99 channel midland programing

[Michael Chisena]

All,
   
  Last night I worked on the latest revision of the Midland Program that supports up to 99 channels. As of today there are 24 channels that are not used. If you think of something you want in there, it’s easy to add. With the current pattern, sometimes a frequency is just going to be a channel number and we are just going to have to remember it.
   
   
  As luck would have it, some frequencies end in odd numbers and some in even numbers.
  The high side repeaters with the 1 MHz split are odd numbers.
   
   
  So frequencies like 
  53.61
  53.63
  53.65
  All the way up to 
  59.99
  Are now programmed as channel
  61
  63
  65
.
  99
   
   
  Not a bad memory trick.
   
   
  The 500 kHz split frequencies are on even number channels.
   
   
  51.62
  51.64
  51.66
  Are now programmed as channels
  62
  64
  66
Up to what ever there upper limit is.
   
   
  Advantage to this program.
   
   
  One of the AMRAD guys wants a radio set up for Florida use.
  The hard thing was to plug in all those frequencies.
  Now that he has sent me a list of area repeaters, I can find the frequency, and change the tone for his local use.
   
   
  Band Conditions
  Are not always going to stay depressed and on Prozac like they are now.
  Sooner or later these radios are going to be talking cross country.
  Having the ability to turn off the decode will be handy. (Monitor Button)
   
   
  Encode and Decode.
  The radios all have high quality encoders and decoders in them. 
  Not all repeaters do. 
  Some guys encode just their outputs, some the inputs, and some don’t do much of anything. Some use one tone for input, and another for output. This can be a mess.
   
   
  When you hit the SCAN button and have the monitor lamp out, the channels that have encode, will also have decode. PL decode is a very handy thing to have in an area like this. If the radio can’t decode a signal, it passes over that frequency and resumes scanning.
   
   
  Updates
   
   
  So this is going to require a lot of input to see just what the proper tones are for the various repeaters in our area. Encode, Decode all that stuff.
  If we post to the 5361 reflector these finds, I will incorporate it into the latest revisions and keep the laptop with me for fast field updates.
   
   
  40 minute field test
   
   
  On the way into work today, I put in a drawer unit with this new pattern.
  Found some exciting things. For example the computer in the truck puts out a lot of spurs. (Any body have a bucket of snap on ferrites to donate?) 
   
   
  Had to keep using the add/delete key to remove the offending channels from the scan stack. To clear this delete list, turn the radio off then back on. If this is going to happen often, I can via the control software remove channels from your individual radio scan list. The frequencies can stay in the radio, but will have to be manually selected rather than simply scanned for action. Try and keep a list of spurs on a post it pad as you travel.
   
   
  Catching stray signals with 6m radios this is going to happen often. 
  No way around it. It’s the nature of the world we live in.
  There is a lot of digital gear out there tossing a lot of spurs into our bandwidth.
   
   
  Loose ends.
   
   
  52.525 is on channel 52
  The APRS meteor bounce channels are
  Channel 2      51.63
  Channel 4      51.62
  2 and 4 are not part of scan group A, so if you wanted to hear what’s happening there, select channel 2 and wait for the electronic raspberry to go by.
   
   
  Data Source
   
   
  I used the ‘large print’ edition of the repeater manual to get frequencies and tones for 
  “Large Print” because I left my close up glasses at the office. Yes kids, I’m getting older and no better. Oxygen is bad for us. I took frequencies from

   
   
  Virginia
  Maryland
  District of Columbia
  Delaware
  New Jersey
  New York
  West Virginia
  And some others.
   
   
  There are going to be errors.
  Some repeaters may never have been built. Some are going to be closed affairs.
   
   
  The List
   
   
  After having a brand new ‘all in one’ printer in the box for six months, I un packed it last night, had a fight to get it running and managed to get the frequency list to print.
   
   
  There was a glitch in the program that prevented it from printing out the encode and decode frequencies, the program prints them as ‘None’. I have no idea as to why this problem and why now. I do know the data in the radio is accurate, so this is a print glitch.
   
   
  For now, I’m going to hand edit the list, scan the pages and save them as photos or PDF’s and post them to my flickr page. Also going to visit the Kinko’s and make a stack of copies for the next Taco’s lunch.
   
  Keep it safe
  Mike
   


"You are, what you do, when it counts"  
The Masso

"Gravity, the quickest way down"  
Mayor John Almafi

"You ever drop an egg, and on the floor you see it break? 

You go and get a mop so you can clean up your mistake.  

But did you ever stop to ponder why we know it's true? 

If you drop a broken egg you will not get an egg that's new?" 

MC Hawking
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