Digital Comms Field Exercise Part 2 - The Adventure

[@Dave_KE5ES]

Wait! Someone actually going into the field and doing it? Not sitting around a table in a library talking about it??? Way to go! New subscriber!! De KE5ES

[@TheTechPrepper]

To quote Nike: "Just do it". We were having trouble getting our local repeater owners approving our digital testing, so the obvious solution was to bribe people with coffee and donuts and hit the field. 73

[@dimitdamnit]

Another GREAT Tech Prepper video! Truly appreciated being part of this great cadre! Looking forward to the AAR and our next adventure! P.S. I promise to keep my pie hole shut the next time you're doing an acoustic coupling transmission!! 😁

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks for joining the party. I owe you a cut of the ad revenue. How would you like your 26 cent payout? I was just giving you a hard time when you were chatting during the test. I'm sure it would have worked anyhow.

[@ohiorivervalleyhomestead]

Gaston... Amazing my friend! Training never stops and this looked like everyone took something away with this exercise.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks, Chris. We'll have you out for the next one. We have four new trainers to help train four more operators. Happy Memorial Day and thank you for your service.

[@JDK45ACP]

Great FTX. Professionally done. As I mentioned in the comments of Part 1, I'm planning some similar exercises here in Oklahoma. Thanks for the inspiration. Another great video.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad you enjoyed it. I am actually in Edmund at the moment. Nice town. Good luck with your exercise.

[@AD6DMDennis]

Seems like it was a great exercise. Finally got me to download AndFlmsg after seeing it in action. I can see using that in a pinch with our field Digital setups with HTs. And of course, the full digital complement for more stationary deployments. Very inspiring, man. Thanks for sharing this vid.

[@TheTechPrepper]

You're welcome. The AndFlmsg app is a bit rough in terms of the user experience, but very usable when you want to go minimalist. Have fun with it.

[@frigglebiscuit7484]

i downloaded it a few days ago, and have it just in case of emergency. good to know i can just hold the tx button and play it over my speaker.

[@neubert500]

Awesome! It's great when something goes wrong during testing/training! The brain has to kick in and troubleshoot and that is SO VALUABLE! And gratifying when you get it fixed! Look forward to the AAR! Great training!

[@TheTechPrepper]

You're right. I was impressed by the team's ability to troubleshoot issues as they surfaced. I was monitoring the net frequency while in route to my station and was pleased to see them work through a couple of issues during the mode switching exercises.

[@averageguysradio]

Awesome field test Gaston, you had a great team as well. This was very inspirational and I look forward to sharing this with others.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad you enjoyed it (minus the small editing fail with the duplicate clip). Share the love, my friend.

[@ninja5672]

AMAZING organization of the event!

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad you enjoyed it. Plan is everything.

[@vironpayne3405]

Eventually you want to get to no phone ID for messaging. That is run straight digital like FT8 etc. On the acoustic coupling I did not hear the little optional mode worble sound. If I remember correctly that helps with unattended operation for verification of reception with auto resend and auto mode switching.

[@TheTechPrepper]

You're a gold mine of information. Thanks for helping out the newbies. This was our first exercise with NBEMS.

[@n5yiz]

Fantastic!

[@KM4ACK]

Great exercise. Looking forward to the AAR

[@TheTechPrepper]

It was a blast. The AAR will be full of useful lessons learned. It was great getting feedback from all the operators.

[@malenve6vid]

great stuff Gaston.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks, Malen.

[@michaelditurno4372]

This is really great work and very well planning and coordination. Thank you all so much for doing this. Mike KC8OWL

[@TheTechPrepper]

Our pleasure. We figured, what's the harm in documenting our first real experience with NBEMS? I am sure there are plenty of more seasoned operators that have this topic covered, but I personally see value in sharing the newbie perspective. We will improve and learn from this exercise and take everyone in TV Land with us next time.

[@abboudbedro5657]

Great video and testing

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@DK5ONV]

Happy last Sunday of May into Arizona 💯👍🙋‍♂

[@TheTechPrepper]

It's finally Sunday for us. Happy Sunday!

[@patriotalan]

Looks like a great exercise. I'm looking forward to the AAR.

[@TheTechPrepper]

It was absolutely worthwhile. Working on the AAR today. Happy Memorial Day.

[@ericbjorkman4665]

That worked out better than I was expecting. Well planned and executed gentlemen! Can't wait for the AAR. Now if someone knows how to make that into a wearable form factor I'd be on cloud 9.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks. I know how to solve this problem, but I'm still in the crawl phase (laptop). The "walk" phase is my special software interface, EmComm Tools, that will run on the laptop. The "run" phase will be EmComm Tools ported to an Android application. I guess it could be paired with one of the Android watches.

[@TangoOscarMikeN3WS]

Congratulations on your test. NBEMS is popular in this area. We use it with ICS forms every drill. We do a net once a week for practice. Laptops, Raspberry pi and phones with acoustic coupling. We have found that MT632KL works best. You can use MFSK modes to send small images.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Good Morning, Mike. Thanks for the details. All modes worked for us, but we were only about 1.5 miles out between the farthest stations. MT63 will likely be our standard, but 8PSK-1000F was a screamer. This was literally the first time using NBEMS for three members in the group. My self and another ham had used it only solo. It was great practice. Hopefully, we will get permission to have a regular nets and use the local repeaters.

[@The_Privateer]

Fantastic FTX. You never know all the things that can go wrong, until they go wrong. And you never know all the things that go really well, until they prove themselves and they go really well. The worst time to do something for the first time, is when you need it to work, the first time.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Well said. This training exercise had the bonus of building excitement to train again. In our AAR, every echoed the same sentiment: "I had no idea I would learn so much."

[@vironpayne3405]

The issue with mode switching on transmit has to do with setting that tells whether flmsg or fldigi is in control. The preferred setting in my opinion is letting flmsg drive the train. Your low audio acoustically coupling the phone to HT can be resolved by moving the phone mic, which is probably a little hole on the bottom of the phone, closer to the HT speaker. When acoutically couple I point the end of my phone towards the mic.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thank you for the answers. You are officially part of the AAR report. 73's

[@crackerwood661]

Fun!

[@TheTechPrepper]

Yep. It's always fun when you can test with others.

[@vironpayne3405]

Hobo coffee may be something to try. Hobos used to like to camp near streams with cool running water. They would get an old can, fill it with water, throw in some coffee grounds or chickory and boil it with fire. When ready they would gently pour in some cool clear creek water to settle the coffee grounds then gently pour the coffee. My fire is my microwave and I have cold water in the frig. I think coffee this way taste great. It is closer to perculated coffee.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Typically, I just use instant coffee, a nesting cup and a camping stove (solid fuel or propane/butane). Hobo coffee sounds similar to Cowboy coffee.

[@gabrielsimmons3736]

What antenna were you running on the FT-60?

[@TheTechPrepper]

It's the Comet BNC-24 antenna with the Diamond SMA-to-BNC adapter. Three of us were running that antenna.

[@ryanfralic1115]

This is awesome. The acoustic coupling looks pretty cool! If I understand correct you sent via acoustic coupling and they could recieve on the tough book via their normal digital ops?

[@TheTechPrepper]

Yes, I was able to send and receive when using acoustic coupling. The remote stations were also able to receive the messages on the CF-20's (running fldigi/flmsg). Works very well.

[@ryanfralic1115]

Awesome! I think this will be a good low cost option for me to use in the near future since I have not yet ordered (or decided what route to go) for digital modes from my ft60

[@armenmkrtchyan4865]

Hi. What's the name of the app on your phone that generated the digital tones?

[@ryanfralic1115]

@@armenmkrtchyan4865 I have android. The app is AndFlmsg

[@wannabecarguy]

Can you use a voltage step up on your battery pack? Our does it create a problem for the radios? I've noticed low batteries are a common problem.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I've never tried to step up the voltage as I've had great luck with the higher voltage offered by the LiFePO4 batteries compared to SLA's. What's your experience been with stepping up the voltage?

[@wannabecarguy]

@@TheTechPrepper I used them testing LED lights. I would think the MOSFET would create too much noise. But your radios might condition the incoming power. You could deep cycle your batteries and keep the radios on longer.

[@doublemountainman9962]

Who keeps a rubber band handy for the jack? Haha. Perfect!

[@WilliamMcKeehan]

I would love to "workflow" of the Net Control station. How did they capture and log the incoming traffic? Did their logs merge voice and digital?

[@TheTechPrepper]

There was a table in the comms plan that included the test #, time, latitude, longitude and power. This was the same payload as the CSV form. It was left empty on the paper version. But, the paper form also included these columns which were filled in by hand as digital traffic was received: voice received prior to TX (y/n), digital received (y/n), and notes. The notes included mentions of the mode used (8PSK1000F), timing and issues. In the next iteration those elements (modem and time to RX) will have separate columns.

[@davidjaye710]

i take it that this is for hammies only? this can't be done on gmrs correct?

[@kb6lcw99]

Wahoo

[@vironpayne3405]

I notice you put a fair amount of emphasis on message numbering. In my opinion this isn't necessary as flmsg generates message serial numbers when using ICS forms with originating station callsign, date, and time. It appends in subsequent identifier information when the messages is responded to or is forwarded. As a former com ctr gi I remember keeping three logs for tx & rcv information, and two logs for station receipt and deliverier. Once the message is properly received in the inbox it basically and html formatted email message to forward by any mode. I know there is an ARES message log, but often you can just submit the flmsg log and copy of your messages. To make training funner pass jokes as traffic.

[@TheTechPrepper]

We had a paper log with other details that net control was copying, so the test # was a good reference key for us. I appreciate the additional tips. Thank you for your service.

[@markdoyle8713]

The audio coupling intrigues me.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Same here. Give it a spin.

[@Bob814u]

Oops. I was on my other profile. Same subscriber but another profile. De KE5ES

[@TheTechPrepper]

I appreciate both comments. Cheers!

[@ke8mattj]

Further proof that cellphones are still useful if a disaster happens unlike what I heard some preppers say.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Possibly, it depends on the nature of the disaster. However, we had no cell coverage at my house or anywhere in the National Forest during this event. I would not personally count on a cell phone. We finally got Starlink RV on Friday at home. Everyone had to use WiFi calling.

[@phatforrest]

Please no more "Be Advised". Eliminate useless words and radio traffic ;-)

[@TheTechPrepper]

Acknowledged. ;-)

[@phatforrest]

@@TheTechPrepper Keep up the great work Gaston, love your videos.