I almost killed my radio with my BBS!

[@ek12746]

Really like this series. I've wanted to setup a packet BBS for a few years, and this series is really inspiring.

[@TheTechPrepper]

It's actually prettty straightforward once you have the basics down and BPQ configuration figured out. In the meantime, to a look at the coverage The Modern Ham is doing on KZbin and his blog.

[@kennethperew]

Short and to the point, I like it.

[@billbolen8115]

Thank you. These short vids are great and informative.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad you like them!

[@lmcalhoun]

Great video. I like both formats (long and short). Quality content is infinitely more valuable than high production value. I don't mind "low quality" videos that are information dense or instructive.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback and I agree that content quality outweighs production quality.

[@W1KAB-9]

I am definitely an “OT!” I really appreciate that you are promoting “old tech” to achieve your communication objectives. I’m even a CW nerd. It’s this vision of being able to fall back on systems that are totally independent of either government or corporations that keeps me and the thousands of followers that you have. I learned from C0VID that “no one is coming to help you.” Keep up the great work. You are doing more good than you know.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Kathleen! Honestly, most of the new fangled tech (like the Internet-of-Things) seems a bit more complicated and brittle. I was not expecting to discover how much value exists in establishing locally owned and managed packet nodes and networks. When I first got started I conflated APRS being synonymous with packet. I was wrong. I encourage everyone to look into hosting local packet Bulletin Board Systems over packet radio and other RF-only modes. More on this coming. 73, my friend. P.S. I may need to buy another ROHN non penetrating sled for the roof. I need more antennas for my BBS!.

[@W1KAB-9]

@ Sounds like you might need another mast as well! If you give me your specs, I’ll make more. Probably won’t require the side brackets for HF wire antennas, but I can do that if needed. Getting a large lathe later this spring that will help me keep them absolutely straight.

[@briankendall1978]

I passed my code test back when I upgraded to a General License, but I did not have any equipment that could use in CW mode. Now my 13 yo daughter has talked about CW, saying she thinks it is cool, so i have been trying to find a way to get her involved in learning and also help me relearn it. I never really used it and lost it. :o(

[@TheTechPrepper]

@@W1KAB-9 I may need one indeed. I know just the person. ;-) I am experimenting with a few new antennas in the coming weeks, so I am not sure on specs just yet. I'll have better idea next. I'll use a spare painter's for the early testing before pulling the trigger. Happy hump day.

[@TheTechPrepper]

@@briankendall1978 That sounds like great way to spend time together. Check out Ham Radio Duo on KZbin. They are a young husband and wife team that CW activations for Parks on the Air.

[@Dennis-tf2cs]

I run an HF Winlink Gateway, when people send large files my FT-891 gets hot. I have it sitting on top of a nice dual fan unit and that will keep it cool enough that it won't burn up. The 891 has a nice heat sink on the back which helps as well. These short videos are great, thanks for all you effort 🏆

[@TheTechPrepper]

Cheers to another RMS gateway operator! Glad you like the shorts.

[@oliverw.douglas285]

Over the years, I've found that much of the ham radio gear is designed for a 10-20% Transmit, to a 80-90% Receive Duty Cycle. Even with external cooling fans, most ham radio gear just doesn't compare, to their commercial equivalent. I recall a good friend, who had built a ham repeater, out a pair of old G.E. Commercial-Grade Mobile Radios. The Transmitter was originally a 100-mobile, that was backed down to 25 watts, with a temperature-controlled cooling fan array (4 muffin fans). This in-turn was connected to an external Commercial-Grade Amplifier, which brought things up to 100-watt. It was all rack-mounted, & connected to a substantial antenna system. It was a beast of a setup, but it's lasted the test of time, with only a lightning storm causing an serious havoc. With the demands of a radio bbs, I wonder if a Commercial Transmitter might be a better choice for the long term? Expensive, but better in-terms of operational longevity.

[@TheTechPrepper]

You're the second person to make this recommendation. I will explore it. Thanks for planting the seed on how to introduce more robust gear. I will say that I have been having great luck running the Yaesu FT-2980R on full power, 24x7 for the last 5 weeks for the VHF port. That rig is a tank.

[@matsherwood6277]

I like the quick hits. Thanks. 👍

[@TheTechPrepper]

It’s good to hear you like the shorter videos. I'll keep them going!

[@w3tua]

I was part of a team of hams that installed BBS nodes and digipeaters for the packet system in NC and up and down the East Coast back in the mid-nineties. This is a great trip down memory lane. In recent years, I've set up a BPQ-32 node to handle local and HF messages. 73 DE W5HI

[@TheTechPrepper]

What an amazing time to be a ham. Do you have any tips for a new ham looking to bring back the local BBS scene over radio? 73 de KT7RUN

[@w3tua]

@@TheTechPrepper There's not a huge amount of interest these days but the EMCOMM uses really appeal to some. I try to demonstrate use of the node during local club meetings and during simulated emergency tests for our local RACES group.

[@mikeg1zrn896]

I've never come across an amateur radio transceiver where the Transmit Time Out is set. It is one of the first items I adjust to 3 minutes when I get a new radio, especially digital types, C4FM, DSTAR etc as many repeaters and gateways have a strict 3 minute time out. 73, Mike.

[@dongibbskk4qam]

Great catch. When I ran my BBS, I always made sure that an appropriate time-out timer was in place. It will save a radio.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Good man. I am glad I was in the office and discovered it early. Any more pro tips for a new sysop?

[@dongibbskk4qam]

@@TheTechPrepper Just stay on top of things. It can get a little overwhelming at times.

[@ke8mattj]

Definitely like these shorts.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad to hear it. Thanks for the feedback. They took less than 30 minutes and allow me to capture problems and solutions that I would otherwise forget about a few months from now. I hope there is some value on some of these on-the-fly topics.

[@JohnTarbox]

First off, to answer your question, I love these videos! Please keep up the good work. Next, there is definitely a difference between radios built down to a price for the amateur market and commercial radios built to a standard for the military and other commercial interests. Wouldn't it be nice if Harris would donate one of their $10,000 ALE radios to your cause? You may consider adding a simple "timeout" hardware circuit between the computer and the radio, as is used in ham VHF repeaters.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks for the feedback. If anyone has a contact ar Harris that would be great. I'd love to give ALE a try on one of their radios. I purchased a license of ion2g last year and even deployed a T2FD, but had to spin down that project due time constraints. Good idea regarding the hardware circuit. It would be a nice safety net.

[@dmrcoyle1975]

Some years ago, I was listening to a podcast and prepping ( Sorry, I can't remember what it was), and they talked about the new internet coming out, and they talked about Ham radio, the only internet where everything is running over the Ham frequencies. I love to see your videos and your take on it. I also love the quick and raw videos. Keep up the great work.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I have a vision for leveraging ham radio and other radio services for delivering as much content by private citizens and for private citizens. I'll cover this a bit later this month.

[@Swamp-Fox]

The shorts are perfect! Man, I wish I had a Motorola/Mobat Micom to send you for your BBS as well as for ALE. They can handle continuous duty, but are cost prohibitive for most. I wouldn't mind having one for myself!

[@TheTechPrepper]

You are the third person to suggest ALE for the BBS. I need to add this to the backlog. I've had a save search for a Micom on eBay for almost two years now.

[@MTimWeaver]

I haven't been on a BBS since the mid-90s. What's old is new again. 😀

[@jakep5121]

WOW! glad you caught it in time. also, I'm digging the short updates.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad to hear it. The short videos are easier to manage. I guess, the community has spoken. When I have something worth sharing, I'll drop a short video using good old point and shoot. 73

[@yamez69]

I did the same with an unattended Fldigi/FSQ setup in the shack, when I accidently requested, in the field 3km away, for a large log file to be sent to me. Fortunately I had already set my TX timeout to 3 minutes. The Quansheng HT was still rather warm when I got back.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Oof, that’s a close call. You got lucky!

[@bruehlt]

Awesome update man!!

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks, I appreciate it. It was a close one!

[@W3DMJ]

Liking the quick point and shoot videos. Kind of report when it happens kind of feel. I too am running down the BBS rabbit hole on VHF / UHF. Like seeing / hearing about lessons learned.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I’ll keep the shorts coming!

[@Oberkaptain]

Thanks for the video, my 897D also had TOT tx turned off.

[@TheTechPrepper]

In the 991A's case, OFF is the factory default. Not good. I'll need to check my FT-857D and FT-818ND just in case. Thanks for sharing.

[@79attaboy]

Love the from the hip vids👌👌

[@TheTechPrepper]

Bang bang! ;-)

[@rj44319]

I do like these shorts too.😊

[@TheTechPrepper]

Cool. Thanks for letting me know. I may keep them going or at least post something quickly when there is a no piece of info to share.

[@ModernHam]

Between the Ice storm, and possibly some issues like this, my tuner has been cooked over here. Anything over 30 watts over HF, it screams. Makes AX25 difficult. Will hopefully get it fixed in a few weeks. But between the two of us, we sure have generated a lot of packet activity on that frequency.

[@TheTechPrepper]

It's clear that hosting these services can be hard on the equipment on the side of the sysop. I guess it's part of providing the service. The best we can do is put safe guards in place, back down the power and make incremental tweaks. Good luck with your station and the ice storms.

[@RussellThomas]

i like the bite size videos :) would like to see them continue.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Glad to hear it. These shorts are easier to make. I'll do what I can. I am liking the ease of sharing with you all.

[@wheeler7973]

The Duty cycle is an issue with most HF radios as I understand it. Most are not 100%. I was told by my Elmer to keep the power level under 50w if you are TX’g a lot

[@TheTechPrepper]

Good call and great Elmer. I had the 991A running at 50w and not the full 100w.

[@behanner]

If you are having a system you are having heat problems with and it has no moving parts or radio communications, besides those wired on. You can always submerge it in oil. People recommend mineral oil but about a 15 years ago I was running my computer in vegetable oil.

[@andrew8940]

I'm not sure if i missed this but what happened to the anytone? I feel that was short lived n needs more

[@TheTechPrepper]

I don't cover as it is my least used radio. It's too delicate for the field and I only use it for occasional encrypted communication for the business.

[@RatchetFWD]

Tech prepper x modern ham . Guiding me on my bbs journey. Waiting for WINLINK to grant me sysop. Starting out of my university housing unit and hopefully expanding to the university once I get a grant proposal approved for a dedicated solar backup, new hf and vfh rig . UCI is a bit on the low altitude and I cant reach the nearest mountain gateway from campus all the time . Would make for a nice fill in.

[@TheTechPrepper]

It's great to see more people setting up RMS nodes. Good luck with your node.

[@dangermandave67]

I know there's a variable you can set when running Direwolf in igate mode to limit the number of packet transmissions in a 3 or 5 minute period. Hope there's something similar for general packet application.

[@TheTechPrepper]

There are plenty of settings. Myself and The Modern Ham are experimenting with many settings for Dire Wolf for both 1200 baud and 300 baud. We'll likely each debrief the community once we find the sweet spot. It's great having users on the system. It helps surface these issues. We'll get it dialed in. Thanks!

[@douglasvamateurradioandmore]

I like the unedited point and shoot videos. Which bbs-tnc is that?

[@TheTechPrepper]

I direwolf as the software TNC for both HF and VHF. For the BBS, I'm running LinBPQ.

[@StealthGTI]

In a good ragchew, I think you may find that a one-minute TOT may be too short. My local repeater's TOT is three minutes; so, that's what my radios use. As for the internet, I'm not ready to kill my data plan, but I am looking at a switch to Linux for the first time ever. Big Tech is pushing their intrusion too far and it's only getting worse.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Good point. I'll bump it up 2 minutes. Good luck with your move Linux. It has a learning curve.

[@ryanmilton]

These “long format, short form videos” (excuse the oxymoron) are great

[@TheTechPrepper]

Thanks. The long-format videos will be be 30 to 45 minutes and will cover deep dives into various research topics. Why I am exploring the topic, what I learned, how to get started, etc. They will all have a practical, real-world emcomm use. In the meantime, these 3-5 minute videos are easy and allow me to share small details along the way that might be useful to others.. Take care.

[@nicke.3011]

Short, and to the point, videos are the way. Save the long ones for once or twice a month.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I'm glad you liked the short and sweet format. That's the plan.

[@thebnbaldwin]

You gotta watch that KK7IKG guy! 😅

[@TheTechPrepper]

That dude broke my BBS! Joking. It was likely something else.

[@DM-qm5sc]

Just an off topic observation I noticed as few videos ago but forget to ask regarding cell phones. Do you have an EUD as a phone? I feel like I recognized the case in one of the outside videos with the doggo.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I've been running the Ulefone Armor 20T for about 6-7 months. I am not a fan a looking for something else. The battery life is great and the thermal was fan, but it's too heavy, too bulk, and the camera is the worst camera I have used in 15 years. I have a side R&D project to test some privacy focused mobile OS alternatives. I had recent success with a Pixel 3a and Ubuntu Touch, but now I am looking into PostmarketOS and very obscure from 2015. More on this later if I get the R&D to a point where it bear fruit

[@ellerybice3787]

🫡

[@AF6PA]

Too bad you sold your old FT-897. They will run key down forever. Maybe back off on your power if the problem continues.

[@TheTechPrepper]

I am enjoying the FT-991A, but I do miss the FT-897D. I am running the 991A on HF at 50 watts.

[@CoolTurtleCreations]

Don't use tech that often? Strange statement when you are surrounded by tech and have a KZbin channel dedicated to it.

[@TheTechPrepper]

Let me rephrase. Other than the engagement on KZbin, I am rarely connected to the Internet or cell network. All my comms and compute needs are offline. I am anti-Internet.