Radio Activities

As of this writing we are in the process of getting antennas up for several bands and radio projects. This page is here to help track these projects and let folks know what we are doing.

Infrastructure

Radio Desk

This is a desk that has been setup in an out of the way area just for radio activites at Bloominglabs. The idea was to keep this semi-isolated so that it attracts less cluter, currently it's in the corner of the kitchen area. This is also relatively close to the antennas for shorter coax runs and provides easy accees to the grounding block demarco.

Radios

• RX/TX
  • 2m Kenwood
  • Yaesu FT-7800R dual band
  • Radio Shack Sport CB

• RX only
  • Uniden 996T Digital Scanner
  • Sub-1GHz scanner
  • Weather radio

Antennas

Our building has a 12 foot ceiling indoors and the peak of the roof line is at about 20 feet. We have a 17' mast which is approximately 13' feet above the peak of our roof. At the top is a 2m ham antenna, then our WiFi dishe('s) are mounted just below that. We will have another 10 foot mast with a discone on top mounted North of there for general scanning use. We also have other antennas for specialty purposes.

• Mast 1 - peak is about 33'
  • 2 meter pole antenna, top of antenna is at about 38'
  • 24dBi dish for wifi mesh - we have a second identicle dish which may also get attached to this mast at a later date

• Mast 2 - peak is about 25'
  • Discone for wide band receiving

• Mast 3 - antenna peak is about 23'
  • 11m (CB) whip attached to the peak of the roof

• Mast 4 - pending
  • ADS-B band antenna

• Mast 5 - pending
  • HF antenna

Grounding Block Demarco

This is above the mud room (laser room) in the workshop. All of the antenna coax runs go through here and get lightning surge suppression at this spot. There is a grounding plate for all ground attachments and the grounding plate will soon be directly grounded to an outdoor grounding rod.

Additionally, there is another board installed here for attaching infrastructure equipment for the WiFi mesh if needed.

WiFi Mesh

We have two 24dBi 2.4GHz dishes for linking up nearby remote buildings. We are in the process of getting our end up and running. Once that is complete we have some candidates in the surrounding areas for linking up to.

There are a couple of goals, but the project has room for growth and change. Firstly it would be nice just to see what other sites we can link together to have a private network that spans further than just our building. Second, it could provide backup communication in the event of an emergency. Third, it will be fun just to see what other uses we can come up with for this.

Part 15 station - Bloominglabs Radio - pending

This is essentially a low power non-licensed (legal) broadcast station in the AM commercial band (can be received on any common AM radio). Part 15 refers to 47 CFR 15.221 (Operation in the band 525-1705 kHz in this case).

I've operated these in the past and they are a lot of fun. The coverage area can usually have a radius of about 1 mile, output power is limited to 100mA along with a limit of a 10' antenna. Because of FCC rules and the way this band of radio works the mast MUST be mounted directly into the ground, attaching it to our building will not work. Once our back parking lot area becomes more free of trailers I would like to run coax out through a drain pipe and get a station running.

SatNOGS Ground Station - pending

A couple of us are trying to build a SatNOGS_Ground_Station. Once this is operational we will be able to contribute to the SatNOGS network and allow members to control the dish for any satellite telemetry work they wish to do.

ADS-B receiving station - pending

In April 2015 we were notified that our application to receive and host a free ADS-B receiving station for http://www.flightradar24.com/free-ads-b-equipment was approved. This project is in-progress.

Scanner Icecast internet feed - pending

In April 2015 we revieved a Uniden 996T Digital Scanner on long-term loan by a very generous member of the public. This is a top end scanner that can receive the P25 digital mode now in use by our local emergency services and elsewhere across our state. We plan to setup an Icecast server to stream a feed from this radio so members can listen in, more info will be posted as this progresses.