Category Archives: Uncategorized

When you get a tower trailer to use for ham radio, you’re going to get a lot of questions. The number of times most people see a construction tower set up with a Yagi, HF antenna, or some wi-fi dishes on it, are, in the experience of most people, exactly zero. They don’t notice people’sContinue reading “Signage – 15 pieces of “flair””

Back in 2011 we got some money from Dan Skripka, KE8TX and ordered a selection of outdoor rated Ubiquiti mesh capable Wi-Fi radios for our Lab. Doug, N0NAS, liked the idea of a backbone network on 5 GHz, as 2.4 GHz was congested. User access to the backbone would be on 2.4G. The noise floorContinue reading “A Tale of Two Meshes”

Fifteen or twenty years ago we had a need at the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon to keep track in real time of the location of hundreds of injured or dropped-out runners across fifteen or so aid stations, a fleet of busses and a 40×80 foot hospital tent. This expanded to include a fleet of medicalContinue reading “D-Star and Reflector XLX632”

We just signed an MOU with Minnesota VOAD. They are part of a national structure of non profit and sometimes faith based volunteer groups that respond to disasters. We now have one with MN ARES also. I talked to our friend Steve Hartman, who is a regional lead with the Red Cross. He says thereContinue reading “Our New MOUs and Trailer Classes”

Early in 2020 we volunteered at the Loppet Winter Festival, a large urban ski and fat-tire bike race.  We set up a medical command center and helped at the aid stations.   This event, sit in a hilly park, gave us the idea to convert retired construct light trailers to Amateur Radio use- we are upContinue reading “The Pre-Loppet/ Loppet Winter Festival”

Wacker 2005 LTC-4L. 30′ steel tower. Running Lombardini 1003 “FOCS” 27 hp. diesel. Group 24 marine battery, 45A alternator, 400W inverter. Both meshes. PTZ camera. Narrow and “garage friendly”. 2/2/21: So with phone coaching from N0NAS the main generator (stator) windings were tested on the Mecc Alte C2 130/4 6KW generator. Both are open. ThisContinue reading ““Little White” Trailer (#11) – 2005 Wacker LTC-4L”

On NY9D’s trailers, we are setting them up like phone company central offices. These buildings run all equipment only on 48V batteries. Some modern datacenters do this. The AC power from the power mains or generator only goes to the battery bank via chargers. In the trailers, we use 12V, and they have one, twoContinue reading “Power”

As of 4/23/21 we have fourteen 30 foot class mobile Ham Radio tower /mesh trailers in Minnesota. We have established some silly “rules” for our trailer fleet: Trailers get cute tactical names/colors (ask your wife or kids for ideas). Trailers are interoperable /tested with our Strategic Technology Reserve assets (in our case Hennepin County SheriffContinue reading “Silly Ham Tower Trailer Rules from NY9D”

Lately I’ve been playing with the BM2 battery monitors, available on ebay and automotive shops for 20-30 dollars. They attach to the batteries, connect to your phone or PC over bluetooth and hold the voltage history for 30 days. In addition the software provides low voltage alarm notifications. There are other automotive testing functions asContinue reading “BM2 Battery monitors”