Oregon City Ham Radio Collaboration?

[Pittsmaster]

I'm looking for local folks to share knowledge and best practices regarding ham radio. Anyone in the local Oregon City area? I've been a ham since 2013. General class since last year. Let me know.

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[ChiefStealth]

I'm not in your area, but in my area in western Wash. a lot of radio knowledge is with the members of ARES. I'd recommend that you look them up in your area. Good luck.

KI7EIZ

 

[Pittsmaster]

Yeah, I'm familiar with them. I'm thinking more like folks my age (early 30's) that I can also discuss firearms and other awesome things with. Was hoping to double up on the hobby talk!

 

[Capn_Jay]

I recently got my Technician license, and have been kind of wondering where to go from here, lol. I have also heard that ham radio is an old man's game, and wouldn't mind meeting people into it that are more my age (mid 30s).

 

[Kruel J]

It has been an old man's game for quite a while and maybe still is. But I hear younger people more and more (preppers I'm sure) on the repeaters. I'm 41 and have been a Technician for about 2 years. My dad has been doing it since he was a teenager and he was/is the main reason I got my license and gear. My advice, get on a local repeater that sees regular use and start meeting fellow hams.

 

[CoastRange57]

There used to be a Sportsmans net on the state linked repeaters, I think on Wednesday night. Being a linked repeater there was a lot of people on there and hard to even check into it. Plus a couple of guys on there from the Eugene Springfield areas that cannot shut their mouths for 5 seconds, on that net and a lot of other times as well.

I know quite a few ham operators and I can say that a majority of them are concealed carriers. There are younger guys on the repeaters I go to, so it is not strictly and old mans game. My son is a ham and he is 31.

If you are in the Tualatin Valley area there is a local repeater pretty low key and loose bunch on 145.45 minus no tone. I get on the 2 meter linked system to talk to a couple of friends in Central Oregon twice a week or so.

 

[Capn_Jay]

My advice, get on a local repeater that sees regular use and start meeting fellow hams.

Got any recommendations for one? I am in Ridgefield and can pick up most of the AB7F network.

 

[Asp]

I listen in on a Baofeng with an antenna upgrade.... Once in awhile I'll listen into the the surveys or questions guys bring up, or car accidents.

 

[Xyda Go Mon]

I'm in Oregon City. I've had my Tech for about 3 years now but haven't used it much. The repeaters are full of conversations that don't hold my interest very well; although, I do like to listen to the nets on occasion.

'Would like to set up a repeater in this area for local conversations among like minds.

Pittsmaster, thanks for your service.

73,
N7TBY

 

[John Gault]

I'm in Oregon City. I've had my Tech for about 3 years now but haven't used it much. The repeaters are full of conversations that don't hold my interest very well; although, I do like to listen to the nets on occasion.

'Would like to set up a repeater in this area for local conversations among like minds.

Pittsmaster, thanks for your service.

73,
N7TBY

I've had a Technician license for almost a year but I rarely get on the air and talk. Listen lots to CCSO and OSP. Have lots of repeaters loaded but as you've mentioned there's not a lot of talking that holds my interest. Lets talk Guns, Ammo, Reloading, Hiking, Climbing, Preps, etc.... Not sure how expensive it is to put up and manage a repeater though.. There are some repeaters that have some down time where there's not much action. Maybe setup a couple of times a day for like minded to meet on a less than traveled repeater?

 

[kd7vdb]

I've been a ham for 13 years and am younger than most on here and in the ham community. I upgraded General 2years ago.

 

[AMProducts]

What you don't want to intimately know the state of some old ham's colon?

I've been an operator for 8 years (currently a general), dad's also a ham. At one point I got involved with some of the local clubs, most of the people there had a decade on my dad (I'm also mid-30's). Yea, I got frustrated kinda quick and stopped going. Too much bickering about what to BBQ for field day after I offered to cook. (you would think they were cooking, or paying me)

Anyways, I'm not really close, but I'll do my best to answer any question you might have in as much detail as I can manage.

The big thing I'm working on at the moment is a Raspi based internet repeater. I have a lot of friends in a lot of places, and I travel a lot, I think it would be pretty cool to hook a handheld up to a raspi, as a "base" and then use that to connect to all other variety of repeaters. For a reflector I was thinking of just using Asterisk.

 

[ChiefStealth]

First time I've heard someone use the word Raspi. Could you give me a link to more info? I'm just starting to learn some digital info.

 

[kd7vdb]

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi - Teach, Learn, and Make with Raspberry Pi

Like a arduino but faster and runs a linux os

 

[AMProducts]

First time I've heard someone use the word Raspi. Could you give me a link to more info? I'm just starting to learn some digital info.

Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi - Teach, Learn, and Make with Raspberry Pi
Like a arduino but faster and runs a linux os

As KD7VDB posted... it's a SBC (Small Board Computer) it has it's own dedicated audio jack, video jack, and many versions have built-in wifi and a lot of other cool features, and most importantly, they're cheap and easy to code for.

The idea here would be to have an input from the radio's speaker into a mic port on the Raspi, that would detect the rise in audio level when the handheld is receiving. It would then packetize the audio sending it over H.323 or some other internet based audio protocol, maybe it hits a reflector (a central node that then sends the signal out to a bunch of other raspi units that then transmit the signal). So it just creates one big broadcast domain.

 

[ChiefStealth]

OK. Thanks for the info on Raspi. I'll look it up. I've done some research into Arduino. Nothing has grabbed my attention there, yet. A hundred bucks to make a couple of lights blink. More bucks to do something useful.

 

[AMProducts]

OK. Thanks for the info on Raspi. I'll look it up. I've done some research into Arduino. Nothing has grabbed my attention there, yet. A hundred bucks to make a couple of lights blink. More bucks to do something useful.

Arduino is great for very low level stuff... turning on lights, solenoids, pumps, motors, taking measurements etc. I use the Arduino a lot, and I'm starting to design my own arduino boards (not just the thing that plugs into them, the whole board). I have a controller that's based on the arduino that runs camdex and ammoload machines, my data collection instruments are interfaced to arduino. It's a fantastic system, but the way it's set up, a lot of people make the pin-13 LED blink and lose interest.

 

[ChiefStealth]

If you know of a Raspi project for digital comm on 2m, please point me there. I'd like to try some digital with the Pierce Co ARES folks. I don't have a regular computer to use. Maybe a Raspi could do the job?

 

[AMProducts]

If you know of a Raspi project for digital comm on 2m, please point me there. I'd like to try some digital with the Pierce Co ARES folks. I don't have a regular computer to use. Maybe a Raspi could do the job?

Here's the project that already offers some functionality:

SvxLink by sm0svx

This is really what I'm going for:

OpenRepeater Project (Official Site)