Mt. Whitney Lottery 2018

Mt. Whitney Trail ~ June 2016

   Mt. Whitney Lottery is now open through March 15, 2018.   It stated on February 1 and I just filed my application today.  Whoever plans to hike there this year, it is better to try to file the application before March 15, especially people who wants to hike during weekends.  It is usually hard to get it after the lottery.   To maximize the chance, it is better to do.

   Last year, there were many personal activities in summer time and I could not make it.   This year, there are a couple things I would try to find out:

1. Try to capture my heart rate during sleeping in high elevation.  This was originally planed last year, however I could not be there last year.  Therefore, I really wants to see what my heart rate looks like during sleeping in higher elevation with my Garmin fenix 3 HR.
2. Try to find out Amateur radio repeater availability on the trail.  Since I got amateur radio license and I am looking for how much useful amateur radio during such hiking.   Since the mobile network is not available most of the trail.   So, I want to see how much repeater access and APRS service available in this area.

  I hope I can get a permit one of weekends I put in my application!

Brewing Japanese-Sake Winter 2017/2018 ~ Filtered!

Sake after filtered

   The last a couple posts were related "Amateur Radio" related topics, however, I update a project to brew Japanese-Sake this winter.
   The brewing started around Christmas last year.  It's been 9 weeks.  It is not much rain this winter in northern California and it has been cold days.  I guess that is probably why the fermentation took longer this winter.   Finally, it was getting ready to be filtered.

   This is also "Ginjo" quality and it tastes really good.  I just need to bottle it a couple days after.  The taste is getting much better.  I think the key is Ginjo level milled rice and raw Koji (rice malt).  The recipe this winter is basically good!  It is probably all right to use rice cooker instead of steaming.

   This is probably the last one this winter and I will probably adjust the amount try not to overflow next winter.  Also, it is probably all right to use 5 gallon tank instead of 2 gallon tank next year since the taste can be under control now.  Other than the material, closed tank and fermentation in lower temperature is probably another tips for a good sake!

APRS for hiking and back country skiing

Tracking locations with APRS 

   The other thing I am interested in using amateur radio is APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System), especially GPS information.   There are many similar system using the mobile network.   However, there is still a lot of area in mountain where any network is not covered.   Using amateur radio to sending out the location information and tracked by somebody else.  I think it helps rescue in case something happens during hiking and back country skiing.

   Since I sometimes went hiking / skiing alone and avalanche beacon might not be very useful if anybody does not see the accident.   However, this APRS GPS information might help to find out a rough location where the accident is.  It might be too late to rescue a person...... 

   Based on my research recently, there are a couple amateur radio hand held transceivers which can support APRS with GPS information.   The price is a bit expensive with the feature, but I am really interested in the feature.  So I am considering to get one some time and tried how it covers in areas I often go.   There is some digital transceivers made in China have GPS feature, but it is not very clear if they ca support APRS.  Some articles on the internet says it works, but it is not very clear it is really works.   The price for those Chinese transceivers are not very low cost like BAOFENG analog transceivers I got.   So I might need to do my research more.  Please advice if anybody has a better experience to use the location service with APRS.

Echolink ~ Virtual Amateur Radio!?

Amateur radio without any transceiver

   People can get an amateur radio license or a call sign without any transceivers in the United States.  It is different from some other countries such as Japan.   I used to have a call sign in Japan.  However it requires to have a transceiver in hands.

   I do not know the situation in other countries, however just comparing a law in Japan, the cost to get a call sign in the United States is much lower than Japan.   The cost in the United States is just a fee of the exam.  As long as people pass the exam, they can get a call sign shortly without any transceivers in hands.   However, people need to spend for exam, all registration, buying transceiver and etc.  The total cost will be more than a several hundred dollar. 

Echo link ~ Virtual Amateur radio!

    That is the background of the licensing system in the United States.   Now, today’s topic is “Echolink” which is a sort of VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) such as Skype, Google Voice and etc.  The primary difference is that all users must hold a valid amateur radio license.   Also, people can access through a repeater which has the internet connection from a hand-held transceiver.   It is something similar as Skype / Google voice link to a public phone network.   Echolink uses amateur radio instead of the public phone network.

   This is not a new technology.  It was introduced sometime after I stopped amateur radio around 2000.  If we search this on the internet, there is a log of information showing up.   As I mentioned that I resume amateur radio recently and I am trying catching up the recent amateur radio world and I found it.   Since all users are amateur radio license holders and it seems like a typical amateur radio communication.  Therefore, I feel like this is a “Virtual Amateur Radio”, just replacing a real transceiver with a smart phone or a PC.

I have just tried it!

    It seems to be very interesting and I tried it.   For detail information, there are many information on the internet.   I just briefly introduce the overview.   The software can be downloaded from Echolink Site.   For Smart phone, it can be available on AppStore or GooglePlay.   One tricky thing is that it requires a public IP address and IP address which is assigned through WiFi or router is not public address.  Thus you might need to setup a proxy.   Installation itself is very simple and you need to register with your call sign, email address and password.   Then they probably ask to show the proof of the license.  In my case, I just needed to send a copy of my license and it was activated in a short time.

   Once your account is getting active, you can see many users all over the world.  I think number of the users in the United States is the largest.  I also see many users from Japan where is my home country.   I tried to listen some conversation on conferences and repeaters.  One of stations found me and I had a chance to talk a station in Japan.   The communication is really the same as what I did in my old days. 

   I have not tried to use it through a local repeater.  It is possible to send DTMS command to repeater to link the repeater over echolink and communicate wherever I want to talk through a small hand-held transceiver on V/UHF.

Easy to start!

    I just share my experience, but back to the original topic, it is really possible to start Amateur Radio without any transceivers in the United States.  I think that is a big thing.  Since the internet / smart phone are very popular nowadays, therefore without any extra cost other than the exam fee, people can start Amateur radio without spending much money and time.  This is really cool!

   The issues when I started amateur radio when I was a kid are “a large amount of money” and “setting up antennas”.   There are a lot of registration process / fee with buying a transceiver to get a call-sign in Japan.   Also setting antennas are a lot of limitation for the space especially HF bands.   Since HF antenna is usually large due to longer wave length in limited space in typical Japanese residence.  Therefore I guess many people compromise to pick V/UHF instead of HF for smaller antenna or just having a hand-held transceiver for outdoor use.   So, talking with station oversea is very difficult for many people.

   A good thing for Echolink, it is very easy to get into Amateur Radio World and communicate all over the world.   All stations are not on Echolink, however there are still many station you can see on Echolink from many different countries.   It is a good experience to communicate with them without a lot of effort / investment.   It is probably just USD $15 in the United States if people can pass the exam for the first time since the internet, smart phone and PC are very common nowadays.

   The exam is easy.  I do not believe it requires really special knowledge to get Technician class.  Just a basic rule, unit conversion, simple calculation with ohm’s raw and memorize some words.   It can be pass if people get correct answers more than 26 out of 35.   Just memorize the answer of the question pool which have a little more than 400 questions.

    Echolink is probably a good entrance to Amateur Radio World.   Also, there is some low cost hand-held transceivers are available on Amazon in the United States I already mentioned in my past posting.  I think people could start amateur radio with really minimum cost and I guess it is a good thing people may try.

70cm / 2m band in the United States ~ with BAOFENG UV-5Rxx

BAOFENG UV-5Rxx

   I was watching 2m / 70cm bands with BAOFENG UV-5Rxx in San Francisco Bay area, so called "Silicon Valley".

   I used to have a license in Japan around 30 ~ 40 years ago.   I found out a similar people write a blog to resume amateur radio recently.  I am one of them.....

   Since I got a license in the US and I started looking for what type of transceivers are available in the market nowadays.   Before getting the license, I sometimes heard that the population who enjoy amateur radio is decreasing and the price for the equipment is increasing.   However, the price for entry model of HF transceiver is still less than USD $1000 and the price is a similar as when I stopped it.  The main difference is many models are combined with 50MHz (6m) with HF and there is no single band all mode transceivers for V/UHF.  Majority of V/UHF models are FM  transceivers.

   The one I just got is 144/430MHz hand held transceiver and I started watching those bands.

Band Plan in northern California

   The band plan in this area, northern California, 144~148 MHz and 420~450MHz.  However assignments for simplex FM is 26 channels in 2m band and only 3 channels in 70cm band.  The rest of assignments for FM is for repeaters for those bands.  I have never heard any QSO in simplex.  All QSOs I heard were through repeaters. 

   The other questions come up are where technician operators are.   Since they only allows above 10m bands excepts some CW bands in HF.   Therefore I thought majority of them are using V/UHF.  However, V/UHF FM bands are really quiet even if early evening and weekends.  Based on statistics, more than half of amateur radio stations are technician class.  I just wonder where they are.

   Thus, it seems that it is not easy to contact many stations in my local area.   Probably, I need to go to HF.  However, I might not be able to go HF any time soon.  Because it might be hard to setup HF antenna at home.   So I will continue to look for something in V/UHF.   It is probably all right to use it for a communication with my son during hiking.  Other than that, I am considering to check a local amateur radio clubs.

BAOFENG VHF/UHF dual band tranciever - UV-5R

BAOFENG UV-5R

Got inexpensive tranciever BAOFENG  UV-5R

   Since I got amatuer radio licence recently, I bought an inexpensive VHF/UHF dual band tranciever BAOFENG UV-5R as my first tranciever.  When I was doing amatuer radio in Japan is more than 30 years ago and I have no idea what the recent situation.   I started looking for a tranciever in Amazon and I found a low price one, which is BAOFENG bland.   It is starting someting below USD $30.  There are some famous blands like YAESU, KENWOOD, ICOM and etc.  They are really familar.  However their price is much more expensive.  Even a handy type tranciever, it is starting more than USD $100. 

   Based on internet search, it seems that they are not too bad and I decided to get two including one for my son who also got the license recently.

Initial impression

   My initial impression is good!  With that cost, it is more than expected.   It works good.   Based on some articls, people recommend to get a programming cable through PC.   I also got it and there are many articles which show how to program on the internet.  I followed them and it is really easy to program channes.  Even if just using the key pad to manually program channels is not so difficult.  Just initial programming for local repeaters, I would think I do not need a cable if the programming is just once.

Local activities in 2m / 70cm band

   I live in Tri-valley, where is Pleasanton / Dublin area in Alamenda county near Silicon Valley in California.   Based on my experience to watch the bands last several days, I did not hear much activities.  I guess it is probably due to no-exteral antena.   However, if I visit San Jose area, I heard more activities.  So I guess there might not be many stations in my local area.   I thought there might be more activities in those bands.  That is my impression in the first week.

   The other impression is not much activities in FM simplex channels.   Most of activities I heard was through repeater.    I probably need more time to figure out how I can get into the amatuer radio community in my area.

   Anyway, I finally get into amatuer radio world in the US..... Let's how things go.....