Amateur Radio @ DC15

[theprez98]

Is there any interest in picking a simplex frequency on 2 meters for DC15-related chat while in LV? I plan on bringing my handheld along.

[mfreeck]

Is there any interest in picking a simplex frequency on 2 meters for DC15-related chat while in LV? I plan on bringing my handheld along.

I would listen.

[DaKahuna]

Hmm. 2 meters. Now where did I pack my 2 meter brick and does it still work !

[theprez98]

If we get more interest I think its definitely worth it.

While the "national" simplex frequency is 146.52, I think we should probably avoid it since we're sort of a 'special event'. If we stay within the simplex ranges (see below) that should steer us clear of any Las Vegas repeaters.

According to the ARRL's 2M band plan, the following are simplex ranges:

146.40-146.58
147.42-147.57

So something in there besides 146.52 should work.

Perhaps we can get some sort of "unofficial" event published on the Defcon front page once we set a frequency. Nothing more than "Freq XZY is the unofficial Defcon 15 simplex frequency for interested amateur radio operators..."

theprez98/N3WI :wink:

[bloofar]

How about 146.58? Within the simplex range and easy enough to remember. Take the calling frequency (52) + the defcon digits (1 + 5 = 6) and you have 58. If I can come up with this reasoning while drunk, I should be able to remember it while drunk :)

Unless anybody is motosexy enough to bring some p25 gear along... and if so, bring an extra handie for me.

[Dark Tangent]

How about 146.58? Within the simplex range and easy enough to remember. Take the calling frequency (52) + the defcon digits (1 + 5 = 6) and you have 58. If I can come up with this reasoning while drunk, I should be able to remember it while drunk :)

Unless anybody is motosexy enough to bring some p25 gear along... and if so, bring an extra handie for me.

As soon as you guys decide I'll put something in an RSS feed and have the site updated.

[theprez98]

How about 146.58? Within the simplex range and easy enough to remember. Take the calling frequency (52) + the defcon digits (1 + 5 = 6) and you have 58. If I can come up with this reasoning while drunk, I should be able to remember it while drunk :)
Works for me!
As soon as you guys decide I'll put something in an RSS feed and have the site updated.
DT,

You're awesome. 146.58 (FM Simplex) will be the unofficial Defcon 15 frequency for Amateur Radio enthusiasts. :wink:

[Thorn]

Guys, before you make it "unofficially official", you should check with the Goons and the NOC to make sure there won't be any cross channel problems. The last I knew the Goons were operating on 2m although some had combined HTs with 2m and 70cm.

Being tracked down by a Goon with a 2m Yagi for stepping on Goon transmissions, does not sound like my idea of fun. Especially when you consider Goons would probably think of the Yagi as both a DF device and a melee attack weapon. :eek:

[theprez98]

Guys, before you make it "unofficially official", you should check with the Goons and the NOC to make sure there won't be any cross channel problems. The last I knew the Goons were operating on 2m although some had combined HTs with 2m and 70cm.

Being tracked down by a Goon with a 2m Yagi for stepping on Goon transmissions, does not sound like my idea of fun. Especially when you consider Goons would probably think of the Yagi as both a DF device and a melee attack weapon. :eek:

Sheesh Thorn, go ahead and ruin all our fun before we even get started. :wink:

Point taken, I'll figure out who to talk to (Lockheed?) so we don't step on anyone.

[Thorn]

Sheesh Thorn, go ahead and ruin all our fun before we even get started. :wink:

Point taken, I'll figure out who to talk to (Lockheed?) so we don't step on anyone.Now that I think about it, never mind what I said. It might be fun to watch. We might even make a new event out of it. :biggrin:

Chris can probably tell you who you might need to talk to about this. He may also know what freqs are good and bad.

[theprez98]

FYI,

I have sent an email to the appropriate person in the hopes of successfully deconflicting our frequency from official Defcon/Goon/NOC operations so standby!

[converge]

Hah, and people wanting to play with radios should hop into the Wireless Village! I'll be monitoring again this year .. would be nice to have a BC-246T on hand as well .. but can't justify the expense :/

[theprez98]

Hah, and people wanting to play with radios should hop into the Wireless Village! I'll be monitoring again this year .. would be nice to have a BC-246T on hand as well .. but can't justify the expense :/
Absolutely, I plan to have my 2M with me all weekend in the village.

[Chris]

Hah, and people wanting to play with radios should hop into the Wireless Village! I'll be monitoring again this year .. would be nice to have a BC-246T on hand as well .. but can't justify the expense :/

I will be bringing my BC246T out with me again this year. You can use it for a while if you want. It is quite the fun toy.

[converge]

ahhh! I thought that was a similar model to what you were sporting last year but I couldn't remember exactly much more than the fact that it was a uniden. I just might take you up on that.

[astcell]

Don't forget the local frequency:

http://23b.org/gallery/Defcon14_astcell/aom

[theprez98]

As soon as you guys decide I'll put something in an RSS feed and have the site updated.
DT,

I coordinated with your staff to ensure that our frequency is properly deconflicted from any official Defcon/goon/NOC communications. We will be using 146.58 MHz (FM Simplex). Anything that you could throw into the RSS feed and/or main page would be very much appreciated.

[theprez98]

Don't forget the local frequency:

http://23b.org/gallery/Defcon14_astcell/aom
A nice addition. Perhaps we can continue this thread by putting together a small list of useful frequencies.

146.58 (FM Simplex) - unofficial DEFCON 2m freq
452.3375 - unconfirmed Riviera
462.0625 - Riviera
464.075 - unconfirmed Riviera

[licutis]

What about 70cm it allow for easy monitoring of some of the interesting things in the 400mhz ie the riv.

Anyone know of good repeaters in the area?

[Dark Tangent]

It made it into the printed program, and I think I did an RSS last week. Good luck guys!

[theprez98]

What about 70cm it allow for easy monitoring of some of the interesting things in the 400mhz ie the riv.

Anyone know of good repeaters in the area?
Not a problem using something additional in that band, however I'd like to stay away from repeaters since we don't really need them. With the space we're in, simplex should really work just fine.

[theprez98]

It made it into the printed program, and I think I did an RSS last week. Good luck guys!

Thanks very much DT!

[bloofar]

i brought a 2m base rig and my ht.. neither one got a whole lot of use, but it was cool talking to people while i was staying in the venetian in the days leading up to the con. at one point a couple of locals got all high & mighty about the hobby going downhill since the code requirement got removed.. at that point i poured another whiskey and turned the radio off.

anybody have any good/bad/interesting/whatever experiences on the radio in & around the con?

the 'cq field day cq field day, er i mean cq defcon' call was amusing :)

[noid]

Something of note, the head of hotel security is also a HAM. He told me that since last year he finally upgraded his license to Extra class. Gave me some good anecdotal stories of hang out on 20 meters talking to folks in the Marshall Islands using an antenna that all the other HAMs told him sucked. He also mentioned that there is a repeater on top of the Hilton that he says hardly gets used. He thinks it even had an autopatch running on it. Maybe we can make use of it next year.

[theprez98]

I carried around my HT on Thursday, but the simplex freq we chose was constantly being hammered by noise, tones, general RF mayhem that made the frequency unusable.

The rest of the weekend I was too busy to even think about the HT.

Maybe a different plan for next year...

[converge]

Similar for me, although anything that did come through on Thursday/Friday was just chatter from some lonely locals that lost my interest rather quickly.

I had an odd issue that, after talking to others.. seems to have been quite common. On seemingly random interval I would be able to tx but not rx ... my radio would show status but I would hear either nothing, slight drop in pitch, or outright static in place of the transmission. Someone would transmit _right next to me_ (or from afar) and I would get those results, but would properly hear any transmisson returned to them by responding party. dcs was correct, as well as other general settings, .. hardware was functional .. results were not consistent and spread amoung others on the freq. que?

[bloofar]

Similar for me, although anything that did come through on Thursday/Friday was just chatter from some lonely locals that lost my interest rather quickly.

I had an odd issue that, after talking to others.. seems to have been quite common. On seemingly random interval I would be able to tx but not rx ... my radio would show status but I would hear either nothing, slight drop in pitch, or outright static in place of the transmission. Someone would transmit _right next to me_ (or from afar) and I would get those results, but would properly hear any transmisson returned to them by responding party. dcs was correct, as well as other general settings, .. hardware was functional .. results were not consistent and spread amoung others on the freq. que?

That's kinda weird.

Very close TX (or extremely high output power) will usually overload the receiver. i.e. I have a 65 watt transceiver in my truck. If I'm sitting in the truck with my HT on and I transmit with the mobile rig at high power, my HT will show that it's receiving a signal, but there will be no audio. To the best of my knowledge nobody brought a huge linear amp but I may be wrong. I was in the Monaco tower on the 4th floor with a 1/4 wave whip in the window. It was turned on all the time and I never heard much of interestest. Figure it was all low power in the convention area (which I prob wouldn't have heard) or extremely high power right next to me (which should have triggered the RX leds on the front, which i didn't notice happening).

So it's possible that somebody brought, say, a 2 KW 2m linear and just ended up overloading every single receiver at the con so nobody heard him :)