Net Results Sept 20 2015
We had approximately 11 checkins on the net, via W1BUR-L on Echolink.
We connected with W8UM-R, the University of Michigan ham radio club, which is quite active.
We heard that W8MSU-R Michigan State Univ. ham radio club, also a very active club is back on Echolink during the net as well.
We had listening participants via the live stream on the W1BUR YouTube channel.
We would like to hear more RF-based checkins, but one of the challenges is getting the word out to students, many of whom and licensed and who even have radios, but are too busy to use them. We can incrementally build up activity and awareness levels. On the RF coverage front, with a handheld radio, without line of sight it’s tough to get more than about 2 mile coverage from the present system with 5 Watt transmit power. As time and interest permits we can check the following things:
-
has the antenna fallen over (probably not, this is how it worked when “known” good)
-
should we use the yagi antenna to pinpoint power in a particular direction vs. an omni antenna? Perhaps, BU is a rather linear campus.
We do know from prior experiments that 70cm is far more likely to be serviceable than 2m, especially for in-building use.