ON5FS - RADIO - WEBSITE
   

    " mouse-over spot 50 years ago"

  
   Hello Folks !
 
   Welcome at my Radio-amateur website.  My name is Andre and my QTH is
   KLUISBERGEN which is in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium.  About 70 Km
   west of Brussels.

   Radio has been my job and my hobby ! Amateur license since 1962 with over
   46 years of ham radio. I invite you to have a look into my radio website.

   Best 73's from Andre - ON5FS

    on5fs@uba.be
  .      
 
   Since I started back in 1956 with Morse code many things have evolved also in ham radio.
  A major part at that time was spend at DX- Chasing. That period ended in 1980  when I
  had about 278 confirmed countries.
  
   After that period I spend most of my time at the digital modes. Starting over Radio
   like  ( RTTY  , SSTV, PSK-31,  etc.).  After a while the amateur TOR version became
   available with AMTOR and a couple years later PACTOR and PACKET.
   From then on I spend my time only with digital transmission.
   From H.F frequency to 10 GHz
.
  Today we are beta testing the new WINMOR mode and time will tell if this new mode
   has a good and bright future.     

1965:  47 years ago......
 
.

 
         
    .    
  .
TODAY
   

   Retired for already 10 years ham radio has become a very
   important part of my daily live. Time to spend some $ . 
   About 2 years ago my old 21 meter steel tower became
   rusty and insecure.
   Time to install a new aluminum crank- up tower.
   ( 3 sections of 8 meters + 6 meter top steel tube )
   A electrical crank-up elevator is shown on the right make
   things easier to install antennas etc.......

   Antennas :  5 element Fritzel (30-20-17-15-12-10 )
                    4 element 6 meter Yagi
                    Dipole for 80 meters
                    Dipole for 40 meters
                    Comet vertical for 144 & 430 MHz
                    12 element yagi for 70 cm ( Packet )
                    22 element 23 cm ( Receive ATV )
                    Dish for 2.3 Giga Hertz ( Send ATV )

         Coax :  Distance shack<-> tower is 40 meters.
                    RG-213 for HF and 6 meters
                    AIRCOM Plus for VHF & UHF
                    ECOFLEX - 15 for 23 & 13 cm               		 

       "Mouse-over spot "
          37 years ago

       " Mouse-over spot "
           29 years ago
  .
 		      
 
MY HAM RADIO IN 2008
 
    .    
PACTOR        


Click to enlarge		 Pactor was invented by a group German radio-amateurs who found a way to make a better
AMTOR. It soon at my interest and I started with a KAM controller followed by the
AEA PK-900. I became one of the very first H.F /pactor<> packet gateways on the 20
meter band. Several ten-thousand messages have been going through the gate.
Later I became an early Pactor-II user with the SCS PTC-II followed by PACTOR- 3
who opened the way towards "high speed digital transmission over the HF bands".
There are many gateways in use  today.
So I switched my interest to " Error Free digital SSTV " Pactor-3 together with
GAMMA software written by Paul DJOCU makes a fine team.
The set-up you see by clicking the thumbnail on the left is no longer in use since
I started with the Winlink 2000 described here under.
P.S : You can download the GAMMA software free at : www.simple32.com

 
WINLINK 2000        
 

 

 

Click to enlarge

 
The Internet has become the e-mail medium of choice for most hams, but there is a
sizeable group of amateurs who often travel beyond the reach of the Internet.
This group includes hams at sea, Mobil homes, missionaries, scientists and explorers.
No doubt the day will come when wireless, affordable Internet e-mail access will be
available from any point on the globe.
Until that day arrives, however, Amateur Radio HF digital operators have a very
capable substitute!. Winlink2000 is a HF ham radio network that uses HF Pactor-2
or -3 and -4 plus the Internet.
This global network consist of 4 CMS ( Central Management SERVERS ) Vienna,
San Diego - USA, Halifax Canada and Perth Australia. The 4 servers are connected
via broadband internet lines. The servers are backing-up each other.
These 4 servers are again connected with +/- 50 RMS's  of which ON0FS is ONE.
The RMS and the Servers are also connected over a permanent broadband internet line.
ON0FS- RMS consist of 3 X IC718 ICOM transceivers + 2 ICOM IC-7200
, each having his own SCS Pactor-4 Dragon7800 modem
Radio hams at sea, in their motor homes, in the Jungle, on sailboats have
a Laptop running " Airmail 2000" ( similar as Outlook Express) a pactor-2/3
controller and an HF transceiver who connect with the RMS over HF radio.
They can exchange TEXT OVER IP messages with each other, ask for weather
bulletins, APRS , emergency traffic etc... By each transmission they can send their
GPS location which can be seen by all internet users.
ON0FS started with RMS Packet 9600 bps sofar with low response. Users will have to install
a free software PACLINK through this you will be able to use OUTLOOK EXPRESS
for input and receive your mails. RMS Packet will run on 70 cms at 9600 Bps.
Calls from non radio-amateurs will be ignored.
For more information go to my own winlink site: www.on5fs.be ( updated soon...)
Early 2008 ON5FS/RMS received athorisation from the Belgian BIPT
to run the station " unmanned " Due to this change the callsign is now ON0FS

Operated by the sysop ON5FS


 
    .    
SATELLITE        


Click to enlarge		 In 2004 I will be on the Pacsats for 10 years . The same system  is still in use and
has worked on full automatic without any major problem. This system was  indented
for packet with the pacsats like : ko-23 / ko-25 / UO-22 .
When DX expeditions  went to far away and remote islands our pacsat system was the
ONLY secure system to send written messages and pictures. The speed was 9600
baud and we had about 15 minutes to communicate with the sat each pass.
But it was fun...and worked great... Later a couple 38.400Baud sats did send pictures
to earth. It was an expensive mod  ( transceiver and  modems ) so it didn't last.
Since a couple years we have the AO-40 satellite who is did  well but not long enough
although it still remains an expensive set-up.
In the main time we are looking forward to the launch of the new P3E which is
announced for end 2008. To see my actual satellite set-up click on the thumbnail

 
.        
Amateur Television        


Click to enlarge
 

 After a quite long period of experimenting with TCP/IP at 76.800 baud who had no
success in the Belgian ham world I recently found a new bone.... ATV " Amateur
Television " With help of a couple friends I now am QRV at 13 cm ATV/Send and
23 cm /ATV Receive. Thanks to our local ATV repeater who became necessary due
to the hills of the " Flemish Ardennes ". 4 years later I am receiving on 10 GHz a
and sending on 2400 MHz. The final amplifier is now installed below the tower.
The power has increased from 3 to 40 watts. On the receive side the 13 el Yagi has
been replaced by a simple LNB without dish. The ATV repeater has grown very hard.
It now has 10 GHZ links towards other ATV repeaters. It as switching capability
the user can select ATV repeaters or cameras and so on. 
  .      

 If you are still with me.... we have come to the
 end of the short (?) story about my radio- ham
 hobby. Thank you for your interest and you can
 contact me ( if not via radio ! ) via my e-mail
 address : on5fs@uba.be


           Andre - ON5FS

Click to enlarge
  .      
       
  Last update: 20 february 2012    
Site Meter