It has been a while since my last post. I blame that all on myself. I hope everyone has had a good holiday season and looking forward to the activities of the summer. Come out and join us!
73
Tim, K9CQ
Friday, February 8, 2019
Monday, October 3, 2016
It has been a while!
Hi everyone! I thought I would make a post to update the blog a bit. We just had a T Hunt or Fox Hunt last Saturday and everyone had fun. Frank, KC9IDX had to fix the fox about halfway through the hunt when it's battery died. It was hid pretty well but we did find it.
This next Friday is the monthly meeting of the JARS. We hope to see you all there!
I changed my call since my last post here.
73
Tim, K9CQ
This next Friday is the monthly meeting of the JARS. We hope to see you all there!
I changed my call since my last post here.
73
Tim, K9CQ
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Meeting notice!
Our monthly meetings are on the first Friday of the month at 7 PM. The meeting location is the Grace United Methodist Church on the corner of Church and W. State Street in Jacksonville.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
CQ CQ CQ #2
Wow, time flies when your having fun! It has been a while since I was last online blogging here. We have replaced both repeaters here in Jacksonville with GE Mastr II Exec radios from MCC out of Florida. A few months ago we had a lighting strike the antenna and I had to do some work on the UHF repeater. A GE UHS pre-amp was added and the sensitivity was improved dramatically for the repeater. Now it works with a mobile range of about 30 miles or so. That is much better than we have ever had from any equipment we have had in place. We are working on some input interference issues on the VHF repeater and hopefully we will have those fixed in the near future.
Until next time,
73
Tim, KB9FBI/K9JX
Until next time,
73
Tim, KB9FBI/K9JX
Sunday, January 11, 2009
CQ CQ CQ!
Hi Everyone!
Its been a while since my last post. I hope everyone has had a very good start to the new year. There have been several new ham's licensed in the area over the past year and it seems to me that we have been getting more activity on the air. On January 10th I attended a "no host" breakfast in Springfield on South 6th street at the new Golden Corral. There were over 50 that attended. The food was great but the best thing about it was getting to meet with old friends and meeting some new ones. It was fun to have a social type gathering just to get to know some of our fellow amateurs. Maybe we should "not host" one over this way too. Even if the turnout is not as big it would still be a fun time!
I hope that all of your hard antenna work is making it though the winter well. I am still working off of dipole antennas that I had to rework over the summer because of the ice storm last winter. I have moved my radio equipment upstairs so I can be more active on the bands without making time to just work the radio. It has not come with some setbacks though. Interfacing the radio around the main computer here along with the two meter gear has been a challenge. Another disappointment so far has been getting the old packet controller to interface with the computer. Getting it connected with the computer was not the difficult part, even though the computer had no serial port. That was fixed with a USB serial port converter. The difficult part was the radio connections that had worked before many years ago. For some odd reason connecting the mic connector to either the HF or 2 meter rig produced a bad hum, unless I used the MFJ microphone switch. I still have not figgured out why.
Remeber that the JARS meets on the first Friday of the month at the Red Cross office in Jacksonville, IL at 7 PM.
73
Tim, KB9FBI
Its been a while since my last post. I hope everyone has had a very good start to the new year. There have been several new ham's licensed in the area over the past year and it seems to me that we have been getting more activity on the air. On January 10th I attended a "no host" breakfast in Springfield on South 6th street at the new Golden Corral. There were over 50 that attended. The food was great but the best thing about it was getting to meet with old friends and meeting some new ones. It was fun to have a social type gathering just to get to know some of our fellow amateurs. Maybe we should "not host" one over this way too. Even if the turnout is not as big it would still be a fun time!
I hope that all of your hard antenna work is making it though the winter well. I am still working off of dipole antennas that I had to rework over the summer because of the ice storm last winter. I have moved my radio equipment upstairs so I can be more active on the bands without making time to just work the radio. It has not come with some setbacks though. Interfacing the radio around the main computer here along with the two meter gear has been a challenge. Another disappointment so far has been getting the old packet controller to interface with the computer. Getting it connected with the computer was not the difficult part, even though the computer had no serial port. That was fixed with a USB serial port converter. The difficult part was the radio connections that had worked before many years ago. For some odd reason connecting the mic connector to either the HF or 2 meter rig produced a bad hum, unless I used the MFJ microphone switch. I still have not figgured out why.
Remeber that the JARS meets on the first Friday of the month at the Red Cross office in Jacksonville, IL at 7 PM.
73
Tim, KB9FBI
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Illinois Repeater Association
Hi Everyone!
I attended the annual meeting of the Illinois Repeater Association, this weekend. At least one other JARS member was in attendance also. Al, N9MAF was there representing the JARS and his own repeaters. After a year of two systems running D-Star repeaters on the same pair that an analog system was once on in the Chicago area, the move looks like it will be made permanent. For those not aware how that was accomplished, the new digital systems were placed six and a quarter KC's up and down from the original center channel that the analog system operated on. That give them twelve and a half KC's of separation and that works quite well for these D-Star systems. The move will generate two channels for one with the ability to us the old center channel as a geographically spaced adjacent. My hats off to Robert Shepard, KA9FLX for his work in designing this bandplan that will make efficient use of our spectrum and be friendly neighbors to the existing analog systems. The membership voted to send a donation to the ARRL spectrum defense fund. Our spectrum has never been under attack from outside sources more than it is right now. I would urge all of us to donate what we can to help the ARRL lobby against the forces that are working to disable our ability to use this valuable spectrum for emergency communications in the nations time of need.
73
Tim, KB9FBI
I attended the annual meeting of the Illinois Repeater Association, this weekend. At least one other JARS member was in attendance also. Al, N9MAF was there representing the JARS and his own repeaters. After a year of two systems running D-Star repeaters on the same pair that an analog system was once on in the Chicago area, the move looks like it will be made permanent. For those not aware how that was accomplished, the new digital systems were placed six and a quarter KC's up and down from the original center channel that the analog system operated on. That give them twelve and a half KC's of separation and that works quite well for these D-Star systems. The move will generate two channels for one with the ability to us the old center channel as a geographically spaced adjacent. My hats off to Robert Shepard, KA9FLX for his work in designing this bandplan that will make efficient use of our spectrum and be friendly neighbors to the existing analog systems. The membership voted to send a donation to the ARRL spectrum defense fund. Our spectrum has never been under attack from outside sources more than it is right now. I would urge all of us to donate what we can to help the ARRL lobby against the forces that are working to disable our ability to use this valuable spectrum for emergency communications in the nations time of need.
73
Tim, KB9FBI
Monday, July 9, 2007
Out with the old repeater!
On July 6, 2007 Tim "KB9FBI" and Al "N9MAF" removed the old vhf 146.775 repeater which has been in operation since the 1980's. The old repeater was replaced by a temporary repeater provided by N9MAF. Which will keep the K9JX repeater operational until the new repeater can be configured and installed in the near future.
The K9JX repeater is loacated on top of The Beecher High Rise Apartments located at 301 West Beecher St. in Jacksonville, IL.
The trip to the top is quite strenuous, as Al and Tim can attest from these picture taken on there trip to the top.
This is the ladder leading to the roof!
This is the hatch to the roof.
This is hatch from the roof. 
The elevator penthouse. Looking West towards the door leading up to the repeater.
Second Ladder to the top. Inside the elevator penthouse up to the second floor where the repeater is located.
Repeater Cabinet KB9FBI unlocking the repeater cab in the SW corner of the elevator penthouse.
VHF Repeater Our old faithful 146.775 repeater just before taking off the air for the switch. 198?-2007
Dual band antenna. Looking SW towards the repeater antenna on the roof of the elevator penthouse.
View looking NW towards the old Dunlop Hotel.
View looking NE towards the only other building that is taller downtown, the Farmers Bank building.
View looking SE towards the Pactiv Plant at the edge of town.
View looking SW over Morton Ave towards the highest spot in the county near the water tower.As you can see, this is quite a job to carry the repeater and equipment to the top of Beecher High rise. Thanks Guys!
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