We look forward to working you in the June 2021 VHF contest. Our new strategy for Saturday contest start is to engage as many fixed stations as possible at the start of the contest. We will set up with one rover each in the four grid corners of EL09 / EL19 / EL08 / EL18 in the oil fields near Falls City, TX. We’ll point beams north toward Austin and San Antonio, run the bands with as many fixed stations as we can, then each of us will rotate one grid clockwise, and do it again. We repeat this four times. The result should be that each fixed station that participates can get 64 or more contacts (4 rovers * 4 bands * 4 grids) plus more if you do 902MHz or higher. The main difference here is to focus on fixed stations first rather than our own grid circling. We will use the normal call channels. Band runs will start at 144.200, then 222.1, 432.1, and finally 50.130 or whatever’s open on 6m. All SSB. Here are the participants:

KA5D/R: Brothers Kyle (KA5D) and Kourt (KB5PRZ) will be operating limited rover, 6m-70cm.
KD5IKG/R: Tim is operating unlimited rover, 6m-5.7GHz.
W5TN/R: David (W5TN) and Manoj (W5KYE) will be operating limited rover, 6m-70cm.
K2EZ/R: Andrea will be operating classic rover, 6m-5.7GHz.

Here’s a close-up of the grid corner we’ll operate from:

We will be beaconing on APRS as KA5D-6, so look for us using this aprs.fi link. Connectivity permitting, we’re also on the VHF-Chat.slack.com Slack server in the “3-rover-raregrid” channel using the handle “Kyle KA5D”. We’re going to do our best to ensure that fixed stations get an opportunity to work as many rover & grids combos as practical at the start of the contest.

Once we’re done in the oil fields, we’ll move to Devil’s backbone for by dinner on Saturday. Sunday we move north from Austin to Hico and will circle up there. Below is the map of the route for the whole contest.

See you on the air!

We look forward to working you in the January 2021 VHF contest. This time, we’ll have EIGHT rovers in a pack meeting in Hico, TX on Saturday morning. Five of them are from Texas: KA5D/R, KD5IKG/R, and W5TN/R from Austin area, K2EZ/R from Brenham, and K5GJ/R from Houston area. We are meeting three rovers from Oklahoma and grid circling around Hico for a few hours Saturday afternoon before splitting apart from the OK rovers and moving south to Austin that night, while the OK rovers move north. Sunday, we’ll be moving south of Austin to Falls City, TX area Sunday morning, where the Texas rovers will grid circle for a while there and then move north back toward Austin.

We will be beaconing on APRS as KA5D-6, so look for us using this aprs.fi link. We’re going to do our best to ensure that fixed stations get an opportunity to work as many rover & grids combos as practical. Here is a graphic of our route. See you on the air!

There is a BPQ packet node at The University of Texas at Austin. The means to reach this packet station is kept updated at https://ka5d.com/repeaters. This article describes the station purpose and how it was built.

The heart of the packet station is a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with a TNC-Pi9k6 hat with Teensy 3.6. This hardware TNC plugs into the GPIO pins of the pi and came with a box that also contains the pi in a tidy package. The TNC-Pi9k6 is used for 9600 baud communication on 432.95 MHz and is connected via 6-pin mini-din serial cable to a Kenwood TM-V71a. The signal path for this radio also includes a two-cavity filter, heliax, and a Diamond X-50NA antenna. If you haven’t tried 9600 baud yet, I encourage you to give it a try. The speed is a game changer.

There is a two meter 1200 baud channel at 145.73 Mhz to connect to this node. The pi is connected by a Signalink to a Yaesu FT-1500M. It also has a cavity filter in its signal path leading to a Diamond X-300 antenna.

For long distance operation, there is a 40-meter channel on 7.104 LSB (dial frequency) 300 baud packet as well. The center of the signal is at 1700 Hz in the passband. Connected to the pi is yet another Signalink to an Icom 706-MkIIg. The signal path includes a Dentron Super Tuner connected by coax/balun/ladder-line feed to a 40-meter horizontal loop sky wire antenna.

All of these things exist atop a tall building about 200′ AGL. Because the packet station is co-located with several other repeaters and radio services, everything must be carefully filtered to reject and prevent RFI. Due to its position and height, this UT node serves well as a digipeater for other nodes & users on all bands it operates.

The station is designed for security and high availability. It resides in a secure room behind a secure network with climate control and emergency power in a commercial building. The pi itself is backed up regularly.

The software running this packet node is BPQ. Services it provides include a BBS for mail and bulletins, a live chat server, and ability to connect to other BPQ nodes around the world. The connectivity to other nodes is provided by a hybrid network of AXIP (AX.25 protocol over IP) tunnels to other nodes, as well as RF fallback. Through a mix of AXIP links, HF connectivity, and links to other local nodes in the Austin area, it is possible to connect and communicate by packet all over the world. Through an RMS link with N4NVD-3:RNDRCK node in Round Rock, we can also send/receive Internet email using the BSS via the Winlink system, whereby the BBS acts as your Winlink client.

The main purpose of building it is to have fun with packet, and secondary to that is providing alternate communications when Internet isn’t available. A pleasant by-product of this project has been meeting fellow packeteers, many of whom have been generous with their time and talent to help us get up and running. I recognize Mark N5MDT, Charlie N4NVD, Kayne N9SEO, Clint KI5HMI, Tim KF5RLL as folks who really helped us out in many ways. We encourage radio amateurs all over Central Texas and the world to fire up your modems and visit the node. It will respond to either KA5D-7 or its alias, UT. Enjoy!

We look forward to working you in the June 2020 VHF contest. This time, we’ll have four rovers in a pack moving from Falls City, TX in the south to Austin on Saturday, then Austin to Hico, TX on Sunday. We’ll cover two grid corners each day. This will be a truly target-rich contest environment for fixed stations. Here are the participants:

KA5D/R: Brothers Kyle (KA5D) and Kourt (KB5PRZ) will be operating limited rover (6m-70cm) in Kourt’s Westie Vanagon. We are motivated to defend our #1 title in the Limited Rover category, and have the greatest amount of fun doing it.

KD5IKG/R: Tim is operating Unlimited Rover (6m-23cm) and will be sporting not only an ambitious new technical architecture for his radio station, he will be joined by his lovely wife in her vehicle. Tim, Kyle, and Kourt have been roving together for years.

W5TN/R: David is making his debut as a Limited Rover and has kitted out his pickup with a sweet set of loops for all bands 6m-70cm, as well as a brand new FT-991. He has put a lot of effort and motivation into making an effective rover, and we look forward to the addition.

K2EZ/R: Andrea needs no introduction to the VHF contest world, having impressed many with her amazing bespoke rover setup, trip endurance, and the impressive scores that come with her effort and experience. She is operating Classic Rover and will be starting with us before eventually diverging on a separate path to the northeast. We’re glad to have her along.

We will be beaconing on APRS as KA5D-6, so look for us using this aprs.fi link. Connectivity permitting, we’re also on the K5RMG.slack.com and VHF-Chat.slack.com Slack channels using the handle “KA5D”. We’re going to do our best to ensure that fixed stations get an opportunity to work as many rover & grids combos as practical. We have some ideas that will make grid circling less like a mosh pit and more like a square dance. Below is the map of the route. See you on the air!

Post-contest update: The contest went well, with most of us posting new personal bests for June VHF. We’ll see how the scores shake out as time passes. Most importantly, we figured out how to grid circle gracefully and work fixed stations simultaneously, and we had a ton of fun. Thanks to everyone for getting on the air.

Here’s the KA5D shack, circa 2017: