N1EY: I am N1EY. This is the webpage about the adventures through time and space of Bill O’Hara, N1EY. My email is n1ey@n1ey.com

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Sun
27
Jul '08

The Quincy machine has returned.

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News

I was over at my club, yesterday. One of the old-timers, whom happens to be wearing a Veterans for McCain hat, came over to me. I had not seen him for awhile. He usually listens to me on the Quincy Machine. He has the Quincy machine, Quincy Police and Fire Departments set for scan in his radio. He asked me how come I have not been on the air for over a month. He wanted to know where was Wendell or Father Terrence. Well, he did not know that the Quincy Machine (146.67) had been struck by lightning.
Yesterday, as of 1PM the Quincy machine came back to life. W1BRI has restored it to operation. He has assembled a new controller. Everyone is tickled pink!
W1DDO has a new FT-1802 to replace his old Kenwood 2 Meter rig. Everyone is saying that his audio is superb. I am not sure, yet. I do know that we were using the 147.300 repeater for while, which seems to have a narrow audio passband.
N1EY

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Sat
12
Jul '08

2008 Attleboro Criterium

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News, Cycling

I went to the races, today. You may access the photography gallery by clicking here.  I was listening to Queen’s best song about Bicycle Races! I met up with one of my bicycling friends, Steve. Steve told me that Mark McCormak was riding in the Pro/1/2/3 field. I was really excited. I took some pictures of the Masters 55+ races, Masters 30+ race, Masters 35+ race. I took a lot of pictures of the Pro 1/2/3 race. I missed the races for the ladies. I do not know why they start at the crack of dawn. Sheesh.
There was a very competitive field out there. I have happened to ridden with a bunch of them in the Pro 1/2/3 field on local rides around southeastern Massachusetts. It was really cool to see Mark McCormak go head to head against them. Mr. McCormak is a former professional rider and former National champion. His brothers were also professional riders and they rode with him.
A breakway went on attack very early. The seasoned professionals waited for an opportunity. Eventually, they broke away and lapped the field after several laps. This was really amazing. They were approaching speeds of 29-30 mph. The average speed of the field throughout the entire 60 kilometers was 28 miles per an hour.
In case you did not know this, but a criterium is a race on a fixed course of short length. The final race length is achieved by many repetitions of the short course. This criterium had four corners and one hill. One of the corners was very tight. The corners present a challenge to a rider in the back against moving forward in the peleton.  If you manage to get to the front of the pack, your next step would be to STAY IN FRONT OF ALL OF THEM.  This is not an easy feat to achieve.  The group has the benefit of improved aerodynamics.  Once you are by yourself you need to put the power to the pedal.  The rider in the picture above tried to lap the field after the breakaway of six riders successfully lapped the field.  He rode for 20 laps in front of the pack at speeds in excess of 28 miles per an hour.  If he managed to return to the back of the peleton, then he would have to fight to the front in order to have a chance to take first place.
N1EY

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Sun
6
Jul '08

Los Angeles Gold Line

Part of webmaster's adventure in California Whimsicals, Railroading

During my vacation last year, I was able to take a complete ride of the new Gold Line. KB1PBT rode with me. We stopped at every station and grabbed a few pictures of some locals and expresses. Some of the operators recognized us after awhile. Most of the operators were very friendly. Upon our departure from the Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal the operator of one the sets made some briefings about the sites to see in Greater LA and advised us that we could not check out of Hotel California. KB1PBT and I were very interested in the comments that the operator during his deadhead move made to a rider about faith healing and the spiritual assistance provided by his native tribe to those suffering from chronic and de-generative diseases.

The line has a very interesting history. The line was originally part of the one of the routes that the Atchinson Topeka & Santa Fe used to access downtown Los Angeles via Pasadena. After the the Los Angeles Public Union Station was opened in 1939 the ATSF provided commuter rail service on this line to LAUPT for a short duration. The Southwest Chief also ran on this line and was pulled by steam in the glory years. The Gold Line was constructed by Metro Rail System, which is an authority with the ability to cross county lines in California in order to enable public transit.
Some of my concerns about the system include the lack of schedule co-ordination with local bus systems, which are often lacking. Most of the outlying bus systems are conducted by separate authorities. These bus systems are often quite extensive but lack any planning for transporting passengers towards downtown Los Angeles in conjunction with Metro Rail. One of my largest disappointments about the Gold Line is how the line terminates at an original set of passenger track at LAUPT as if it was a commuter rail service.
The line does not avail of itself of any real streamlined and quick connections to the other Metro Rail heavy rail or light rail routes. This prevents the system from adjusting equipment imbalances via moving equipment from line to line or providing one-seat riding. The line was originally intended to be part of the Blue Line, which is a light rail system. The original intent would had a light rail system that would run from Long Beach to Pasadena while the remainder of the system would be heavy rail, so a passenger would not have a one seat ride from Pasadena to Hollywood, but could take a ride to Long Beach. In essence the Metro rail system has created a nice service, if you want to ride from Pasadena to downtown Los Angeles. Yet, the line is not really part of the system and the construction costs were still very high. In the previous picture you can see the fly-over used to get the line from the viaduct over several city streets into LAUPT.
Riders must walk fifteen minutes and navigate a bunch of stairwells or elevators to connect to other services such as the Red line, which is hardly convenient for most passengers or any disabled rider. This is not like the interchanges in Washington, DC, where you can get off a train and walk over to the other track and see the count-down to the pending arrival of your connecting train. In the next picture you can see an example of the viaduct required to transport the trainsets out of LAUPT and the downtown streets of Los Angeles. I would have rather seen this as part of a subway with seamless connections to the Red and Purple Lines made possible.  Each of the lines runs through a subway underneath LAUPT.  Access to the subway requires passengers to walk down the stairs from the passenger track level and navigate a subterranean corridor prior to accessing another set of stairs to reach the subway.  It hardly qualifies as an easy to make connection.
The system provides a very nice service to the targeted riders regardless of the limitations in ultimate utility for the larger commuter ridership. The system has few crunch points such as single track. Most of the right of way is grade separated from automobile traffic. I have pictures of some running on the street in the photography gallery. All of the platforms are high level and no step down or step up is required to board any of the consists. All of cars were made by Siemens and the cars are of high quality in general. Some of the issues regarding the neighborhood sound issues would have been more readily addressed if the system had implored the use of a subway. If the line had served more of an integral role in the actual network of the system, then some of the irrate neighbors would have potentially seen more value in the system.
One of the key improvements to make to the line at this stage is an improvement in average speed and thus a reduction in total transit time. The express trains are able to complete a round trip in approximately 50 minutes, which is considerable faster than the local service, but it is still considerable slower than automobile traffic. The system intends to add at least ten more stations in the next six to eight years, which would require a significant amount of additional cars in order to maintain the current frequency and headways.
N1EY

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'

FT-7800 programming

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News

Some people have asked me questions about programming the FT-7800. I have little trouble programming the radio while in the car. I can program a frequency in the VFO with tone settings and save it to a free memory in little time. However, this takes considerable time if you want to program all of the frequencies in the area onto your FT-7800.
I recommend purchasing the programming software. I went to nerepeaters.com, which is run by N1ZZN. I downloaded the latest excel spreadsheet, which is divided into tabs for each band. I merged the tabs into one sheet and copied the results into the Yaesu programming software. Instanteously everything is on the radio. I have all of the 144 Mhz, 220 Mhz, and 440Mz repeaters set up in the radio. All of the repeaters are organized by frequency. If I start to hear a repeater from Connecticut breaking through, I can turn the dial to the memory channel with that repeater’s tone settings. I run tone squelch as much as possible so scanning will only stop on the memory channel for the actual repeater being heard.
I have put almost everything into the second hot-key on the radio. I have the first hot-key devoted to local repeaters, which I frequently use. Quite often, you might hear me on the Quincy machine, but I am also on the Plymouth, Weymouth, Whitman, West Bridgewater, Bridgewater, Fall River, East Providence, Walpole machines, etc. The Stoughton machine has been down for awhile; Quincy has been down for about two weeks.
I also have the third hotkey devoted to the railroad band.
The radio scans really fast and the whole setup is easy to use. I am able to key up any repeater in the area, if someone wants to switch over to another repeater.
N1EY

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Fri
4
Jul '08

WBZ

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News

My friends K1LWI, NG1Z, and K1JZP took a tour of the WBZ 1030 AM transmitter station in Hull, MA several months ago. I wish that I had the opportunity to take the tour with them. The station engineer is also a ham. They had a great time over there. They also learned that the coyotes stay nice and toasty by loitering around the transmitter site in the marshs of Hull during the winter. It really gets cold out by Nantasket beach, so why not stay by the 50,000 watts of RF floating in the air? Cancer? I do not think so.

K1LWI took a whole bunch of pictures that he sent to me for inclusion on the website. They have a really nice facility. Plus, they are historic in operating one of the first broadcasts, which featured simultaneous transmissions by two different stations in conjunction with sister station WBZA. They are one of the oldest transmitting sites in the country. The studios are elsewhere, but the verticals and the transmitters are located in Hull, which is a peninsula surrounded by saltwater.

N1EY

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Tue
1
Jul '08

Field Day

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News

I lead one of my bicycle rides for the Charles River Wheelmen prior to showing up for Field Day. I was disappointed that the turnout was very poor. The whole ride was done in by heavy fog. I had 30 brave persons that arrived for the club ride. I was disappointed about the lack of sun, but I was wondering if we would have a tropo opening for ten meters!  To make the club ride count towards points we rode by the WBZ towers to pick up any stray RF.  I needed to be charged up for Field Day.

[LEFT - K3 in action on one of the CW Stations] I went up to Danvers in the northern part of the state in order to participate in Field Day this year.  I never seem to participate in the same Field Day operations from year to year.  I think it is fun to see how everyone completes Field Day.  I have been to FIVE different Field Day locations over the years.  The Capeway Club used to put on a very good show, but they have discontinued Field Day operations for the past few years. I had a great time during Field Day 2008. I was able to attend the Field Day operations of the North Shore Radio Association. Their webpage is http://www.nsradio.org/. My friend, NG1Z, invited me to participate as one of their operators. The NSRA ran a 4A station. I was able to work some big pile-ups on 40, 75, 20, and 10.

The NSRA was using writelog for the networked logging station. I am going to admit that I am not a fan of writelog. Every time that I use it I find that other users do not fully understand how to operate the program. The interface is cumbersome and slow. The network polling to provide real-time QSO counts is not necessary in my opinion. I recommend that anyone operating Field Day forgo such extragavances as they do not provide any operational advantage. The network polling would slow the logging computer considerably. Writelog also hiccups several times when lots of RF is floating. Writelog is not very useful with the digital modes, either.
One contester, W1UE, recommeded N1MM to me. I have worked with W1UE on another large scale portable operation and I value his recommendation. I have not tried N1MM but many of the contesters are trying N1MM at this point.
The radio operations went very smoothly at NSRA. I enjoyed the setup, tremendously. NG1Z set up the club’s VHF station with his own tower and a good 6 meter beam. I had the chance to work a very nice 6 meter opening on Sunday morning. I showed KB1OZW how to make some contacts and handle a pile-up; it was a lot of fun to show a new ham how to operate. [RIGHT - an experiences extra works a contact on 6 CW]

I heard from club members down at the Genesis Amateur Radio Society(N1ZIZ) that they had the best field day ever. KB1KSE told me that he tried to call me on 40 meter phone, but I did not hear him. I am going to hear about this at every club meeting for at least a year.
Here is a picture of NG1Z on Sunday morning. You can see the towers in the fog. We had a lot of moisture during the Field Day operations, which must have helped to open up ten meters. We had heavy fog on site throughout most of the twenty four hours. NG1Z looked very tired after continous operations and managing some of the operations during the event.
Here is a picture of some of the VENTURE Scouts operating the GOTA station.  They were having a lot of fun with their station.  They operated on all bands with a FT-897D.  They used an army pneumatic mast to lift some wire in the air.
N1EY

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'

Norwellian Atlantic Adventure

Part of webmaster's adventure in Site News, Cycling

Another fine bicycle ride is the club ride that I have been organizing on a monthly basis for the Charles River Wheelmen. If you do the whole 50 miles then you can see this beautiful vista of the shipping channel into Quincy and the channel into Boston. These are protected by Graves and Boston Lights.
The next ride is going to be in July on the 19th.  See you there!
N1EY

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