Upcoming Events
Date/Time is Central USA
- March 25, 2023, 5:30 pm: Southern Australia Net (Morning)
- March 25, 2023, 7:00 pm: Milwaukee ARC Fusion Net
- March 25, 2023, 8:00 pm: America Link
- March 25, 2023, 8:15 pm: DARC Digital Net
- March 26, 2023, 2:30 am: Southern Australia Net (Evening)
- March 26, 2023, 7:30 pm: Ohio Link Network
- March 26, 2023, 8:00 pm: Oklahoma
- March 26, 2023, 8:30 pm: Southern Minnesota Fusion Net
- March 27, 2023, 7:30 pm: MNWis Fusion Technical Net
- March 27, 2023, 9:00 pm: Colorado Net
Check the Calendar for a full month view. Let us know of any changes, additions, or updates.
Note: Many parts of the United States have moved to daylight time as of Sunday 12-Mar.
The recorded nets (podcasts) are available under MNWis-> Nets
All podcasts are available here: https://hamoperator.podbean.com
Heard This Week on the Net
Posted: Supplemental information for the discussion of HT batteries 20-Mar-2023
FT70 works the repeater on low power but not high power. See the blog post.
New rumors of a Yaesu FTM-500. See the rumors here.
Live streaming of the MNWis net at: https://www.podbean.com/lsw/MNWis
A really nice power station
I’ve had one of the power stations for some time now. It has a really good MPPT converter that extracts every watt out of the solar panels. You can turn on the AC output while you have solar power coming in and it provides an efficient source of solar AC. Buying these components separately is almost the cost of the power station. Internally it has a 268 Wh Lithium Iron Phosphate battery which won’t burn your house down and can supply thousands of cycles. It also provides USB and USB-C power output as well as 12 VDC. Although I haven’t tested it, it should work as a UPS as well. It will provide AC output while it is plugged into AC and transfer to battery when the main input goes away. The display shows power input, output and remaining capacity. A bluetooth connection works well with my iPhone. An internal fan kicks in when high power is being used and sometimes during charging. It can charge at 150+ watts input AC or DC. For testing, I ran a water pump on the AC output. It consumed around 400 watts and the power station ran it just fine – which I wasn’t expecting. After all, this is a pump, not a radio!
The negatives: The internal battery is 22V, so the 12V output is from a DC-DC converter and is limited to 10A. So when operating SOTA or POTA it’s best to keep HF power under 50 watts. Also the USB-C doesn’t seem to coordinate well with some devices, delivering less power than it should. All in all I think you get quite a bit for the money. The reason I’m bringing this up is that there is currently a $90 off coupon. So be sure to check the check box!!! Normally the “standard” coupon is $60.
Here’s the Amazon link: https://amzn.to/42nOG5c
Updates and Information
BARS sponsors a Fusion Technical Net held Monday’s at 7:30 PM Central Time (0130 Tuesday UTC Day) in Room #21493 and YSF #21,493 as well as a number of Fusion Repeaters. Everyone is welcome!
Fusion Help – help and tip sheets, technical information, and other Fusion resources. (Link to old page)
Yaesu Fusion Blog – Hints and help from your first Fusion contact to installing and operating a Fusion repeater. This blog presents to the experiences of over 20 Hams who operate Yaesu Fusion equipment. (Link to old blog)
Use the Chat Function during the net to chat with other listeners and net control.
On HamOperator.com
Looking for links to interesting pages. Try the links page HamOperator->Links
All sorts of fun and interesting links posted.
Mobile Digital updates for WiRES-X and FTM-1/400
We now have Old News
MNWIS Real-Time Reports Includes connected nodes, Last Heard and other information
List of Fusion Nets and connections
Recommended Fusion Simplex Frequencies
Good cheap HF antennas: The K0ZE/K9EQ Antenna Shootout
Windows Tips and Troubleshooting (USB)
25-Mar-2016: How to set up Windows 7 and 10 for WiRES-X 24x7x365 remote operation on the Fusion Help page.
Tower Time Lapse Video – Taken at the MNWis Pine County repeater site
Shopping
The Shopping Page has been updated with old stuff gone and new stuff added.
HF HamOperating
Icom AH-4 Universal Tuner. The Official K9EQ Unofficial Icom AH-4 Tuner Page. It’s not just about working all bands. It’s also about building practical, cheap, antennas that you can design and put together with stuff from Home Depot. Find out why 50 ohms and aluminum are evil. Did I mention cheap?
Other Stuff
Please refer to the BARS/W0MDT Mission Statement. This mission statement applies to all activities including the Fusion Net, and Hams in the Park. We humbly suggest that other organizations also establish their mission statement.
K9EQ’s Amateur Radio Rules. Sometimes we need rules. Sometimes we don’t. Do we need these rules? You decide! (Updated 27-Apr-2020)
Recent Posts
- Fusion HT Battery Comparisons
- FT70D High Power Problems
- Date and Time
- WSPR and FT8 Links
- C4FM Audio Quality
- IMRS LAN Firmware Update
- Listen to 10 C4FM with an HT
Pages
Categories
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- Date and Time (1)
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Last Updated on March 20, 2023 by K9EQ
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