Tag: PI2NOS

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PI2NOS receiver mapOur local repeater in Hilversum, PI2NOS is undergoing some real exciting changes at the moment. Due to regulations this is one of the 70cm repeaters that is not bound to regional reach. That means it may be capable to receive and transmit in the whole country. Traditionally PI2NOS is situated in Hilversum with it’s antenna’s on a broadcast mast at 200 meters (656 feet) above sea level. It has a transmit range of almost all of The Netherlands. Receive range is a little bit smaller, especially of little local signals like hand helds. This is why the operators of the repeater adapted diversity to place more receivers for the repeater on high locations in the country. At the moment there are extra receivers in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Apeldoorn and Zierikzee. When you look at the map of The Netherlands, you’ll see that’s a nice circle around the center. There are plans to widen that circle and place even more receivers. There are plans to use extra transmitters to expand the reach of the repeater to the far ends of the country.

Mischa PA1OKZ, one of the operators of PI2NOS asked me if I want to develop a webpage to get a live view of the receiver status (for instance, which receiver is active at the moment). I did some coordination with Rob PE1CHL, the programmer of the repeater software of PI2NOS. Rob did write some excellent piece of code that is readable with JQuery on the client side. Rob did write a piece of example code to show how it works. Since Rob and me were talking about this subject on the repeater, more people who are able to code, listen in. Like René PC7X, Edwin PE1NMB and Rolf PE1PTP. In no-time they wrote excellent clients that plot the various receivers on a map.
Thereafter my mailbox exploded with mails from these guys. Day and night they are coding and exchange idea’s via mail. In the meantime the various pages become more and more beautiful and the users of the repeater more enthusiast.
These developments are great, many people are putting in their time and effort to benefit the greater good. In the meantime I’m designing a new website for this repeater which will hold the receiver map as well.

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Kenwood TH-D72Since early 2012 I do my daily commute by bike. It’s a 18 kilometers (11 miles) one way so I have a little 50 minutes to kill per ride. Mischa PA1OKZ, manager of the local repeater PI2NOS started an experiment earlier this year connecting more then one receiver to the repeater. The second receiver is located nearby my destination (work). When I read about this I figured if I take my hand-held, maybe I could work PI2NOS the whole ride! So time to dust of my Baofeng UV-B5 and take it with me for my daily commute. It turns out to work splendid! My Baofeng itself isn’t suitable for everyday use. It’s battery hold out for only one ride. The battery lips on the back seem to hold current, it tickles in my sweaty hands. And the most annoying: the transmit-button is small and is hard to hold when biking.
It seems I have to search for a better hand-held, probably non-Chinese. I’m a bit of a Kenwood-fanboy (I just really really really like their products), I start looking for a hand-held from Kenwood. Their flagship is the TH-D72. A dual band for 2m and 70cm and is also APRS- and GPS-enabled due to the build in TNC. The price is quite hefty (around 475 euro’s) but if for daily use I probably shouldn’t scrimp on quality. I try to do my hobby budget-neutral so I had to sell something before I buy something new. For this amount of money I had to sell half my shack. Biggest item to sell was my beloved Kenwood PS-53 power supply. When the amount was reached I send out an email to my favorite store: HAM-shop from Marcus PA2DB. Two weeks later my package arrived! I use my new Kenwood-relative TH-D72 everyday. It is a great piece of ingenuity! I still have to find a good spot to put the hand-held when biking. When it is dry weather I click it on the sling of my backpack (on top of my shoulder). But when it rains I put it in my backpack. Then it’s harder to work the repeater on low power. APRS and GPS work great but they also suck a lot of battery power. When put on both and running high power (5 watts) the battery only last two rides (back and forth). So I’m still experimenting with settings to enjoy the longest battery-life and put on the most options.

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EchoLinkAs every weekday morning when I’m enjoying my breakfast around 6:00 am, I listen to our local repeater PI2NOS. For a while now this repeater has an Echolink connection. Amateurs who use this repeater almost every morning, driving to work and chatting with each other.
This morning a US-HAM, Jasper KK4UFD logged in the repeater via Echolink. It was 12 o’clock pm at his QTH and he was preparing for a night sleep. The dutch amateur was driving to work as every morning and they had a fun chat about HAM-licenses, the weather, and some other subjects.
It’s great to hear a 15 year old US-kid talk to a 51 year old Dutch guy and (besides the language differences) have a really nice conversation about HAM-related subjects.
We do have a GREAT hobby! 🙂