SB QST @ ARL $ARLB004
ARLB004 FCC “Paperless” Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into
Effect on February 17

ZCZC AG04
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 4  ARLB004
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT  January 29, 2015
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB004
ARLB004 FCC “Paperless” Amateur Radio License Policy Goes into
Effect on February 17

Starting February 17, the FCC no longer will routinely issue paper
license documents to Amateur Radio applicants and licensees. The
Commission has maintained for some time now that the official
Amateur Radio license authorization is the electronic record that
exists in its Universal Licensing System (ULS), although the FCC has
continued to print and mail hard copy licenses. In mid-December the
FCC adopted final procedures to provide access to official
electronic authorizations, as it had proposed in WT Docket 14-161 as
part of its “process reform” initiatives.

Under the new procedures, licensees will access their current
official authorization (“Active” status only) via the ULS License
Manager. The FCC will continue to provide paper license documents to
all licensees who notify the Commission that they prefer to receive
one. Licensees also will be able to print out an official
authorization – as well as an unofficial “reference copy” – from the
ULS License Manager.

“We find this electronic process will improve efficiency by
simplifying access to official authorizations in ULS, shortening the
time period between grant of an application and access to the
official authorization, and reducing regulatory costs,” the FCC
Wireless Telecommunications Bureau (WTB) said. According to the WTB,
the new procedures will save at least $304,000 a year, including the
cost of staff resources.

In comments filed November 5, the ARRL had strongly recommended that
the FCC “give serious consideration to continuing a default
provision for sending an initial paper license document to new
licensees in the Amateur Radio Service, along with detailed, simple
instructions for how to make the elections set forth in the notice
relative to future modified or renewed licenses.”

The FCC said that applicants or licensees who include a valid e-mail
address under “Applicant Information” in the ULS will receive an
official electronic authorization via e-mail. New license applicants
who do not provide a FCC Registration Number at the examination
point will receive a printed license as well as an FRN and a
temporary password to access the Commission Registration System
(CORES).

The ARRL and other Amateur Radio commenters also worried that unless
a license document is printed on distinctive paper stock, its
authenticity could be questioned in such situations as obtaining
vanity call sign license plates. To address this, the FCC said the
watermark “Official Copy” will be printed on each page of an
official authorization that a licensee prints out from the ULS. The
WTB recently stopped using distinctive paper stock to produce hard
copy licenses and has been printing these on “standard, white
recycled paper.” The Bureau noted that the distinctive paper stock
it had used was six times more expensive than the plain recycled
paper it now uses.

The ULS License Manager now includes settings that allow licensees
to notify the WTB that they prefer to receive official
authorizations on paper. Once the final procedures go into effect
designating electronic access as the default, licensees can change
the ULS License Manager setting so that the Bureau will print and
mail a license document. Licensees also may contact FCC Support via
the web at,
http://esupport.fcc.gov/index.htm?job=contact_fcc_support , or via
telephone or mail to request paper licenses.

The FCC rejected as “outside the scope of this proceeding” an ARRL
argument that Section 97.23 of the Amateur Service rules be amended
to replace “licensee mailing address” with other alternatives,
including e-mail, for use in Commission correspondence. The rule,
which requires that any licensee mailing address be in an area where
the licensee has US Postal Service access, has precluded FCC
issuance of location-specific call signs in such areas as Navassa
Island (KP1) and some Pacific islands.
NNNN
/EX

The first Hoosier DMR Net was a success!  We had 15 stations check in and with Tony (W9AMT) and me (NF9K) as Net Control/Alternate Net Control respectively.

Please feel free to join us on Tuesday nights starting at 20:00EST on DMR-MARC Talk Group #3118 (Indiana Statewide)

What’s that?  You don’t have a DMR radio yet?  No problem!  CLICK HERE! for our live audio feed.  During non-Net times, the stream will be feed from the DMR-MARC TG #2 (North America).  During the Net it will be switched over to Indiana Statewide.  While listening to the net, you can post questions on our FaceBook Page and we will address them on-air.

So long, 2014!

Experimented with the AllStarLink radio linking network.  Setup a server with two nodes and replaced my EchoIRLP installation for a few days.  Unfortunately, the system did not perform as well as what I had.  There is no centralized documentation for AllStarLink which made troubleshooting and fine tuning quite difficult.  Additionally the server seemed quite unstable, locking up fairly regularly requiring a power cycle to bring it back.  The lockup was usually a result of restarting the asterisk daemon.  So this particular project has been shelved.  I suspect that I’ll revisit it down the road as I have experience with asterisk and had some interesting ideas for integrating IP telephony to repeater systems.

In the world of DMR, I traded for a new radio.  The Motorola SL300 is a slick little radio.  My thoughts (pros/cons) can be found here: http://volkswagen.websitewelcome.com/~atkinson/nf9k.net/?p=431

I had some discussions with an Avon Ham surrounding the CS700 HT.  He was selected for their beta program and we’ve been comparing notes between the non-beta and his beta unit as well as sharing my acquired knowledge on the CS700.

Additionally, I began looking at an alternative DMR network to the DMR-MARC.  DCI is very popular out west and since we already have a DMR-MARC machine here, in the interest of providing the richest possible DMR experience to Indianapolis area repeater users, I thought that might be a nice alternative.  I’ve reached out to some Ohio-based DCI repeater owners to discuss finding a master to peer with.

Lastly in terms of DMR, I spent a good deal of time experimenting with a wireless internet option (AT&T) for my DMR machine when it moves to it’s new home.  Unfortunately I won’t be able to share existing internet at the new location, so I’m having to come up with something on my own.  AT&T is NAT’ing traffic to their wireless devices resulting in the end device receiving a private (10.x.x.x) address, which is non-routable via the internet.  Also since the NAT’ing means I’m behind an AT&T routing, I’m subject to their access-control lists, etc., which is also proving to be a problem.  Next stop will be to check out the offerings from Verizon as I have a spare USB card in a drawer.

I was finally able to spend some much needed time in the shack during my time-off over the holidays.  I had a pretty decent check list beforehand and as the sun sets on my Christmas Break, I think I’m about 80% through it, so not bad at all!

Looking forward to what I’m going to learn and accomplish in 2015!

You can now listen to Indianapolis/Indiana DMR traffic via Broadcastify!  I’ve setup an audio stream using a CS-700 and NiceCast on my Mac Pro.

CLICK HERE!

This feed will normally be connected to the DMR-MARC Talkgroup #3 (North America) except on Tuesdays at 20:00EST when it will be connected to DMR-MARC TG #3118 (Indiana Statewide) for the weekly DMR Net.

Please check it out and let me know if you have any issues.

I’ve shelved the AllStarLink project for now.  I encountered too many issues that made me question the stability of the platform.  Issues would come and go without making any changes and the software would routinely lock up requiring a power-off of the server.  There are some neat features that they offer and I plan to revisit it down the road, but the distinct lack of centralized documentation and the fact that this solution is replacing a solution that it already in place and stable forced this decision.

I’ve decided to build an AllStarLink node.  I have a co-worker and fellow amateur who lives on the west coast where they use AllStarLink heavily.  In my desire to always bring something new and neat to the Indianapolis repeater front, I figured this might be a cool project.

What follows are my notes as I’ve gone through the setup.  One thing that is missing, IMHO, is a wiki with instructions.  Much of the process has been trial and error or google and read pieces on various other websites.  I believe the AllStarLink folks would best serve their community by making these resources easily locatable on their website.

Here is the process that should be followed.  Please note that the order is important.

1. Register as a portal user here.
2. Validation of your amateur license status and activation of your account may take ~24 hours.
3. If you are content to be an AllStarLink user, you may stop here.  But if you desire to setup a server and node, continue on.
4. Log into the portal and at the bottom of the account page, convert your account to a SysOp account.
5. Log out and log back in.  you will now see a new menu.
6. Create a server and then request a node.  The node request will take ~24 hours.
7. Download the appropriate image for your needs here.  Note that the downloads were located in the lower right corner of the page at the time this article was written.  The rest of my instructions will assume you’ve chosen the Acid install and will be installing on a PC.  If this works out, down the road I plan to convert the setup to a smaller platform and will detail those steps then.
8. Setup your firewall to forward port 4569/udp to the IP that you server will use.
9. Plug in your URI (USB Radio Interface)
10. Boot the CD.  Note that after you hit enter at the linux boot: prompt, EVERYTHING on your HD will be erased.  I say again, the install process will completely wipe your HD and install the AllStarLink linux distro and applications.
11. During the install, I chose the option to use a static IP and ran into problems.  I configured everything properly, but notice that the phase1.sh script left /etc/resolv.conf empty.  Without DNS servers, even though I updated them in the static config, the install process fails.  If this happens to you, just update /etc/resolv.conf with a valid name server.  You can use the google NS of 8.8.8.8 if you like, I do.  After that, restart the phase1.sh script from /etc/rc.d.  Once you do this, the rest of the install will complete.

I’m using a Motorola Maxtrac UHF mobile as my link radio.  This particular radio is one with the 16 pin accessory connector.  If you’re looking for a similar setup, I highly recommend seeking out the 16 pin vs. the 5 pin units.  They are out there in increasing numbers and make an inexpensive option.  I used the service option of RSS to turn down the TX power to ~3W as the radio is in close proximity to the repeater.

Here are the details of the wiring interface between the Maxtrac and the DMK Engineering URIx:

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 Please note that I used cable #Cable126 from ebay seller mre1032, so the colors I’ve listed here may vary.  This guy makes high-quality cables for decent prices.  This particular cable has all sixteen leads populated, because you never know what you might want to do down the road.  Speaking of all sixteen leads, remember that if you want the internal speaker to function on your Maxtrac, that pins 15 and 16 need to be connected together.  I did this inside my DB25 plug that connects to the URIx.

Just received a new SL300 display radio today.  Here’s my initial thoughts:

Pros:

1). The form factor is really nice.  Very thin.  It fits nicely in the holster, which is a little bulkier than I expected, but I’ll know more tomorrow after I’ve carried the radio.

2). The active display is nothing short of cool.  It’s hidden until it’s on, then it’s hidden again.  It’s not as informative as an LCD screen, but there are give and takes for such a small package.  And with a little understanding of the icons the display is quite intuitive.  More so than I initially expected.

3). The antenna is extremely small.  This particular radio uses an active antenna setup that allows for a very small external piece.

4). The buttons are easy to use and after a little playing I find that I can manipulate the functions of the radio quite easily.

Cons:

1). This is the first Motorola radio that doesn’t allow direct cut and past between other code plugs and the the SL300 code plug.  This was a major disappointment.  Since this is a new radio, I’m hoping we see some firmware upgrades soon to resolve this and some of the other Cons that follow.

2). Digital contacts can only be FOUR characters in length.  I’ve seen mention of this on some of the boards, but it is very limiting.

3). No support for anything but alpha and numeric characters in various fields throughout the config.  No dashes, etc.  So when copying anything into the code plug that contacts a dash or # or anything other than a letter or number, the field is renamed to Channel 1, Channel 2, etc.

4). Channel names can only be 12 characters in length.  Any channel that you copy in over that gets renamed as noted above.

5). The channel clear tone evidently ignores the setting in CPS.  So any time a channel clears the radio beeps.  I find this behavior very annoying.  I actually got rid of my Hytera P362 because of this feature.  I’m hoping Motorola fixes this soon.

**** UPDATE ***** – The channel clear tone was fixed by upgrading to firmware R1.00.27

6). Inability to cut/paste contacts is a major drag.  They paste into the code plug just fine, but rename to 1,2,3,4, etc.  There are 124 contacts in Indiana.  I’ve tried cutting and pasting from various code plugs generated from the trbolnk.com website.  Hopefully this gets fixed soon, but I’m likely going to find myself typing in the contacts at least for Indiana.

7). While not a major, you are limited to 256 contacts with the SL300.  I just selected IN and OH on the generator and it wound up being 304, so I had to just drop back to IN.  No fix for this and I’ll learn to live with it, but I figured it was worth mentioning.  Beats the 32 contact capacity of the Hytera PD362.

So that’s pretty much it.  I’m sure I’ll learn more as I continue to play.  Any questions, please feel free to ask.  I’m happy to share what I’ve learned.

In an effort to be as scalable as possible, I’ve decided to renumber the talkgroup on Time Slot 1 of the NF9K DMR machine.  Previously Talkgroup #6395 (Metro Indy) was the primary talkgroup on this time slot.  It is also the one that is linked via IRLP to the other NF9K repeaters as well as those of K3HTK via the W9ICE IRLP Reflector #9737.

Talkgroup #6395 (Metro Indy) will become Talkgroup #63951 (Metro 1).  This change will happen on Saturday, December 13th, 2014.  This renumber will provide a scalable foundation as we look to launch new features on this machine.

Please note:  Only talk groups published by a repeater trustee may be used on his/her repeater.  Using anything put the current/published talk groups may have a negative impact on repeater operation and could potentially cause the offending user to be banned from the machine.  Additionally, using unpublished talk groups is a violation of FCC Rules and Regulations as such activity will be interpreted as an attempt to obscure/hide communications.

Again just to summarize, after December 13th, 2014, talk group #6395 (Metro Indy) should no longer be used on TS1 of the NF9K DMR Repeater.  Talk group 63951 (Metro 1) should be used instead.

Any questions, please feel free to contact me.  And as always, enjoy the repeater!

And here we are in December…..  Where has this year gone?

Received all of the hardware for my second Raspberry Pi’s IRLP Node (#8154).  This node connects TG #6395 on Time Slot #1 of my DMR machine to IRLP.  As mentioned previously, I have that Time Slot disconnected from the DMR-MARC network.  That node is currently connected to the W9ICE IRLP Reflector (#9737) along with my other node connecting my 70cm analog and 33cm analog machines.  Ed’s (K3HTK) machines are also connected to that reflector as well.  I’m using an XPR4350 mobile radio for my link.

My DMR work/experimentation continues.  I’m looking at interfacing a time slot/talk group to the AllStar repeater network.  At this point, I’m just beginning to look at hardware/interfaces.  But this will provide something new to the Indy Metro area.  I’m also very close to being able to relocate my DMR machine to a much higher-profile site.

I also purchased a new BridgeCom BCR-40U Repeater to replace the Kenwood TKR-820 on my 70cm analog system.  So far the repeater is working great and I had no issues interfacing it to my Arcom RC-210 controller.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the TKR-820 that I took out of service.  But I’m considering keeping it around as a spare or trying to build a DSTAR repeater out of it.  I’ve heard good things about this board: http://arsrepeaters.com/D-Star_Repeater_Control.php and it sounds like a fun project.

And if I don’t have enough repeater projects on deck, I’m also going to work on building a machine for The Boy Scouts at Camp Belzer this winter.  I have an offer of a donated machine, but it’s an old crystal controlled unit and I’d like to use something synthesized if possible.  I have a couple of MaxTracs that I was originally planning to use for my 70cm machine before I acquired the TKR-820.  Their machine will be a low profile machine, so we don’t need a whole lot of power, etc.

Speaking of The Boy Scouts, we had our final VE session for 2014 on November 8th.  Here is a summary of our 2014 VE testing with the BSA from Brian Murrey (KB9BVN) – “In 2014 had 31 people test with us, we issued 33 element exams, 27 of  those exams were passed. 22 of these people were Boy Scouts or Scout
leaders. We ran a total of six testing sessions, our four regular sessions, and two special sessions for the Scouts.”  I look forward to continued participation in 2015!

Continued to exchange emails with Howard (W6IDS) regarding Broadband HamNet.

That’s about it.  I’m on vacation the last half of December and am looking forward to some bench/shack time.

I hope that everyone has a safe and very Merry Christmas and may one of those presents under the tree be something ham-related!

The heart of the NF9K 70cm Repeater (442.850+) has been replaced.  Formerly I ran a Kenwood TKR-820 repeater, which has been replaced with a BridgeCom BCR-40U repeater.  Nothing else has changed with the machine.  So far I’m quite impressed with the BCR.  It has a great form factor and the rack mount case it quite welcome.