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Hi I'm Michael, KB9VBR, your host for Ham Radio Q&A.
I'm on a mission to inspire
and educate the amateur radio community
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Well I got plenty to talk about this month
as we dig into the questions,
but please stick around to the end of this video
because I'm gonna have a quick channel update
and give you a preview of a few videos
that are to come for this coming month.
But first we're gonna unpack a few of the comments
from my recent video were I discuss
why our repeaters are so quiet.
So many great comments came from this video,
many of them echoing the statements that I made.
Also, quite a few people believe
that it doesn't need to be this way.
So I'm gonna start off with a comment
from regular contributor 1fanger,
very good topic of conversation.
Conversation is the operative word here.
Just ham it up whenever possible.
Search for local nets, and make your point of participating.
Show some enthusiasm
and put on your best ham voice out there.
Sound happy to be on the air.
Write down the names and call signs of other hams
so you can say to them,
hey, I didn't hear you last week on such and such net?
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
You know that's really great advice.
I like idea of kinda keeping notes in a log
of who you hear on the air if you're having trouble
remembering names and call signs.
And I always believe in positivity and a cheerful voice
certainly creates a welcoming atmosphere on the repeater.
Commenter CWB noticed a different trend.
I decided recently to make more of an effort this year
to get more involved in ham radio
and I've found that the repeaters around me
here in Eastern Massachusets seem to be
a bit more active now than four or five years ago
when I was first licensed.
I also noticed more newly licensed hams
on the air lately too which is a good sign.
I currently use analog repeaters since most,
if not all digital rigs can also do analog
so there's no reason to not put your call out on analog
repeaters if digital seems dead.
My main thought is whatever you have use it
and get on the air as much as you can
and don't be afraid to be the one to start some activity.
Thanks for your observation,
encouraging new hams to be
active on the air can be a challenge
so a welcoming attitude is key.
And other commenters echoed those same thoughts
and stated that they live in communities
with good repeaters and great activity.
To that end Kevin reminds us,
two comments, let's try to be more active about calling back
when someone throws out their call on VHF/UHF,
even if it's not a friend of ours.
Also, let's keep in mind
that being prepared for emergency,
grid-down situation is an important aspect of ham radio.
That is to say, we need to stay in practice
of communicating with each other using radios
rather than cell phones and the internet.
I'm in total agreement of that.
If we don't use our resources on a regular basis
how will we know if they're gonna
be available in an emergency.
Finally, TecDive gives a serious reason
why there isn't more conversation going on the repeaters.
Great question, and while you make some great points
I think you are entrenched in ham radio
to see the real problem.
While conflicting digital platforms
may have something to do with it,
as well as other competing past times,
the internet and so many other things to do these days.
The real problem is that repeaters are boring.
One can go through an entire net,
or day on any given repeater,
where the subject matter rarely strays
from the weather or radios.
I think all the ham operators forget
the purpose of a communication device, like a radio,
is to have a interesting conversation
about things other than the weather,
most people call this small talk,
or a device facilitating the communicating!
And for me, the most interesting conversations
are the ones that are debatable
or have some controversy.
I learn most from those things.
But God forbid that there be
anything controversial discussed on a repeater.
So if users can't have
interesting conversations on repeaters
they automatically gravitate towards
where they can have interesting conversations
like the internet, good luck.
Well you bring up a good point
but controversial subjects are like a double edged sword.
The reason it's recommended that hams steer clear
of those subjects like religion and politics
is that they are divisive
and in the long run do little to encourage goodwill.
Plus when two individuals
get on a controversial topic over the air
it tends to alienate all the other listeners.
The problem lies in that people are unable to have
a discussion on topics without it becoming a zero sum game.
What's the benefit of that?
You know I understand taking a defensible position
and backing it up with reasonable evidence
but when it no longer becomes defensible
you have to yield otherwise the whole conversion
becomes no longer becomes interesting.
So, I'm perfectly okay with moving
those arguments to other forums
as they certainly don't portray
amateur radio community in a positive light.
But hey moving on, I got a couple of questions
on my recent video on using
APRS with the Yaesu FTM-400 dual band mobile.
James asks, thanks for the video.
Can you do APRS on the B channel in the background
and voice on the A channel?
Can it be a TNC?
Well, I have some good news and some bad news.
The FTM-400 has two VFOs so it can handle voice
and APRS simultaneously between the two channels.
The TNC in the radio is not accessible externally,
unlike the Kenwood TM-D710GA.
The radio can output APRS packets via the interface port
so you can show them on an external display
but it can't take input from an an external device,
so a computer can't control the radio.
This means you can't use it for packet radio
or the APRS control via a computer.
On to revadan's question,
had a TM-D710GA before and sold it,
it decodes most of the strong packets it hears
but having 400xdr for two years I'm still wondering
why the radio receives a strong signal
but seldomly decodes it.
You can see the display it shows full bars signal
but no decodes, I hate it.
Well I'm pretty sure that
the radio is decoding all the packets
but it may not always show them on the screen.
The FTM-400 filters out duplicate packets
so if it receives identical packets from two digipeaters
it's not gonna display both.
Also stationary objects are filtered out
if the radio has received the packet within the last,
and that stationary object hasn't moved
in the last 30 minutes.
You know try clearing the heard list and you're gonna see
a lot more packet activity show-up on your screen.
And speaking of the Kenwood TM-D710 MonkeyProof1 asks,
comparing the 400XDR and the TM-D710GA,
what are some of the pros and cons of each model?
Well both are excellent rigs and either is a great choice.
The key difference between the two
is that the Kenwood TM-D710GA
allows for external access to the TNC.
There's a serial port so you can connect a computer
or other device to the radio for two way TNC control.
So the radio can feed APRS information
to the computer running an application
or you can use it for packet radio communications.
The FTM-400XDR is APRS only,
you can't externally control the TNC
although the radio will output APRS packets
via its control port but that's a one way process.
So packet radio and external control of the APRS,
by APRS applications is out of the question.
But the Yaesu has an excellent color display
and the quality of information,
along with the touch screen,
I believe makes up for that downfall.
Well in a nutshell,
if you require external control of the TNC
or wish to run mobile with a computer or other device
then the Kenwood is for you.
If you want the simplicity of APRS operation
with a good high quality display then go the Yaesu route.
Last summers video on the two meter quarter
wave ground plane antenna
generated a couple of great questions
that I really should address.
First Frank asks, do you have to strip
the cover from the wire?
A great video, thanks.
Leaving the insulation on the wire
is gonna affect the velocity factor
or the electrical length of the wire.
The formula in the video is assuming you're using bare wire,
so if you use insulated wire you're gonna need
to trim the antenna a bit so that it will
be resonant on the frequency that you choose.
So, you can leave the insulation on
but be aware that you're gonna need to make adjustments
and a bit of tuning to make it
so that the antenna is resonant.
Next Carl asks, hi Michael, I built the two meter
quarter wave ground plane antenna.
I'm measuring a 2.7 SWR at 146 megahertz.
What would be a good SWR for this antenna?
Any suggestions to make my SWR better?
My copper wire is cut at 19.2 inches.
Thanks in advance.
Well at 19.2 inches you should get
a better reading than that,
in fact if you measure carefully
the antenna will be very close to 1.2 to one or less.
Believe it or not this is a common question
that I receive especially from hams
that have just purchased
one of my two meter J-Pole antennas.
First off, check your coax to make sure
that you don't have any bad connections
or shorts in the connectors.
If the coax is good then I'll ask you,
what you're using as a SWR meter?
Is it rated for VHF/UHF frequencies?
Because a meter that is designed
for HF or CB radio is gonna give you a faulty reading
above 30 megahertz and if you use it on a VHF frequency
you're gonna see a SWR of about three to one.
My recommendation is that if you're still having trouble
tuning the antenna borrow an antenna analyzer
that is capable of doing VHF
to further make those adjustments.
Okay finishing up we have have some
great topics coming up this month of May.
I'm gonna have my second part
of the Yaesu FTM-400 APRS video and an upcoming review
of the Chameleon Emcomm III base antenna.
Wait till you see where we're gonna install it.
Also I'm planning some portable operation this month
so hopefully I can squeeze one of those videos in here.
You know spring is here
so let's get outdoors and make some noise.
And as always if you've got questions I'd love to hear them.
Please leave them in the comments below
and I'll pick the best ones
for my next Your Questions Answered video.
For more articles and informations,
please check out my blog at www.jpole-antenna.com.
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Well I'm Michael, KB9VBR.
Your host for Ham Radio Q&A have a great day and 73.