[K4RY] moving the K4RY shack -- again

[Kris Kirby]

On Fri, 8 Jun 2012, John Hung wrote:
> I had a phone conversation with someone in the dean's office today, 
> and there is a lot of uncertainty right now about K4RY.  Some folks 
> are re-evaluating the process that lead to the decision that the 
> antennas must come down. At the same time, the dean's office is trying 
> to better understand how to best serve long term interests.  We agreed 
> to talk again on Monday, 18 June (we are traveling next week).  I see 
> this as a good opportunity to explore options, since the dean's office 
> is open for discussion. I am learning a lot in the process, and 
> appreciate everyone's suggestions.

I'm going to suggest getting in touch with the EMA group for the 
university. Sometimes they have heard of ham radio, and will support 
efforts by paying for "expensive items", knowing that a ham radio 
station can and will help them in the event of an emergency. However, I 
can understand hesitance to want to work with them. It's just another 
form of buy-in that may be leveraged at the university to sustain the 
club's communications capabilities. Fiber optic to the middle of a 
field? If EMA is behind it, it can happen. "That? We need that. It's our 
fall-back to the fall-back." They might also be able to find or locate a 
site which is similar that has better connectivity (fiber) and an 
emergency generator. 

FWIW, the TS-2000B isn't a bad radio, rather capable, but the software 
is Windows 2000 vintage. West Mountain Radio's Rig-Runner Plug-n-Play 
has a built-in sound card, and there's an accessory to connect to the 
Radio's CAT port. That and Skype, Ventrillio, SIP, IAX, etc., can be 
used to get audio to and from the radio. My preference is toward 
one-to-many sort of audio management on the receive-side, so that 
multiple listeners can easily connect. One should expect that the 
trustee monitors the use of the club station.... 

I do hear that Kenwood is coming out with another radio like it "soon". 

The important thing to remember about WiFi is that there's a LOT of 
spectrum available on the 802.11A (5GHz) band versus the 802.11b/g/n 
band. With a pair of 23dBi dishes over a seven-mile-or-less shot, a pair 
of 32mW radio cards will do the job. A 23dBi dish at 2.4GHz is a 
two-foot by three-foot parabolic dish. At 5GHz, the antenna has more 
gain, but it'll be a different antenna. 2.4GHz is usually close enough 
that the grids are the same between 2.3-2.5GHz, so MMDS and other 
antennas are frequently used. 

It's also a good idea to look into any way that a site can be shared, 
but I will offer this caveat: While guyed towers are cheaper, 
self-supporting towers don't tend to fall over when the non-existent guy 
wires are struck by mowers, trucks, tractors, etc. 

What you don't want is a site where you don't have exclusive access to a 
given space, and there's telecom gear in the shed with you that's 
unshielded. A site like a field in the middle of nowhere is great, but 
if it comes with stipulations like it's shared with EMA, without 
exclusive access to the ham side of things... then it's less than idea. 
Ideally, you start with a tower, and then start hanging wires off of it, 
and rotors on top of it, etc. 

I know, on a shoe-string budget. Best of luck. We're not in the best of 
places with the hobby, and everyone is fishing for ways to show that 
it's a fun hobby and what you can do with it. Short of being able to 
talk around the world when the power is out and "the towers are down", 
there aren't many other selling points other than to EE students, and 
EEs. 

--
Kris Kirby, KE4AHR
Disinformation Analyst