Their solution? Use 10 frequencies that are on the generally accepted band plan for analog simplex frequencies to coordinate new D-STAR repeaters. These new proposed repeater pairs would use a 1 MHz split with 10 KHz channel spacing, with a result of the following repeater pairs: 146.450/147.450, 146.460/147.460, 146.470/147.470, 146.480/147.480, and 146.490/147.490 MHz.

As much as I enjoy working with D-STAR and P-25, I would have to oppose this plan. It does nothing to fix the actual problem. The real problem is that there really are too many under-utilized repeaters on the air, or even “paper repeaters” — repeaters that are coordinated and listed in directories, but not actually on the air. Many repeaters have been on the air since the start of the 2m FM repeater craze, but have seen only a handful of keydowns in recent history.

It’s hard to define what repeaters are “active” and “inactive” repeaters, even though some repeater coordinating bodies (Texas being one of them) that have provisions for pulling the “coordinated” status of “inactive repeaters.” While coordination and band plans are strictly by gentlemen’s agreement, there is no real enforcement or motivation to rotate the repeater pairs of inactive repeaters.

I don’t necessarily think this is a bad system though. Repeater owners know when it’s time to let the pairs go (maybe even when politely asked?), and amateur radio really is a self-policing bunch. If I am told correctly, there wasn’t a problem getting a VHF repeater pair for the D-STAR system. We have inactive repeaters in our area, but we probably don’t have repeater coordination congestion like other areas.

Additionally, I don’t think it’s fair to take away analog simplex frequencies in favor of D-STAR. I am guessing they are making this exception for digital voice because it’s the new and awesome thing on 2m. It’s not fair to favor one operating mode over another by making exceptions such as this.

To be honest, I really don’t even use the VHF module for the local D-STAR system. Our UHF module performs just as well, if not better, than the VHF module, and VHF is more susceptible to intermod. Depending on the region, there is space in the UHF amateur band. One of the coordinators for the D-STAR system commented that if we had to do it all over again, we’d probably go without the VHF module and invest in the 1.2 GHz digital voice module (we currently have the VHF/UHF/1.2 digital data modules and a 1.2 GHz analog voice repeater). After all, D-STAR has unique digital abilities due to bandwidth allowances on 1.2 GHz.

Another reason to use the 1.2 GHz band is the motto “use it or lose it.” 1.2 GHz is definitely one of the under-utilized bands amateurs have at their disposal, and I’m sure that the FCC’s mouths water when looking at the 1.2 GHz band when a wireless company comes shopping for spectrum. The spectrum allocated to amateurs are worth millions, if not billions of dollars to the FCC through an auction process.

You think it won’t happen? It happened in 1988 when amateurs lost 2 MHz of spectrum in the 1.25-meter band to UPS, who was planning to use the spectrum to develop a narrowband voice and data network. However, by the time the FCC completed the reallocation, the UPS had moved on to the cellular bands and scrapped their ideas for 220 MHz, but still leaving amateurs without that spectrum.

D-STAR basically works the same on VHF as it would on UHF or 1.2 GHz. In my experience, there’s not many reasons to have all four modules installed other than for redundancy or experimentation. We all need to be working with each other to solve the problem, not making exceptions for one bunch and, in turn, stepping on toes and creating more problems.

Listen to Hawaii County Police live via RadioReference, where you can hear agencies responding normally to the usual calls and others moving to higher ground. It was just announced as I’m writing this that dispatch is now moving to higher ground at the Hawaii Civil Defense EOC. Lots of tones are being sent, but I’m not sure if they are regular fire tone-outs or tones that activate the tsunami sirens or other equipment used to alert officials or the public.

Monitor (and assist if needed) the HF frequencies that were announced by Radio Club Argentina:
- 20m: 14.200 and 14.350 MHz (Chilean Red Cross), 14.300 MHz (IARU)
- 40m: 7.050 and 7.095 MHz (Chilean Red Cross), 7.060 MHz (IARU)
- 80m: 3.738 and 3.750 MHz (Chilean Red Cross)

Monitor (and assist if needed) the HF frequencies for the Hawaii tsunami:
- 20m: 14.246.50 MHz
- 40m: 7.088 MHz
- 80/75m: 3.888 MHz

Amateur radio operators are requested to keep these frequencies clear and to avoid harmful interference to any of these nets taking place.

Do you know of any other ways to monitor the situation? Add your information in the comments below.

Ill. Rep. Dan Brady

Synopsis As Introduced
Amends the State Police Radio Act. Provides that a person receiving public safety voice or data communication transmitted via the facilities of the State’s public safety radio system by wire or radio shall not, without the written authority of the originator of the communication, rebroadcast the communication via any means, including radio or Internet, or otherwise divulge or publish the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect, or meaning thereof. Provides that this provision does not apply to the public safety radio communication transmitted by any system station for the use of the general public, including Amber Alerts and other communications specifically intended for rebroadcast to the public. Provides that radio access to the public safety radio system within the State may only be accomplished upon receipt of written authorization granted by the appropriately licensed authority. Provides that a violation of these provisions is a Class A misdemeanor. Effective immediately.

The bill is proposed by Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, who has served in the assembly since 2001. He was instrumental in procuring funding for the StarCom 21 state radio system, and named named Public Official of the Year by the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police in 2004.

This, of course, meant that there would be new blood coming into those various leadership positions. I am pleased to announce that I was elected through a close write-in vote to serve as the next president of Mid-Iowa Skywarn, which is effective immediately. I am grateful to be elected to this position, and I do indeed have some big shoes to fill and expectations to exceed. I learned this evening that Jim and I have very similar reasons for joining Skywarn, which I will likely write about later down the road. I plan on hitting the ground running, and I have plans to act on. Tom N0VPR was also elected to the role of secretary/treasurer — Tom has been working with Skywarn and ARES for quite a while as well, and we have worked with each other as president/vice president for the local club.

The Mid-Iowa Skywarn Association is the organization that mans the amateur radio station in the Des Moines National Weather Service office, using call sign K0DMX. It takes storm reports from all corners of the NWS Des Moines’ 51-county warning area through an extensive VHF/UHF linked repeater network. We’re lucky to have a great relationship with the Des Moines meteorologist-in-charge and warning coordinator.

After the brief meeting, we moved on to our annual two-hour spotter training class presented by the NWS. It was a great presentation, I thought. It included some new pictures and videos. It was certainly a good crowd, probably more than last year. If maybe a half-dozen more people showed up, we would have run out of seats. A lot of new faces I haven’t seen around — either they are hams that don’t usually come to our “normal” club meetings or this was their first time attending a storm spotter course.

Tom set out some amateur radio information brochures and fliers, along with business cards that listed information about the DMRAA and its meetings. After the presentation, non-hams were mingling with the hams asking how to get involved in amateur radio, and most of those business cards were gone, so I’d say the training session also sparked some interest in amateur radio. It turned out pretty well.

Two years ago, that same laboratory found that digital radios fared far worse than their analog radios on the fireground. The likely problem? Ambient noise — most notably SCBA masks, SCBA alert bells, PASS communicators, water pumps, and other ambient noises associated with working fires. The ambient noise distorts the audio, because the IMBE vocoder is generally designed to capture human voice and cut the background noise out. But when you have dozens of other competing sounds that are as loud or even louder than the human voice, the vocoder can become confused and the audio is distorted.

These radios, which were designed to help firefighters, are often blamed as a contributing cause of some firefighter injuries and even deaths when mayday calls were not heard by others on the Cincinnati-area digital radio systems. Other complaints include dead spots, an inability to override ongoing radio traffic with more urgent radio traffic (getting a busy signal instead), and a one- to two-second delay for transmitting after squeezing the push-to-talk button.

Fire departments aren’t the only agencies grappling with issues. Police departments are also suffering from dead spots in coverage that cropped up only after the digital systems were deployed.

In Philadelphia, their new Motorola radio system suffered over a dozen complete radio system failures in three years, even putting the police commissioner’s safety in jeopardy once when breaking up a street disturbance.

Similar failures are being reported all across the United States, not only with Motorola P-25 systems but M/A-Com OpenSky systems as well. In some instances, departments are bailing on their multi-million dollar digital radio systems in favor of their older analog systems.

You can learn more at the under-construction website for the DV-AP at http://dvapdongle.com/, and there’s already a Yahoo Group for the product that can be viewed by clicking here.

It looks like a rather robust toy with many configuration options. Mac users will be glad to hear that this device works on OS X, and Linux users will also be delighted to know that the required drivers are already included into the kernel.

The DV-AP is currently being sold at Ham Radio Outlet for $249.95. You can find it on their website by searching for “DV-AP”. However, HRO shows it as “out of stock.”

Do you have a DV-AP in your hands? What do you think of it so far? Let us know by posting in the comments!

Port B seems to be the module of choice to connect to. For the status of Reflector 16, click here.

Additionally, there is a reflector based in Vancouver, Reflector 26 (ports A and B), but it doesn’t look like anyone is hooked up to it. Reflector 26 can handle more bandwidth than other reflectors, as it is hooked up to a gigabit connection. Port C on the reflector is reserved for Provincial Emergency Radio Communications. You can check the status of Reflector 26 as well by clicking here.

More information on Canadian D-STAR systems can be found at dstar.ca.

QRO? Photo by Chris M0EEG. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic

While Googling for more high-resolution pictures of the West Mountain Radio PWRgate, I came across an interesting photoset on Flickr that contained a smattering of West Mountain Radio products… and some pictures of YL’s clad in Heil headsets, and often not much else.

(The photoset might not be safe for work, depending on where you work, so tread lightly.)

The pictures are nicely and tastefully done, although I’m sure the pictures were all in good fun. It’s probably not something that you’ll see at the next hamfest or Field Day site (if these ladies do however end up there… give me a call).

The section of the structure that suffered damage was just recently taken down, and the club produced a time-lapse video of the process on what appears to be a very cold day on the frozen tundra of Dickinson County. It looked like quite a process, and I’m sure the weather made it much more difficult. Thank you, W0DOG, for braving the elements to set the repair process in motion for .61!

The former Explorer cadet with the Bohemia volunteer fire department is known for constantly fiddling with radio settings, firehouse sirens and anything else he could get his hands on, sources said.

…

He’s charged with stealing two radios from a Sayville Community ambulance on Dec. 27, two portable radios from a West Sayville fire chief’s vehicle between Dec. 24 and 26, and two portable radios from an East Moriches fire vehicle on New Year’s Day.

Steven Riddle W3MOT, radio thief, stands next to a Suffolk County Police Department car (from hamsexy)

A forum thread over at RadioReference is also revealing details of several transactions that members have had with Riddle, involving mostly professional-grade Motorola radios, raising concerns that members unknowingly were purchasing stolen equipment. Fittingly, Riddle’s member icon on RadioReference was a fox in a bandit mask and black gloves. He was already once banned from RadioReference, posting under the “SCPDfan” username.

One of his posts that really struck a chord with me was in a thread about a MotoTRBO taxi radio system:

WTF is a taxi company doing with digital radios?? They don’t need those!!! Meet me over there with your crowbar and duffel bag!

Another post he authored on RadioReference was to sell an AED he had supposedly purchased seven months prior. Though, he may not have sold this item, as there weren’t any more posts by prospective buyers or to announce that the item has been sold.

More details are coming out on the wash in the RadioReference thread, while I can’t confirm these statements are true. People who live in the New York/Long Island region and familiar with Riddle’s doings report that he was “posing as a fire officer on the air, stating that houses were on fire that were not, and houses that were not on fire, that were.” Another user from Riddle’s area reported “pagers set off, sirens and traffic lights were activated, and overhead apparatus room doors were opened at all hours of the night [by Riddle]!”

W3MOT's hacked entry (click to enlarge)

I am confident that the hacked QRZ entry echoes the sentiments of radio hobbyists nationwide. Riddle falls into one of the many categories of people that radio enthusiasts are ashamed of.

I’ll say all of this this in bold-faced font because I think it’s incredibly important to mention: His thievery and misuse of his knowledge threatened the safety and integrity of police officers, firefighters, EMT’s, and other first responders. It is people like him that force public safety officials (and the general public) to turn up their noses at radio enthusiasts, and cause more than passing suspicion upon those carrying a police scanner or anyone that has more than one antenna on their vehicle. You can thank people like Riddle for giving agencies a reason to go digital and/or use full-time encryption. You can thank people like Riddle for states passing anti-scanner laws.

It’s likely that Riddle will get away with only a slap on the hands, with a few years of jail time and a revocation of his license. Will he be able to re-apply for a license? I don’t know. But as long as he has access to radios, it’s also likely that he’ll continue to abuse his knowledge of radio systems.