A Great Friend and Milcom Monitor Has Passed Away

Photo courtesy of Kevin Burke

Donald G. Edwards Jr. of Northville, passed away suddenly at home after a short battle with cancer on June 28, 2012.

Don was born on April 6, 1954. He was an avid musician playing in many local bands: BlackRiver for 20+ years and more recently Steel Heart. He was also an accomplished Photographer with pictures published in Monitoring Times Magazine. He enjoyed listening to and taking photos of Military aircraft and he was a Licensed Ham Radio operator call sign N2NUM.

Don worked at Coleco industries for many years and at Universal Custom Mill Work.

Don is survived by his wife, Nancy Louer Edwards; daughter Niki (Stephen) Schaffer, son Shaun (Stephanie) Edwards, two beloved grandchildren: Lily Ana Schaffer & Colin Edwards. A brother Harold Tabor and many nieces.

Don was predeceased by his parents Lillian Miller Edwards & Donald Edwards Sr., and two sisters Donna & Audrey.

Family and friends can gather to remember Don at the house : 332 Fourth St, Northville Monday Afternoon, July 2, at 4pm. Arrangements are by the Northville Funeral Home. Condolences may be made to the family online at www.northvillefuneralservice.com.

With deepest sympathies to Nancy and the family.

Smoke off my friend.

New Multipsk Software Package Released

If you are looking for a good and useful sound card digital decoding program, I would suggest you give Multipsk a look. It is a package we use here on the Btown radio ranch. And now Multipsk just got better. I just received the following release from our friend Patrick Lindecker regarding the latest software release of his popular Multipsk sound card decoding package.

Hello to all Ham and SWL,

The new releases of MultiPSK (4.21.1), Clock (1.9.1) and Multidem (2.4.1) are on my website (http://f6cte.free.fr). The main mirror site is Earl's, N8KBR: http://www.eqth.info/multipsk/index.html (click on "United States Download Site"). Another mirror site is Terry's: http://g90swl.co.uk/multipsk/

Multipsk associated to Clock are freeware programs but with functions submitted to a licence (by user key).

The possibility to export TCP/IP data at 48000 Hz has been added to Multidem 2.4.1.

The main improvements of MULTIPSK 4.21.1 are the following:

* In GMDSS, addition of a "Traffic" window: this function permits to display all the last received GMDSS messages, collected by a specific GMDSS WEB server.

The "Traffic" button permits to display all the last GMDSS received messages, collected by a specific GMSS WEB server. In that case, Multipsk will transmit all the messages received by the user (Ham or SWL) to a WEB server. Multipsk will fetch and display all the collected Lentus messages during minutes 0, 5, 10...55. This function permits to follow ships route, beyond one's own distance of reception, to cover large areas.

Note 1: To avoid broadcasting unreliable pieces of information, only messages with correct CRC will be sent to the GMDSS server.

Note 2: GMDSS server files can be supplied (through an exchange of mails with the author) to constitute private GMDSS listening nets.

* In ACARS and HFDL, addition of a "Traffic" window: this function permits to display all the plane position messages, collected by a specific WEB server (ACARS or HFDL).

Note: ACARS or HFDL server files can be supplied (through an exchange of mails with the author) to constitute private ACARS or HFDL listening nets.

* In Lentus, addition of a "Traffic" window: this function permits to display all the last received and transmitted Lentus messages, collected by a specific Lentus WEB server.

* In DGPS, addition of information about the Station number and possibility of automatic switching to the DGPS detected speed ("Automatic" button).

* in the QSO window, possibility to find a word in the text.

* Possibility to receive TCP/IP data at 48000 Hz (to interface SdR programs, for example).

* In APRS, GMDSS, ACARS and HFDL, there is a better display on Google Earth and local maps with dashes between dots, only if the "Display all" button is pushed.

Miscellaneous

The paper "Lentus easy with Multipsk.doc" has been updated and is available on my website: http://f6cte.free.fr/LENTUS_easy_with_Multipsk.doc.

Note about translation of Multipsk.exe and Clock .exe: the 4.21 version of Multipsk/Clock has been completly translated to Spanish by Joachin (EA4ZB), from French. The translation file is on my Web site (http://f6cte.free.fr/Translation_files.htm).

Beginners Guide to Trunking Basics

If you are new to scanning or public safety trunking has just become active in your area. be sure to check out A Basic Guide to Trunking wriiten by Uniden's Paul Optiz. It is available in Adobe pdf format by clicking here.

Murphy VIPER TRS Site Operational

The new VIPER TRS Site 45 located in Murphy is now operational. Caught my first TG on it this morning 57392 which is a P25 digital TG within the VIPER Medical TG series. It is assigned to Murphy Medical Center (VMB5) and was being used by a Cherokee EMS unit with an enroute patient report.

In order to monitor this TRS system, you will need a digital trunking scanner (we have them in stock at Grove Enterprises http://www.grove-ent.com).

Local VIPER TRS frequencies
Murphy Site (Cherokee Cty) SysID C92D Site ID 045 (2D)
866.0875 866.3375 866.9000 867.2000a 868.8375c 868.9125

In addition to state agencies, it is my understanding that County agencies will also migrate to this system in the future. Looks like Cherokee Co EMS has started to make their move.

I also have a report that Clay County is using VIPER now. Probably from Wine
Springs but maybe also from Joanna Bald.

Joanna Bald (Cherokee Cty) SysID C92D Site ID 008 (8)
866.8250 867.0750 867.8250 868.1750a 868.3250c

Wine Springs (Macon Co) SysID C92D Site ID 010 (A)
866.1375 866.3875 867.3375 868.1125a 868.8750c

So let the fun begin.

MT 2012 Annual Air Show Guide Now Available Online

Monitoring Times magazine, the world's leading radio hobby communications magazine has just posted to their website the Annual Air Show Listening Guide in pdf format for download. And the cost is right - free!

You can download your copy by clicking here.