CQ-Louisville Bluegrass Fusion Network (21014 on WIRES-X Network)
The repeaters listed below are linked together 24 X 7 through the CQ-Louisville Room (21014) on the Yaesu WIRES-X digital C4FM network.
For more information on Yaesu's WIRES-X network click HERE.
When you transmit through any of these repeaters in digital mode (C4FM Digital Narrow or Digital Wide) your transmission will be repeated on ALL of these repeaters, because they are all connected to the CQ-Louisville WIRES-X Room. You only need to be transmitting in C4FM Digital Mode through any of these repeaters (or into the CQ-Louisville Room through some other connection) for this to happen. Note that you don't need to go into "WIRES-X Mode" on your transciever to do this; simply transmit into a connected repeater in Digital Mode from your tranceiver.
So, for example, you are in your car and you make a call in C4FM Digital Narrow mode on the W4CN repeater... Your call is heard by everyone else on any other connected repeater, or WIRES-X node, or Ham Hotspot as long as they are also connected to the CQ-Louisville WIRES-X Room. Note this also includes Echolink node 634824. You therefore, may converse with Hams that are connected to the CQ-Louisville Room anywhere in the world through this network. Yes, that means Japan, Austrailia, France, or any State in the USA etc. So if you have a buddy in Texas for example, and they can connect to CQ-Louisville on WIRES-X on their local repeater in Dallas, or using their Ham Hotspot, you may have a conversation with them through this CQ-Louisville connection by using any of the repeaters listed below.
Navigating/Redirecting a Repeater to a Different WIRES-X Room
The repeaters marked with an asterisk* are set up so you may redirect their connection to other WIRES-X Rooms if you like. This redirection to other rooms will remain established for 20 to 30 minutes, then the repeater will reconnect back to the CQ-Louisville Room. Therefore, you do not need to reconnect these repeaters back to th CQ-Louisville Room when you finish using them, they will return to CQ-Louisville as their "home" room automatically. Please note that redirection of a WIRES-X connection cannot be done if you are coming into the network using a Ham Hotspot or Echolink. Refer to your transciever's operating manual(s) for how to navigate a repeater/WIRES_X node to a different WIRES-X Room. There are also videos on Youtube that may assist you with this, or talk with a knowlegable ARTS club member for more information.
Please be courteous - Before you redirect a repeater to another WIRES-X Room, please check to see if anyone is using the repeater in either the digital or analog FM modes. You do this by calling out with your call sign and asking if the repeater is in use (do this in both modes), and annouce that you are going to navigate it to a different WIRES-X Room for a while. If someone else is using the repeater or we are having a net, please do not navigate the repeater to another WIRES-X Room.
List of Always-Connected Repeaters and How to Access the CQ-Louisville Bluegrass Fusion WIRES-X Room
Below is a list of the linked repeaters, their transmit frequencies and general geographic locations. You may access the CQ-Louisville Room and these linked repeaters in several ways: (1) through any of these repeaters by simply transmitting in C4FM digital mode, (2) through your direct WIRES-X Node connection to CQ-Louisville, (3) using your Ham Hotspot connected to the US-KY-CQ-Louisville YSF Reflector (42274), or (4) use of the KE4JVM-R EchoLink Node (634824).
Note, when using this WIRES-X room or transmitting through these repeaters or the YSF Reflector be sure to only use a DG-ID of 0 on your transciever.
WIRES-X Linked Repeaters:
- KE4JVM 145.230 C4FM - Downtown Louisville
- KE4JVM 442.625 C4FM - Downtown Louisville
- KC4ZMZ 145.280 C4FM - Prospect (local area)
- W4CN 147.180 C4FM* - Audubon Hospital, Louisville
- N9GTO 147.090 C4FM* - Knobs above I-64 Bridge
- K4KTR 147.390 C4FM* - Oldham County - Crestwood, near Shelby County Line
Here's a mini-discussion of the two logging options I use for POTA activations. Link to the original Reddit thread here.
-KO4SWB
HAMRS is absolutely fantastic for POTA hunting.
One of K8MRD's YouTube videos turned me on to it. With an internet connection (not hard to setup a hotspot with a smart phone as long as you have cell service), you can copy details from any POTA spot (callsign, park, frequency, etc.) directly into your QSO record. Then you only have to enter both signal reports and you're done. If it's a 2fer or 3fer, you can either repeat the process with other spots or just add the extra park or parks to the park field, and the app will save individual QSO's for all parks involved.
As a backup, I nearly always export my logbooks to an ADI file as soon as I'm done activating, save them to my hard drive, and email them to myself before I pack up. If you're planning a really long activation, you can always make a habit of exporting a backup every 10 or 20 QSO's to be really safe.
When logging non-park to park contacts for an activation, HAMRS will pull in any data from your designated database (QRZ, HamDB, and HamQTH are all supported, but internet is required). Once you get the hang of it, you can just enter the callsign and signal reports then lookup the grid squares after the fact if you wanna include them.
For the truly lazy ham such as myself, the simplest thing to do is run a digital mode for your activation. It is easier, of course, on some rigs than others to setup digital modes, but once that's done, the software will do nearly all of the logging for you. WSJT-X can be configured to prompt for confirmation with every completed contact. For example, sometimes on FT8, I have to enter a grid square manually-- especially common when the QSO is interrupted and I have to pick it back up later. Honestly, it's like having a little radio butler with you. I've added GridTracker to the mix for my last two activations, and it's like the radio world is a menu at a restaurant where I'm the richest guy in town.
With these tools at my disposal, my default MO for any activation is first to hunt all SSB spots I can get for Park 2 Parks, logging those with HAMRS. Then I switch over to FT8 to get as many contacts as I can that way. Finally, I finish up by trying to hunt some juicy DX contacts with admittedly mixed results. But that's my 10 watts through a ground mounted vertical antenna with only 3 radials talking there-- nothing to do with the logging strategy. Managed to pull off a Park 2 Park QSO with a ham in France on FT8, so it can be quite rewarding.
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Amateur Radio Transmitting Society
P.O. Box 7391
Louisville, KY. 40257
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