Blog: Rev. Fr. Robert Bower

Recap POTA Plaque Event

I am a little late with this post but as they say better late than never. The weekend of June third and fourth was the annual POTA Plaque event. I was able to activate both Potato Creek State Park, K-2265 and Chamberlain Lake State Nature Preserve, K-4189. I had a total of thirty-seven FT8 contacts. While not a lot of contacts I was able to make a QSO with 7N1FRE in grid square QM05, which made my day, as it is my longest contact so far.

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Besides making a great contact, Roman, my black lab, and I had a great day at a couple of area parks.

Zettelkasten ID potaplaqueevent-2023-06-09-0645

Linux and GPS Time for FT8

One thing you need for FT8 is accurate time on your computer. Keeping accurate time on a Linux based operating system is quite easy today when your computer has access to the Internet. Most modern Linux distributions do it out of the box and no one thinks about it. Even in the field if you are connected to the Internet your computer has an accurate time, if it doesn't, with a quick trip to https://time.is/ you can set your computer's time with a click of a button.

What if you don't have Internet access? The answer is to use GPS time. Linux distributions use either timedatectl/timesyncd, chrony, or NTP. The first listed option timedatectl/timesyncd does not support GPS time which leaves chrony or NTP. Either chrony or NTP will work. On my laptop that I use for POTA is currently running Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS so I opted for chrony.

Things you will need for this project is a GPS dongle or an Android phone running GPSshare and a computer running a Linux based operating system.

If you use a GPS dongle use one with Pulse-Per-Second (PPS) support for the most accurate time. You can use one without PPS but your time may not be as accurate.

Rather than using a dongle I used my Android phone running GPSshare. My phone's GPS does not support PPS so if you go the phone route realize you will not have as accurate time as with a GPS that supports PPS.

What I did was based on https://ubuntu.com/server/docs/network-ntp.

  • I installed the following packages gpsd, chrony, pps-tools, and gpsd-clients on my laptop.
  • I installed GPSshare on my phone.
  • I already had this done but turn on ADB on your Android phone and install the ADB packages for your distribution.
  • If you are running Apparmour disable it for both gpsd and chrony. There seems to be a bug that currently is not fixed in apparmor that blocks gpsd and chrony.
  • Use the following guide to setup Share GPS via UBS http://jillybunch.com/sharegps/nmea-usb-linux.html
  • Edit /etc/default/gpsd to include the following if you use Share GPS.
DEVICES="tcp://localhost:20175"

# Other options you want to pass to gpsd
GPSD_OPTIONS="-n -b"

# Automatically hot add/remove USB GPS devices via gpsdctl
USBAUTO="true"
  • Edit /etc/chrony/chrony.conf to include the following if you are using GPS Share
refclock SHM 0 refid GPS precision 1e-1 offset 0.9999 delay 0.2
driftfile /var/db/chrony/chrony.drift
bindcmdaddress /var/run/chrony/chrony.sock
rtcsync
  • Assuming you have Share GPS setup, running, and connected to your laptop, now restart both gpsd and chrony with sudo systemctl restart gpsd.service and sudo systemctl restart chrony.service
  • Now run chronyc sources

You should see something like

MS Name/IP address         Stratum Poll Reach LastRx Last sample               
===============================================================================
#? GPS                           0   4   177    24    +21ms[  +17ms] +/-  200ms
^- prod-ntp-4.ntp1.ps5.cano>     2  10   377   29m   +833us[ +833us] +/-   48ms
^- prod-ntp-3.ntp4.ps5.cano>     2  10   377   969  +1240us[+1240us] +/-   51ms
^- prod-ntp-3.ntp1.ps5.cano>     2  10   377   777  +1991us[+1991us] +/-   51ms
^- alphyn.canonical.com          2  10   377   998  +1522us[+1522us] +/-   80ms
^- 44.190.40.123                 2  10   357  1004  +2127us[+2127us] +/-   81ms
^- pittsburghmusicals.com        3  10   377   982  +1632us[+1632us] +/-   58ms
^+ ntp1.glypnod.com              2  10   377   923  +1561us[+1561us] +/-   37ms
^+ ntp01.nonexiste.net           1  10   377   21m  -6787us[-6787us] +/-   32ms
^- srv11.dynamigs.net            2  10   377   33m    +24ms[  +24ms] +/-  125ms
^+ triton.ellipse.net            2  10   377    44  +6464us[+6464us] +/-   27ms
^- srcf-ntp.stanford.edu         2  10   377   26m  +4218us[+4218us] +/-   37ms
^* 140.99.199.146                2  10   377   31m   +501us[ +539us] +/-   14ms

Showing that the GPS is providing time and everything is working.

Remember using your phone's GPS works but a GPS dongle with PPS support would even be better.

Zettelkasten ID linuxandgpstime-2023-05-20-1219

New RF Exposure Evaluation Rules

On May 3, 2021, new FCC rules went into effect that dealt with RF exposure evaluations.

Here are some links that may help you understand and comply with the new rules.

ARRL Helps Radio Amateurs Comply with New RF Exposure Evaluation Rules

May 2023 QST article by Greg Lapin, N9GL

ARRL RF Exposure landing page

RF Exposure Calculator

Ask Michael, KB9VBR: FCC now REQUIRES amateurs to perform antenna RF exposure calculations

Zettelkasten ID rfexposureevaluationrules-2023-05-07-2230

POTA Self Spotting with Winlink

I found the following forum post about POTA self spotting with Winlink. I have not tried it yet but I plan to soon.


VA3BLV Jun '22

Self-Spotting using email/Winlink…

POTA spotting actions can be submitted by sending an email (Winlink/other) to POTAGW@outlook.com with all commands being sent in the subject line only. The body of emails will be ignored.

The following commands are currently supported:

  • Self-Spot

SPOT [ActivatorCall] [ParkReference] [FreqInKhz] [Mode] [Comment]

Example: SPOT W4PI K-TEST 14321 SSB This is a comment

  • View Active Spots

VIEWSPOTS #An email reply will be sent with a list of active spots.

73, Marc - VA3BLV

"VA3-Believe"


Taken from: https://community.hamrs.app/t/spotting-myself-or-others/2095/3

Zettelkasten ID potaspottingwinlink-2023-05-04-1540

How I studied for the Amatuer License Exams

I am currently hold a General Class License and am studying for the Extra Class License exam.

When I studied for the Technician Class Exam I used Ham Study It explains the questions and allows you to take practice exams. I have taught both math and science in the past so I did not need much preparation for the exam beyond Ham Study.

The General Class Exam was a different story. I continued to use Ham Study but I also used the ARRL General License Manual and the Amateur Radio License Course General Class. The course is a series of lectures by David Casler, KE0OG and is available to ARRL members at https://learn.arrl.org.

I am currently studying for the Extra Class Exam and the material is tough. I continue to use Ham Study but I also use the ARRL Extra License Manual and the Amateur Radio License Course Extra Class. The course is a series of lectures by David Casler, KE0OG and is available to ARRL members at https://learn.arrl.org. I also am using the Extra Class License Class Syllabus by Jack Tiley, AD7FO.

Once I take the Extra Exam I will let you know how it went.

Zettelkasten ID studyingforlicenseexams-2022-12-23-1047