With the construction of new nodes and the addition of UHF to several others, we are working on updating our maps.
Roger N1XP is working on an updated printable PDF, which will be located in the Files section.
Brad KC1JMH has replaced the card style Nodes list with an interactive map that can be filtered and sorted. Looking at the list below the map, nodes will appear in order of distance from your location if you allow your location to be shared in your web browser (a pop-up should present itself to ask you).
As noted on our pages, this is a work in progress, as time allows between work and personal lives. If you spot anything wrong or missing with our data, please reach out to one of us. Our email addresses are good on QRZ, or you can use the Contact form in the menu to the left.
We want to share accurate and timely information from across the state, and we need your help!
We have received word that K1DQ-15 in Shapleigh is now on the air, sharing tower space with an amazing DMR repeater. The packet radio node SSID’s are -2 BBS and -15 Node, Winlink RMS is pending and will likely be -10.
This is a dual-band site, providing York County and points well beyond due to its altitude with access to the statewide network.
Node information including frequency and available applications will be posted to the Nodes page as the site continues to develop.
As of Saturday, May 15th, The WS1EC UHF backbone connection is now online, and with it the Midcoast is reachable again from Cumberland County! The node is able to reach the new KC1JMH-15 node in Westbrook and on occasion the N1QFY-15 node in Gardiner, on UHF.
Of note, the node’s SSID’s have been updated: It is primarily accessible at WS1EC-15, BBS is now -2, CHAT is now -5, Winlink RMS remains -10.
The existing station consisted of a 2-meter Kenwood TK-760H that was donated by Brad Brown KC1JMH, connected to Raspberry Pi running linbpq node software with TNC-X hat via a custom TNC cable, all built and assembled by Roger Pience N1XP.
On May 15th, Brad met with James Fraser KB1SDK, a member of the Cumberland County EMA. An unused repeater was disconnected and a jumper run from the hardline to a Yaesu 7800r which was donated to the Wireless Society of Southern Maine. The radio was then connected to the Pi using a DINAH USB radio interface, which Brad had displayed at a club meeting in March, and curious to see how well it worked, had donated to the cause. On one end is an 8-PIN DIN or data interface port, the other is USB, inside is a CM108 soundcard that supports push-to-talk.
Direwolf was installed to be a KISS TNC sound modem. It took some tinkering with Direwolf to make it play nice with the DINAH USB radio interface; it turned out that the version of Direwolf in the Raspbian repository (1.3) is too old to support PTT over the CM108 chip in the DINAH. Once Direwolf was installed fresh from the git repository (1.7), there were no further problems.
Future planned updates include swapping out the higher-altitude 2-meter antenna with a dual-band antenna and connecting both radios via a duplexer. James plans on setting up a radio rack for the repeater, which will eventually see a higher-altitude UHF antenna, and a tray included to help consolidate the packet station into a neater but still air-gapped package.
Thank you James KB1SDK for making yourself available for this work detail, and Roger N1XP for the phone support for the software changes.
As some of our astute hams have noticed, KC1JMH-15 has appeared on the BPQ nodes maps. Located in Westbrook, ME, and having both VHF and UHF radios, this node is our key to connecting Southern Maine with Midcoast Maine, allowing traffic to flow from New Hampshire to Canada along the i95 corridor.
Information on this node will be made available on our Nodes page and our printable maps as it continues to be developed and implemented.
A special thanks goes out to Richard Bates WD1O for his hard work and coordination to get this done. This could not have happened without him!
Thank you for visiting the Maine Packet Network website. Our mission is to build and maintain a packet radio backbone to interconnect several community-level networks and their respective emergency communications teams across Maine and beyond its borders.
Further, our goal is to pull together all the bits of information about packet radio operations scattered across the web, and to give operators of all skill levels one place to go to learn about packet radio and get connected with the network.
For more information about our group, please visit the About Us page. If you would like to contribute, please reach out to Brad Brown, KC1JMH.
Sticker your equipment with the MEPN logo created by our friend Tim W1TGG, share your interest in packet radio with a coffee cup, or carry parts in a branded accessory bag.
The store is hosted by Teespring, sponsored by the Wireless Society of Southern Maine ham radio club. Goods are sold as close to $0 profit as the vendor will allow, as neither the MEPN or WSSM is in a position to accept donations at this time.
