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Author: Brad Brown

WS1EC Node at Cumberland County EMA Adds UHF

Published by Brad Brown on May 16, 2021
WS1EC-15 Node at CCEMA

As of Saturday, May 15th, The WS1EC UHF backbone connection is now online, and with it the Midcoast is reachable again from Cumberland County! The node is able to reach the new KC1JMH-15 node in Westbrook and on occasion the N1QFY-15 node in Gardiner, on UHF.

Of note, the node’s SSID’s have been updated: It is primarily accessible at WS1EC-15, BBS is now -2, CHAT is now -5, Winlink RMS remains -10.

The existing station consisted of a 2-meter Kenwood TK-760H that was donated by Brad Brown KC1JMH, connected to Raspberry Pi running linbpq node software with TNC-X hat via a custom TNC cable, all built and assembled by Roger Pience N1XP.

On May 15th, Brad met with James Fraser KB1SDK, a member of the Cumberland County EMA. An unused repeater was disconnected and a jumper run from the hardline to a Yaesu 7800r which was donated to the Wireless Society of Southern Maine. The radio was then connected to the Pi using a DINAH USB radio interface, which Brad had displayed at a club meeting in March, and curious to see how well it worked, had donated to the cause. On one end is an 8-PIN DIN or data interface port, the other is USB, inside is a CM108 soundcard that supports push-to-talk.

Direwolf was installed to be a KISS TNC sound modem. It took some tinkering with Direwolf to make it play nice with the DINAH USB radio interface; it turned out that the version of Direwolf in the Raspbian repository (1.3) is too old to support PTT over the CM108 chip in the DINAH. Once Direwolf was installed fresh from the git repository (1.7), there were no further problems.

Future planned updates include swapping out the higher-altitude 2-meter antenna with a dual-band antenna and connecting both radios via a duplexer. James plans on setting up a radio rack for the repeater, which will eventually see a higher-altitude UHF antenna, and a tray included to help consolidate the packet station into a neater but still air-gapped package.

Thank you James KB1SDK for making yourself available for this work detail, and Roger N1XP for the phone support for the software changes.

New node in Westbrook: KC1JMH-15

Published by Brad Brown on May 8, 2021
Packet Network Display

As some of our astute hams have noticed, KC1JMH-15 has appeared on the BPQ nodes maps. Located in Westbrook, ME, and having both VHF and UHF radios, this node is our key to connecting Southern Maine with Midcoast Maine, allowing traffic to flow from New Hampshire to Canada along the i95 corridor.

Information on this node will be made available on our Nodes page and our printable maps as it continues to be developed and implemented.

A special thanks goes out to Richard Bates WD1O for his hard work and coordination to get this done. This could not have happened without him!

Welcome!

Published by Brad Brown on May 1, 2021

Thank you for visiting the Maine Packet Network website. Our mission is to build and maintain a packet radio backbone to interconnect several community-level networks and their respective emergency communications teams across Maine and beyond its borders.

Further, our goal is to pull together all the bits of information about packet radio operations scattered across the web, and to give operators of all skill levels one place to go to learn about packet radio and get connected with the network.

For more information about our group, please visit the About Us page. If you would like to contribute, please reach out to Brad Brown, KC1JMH.

Solar Storm Expected To Impact Communications

Published by Brad Brown on April 23, 2021
April 25 Solar Storm

From: Dr. Tamitha Skov, @TamithaSkov1:55 PM ยท Apr 22, 2021

Direct Hit: An Earth-directed #solarstorm is coming! NASA prediction model shows impact early April 25. Coronagraph shows a full-halo (teal line) ring around the Sun confirming the storm is Earth directed. Expect amateur #radio & #GPS reception issues & #aurora to mid-latitudes!

https://twitter.com/TamithaSkov/status/1385291202937847809?s=20

WSSM Packet Training Exercise

Published by Brad Brown on March 28, 2021
WSSM ECT nets occur monthly on the 4th Thursday

Thursday, March 25th, the Wireless Society of Southern Maine held a training net to coordinate a training exercise utilizing the Southern Maine Packet Group’s Cumberland and York County EMA nodes. We passed Winlink and BBS mail traffic, and communicated via packet Chat. Two members worked from new setups, and this allowed them to work out the kinks.

Read the full report on the WSSM ECT Blog!

WSSM Meeting Presentation

Published by Brad Brown on March 12, 2021
Packet Radio BBS and Winlink

Brad here, KC1JMH. I did a presentation this evening after the Wireless Society of Southern Maine business meeting, about what packet radio is, what it’s used for, and demonstrated how one connects to a node to send and receive BBS and Winlink mail.

The club runs the WS1EC node for the Cumberland County Emergency Management Agency, Maine.

Our discussions lead to stories about the marine stations we have contacted with Winlink as a training exercise from our region’s traffic coordinator, Steve KB1TCE. They have made for some fascinating contacts, a view into another lifestyle!

There was a lot of information to absorb, but this was meant to be an introduction. We’ll certainly have some practical hands-on training in the coming weeks. 73!

Stack of modems, a TNC, and a radio with data port

New Node: KC1LII

Published by Brad Brown on February 22, 2021

Sam KC1LII, a former Police Officer, lives in Ogunquit, ME and is establishing a new node with the help of Jim KC1ETT of Wells Beach. Sam’s node with be a spoke to Jim’s hub network, and may be able to provide a good path into NH for emcomm and hospital traffic.

Southern Maine Packet Group: CHAT

Published by Brad Brown on February 13, 2021

The Southern Maine Packet Group nodes have been linked for chat, with KC1ETT in Wells being the hub, and WS1EC connecting to that hub via W1YCA and N1XP.

When connecting, it may take a minute or two for the other nodes to automatically connect. Once can enter the /p command to show what nodes are linked.

Southern Maine QSY

Published by Brad Brown on February 12, 2021
Yaesu FT-991a on 145.730 MHz digital FM

The Southern Maine Packet Group and associated EMA nodes WS1EC and W1YCA have QSY’ed to 145.730 MHz to avoid some local QRM or RF interference, and we’re already seeing paths that were weaker working much more efficiently!

We are also working on an uplink to the Midcoast Maine Packet Network due to the path loss to KS1R, and another potential link into New Hampshire.

Stay tuned!

W1YCA: SD-Card Failure

Published by Brad Brown on January 13, 2021

The York County EMA node W1YCA was down this morning due to an SD card failure. Roger N1XP acted quickly to investigate and replace the SD card with a USB drive. He supplied instructions on how to make the Raspberry Pi boot from a USB mass storage device, which can be found in the Files section.

W1YCA is Back!

Published by Brad Brown on January 10, 2021

After a hiatus of the Southern Maine Packet Group’s W1YCA node at the York County EMA in Alfred, its return delayed in part due to COVID-19 restricting access to the EMA building, it has returned as of January 10th, 2021. Some further adjustments are being made to stabilize its connectivity and applications.