in the sample were in about the same shape.  Washington DC had zero, and Chicago had eight.  The notion of improvised facilities that would somehow be set up to handle a big flood of cases was discussed.  Those who are skeptical about the role of Amateur Radio in disaster recovery need to read that - there is no other group that has this level of experience in ad-hoc communications. 

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-05-05-citiesready_N.htm

News: 5/10/08: Peter built us a new production server for the 2008 Marathon on a rack mounted 1U Sun Netra server.  These have several advantages, and they are compact and cheap enough ($50) to install permanently places like in trailers.  Hauling desktop computers around is not much fun.  The one he found has two Ethernets and two serial ports- just enough, (one D-Star uplink, one 802.11, one packet TNC and the server console) and built in RAID.  We also have a new release of our web server code and more database fields.  We are upgrading our IP phone system as well.  We think the last $2000 of our current grant will go to one more ID-1, and then some antennas and power supplies and lightning arrestors. 

Prediction:  IP Phone systems will be as important to ham radio post 9/11/01 as war surplus prop pitch motors were after WWII. 

News: 4/24/08:  The final US Fire Administration report on the 35W Bridge Collapse was issued and is interesting reading.  The strong and effective event response was marked by good communications practices, a solid following of Incident Command System (aka NIMS) procedures and the fact that the agencies involved in relief efforts had trained together.  The number of EMS runs (50) was very similar to that from the 2007 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. 

The concept of "freelancing" - self dispatching of emergency resources without orders from the Incident Commander was mentioned.  This is one thing volunteer groups like ours need to be vigilant on.  Volunteers who show up at a disaster scene without being requested may have good intentions, but add to the burden of the Incident Commander, as they then have to be looked after from a safety and logistics perspective. 

http://www.usfa.dhs.gov/downloads/pdf/publications/tr_166.pdf

News: 4/23/08: We have been given approval to proceed with our new Minneapolis Downtown #2 site.  We just picked up our fourth RP-1D D-Star DD mode repeater- thanks Radio City.  Exactly where this machine will go depends- one good choice is St. Paul #1 depending how the paperwork goes there, or the Minneapolis #2 site.   We are expecting one more grant shortly- the question is- do we ask Dan to order Repeater #5, or do we add 440 capability on to one of the machines we have?    Icom is reported to be out of first generation D-Star repeaters as part of the "Buy Five" promotion. 

News 4/23/08: We are pestering the ARRL to do something about callsign authentication.  Right now it is trivial to spoof a callsign in an email message.  When we get a message from W0XYZ, is it really from W0XYZ or someone pretending to be W0XYZ?  So using off the shelf digital signature /public key infrastructure software would fix this.  There are those (we are in that camp) who oppose encryption of amateur radio traffic - this is not encryption it's authentication.  The FCC rules require it actually "97.219...(1) Authenticate the identity of the station from which it accepts communication on behalf of the system."   If the ARRL does not take the torch here we might try it ourselves.  The other thing you can do with this technology is to sign/authenticate message content- this is like a checksum to prevent/detect tampering with the content.  This is part of what is called in the security business "non repudiation" - did you really send that message. 

News 4/14/08: We need to think about upgrading our 802.11 facilities and to get our mesh networking research project moving again.  We are meeting with the Medical and EMS teams for the Marathon soon, and will get our summer work plan in order.  We got a little busy last fall on infrastructure work and need to see what they are asking for.  One idea they liked was a "bed dashboard" application for the hospital tent - to show who was where and provide a live view of capacity - one key requirement is deciding where incoming patients need to go, and to keep the ER section open for new critical cases. 

News 4/14/08:  We are getting calls and notes about the new "RMS" /Winlink software.  We are mostly network builders here, and these networks should be an ideal platform for this software.  Jerry, N0MR,  is a leading expert in MN on this topic.  One interesting issue - we are seeing more packet activity in Wisconsin on 145.61 and will need to build some bridging stations.  Our practice would be to install two or three gateways if we decide to go ahead. 

News 4/11/08: We may be getting two new repeater/node sites, including possible one in St. Cloud.   Work is underway on the packet gateway at MNSTP and we are experimenting with DHCP on that machine.  DHCP is not looking good at the moment.  One hunch is it is a broadcast based protocol and D-Star DD mode (via repeaters) does not seem fond of broadcast protocols (for good reason). 

News 4/2/08: We are again putting the Medical Communications Team together to support the 2008 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon.  We are looking for volunteers, and have openings out on the race course and at the finish line.  It should be possible this time to run the data side of the medical support operation all on D-Star DD with packet radio as backup.  We need to get an ID-1 to the Twin City FM Club and one in the Ramsey County EOC.  The Ramsey County one is on order. 

The team is organized as follows:

Chair

Asst. Chair /Finish Line/ Operations Center

Net Control Net One /Volunteer Check in

Net Control Net Two

Net Control Net Three

Are the main leaders, and then we have departments at the Hospital Tent, Family Medical Tent, and the Remote Bus Drop off/EMS staging area, and then for the Data Trailer and database servers and for Net Four and various medical radio channels.   All operations are decentralized and the Net Controls are spread out across the geographic area.  This is helpful if there are problems- if you can't reach higher authority you just keep going, and too many radios in one place leads to RF interference and general confusion.

News: 3/26/08:  We got a new (to us) Icom ID-800H D-Star radio, which we are experimenting with.  Thanks Ed, WB0VHF.  This is for the trailer and will be used for all kinds of duties.  The setup complexity (programming all the call signs) here is a little bit of a barrier- there is of course software available for the radio which makes it easier.   It is being reported the MNSTP upgrade and packet gateway work was successful.  We'll post some screen shots. 

News: 3/22/08: A team from Twinslan and the Mining ARC are upgrading the MNSTP site to include a full time D-Star DD mode to AX.25 packet gateway.  We run one for the Marathon but have not had one online all the time.  We are also experimenting with some ideas we have for linking.  We have a new appreciation for the work that AMSAT does, as they do not get to rework anything once launched.  

News: 3/19/08: The talk down at Mankato went well.  The club there is running late model commercial equipment for their repeaters, and uses all diverse Government sites.  Some clubs run the oldest possible, often fussy repeater and data equipment for some reason. 

The question came up in Mankato: "how can we get more involved in operations and exercises?" and answer is pretty simple for them.  We have an ongoing mission to support the MN Health Department.  The club down there can meet with their local Public Health Officer (who they already know) and set up a drill/exercise- a "what if all the phones/Internet are out" kind of drill.  And move some messages around.  One group in Northern MN ran a drill last year where they distributed colored M&Ms(r) as a test of vaccine delivery.  There are outlying counties down that way that need to be engaged here as well. 

They also need to get some links built to the Twin Cities (about 66 miles and some big 1000 foot ridges away as they are at about 800' ASL).  They also need a second path to be built on packet to the Statewide Network that does not go via the Twin Cities.  Then they could become a remote hub and even a operations center/hub with a BBS system etc.  We hatched an idea for a big Statewide drill where they would be in charge.  Our thought was, if something really bad happens in the Twin Cities, do we want that event managed from the Twin Cities, or with Twin Cities based operators- no.  One idea as well- if there is a School of Public Safety at Mankato State University, they could learn exercise planning and use us as the persons to run the drills. 

Long term they can get some sites along the way to the Twin Cities on a link via packet and then upgrade that link to Microwave.  And then they can put a D-Star system in and link that in.  The National Weather Service is down their way and might a good connection point. 

News: 3/19/08: We think the MNSTP System was down for a day. Ed reset the power and are back up.  That one is borrowing 12V power from someplace and needs a dedicated late model switching power supply.  These, like the SEC 1223 units we get at Radio City, have been highly reliable and have low standby current draw.  We say "we think" as you need four things to reach a DD mode system- a good RF path, the right frequency, the right repeater callsign and the right IP address.  If you have just the IP address wrong as I did this morning the ID-1 gives you this ?KC0TQI message back from the repeater which is a version of "I'm here" which is good.   

News: 3/18/08: We are promoting Dan Skripka, KE8TX  to CFO of our organization. 

News: 3/16/08: There will be a talk sponsored by the Mankato Radio Club on 3/18/08. 

“Digital Communications in Emergency Response”

Erik Westgard, NY9D will provide a presentation on the following topics...

The need for digital communications in response situations.

History of the current digital network in MN. (Packet 145.01, 145.67, APRS)

The future need for a faster digital network.

Do D-Star digital data repeaters have a place in MN?

Background Information:

Current Packet Network http://www.14567.org/

D-STAR at the 2007 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon By Erik Westgard, NY9D

http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2008/03/01/2/?nc=1

March 18^th, 2008 @ 7:00 PM

Red Cross, 105 Homestead Road Mankato, MN

Map to Red Cross

RSVP to k0yr@arrl.net

News: 3/16/08: Dan Skripka, KE8TX, donated some money to our project, and has managed to get that matched by one of the area foundations- so we have the funding in hand today for the equipment for our St. Paul Downtown #1 site.  Thanks also to Doug Reed and to Metro Skywarn for handling the behind the scenes processing on these grants and donations.   Dan from Radio City is used to us as he knows when we call to ask him to order $3000 repeater/radio packages we never have any money at the time but it shows up from someplace at the last second like clockwork.

By the way the key to getting new sites and funding for Amateur Radio infrastructure is the proper handling of paperwork.  The days of handshake-only arrangements are long gone.  Relationships and trust are important, but all your agreements need to be in writing to protect all parties.  

News: 3/16/08:  Do weather maps work on the D-Star DD mode system- yes.  This one is a 250KB JPEG viewed on our Minneapolis Downtown #1 system- the download time was pretty good this morning- a few seconds

News: 3/15/08:  It is being reported the new rooftop antennas at the MN Health Department HQ (Freeman Building in St. Paul) are installed.  Radios of all kinds (except, interestingly, our Packet Network) and cell phones worked poorly inside that building likely due to metal film tinted windows.  There was a long struggle with the architects over outside antennas- we won :-) 

News: 3/8/08: We have a new location in progress for our workshops.  Many thanks to the Maplewood Fire Department for helping us over the years.  They are remodeling their station there and needed the space back. 

News: 3/8/08: The paperwork on our new St. Paul Downtown #1 Site is moving along.  We contacted Dan Fish up at Radio City in Mounds View about equipment for the site.    The plan is to have that on the air in <60 days.  The site is at >250' AGL and will require minimal site preparations.   We are slated (based on a conversation with Max on our Software Team) to have Packet (145.67) to D-Star linking there.

News: 3/1/08: Our 2007 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon story is on the ARRL Web Site today

 http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2008/03/01/2/?nc=1

News: 3/1/08: Here is a note from Tom Azlin, who runs the digital aspects of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC.  They started using L-Band D-Star a year before we did, and have a much larger race in terms of runners. 

3/1/08

Very cool Erik!

It is indeed a really good D-Star public service application.  Here in the Washington DC area we are about to kick off the third year of using the ID-RP2C/2D and multiple ID-1s for the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM).

Our Operational Readiness Demonstration in 2006 was switched part way through that race to the primary comms for the four demonstration aid stations.

We have a different back end set up as we plug the controller into the existing Marine Corps network at the finish line which simplified our role to the communications between the MCM finish line servers out to the seven aid stations supporting over 20,000 runners. This allowed direct access to the MCM runner databases by the officials at the aid stations using the MCM created web applications. BTW, the selection of D-Star was made by the amateur radio team and is not Marine Corps endorsement. What they see is simply using their existing applications via amateur radio.

The past two years of success with D-Star at the MCM has led to discussion of the 23cm DD system in one of the local counties to connect to emergency shelters with the EOC. This will be tested over this next year in exercises as we now have our Tysons Corner D-Star repeater up an running.

Again, great story and application Erik. We have learned a lot over the past years from how you are supporting the marathon there.

73, Tom n4zpt

MCM digital coordinator

News: 3/1/08: We are making progress on our new St. Paul Downtown #1 site.  The idea is to have our fourth D-Star DD machine there. 

News: 3/1/08: We attended a huge Healthcare Information Technology show called HIMMS 2008 in Orlando.  Avaya was there and had an emergency response truck, which is similar to the one Cisco has.  The Cisco one is called the NERV and I have toured it as well.  These have routers, and an IP PBX in there.  (So do we in our trailer- see below). They have a satellite dish and a bank of VHF/UHF public service radios.  They each also have an Icom IC7000 UHF/VHF/HF amateur radio.  One of the things they can do is interconnect the audio from the various radios and the phone system and the satellite.  This is a high tech version of the old ham radio "phone patch" in a way. Video is a big part of the system.  And they support teleconferencing.  Our ancient donated trailer has a much better antenna tower (65') than any of these state of the art money is no object vans - and big towers give you range when you are trying to access or provide emergency radio coverage. 

http://blogs.cisco.com/news/2007/11/video_ciscos_network_emergency.html

There was a nice presentation from the IT folks who run the Palomar Pomerado Health and Scripps Health hospitals during the recent San Diego wildfires.  They gave a talk on how they dealt with the wildfires, which were expected at one point by a senior fire official "to burn all the way to the ocean (the entire San Diego County)" and included the evacuation of an entire hospital.  The utilities stayed up, and they did a good job on the evacuation- around 200 patients moved in 2.5 hours.  They had a lot of problems with smoke and ash getting into ventilation systems and into buildings.  There were lots of times when they did not have good information on the unfolding crisis, but they practiced and practiced before hand.  Employees developed an interesting technique to see if their house burned down while they were at work- if their old fashioned answering machine answered, their house was still standing.  They also ran an emergency day care center as schools were closed- this helped key employees report to work. 

At the show we learned there is a priority over-ride system officials can use for cell phones to get a line in a period of overload (though this would not work if the overload was caused by too many officials who also had priority) and this can be combined with another priority system to get access to long distance services as well.

News: 2/17/08: Based on a conversation with Ed, WB0VHF who has been a big supporter of our project, and some of our served agencies, we are ready to discuss our plans for high speed data infrastructure for the RNC event on September.  We will add one more system to our network between now and then and possibly two.  The goal is to go from three to five DD Mode D-Star machines ("repeaters/ARAPs") on line by 9/1/08 under our jurisdiction.  The idea is these will be on wide area, secure, commercial/government sites and will be available for volunteer Amateur Operators supporting the agencies when they are required.  We are down to needing about $1500 to get the first new machine going.  The second one will be about $3500.  Hennepin and Ramsey Counties are both purchasing user radios for the system. 

Current Sites:

Minneapolis Downtown #1- Up

Minneapolis South/MofA/MSP Airport- Up

Mining ARC /Oakdale/St. Paul - Up

New Sites:

St. Paul Downtown #1 - site candidate in discussions

Minneapolis Downtown #2- site candidate in mind

News: 2/14/08:  Kelly helped us build a field deployable IP PBX with six phones.  The idea is if we have to build an ad-hoc Emergency Operations Center we would have telephones, which do not require control operators, and when you are running a large field hospital (as we do every year) phones are just easier.   We can tie into any existing Internet network, and bought some SIP VoIP service from an outfit way out of town.  We are using the Internet to provide ad-hoc phone service in case other types of phone services are unavailable.  We also have an analog trunk card if we do find a real phone jack. The Red Cross uses this type of technology over satellite.

News: 2/9/08: There is a work party at the Maplewood Fire Station tomorrow, 2/10- 9A to at least mid afternoon.  I am not sure on the agenda. 

News: 2/3/08: We happened to rent a copy of "Live Free Die Hard" with Bruce Willis.  This movie accurately characterizes the current wild enthusiasm for putting critical SCADA utility and infrastructure control systems on the Internet.  And it should be considered the last word on why modern Internet based communications systems need a backup that is not also based on the Internet. 

News: 1/28/08: A question came up today if our system was open to general Amateur use.  The answer is yes.  We think credible backup communications systems have to be regularly tested and exercised.  This includes hands-on operator training and general use.  We also have a ton of experimentation to perform.  FM Voice was pioneered back in the 1970's.  D-Star technology is brand new, and we are helping to develop it.  This band, L-band, is unknown to most folks in Minnesota.  Actually, data over L-Band (aka DD mode) is new to almost everyone. 

News: 1/23/08:  There is an article by Craig Kuhl in the 1/15/08 issue of Wireless Week Magazine  http://www.wirelessweek.com/Article-8-Hours-Long-Time.aspx that states there was an FCC order issued after Katrina that all 210,000 US cell sites must have at least eight hours of backup power available.  The article goes on to say this requirement came about after a "stinging" post event report from the FCC: "...a lack of adequate backup power for communications facilities was a critical problem after Katrina that caused communications network interruptions and hampered recovery efforts."    The article goes on to provide a quote from Caterpillar the engine people to suggest that "more players on cell towers...(including) ham operators..." were driving an increased demand for backup power.  As we have the backup communications mission from the FCC and world wide we need to very gently remind our agencies they still need a backup communications system of some kind- and preferably more that one "layer" of backup.

News: 1/18/08: We got a donation yesterday of some surplus flat panel monitors and a big 24 port LAN switch.  We were short of both items at the last workshop.  Thanks, John Leeper.  Max is working on the routing architecture between the Linux appliances behind our repeaters that are not repeaters.  We think RIP will be fine for us.  A network convergence time of say ten minutes might be fine- the last thing you want on a fairly slow network when you have important traffic to pass is a lot of automatically generated routing chatter and flapping.   We talked to the Minnesota Department of Health - they are updating their web based emergency health information system and want the new one ready for the big Republican Convention.  Note the term "web based"  - we tested the old one on our network.  

News: 1/12/08: We got an email from the folks in Rochester, MN interested in D-Star.  Other than Internet linking to say the system at the U of M, they could also link to us up here by email.  The idea would be to set up a TCP over Packet (AX.25) VHF link between the Linux back end systems on the repeaters.  So mail could be forwarded and folks could participate in live conferences.  These is even a way to set up "linked" conference rooms under Citadel.  This could be done on 145.01.  The 145.67 network was designed to not support TCP/IP and automatic mail forwarding.  If there needed to be a faster radio channel over the 70 miles we can build one.

News: 12/30/07: We spent most of our workshop session today loading up an Asterisk VoIP system on Debian 4.0.  After a while we started pestering Doug Reed, N0NAS to let us test this over D-Star, so he set up two ID-1 radios for us in the lab.   We tried a Cisco 7905 (SIP firmware) phone on one ID-1, and the Asterisk server (+ Sipura 941 SIP phone) on the other ID-1.  We had a known good simplex DD path.  The phones could call each other but the voice quality was very very choppy.   We did not have time to research which CODEC we were using in the phones.  DD mode is simplex, and does not seem to like a full duplex stream of small packets.  We think a more "half duplex/push to talk" type voice mode would work over DD.  This was a research project, and we plan to spend some more time on it.  Phones of all kinds sometimes don't work in disasters, and the ability to make a VoIP call has been requested.  Having a phone system in our trailers seems like a good idea.  There are legal restrictions on the use of Part 97 frequencies for routine phone service.  It might work just fine and be regulation-free as another emergency communications tool for us if we use WiFi or our Ricochet network backbone.  

News: 12/29/07: We are out on the ARRL Web Site today:    http://www.arrl.org/news/features/2007/12/29/1/?nc=1 and on the front page of QRZ.COM. 

News: 12/29/07:  On re-reading the ITU G.114 spec for Voice over IP, it says one way delays of <150ms are acceptable for most applications.  We can hit this easily - this may be a good test project.  So that is why those surplus IP phones have been sitting there. 

News: 12/19/07:  Our next open workshop is at the Maplewood Fire Station on Century Avenue 12/30/07.  9:00AM-5PM.  The US Coast Guard Auxiliary is discussing starting a Ham Radio Club locally and they are asking about some advice on radio modifications.  I asked Doug to please bring the microscope and fine tip soldering iron. 

News: 12/18/07: We got a call from the folks in Mankato, MN who are interested in our new project.  They have been running a powerful 145.67 packet node down there for years, using our standard naming convention and on a tall government site.  They want to get in the high speed data game.  I think we'll go down there with our slides.  We might try to contact the TCRC or SMARTS clubs down that direction and do a "Southeast Metro" session as well.  

Our advice to them is to start saving their nickels for a D-Star controller ($1200 or so) and some RF modules, at $1400 each.  They have two good sites.  The next big project is to build a high speed data link back to the Twin Cities.  This will take several hops.  We can use Motorola Canopy equipment if we have some water tower sites.  We are building links right now on four corridors- Twin Cities to Duluth, Brainerd and Rochester plus Mankato.  It would be helpful if some of our grants were to arrive. 

News: 12/15/07: The next open workshop looks like the end of December.  It is a busy month at the Fire Station.  We also want to get back at our Mesh Networking via Open Source project. 

News: 12/15/07: It is being reported there is a new U of M DV repeater on the air on 443.425 from Moos Tower - U of M West Bank.

News:  12/1/07:  There was a note on the Minneapolis East Citadel Server from WB0ZKB, who indicated he was getting into the machine from Maple Plain, 22 air miles away, on a 900 MHz paging antenna.  So much for the "short range" argument.  A friend, Kent, KC0DGY, works for a local TV station, and their video remote truck needs to "see" the IDS Tower in Downtown Minneapolis to allow their microwave video feed to work.  He has many stories of various places around town that he knows will work and places that do not.  This reinforces the notion that mobile emergency communications vehicles need towers. 

News: 11/30/07:  We are getting emails from Metro Skywarn who wants to test live streaming video.  It should work.  We have a test repeater...or four or five.

News: 11/25/07: This morning brought a note from Kelly, KB0GBJ asking about our priority list for 2008.  Other than adding some more sites for data machines, we do need to solve the repeater/access point linking challenge using radio, as we are radio people.    Max has installed Ricochet USB (900 MHz Part 15) modems with some of the Linux repeater controllers, and these can "see" light pole mounted legacy Ricochet modems two miles away just on the little folding antennas.  We think putting an actual pole-top unit at each repeater site with a decent antenna might be enough to link the systems that are not very far (2-5 miles) apart.   We are calling this effort "Poor Man's D-Star" as the little modems are $15.00 used, and the data rate @100kbps is similar. 

In the Site Department,  our Mining site covers Downtown St. Paul well enough but we do need coverage South.  We might need to round up another water tank site.   I have another site idea which will be amusing if it happens.   We will be meeting with the MN Department of Health on the 30th, with whom our organization has a separate signed memorandum of understanding.  We gave a talk at the Twin City FM Club last week and a person in the audience slipped us a business card for another good site. 

News: 11/24/07: Our Minneapolis South site is fine, and we suspect has been the whole time.  It was full scale this morning in the Mall of America approach roads, parking lot and by the MSP Airport on a small magnet mount mobile antenna.  The notion of needing to link our machines is key, as they do not have great non LOS range- this is not LA, or Phoenix, with mountains overlooking our cites. 

It was interesting Windows Server 2008 RC1 gives you a "limited connectivity" message on the Ethernet-ID-1 connection, until the ID-1 "sees" the repeater and then the little message goes away. 

News: 11/21/07: Hennepin County is looking for us to come up another 1.2 data machine for a site they have @400 feet.    They have an idea for multiple machines linked via dedicated land lines which has considerable merit. 

News: 11/14/07: The next open workshop is November 18th in Maplewood at the East County Line Fire Station on Century- 9:00 on. 

News: 11/9/07: We are requesting that the rest of the State and Metro Area County Communications Vans and EOCs install ID-1s.  Ramsey County is working on theirs.  If we buy enough ID-1s we might be able to pull in another ARAP aka Repeater from Radio City.  We have lots of sites for another machine.  Metro Skywarn has taken title to the machine now called Minneapolis East based on a second donation from Dan Skripka- thanks Dan.  TwinsLAN is going to try to put some nice block diagrams and code samples on their web site to help others.  We need another work party to do some more development.  

News: 11/8/07: We have received a donation from the Brainerd Motorola dealer of four truckloads of late model FM VHF/UHF repeaters and duplexers and cavities.  We think there are some broken repeaters around Minnesota that need help- talk to K0LAV. 

News: 10/27/07:  We are struggling with what to call our 1.2 GHz data repeaters.  They are not repeaters.  They are not "nodes" as they don't behave like packet nodes.  So since we are a leading user of these devices we are going to come up with a name "Amateur Radio Access Points" - they look more like a $39 wireless router than anything else, and they are simplex, and not taking up two frequencies.  We would like to have the ARRL Repeater Directory list these. 

News: 10/24/2007: I have an idea for fundraising for our D-Star network.  Every Amateur who calls or writes and says we (Amateur Radio) should use the Internet instead of Amateur Radio for backup disaster communications and inter-site linking I charge $1 via PayPal.   If a served agency calls and says they have no possible other way to reach critical data in an emergency I'm OK with providing access to them- but as a routine matter using D-Star for normal ISP Services is on the list of prohibited communications under FCC Part 97.113:. 

(5) Communications, on a regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished alternatively through other radio services.

And there is the tired argument that 30 and 40 year old technology- like 1200 bps packet-  is "all we need"- is interesting in the face of the evacuation of almost one million people from the LA /San Diego fires today. 

http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-cell24oct24,1,68147.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-business

News: 10/21/07:  Max has identified the uplink /DNAT issue with FTP.  He was missing some kernel modules.  This was overlooked during the rush to get the machines built and installed. 

News: 10/19/07: We are looking for signal reports on our Minneapolis South node, which seems under the weather. 

News: 10/12/07: We are getting some mail.  So far in the last two weeks some folks wrote from Sacramento, who are trying to do some modern stuff and getting taken to task for not using packet.  That sounds familiar somehow.  The South Carolina National Guard was next, and then some folks from Virginia working on some aspect of the Republican National Convention.  I want to get a list out of who works on what on our team here so you can go to the right person directly. 

News 10/7/07: It worked!  We operated Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon/TC10 Net Two (Mile 19-22.5) on one of our three new L-Band D-Star-DD repeaters in Downtown Minneapolis to the database server at the finish line in Downtown St. Paul all day today, helping get medical aid to and tracking the locations of several hundred runners who needed medical attention.  More than 16,000 runners were in our database, and there were hundreds of thousands of spectators.   We had hot, challenging weather.  We had 140 licensed volunteers and ran seven voice nets as well as the data system.  Most of the load was on our three main on-course radio nets today, led by Mike, K0BUD, John, N0YR and Bill, N0QHP.   

The Chicago Marathon was today, and in even warmer temperatures had to halt their race after four hours.   Based on reliable sources they ran out of community medical resources- i.e. rigs for hospital transport.  The MTCM is the 8th largest marathon in the USA, and the argument that D-Star is "unproven" in large scale, multi agency planned mass casualty events is now incorrect.  Thanks everyone!!

MTCM Family Medical Information Tent 10/7/2007- six laptops running on 802.11b to our database at the race finish line fed by packet and D-Star DD Mode via our four new L-Band  repeaters.  More than a dozen computers were required to run the medical system- more than can be supported via packet radio, but easy for D-Star.   Pat, KB0OLI,(l) runs the tent.  Note the Yellow Shirts are Hams, the other operators are community medical volunteers.  The use of unlicensed 802.11b allows the integration of available staff into emergency operations. 

KD8GBL was the "Maytag Repairman" today in the data trailer- no troubles were reported on the data system.  Note the ID-1 repeater database uplink transmitter on top of the database server.  145.67 packet radio and TNC is to the right, and 802.11b access point to the upper left. 

A hot day for a road race 10/7/07

News: 10/6/07: A special thanks to Barry Altman who spent most of today testing our system.  At about 5:30PM, after the last route statement was added by KD8GBL  to our production server (with Max on the phone) he reported success.  He could go up to the repeater from 10 miles away in Minneapolis, and down to the remote database server in our trailer at the finish line in front of the State Capitol in St. Paul.   So the notion of the ad-hoc deployment of Amateur Radio assets- users and servers- under D-Star DD repeaters allowing the use of easy to use web applications comes true.  We'll let you know how it works in production after we care for 15,000 Marathon and 10 Mile runners about 3PM tomorrow :-)

News: 10/4/07:  So far for the Marathon, we can report that both the Mining ARC and Minneapolis East D-Star DD repeaters are full scale with no packet loss at the finish line in the exact spot where the MARA radio/database server trailer will go from a mobile Comet antenna on my vehicle hatchback.   The spot for the Hennepin County Van is full scale into Minneapolis East, so we are ready to go.  The South Repeater was not reachable from either site and may have issues.    Dual "Have you Tested Your RF Paths rather than Rely on Luck" awards go to Greg Kitchak, who did some testing a few weeks back and warned me about the issue with South, and to Dan Skripka, who had me do some testing this evening..  One more repeater as a backup would not hurt.  If you have ever wondered why we install data repeaters in threes (the 145.67 packet network is this way) to cover a given area when we are making commitments to people now you know. 

News: 10/3/07: Minneapolis Downtown East is up.  1251.000 /DD 172.16.2.1 /24 the web site is on 172.16.2.20 /24.  This one is at a 33 story downtown rooftop.  The range looks great.  I get one bar (maybe 10% packet loss on beam that was aimed only roughly) on my radio in Shoreview.  Many thanks to a large team who helped here, esp Dan Skripka and Doug Reed who sponsored the system.  We are expecting one more system to go in this week.. 

News: 10/2/07: We will be installing our newest  ID-RP1VS   + Linux controller at a certain Downtown Minneapolis site @30 stories.  This has provided some clarity on our plans- as the Marathon is Sunday.  Dan is making progress on our other Downtown site, and we are asking Erik (the other one) to loan us his machine for that site.  The idea there is we would have also 440 voice/data in addition to 1.2 DD mode.   Note a "DIN" RF connector in the foreground on a cable. 

News: 9/29/07: The Icom ID-1 setup software works fine under Windows Server 2008(r) Beta 3- formerly known as Longhorn.  The software works great as a user you just have to turn off all the misc "stuff" on the Ethernet Interface- all the other stacks except IPV4 and all the extra authentication stuff should be disabled.    Broadcast traffic on the Ethernet with IP addresses will be transmitted by the radio... Make sure you have automatic configuration checked on Explorer under LAN options. 

News: 9/28/07:  In the "deadlines are good" department, we have three independent teams working on final prep for two more repeaters on good Minneapolis >300' rooftop sites in the next week.  This would bring the total number of D-Star repeaters in the Twin Cities to Eight, with one more on order, and one in stock up at Radio City.    The goal is to reach the both Net 2 van and the finish line on a challenging RF path.  Greg and Alan have built another 1.2 DD repeater- they have four between them.

News: 9/27/07: We picked up another RP1D / RP1V repeater today from Radio City.  It will go on the first available downtown Minneapolis site in the next week.  We told Dan Fish up there to order another repeater under the"buy five get one free" program. 

News: 9/23/07:  The Hennepin County Communications van stopped by our work session today for the final integration testing of D-Star equipment including an ID-1.  This means three of our best mobile communications assets are now D-Star high speed data capable.  We were able to reach the Mining ARC high speed repeater from the van.  We found a bad Ethernet coupler on a new radio which took a while to troubleshoot.  We are going to try to install two more D-Star repeaters in the next two weeks in Downtown Minneapolis to improve finish line coverage. 

News: 9/20/07: We are going to try to get Minneapolis Downtown East on the air in time...and various other ideas...

News: 9/15/07: We may not be able to reach the Mpls-S repeater/node from the State Capitol.  So the pressure is on to get another good site going in less than three weeks.  Can we do it? 

News: 9/14/07: We are postponing the move to DHCP- it will go in the next release of our Linux appliance code.  The final Marathon dress rehearsal is on 9/23 at the Maplewood Fire Station. 

News: 9/10/07: We sent notes to our served agencies for the D-Star project telling them we were operational.  Whew.  Now to get ready for our 9/16 Hamfest at the Shoreview Village Mall from 8 to 11. 

News: 9/9/07:  We are declaring the first two nodes of our Twin Cities High Speed Data Backbone operational.  Max and Ed just installed the new version of the Linux control computer on the Mining site.  We can cover both cities with the two sites.  They were able to reach both systems from the parking lot of the Maplewood Fire Station today on a portable antenna from Greg's trailer. 

News: 9/8/07: We might switch to DHCP on our systems.  We'll let everybody know.  

News: 9/5/07: The next work party is at the Maplewood Fire Station this Sunday.  We will try for a dress rehearsal on the complete system for the Marathon.  I need to leave early again.

News 9/5/07: We are scrambling to get the Minneapolis Downtown East digital node installed in time for the Marathon.   We are more comfortable with a three node core system rather than just two nodes. 

News: 8/30/07: According to the Anoka Radio Club Newsletter, they are slated to get a D-Star repeater soon courtesy of Radio City.  This one would support 23cm voice/data and 440.  We think 440 is the way to go for digital voice repeaters and low speed data.  2 meters is full and will stay that way in our view. 

News 8/29/07: We have been informed there is today no working "9600 bps high speed packet" infrastructure capability in the Twin Cities any more - there is some revival of it outstate- we have some new maps on the way. 

News: 8/25/07.  Max has tested our new Minneapolis South system from his truck- it's operational.  We can ping it 12 miles out. 

News: 8/24/07: Our new L-Band simplex data repeater/node, Minneapolis South, is now operational.  We are at 1298.000, with a new version of the Linux appliance software.  This one supports multiple remote users and uplinks to the repeater from served agencies and trailers, (including Internet and Intranet as requested by agencies), and Citadel, our conferencing/mail/collaboration system, and will allow TCP/IP repeater linking without having to use the as yet undocumented D-Star native linking protocol or linking radios.  Thanks to Max and Kelly for their software support here. 

News: 8/23/07: Note we are going to be using D-Star as a high speed data only backbone for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon medical communications.  No digital voice is planned by us for the moment, and we are focusing on Net 2 and Net 3, to replace a "high speed packet" backbone, which has not met our reliability requirements for at least the last four years- it's out of service right now.  No changes of any kind to current voice operations are contemplated for 2007.   The use of L-band also means there is less RF on 2 meters and 440 at the finish line.   We are tired of trying to run lots of updates/queries over 1200 bps packet, which has been 100% reliable but is not designed for this much data volume. The 26 mile course covers a lot of area, and we have to use fixed infrastructure.  No L band is available at Net 1 so they will still use packet.   

News 8/20/07: We were reading the situation reports from the State Emergency Operations Center last night and noticed some possible communications issues in places like Winona, MN due to the serious rain/flooding.  Towns in fact are isolated by road closures.  This is a nice reminder of why we spent the last five summers driving around the State putting up shared infrastructure, and the fact that an end point is in the State EOC says when people need it it's there and does not involve people getting out of bed and driving to set up portable equipment.  We offered one group down in that direction some used equipment to put up a replacement city packet.   We also need some more regional bulletin board systems to be able to post stuff.  Any takers down there?  Note we want to use .67 to access BBS systems but please not to automatically forward mail.  Some of the best nodes in the packet system were put up locally- and can be serviced locally. 

News: 8/19/07:  As we can now document there are more than 12 ID-1 radios alone in amateur operator hands in the Twin Cites, the argument put forth that we should oppose the introduction of D-Star as "more users" are on packet is now incorrect.  (This does not include the 2M/440 radios that have been purchased- perhaps several times that number).  We reviewed the heard lists on our wide area packet digipeaters this weekend - they are few/no actual packet end users evident- there are plenty of node beacons going which is a good thing.   Packet is obsolete from an engineering standpoint any more but is useful when there is nothing else.  We have had a dozen people show up for our D-Star work sessions in the last few weeks. 

News: 8/18/08:  Max has uncovered a mystery involving one of our fleet of RP-1Ds - that it stops responding to pings on the back end Ethernet interface only for ten seconds every minute.  Data traffic seems to still flow- is this housekeeping?   I want to get my test bed going to validate this but re-did my 1.2 beam here and it is pointed in the wrong direction.  And it's raining and there is no rotator.  

News 8/15/07:  We would encourage everyone to read the editorial in the September 2007 QST Magazine. 

News 8/12/07: We are all done testing the Minneapolis South system, and yet another D-Star repeater has been purchased here by Alan.  We plan to install next week.

News: 8/11/07: Next open workshops at Maplewood Fire Station #1 - 8/12 and 8/26.  We are doing final systems integration work on the repeater for Minneapolis South and our uplink system and back-end Linux boxes.  I would like to get an early start (9am) these two days as I need to leave early- 12:30. 

News: 8/8/07:  The electrical and antenna work for the new Minneapolis South D-Star repeater site is now done. 

News: 8/7/07: Served agencies are talking about new high speed radio data networks - one on 700 MHz "Frontline" that works at about 100 kilobits.  This would be similar to what we can get with D-Star.  We could provide a useful backup.  It is being reported commercial cell data air cards (which in some/all cases share cell site bandwidth with cell voice) worked slowly during the recent Minneapolis bridge collapse. 

News: 7/18/07.  We have discovered that you sometimes need plenum rated coax/hardline cable, if run inside of buildings anywhere near air ducts or elevator shafts at least in Minneapolis.  We also learned that you cannot have radio equipment installed in elevator rooms in Minneapolis.

News: 7/15/07:  We are back in contact with the folks doing communications for the Marine Corps Marathon.  This one, with 35,000 runners, is about three times the size of ours.  They are also apparently using a version of trivnetdb, and used D-Star DD mode last year in a secondary role.  They will be using D-Star as primary in 2007 a few weeks after us. 

News: 7/8/07.  Kelly Black KB0GBJ and Max Klingert KB0RSQ from Twinslan solved our "uplink" puzzle.  The Icom D-Star DD mode does not allow one to many connections between ID-1 users.  But DD mode is not IP address aware (it routes only via callsign headers) so does allow us to have a server behind the repeater that all stations can reach, and using destination NAT, (Linux IPtables command with DNAT) many stations can reach that server, and be NAT redirected to a remote server coming in on an ID-1 link to the repeater in another IP address block.  We tested it with 3 ID-1s today.  This will allow a group of system users to access remote databases, servers, or remote Internet or Intranet servers on ID-1s on the repeater.  This was our design goal and we had a few tense moments when it did not at first appear to work.  We do not want to have database servers co-located on repeater sites that are hard to get to.  We can have a small, flash-programmed Linux appliance there instead. 

News 7/4/07:  The 2nd Annual MARA Tailgate Flea Market will be held again in at the Shoreview Village Mall on Sunday 9/16/07 at 8:00AM.  It started last year at 7:30AM but it was still dark.  A lot of amateur radio gear changed hands.  This is at Highway 96 and Lexington Avenue, about a mile E of 35W, and a mile N of 694.

News: 7/3/07: The next open work party is at Maplewood Fire Station #1 on 7/8.  We are going to try to test a full time packet to D-Star gateway.  This would then be deployed.  We also want to test repeater to repeater routing.  Our main issue so far- we want to have our databases in trailers and "uplink" them to our RP1D repeaters.  This does not look possible right now.  One (untested) idea is to have an RP-1D in the trailer, and make the uplink a repeater-repeater hop.  It would work if we uplinked to the back end of the repeater, but that would require another pair of ID-1s, Icom link radios or something like an 802.11 bridge. 

News: 7/1/07: It is being reported that Kenwood in Japan is marketing a D-Star radio  http://www.kenwood.co.jp/newsrelease/2007/20070628.html

News: 6/20/07:  Dan at Radio City has ordered a fourth D-Star data repeater.  This one is for Anoka.  The Icom 10G repeater-repeater link radio pricing is out- $4995 per end. 

News: 6/18/07.  We are telling our served agencies to start ordering ID-1 for their EOCs, vans, etc.  Icom is apparently starting to market the 10G link radios. 

News: 6/6/07.  We are in the final funding negotiations for our third RP-1D repeater.  I think this will give us a very large concentration of data hardware, and puts our main goal, a triple redundant Twin Cities core network like we have today with packet, in sight.  The rooftop site arrangements are going well. 

News: 6/3/07.  We had a big day of testing on our second (WD0HWT) D-Star repeater - there are now five in the Twin Cities.  We (Kelly) got a D-Star to packet radio gateway tested out and accessed the Red Cross Public Website over our repeater.  We had three ID-1 radios there so we could work out routing issues.  We are seeing good round trip delay figures (100ms) to the repeater.  Below the pic (l to r) is one of our RP-1Ds, a packet node, and a laptop running Trivnetdb, really just debian and the AX.25 node software.  The ethernet cable (blue) goes to the port on the back of the repeater and to the laptop.  We made an Internet gateway for by bringing up wireless Internet on the Linux machine. 

Kelly Black had a good idea yesterday, repeated today by KC9JIK and KD0ASG - why not set up kids with a "Ham Radio Chat/IM Client" that works over digital radio.  It would be free.  Jabber or another type of server was suggested. 

News: 6/3/07: See us in the Pioneer Press Sunday Paper   http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_6048442#recent_comm   Thanks Matt and Sherri.  I was going to suggest in the US we can talk about sports and politics on the air but for international traffic Matt and his Editor did read FCC Part 97- it's in there:

§97.117 International communications.

Transmissions to a different country, where permitted, shall be shall be limited to communications incidental to the purposes of the amateur service and to remarks of a personal character.

News: 6/1/07:  We think there is another donation coming next week to help cover a repeater for Minneapolis Downtown East.  This would give us the required three systems in the core Metro.  Linking them would be useful.  One plan discussed today is to move Erik's machine below from his back yard to a hospital rooftop in the SW Metro for coverage there- say Burnsville.  More discussions planned at the Mining Radio Club /TwinsLAN Swapmeet at 3M Center Sat 6/2/07 7AM-Noon.

News: 5/31/07:  The 14567.org group now has our own D-Star RP-1D repeater,  thanks to Dan Fish at Radio City.  It will be tested with the MN Department of Health Workspace application and installed shortly in  Downtown Minneapolis.  We bought another ID-1 radio, which will go in our trailer, and will be used as the high speed data uplink for the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon database.   We have yet another rooftop site in negotiations for our systems in Minneapolis.  

News 5/22/07: We are establishing a buying consortium to get a few more ID-1 radios.  We just need one more radio to be purchased from Radio City and Dan will hand over another repeater.  This will go on our new Minneapolis /South site and would cover both downtowns and wide circle of the Metro. 

News: 5/14/07: A D-Star 1.2 GHz high speed data/digital  repeater was successfully installed by the Mining ARC + TwinsLAN on a good 230' site in East Ramsey County.  The digital voice repeater is on 1285.100 (output), data is on 1299.000 KC0TQI.  We bought an ID-1 - it's plug and play. 

News: 5/9/07: There is apparently some confusion about codecs (which do compression and translation- such as analog to digital voice over IP in D-Star) and codes, which are intended to obscure meaning and are not allowed under FCC Part 97 rules.  We have received written, formal confirmation from N1ND at the ARRL Regulatory Affairs Department that the codecs in D-Star are legal per the FCC.    Note high speed data does not apparently use this codec.  Our plans do not call for the use of voice on L-Band, as the radios we have cannot do voice and high speed data at the same time.  To have a $1000 data radio act like a $130 voice radio is needed only in Japan where there are too many operators and not enough voice repeaters, but not here. 

News: 5/8/07:  We got our first D-Star related grant today.  The grant is from a corporate sponsor, and includes a new 500 foot rooftop site in Eastern Downtown Minneapolis.  This site, and the site at 3M will cover much of the Twin Cities Metro Area for high speed data access. 

News 5/6/07:  Doug Reed N0NAS of TwinsLAN / MN Skywarn helped conduct a successful  test of our web based injured runner applications over a new D-Star data repeater which was donated to MN Skywarn (the NWS affiliated tornado spotters who are all hams BTW) by Radio City of Mounds View.  This machine will be installed in a few weeks on a good site.   On the picture below, left is the Linux server, the ID-1, then the "user" laptop then the donated repeater which is now on the air. 

News 5/5/07: At the American Red Cross sponsored Digital Symposium, the ARC representatives announced they have had a strategy change for initial and ongoing disaster response- "we don't use voice radios much any more- our priority is to get high speed data connections to our computer systems we use for taking care of our clients (disaster victims)"     This is in line with our strategy and advice here.  Note they also use IP phones which are an interesting technical challenge to consider for Amateur Radio.

News: 5/3/07: Dan up at Radio City is reporting he has one of the D-Star data repeater sets spoken for, and has a deal open on the second one- any group that buys 3 (now two)  ID1 radios gets the second repeater. 

News 5/1/07:  The next Packet Workshop is at Maplewood Fire Station #1 on 5/6.  We hope to start to integrate D-Star with our Trivnet Linux systems, and to build a packet to D-Star digital gateway.  Doug Reed has one of the Radio City D-Star repeaters in hand.   There is also a Digital Symposium being run by the Red Cross folks in Minneapolis at Red Cross HQ on 5/5 starting at 10:00 AM.  We will be giving the first talk. 

News 3/30/07: Dan at Radio City up in Mounds View has purchased 10 Icom ID-1 radios for stock.  For that under the current promotion he got two complete D-Star repeaters which he is making available for local clubs.  One will be used for software development by TwinsLAN.  He does though need folks to buy the remaining ID-1s so they are not still in his inventory.  Several of us are going to pick one up shortly.  Four or five have already been sold.   If we can get one of the 1.2 G data machines installed we'd like to use it for the 2007 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon to be "primary" course/metro wide, with packet as backup. 

News 3/28/07: Greg Kitchak, N0GEF has installed another D-Star repeater in the West Metro.  Call is K0FVF

145.150

442.900

News 3/16/07: We had a successful test of a D-Star repeater at our packet workshop.  It is reported there are now four D-Star repeaters on order or in hand in MN so far.  We decided to deploy Citadel systems statewide using solar power and Linux appliance computers.  We will be having a Statewide drill on SET weekend in October.  Stay tuned.  Several new packet nodes have been added to the map. 

News: 3/1/07: Radio City in Mounds View has ordered five Icom ID-1 radios, and got the "free D-Star repeater" with that.  We are talking to Dan about where that should go.  Anyone who wants to buy an in-stock ID-1 from Dan to help him out would be appreciated.  Why do Minnesota people buy radios from South Dakota/Wisconsin  again?  We had a great show at the Washington, DC public health event- lots of interest across the 1300 attendees in Amateur Radio as a backup system.

News: 2/19/07: We have decided to use Citadel as our back end mail and conferencing system.  We still have not heard back on our two/three outstanding D-Star proposals.   We are eagerly following the test results for the first few systems.  Kelly and Max from our Development Team are reworking the command line/tty interface to get rid of every-character echo and going to line by line (cr) echo who is more radio-friendly.

News 2/15/07:  It is being reported as of Sunday there are three complete D-Star repeater systems in the Twin Cities that are in the process of being put on the air by various individuals.

News Flash: 1/22/07: Erik, N0SVX, has ordered a complete D-Star repeater system.  This will include 2M, 440, and 1.2 both voice and data.  More to follow.  First site- Bloomington on 440 - it's on the air.  443.450 (correction)

New 1/7/2007: We are evaluating a Linux BBS/conferencing package called Citadel.  Kelly Black is studying it and has built us an AX.25 interface for it

News: 1/1/2007: John N0YR has donated three 2 meter radios.  These will be used on our new Rochester link.  Thanks, John!! 

News 11/30/2006: We will be presenting our packet/D-Star network and partnership with the MN Department of Health at the 2007 Public Health Preparedness Summit in Washington DC.  http://www.phprep.org/index.shtml - We are building a demo laptop to take with us to the show

News 11/25/2006: From Jerry, N0MR:  The (new 145.01) path to Duluth is running nice and all TheNet, k net, or X1J. Connect to MNSTP then MNHRIS then HINK then WISS. Then you can go to MNDUL, DULBBS, or my mailbox, N0MR-1. Several places along the way you can branch to a cross to 145.67.

News 11/3/2006: The Lakes Area Repeater Association, (one of the sponsoring organizations behind the Statewide Packet Network) now has now co-signed an MOU with the Minnesota Department of Health along with the American Radio Relay League. 

News 10/30/06:  We made a run up to Pequot lakes and now have a APRS station there.  We want to build an Internet APRS gateway using a Linux appliance (Neoware 3000 + Slackware) box in Little Falls.  Little Falls and Pequot now have dual port TNCs- 145.67/145.01.  There is more D-Star interest- the U of M Club is raising funds for one (440 band?) as well.  Our primary interest is high speed emergency data access and supporting our served agencies.  This is "Amateur Radio the Service" in action. 

News 9/19/06: We are announcing our plans to buy an Icom  D-Star digital data repeater.  The first one will go in to one of several secure commercial/governmental sites we have in Ramsey County.  Future repeater stacks will go in Hennepin County, and in Bloomington/Savage.  The systems will be linked via a dedicated microwave radio backbone.  The idea is to support 128kbps digital data and web software based public service applications on Amateur Radio frequencies, and not depend on commercial network services to back themselves up.  Each high speed node site costs $3000.  

 We are big fans of radio based backup systems.  Many have suggested we use the Internet as a backup system in case the Internet fails.  This does not seem to be a sound engineering practice.  We are not planning to become an ISP, which on a routine basis is prohibited under FCC rules anyway. 

Users of Icom ID-1 radios (10 watts, the fastest and most powerful data radio on the market in any service) will be able to use the system to access public service applications, mail, and our two Statewide packet radio networks as well as the TwinsLAN Metro Area network.   145.67/145.01 packet users can also reach the same applications and the D-Star users via a Trivnetdb Linux gateway. 

News 5/15/06:  We have decided to deploy regional mail server/BBS systems on the 145.67 network.  (Thanks Jerry, N0MR).  In the event of a disaster or incident, amateur radio packet  users can go to the nearest BBS system, for updates and instructions.  Bulletin messages to "all" (SB is the command) ) can direct people to which callsigns are in use for an incident.   We are also using Trivnetdb on Linux as an application for delivering services on the 145.67 network.  Multiple users can connect to these servers  and access databases for missing persons, and also build new databases (!) such as for Pan Flu work and use the conference services.  The KC0LQL node and Trivnet have a conference service- sign in with your call or tactical call (such as the first six letters of the County name for Public Health Officers).   A grant request is in for an Icom D-Star system to provide high speed web access between 145.67 locations, 145.01 locations and critical medical locations.    

Icom ID-1, RP-1D and D-Star L-Band General Advice

RP-1Ds are very easy to set up.  Plug it in, set the callsign, frequency and IP address/mask via the USB connector and Windows software.  Set the Ethernet to "on" and turn off the gateway and links (unless you have some).  Then you are good to go.  Computers and ID1s in the same IP subnet as the repeater can now talk to the repeater, and the Ethernet on the back.  We are not fans of DHCP at this point.  If your radio does not talk the repeater assume you have RF path problems - the repeaters and protocols seem bulletproof to us.  Do not put an ID-1 or a repeater controller on a busy Ethernet hub.  They can act like bridges and will bridge all kinds of trash onto the RF path

This frequency band does not provide the "bonus propagation" we have seen on 2 meters.  On 2 meters, in our experience, if you put a radio and an 18 inch piece of coat hanger in the air you are good to go. On microwave bands you need line of sight coverage and good antennas and connectors and feed lines. 

We have not had good luck with NMO mobile antenna mounts on 1.2G-Alan says they do not look good on his analyzer.  The Comet N base mobile antenna systems work great.  Radio City stocks them.   I have used the Comet 1.2 mobile antennas for years- they are rated to 2.4Ghz.    

Invest in an SWR bridge for this band.  The Comet CM-120 was about $70.00.  You put your ID-1 into FM mode, and press the Push to talk button and ID and you get 10 watts of RF to test your antenna.  The lack of obvious adjustments on the repeater (none) is good news and bad news.  The bad news is you can't tweak anything.  The good news is these are plug and play RF wise and you don't need to tweak them. 

The ID-1 settings are a little mysterious.  For one to work you need to set it up, and have a good signal to the repeater.  On the left is the signal going up then the right is the signal coming down.  If you are not seeing displays like this it is likely you have an RF problem.  You can test SWR- get an SWR bridge (Comet makes one) and put the rig into FM simplex, tune to a proper FM simplex frequency, key the mic and ID.  It's tricky to test SWR on the digital signals.  In the case here, KE8TX is the repeater. 

1. Computer set with an Ethernet interface on the right fixed IP address and subnet.  We do not use DHCP currently (other groups might be)....   So for the Mining ARC system you might use 172.16.0.56 as an address for your PC (2-254 are legal, skip .20) and 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask. We have tended to set the default gateway to the base address of the repeater or the Ethernet on the repeater 172.16.0.20 - no data here on what is best-  you can set a DNS server- use the Ethernet address 172.16.0.20    Turn off all the other services on the interface- Netbios, 802.1x, etc.  For starters, turn off your other Ethernet interfaces, Internet, etc just until it works the first time.  This seems to work both with and without a default gateway set. 

2. Use an Ethernet cable not a crossover.  And not a switch or hub unless you are the only station(s) on it. 

3. Turn on the ID-1 and put in your settings - you need to set your personal callsign "my"   TwinsLAN/3M repeater: Your: KC0TQI A  RPTR1: KC0TQI G    GW: checked  - the gateway symbol tells the repeater to direct traffic to the Ethernet interface on the repeater, which is either off, running the Icom Gateway Software or in our case, a Linux appliance running our web server and DNAT etc.

4. The Ethernet should come up (layer 1/2) on the computer, and the lights on the radio should flash when you ping the repeater, and you should see a little boxed lightning bolt flash (xmit) and a little three bar s-meter symbol flash (rx data).  The callsign of the repeater should flash on the radio display. 

5. If that works you can try the repeater web site - 172.16.0.20 - if that works you are good to go. 

I have this working on Windows Server 2008 RC0 in my lab here, and it works with XP and Linux.  The ID-1 programming software does not yet support Linux.  I have the Internet going on one computer interface and D-Star on the other today - that is pretty cool. 

----------

Don't even think of antennas with less than about 11-14 dbi of gain - losses are everywhere on this band- discones are rated for 1.2 but are useless

Long cable runs are not your friend.  This equipment will not work on towers with the gear at the base unless you have top end hardline  (1 5/8" like the cell phone folks use)

We think remote mounting of the ID-1 base unit is a good idea.  It draws 7 amps and is rated for 14f to 140f - not bad.

A PL259 connector is dummy load at this band- use only N/SMA/BNC/DIN connectors (there in an N plug out that is like a PL259 and easy to solder on)

RG8 coax (and RG8X and RG58) works very well as a dummy load on this band. 

Excess coax adapters and jumpers cause a lot of loss

Make sure lightning arrestors you use are rated for this band

Beams are good- very good in fact - we are trying some corner reflectors next

Slight antenna movement /adjustment might help - we aim antennas with ping- fire up "ping -t" under Windows(r)  to your repeater, and aim the antenna until you get the fewest lost packets.  The inventors of ping might be surprised by the use of their software for aiming antennas. 

Our experience is the general behavior of radios, repeater range, etc of 1.2 is like 440 - NY9D designed and built a 1.2 FM voice repeater years ago from scratch and ran it for years - even published an article in 73 Magazine on it.  Accept no "advice" on this band from people who do not own/use/build equipment for it.  There are many myths around.  That analog machine might reappear on the air. 

ID-1s do not seem to have IP addresses - they just use callsigns - your data goes encapsulated in callsign headers .  We are not using DHCP- your computer on the ID-1 needs a fixed address in the same range as the address on the repeater/gateway you wish to reach or other station you wish to reach.   Other repeater owners may be using different systems.   We are using fixed IP subnets, a different one per repeater.  The idea is then we can use a router to link the back end Linux systems. 

We see around 100ms of per hop RT latency on ID-1s

L-Band DD mode is not duplex- it's simplex, so excess broadcast packets, unattended data streams, linking on the same channel are not good.  These are called "repeaters" but are not in the FCC sense of the word.

We have had good luck with two multiband antennas here- the Comet GP95 *** ($160) and MFJ 1532N ** ($99)- 4.5db (2m), 8.3db (440) and 11.7 db (1.2)  - both are one piece and suited for building tops and tall places

Doug Reed N0NAS (9/9/07) thinks ID-1's don't mind having home type routers attached to them- you can support multiple TCP/IP sessions through one radio-radio (callsign to callsign) "tunnel" in essence- not a hub/switch with a lot of devices on it...The radio otherwise takes all it hears with an IP address on the Ethernet wire and sends it out the RF end. 

Windows Update is a good thing but not with D-Star + Internet gateways.  If your computer wants to check for updates and it thinks there is Internet someplace on your D-Star system it will fire up and go- the Marine Corps Marathon folks found this out during their race.

D-Star Project Phases

D-Star equipment, like packet equipment, can be purchased and installed by anyone, and operated by a person with a valid FCC license.  The whole digital voice with Internet linking aspect of D-Star is interesting but out of scope for our purposes, based on the requests we have from our served agencies.  Their focus is high speed data. 

Phase 0 - The planning phase- complete

Phase 1- Initial single site repeater purchase and installation - Complete 5/14/07

Phase 2- Minneapolis  South site installation - Complete 8/24/07

Phase 2A- Minneapolis Downtown East site installation and Live test at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon 10/07

Phase 3- Link testing between "repeaters" i.e. Motorola Canopy or Ricochet or ?? Underway

Phase 4- Five Node System deployment in the Twin Cities by 9/1/08

Phase 5- High density corridor deployment- Twin Cities to Duluth, Rochester and Brainerd - this will be tricky as 15 mile hops will need lots of sites/towers and gear

Prioritized Project list and targeted dates and owner:

These projects are managed jointly by the 14567.org team and Twinslan.  We hold monthly open workshops- new site TBD 
 

1. Get equipment for Minneapolis East and Minneapolis South sites purchased and installed.  Total cost for both $4000.  - All done as of 10/3/07.   We went out on a limb here and hope some more donations will arrive. 

__________________________________________________________________

D-Star Digital Voice Etc

We are not for the moment in charge of area D-Star digital voice deployments, Internet linking, Icom Internet gateways, etc. 

We are not big fans of 1.2G digital voice- why use a $1000 microwave ID-1 radio for voice (and it can't run high speed data at the same time) when a $120 VHF-FM radio will do? 

The 2 meter D-Star voice repeater channel pair situation is looking better nationally as of 2/19/08- one of the repeater councils is refarming the band.  There is a thick "preserve legacy modes at all costs" fog around here -we were getting a little cynical. 

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D-Star DD Mode FAQ 2/15/08

1. Why are you using separate IP subnets for each repeater?  This makes us reconfigure the Ethernet on our computer when we change repeaters.  We don't understand the linking protocol Icom uses, and can't afford to buy the official link radios @$5000 per end.  So we will have to link the Linux appliance computers themselves.  You can't IP route easily between the same subnets.  So we are setting up separate subnets per repeater.  You just pick an IP address ( not .1 or .20) and go. 

2. What about Kenwood and Yaesu?  Kenwood has announced a D-Star radio in Japan.  My take is they are doing everything they can to fight D-Star.  They have plenty of support in this battle.  The full page "Packet is the Future" ads from Kenwood. are a hoot.  We'll see who wins :-)

3. What is the range on 1.2?  It's about like UHF.  Line of sight - so 10-12 miles from a big rooftop for tower-tower.  It is whatever the RF Path Study says.  There is no magic. 

4. What do you mean by Internet?  We use "The Internet" to refer to the commercial information service.  We use TCP/IP over Amateur Radio to refer to our plans for linking, and is the underlying protocol at some level for DD Mode.   We use TCP/IP over 802.11 (Part 15) as a linking and short range option as well.  The use of Part 15 off the shelf technology and frequencies allows encryption, Internet access and does not require licensed control operators.

5. The cost of ID-1s is a big impediment for home stations and casual user adoption.    Yes that this true but we want to build credible shared infrastructure and deployable assets.  You can get on AX.25 packet radio for $50- but almost no one does.   The role of casual home users in tactical, large scale emergency services is not clear to me.  In Pandemic Influenza under quarantine type conditions, this is of course different, but home users would not need high bandwidth?  So existing packet, low speed data, Airmail, Winlink 2000 would seem fine. 

6. Can you use D-Star DD for routine public Internet access?  No - it's not legal.   Other/commercial radio services (Satellite, 2G/3G, 802.11 etc) offer commercial Internet over essentially the entire USA. 

FCC Part 97.113:. 

(5) Communications, on a regular basis, which could reasonably be furnished alternatively through other radio services.

7. Is the D-Star portion of this project being done with the support and or endorsement of the ARRL Dakota Division or MN Section.  No.  They were a big help on the packet side of things some years back.

8. Do you support encryption?  No.  You don't need encryption to provide many forms of backup emergency communications.  All forms of commercial communications support encryption, and if they are calling us (Ham Radio) things are bad.  You can creatively solve some short term message authentication problems with one time pads of unique message sequence numbers, and tactical names for sites, etc.  Operators of digital message forwarding systems on the other hand are required by the FCC to authenticate users to limit their liability on illegal traffic.  For that we think a digital signature aka "digital callsign" is a good idea.  A digital callsign does not obscure anything.  And we can see an agency wanting to use an SSL protected website.  This is fully legal in an emergency, and  not legal on a routine basis so we are covered. 

9. What do you tell served agencies?  We say we are the fifth tier emergency communications network for them.  "If all else fails" as the ARRL bumper sticker says.  

Normal commercial data services > Normal commercial voice services incl. Fax > Normal commercial wireless services > Sat phones > US

10. Do you worry about having a single platform vendor.  No.  80+% of the routers in the world are from one vendor (Cisco) so it has not been an issue there either.  

11.  Is this network a "Common Carrier" that competes with other Common Carriers?  No.  A Common Carrier (see Wikipedia) serves the public.  This network only serves FCC licensed Amateur Operators on Part 97 frequencies.  

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Packet Radio Section

As the owners and long time operators of more Amateur Radio AX.25 packet radio equipment than anyone else in at least five states, we have been big fans of AX.25.  It is just is too slow for modern applications.   And it's hard to find and train operators on the character mode interface.  400+ Million people can use a web interface without training.    So we'll keep our old network going as long as we can get parts and there is not anything newer and better.  And it works when there is nothing else.  This is a hobby, and we follow the letter of the FCC rules - if you are interested in advancing the state of the radio art, AX.25 packet radio is not the place to do it.  Running big networks counts a little I suppose. 

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Packet /APRS News: 

News: 6/29/08: We are burning in the newest solar packet node.  The charge controller is working fine and it should be ready to install in a week or two.  The priority project seems to us to be the Rochester/Twin Cities link.  The idea is to get that working with a primary path, and then add a second/third path. 

News: 4/12/08:  Got some notes and calls this week.  Jerry says the work on MNSTP has disrupted the Twin Cities end of the 145.01 packet network.  MNWBL has an ancient radio on the 145.01 side which has failed.  This is true.  We need to find another NE metro site for 145.01 to get some more redundancy in place.  The Hospital Compact folks are asking about packet/FM voice radios and drills and training.  We sent them on to those in charge of that project. 

News: 2/20/08: Two of the KAM units we got yesterday upon closer inspection turned out to be "Enhanced" units in disguise.  So these could be used for Airmail, which is a Pactor based HF email system.  Some of the mail BBS systems set up to accept Airmail connects over HF radio still take connections from slow legacy Pactor 1 systems.  So these TNCs are useful- you pretty much need to pair them with an HF radio with a digital frequency readout in my experience to get to these BBS systems.  The latest gear for this is Pactor II I think, but the modems are $1000. 

News: 2/19/08: We got short of repair parts for our packet network and stopped into the Amateur Radio Consignment Center on 632 Prior N (just North of University Ave) in St. Paul.  They are open Tu/Th 4-7PM and Sat 9-Noon.  651-644-3102.  Paul the owner has been a huge supporter over the years, and he had three Kantronics KAMs waiting for us tonight at the right price- about $20 each.  He has supplied about 20 TNCs to us and some radios since 2001.  His stock of vintage parts such as large variable capacitors has never been better.  ARCC is our "other" ham radio dealer in the Twin Cities, and along with Radio City have been invaluable. 

News: 2/19/08: MNCLK is back online.  We waited a day for the holiday and got in there today over lunch and replaced the TNC.  The last site visit was in 2003.  

News: 2/17/08: Jerry is reporting MNCLK is offline.  He says the TNC is spewing "A"s - these lose their minds about every five years and have to be rebooted.  We'll get up there this week.  MNMONT - our backup to MNCLK is offline- long story- so we'll make fixing it a priority.    

News: 1/23/08: We was curious if cold weather impacts our packet network- it's four degrees F out -and the answer is no- all of the links are fine.  These path were over-engineered in the first place. 

News: 12/15/07: We got an email asking us to increase the Twin Cities APRS backbone coverage.  We are not fans of home made repeater/node equipment on our commercial/government sites, so if someone were to hand over a late model type accepted radio, attached to a late model Kantronics TNC (MTBF of six + years) and a switching power supply, we might find a home for it.  Fussy equipment you have to go and tinker with every few months is unprofessional and annoys our site owners.  This is 1980's technology...long since perfected. 

News: 11/25/07:  There is not much on the air in the Twin Cities on 145.01.  I was trying to test some old Kantronics DVR2-2 crystal controlled radios on that frequency.  These are good for solar power.  

News: 11/20/07:  The parts to make another solar packet node are in stock, so we are going to tackle the Minneapolis/Rochester link situation.  We have a site in mind in River Falls, Wisc.  The new link as is is not very solid.

News: 10/1/07:  From W0STV: We have the MNROCH 145.670 node up and running. We are running an Icom V8000 running a KPC + at 25 watts since the power supply is not big enough to run at full power. We will have it at 75 watts by this weekend. We have already made contact with the Maple node. Please inform Austin and Winona to try the node.  

Nodes heard 10-01-2007 by MNROCH

MNRUSH

MNISLE

MAPLE

MNMSU

HINKMN

 News: 9/26/07: New maps, including some for the 444.125 development are coming from Jerry and Kelly

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Legacy 145.67 1200 BPS Packet Wide Area Node Status as of 10/1/2007:  These are mostly government/commercial grade nodes or others with unique capabilities and is not a complete list- we are not listing home stations for the most part.  Note if a given path seems to be not working, try a longer one- long range propagation is common on this band, and disrupts short range paths.

MNWBL White Bear- - Not dual band but both channels are on the air.  (4/08). 

MNBRD Brainerd - Brainerd ARC 

MNWBS - Wobasso (Redwood County) NEW*****  KB0CGJ

UM67 Uof M Minneapolis (East Bank)  Campus

MNCCC7 Matowah/Duluth (c to MNCCC to reach MNDUL and FWD in Duluth on 145.01)

MNLF2 Little Falls- 244' HAAT.  Good RF path to MNBRD, WILMAR, MNCLK!  We have an APRS node in Little Falls also on the top of the tower at 213'!- N0NAS-11 - try it via http://www.findu.com/  *Now dual port 145.67/145.01 10/14/06.  If we had some money this would make a nice anchor for a high speed backbone Minneapolis-BRD. 

MNBLM Bloomington

MNFRBL-  Fairbault - nice node/BBS -W0NKA - Might be a big help on rebuilding our Rochester link

MAPLE Maplewood- 280' - Best route to most places...- Please in a declared communications emergency, this node should be reserved for high priority official traffic  

MNRUSH- Rush City -  Now has APRS node (for MS150) on backup antenna .   Works MNCCC7 (Duluth) direct

MNPEQ Pequot Lakes - 145.67 node up, New* 145.01 crosslink and APRS  - 

MNMSU Mankato - powerful node and BBS

MNSAND- Sandstone- good path to MNCCC7 and to MNRUSH

MNMPLS Minneapolis #1 400'-  Has nice path direct to MNCLK, WILMAR

MPLSDN Minneapolis Downtown 400' 

MNCLK- Clear Lake-  140' - works MNLF2 and all Twin Cities backbone nodes direct. 

KC0LQL - St. Paul- Test node for our LINUX version of ARES-Data trivnetdb by Dennis Boone, KB8ZQZ- See us in February, 2004 QST Magazine.  Connect to the node then to db to use the Trivnet interface.  Has a conferencing system.  Near MAPLE for easy access.  We are running Debian 2.6 on our production systems. 

WILMAR- 400' in Willmar, MN.  Very good coverage to Wobasso, Mankato, etc. 

MNAUS- !

MNWCEM - Minnesota State Emergency Operations Center, St. Paul 

MNDSN - Dawson, Minnesota   ***NEW

MNROCH- is back 10/1/07 !!! We need to develop a new range circle for the site. 

MN/WI Packet BBS List- Thanks Jerry, N0MR (Statewide Packet Network Operations Manager for these)  - Plan is for one BBS per State EM Area.  These came from donated laptops.

Minnesota Area Packet BBS's Updated 1/27/08

Following are the major packet BBS's in the area along with the frequencies.

STPBBS      St Paul                 145.63, 145.01

STCBBS      St Cloud          145.67

HUTCH Hutchinson        145.67

BRDBBS      Brainerd          145.67, 446.125

ISLBBS      Isle              145.67, 446.125

DULBBS      Duluth                  145.01, 446.125

BALBBS      Balsam Lake,      WI   145.01

Jerry, N0MR

145.01 1200 BPS Node Status as of 11/24/06- New map above- thanks Jerry & Kelly - note a brand new Twin Cities - Duluth link is up 11/06! * 

MNGPZ - Grand Rapids

MNWBL - White Bear Lake

MNLF1- Little Falls- Dual port 10/24/06

HINK- Hinkley

MNHRIS- Harris

MNISLE- Crosslink .67/01 + new Telpac node w0kgw-10

MNNWD - Norwood Young America

MNDUL- Duluth .-01 gateway, reached on .67 via MNCCC7 then MNCCC

MPSTP- Twinslan link - Woodbury location- now (4/08)  linked to MNSTP D-Star repeater for Citadel etc

WISS- Duluth area

446.125 Maps and Status - thanks Jerry N0MR - stay tuned

Solar Powered Stations

NY9D - Near MNWBL - 2x 15 watt panels ($80 each from Northern Tool) and a charge controller and a deep cycle Group 24 battery are enough to power a Kantronics KPC-3 (turn off the LEDS) and mini-mailbox, NY9D-1 and a Kantronics DVR2-2 3 watt radio.  You could also use an HT here for your radio.  The idea is this is a fully survivable BBS that would work in a prolonged regional power outage, as has happened. 

Disaster Plan

In a declared emergency, an activation message will go out over the National Traffic System (NTS) and other methods (i.e. local repeaters).  Most likely, one or more BBS systems on the network will be designated as the dissemination point for official bulletins and message traffic for our served agencies, primarily hospitals and MDH.  Please stay off of the main backbone nodes and 145.67 in this situation unless you have official served agency traffic as the Statewide Network (we share just one 1200 bps radio channel) has very limited long distance surge capacity.  There are many other designated packet radio channels -145.01, 145.03, 145.05 etc. (including the Twinslan backbone) where non-essential /H&W/supporting/local  traffic can go during such an event. 

Links

• http://training.fema.gov/IS/NIMS.asp The FEMA Emergency Management courses (IS-100 etc) are very good.  These are mandatory these days for emergency responders.  It pays for anyone involved in disaster response to get to know the lingo at least. 
• Twinslan- Twin Cities Amateur Radio Data  - They are the sponsors of the monthly open workshops 
• http://home.att.net/~lakesarearp