Ham Radio

Packet Radio is Making A Strong Comeback

Fellow hams, if you think packet radio is a relic of the 1980s and 90s BBS era, it’s time to tune in again. This resilient digital mode is experiencing a notable resurgence, driven by its proven reliability in off-grid scenarios, modern software tools, and renewed interest in resilient emergency communications.

For operators who remember connecting to distant nodes with clunky TNCs, everything is now done with software. All you need is a computer with a sound card, free modem / TNC software such as Direwolf, and you are good to go. I have several Packet stations running on Raspberry Pi’s. My WB8ERJ-1 packet BBS runs on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ and a USB sound card.

Why The Comeback?

Packet radio, built on the AX.25 protocol, breaks data into packets for efficient transmission over VHF/UHF (and sometimes HF). While the internet boom reduced its everyday use, recent events—natural disasters, infrastructure concerns, and a broader focus on grid-independent operations—have highlighted its value.

Modern implementations use sound card modems like DireWolf, and software such as BPQ32, making setup far easier and more powerful than the hardware-heavy days of old. Clubs and regional networks are reviving or expanding packet infrastructure, with active BBS systems and forwarding links.

Here is a map of some of the Packet BBS nodes in Ohio. For a complete list, OhioPacket.org has a list by county.

Packet Radio Is Making A Strong Comeback

Operators report renewed activity on traditional frequencies like 145.010 MHz for BBS traffic. High-profile emergencies have demonstrated packet’s role when cellular and internet services collapse. The WB8ERJ-1 BBS is on 145.030 mHz in the Mansfield Ohio area with a backhaul link on 223 mHz to KB8UVN-1 in Johnstown as well as to KD8FTR-1 in Ashland Ohio.

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My Daughter Hijacked Our ARRL 2024 Field Day!

Each year on the 4th weekend of June, thousands of Amateur Radio operators operate during a 24 hour period primarily to simulate some sort of emergency scenario. Field Day can take many different forms. From a club setting up in a field with generators, to home stations running on grid power. For us, Field Day is somewhere in between these two scenarios.

. Since my daughter, KC8GRS, has moved back into the area, we have been running Field Day from my house using emergency power for the past few years. We both look forward to it and have a great time. To some Field Day purists, operating from a home station is frowned upon. Since Field Day, and the primary purpose of amateur radio is to provide emergency communications in times when traditional methods aren’t working. I ask the question, what is the most likely scenario in a grid-down situation? Going out in the middle of a cow pasture and setting up your gear (yes I have done that on Field Day) or staying home.

To me, the more likely scenario is to stay home. A great example of this is two years ago there were two tornadoes that ripped through our area. Large portions of our area were without power. I was without power for 4 days yet I stayed home, cooked my meals, helped my neighbors, and yes, was able to provide communications via my off-grid amateur radio station.

When we do Field Day, we operate class 1E battery. By running 5 watts we get a multiplier of 5. Since Laura likes to run digital, and I like to run CW, both of these modes get 2 points per QSO. With the 5 multiplier, we get 10 points per QSO – I like it! To make up for the low power, my main antenna is a 430 foot horizontal loop up 50 feet. This antenna seems to make up the difference when we are running QRP on Field Day.

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How To Program Yaesu’s FT5DR With Chirp In Linux

For the first time in several years, I was able to go the the 2023 Dayton Hamvention. If you have ever been, it is perhaps the best hamfest there is. If you did go to the Hamvention, did you get your Yaesu hat? I did – as well as my daughter, KC8GRS, and her two kids. It was a great 3 day event with approximately 35,000 hams present. One of my goals was to purchase a Yaesu FT5DR radio.

Bought the FT5DR

So I wanted to pick up a digital radio that supported Yaesu’s System Fusion. After chatting to one of the guys at the Yaesu booth I went straight over to the Ham Radio Outlet booth and bought the Yaesu FT5DR handheld radio. I also bought the RT systems USB-68 cable, but not the software since I don’t really have a Windows computer, except for an old laptop that does dual boot into Windows 7, but I almost always boot into Ubuntu. Since most of my computers are now Linux based, so the software that they provide won’t work anyway. Instead I use the Chirp program for my radios.

CT68 cable not working

After I got home and started looking at my shiny new Yaesu FT5DR, I quickly found out, that Chirp can’t see the CT68 cable! So the first thing I did was open up a terminal window, and issued lsusb to see if Ubuntu can see the device. Sure enough, as you can see in the screenshot below, its there!

program yaesu ft5dr in ubuntu with chirp

But when I type ls /dev/ttyUSB* it doesn’t show as being available as shown below:

My first thought was that I had a defective CT68 cable. But then I remembered that I had my old linux laptop with Windows 7. I was able to put an old version of Chirp on it on the Windows 7 side, and sure enough I was able to program my FT5DR radio. But the old version wouldn’t let me program the radio for digital modes.

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How To Install Winter Field Day Logging Software For Raspberry Pi

With Winter Field Day approaching, having used K6GTE‘s excellent Field Day Logger on the Raspberry Pi, his Winter Field Day logging program, WFDlogger was the obvious choice for me. As with FieldDayLogger, WFDlogger works with Winkeyer. Which for me is a requirement for any contest logging software.

This year’s Winter Field Day will be my first attempt using WFDlogger and at first glance it looks to be a great fit for those of us using a Raspberry Pi for logging.

WFD logger features include:

Radio polling via flrig or rigctld
Cloudlog, QRZ, HamDB, HamQTH usage
N1MM packets for Node-Red Dashboard
XPlanet marker file
Super Check Partial
Section partial check
DUP checking
Support is provided for both cwdaemon and PyWinkeyer
CW Macros
Client / Server configuration for multi-transmitters
Chat Window
Cabrillo and ADIF file generation for Contest submission

Here is a screenshot of WFDlogger’s main screen:

Winter FIeld Day Logging software for the Raspberry Pi

As you can see, it has a similar look and feel to the infamous N3FJP Winter Field Day software but with a different color scheme. I prefer it to N3JFP’s default color scheme as its easier on the eyes. WFDlogger uses the same keystrokes as the N3JFP software. If you are familiar with N3FJP’s software, then the transition to WFDlogger will be easy for you.

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Can You POTA on 160 Meters? Lets Find Out!

Several months ago, someone on the Parks On The Air POTA Facebook page posed the question “Has anyone made a POTA activation on 160 Meters?” To be honest, I really haven’t given 160 Meters much thought, let alone for a POTA activation. So this got the wheels of thought churning in my head.

160 Meters is a unique band that covers the frequencies of 1800 – 2000 kHz. Its often referred to as the Top Band, not sure why, but it is. The biggest problem for me is the size of the antennas required. A classic Dipole antenna for 160 meters is approximately 246 feet. A full sized vertical is approximately 123 Feet. For most hams this is hardly practical – let alone for a POTA Activation.

Since my main POTA setup is with a 40 ft. Spiderbeam mast and a 35 foot wire hung from the top, I figured that would be my starting point. So obviously I would have to come up with some sort of shortened vertical antenna for 160 Meters. This made sense to me as I have had success building other shortened vertical antennas for my POTA activations.

My POTA station has an LDG Autotuner and all it needs is to have some sort of ground to work against, and a wire at least 1/4 wavelength long. What I do for POTA on 80 meters is have a coil that adds enough inductance to my 35 foot wire so that the autotuner “thinks” its tuning into a long enough wire. This works well for me, so I thought I would do the same for 160 Meters.

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A POTA activation of North Bass Island By KE8ONI and WB8ERJ

Sometime in March of 2022, my friend, Kevin, KE8ONI, posted on the POTA Facebook page asking if anyone was interested in putting together a POTA trip to North Bass Island in Lake Erie. I quickly jumped in and said YES! Kevin and I first met on Facebook’s Parks On The Air group. About a year prior to our North Bass Island adventure, we met up at Malabar Farm State Park, which is about 7 miles from my house. We hit it off right away – we both are just a couple of big kids that like to have fun.

About North Bass Island

North Bass Island is located in Lake Erie about 2 miles from the Canadian border, and about 18 miles from the Ohio mainland. It is of particular interest to us POTA activators because its a bit difficult to get to. Unlike the more popular islands in Lake Erie, is that the only way to get there is either by a chartered air service, private plane, or private boat. Because there is no regular air or ferry service, activating North Bass Island is more difficult than most other parks. Fortunately, Kevin’s brother-in-law and sister own a boat.

North Bass Island is mostly undeveloped and historically been used as a vineyard. There are roughly two dozen residents on the island. Most of the islands 688 acres is part of the North Bass Island State Park.

The Plan…

Since Kevin’s family was vacationing for a week in August, I reserved a campsite at East Harbor State Park for three nights. One of the reasons was because the weather on Lake Erie is unpredictable. We figured if we gave ourselves a three day window, we should be able to get our POTA activations in. This also allowed me to activate East Harbor State Park during those three days as well – not to mention some quality beach time with my daughter and her kids.

Additionally Kevin reached out to N8NI, who was going to be on Pelee Island operating POTA, which is only 7 miles from North Bass Island. We were able to work Nathan on 2 meters so we got the Park to Park!

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