April 2023 ERIN SOI

[JohnyMac]

Here is the SOI for this coming Tuesday's net. The December primary phone net frequency will now be 3.964 Mhz LSB up or down the band a few clicks till we find clear air.

The next ERIN net will be Tuesday April 18, 2023, starting at 1900 hrs. eastern with the digital ERIN net. The PACE for that net is as follows,

1) At 1900E hrs. digital net (NCS is usually on frequency at 1850E hrs) will commence.

Primary         3.588 Mhz USB Contestia 4/250 1000 on the Waterfall
Alternate       7.110 Mhz USB Contestia 4/250 1000 on the Waterfall
Contingency  This email thread
Emergency    Text. Do I have your cell phone number?

When the Net Control Station (NCS) calls for check-in's this is the reporting format,

de your call, your call/name/location/emergency traffic/ de your call

Once the NCS has gathered check-in's he/she will post the check-in's for corrections or additional check-in's.

The NCS will ask for a Volun-TOLD to act as back up. They will be the ANCS station.

The NCS will then start the reports portion of the digital net. Report format will be,

de your call/name/location/traffic if any/your report for around your AO, Covid, unrest, military movement, weather, petrol & diesel prices and availability, etc/de your call

Suggestion...Pre type out your report then copy & paste it to your FLdigi when it is your time to give your report. I am also going to encourage sending a SITREP report using AmRRoN's reporting format. More to come on this.

2) At 2000 hrs (I am typically on frequency at 1950E hrs) will commense.
Primary         3.909 Mhz LSB or higher till clear air
Alternate       7.237 Mhz LSB or higher till clean air
Contingency  This email thread
Emergency    Text. Do I have your cell phone number?

The above SOI will be used at first, if the interwiz is taken down through Executive Order -- Assignment of National Security and Emergency Preparedness Communications Functions. Then we will develop and share a revised SOI.

73 & God Bless,
Johnymac

[JohnyMac]

on 3.963

[Jackalope]

I had a poor copy on the NCS, only 20% intelligibility.  I could hear PK, but couldn't understand anything he was saying.  It might have been better on 40 meters, it's getting to be that time of year.

[JohnyMac]

LOOKS LIKE 3.964 IS CLEAR, WELL FOR AT LEAST THE NEXT 10-MINUTES lol

[JohnyMac]

On 3.964 Mhz for the Tuesday phone ERIN net at 2000E hrs. pls stand by.

[JohnyMac]

Good night as always folks.

A little light on digital and phone check-ins. I understand as the nice weather rolls in one minute you look at the clock and you say, "I have 15 minutes before either net". Then you get sidetracked with life. It is A-Okay.

With that written, we had four for digital and three for phone. Certainly down from our 12/10 digital/voice since this past winter months. Oh well.

ERIN is here.

73 & God Bless
Johnymac

[JohnyMac]

I AM ON 3.909. CLEAN AIR

[pkveazey]

It was a good net tonight. Ray's radio sound killer on phone. I usually can hear him but tonight he was BIG and CLEAN.

[JohnyMac]

We had a whoppen three check ins on digital, PA, NJ, VA and seven check ins on phone.

Sir John, your new radio sound GREAT!

Next week for phone we will use 3.909 Mhz again, I liked it.

When the May SOI comes out you will see that the primary for voice will be in the 40 meter band.

73 & God Bless

[Sir John Honeybucket]

I thank you fellows for helping me to optimise the audio on my new radio ,a Yaesu FT-710..  I RARELY use voice, so having your collective ears on the other end of the link, then your feedback was very helpful.   Good signals and less noise tonight (once I turned OFF my 'pure sine wave inverter.'  It looked like a massive OTHR signal on steroids).  I generally use it only for 110vac battery chargers, or emergency lighting, but left it on accidentally today.

73 de Sir John Honeybucket.

[JohnyMac]

Phone on 3.909 or a click or two higher tonight

[Sir John Honeybucket]

I plan to test my truSDX qrp rig for both digital ( using Android phone app) and voice.  My 100 Watt rig will be ready if this fails. 

[pkveazey]

I'm fired up for digital but sigs are weak. I turned on the preamp as far as it will go. I'm copying but its just readable.

[pkveazey]

OK, I'm all tuned up on 3.909 LSB. See Y'all at 8 pm.

[patriotman]

Tuned up as well

[Sir John Honeybucket]

Tonight, I was testing my tiny last ditch digital set-up:
1. TRuSDX QRP rig (CW and SSB) roughly 3 Watts on the old bateries.
2. My Android phone running the ANDmsg app that has a stripped down FLdigi suite of modes and msg formatting tools.

This is about as light and low power draw as I can presently devise.  I could literally put it into my pockets and walk to a sked site.

for voice, I checked-in using the same tiny radio and very low power level, and Johnymac pulled me right out of the thunderstorm QRN, and we made a few exchanges, Then - because I am MERCIFUL- I switched back to the big rig at 100 Watts to continue the net. 

A successful test. and my FIRST try at using the FLmsg standard forms ( I used a 213) to semd Johnymac and the crew the reports.  Usually I just pretype them into the laptop in a specific macro.  , but I'll probably use the forms in future - because, much like my ex-wife, it's slower, less efficient and occasionally painful BUT it looks pretty.

Thanks for listening til your ears bled.

73 de Sir John Honeybucket

[JohnyMac]

 

[pkveazey]

Well, Ray.... I don't want to swell your head to the point that it explodes, but I could actually copy your 3 watts on both Digital and Phone by Ground Wave. As best I can figure, you are about 70 miles East North East of me. Being that close, I can't imagine that there was any Sky Wave Propagation. Ok, Ok, Ok, it was piss weak, but I copied you just fine.

[Sir John Honeybucket]

Thanks for the signal report, PK !

Yes, a weak readable signal definitely beats walking with a note,but just barely. hahah  ROFL      Intelligible (barely) voice at those minuscule power levels still surprises me.  CW is so efficient, I'm used to using Morse when QRP, but not voice.  Data modes are often on par with a good Morse Op and some modes are technically able to operate lower into the noise. 

The usefulness of having an FLdigi app on the Android phone to work with this tiny and inexpensive QRP transceiver , is that it's able to keep me connected with the various prepper teams, using pocket portable equipment. A redundant radio in my get-home-bag is not a problem when it's just over $100, but I'd not do that if it were over $1,000!  I've never actually strung an 80 meter dipole entirely within the confines of my pocket, but that would be interesting to try.  I'd likely require a LOT MORE SCOTCH for that to work.

Thanks!

- Sir John Honeybucket

[pkveazey]

By the way.... I was using an 80 meter vertical "Hamstick" that cost me about $20 and it was mounted about 7 feet off the side of my tower at about 30 feet up.

[JohnyMac]

By the way PKv, is that ham stick mounted horizontally or vertically?

[pkveazey]

Its mounted vertically on a metal arm that's about 7 feet long. Its the one in the back of the tower.

[Nemo]

Hey, I've seen that house.  That shed looks mighty familiar.

Nemo

[JohnyMac]

Thanks sir!