For years, Kenwood has kind of dominated the APRS market with the D710 mobile and the D72A handheld and their predecessors. In fact, I have the D710 as my base VHF/UHF station and a D72A handheld. Both are excellent APRS-capable radios.

Recently, I started looking at replacing the equipment in my vehicle with one radio. One would think that since I already had the Kenwood D710 as a base station, that I would put that radio in my vehicle. That was one of the options I considered. However, I wanted to consider all options.

In investigating the options, I had certain requirements for the radio:

• Dual-band (VHF and UHF), dual receive
• Full APRS capability
• Cross Band Repeat capability
• Should be able to re-use (to the extent possible) my existing mounts for the control head and radio.
• GPS should either come with the radio or be a fairly inexpensive optional add-on.
• Minimize  the number of wires being run between the radio (mounted in the rear of the vehicle) and the control head (mounted on the dash).
• D-STAR (thus DPRS) was an option, if the additional cost was not excessive.

In looking at the above requirements, this narrowed the options down to three radios:

Alinco also makes an APRS-capable radio. But, I guess I have never been a real fan of Alinco products… sorry Alinco fans.

Narrowing the Field

Almost immediately, the ICOM was ruled out, because in order to get DPRS capability, one has to buy an additional $300 module to allow digital operations on the D-STAR network. The add-on does come with a GPS with a magnetized antenna. However, the antenna cannot be mounted outside the vehicle (not sure what ICOM was  thinking on this one). One additional benefit would be D-STAR communications, but I could not justify the additional cost, which would push the investment to around $1000.

Overall, both the Kenwood and the Yaesu have almost identical capabilities, with very few exceptions. For example, the Yaesu does not digipeat and the Kenwood does. Both radios do packet and both do cross band repeat. After looking at the specs in more detail, it appeared to me that the Kenwood is more suitable for both base and mobile operations, whereas the Yaesu is geared more to mobile application.

GPS Options

One of the things required in an APRS-capable mobile in a mobile operation is a GPS, in addition to the radio. Kenwood does not have a GPS option itself, but relies on third party manufacturers, such as Greenlight Labs, Byonics, or Garmin. Yaesu has two options of its own, one of which installs in the back of the control head. Both the Kenwood/Greenlight Labs and the Yaesu FGPS-1 options eliminate the need for additional cables being run within the vehicle. However, the cost differential between the Greenlight Labs GPS and the Yaesu FGPS-1 is significant. Greenlight Labs GPS is $130 and Yaesu FGPS-1 is $68.

Control Head Mounting

WIth my Yaesu FT-8900, I had a Lido LM-600 Lo-Boy dash mount. I highly recommend Lido Mount solutions at http://www.lidomounts.com. What I really wanted was to try and re-use this mounting solution if I possibly could. The Kenwood has a very unusual mounting bracket that attaches to the control head that virtually makes it useless with other mounting options. It’s not that it is not possible, but it would be very inflexible. The mounting adapter is meant for Kenwood mounting options only. Lido has very few options for the Kenwood, I think for this very reason. The Yaesu comes with a suction cup mount that attaches to the camera tripod style screw thread in the control head. Lido has made a very specific attachment piece for the Yaesu FTM-350 that works with its various mounting options that is a ball and socket affair.

Microphone Connections

I continue to be amazed at the number of radios that put the microphone connection on the radio itself and not the control head (or at least have it as an option at the control head). Both the Kenwood and the ICOM only have the microphone connection at the radio. The Yaesu has connections at both locations. If one has the radio in a location that is not near the control head, this is yet another cable that must be run within the vehicle.

GPS Connections

All three radios approached this differently.

ICOM is connected at the radio. However, you can’t mount the magnetized antenna outside. The trick with this is finding a metal surface within the vehicle with everything being plastic these days.

Both the Kenwood and the Yaesu have options that eliminate the need for additional cables, as noted above (attached or built-in to the control head).

Control Head Connections

All three radios use an RJ-45 cable for connecting the control head to the radio. So, this is a given in each radio option. Only the ICOM allows you to attach the control head to the radio.

The Choice

After carefully weighing all the requirements and capabilities, I chose the Yaesu FTM-350AR. While not particularly bearing on the choice, the Yaesu had some other capabilities the others did not. For example, the Yaesu has Bluetooth microphone options, more screen color choices, and a voice recording option (I believe the Kenwood also has the voice recording option).

In working with APRS on this radio, full APRS capability (popups, messaging, etc.) requires the dedication of one side of the radio to the APRS frequency. If one is doing tracking beaconing only, APRS can be placed in the background and both sides of the radio can be used for non-APRS use. The radio will momentarily interrupt to accomplish the beacon. If placing the radio in cross band repeat mode, one must first turn off the APRS modem/TNC via the menu system.

Conclusions

With very few exceptions, the Yaesu FTM-350AR is on par with the Kenwood TM-D710A in terms of functionality and, in come cases, has additional options the Kenwood does not, for true mobile operations. Yaesu has a better mounting attachment arrangement that is more standard, allowing other manufacturers to develop more flexible control head mounting options. Yaesu also has figured out that one needs to have flexible microphone connection options.

Overall, I have been very impressed with the capabilities of the Yaesu FTM-350AR. After more extended use, I may come back and give an update at a future date.

Gary Lewis – WG5L

The club’s new repeater is on the air at its new location in the Spring Hill area!

Many thanks to all who helped make this happen over the holidays, so we could have it operational for the new year!

Pictures from First Work Day – Removal of old antennas and installation of new antenna

Tom Wilbeck - N5KGN on Tower	Jim Rogers - N5VGQ, Rod Bartlett - N8QVR, & Dean Patterson - KE5AVH assembling antenna (picture taken by Jim Quinn - AJ1MQ)

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Pictures from Second Work Day – Grounding rods, pad and cabinet installation, and electrical prep

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Pictures from Third Work Day – Installation of repeater equipment and test

Jim Rogers - N5VGQ installing repeater components	Terry Johnson - KG5WO, Tim O'Sullivan - K1TGO, Dean Patterson - KE5AVH, Gary Lewis - WG5L, Rod Bartlett - N8QVR, taking a break (photo taken by Tom Wilbeck - N5KGN)

Our club net on Wednesday nights at 8:30PM are now being held on the repeater.

Join us on the net!

As of:  8/11/11 08:29

DAY            TIME         FREQ.        TONE    PLACE

Sunday        8:00 PM    146.67      186.2     Shreveport

Sunday        8:30 PM    145.230    151.4     Dangerfield

Monday       8:00 PM    147.000    110.9     Tyler  ( TARC )

Monday       7:00 PM     145.210     110.9    Tyler  (ETEC)

(Last Monday of each month)

Tuesday        7:00 PM    147.180    123.0    Carthage

Tuesday        8:00 PM    146.860    151.4    Marshall

Wednesday   8:30 PM    147.34       136.5    Longview  ( LETARC )

Thursday      8:00 PM     146.67       186.2    Shreveport  ( ARCOS )

Saturday      8:00 PM     28.36 USB               Tyler        10m Net

From the North Texas Section site:

On Thursday, September 29th, a North Texas Section ARES Leadership Webinar was held online for all DECs and ECs within the North Texas Section.  There were 57 attendees for the Webinar.

The Atlantic Division hosted the Webinar and has made DVD’s available, If interested go to http://www.atldiv.org/training.

The session included presentations by SEC Walt Mayfield (KE5SOO) and ASEC Gary Lewis (WG5L). Topics included North Texas ARES focus items, the new web site, monthly reporting, and the upcoming statewide SET in early November.

Links to the presentations are listed below:

NTX ARES Webinar 09-29-2011 Presentation

ARES Reporting Webinar 09-29-2011 Presentation

This morning’s ARISS contact went well. We didn’t get through all of the questions on the 2nd go-round, but at least every student got to ask at least one question. I told them our desire was to get through Round 1 of questions, and that Round 2 was the “bonus round”.

I started “NA1SS this is WE5PT calling…” about 3 minutes early (so I’m told, perhaps my computer clock was off – not sure), so there was a very tense 3 minutes (for me at least) where I was double checking everything to ensure all the connections were right and that I had everything on. (Sweating bullets?) Jennifer (wife) told me she was trying to get my attention that I was early, but I was too focused.

Once we heard Astronaut Mike Fossum, after a very brief hello exchange, we delved right into the students asking their questions due to time constraints. Mike said we were a little weak at first, but that was because he was about 1° or 2° off the horizon and signal strengths picked up from there.

I think the final questions asked count was about 20 questions give or take.

The school’s IT department had a video stream from NASA.gov from aboard the ISS, which was a great visual to accompany my ISS tracking map on the other screen.

Local TV news was on hand to help capture the video, and I can send the online video if that makes it to their website. Local school personnel were on hand to help record the event as well, more on that later too.

Giant hats off to the ARRL TI-2 program for the rotator equipment and software necessary for this.

A resounding thank you to Ken Ransom, Keith Pugh and Rosalie White (and unknown/unmentioned others) for helping see our ARISS request from application to reality. Thank you for your patience, diligence and commitment to this program.

I’d say this really did make my day, but it’s bigger than that and means more to the students. So thank you. (I even had one kid in the audience ask “Is this signal analog or digital? Are you using VHF or UHF?” – in 5th grade! Uncoached. Talk about a future ham!!!)

73,
Tommy Gober, N5DUX for WE5PT Pine Tree ISD

UPDATE: Audio

http://www.issfanclub.com/node/32441

With this feature, you can indicate if you want to be notified of any new posts/articles that appear on the web site.

It’s a nice way to keep up, without always having to visit the site to check for what’s new!

One potential impact besides communications is the possible impact of solar activity on utilities.  Many precautions and regulators are put in place to help prevent against these sorts of things, however, given the current heat wave we are in, even an isolated outage would be an issue.

Event:

• A trio of significant active regions produced a series of radio blackout (solar flare) events in the past few days.
• To date, three radio blackouts reaching the R2 (Moderate) level have been observed.  Earth-directed coronal mass ejections have been associated with each of the biggest radio blackout events on August 2nd, 3rd, and 4th.
• Solar radiation enhancements have also occurred in conjunction with each of these events, with the solar radiation storm event threshold being exceeded to reach the S1 (Minor) level in conjunction with the August 4th event.
• The radio blackout events, as observed by NOAA’s GOES satellite are shown in the image on the left below (real-time image also available at: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_5m.html).  The solar radiation storm, as observed by NOAA’s GOES satellite, is shown in the image on the right below (real-time image also available at: http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/pro_3d.html).
• Three coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are currently en route to Earth, with the commencement of geomagnetic storming expected early to mid-day on August 5^th with the arrival of the CMEs associated with the August 2^nd and 3^rd events.
• The third of the string, seemingly the fastest CME, may catch up with the first two in the next 12-18 hours, compressing the plasma and enhancing the embedded magnetic field. Storming levels are expected to attain G3 (Strong) conditions.  The current Solar Radiation Storm may experience a kick with the shocks, and attain S2 (Moderate) thresholds.
• Some level of geomagnetic disturbance is expected to continue through August 7^th as the series of CMEs affect the Earth.  Continued activity is likely from these regions as they continue to rotate off the visible solar disk over the next 7 days.  The Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) will continue to monitor this event as it unfolds.

Impacts:

• Significant impacts resulting in difficulty communicating with aircraft en route via HF communication have reported over both the Pacific and Atlantic sectors over the last 72 hours.
• Polar HF communications, critical to commercial airline operations, have been impacted, but as yet conditions are not of a magnitude to cause significant changes to normal operations there. Carriers are closely watching the current activity, to act promptly if conditions intensify.

Space Weather Prediction Center products Issued:

• Multiple Radio Blackout Alerts issued in conjunction with each significant solar flare.
• Geomagnetic Storm Watch for August 5^th issued at 12:48 am EDT on August 3
• Solar Radiation Storm Warning issued at 1:03 am EDT on August 4
• Solar Radiation Storm Alert issued at 2:56 am EDT on August 4
• Energetic Solar Radiation Storm Warning issued at 12:59 am EDT on August 4
• Energetic Solar Radiation Storm Alert issued at 1:30 am EDT on August 4

External SWPC Coordination:

• Nominal customer notifications occurred upon product issuance.
• Coordination has been held with FEMA to promote situational awareness.
• Up to date information on current conditions is available at the following URL:

http://www.spaceweather.gov/

The information in this report was provided by the National Weather Service Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado and Keith Stellman, NWS Shreveport.