2024-07-30 Net Minutes

Check-ins (26)

David Bailey (K5DKB)

Special interest groups
- We need a way for club members to communicate more effectively with each other
- The club needs to have resources available to support this…
- Thanks to the efforts of KF5WGJ and KG5LYE, we have made some progress!

Paul Bilke (KF5WGJ)

excused

Matthew Barry (KG5LYE)

W5BCS has a Discourse forum!
- Still testing and getting it set up.
- Hope to send out an email with details about creating accounts, etc.
- Let us know if you’d like to be an “early adopter”
Minutes will be sent out after the net.
Working on setting up another Meshtastic repeater node at my place

Lorna Flansburg (KI5FIZ)

Question #187 for conversation: How do you back up your amateur radio data?

(If interested in submitting a weekly question, email n5zkf@arrl.net)

Discourse is easy to get confused with Discord
All of my records are digital and get backed up to my NAS
- has the benefit of being hosted off-site
- ZFS RAID across multiple disks
- self-replicating to a mirror array

Also use N3FJP, and you can tell it where you want to store a backup copy
- Every time you close the program, it backs up to wherever it is configured
- Good to store on an external drive
Paper log is also a great physical backup in case something should happen to the digital stuff

I almost exclusively use online logs
- QRZ has a log capability
- I sync my contacts between there and Logbook of the World

I want to be able to restore the complete computer in addition to the data
Large external HDD and nightly task
- Mounts drive
  - it’s usually not mounted to protect the data on it from ransomware
- kicks off a complete image backup
- Unmounts drive
Experimenting with using a NAS device
N3FJP and Logbook of the World
Paper, QSL cards, etc. all vulnerable to fire

Lots of talk about NAS devices! If you want to try it out for yourself,
- Synology has a good selection of easy-to-use NAS devices from small desktop units to large rack-mounted units
- WD My Cloud - be careful: it’s not as easy to replace drives
Mine is a custom build running Linux
N5ZKF: Other options…
- QNAP is another manufacturer
- N5ZKF: Free, open-source platform called TrueNAS

I’ve been hearing a lot more “kerchunking” on the KD5DLW repeater
It’s a known problem:
- has been going on for weeks, maybe a month or more
- there was some discussion at the last meeting
Is there any more information or progress?
W5DZ:
- If you hear it happening, and your radio supports it, push the “reverse” button on your radio
  - this makes the radio listen on the same input frequency as the repeater
- If you can hear the source locally, it may be near you.
- Keep a note of the timing (how long between kerchunks, how long it’s held open, etc.)
- Report any findings to the repeater owner (Charlie Culver, KD5DLW)

Lots of openings and activity on 10 m and 20 m bands
I got a Kenwood TS-950SD!
- Does anyone have experience setting this radio up for CW?
- Want to use an auto-keyer and decoder with sound card
WD5ABC:
- Great radio!
- Full break-in vs VOX: recommend VOX with a short delay
- Sound card shouldn’t be picky
- fldigi can decode and auto-encode to audio
KD5GG
- HRD has the ability to encode and decode as well