I'll have 3 different antennas to try tonight that I can switch rapidly.
1.  40m dipole at 15'
2.  Buddipole in vertical config with feedpoint at 15' and single counterpoise
3.  Normal 72' EFRW at approx 25'

It'll be interesting how they hear.

If you want you can do a TX test as well, just do three cycles after your roll call saying which antenna is in use.

Sound fun, I can give you SNR's as well. I can usually hear you very well on your endfed.

Nice net, conditions were a little rougher than last week. The vertical buddipole won

7 check ins, 1 via relay who probably doesn't know they got checked in yet.

I was the new guy tonight

Welcome to the net!

Bump for tonight's net.

To give an signal report is common to give the S-meter reading, the SNR, and approximately how much you could copy. S5 +4db 100% cpy. The SNR is the important part, if you run a really narrow filter it will increase the SNR.

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You can get the S meter too depending on what radio and CAT interface you have. I use a 7300 and Flrig. If you hit the highlighted button you can switch between your filter width and the S-meter.

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Whew, rough band tonight. My count is five stations total in the net.

All but one of you were flirting with ghost print on my end.

There was some awful QSB on my end.  I just about lost everyone when we were chatting right before the net.  Then things came back up when the net started.

I was on my 40m dipole this week, which isn't very high.  It slopes from about 12' on one end to maybe 20' on the other with the feedpoint at maybe 15'.
It seems to have a good sig into AZ though, as does my BuddiPole setup.

Maybe the fact that I'm in the clear, on the top of a hill at 1300' ASL and 300'  above average terrain helps too!  

Thanks for the info, especially the switch button. The bottom bar on my program was covered by my computer tool bar, took care of that.

Volunteer NC needed for tonight and next week.

I'll do it tonight. I suspect I'll have a hard time hearing everyone tonight if so we can do some relays if we need to.

First warning is out. I'll be in the shack until the net starts to listen to our local 2m net if any one wants to rag chew before the net.

Is there a setting to get the S meter operational on the screen or on the FLRIG?

At the moment, I'm using an FT-897D with signalink.

Im not using that radio, but w/ flrig and a 7300 I hit the little "refresh arrows" under the frequency and it switches between S-meter and my filter/mode settings.

It switches to S meter, it has no readings

Might be a radio specific thing.

I'm not hearing any one else on tonight, and youre ghost printing.

I just tried to check in but am having some audio issues. Not decoding, no idea if I'm successfully transmitting.

I'm hearing a lot of signals, just not decoding. Grrrr...

I think you might have doubled on GreenDragon. He was coming in good then a long string of jibberish.

ETA While replying my fldigi hung... LOL

I'm hearing you (I think it's you, anyway) really clear, just not decoding. Just switched a bunch of stuff around and added a second rig to this computer and have been running into some oddness here and there.

The net tonight had 1 check in ended up being ragchew. Hopefully next week we can get a few more peas in the pot. 73.

Not gonna make it tonight.  Away from the radio on family business.  I'll try to make it next week.

Hmm, if you want to do any more testing later just send me a message. I think I'll be working from home the rest of the week if you want to do some more testing.

Appreciate that and I may take you up on it. GreenDragon offered as well but we're a little close for reliable HF comms. I am done for tonight, though.

It worked out great for me, I need the practice. Thanks again.

If there are only two or three stations a simple round robin to me is more fun than a formal directed net.

I'm usually on the radio an hour before the net, I've always felt free to rag chew before hand. I'm the past we've messed with sending NBEMS stuff before the net, it's a fine time IMHO to experiment, it holds the frequency and is more fun than hitting the "net warning" macro every 15min...

The other thread had lots of tips on using fldigi, with it gone now I thought I would post a few tips on using fldigi for our weekly net since we have some new participants. These are in not particular order, I'm bored at work and typing stream of conscious if you will.

The number 1 cause of hangs when transmitting is leaving the cursor in the middle of the buffer window, it will TX until it gets to the cursor and then send idle tones until you either click to the end of the buffered text or hit the escape key. The escape key will abort the transmission, unless the software is crashed and then you'll have to kill the tx at the radio.

You can hit the T/R button to transmit and then start typing and it will transmit what you type. If you hit backspace it will remove characters from the listening stations monitor, say to fix a typo typed in real time. If you want to end the transmission use "^r" and it will end the transmission when it gets to that symbol. In Olivia you can type a lot faster than it sends. Other modes you can't and mistakes are immediately transmitted. If you are rag chewing typing the message in the buffer window then sending it wastes time. I usually hit a macro to start the transmission and then type real time and end with another macro. Next post will cover macros.

As posted in the first post, starting with "..." will help with getting the decoder sync'd up. I also like to have a return at the beginning and end, if you have the squelch off (I usually leave it as low as it will go but still on) the carriage returns will give a clear delineation between decoded noise and your transmission. Returns take time to send, excessive ones waste time.

I've seen other nets use the tune button to signal they are about to transmit. This is used the same way on an FM net you would announce "net control" then let the repeater drop to listen for a double. Often the tune's carrier can be seen or heard even if you have a hard time seeing or hearing another station. I think that a brief tone before starting to TX would reduce doubles when checking in. I'd propose we try that on a net and will mention in the next net preamble I send.

You can fill out the log by clicking on text in the monitor window and assigning it to a volatile memory location (for lack of a better term.) If you double click a callsign it will be stored as <CALL> and should populate in the log field and in the bottom of the window. If you select and right click on a name you can store it as <NAME>, also for <QTH> etc. There are a litany of ones you can assign, more on why you'd want to do that in the next post.

Fldigi macros are very helpful for sending repetitous data. I don't use the canned ones in the software, I also enable 4x rows and have them grouped by function. Some are for starting stopping QSO's or overs, others geared toward being net control. You have to have your information filled out the configuration for these to work.

Clicking a macro button will populate the buffer window and can either automatically send or you can manually send based on what you have entered. I'll go over some basic ones I use all the time. I'll start with the button label, then a comment and then the macro followed by the macro text. <TX> will toggle transmission, <RX> will stop it. I use some symbols at the end of the label to indicate if it will do nothing, start a tx/rx cycle, or stop just toggle back to rx.

de (me) 'this is used to quickly enter my callsign
de <MYCALL>


... (him)'I use this to quickly enter the other stations call sign
... <CALL>


...(him) de (me) 'common way to start a tx
... <CALL> de <MYCALL>



(him) de (me) @|> 'common way to end a transmission, if text is in the buffer it will send the buffered text and then stop
<CALL> de <MYCALL> kn .
<TX>
<RX>


BTU (him) @|> 'common way to end a transmission, if text is in the buffer it will send the buffered text and then stopBTU <CALL> de <MYCALL>  kn .
<TX>
<RX>



...de (me) k @> 'this is use to quickly enter my callsign start transmitting, I manually type ^r to stop<TX>
... <CALL> de <MYCALL>





ARFCheckIn @>| 'my check in macro
<TX>

... <MYCALL> <MYCALL> NMBMXER QRU kn .

<RX>


I have many variations of those for calling CQ, short SK messages, long SK messages etc. If you are in a fast mode it is very obvious when you are looking around for the macro button so organize them well if you're doing PSK31. I have different set of macro's in fact with only a couple of buttons as I kept getting lost. You can make one that sends station info with your name, QTH, location, etc. The right side of the macro editor has all of the tags you can use.

To send net warnings:

<TX>
...
CQ CQ NET CQ CQ NET de  <MYCALL> <MYCALL>

It is <ZT[:fmt]> <LT[:fmt], NET will start at 0000Z/ 2000L

de <MYCALL> SK .
<RX>

My typical net preamble, use this to call the net if we need a volunteer NCS. @weaponeer1911 cough cough.

<TX>
...cq cq NET de <MYCALL>
cq cq NET de <MYCALL>


Welcome to Olivia digital net.
NCS this week is <MYNAME> in <MYQTH>, Nmbmxer.
This net is open to all radio amateurs.
Let me know if you'd like me to use your screen name.


We will begin with QNI followed by a round of comments.


Pse check in using the following format
"... callsign callsign QRU kn ."


Wait for channel to clear then TX,
it is not necessary to wait for net
control to confirm every call.


If you hear a call that I don't, pse relay at any time.


QNI pse k, de <MYCALL>.

<RX>

The forum software doesn't like < and > and won't let me edit the previous post, I also had to hand type in the macros and couldn't copy paste. If you find errors, I'm sorry.

Macros can also change modes. You can change modes in the middle of a transmission if the other stations have RxID and TxID on. This is helpful if you are talking in Olivia 16/500 and want to switch and send a file using another mode then switch back.

BUMP for tonight's net.

Would anyone be interested in NBEMS practice after the net? I can send a radiogram to the net participants. If you're interested you'll also need flmsg and flwrap installed as well making sure RxID and TxID are active. flmsg is a forms tool for filling out common premade forms such as the ICS-213 and the ARRL radiogram. flwrap compresses and error checks files and lets the receiving station know that the message had 100% copy.  

http://mocars.org/configuring-nbems/ (flmsg configuration is at the bottom, the top is basic fldigi stuff focused on VHF rigs with no cat control)
http://mocars.org/sending-forms-using-nbems/

I appear to have my flrig issues of last week sorted out.


No experience with flmsg or flwrap other than downloading them way back when but I'll open them up and see if I can get configured before the net.

You really don't have to mess with much to get the other programs to work. For receiving it is all pretty automatic. I had to make sure a checkbox for keying ptt was on in fldigi, it had been working fine for fldigi but flmsg wouldn't key the radio when using autosend. The joys of setting up a new PC.

If you fill out a message, either a radiogram or an ICS-213 you can send one back to me. You can use Olivia 16-500, its just slow. If we all could hear each other really well faster modes work better.

NBEMS is a "radio operators" tool for sending messages in an emergency. Red Cross and FEMA seem to prefer Winlink, it's definitely easier when it works. MT63 is super tolerant of timing on decoding, and since it is one way you don't even need a fancy soundcard interface or packet radio for VHF/UHF operations. You can set a HT beside your laptop's mic and fldigi will decode messages. To send a message you key your HT and hold it beside the speaker and the send the file using fldigi/flmsg. Even works over a repeater though I haven't tried it.

In Winlink you either get the message or you don't. flwrap is the answer to that, it can compress and then wrap your message with a checksum. If the receiving station misses something, ARQ can be used to ask for a retransmission.

Here is another good NBEMS page.

New PC and new radio here. It's been interesting but I think I'm good now.



I've been messing around with flmsg and it seems simple enough, but I have no idea where flwrap fits in. I'm also not up on formatting for this type of communication so if we get this to work and I seem like a bit of an idiot, that's why ;)



edit to add- that last link is great for a relative newb to fldig/flmsg, thank you.

1705 warning is out.

Missed the warning, radio wasn't up yet. Just sent out a test message.

I didn't see your test message, I saw a message from weaponeer1911.

Just sent again. Either I'm not hitting you or my fldigi issues are not solved. Everything looks good here, though.

Not sure if the net is happening or not but I'm copying nothing here. Can someone confirm whether anything is being transmitted?


disregard the above, I got it. I'm an idiot.

Net is going, two participants. Radio settings correct? 7114 +1500 usb?

Yes, net is on-going.

Bumped the wrong knob and was off frequency.

It happens.

Net concluded at 2037L with 3 check ins. 73.

I got the THOR100 radiogram from Mach, that was fast.

I copied the entire message in fldigi but nothing happened in flmsg. Will do some homework on flmsg and flwrap in the coming week.

Same thing when I got Mach's msg, I thought it was going to open a webpage but it didn't. (I'm not an expert.) We can try again after next weeks net, or before.

ETA: It did open in flmsg, just on another monitor behind a couple of windows and I didn't see it until I shut my station down.

Had a nice conversation with a Peter from NYC after the net, hopefully he joins us next week.

Mine doesnt work unless I have Flmsg open in the background

8PSK125 is super fast ( was 8 secs) but it does not transmit a TX ID so it will not mode change