Baltimore Radio Amateur Television Society

Be sure to attend the Monday, Nov 11, 2013 meeting at 7:00 PM at the Pikesville Library for a demonstration of the new 147.030 repeater network!

Learn what the new messages mean!
See how we’ll be cutting down interference/noise!
See how we’ll be expanding our receive coverage!

A complete receive package (before we finished cleaning the wires up):

Repeater controller cabinet. Note, the hardware voter, hardware controller, and two link receivers are dark. Repeater controller and voter are running on an HP ThinClient.

John, K3TAY, passed away last month after a long illness.

There will be a short memorial service for John on
November 7 at 1300EST at the Garrison Forest Veteran
Cemetery. John’s amateur radio friends are invited.

John is survived by his ex-wife, Iris, and their son, Aaron.
Please contact us for the contact information for Iris Wingert and Aaron Wingert.

On Saturday, October 19th, the BRATS and the Arrowhead district of the Baltimore Area Council/Boy Scouts of America worked to introduce over 50 Scouts and their families Amateur Radio. There were smiles all around from the Scouts, their parents, and the volunteers as demonstrations were held on VHF, fox hunting, and HF communications.

The BRATS made over 60 contacts in 26 states and 8 countries, with several QSOs lasting nearly an hour. The Scouts had plenty of opportunities to talk to other current and former Scouts across the country and across the planet.

These pins represent radio contacts made during the Jamboree. The world map includes both radio and Internet contacts.

The BRATS set up 5 Jamboree on the Internet workstations inside K0RYX’s HQ truck, a 50′ tower trailer, 30′ self supporting tower on the other side, and three HF stations under tents.

The BRATS 2013 Jamboree on the Air facilities

A special thanks to Chris Gutberlet of Pack 307 for spearheading the event, K0RYX for his assistance in planning and working with the Scouts, and his vehicle, N3GXH for his time, RV command post, and generator, and WA3AER, K9FXY, K2AGR, and K2GZL for their work with the Scouts ensuring we had a successful event.

Continuing work is being performed on the 147.030+ WB3DZO repeater to upgrade the legacy analog system to a modern software digital repeater platform. This platform utilizes VoIP and Microwave links to deliver high quality voice from our network of receive nodes to our transmitter located in Baltimore. We are working hard to ensure that the 147.030+ repeater remains fully operational throughout the project, however, at times you may experience strange or unexpected behavior while using the repeater.

Thank you for bearing with us as we make continued progress in upgrading our repeater system. If you hear N3GXH, KB3PLX, K0RYX on the air, feel free to jump in and give us your feedback!

As a part of the 147.030 repeater project, the BRATS have built a high-speed wireless network across our sites in Baltimore. Here’s N3GXH climbing his tower to set up a 1.3 mile link:

N3GXH climbs his tower to link into our network

We currently have links of 1.3, 9.4, and 2.3 miles, with sustained transfer speeds of 2.5 MBps (comparable to a home cable internet link) and ping times of 9-15 ms across all links.

What’s next for our network? Remote RX sites for ATV? Repeater support for digital modes? We’ve built the infrastructure, come to the next meeting on Oct 7 to help us use it!

The 2013 BRATS Hamfest was held on a beautiful sunny day this past Sunday.  Despite some challenges posed by the fairgrounds and some issues caused by another event, the BRATS adapted and kept everyone safe and happy.

A special thanks to everyone that volunteered on Sunday, especially the front line staff that dealt with some rather unhappy drivers.

BRATS Hamfest

The BRATS successfully created a 9 mile wifi link between a receive site and the transmit site. We hope to have the new repeater operational for a test this weekend, and a demonstration site available at the Hamfest.

The 2013 BRATS Hamfest is just around the corner! The Hamfest will be held at the Howard County Fairgrounds on Sunday July 21 2013 starting at 6am – rain or shine!

Get your Amateur Radio License or upgrade your current license to the next level while at the hamfest! Testing check-in at 8:30am. On-site VE testing supplied graciously by the Laurel VEC Club! Pre-registration required for testing – call John Creel at 301-572-5124 to register.

Hamfest Event Location:
Howard County Fairgrounds
2210 Fairgrounds Rd
West Friendship, MD 21794

Full event details / directions!

Raffle Winners!

09:00 AM : No. 7541
09:30 AM : No. 7934
10:00 AM : No. 4351
10:30 AM : No. 2963
11:30 AM : No. 7582
12:00 AM : No. 2764

The 6/10 BRATS meeting was postponed due to the reported tornado near Sykesville and the subsequent NOAA tornado warnings for western Baltimore county. As the Library forced patrons into the meeting room – the all-brick shelter for the area – BRATS took the opportunity to provide weather updates and educate the roughly 30 assembled guests on amateur radio and our club.

Special thanks to Oryx K0RYX for bringing the projector which really opened up information for the assembled group.

N3GXH Ed aims the dish

Come to the next BRATS meeting, Monday, May 6, to find out what Ed is aiming, and what it means for the future of BRATS!