The American Preparedness Radio Net

For this evening’s net, Ruth, KK4CDA took the reins, and did a bang-up job under rough conditions. With a group of hams numbering over a dozen, from Maine to Georgia, her topic for the net was “Recommended Books”. Here is a list, as best she could copy. A search should lead to the exact one, if we have any slight errors. A BIG thank you to Ruth for standing in under non-optimal conditions.

Book list:

Holy Bible
Enemies foreign and domestic – matthew bracken
Leverage, how cheap money will destroy the world – karl denninger
Home production of quality meats and sausages – stanley and adam Marianski
Encyclopedia of country living – carla emery
Patriots – james wesley rawles
Jakarta pandemic – steven konkoly
How to survive the end of the world as we know it – james wesley rawles
Making the best of basics – james talmage stephens
98.6 degrees, the art of keeping your ass alive – cody lundin
Foxfire series (1st and 3rd book, but all good)
Self sufficient life and how to live it – john seymour
Mother earth news magazines
Mary bell’s complete dehydrator book
??? Pleasant valley ??? – lewis brownfield (1930s-1940s book)
When technology fails – matthew stein
Putting food – janet greene, ruth hertzberg, beatrice vaughan
??? Workforce handbook??? – ????
Ball blue book guide to preserving (canning, freezing)
Backwoods home magazines
Camping and Woodcraft- Horace Kephart

Respectfully submitted,
Greg Schippers, KC8HXO

I am posting this for Steve/KB1TCE, who has been operating an amazingly well developed HF WINMOR and more system, tied-in with VHF and other modes. This is where we would like to go. This is for his on-the-air system, which I have used many times before I even know who Steve was.

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Invitation to TAPRN Digital Net Participants
in the Northeast

KB1TCE Owl’s Head BPQ32 BBS and Winlink Server:
Direct Access for Distant Users

KB1TCE operates a full time BPQ32 Bulletin Board System (BBS) from Owl’s Head, about half way up (or down if you are a real Mainer) the Maine coast (FN54kb). We have a number of local users on the 2 and 6 meter access ports. I also operate a Winmor port on 80 meters (3585 USB dial) and this is used by people who are too far away to connect to the VHF ports. The HF port permits access to the BBS for personal messages and Winlink email for hams who use RMS Express.

At the present, the RMS Express port will not handle bulletins but there are plans by the BPQ32 author, John Wiseman (G8BPQ) to add that capability.

I would like to invite the TAPRN members who have begun using RMS Express and who are within range of my station to try out the BBS. If you have never used a radio BBS before, this will give you a good idea of the benefits of store and forward for emergency communications.

What follows below are the detailed instructions for access.

KB1TCE-1 BBS via HF (Winmor)

For HF Winmor access you will need to install RMS Express (see user software at www.winlink.org). For hardware you will need a PC (Windows XP or later). If you have not used RMS Express before, be sure to read the Winmor Primer, also available at the Winlink site. You will also need a soundcard interface. We are using the SignaLink USB which works fine but it is critical that the Delay knob be at zero (full counterclockwise).

Access to the BBS using RMS Express requires that you be set up for this by the sysop. Send the sysop (kb1tceATbelljarDOTnet) your call sign, name, location (city/state). If you currently use a local packet BBS, please also include your home BBS address (HA).

1. Open RMS Express and compose your message (do not use peer to peer).
2. Address messages as follows:
- To place a private message on the BBS, send the message to
callsign@kb1tce. Example: w7asa@kbitce. The “@kb1tce” tells BPQ32 that the
message is destined for the posting on the kb1tce BBS and is not Winlink
email.
• If sending to multiple addresses, put a semicolon between the addresses.
• When you connect, RMS Express will also download any BBS messages waiting for you.
3. Open the Winlink Winmor session (WINMOR WL2K) and set your dial to 3585.0 kHz USB.
4. Set the connect session to KB1TCE-1 in the box just below “Setup.”
5. Initiate the connection if the frequency is not busy.

RMS Express will do the rest of the work. I will compose a welcome message for new registrants so you will be assured of having something waiting for you.

Winlink Email Access via KB1TCE-10

The following assumes that you have a working knowledge of using RMS Express and the Winlink system.

To send a message through the Winlink system, simply use RMS Express WLK2K Winmor mode to connect to KB1TCE-10 (3585.0 kHz, USB) just as you would to any other Winmor RMS. KB1TCE-10 will show up in the station list.

When you connect you will also retrieve any messages that are waiting for you.

You may also see KB1TCE-5 on the station list. This is my non-BPQ32 Winlink server on 20 meters. It is Winlink system only.

If you have any questions, please contact me at the aforementioned email address.
73,
Steve KB1TCE

Hey Everyone,

We all know that nobody ‘owns’ a frequency in Ham radio, but there is also the idea of being a good neighbor. As it happens, some fellow emergency communications people from a few surrounding states have been operating on 3583 for a few years now. After getting together and talking a bit it’s clear that it would be much easier for TAPRN to shift the WINMOR operations frequency up to 3585USB dial frequency. With all the room available for narrow digital signals, there is no reason for us to knowingly be on top of an established net – ESPECIALLY since these are emcomm people and just the sort who would be good to develop lasting contact with.

3585 3585 3585 – ‘see’ you on the radio…

>RadioRay …_ ._
W7ASA

The American Preparedness Radio Net needs your help. The simple truth is that unless we can gather enough people to fill net control duties we are fighting a losing battle here. We have had a good many people join in and also take on Net Control Duties but the problem is we are not on regular enough for other folks to accept that we normally use a set frequency for regularly scheduled meet ups on the air. WE DO NOT NEED ANY MORE IDEAS, we have tried way more ideas than most of you even know about. What we need is for folks to step up and run nets on a regular and very consistent basis. ” Like DAILY”…. Until that happens we can forget about being independent from the use of the internet to announce the voice net frequency. What has been happening with the VOICE NET is not the way to establish a set place for like mined folks to join in to chat on the air with others.

IDEAS ARE FINE but only if YOU are willing to give YOUR IDEA a try.

Ray w7asa approached me some time ago with the idea of getting a digital net going for us. He told me in the beginning that his plan was to evolve the DIGINET into a email over radio system. Ray has done a great job with the digital side but I am sure there is more that needs to be done. Many folks out there including myself are having some issues with getting up to speed with the digital stuff. I can do real time digital comms PSK31 and such now and that has been a big step in the right direction for me anyway. Winmor on the other hand has been a real challenge that I have not concurred as of yet. It seems the laptop I set up to run FLDIGI does not have the processor speed or the amount of memory needed to operate WINMOR correctly.I will fix that as soon as I have time to work on it more. I did manage to send and receive a few messages before the problems started so I know it works and I really like the concept of email over radio a lot.

THE BOTTOM LINE here is that each of us can only do so much. Back when this all first started I had plenty of EXTRA TIME on my hands but that is no longer the case. Life changes sometimes making it very difficult for us to VOLUNTEER our time to a project like this. You see none of us here make anything doing this so it is only by us freely giving of our time that this has come so far in 3 short years.

THE TIME HAS COME for this to move to the next level but that will only happen if we have others that are WILLING to give up some of there time for doing NET CONTROL DUTIES. The actual goal here is for us to establish a group of folks to keep lines of communications open across the entire country should something happen to grid supported forms of communication. Us hams have the (NTS) or NATIONAL TRAFFIC SYSTEM to depend on to pass short messages between us and it works amazing well. What we are trying to establish is not geared towards that or we would just use the NTS. What we have tried to do is set up a network of like minded folks for fellowship and talk of subjects that are of interest to us. We do not ask for your inventory of goods nor do we ask you to share anything you are not comfortable sharing with others. We only ask that you stop in and say howdy.

Maybe doing a topic for every net is NOT THE ANSWER…Maybe doing the net at 9PM Eastern time is NOT THE ANSWER….Maybe doing the net on 80 meters is NOT THE ANSWER….Maybe talking about PREPAREDNESS in public is NOT THE ANSWER…But one thing for sure is NOT THE ANSWER and that is waiting around for someone else to do it for you and I am 100% sure of that. Trust me I have personally tried just about every reasonable suggestion that has ever been made over the last 3 years. The reality is everything mentioned above is just what has worked out the best for the largest majority of folks trying to join us.

What I am absolutely sure of is that it is going to take SOME REAL EFFORT from EVERYONE that thinks this net is a good idea to keep this alive and well. I am not here to rule over anything nor do I want to. I just happen to be one of the ones with admin privileges on the web site. THIS IS NOT ABOUT ME!!!! IT IS ABOUT ALL OF YOU!!! I have added many people as authors to the web site so they can post about the nets we do or about an upcoming topic for a net they want to do or just something they have done and want to share with others. I will gladly give someone admin privileges on the web site that knows what needs to be done to make things better. I am not real good at this internet and web site stuff so any of you techy types feel free to step up and offer to help with the daily needs to keep the web site running as it should.

I get repetitive emails every week asking when we are going to make something happen in the WEST, SOUTH, MIDDLE AMERICA, etc etc…. The answer is real simple I can not do it all nor can I transmit from the WEST COAST or TEXAS etc etc….. We need for folks in those areas to step up to the plate and JUST DO IT….

SOooooo much to do but they have not made enough hours in the day for 1 or 2 (ok maybe a handful) of people to do everything that needs to be done here. All of us here are human and we tend to forget things from time to time. We also tend to get busy with our day to day lives and can easily justify not doing things that take some effort and TIME to do,,, like run a topic oriented net once or twice a week. Many of us do truly believe there is a need for what we are trying to do but we truly need more folks to join in and help us establish REGULAR DAILY USE of a frequency if we want this to work out.

The final words are…We need to make use of 1 frequency on a daily bases at the same time every evening if we ever hope to establish the communications network we all seem to think is a good idea. We do not even need a topic or a net control station for every evening we just need 2 or 3 of us to get on the air and chat with each other on the same frequency and time every evening. With well over 100 different people having checked in to the net on a somewhat regular basis this should not be that hard to accomplish. We are all hams here and talking to each other should come natural to all of us. If we were to start off on the East Coast first and as time goes on for folks father to the West come in and pick things up as the night goes on would work after just a very short period of time. The only way this will happen is for enough of us TO JUST DO IT every night.

Happy RF’ing Till Next Time
73′s
Dave
W4DMH
Ham Radio Works When All Else Fails

…UPDATE…Late breaking news flash…. I got a chance to finally try to check in to the net at around 9:30PM Sunday evening 3-11-12 and heard the on air proof that what was written above will work if we do it. W0ECM gave it one hell of a shot to run the voice net from near Tulsa OK. He was hearing stations out west that I could not copy at all but I could not get thru to him. I did make contact with another member on the East Coast but neither of us were strong enough to the West to do any good. Great job Jess on trying to get the net up and going Sunday night.

Hello Everyone,

The WINMOR , e-mail over radio network is alive and growing on 3585USB(dial). It is the result of creating interest in a TAPRN DigitalNetwork, which began on 40 meters only a few months ago. As a result of the roaring success of the e-mail over radio network, there is no longer a need to demonstrate how well conventional Digital modes work – BTDT. The WINMOR e-mail over radio network is GROWING!!! Last night we had 8 stations all on the air, two had troubles, one of which may be solved by next week.

The 40 meter DigiNet is now – officially over.Thank you for checking-in.

>>>====> Stations in the WESTERN PART of the united States, please keep a look out here, for what will become a ‘long line’ digital sked into your area at a time and frequency specifically to link your area with the South and east, where most of TAPRN stations currently operate. Western Expansion – where have I heard THAT before?

We WANT to support more TAPRN type communication into The West

- it’s the cowboy way!

de RadioRay …_ ._

E-Mail Over Radio – TAPRN Version

Hello Team,

It’s been an interesting week for on-the-go communications testing. We have the first week of action using WINMOR FREEware for establishing store-and-forward radio communications: basically it’s e-mail over radio. Please read our other articles for details, but I am here to tell you that it works. We’ve had check-ins from three stations now.

W7ASA – (that’s me) Operating from home. Inverted L wire antenna.
KB0EMB – operating from Kansas City, Mo. Dipole up 18 feet for NVIS.
KI4KDS – operating temporarily from a remote site in North Carolina….

For those of you who are under the impression that you need an antenna field like the NSA and super computers like… well the NSA again. Just have a look at this. Here is the home-brew/”Grab-N-Go” antenna that KI4DKA was using while at a remote location.

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Operating at 40 Watts so that the RF inside of the building didn’t cause too much trouble, Tom was as reliable as any station during this week of low sun numbers. This is his operating position.

Using this station Tom/KI4DKS, was able to link with me and with Larry/KB0EMB who is operating from Kansas City, Mo. using his low dipole which is really intended for close-in HF comms using NVIS (Near Vertical Incidence Skywave). Neither is an antenna intended for long range communications. Larry was also able to check-in with me and to exchange e-mail over radio.

ATTENTION TAPRN: This is happening RIGHT NOW and You Are Invited! Please read the other articles about WINMOR FREEware and post a comment so that we can help you to get started.

You can also use the same set-up with the WINMOR/WINLINK system (not part of TAPRN) that allows ‘regular’ e-mail to be sent/received over ham radio. That is a VERY handy thing during local emergencies when you loose local Internet.

The Long and the SHORT of it.

I see many requests that TAPRN expand it’s range. So far, our nets are focused on the eastern third of the continent, because that’s where it all started. We in The South know that it’s really a Southern Net, but because we are firm believers in Southern Hospitality, ‘Ya’ll are welcome to be our guests… ‘ ;^) Either way, the 80m voice net is moving along very well, suits our regional wants and it is recommended that those of you in the western regions just keep the net going as the night-time propagation drifts from East to west: like a relay race, that way the freq is already cleared for you and you can talk with your multi-state region at about the same local time as we do. I’m not really ‘the voice guy’ so let’s move on to the purpose for this posting -

LONG RANGE Comms:

In general, higher HF frequencies travel farther than lower depending upon time of day. Successful communicators select frequencies which are correct for where you want to communicate to, taking into account solar/terrestrial conditions, season and time. For example, if right now at 17:30 Eastern time my station in Virginia is to communicate with a station in Wyoming, the 18 MHz band would be a great bet. Maybe 21 or 14 MHz too. However, I would NOT be heard in South Carolina on those bands, because we are too close, and they are in ‘the skip zone’; meaning that my signal ‘skip’s over them.

CB’ers were lied to. Being IN the skip zone, means that you’re skipped over… not skipped to!
oh well…

Because voice communication is much more difficult than digital, I’ll be opening one or more WINMOR frequencies for long range communication with those in the rest of the continent. This will allow those with an interest in TAPRN to check-in from across the Western States, send/receive bulletins and generally keep in touch in a manner that works both with and without operating commercial infrastructure. There is no need for a net control or sked time etc. because this will be non-real-time, e-mail over radio. If someone is ‘home’ at their station at the time of connection, then you CAN chat one-on-one with rapid exchange of e-mail.

>>> The goal is a WINMOR set-up that scans so that we can communicate with each other using this excellent and private mode. We are right on the brink of going ‘public’ with this, so read the WINMOR posting on this site, download the software and post here when you are ready to try it.

de RadioRay …_ ._

E-Mail Over Radio

Our team of Mad Scientists at the World Famous TAPRN Institute of Technology have been slaving away to help YOU!

Because of the nature of HF radio, not everyone can hear all stations when in a radio net. Also, due to our busy lives (busier during emergencies) we would be well served by a system that would store-and-forward messaging, just like “normal” e-mail on the internet, but our system must work without commercial infrastructure. In organizing an on-the-air mutual support and information system, it became clear that an on the air e-mail system is top of the list, solving probably 90% of our actual needs.

1. Long range communication suitable for on-the-air bulletin board personal and group e-mail.

a. Non-real-time. You don’t have to all be on freq at one time.

b. Store-and-forward. It will pass the message when the other station(s) check-in and/or when you connect to them – automatically.

c. Send & receive messages when it’s most convenient for YOU.

d. Send and receive when the band supports contact.

e. Privacy, using compressed messaging transmitted using, packetized transmission methods.

f. Fully error correcting so that data files, maps, pictures and other useful data can be sent error free, just like ‘normal’ e-mail.

g. Serves as a back-up for ‘normal’ e-mail, allowing you to communicate with the world wide web e-mail system using the WINMOR e-mail system when desired.

The answer to #1 is WINMOR. This is a FREEware program for your PC soundcard that allows you to do all of the above and more. It is a spin-off of a system developed for long range mariners who needed dependable e-mail over radio even when thousands of miles out at sea.
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Hardware Requirements: If your HF ham station is capable of PSK-31, simply load the WINMOR FREEware program.
That is ALL that is required.
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Tom – KI4DKS and I have been testing this software as a direct: ham-to-ham (“Peer-to-Peer”) setting. We park on a single frequency that works between our two locations. It is amazing to go into the ham shack, and see e-mail waiting for me, to hit the connect key and within two seconds, have his station on-line and then watch the e-mail flow between the two stations – error free, and sign-off automatically. If we are curious about how the band is between us, either one of us can connect and the other’s station will link, transfer e-mail if any then sign-off: all automatically.

Here is what you need to do: Download the program called RMSexpress Set-Up. This is the WINMOR program.

ftp://autoupdate.winlink.org/User%20Programs/

Use WINMOR in the conventional manner that they recommend for ‘normal’ e-mail link between radio/Internet using the WINMOR system that already exists and is not part of TAPRN. Instructions are part of the download. When you are ready to try TAPRN e-mail over radio, let US know here that you are ready and I’ll give you a frequency to begin calling my station and soon there will be a cloud of TAPRN stations who can all interconnect 24/7 using e-mail over radio. All stations can relay & all stations can store and forward.

de RadioRay …_ ._

Ps. Generally we (KI4DKS and W7ASA ) are parked as PEER-to-PEER WINMOR hubs on 3585USB dial frequency. Connect to either of those callsigns in WINMOR and leave a message.

>>> If you are a long range/western station please let me know and I will set-up a test freq and time for you.

This article will get you going in the right direction to build your own “Double Bazooka” antenna. Let me first clear up one thing about this antenna. THIS IS A SINGLE BAND ANTENNA. What we mean by that is, if you build this for 80 meters DO NOT try to use this antenna on any other band then 80 meters. You will destroy some of and possibly all of the commercially available “Double Bazooka” antennas by doing so.

A quick explanation of what happens causing the antenna to fail when operated outside of the band it is designed for. At the feed point of one brand of the commercially available antennas that we have documented there seems to be a heat buildup that destroys the physical connection made between unlike metals used at that point. Mike N8NMJ has took about 8 or 10 of these particular antennas apart for people in just the past year to see if they could be repaired. Every antenna had the same issue so it set his brain in gear on how this problem could be solved. Below you will see one of these antennas pictured that has failed for whatever reason but most likely due to the fact it was operated outside of the band it was designed to operate on.

Now we will explain why we think the failure occurs. This particular brand of antenna is built with 75 ohm coax that has either aluminum or stainless steel wire for the shield. Neither of these metals can be soldered to copper so they make a mechanical bond at the feed point from the SO239 to the shield side of the coax used. Well most of us already know this is a recipe for FAILURE.

My question at this point is WHY the need for the electrical tape??? The answer is real simple. There is no solder used in the making of this particular brand of antenna. Here is a picture of how the mechanical connections are made on this antenna.

Part 2 will be coming soon and we will teach you a much better way to build this antenna then. Will we expose the maker of this very poor quality antenna? Not sure yet but I have had direct contact with this company and in the response by email from the OWNER to me they clearly state that every connection in this antennas is SOLDERED as well as some other questionable claims.

Happy RF’ing Till Next Time
73′s
Dave
W4DMH
Ham Radio Works When All Else Fails

We “HAMS” are always trying to improve our stations and the single most important part of that process is the antenna. The simple truth of the matter is that no matter how much power you put in the coax if the antenna is not up to par you are not going to be heard by others as well as you should be. With our “HOW TO” (roll your mouse pointer on the tab at the top of the page for a drop down menu) articles on antennas you can also chose and build your own antenna. It has been awhile since the last build but below you will see the most recent antenna that has been built for testing. Mike N8NMJ has built his version of the “Double Bazooka” style antenna. We will cover this in a new “HOW TO” article soon.

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Following are some pictures of some items we ordered just for building different antennas. We plan to get busy very soon and will post articles for you to review of exactly how we built these antennas and our opinion of how they performed in a real world environment.

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Now that the WINDOM has been tested and fine tuned it was time to take it down and pack it up with the rest of the equipment for going out PORTABLE. You never know when you will need to do that in the real world so if everything you need is stored together it takes way less time to be on your way in the event of a real emergency.

With the WINDOM packed up it is now time to get more antennas up here at my QTH. (Ham talk for my location) Below you can see new items that will be used for building antennas over the next few months. Mike (n8nmj) and myself are always trying to come up with new combinations of antennas to test so it should be fun in the very near future. Of course we will share with all of you what we try and how it works as we go along. You will notice that we use Baluns from Buxcomm.com, yea we could roll our own Balun but these Baluns are reasonably priced and hand crafted right here in the good old USA. Plus they just work really well.

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Alright last for now is the new rope we are trying for supporting antennas. We always try our best to be frugal yet use something that works. We shopped around the internet for 550 Paracord and found a great deal at Camping Survival .com. We will be installing all new support ropes and only time will tell how this works out. The rope that was used in the past was probably 3 times the cost of this and only rated at 200 lbs more. We see no reason this 550 Paracord will not work so we are going to keep you informed of the results. If things work out this is a very cheap alternative to the highly marketed “ANTENNA ROPE” at 3 times the cost or more. We shall see.

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Happy RF’ing Till Next Time
73′s
Dave
W4DMH
Ham Radio Works When All Else Fails