Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet the 5 s

Transcription

1 Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet the 5 s Subject: Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet Date: Sun, 10 Nov :10: To: ppares@mailman.qth.net Pikes Peak ARES has a challenge.... The Problem: Over the last two years that PPARES has been supporting Wildfire fighting activations, we have noticed that we are vulnerable to becoming significantly handicapped delivering our emergency communication services to our served agencies if the Internet and telephone systems shut down as a result of a catastrophe. The Sunday Gazette just happened to have an article outlining such a potential catastrophe this past weekend. Why, because if that happens we have only voice VHF/UHF comm to disseminate Incident Briefing (ICS-201), Resources Assignment List (for the next couple of days) (ICS 204) and/or Communications Plan (ICS 205) to a large number (like 50 to 100) participating members scattered over El Paso, Teller, and surrounding counties. It would a long time and considerable stubby pencil copying to disseminate that information. The internet and associated previously served us well because they were there. We have no current back up to the internet other than voice communications and are particularly vulnerable during the first 48 hours of our activation when critical information needs to be moved quickly. If a technique were found feasible and adopted, it would be strictly an emergency backup district-wide solution to mitigate the loss of the internet, not a primary means of digital communications. If adopted, we would most probably practice the technique each Spring before Wildfire season. Searching for a Solution through Experimentation: We believe there is a potential solution that could be implemented by most of our members with equipment they already have. Experimenting with this digital solution would enable PPARES to assess its potential, but we need a large number of member's help. The FLDigi (Fast Light Digital) communication suite is an amateur radio sound card modem program which provides keyboard to keyboard communications using your computer sound card. Using the appropriate digital mode, a computer via its sound card can be acoustically linked (no hardware interface needed) to VHF or UHF HT, mobile, or base radio to receive (and send, if necessary) digital communications with strong error checking. In tactical activation use, it would use a VHF or UHF repeater, specifically authorized for PPARES use, to provide the wide area coverage needed. The First Experiment: This should be fun for everyone who participates. Over the period for now through mid-january, Pikes Peak ARES will experiment with a potential district-wide backup digital radio net to transmit emergency ARES traffic such as Resources Assignment Lists, Communication Plans, etc. to its members. To adequately evaluate this potential solution we would like a every PPARES member to participate. Under the direction of the PPARES AEC for Digital Operations K0TER (Mike), KC0ET (Bill) will be the lead for the experiment assisted by K0FYI (Bob). If this experiment falls short, we will search for another solution. All that is required for a member to participate in the experiment is a laptop or computer with a sound 1 of 9 pages

2 card, a VHF band transceiver (that can receive repeater full quieting(best)), and two of the free down-loadable FLDigi software suite applications FLDigi (the core program version using mode MT L) and FLAmp (Fast Light Amateur Multicast Protocol) version And, the acoustic interface; (or, if you already have one, but not required, a separate hardware interface such as SignaLink USB or Rigblaster). That is it! PPARES has PPFMA permission to conduct this digital experiment on their repeater during their Tuesday evening PPARES nets when PPARES is controlling the repeater through January No other times have been authorized. More to follow shortly. We want to do this in enjoyable, eatable bites. Do hope that you will join with us. Many Thanks. And a special thanks to Mike K0TER and Bob K0FYI, and the PPARES Staff for supporting this experiment. Bill KC0ET Bob K0FYI Mike K0TER AEC for Digital Ops Subject: 2nd of 4 - Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet Date: Mon, 11 Nov :54: To: PPARES@mailman.qth.net A Quick Review -- Please be patient, trying to provide the information in bit-size chunks The First Experiment: This should be fun for everyone who participates. Over the period for now through mid-january, Pikes Peak ARES will experiment with a potential district-wide backup digital radio net to transmit emergency ARES traffic such as Resources Assignment Lists, Communication Plans, etc. to its members. To adequately evaluate this potential solution we would like every PPARES member to participate. Under the direction of the PPARES AEC for Digital Operations K0TER (Mike), KC0ET (Bill) will be the lead for the experiment assisted by K0FYI (Bob). If this experiment falls short, we will search for another solution. All that is required for a member to participate in the experiment is a laptop or computer with a sound card, a VHF band transceiver (that can receive repeater full quieting(best)), and two of the /free/down-loadable FLDigi software suite applications -- FLDigi (the core program version using mode MT L) and FLAmp (Fast Light Amateur Multicast Protocol) version And, the acoustic interface (no hardware interface needed). That is it! Give it a try even if you already have a separate hardware interface such as SignaLink USB or Rigblaster. The selection of the FLDigi applications for this experiment was limited to support receiving a message without having a hardware interface between the radio and a computer, trying to insure max success with a minimum of practice. There is much, much more that can be done, but that is outside the scope of this experiment. The Schedule: The first three weeks (12, 19, & 26 November) -- we have to allow for Thanksgiving, beginning with next Tuesday's PPARES Weekly VHF Net will be reading / learning, 2 of 9 pages

3 downloading/loading the software, operating instructions and discussing. Beginning on December (3rd, 10th and 17th), a test message will be sent twice during the last five minutes of the Tuesday night PPARES Net. Members who successfully receive the message are asked to Bill, Bob & Mike -- so we know that they are successful. Members who had difficulty are asked to Bill, Bob & Mike; AND, to carefully go over their configuration one more time to try again on 10 December. Beginning after the experiment session on 10 December Bill, Bob, and Mike will begin working oneon-one to assist those who are continuing to work with their configuration. Those who have had early success may be asked to assist others. The nights of 24 and 31 December there will be no experimenting. The last two sessions will be on 7 and 14 January. Once you have twice successfully received the communication, we ask that you send the team (Bill, Bob, and Mike) your critique, and insights. PPARES has PPFMA permission to conduct this digital experiment on the repeater during their Tuesday evening PPARES nets when PPARES is controlling the repeater through January No other times have been authorized. One-on-One Experimenting: The Team would encourage everyone participating to pair off with a fellow member and experiment using just FLDigi -- point to point -- on the VHF FM simplex digital frequencies or to practice the "art" of acoustic coupling. Use PPARES Simplex voice Frequencies or MHz to discuss and coordinate exchanges. PLEASE DO NOT INDIVIDUALLY EXPERIMENT ON ANY REPEATER -- we do not have permission. It is really fascinating to both send and receive using acoustic coupling -- it does work well with some practice -- Bill KC0ET and Bob K0FYI have done this together. Background and General Information: Remember, we are keeping this simple -- we are focused on VHF FM and receiving a FLAmp message using FLDigi mode MT L. You can certainly dig down as deeply as you like. FLDigi is a powerful digital application suite. You need only a small subset of the FLDigi XXX Suite to participate in this experiment. The third on Tuesday evening will provide the necessary software download and configuration information. The fourth on Wednesday evening will provide the operating information needed to participate. Many Thanks KC0ET (Bill) wmheckerjr@yahoo.com <mailto:wmheckerjr@yahoo.com> 3 of 9 pages

4 K0FYI (Bob) K0TER (Mike) AEC for Digital Ops Subject: 3rd of 4 - Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet Date: Tue, 12 Nov :27: To: PPARES@mailman.qth.net Configuring your Equipment and Software Here is some advice on configuring your sound card for a few of the operating systems: For Windows 7 (what KC0ET has): click the START button // click on CONTROL PANEL // click on SOUND // click on RECORDING tab // highlight MICROPHONE // click on PROPERTIES at bottom // click on LEVELS tab // set the MICROPHONE SLIDER to about 75 // CHECK that the little button to its right DOES NOT have a little red circle with a slash through it // set MICROPHONE BOOST slider to zero or +12DB // click OK once // click on the PLAYBACK tab // highlight SPEAKERS // click on PROPERTIES at bottom // click on LEVELS tab // set the AUDIO OUTPUT SLIDER to about 75 // CHECK that the little button to its right DOES NOT have a little red circle with a slash through it // click OK twice to close dialog boxes and you are done. For Windows XP (What K0FYI has): click the START button // click on CONTROL PANEL // click on the SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES icon // click, in turn, on the AUDIO and then the VOICE tabs, setting all default devices to your internal computer sound card // click one of the VOLUME buttons, bringing up the MASTER VOLUME window // insure all MUTE boxes are UNCHECKED // insure all VOLUME sliders are all the way up EXCEPT the MICROPHONE volume, which should be set about ¾ of the way up // insure all BALANCE sliders are at the halfway point // close the MASTER VOLUME window // click the OK button in the SOUNDS AND AUDIO DEVICES PROPERTIES window // and you are done. For Linux (What K0TER has): If you are using Linux, you are one smart operator and probably do not need much help here. Mike, K0TER is a great source of knowledge. Here is the FLDigi software needed to participate: Download FLDigi for your operating system and the Fldigi-Help (pdf file) Download FLAmp and the Flamp-Help - adobe reader {page 5 has the receive procedures} Install both applications on your computer / laptop Configure FLDigi: FIRST: Open FLDigi by clicking on the shortcut on your desktop // click Help // click Beginners Guide - it is already on your HD and will open in the browser // Read SECTION 1.0 Questions Answered // Skip SECTION 2.0 Setting Up Instead use the instructions below // Read SECTION 3.0 FYI, section 3.4 LOG Data is neat but we will not be using for this experiment // Read SECTION 4.0 Operating and Section 5.0 Special Keys // 4 of 9 pages

5 SECOND: Configure FLDigi Special PPARES Instructions for this experiment: If it is not open already, Open FLDigi by clicking on the shortcut on your desktop // click on CONFIGURE // click on OPERATOR tab // new dialog box now open // is station info correct? if not, correct it // click SAVE at bottom // click on MODEMS tab to the right // click on MT-63 tab // check top four (4) boxes, but do not check allow manual tuning // click SAVE at bottom // click on ID Tab // check TRANSMIT CALLSIGN box and move slider to 30 words per minute position // click SAVE at bottom // click the MISC tab // click the CPU tab // IF your computer CPU is slower than 700 MHz, click the box, otherwise leave blank// click SAVE at bottom // click the Sweet Spot Tab // check the box always start new modems at these frequencies // the PSK et al frequency should say 1500 if not click in the box and holding the left mouse button down, move the mouse left or right to adjust it to 1500 // DO NOT click box CW is LSB // click SAVE at bottom // click CLOSE button at bottom // THIRD: In lower right hand corner of the FLDigi screen, click the SQL squelch button to turn it on // if it shows green move the slider that is to the right of it just a little way up so that the button shows yellow and no garbage (no random text) is being displayed in the receive pane above // click File at top left // click Text Capture // check the box Log all RX/TX Text // click OpMode at the top left // click on MT- 63 then MT L //. You are done! FLAmp requires no configuration set up! The fourth Wednesday evening will provide operating information. This is going to be fun. Many Thanks KC0ET (Bill) wmheckerjr@yahoo.com K0FYI (Bob) buffrents@aol.com K0TER (Mike) AEC for Digital Ops stansberrymj@gmail.com Subject: 4th of 4 - Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet Date: Wed, 13 Nov :33: To: PPARES@mailman.qth.net Here is the 4th of 4. The guidance in these 4 s is based on the best knowledge we have to date. As we experiment together I am sure we will learn of better / smarter ways to use these tools to address "Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet." We will do our best to keep updating these "instructions" as we, the team, get smarter at this. Many Thanks to everyone for participating. Operating Review instructions in Sections 4 & 5 of the FLDigi Beginners Guide 5 of 9 pages

6 OPERATING during the Tuesday night PPARES Net: 100% perfect copy is not expected on the first session or even the 2nd session. Remember that successfully acoustically coupling your radio to your computer sound-card is "ART", not a hardwired solution. We will work with everyone and we all will get there. Be patient and plug away. {Because the acoustical interface might sound a bit loud to others in the house, you might want to close the door to the shack while we are experimenting.} Turn on your FM HT / mobile / base radio // set operating frequency ( (-) 100Hz) for the Tuesday Net Experiment // before receiving a MT L mode message, turn the volume up to near max// Open FLDigi by clicking on the shortcut on your desktop // in the upper left part of dialog box, set the transceiver frequency to by pointing the mouse at each digit and clicking the left (+) or right (-) mouse buttons // Check to see that the drop down box below is set to FM // check that MT63-2KL in indicated in the lower left hand box at the bottom // hit CTRL R to make sure that FLDigi is in the receive mode// FLDigi is ready to go! Open FLAmp by clicking the shortcut on your desktop // click on the "RECEIVE" tab // FLAmp is ready to go! FLAmp receive operation is hands off - refer to page 5+ of the FLAmp User Guide for Receive Procedure. Receiving: On your radio // as a starting point, just before the transmission starts, hold the HT about 4" to 10" in front of the computer microphone or position your mobile's speaker near it // shortly after the transmission starts you should see the text of the message start to display in FLDigi receive pane // Try closer (4") if need be or try further (10") - experiment. You are searching for your equipment's and software's sweet spot. If the text is not displaying in the FLDigi receive pane, try moving your radio closer to the computer mike // additionally recall that there four variables at work here - the computer sound card mike gain, the radio volume, the distance from the radio speaker to the computer sound card mike, and the FLDigi Squelch setting. The "ART" is finding the settings and sweet spot that enable this to work. It may take some experimenting. You can make it work and we will help you. As you are receiving the message and it is displaying in the FLDigi receive pane, over in FLAmp, you should see the BLOCKS bar filling up with colored spaces and some white spaces for the missing blocks, those that had an error. After the message has been completed, even if there are missing blocks that you cannot fill in, you can still right click over in the FLDigi receive pane, do a SAVE AS. You will end up with a file of what was sent that you can read, even though there are a few missing / scrambled blocks as well as some of the overhead data. In a true emergency, especially where reception may be difficult, this is your /fail-safe solution/. In the FLAmp dialog box, make a note of the missing blocks. If the message was received 100% click the SAVE box, give the file a name and date time - you have your message. If the message has missing blocks, DO NOT click SAVE, DO NOT click REMOVE. Wait for the 2nd transmission of the message to see if the blocks with errors are received correctly -- white spaces will fill in as each of 6 of 9 pages

7 those blocks is received correctly. Remember that FLAmp must have 100% good copy before FLAmp will save the file (you can then click on SAVE and give the file a name and date time). If you are still not at 100% that is OK, remember the "fail-safe solution" above, right click in the FLDigi receive pane, do a SAVE AS and give the file a name and date time. You have your file, it is just not perfect. We are not going to concern ourselves with reporting missing blocks for the first couple of weeks in December. We will be sending the full message twice at each session. Reporting and resending missing blocks will be part of the later sessions. Operators who successfully receive the message (and there may be missing blocks -- need more work on sweet spot) are asked to Bill, Bob & Mike -- so we know that you were successful. Operators who had difficulty on 3 December (the first night) are asked to Bill, Bob & Mike to describe what is happening; AND, to carefully go over their configuration one more time, and work on finding their sweet spot in the interim to try again on 10 December. Be patient and keep working at it. Try experimenting one-on one with another operator (see below). Beginning after the experiment session on 10 December Bill, Bob, and Mike will begin working oneon-one to assist those who are continuing to work with their configuration. As operators become successful, they may be asked to assist others one-on-one. EXPERIMENTING ONE-ON-ONE -- Encouraged to assist in the "art" of finding the acoustical coupling sweet spot: Sending messages between individual operators via VHF FM Simplex -- this is fun! Turn on your FM HT / mobile / base radio // set voice operating frequency ( or MHz) in memory // set output power sufficient to establish voice contact on simplex // set digital operating simplex frequency ( or ) in memory // turn the radio volume up to near max, before receiving a MT L mode message. Switch between voice and digital memories or use two radios during experimentation. Open FLDigi by clicking on the shortcut on your desktop // in the upper left part of dialog box, set the transceiver frequency to or by pointing the mouse at each digit and clicking the left (+) or right (-) mouse buttons // Check to see that the drop down box below is set to FM // check that MT63-2KL in indicated in the lower left hand box at the bottom // hit CTRL R to make sure that FLDigi is in the receive mode// FLDigi is ready to go! Transmitting: A suggestion: Type a few chatty QSO sentences / lines into MS Word Pad or Note Pad. At the end which may look like "btu de MYCALL," type a space and then ^r {the equivalent of CTRL R} to return the program automatically to the receive mode. Copy those lines into the light blue transmit pane. The sweet spot for transmitting may or may not be a bit different from that for receiving. When you are ready to send, key your mike positioned 4" to 10" from the speakers and hit CTRL T to start the transmission. As the characters are transmitted they will appear in the receive pane. After hearing the CW ID release the radio mike key. Try this a few times without keying the radio mike to see how it works. Receiving: Make sure that FLDigi is in the receive mode, "CTRL R." On your radio // as a starting point, just before the transmission starts, hold the HT about 4" to 10" in front of the computer microphone// shortly after the transmission starts you should see the text of the message start to display in the FLDigi receive pane // Try closer if need be or try further - experiment. You are searching for 7 of 9 pages

8 your equipment's and software's sweet spot. If the text is not displaying in the FLDigi receive pane, and you are moving your radio around, recall that there four variables at work here - the computer sound card mike gain, the radio volume, the distance from the radio speaker to the computer sound card mike, and the FLDigi Squelch setting. The "art" is finding the settings and sweet spot that enable this to work. It may take some experimenting. You can make it work and we will help you. Be patient and keep working at it. Again, try experimenting one-on one with another member. You are ready to go! Do believe that you will enjoy this. Thanks for joining us. Good Luck. Many Thanks KC0ET (Bill) _wmheckerjr@yahoo.com <mailto:wmheckerjr@yahoo.com>_ K0FYI (Bob) buffrents@aol.com <mailto:buffrents@aol.com> K0TER (Mike) AEC for Digital Ops stansberrymj@gmail.com <mailto:stansberrymj@gmail.com> Subject: 5th of 4 - Keeping PPARES Information Flowing if we lose the Internet Date: Thu, 14 Nov :50: To: PPARES@mailman.qth.net "Something extra" as you might expect, thought that would catch you eye :) - some thoughts you might wish to consider. There are many interesting and exciting things to try surrounding this experiment. Working to become more comfortable with receiving digital messages using FLDigi, mode MT L, and acoustical coupling before we introduce receiving an FLAmp Multicast message on 3 December has some benefit for all of us. For One-on One Experimenting, I would like to suggest that folks consider meeting informally, come if you would like to or are able to, from 7pm til 8pm nightly, except Tuesday, to assist One-on-One FLDigi Experimentation. Most of us cannot meet every night, but might be able to meet one or more times a week. The group would meet on MHz simplex FM voice facilitating FLDigi digital comm on MHz simplex FM, also it would be a gathering place where folks could go to see who they are able to make contact on simplex, also it would be a place to discuss / share different lessons learned or to get an Elmer assist from others working to make the acoustical interface work with their radio and computer. While there would be no formal net control, one of those attending could act as one if need be. If that simplex frequency pair became crowded, others could drop down to MHz simplex FM 8 of 9 pages

9 voice and use the MHz simplex FM for FLDigi digital comm. What a great way to experiment and see how others are doing. Something you might wish to consider. The time is not set, it could be later too. Mike K0TER pointed out a way to initially test your sound-card mike gain setting without having to receive a digital signal transmission. He suggested that you turn up the volume on your radio to the receive level you would set to receive a signal and then turn off the radio squelch. You would note that the FLDigi Waterfall pane, which is black with some blue when nothing is being received, will turn yellow. As you move the radio around the intensity of the yellow will change indicating how well the computer mike is receiving the signal, helping you adjust the sound-card mike gain. Mike K0TER also reminded me that there is latency between the time that the FLDigi MT L signal is actually being received and processed by the sound-card and the actual display of the text in the Receive Pane. Be a bit patient when adjusting the position of your radio WRT the computer mike. Another hint is that you can also change the left 6 digits of the Xcvr Freq in the black box in the upper left hand corner of FLDigi by floating you mouse over any part of the box and typing (it will overwrite what is there) the 6 digit frequency such as and the hit RETURN to complete the entry. Slick. And last but not least, if your received signal strength is weak, which may be the case on simplex to some outlying QTHs, it may help to turn off the FLDigi Squelch by either clicking the SQL button in the lower right hand corner or moving the slider (to the right of the button) all of the way down to the bottom. In a weak signal environment, there will be random noise on your screen, but when the MT L signal is being received, although weak, it would override the noise. Might be worth a try. Mike K0TER uses this technique in the weak signal environ on Army MARS with MT63. I will be out of town beginning this weekend until 21 November, so I will be back catching up with all of your exciting accomplishments on the 22nd. Bob K0FYI, and Mike K0TER are both here and glad to help or answer questions. Looking forward to seeing you all experimenting with the FLDigi, mode MT L, and acoustical coupling as well as our potential FLAmp Multicast tool. I will try to catch the 7pm til 8pm window tonight. Many Thanks. Bill KC0ET 9 of 9 pages