Messages

16

General discussion forum / Re: 1258MK II and CTR500 For Sale

« on: 2011-09-08, 23:42:19 »

Hi Tom,

Sorry to hear you're having a dickens of time getting a connection. No, I have the cheapest 2 year plan I could get...$50 a month. Nothing special that I am aware of, hi! AT&T Shockwave air card...Sierra Wireless 308...

Just for grins, I put in those login credentials from AT&T (before I had left the APN fields blank in the Zoom) and can't tell any difference. When I power up the Zoom router with the air card in it, it still takes about 2 minutes to connect. Long but at least it does connect every time...

73 John K7FD

17

General discussion forum / Re: 1258MK II and CTR500 For Sale

« on: 2011-09-06, 23:46:45 »

My ZOOM 4506 router works 'out of the box' with no settings required. Not sure about the CTR500 router. However, here is some info I received from the local AT&T store that may be helpful:

Phone number: *99***1#
APN: isp.cingular
User name: ISP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Pwd: CINGULAR1

73, John K7FD

18

General discussion forum / Re: Field ready portable RRC 1258; photo available

« on: 2011-09-06, 15:47:12 »

Although not shown in the picture, there is a small 12V gel cell that runs the RRC control box. It is sitting below me in the photo, but out of sight. The wireless travel 3G router has its own lithium battery enclosed...good for about 2 hours of operating before a recharge is necessary.

When operating from my RV, I use the RV battery to power both 3G router and RRC...unless I have shore power; then I use the AC/DC power adapters...

John K7FD

19

General discussion forum / Field ready portable RRC 1258; photo available

« on: 2011-09-01, 05:14:21 »

I have had several email requests to supply a photo of the portable RRC set up; if interested, I now have a photo on my QRZ page:

http://www.qrz.com/db/k7fd

Since adding a 3G antenna to the air card, my AT&T connections are considerably better...

73 John K7FD

20

General discussion forum / Re: How come my Q's come out as O's on CW? -- SOLVED

« on: 2011-08-31, 05:54:47 »

Defective paddle. Q's are sending normally.

73 John K7FD

21

General discussion forum / How come my Q's come out as O's on CW? -- SOLVED

« on: 2011-08-29, 21:00:40 »

My fist checks out OK, so can someone tell me what the secret is? Try as I might, when I send a letter Q it immediately skips the dit and makes an O.

Iambic A or B makes no difference. Is there some setting I am missing? Thanks for any insight!

73 John K7FD... and lucky I have no Q in my call  

22

General discussion forum / Re: CW Keying issue

« on: 2011-08-18, 06:53:22 »

Kari -

What kind of ping times do you get when using a 3G connection? I am getting an average of about 190ms...

Also, what cw key lf and delay settings are you using?

Thanks,

73 John K7FD

23

General discussion forum / Re: 3G connection working better than expected! Works perfect!

« on: 2011-08-11, 15:37:04 »

I sent you an email, Tom. Basic diagram below:

Kenwood TS-480SAT face ->  Control RRC  ->  Zoom Model 4506 3G Travel Router  ->  AT&T USBConnect Sierra Wireless Model 308 air card


To the Cloud/Internet


Home cable modem  ->  Remote RRC  ->  Kenwood TS-480SAT base  ->  antenna

24

General discussion forum / Re: TS-480 Audio Fixed

« on: 2011-08-11, 04:34:19 »

Thanks to Tim's post and this forum, I was quickly able to pinpoint a solution to a new problem that arose today: motor boating hum on transmitted SSB audio.

I have been using a gel cell battery to power the control RRC while operating portable from my RV. Today I received poor audio reports from the Kenwood TS-480SAT...

After reading Tim's post, I had one of those 'aha!' moments and immediately checked the battery voltage. Lo and behold, 9.9V. As soon as I plugged into steady 12v shore power, no more motor boating hum on the audio. Time to make sure that gel cell gets a good charge and to monitor the voltage during use!

73 John K7FD

25

General discussion forum / Re: TS-480SAT, hiss in speaker when volume is set to zero

« on: 2011-08-09, 22:17:15 »

I suspected the 480...still it's not enough hissing noise to detract from all the fun I'm having! 

73 John K7FD

26

General discussion forum / Re: 3G connection working better than expected! Works perfect!

« on: 2011-08-09, 22:15:59 »

Thanks for the info, Dave. I did bump lf and key delay to same settings as you and having better luck on CW. I am using the built in keyer sidetone, which I assume you are using as well? My jitter buffer is 7 and delay is 6 but may bump that up, too.

I am again experimenting bypassing using a shared wireless 3G connection in the laptop and going straight from the Zoom Travel modem, model 4506. It has a built in li-battery which I like for portable operation...

Today at lunch, I got a good connection through the Zoom Travel modem and checked in 'error free' to one of the west coast SSB 40m nets from my car...

73 John K7FD

27

General discussion forum / 3G USB air card - this is how much data and $ I'm using per hour with RRC

« on: 2011-08-07, 02:53:40 »

Hello,

FYI, after using the AT&T 3G USBConnect air card with the RRC boxes for the last week or so, we have discovered the average data usage is clocking in at about 60MB per hour. Since we have a monthly 5GB data plan, this works out to be about 83 hours per month of operating available before we run out (5000MB data plan / 60MB used per hour = 83.333 hours of operating available.

Carrying this a bit further, 83.333 / 30 days in a month = 2.77 hours of operating time per day. As a point of interest, our plan costs $50 per month US$. Getting granular, you could say it costs us about 60 cents an hour when we operate using the 3G USBConnect card 

In any event, where my xyl N7SG and I operate weekends only from our recreational vehicle, this gives us plenty of 'talk time' per day...

We are totally satisfied using the AT&T 3G to connect our control RRC to the internet. The connection has proved very solid, jitter free, and just like operating from home. Using the Kenwood TS-480SAT...with a average of ping rate of 192ms & settings of packet size 20, jitter buffer 3, jitter delay 4, audio quality 1, keyer lf 350 delay 200...our results have been excellent.

73 John K7FD, Annette N7SG

28

General discussion forum / Re: 3G connection working better than expected! Works perfect!

« on: 2011-08-03, 21:40:48 »

At present, my ping rate from my AT&T 3G connection at the control RRC to my router and radio RRC at home averages 192ms. Jitter buffer is 3, jitter delay is 4, audio packet size is 20. Audio quality is set to 1.
My AT&T 3G USB air card is a Sierra USBConnect...

I no longer use the ZOOM Traveler wireless 3G router. It added some latency I believe. Now I plug the AT&T 3G USB card directly to the laptop and share the wireless network connection to the laptop's internal Ethernet network connection.

I carry the control RRC in my RV and connect back to my home QTH using a Kenwood TS-480SAT. BTW, I find the Kenwood TS-480SAT rig to be one of the best kept secrets in ham radio! Very reasonable price and above average specs for a rig under 1K US$.

After experimenting with several wi-fi hotspots (Starbucks, McDonald's, hotels, etc.) I have found the 3G card to be head and shoulders above the free wi-fi connections. With the wi-fi, I experienced quite a bit of dropouts. With 3G, it is solid copy on receive...and on transmit, no complaints from the other operator.

I have also found, so far, that I use very little of my monthly 5G bandwidth allocation. After 5 days of operating, 2 to 3 hours a day, I still have over 4.5G available. Since this set up will only be used when I am in the RV travelling, 5G appears to be plenty for all the operating I will do while portable...

Note: I am operating SSB. My success with CW has not yet been successful, dealing with timing issues. I'm hoping to solve CW with lf and delay settings for the keyer. So far, I haven't found the right combination, hi.

Hope this dialogue  helps...

73 John K7FD

29

General discussion forum / CW vs. SSB TS-480SAT w/ RRC units...settings?

« on: 2011-07-30, 08:06:15 »

I have everything working well on SSB but cannot seem to get CW working smoothly. With a 3G connection, voice/ssb seems to transmit smoothly with very few breaks. CW however is another story. I cannot send a simple CQ without total garbling of characters sent. This sound as though they are stepping on each other...this at about 15 wpm. Why is ssb 'ok' and yet cw is barely copiable?

Are they settings with jitter, etc. that would be 'best' for cw? If so, what would they be? I can't seem to come up with the magic combination, hi.

Appreciate any input...maybe the 3G connection just can't handle my fist?

73 John K7FD

30

General discussion forum / 3G connection working better than expected! Works perfect!

« on: 2011-07-29, 10:25:41 »

Today I hooked up the remote rig units via AT&T wireless and a USBConnect Lightning Sierra 305 aircard. In addition, I am using a ZOOM 3G wireless travel router, thus negating the need for a laptop. Just stick the aircard in the ZOOM and run Ethernet cable from back of the ZOOM to the control RRC. The ZOOM travel router, by the way, runs from an internal battery, making it somewhat portable.

With this set up, I am happy to report crystal clear and jitter-free communications using my TS480SAT from anywhere I can connect to a 3G signal. There were zero dropouts and the connection was rock solid. This is very different than I experienced connecting to most wi-fi hotspots.

My data plan is 5GB per month, so will keep a watchful eye on usage! However, so far it seems an hour of operating hardly put a dent in the 5GB plan. Will keep you posted on this...

73 John K7FD