Digital Group Meeting this Tuesday 2021-12-21

[Steve Stroh]

Hello all DG'ers!

It's once again time for the Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club (MBARC)
Digital Group (DG) to meet "Brady Bunch" style on Zoom - for the last
time in 2021. We meet to discuss all things digital (mostly data) in
Amateur Radio. Of particular interest to the MBARC DG is the WB7FHC /
AG7GN Nexus DR-X units (http://wb7fhc.com/intro.html) and HamWAN /
AREDN microwave networking, and all other forms of data communications
over Amateur Radio here in Whatcom County.

MBARC DG meets the third Tuesday of each month at 19:00 Pacific. Some
of us gather early for casual chatting. The Zoom link will be active
by 18:30 for those wishing to join early.

Zoom Link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84786930504?pwd=YTlsZEs4dGRIMEdKUzVnckhodVNFdz09
(The meeting will be recorded.) The DG thanks Budd Churchward WB7FHC
for the use of his Zoom account to host this meeting.

Reminder about 2022 Digital Group dues
DG dues are $10 / year, due first of year. The DG treasurer requests
that you fill out the Application / Renewal form (download at
https://mbarc.groups.io/g/main/files/Applications/MBARC%20Digital%20Group%20Application.pdf)
and also attached, and (paper mail) the form with your check. It's not
stated on the form, but it's acceptable to pay ahead for multiple
years to avoid the hassle of renewing every year. With the healthy DG
treasury in 2021, the DG bought a Kenwood TM-V71A radio to assist in
software development, and made a significant financial contribution to
HamWAN (http://hamwan.org).

Topics for this meeting include:
* Introductions of those new to Amateur Radio and/or the Digital
Group, including non DG guests. Question for the intros is "What is
your big Amateur Radio project for 2022"?
* Show and tell of any projects or activities that you've done that
are "Amateur Radio Digital".
* Digital Group Treasurer's Report.
* We hope to get a report from Steve AG7GN about the new Raspberry Pi
OS "Bullseye" and that necessitating changes to the Nexus DR-X image
* We hope to get a report from Budd WB7FHC about his redesign of the
Nexus DR-X to accommodate the Raspberry Pi 4's slighly different form
factor
* We hope to get a report from Andy KF7VOL for a year-end summary of
the Multipurpose Remote Nodes at various places in Whatcom County.
* Has anyone found a source for Raspberry Pi 3 or 4 units that has
them in stock?
* Discussion of two new data radio projects:
- Icom (https://www.icomjapan.com/lp/shf/)
- ÖVSV (Austria’s national Amateur Radio organization) and Vienna
University of Technology
(https://www-oevsv-at.translate.goog/oevsv/aktuelles/Neue-WRAN-Hardware-7W-144-433-und-10W-52MHz/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=nui).
* Discussion of the new Yaesu FTM-6000R – 50W VHF/UHF Dual Band
FM Mobile Transceiver that is apparently a capable "data" radio with
the inclusion of the standard 6-pin MiniDIN "data" connector (via an
adapter cable).
https://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=106&encProdID=3BEE472B7584ACA7C6A71F41B8ADCEC9&DivisionID=65&isArchived=0
(I did a writeup on this radio in my newsletter Zero Retries 0017 -
https://zeroretries.substack.com/p/zero-retries-0017)
* Discussion about different times / days for the weekday evening data
net on the Mt. Constitution 146.740 repeater. Wednesdays at 08:00
overlap with the San Juan County voice net on the 224.480 repeater.

We are always looking for interesting topics to discuss about Amateur
Radio data communications. Please let me know of topics (and speakers)
that you'd like to see at a future DG Meeting.

Administrivia:
The Digital Group (DG) is a technically oriented subsidiary group of
the Mount Baker Amateur Radio Club (MBARC) in Bellingham, Whatcom
County, Washington that is focused on data communications in Amateur
Radio. The goal of the DG is to help DG members and especially
newcomers to Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio Operators new to data
modes, understand and use Amateur Radio data communications modes
effectively. Most of the DG’s usage of Data Communications occurs on
the Amateur Radio VHF and UHF bands within Whatcom County and
surrounding areas. Information about the Digital Group can be found at
https://mbarc.groups.io/g/main/wiki/28088.

Joining the DG
Membership in the Digital Group is an add-on to MBARC membership. DG
membership dues are $10 / year (in addition to MBARC membership dues).
DG dues are used to support various projects relating to the focus of
the DG, such as building Amateur Radio data communications
infrastructure such as digipeaters. To pay your dues, either send a
check to
MBARC Digital Group
PO Box 981
Bellingham, WA 98227

DG Meetings
In-person meetings of the DG have been suspended indefinitely for
COVID-19. Occasional special purpose in-person meetings are scheduled
as needed.

DG Email Discussion List
Currently, the DG uses Google Groups for its email list for
discussions and meeting notifications. If you're not currently a
member of the group, you can view (and search) the discussions to
date:
https://groups.google.com/g/nwwdigi

If you're a Gmail user, you can browse to
https://groups.google.com/g/nwwdigi
and click subscribe.

If you're not a Gmail user, to subscribe to the DG email list, send an
email (no subject or body text) to
nwwdigi+...@googlegroups.com

The DG meets on the third Tuesday of each month, beginning at 18:30
Pacific for casual chatting and 19:00 for the "formal" meeting via
Zoom videoconference. The link for the Zoom videoconference is
published on the DG’s email list prior to the meeting. You do not have
to be a member of the DG to attend the virtual meetings.

The Digital Group will eventually migrate its electronic discussions
from Google Groups to groups.io. If you haven't already done so,
please go to
https://mbarc.groups.io/g/digital
To add yourself via email, send an email to:
digital+...@mbarc.groups.io

You do not have to be a member of the DG to subscribe to the DG email
list. Requests to join the DG email list are moderated to attempt to
minimize spammers and spamming.

Thanks,

Steve Stroh N8GNJ
MBARC Digital Group President 2021-2022

--
Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Editor
Zero Retries Newsletter - https://zeroretries.substack.com
Twitter - @zeroretries / https://twitter.com/zeroretries