On Saturday, June 29, 2024, a few hams decided to head over to the club and make some improvements. The focus was to tidy up the network stack, add additional capabilities that were sorely needed, and perform maintenance on the APRS setup.
APRS
During our most recent Field Day, Ryan W4NTR, noticed that there was something odd about the way the APRS was working. It would send packets but the different radios he used to test were not decoding them properly. He researched the issue, but nothing he tried was making it quite right. He continued to troubleshoot and finally found the problem. Although he is thinking of writing a detailed post in the future, the short of it was that the software modem was acting up. He replaced it with Direwolf and that did the trick. Now, the club’s APRS is “chatty,” the way it is supposed to be. To increase it’s reach a bit, he also bumped the radio’s power from low to medium.
STORAGE
The next issue addressed also arose from our latest Field Day experience. If you've ever participated in our Field Days or any similar event, you know how crucial it is to make contacts, log them accurately, and avoid duplicates. With operators using their own logging software on their laptops, avoiding duplicates was virtually impossible.
To mitigate this, Pete WB4DB quickly set up shared folders on one of the ham shack computers. Some of us successfully networked and shared log files, allowing us to see each other’s QSOs and avoid pesky duplicates. This was a temporary solution for Field Day, but we needed something more formal and permanent. Something that didn't require the club's shack PCs to be on all the time, waiting for connections.
Doug N6DME stepped in and donated, configured, and helped install a new Network Attached Storage (NAS) for this purpose. This low-power device is now configured and ready to store anything we throw at it. Initially, it will house our database, compatible with our favorite logging software, N3FJP. We also plan to store user manuals for the different radios owned by the club and its members. This can later expand to include Standard Operating Procedures, instructions on using club-specific equipment, and more. The potential uses for this clearinghouse resource are limitless.
MULTIBOARD
If you've ever visited the club's radio room, you know space is at a premium—it’s cozy, to say the least. Most of the network and APRS equipment sits on a metal shelf measuring about 6 ft. x 4 ft. x 1 ft. In any other room, this might not raise an eyebrow, but in the EARC ham shack, it's the first thing you notice upon entering and takes up too much room. Room that could be better utilized to create a more welcoming first impression.
Pete WB4DB started brainstorming. His idea: why not use the walls to hold our equipment? A logical thought, but finding a functional solution wasn’t straightforward. Standard wall-mounted shelves wouldn’t work—they would protrude like the current floor shelving unit, risking head injuries and equipment damage.
Consequently, he opted to try "multiboard." Multiboard is a system akin to pegboard, but it's based on 2D printed parts designed to be modular. The base consists of squares that interlock together to create a surface as large or small as needed. Once mounted on the wall, the fun begins. We can print parts to hold a variety of objects—from tools to network controllers to Ryan and Pete’s essential Diet Cokes.
Now that we’ve mounted some gear, we plan to expand the multiboard system to accommodate APRS/Winlink radios, hotspots, PCs, and monitors. Eventually, the old shelving unit will become obsolete. This project is still a work in progress, so if you have any ideas, comments, or suggestions, please let us know. We’re all ears. And if you have a 3D printer and would like to contribute 3D printed parts, like Doug and Pete have done, please reach out!