News and Happenings in 2002
In 2002, it was decided to go with a central BBS system after
KD5AYE crashed and was unrepairable. The equipment is just too old and the
network seems efficient enough to go with a centralized BBS system. A lot of new
nodes went on the air and a lot of projects were completed. NCA495, MNA50, TXK,
FCA59 and ASH/ASH50 were all first put on the air as well as SWA got a new site
and SAR got up better antennas. Some of the sites are still plaqued with
problems that will require long term solutions such as broadcast interference at
SAR50. Several still need antenna work done such as ECA and Conway. Mike got a
handle on the JNOS situation at Conway and the setup is securely in place on the
ADEM LAN behind the firewall. Lightning damage took somewhat of a toll, but
progress was made and TNCs upgraded all over. This was kind of a wrapping up
year for "the big stuff" and hopefully 2003 will be a year for tieing up the
loose ends and finishing off nagging projects. With the exception of maybe one
or two sites, I don't see a lot of new node building going on, but you never
know what renewed interested might bring! I encourage everyone to get on and
exercise their packet equipment regularly, if nothing more than to send a
message to a packet buddy just to rattle their cage and see if they're still
alive. An unused system is a broken system.
November/December - Updating home computers and building home server/network; not many website updates. - SPA taken off air to use antenna on voice repeater damaged by lightning; SAR lost power supply to lightning and was repaired. - I was honored by local county ARES with a plaque in appreciation for my contribution to packet network; my thanks go out to all of the network members who deserve the credit for donations of their time, money, equipment and PATIENCE! - I resigned my position with state ARES/RACES back in October, but will remain on as the APN Network Administrator/Coordinator focusing just on the building and maintenance of the network. My best wishes for the future to all of the ARES/RACES team!
October 27, 2002 - Timing capacitor replaced in FSM50. FSM is more or less deaf and probably needs it's antenna replaced. The packet nodes were cleared of suspicion regarding interference to voice repeaters on site.
October 26, 2002 - Antenna raised to 90 feet at ASH site. Link paths unchanged, but local coverage should be improved; still off the air until ground installed.
October 19, 2002 - A rat had chewed a section out of cable at NEA nodestack preventing nodes from talking to each other. -- Timing capacitor replaced on SAR50 even though still getting too much RF interference.
October 12, 2002 - PBF nodestack in search of a new home. The club's two meter repeater will be moving to this site after problems wth present site's lease agreement.
October 7, 2002 - ASH50 TNC returned but found lightning had blown surge suppressor which was not yet properly grounded; equipment was okay after replacing fuses. All hooked up and ready to go, but left shut off & unplugged until the surge suppressor can be replaced and ground rods installed.
October 6, 2002 - Telnet connection to the W5AUU JNOS moved to ADEM LAN. The new IP address is: 170.94.140.122 -- ASH50 TNC had a capacitor tacked to the underside of the PC board feeding discriminator noise back into the mic output.
October 5, 2002 - ASH is on the air! - Antenna at 40 feet, will be raised later. ASH50 TNC has noise in the transmit; removed for repair. - The SET had nine messages from six locations sent to ADEM using packet. Didn't really promote packet this year, so considering, this was a good turnout.
October 3, 2002 - Replaced timing capacitor on NCA495 and HRO50. -- Four sites in three days; glad to be HOME!
October 2, 2002 - Replaced timing capacitor in MENA node and removed faulty lightning arrestor in 2m antenna system -- Later in the afternoon replaced timing capacitors in SPA & SPA50.
October 1, 2002 - Left home on my way to Mena to work on packet in the morning; stopped in Fayetteville on my way and purchased replacement resistors for Ash Flat power supply which I discovered were open.
September 27, 2002 - Swapped timing capacitor on BAX50; node was off air for a few hours.
September 24, 2002 - Conway JNOS down due to spammers bouncing e-mails through it.
September 21, 2002 - Attended All Arkansas Hamfest at Alltel Arena in NLR. Got to do a lot of "meet & greet" as well as picked up an Astron RS-35M for Ash Flat nodesite.
August 31, 2002 - Beam for NEA44 re-aimed to provide reliable link between Harrisburg and Blythville on UHF.
August 18, 2002 - Motorola Radius installed at SWA for 2m node; also rewired the power source for the TNCs. SWA stack is running off of a battery and charger while the power supply is being fixed after lightning damage.
August 15, 2002 - Lightning damage to antennas results in SPA being off until further notice.
August 9, 2002 - Dropped off BCO equipment with Bob AD5LR (ex-K5KBK).
August 1, 2002 - Changed timing capacitors at IND and installed APRS digi.
July 22, 2002 - New power supply and surge suppressor installed at IND along with a protective screen mesh under equipment. Also replaced IND495 EPROM to prevent improper reset during electrical storms.
July 14, 2002 - SPA antenna reported to be fixed 3 weeks ago; water getting into jumper.
June 26, 2002 - IND power supply appeared to have major damage (switching supply); decision made to acquire new one, but go back to linear type supply.
June 20, 2002 - IND stack found to have blown fuse in power supply; been off since storms one week previous.
June 4, 2002 - IND495 was hard reset after getting it's "brains scrambled"; working normally again.
May 6, 2002 - ECA power supply reset which had apparently tripped during storms.
May 4, 2002 - FSC59 is on the air! - Operating at limited power with a southward facing antenna; not making good links.
April 28, 2002 - ECA59 off the air due to power loss during storms.
April 15, 2002 - JNOS at Conway functioning properly making it a full fledged packet/e-mail gateway. However access is restricted to listed individuals.
April 13, 2002 - SWA on air at permanent site! - Good 6m path to MNA50 and SPA50.
March 29, 2002 - FSM back on the air; packet cleared as possible source of interference. -- W5AUU Alias changed to ADEM so it will show in nodelists.
March 17, 2002 - FSM down due to power outage from squirrel tripping transformer and batteries have run down.
March 9, 2002 - SAR50 & new SAR antennas put up; SAR fine, but SAR50 receiving strong FM broadcast interference.
March 2, 2002 - TXK07 on the air. Other antennas and equipment checked.
February 22, 2002 - Antenna raised another 5 feet at NCA495 and coax replaced with Belden 8214. (It was at 10 feet with RG-8X.)
February 20, 2002 - TXK is on the air! - All seems to be operating properly and has a good path to SWA, but SAR is having trouble hearing it.
February 16, 2002 - SPA50 is back on the air! - Back in service after swapping TNCs to improve audio output to the radio.
February 13, 2002 - MNA50 is on the air! - Installed radio, TNC and deep cycle battery along with both antennas at nearly a 1:1 match! Except for adding a surge supressor to the AC, it is completed.
February 11, 2002 - NCA495 is on the air! - Got equipment installed at site on Evans Mountain. However there was a strong line noise making receive difficult, but quit later that day.
January 26, 2002 - TXK node equipment ready and some work on MNA50.
January 13, 2002 - DEC meeting. -- JNOS (packet/e-mail gateway) moved from cable modem to ADEM LAN.
January 12, 2002 - NEA nodestack got chips replaced and cable fixed; now talking to each other. Something interfering with NEA44's receive.
January 10, 2002 - KD5AYE BBS had a hard drive crash; taken down for repair.
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