Reminder that we will be having our monthly Flagler ARES meeting on Wednesday evening, 16-June-2010 starting at 19:00.
This month’s topic will be Go-Kits. We will have a short presentation, followed by a number of demonstrations. Please bring our personal Go-Kit (Radio and accessories, including personal items) to the meeting so that we can learn from each other and share ideas.
We’ll send another reminder on the Monday before the meeting.
to those of you who were present at the Flagler County Proclamation this last Monday, THANK YOU..!! That was an EXCELLENT turn-out. The Amateur community came out in-force to accept the award – we had more people there that even I expected.. WOOHOO..!!
The next ceremony is this coming Monday eve – for the City of Bunnell – at the same place (Flagler Government Center) at 19:00 local. This day/time conflicts with a number of club functions (nets), but it is very important that we have a good turn-out to this even as well. So if you’re available, PLEASE join us in accepting YOUR award for your collective contribution to the community.
I just returned from a quick trip from Palm Coast to Winter Park – coverage of the Volusia D-Star repeater (145.380- KJ4RYG) is solid from Palm Coast all the way south on I-4 to Mile-Marker 105 (just north of Lake Mary and prior to the Sanford exit). Low power coverage was well past Deland using a standard, stacked collinear (which most of us use). My standard antenna is a “shortie”, so your mileage may vary.
Regardless, better than 30-miles to the south on I-4. I-95 coverage to the south is currently unknown, but there is a possibility that I may be going to Brevard County in the next few days – if so, we’ll write another SitRep.
This is WELL into the coverage area of the Sanford repeater (W4PLB, 145.15-), so we have achieved the overlapping coverage goal that we set for ourselves. As I mentioned to a couple of guys earlier today when we linked the K1XC repeater to Palm Coast… if we linked the Orlando, Sanford, Daytona, Palm Coast, St. Johns and Jacksonville (future) repeaters together thru REF034A, we would have seamless coverage from west of Orlando to the Georgia State Line on I-4 and I-95..!! Add the repeaters on the West of the state (Lakeland, Tampa) and you would have coast-to-coast to the GA border coverage. This is VERY CLOSE TO BEING REALITY (just a couple of more pieces in the puzzle to be completed and we’re there..!!).
Jun 10
The Icom RP-2000V is a 2-Meter, D-Star RF module which connects to the RP-2C D-Star controller. RF output is approximately 20-25 watts and receiver sensitivity is equivalent to about .3uv.
See below for a diagram of the Rear-Panel of the RP-2000V (click for enlargement):
As we indicated in the article regarding the RP-2C controller, all band modules connect to the RP-2c with two connections: (1) a power cable from the RP-2000V and the RP-2C (#4 in the diagram above), and (2) an ethernet cable (#5 in the diagram above).
There are two other connections which must be made to the RP-2000V (or RP-4000V for the UHF Version):
That is all of the connections that are required to interface the RP-2000V or RP-4000V into the D-Star repeater stack. Just 4 simple connections – ALL of which are either factory provided (12vdc and ethernet cables), or can be easily made in at home or in the field (N-toN hardline).
Programming is equally simple. There are two parameters which need to be programmed:
Programming is accomplished with the two USB Type-B ports on the FRONT of the RP-2000V – the left socket being for Transmit and the right for Receive. They are labeled as Service-T and Service-R.
Upon opening the Icom RP-2000V programming software, we are presented with the following screen, at which point we can define which USB port to us on our computer.
Connecting the USB cable to the Service-T port on the RP-2C, we can READ the contents of the Transmit side of the RP-2000V. The current transmit frequency will be displayed on the Tx/Rx Frequency box. You may change this frequency to anything legally in the Amateur Band, then hit WRITE – at which point the transmitter will accept the information and change it’s frequency to what was specified. If you enter a frequency outside of the legal band-limits (without being in diagnostic mode), the software will reject your entry.
Once you are done with the Transmit frequency, simply unplug the USB-Type-B connector from the Service-T port and insert it into the Service-R port and follow the procedure again for the Receiver side of the RF module. Read-Set-Write - very simple. Be warned that in most situations, you will have to insure that you know the COM-Port that is being used when you insert the USB cable into the Service-T/R ports. On my system, Service-T uses Com24, while Service-R uses Com25. They are always N and N+1 respectively.
So there you are – the Icom RP-2000V VHF module for 2-meters. The connection and programming procedures are identical for the RP-4000V for UHF (440Mhz).
