Hello, Andy...

I'm guessing the first three bands are 2m and 70cm. Is the third 1.25m or 6

I'm sorry...I should've made myself clearer. The Icom T8A is 2 meter, 70 cm (440), and 6 meters. Check with your local Ham Radio club to determine repeater
coverage in your area. Obviously, no point getting a rig with a band that isn't
covered in your area. :) The Icom T81A has those 3 bands, plus 1.2 Ghz...the first quadbander that I'm aware of.

I think my Radio Shack catalogue must be way out of date, it features Alinco AB>radios but not the HTX202. I'll have to see what I can find out about that AB>one.

The HTX202 may be obsolete now...I'm not sure what current gear they have available. I know people who have them, but I've been satisifed with Icom. Of course, a running joke is that Icom stands for I) C)an O)nly M)onitor...and that "came true" awhile back...an old Icom HT I had would still receive, but would no longer transmit!! A friend of mine bought one of those Radio Shack units that looked like a portable ATV unit, but it was just a mini-TV.

I bought my cheap VHF/UHF FM only scanning receiver in Britain years ago. I AB>have a suspicion that it was also sold in Canada. It features the NOAA WX AB>channels but until I moved here I never had an opportunity to try them. I AB>find
them quite handy, especially when there are tornados about.

It's also good to switch between NOAA Weather Radio, and a SKYWARN Net in the
area, if it's activated.

It sounds great, I'd like to see a bit more of the US by rail, but I imagine AB>Amtrak gets a bit expensive.

It depends on what your trip entails. Contact them at (800) 872-7245 for details. I've got a 2 week trip to the US West Coast planned for next summer...and definitely plan to take the HT, repeater directory, and logbook. I'm debating about doing a packet setup as well. Ironically, Amtrak had an ad in a QST awhile back, looking for someone to work with their radios.

If the 102 is like the 100, that would be a really nice form factor for a AB>packet terminal. Similar machines were made by Cambridge Computers, Amstrad AB>and I think Tandy (although I'm not sure if theirs featured a terminal AB>emulator).

I had a program from my old Model 100 called XMDPW5. It allowed file transfer
via ascii capture or Xmodem, macros, split screen, and what they called "direct
access". It has been so long since I used it that I'll need to work with it. The only bad thing with the 100 and 102 is that it had an pixel display (no ANSI)...and above 300 baud, you had to "lock the scroll", as even at 1200 baud for VHF packet, some of the data got skewed on the screen. However, if you get a packet session with "slow connects", you might be in business. It's good to have a printer with it, and a program to echo what comes in to the printer. Radio Shack also had a disk-video interface at one time where you could basically hook it up to a TV set, and view it like a monitor.

That's not a bad price if it saves you the cost and bulk of a conventional AB>intelligent external TNC.

From what I've seen, that is the case. All I know it's a Kenwood dual band HT, but can NOT remember the model number. A fellow ham in the central Arkansas
area, who dials into my BBS for the Ham Radio doors I have (including a Ham Radio packet door) has one of those rigs, and he loves it.

like the Alinco is that they need fewer batteries.

The bad thing about Ni-Cads is that they develop a "battery memory affect". If you don't run them down completely before recharging, you'll have MUCH LESS power when you try to use your rig. A good while back, Quantum Instruments made
a Ham Battery that I really enjoyed using. You could run 2 HT's at one time with it (you paid the basic cost for the battery, then the cost for the desired
adapter(s). The Quantum had status lights on it, and you didn't have to run it all the way down before recharging it. Unfortunately, I don't think they're made anymore...but from what I remember, mine lasted a long time.

I wonder if the 340mW of the Alinco would enable me to reach the local AB>repeaters. Other handies seem to go up to about 5W which sounds adequate fo AB>VHF or UHF use. What are your thoughts on this?

It depends on the range of the repeater, its height, conditions, etc. I live in a neighborhood that's notorious for lightning strikes during thunderstorms, so I just have a magmount antenna in the shack. I run a Mirage HT amp for VHF Packet (to provide enough "oomph" <g> to get into the simplex packet frequency), but the HT remains on low power (1 watt). However, some nights, I can get in without the amp...and the max output power I have is 5-7 watts. The Mirage dual band HT amp provides 45w on 2m, and 35w on 440...so, I'm still below the 50w RF Safety Thresh-hold. Also, the tower which the repeater I use in the Little Rock area is on was damaged by severe weather 3 months ago. Club members are working to repair the tower at this time. Before the storms, I could hit the

(Continued to next message)



--- GTMail 1.26
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS, Little Rock, Arkansas (1:19/33.0)

Hello Daryl!

Hello, Andy...

I've heard two local repeaters, on 2m and 70cm. Neither seems to have very AB>much traffic.

It depends on the time of day, and whether or not nets are run on it. On one of the repeaters in the Little Rock area, it has the capability of being linked
up to several repeaters across the state.

Do you still have that one? It might be something as simple as a dry joint. AB>I suppose it could also be down to the battery (assuming TX power requiremen AB>is higher than RX). What happened when you tried to transmit?

The transmit light would light up, but it wouldn't key the repeater. And yet,
I knew the repeater did NOT have a sub-audible PL tone on it...plus, I WAS able
to key the repeater with another HT.

I don't know anything about SKYWARN, what can you tell me about it?

SKYWARN is an organization in the United States, that is composed of "storm spotters"...individuals trained by the National Weather Service, to provide "ground truth" to what the Doppler weather radar is showing. Most of the spotters are ham radio operators, and many communites have "weather nets"...activated by the National Weather Service...when there is a threat of severe weather. Spotters usually report:

1) Tornadoes -- a violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground. Sometimes the tornado will not be "direct" from the ground to the sky...but it'll appear "separated". However, if there is a "debris cloud" on the ground, it is a tornado...even though the entire circulation isn't visible.

2) Funnel Clouds -- same as above but NOT in contact with the ground. Some funnel clouds will stay "aloft", but others will become tornadoes. While Doppler Radar may show a tornadic circulation, the spotter will usually relay the report whether the circulation is aloft, or on the ground.

3) Wall Clouds -- a lowered, rain free cloud base, usually at the southwest corner of a severe thunderstorm, where the updrafts and downdrafts meet. This is usually the area where the tornado will form, especially if it begins to rotate. Next to the wall cloud is usually an area of large hail.

4) Hail -- chunks of ice, produced by intense updrafts of thunderstorms. Hail size can range from pea sized to as large as tennis balls, or grapefruits. Some
hailstones have been reported to be as big as 5 inches in diameter. While Doppler Radar can detect hail shafts within the severe thunderstorm, and possible size of the hail, spotter reports provide information on the size of the hail.

5) Flash Flooding -- Doppler Radar can estimate rainfall totals, that can lead to flash flooding...but spotters can report incidents of flooding.

6) Wind Damage -- Doppler Radar can indicate high winds with the storm...such as microbursts (downdrafts), as straight line winds. Wind speeds can approach 100 mph.

7) Nets can also be deployed during winter storms, with freezing drizzle, freezing rain, sleet, and snow...which usually causes a myriad of travel problems.

Are ANSI and colour commonly used in packet radio?

It depends on what program you use. On my Pentium computer that I run my BBS (and a packet door) on, I use a simple DOS program called "EZ PACKET". On my Radio Shack Model 102 laptop, I use a program called XMDPW5, which like the EZ PACKET program, allows for Xmodem or ASCII file transfers. The TNC basically doesn't care about the date, unless you're using a fancy packet program. For the most part, if you're just going after messages via a packet bulletin board system, all you need is black and white ASCII text.

I've been using NiMH AA rechargeables lately, which are supposed to be free AB>that problem. I deep cycle them every now and again though.

Agreed...the NiMH batteries are much better...and I think they last much longer.

We get a lot of storms, especially during the summer. We don't have a lot o AB>room, and I don't have a lot of cash, so I will probably have to think quite AB>hard about suitable antennae.

I have magmounts in the shack for 2 meters, 6 meters, and 440. I saw an ad in
the Amateur Electronic Supply (AES) catalog for an HF antenna that you can mount on a window or a table, thereby not needing an "outside antenna". The only drawback was that it didn't cover 160, 80, or 75 meters...but, it covered the rest of the HF bands, and up to the 440 UHF frequencies. I think it runs around $100, but I'm not sure. AES is based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin...but other
United States locations include Cleveland, Ohio...Las Vegas, Nevada...and Orlando, Florida.

(Continued to next message)



--- GTMail 1.26
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS, Little Rock, Arkansas (1:19/33.0)

In a message dated 12-06-00, Daryl Stout said to Andy Ball:

Hello Daryl,

Are ANSI and colour commonly used in packet radio?

It depends on what program you use. On my Pentium computer that I
run my BBS (and a packet door) on, I use a simple DOS program called
"EZ PACKET". On my Radio Shack Model 102 laptop, I use a program
called XMDPW5, which like the EZ PACKET program, allows for Xmodem
or ASCII file transfers. The TNC basically doesn't care about the
date, unless you're using a fancy packet program. For the most part,
if you're just going after messages via a packet bulletin board
system, all you need is black and white ASCII text.

It seems to me that you didn't quite answer the question from Andy.
ANSI and ASCII aren't the same thing.

73 de Sam, OH0NC

localhost: uptime is 19 days, 16:00 hours and 50 seconds

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