Month: October 2018

What’s On Your Workbench?

What isn’t on my workbench?  I’ve got a lot of things that I’m trying to get started on, but not a whole lot of gumption.  That’s what happens when you get old and lazy.

My Daily driver has been too long without a radio in it so I need to fix that.  I’m a D*Star adoptee so that for sure needs to go in there.  I have an ID-5100 sitting around just waiting for me to put it in something.  I’ve also been missing the APRS capability I used to have in the pickup.  So I guess both of those radios will make their way into the little Forester.  I don’t understand why Icom hates APRS so much – these new radios like the 5100 and the 4100 with their built in GPS would have been 710 killers, and likely could have achieved this with just the proper software.  I’ve ordered a few things to make that “perfect” installation.  I’ll be using a Rigrunner 4005H, which is kinda overkill for this but makes power distribution from a single 8 GA power wire a bit easier.  Also a fancy timer / low voltage guard (ITS-12).  Again, not really needed but nice to have.  I could have used a plain old relay tied to the ignition but why do something simple when you can spend money and do it complicated?  Haven’t settled on what antennas to put up though.  I’m ready to drill holes in the roof for NMO mounting but not sure exactly where and what.

I’ve got a fox hunt beacon that’s been sitting in the project pile for a few years now.  I’ll have to see if I can still find it.  Although, it won’t be hard for me to find it since I’ll be the one hiding it.  The sad reality of living away from all the club members.  I can tie this back into the mission of RFN with the assertion that radio direction finding would be a good skill to have.

Also sitting around for a least a few years is a end fed antenna I got from EARC .  I know, it doesn’t sound like much of a project but I need to put together the matchbox.  I took the kit with the torroids unwound as I wanted to learn how to make those.  Good thing I got right on that…

Man, as I pulled that antenna off the shelf I found an Oscilloscope DIY kit from NooElec.  I don’t even remember that.  Hmm, says it shipped on 03.12.2017.  Guess I should do something with that, too.

Something that’s more likely to be worked on sooner is a new portable PC.  Since I was spending so much $$$ on oscilloscope kits that I forgot about, I didn’t want to spend a whole lot on a new laptop.  Considerations were that it needed to be portable, so smaller size and lower weight were needed.  It didn’t need to be a missile launcher but it needed to run basic office and internet software as well as things like FLDigi.  I ended up getting a refurb chromebook.  I’ve experimented somewhat with sideloading an Ubuntu desktop on it via Crouton but haven’t gotten it to where I can start loading up ham apps and taking it on the road with my KX3.  Need to get that going – a major goal is to start doing small time radio expeditions in 2019 and digital is a huge part of that.  Not to mention access to off-grid email.

I’ve also been obsessed with pactor.  So much so that I’ve been haunting ebay for 30 year old used tnc modems.  I first tried out a Kantronics KAMPlus but it turns out that RMS express (my chosen easy to use platform) won’t interface with it.  Packet Winlink, yes, Pactor Winlink, no.  And communicating with it via terminal has been hit and miss.  So I shotguned a trio of AEA Pakratt 232s.  Ended up with one MBX, one that had been converted to an MBX, and one that straight up wasn’t MBX.  I didn’t really understand the differences between them but now I can see it a bit better.  Still need to clear off a space on the desk to set one of them up and see if it works a bit better than the Kam+.  None of this is really worth the cash I’ve spent on it as hardly anyone is using packet or pactor anymore.  I might be able to convince some RFN members to play along with me but that’s a long shot.  I guess I’ll call it a victory if I can check my mail via pactor.

Speaking of packet…  My stretch goal is to set up a store and forward packet mailbox.  That’s been a real bear as I started looking into this knowing absolutely nothing about it.  I think I’ve settled on using BPQ for the base software.  I’ll be running that on a RasPi.  It seems to have a component for APRS digipeater so that will tick the box for that as well.  I hope to have it set up for both HF and either VHF or UHF (undecided).  Actually, 1.25M would be a good choice for that side of it but I doubt anyone around here has a 1.25M rig they could use for packet.  It looks like the software will allow me to use both soundcard modes as well as packet/pactor on the same radios.  Again, packet and pactor probably won’t be worth the effort I put into using but I want that even if it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  

This mailbox project serves a couple functions for me.  First, it helps to educate me on something I know nothing about.  Second, by using a low mounted NVIS type dipole antenna I should be able to give a central communications tool to RFN that could be useful to communicate with each other not only just for the hell of it but could also be useful for communications in an emergency.  

Handbook

The ARRL 2019 Handbook arrived today.  Took the slipcase over the regular and it’s a little nicer than I had thought it would be.  Easier to hold the different topics in your hand instead of the all-in-one volume of years past.

It does include the ebook download (the softcover also states it includes a download).  Looks like it’s PDF files, so that’s a nice touch.  

Basic Carbine Level 2

One of the goals I had set for myself this year was to get out and actually fire at least 1000 rounds in a real training environment.  To that end I’d taken a basic carbine level 1 course @ 88 Tactical over the summer.  The idea being that you work up through the levels until you top out at super operator, ready to defend the homestead from the dastardly Red Menace and the traitorous Blue Hats – simultaneously.  And it was rather basic; I’d seemingly gotten the better of the curriculum and given a decent accounting of myself – which I thought was decent considering how low speed high drag I am.  

So, off to level 2, right?  Oh how quickly the limitations are revealed.  


BASIC CARBINE LEVEL 2
TOPICS COVERED
Prevailing mindset and the OODA Loop (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act)
Engaging threats while on the move
Engaging threats from turns and pivots
Malfunction clearing and efficient reloading
Use of cover
Shooting until the threat is stopped
Balancing speed and accuracy
Dealing with the police and other legally armed citizens

For this class I decided to bring along the franken-built 11.5″ AR-15 with a new Vortex UH-1 holographic sight stuck on top of it.  I’d actually purchased the Vortex for the lvl 1 class but it turned out to be defective straight out of the box.  Not really confidence building but, true to their reputation, Vortex took care of the warranty with no problems.  Just didn’t have it in time for that class.  But here it is now, ready to rock and roll and propel me to the stars!  

A 2 and a half hour drive got me to their outside training facility by 0800.  I met the other participants for this class which turned out to only be 2 others – so a pretty nice class size.  Well, maybe not for 88 Tactical’s bottom line, but pretty nice for the participants.  Any factor that results in more instructor attention per student can’t be beat in my book.  

Speaking of instructors, the mentor today was Kurt, who’d also been the trainer for the level 1 course earlier.  I believe he heads up quite a bit of their training sessions and I felt that he was a good match.  He seems to be able to impart the concepts in a clear manner, and give correction in a useful manner (some classes I’ve been to in the murky past had good information yet I wouldn’t go back because the trainer had a difficult time not being a dick).  

After a short classroom period we headed out to the range.  For this type of class the square range was waiting for us, with target stands on one end, and stretching back for a total of 100 yards.  

Kurt is a believer in the 50/200 yard zero which, I have to admit, is a good compromise for the type of home defense scenarios people like myself are most apt to encounter.  Still, it’s hard to tear myself away from the more traditional 25/300 zero.  After all, when the forward infantry elements start to advance we want to kill them ASAP, right?  But Kurt is probably correct.  I’ll just have to leave one of the 16″ ARs zero’d for farther out.  You know, just in case.

Following this we did some review of the level 1 content, putting emphasis on malfunction drills.  Which is pretty handy if you clean your rifles as often as I do (read: I don’t).  Also included were snap shots at close range for rapid ID and target acquisition.  Following that we did some transition to various stances (kneeling, prone) at ranges out to 50 and 100.  I’m just happy my crappy eyes can make out the target at 100 still.  All while the shot timer kept us hopping.

Late in the morning we went out to their longer range area to confirm that 200 yard part of the zero.  I’m happy to say that even with the reduced barrel length placing the dot on the target still resulted in a solid ping.  I may not have been dead center but we were making hits on steel from man sized down to 4 inch.  I was pretty happy for that 1 MOA dot.  At 330 yards I had a bit more trouble but was able to get rounds on the smaller targets after a few misses – the man size steel wasn’t too hard even at that range.  I haven’t looked it up, but there must not be too much drop at that range even with the 50 yard zero.

After a break for lunch it was back to the square range to work on some of the more dynamic elements of the course – firing on the move, turning to engage, firing from barricade cover.  Stuff that sounds pretty basic, but to do it smoothly – and smartly – takes a bit more training than you would otherwise believe.  Something that I had never taken into consideration was doing so in an environment with teammates present – it takes some concentration to not sweep them with your muzzle while these things are going on.  

To be honest this also revealed something that I really need to work on – support side shooting from cover.  At this point my brain could not make my body move in the space it was supposed to.  This would cost me dearly on the practical at the end of the class.  

The practical at the end of the class was, no surprise, a rehash of what we had covered during the day.  I had been mostly happy with my performance up until now.  But that support side from the barricade ended up with me snapping shots out that didn’t even connect with the target paper and I lost a lot of points.  Not that I was performing 100%, but those points pushed me over the edge and I did not pass (which kinda hurts).  But I suppose I shouldn’t be too surprised.  These two classes represent the vast majority of time I’ve spend training not just this year, but for a couple years now.  

Takeaways:

I need to actually follow up this training with real effort.  If I let this go all winter long I’ll have just wasted the money I spent and the time and effort I took to go to these classes.  

Cardio.  I could have done better if I wasn’t half dead.

Support equipment.  My support equipment was OK, and I could make it work well enough, but I could polish it up just a bit.  

Maybe I should clean that rifle once in a while.