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HamOperator

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Upcoming Events

Date/Time is Central USA

Check the Calendar link for a full month view. Let us know of any changes, additions, or updates.

Updates and Information

Audio from the nets is now being recorded and is available on the MNWis Net page.

2nd Edition of WiRES-X, The Bible available for review.

BARS sponsors a Fusion Technical Net held Monday’s  at 7:30 PM Central Time (0030 Tuesday UTC Daylight time) in Room #21493 and YSF #21,493 as well as a number of Fusion Repeaters. Everyone is welcome!

Latest Videos: Experiments with a DJI drone (aircraft). My, what fun. Ham Radio bit: It uses a 4 mbps 5.7 GHz link running 1 watt! YouTube Link (Please subscribe. If I get 100 subscribers I can get a URL that’s easier to remember than https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtEMgN4uxnvDEkKdca_vXzA. Thanks!)

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)

This is a real handy gadget and saved me a bunch of time running cables through the house. It’s a small camera/lights on a long, semi-stiff cable. It’s not HD, but I like that I didn’t have to use my phone. The battery runs forever and you can record photos and videos to an SD card. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially which side is up. I have some extension rods for pulling cables and found it really handy to tape the camera just behind the hook so I could see what I was doing.

I can testify that this is really a fun toy, er serious professional instrument. I’ve used it to test out all my HT antennas and discovered many of them were not tuned up anywhere near the ham band (especially those provided for hotspots). It’s better than an SWR bridge because it has two ports and can look at what a circuit does to a signal. Looking at Return Loss rather than SWR really gives you a good idea as to how much radiating an antenna is doing. I can’t imagine buying any of the expensive graphic SWR meters when this is available. Note: It does require calibration, but everything you need is provided. The 5 Ah internal battery lasts forever and the touch screen is nice and big! You may also want to consider a few accessories. This is a great educational tool if you want to learn more about RF circuits! Probably some of the best money I’ve ever spent. (I’ve had mine for about 6 months now.) Caution: Be careful how you handle the SMA connectors! I recommend not putting antennas on them directly and only connecting with the small, lightweight cables.

MNWis now has a Chat Function. Try using this during the net!

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

Use an FT2D for Mobile Digital operation

We now have OLD STUFF

MNWIS Real-Time Reports Includes connected nodes, Last Heard and other information

Chuck’s Channels – Downloadable repeater frequencies for Minnesota and vicinity

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)