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On the World’s Stage

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As amateur radio operators, we often take for granted our ability to easily reach out to the far corners of the globe. A late evening QSO with Europe, while exhilarating, is by no means uncommon. We’ll regularly trade ‘fish stories’ about that crazy contact that we made on low power with a ramshackle antenna but rarely stop to think about just how strange a notion this would be to someone not familiar with our hobby. Double this effect for anyone not familiar with the principals of RF communication, and HF communication in particular. Read More...

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Amateur Radio: The Ultimate STEM Activity

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External display output on the IC-7610 makes instruction easy.

How time does fly. It seems like just last week I made a post about my Field Day adventures in and around the Atlanta area. I explored the concept of Field Day as Amateur Radio’s open house and spending time with several different groups to learn what makes Field Day special for them. In truth, of course, it’s been a full 12 months and yet another Field Day is in the log. This year, I took Field Day on the road and spent the weekend with a marvelous group of young men and women up in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Read More...

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Is Your Digital Repeater Ham Friendly?

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Digital technology continues to flood our repeater frequencies, leaving many questions about standardization. If you are one of those who are holding out, or have been sucked into the bandwagon of the latest craze of the repeater gods, take a few steps back and ask yourself: do we have a ham friendly repeater?

Many of the advances over the last 35 years for amateur repeaters have come from the land mobile or commercial radio world. For instance, the use of tone and tone squelch to allow repeater frequencies to be reused across a geographical area that previously was not possible. This was a great advancement and allowed more people to have their “own” repeater. However, I feel that the latest phase in digital has brought in a dangerous trend that few understand, and as a result, there are several fundamental freedoms that ham radio operators are unknowingly giving up! Read More...

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Who’s that on the Radio? Creating Your Ham Identity

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Behind every Ham is a callsign. It is how you are known in the amateur radio community. Creating your own callsign (vanity callsign) helps to personalize your radio identity.

Throughout the years, as I have upgraded my ham license, I have also changed my callsign. I received my first callsign (KB5KCL) while living in Starkville, MS. After moving to the Pacific Northwest I felt changing my callsign (KC7JPA) to my new region would simplify things. I was happy with that callsign, until the introduction of the IC-7800. Once exposed to the world of DX and contesters, I quickly learned the need for a 1×2 callsign. After upgrading once again, I snagged my current sign, N9JA. Read More...

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Emergency Preparedness: How Will You Communicate?

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Emergency Preparedness ChecklistCommunication is essential, although we often take it for granted. Today we live in a world where information is instantly available. But what if there is an emergency situation and our communication tools are no longer working? How will you contact loved ones or emergency personal? September is recognized as National Preparedness Month. Icom America wants to provide our customers with some communication solutions, which could be helpful during an emergency.

Cell Phones

Cell phones are part of our daily lives, however they have vulnerabilities, especially during an emergency. Networks can fail. Cell towers or satellites could go down. Regardless of any failures, cell phones can still be extremely useful. Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) messages can be received by your cell phone, even if the network is congested. Read More...

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Why Buy the Dynamic New IC-7300?

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In Icom’s 50+ years of providing communication solutions, our amateur radio products have always been on the leading edge of innovation. Our new IC-7300 HF transceiver continues that bold tradition by providing yet another amateur radio first – an RF direct sampling system.

And, it doesn’t stop there:

  • Real-Time Spectrum Scope
  • Audio Scope
  • Large Touch Screen Color TFT LCD
  • Multi-dial Knob for Intuitive Menu Selection
  • Built-in Automatic Antenna Tuner

Introduced at the Tokyo JARL Hamfair 2015, it’s now ready for your ham shack.

IC-7300 Brochure Image

RF Direct Sampling System

We’ve deployed a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) along with a digital signal processor (DSP) to essentially replace a traditional superheterodyne receiving system. In the bargain, we’ve eliminated the physical mixer. Read More...

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#IcomEverywhere — Dayton Hamvention® 2016

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Last year I wrote all about the preparation for the Hamvention® in Welcome to the Big Show – complete with circus theme. I even spoke about trying to limit our activities to just three rings.

Well, this year we’re actually setting up the three rings: our main booth, the D-STAR booth, and new for 2016 our Land Mobile booth, where I’ll be spending some time.

We’re even bringing our own circus animal in Max, the Icom America mascot, star of the Zack and Max comic book adventures.

#IcomEverywhere — IC-7300 Front and Center Read More...

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IC-7300 — A Game Changer

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Many who have seen the preliminary information on the IC-7300 have used terms like “Revolutionary”  and “Game Changer”.  How could a radio in this price category generate the amount of excitement?  A new receiver design – Direct RF Sampling.  But before we go into the differences and benefits of a Direct RF Sampling receiver, lets get a basic understanding of this NEW design.

Direct RF Sampling

With the advances in RF design, a new series of semiconductors are available that digitize segments of RF Spectrum.  While traditional receiver designs utilize Local Oscillators, LO, these Analog to Digital converter, ADC, devices have become the heart of the IC-7300 receiver design.  As you read through this blog, you are taken through a topical review of this receiver, but nothing takes the place of an actual “on air” experience.  So, you will want to head to your favorite Icom dealer to “hear” this science in action! Read More...

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IC-7300: If King Midas was a Ham

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7300-b

We have all heard the stories of King Midas and the “Midas Touch” since we were young.  While we would all love the ability to touch something and turn it into gold, we feel we’ve done just that with the introduction of the IC-7300!

While it may not be financial riches, the IC-7300 allows you to actually “touch” spectrum.  As wild as that may sound, the touch screen gives you control of the 7300 much faster than a click of your mouse.

Had King Midas been a ham operating the IC-7300, we would hear tales in the ham world of the “QSO” touch — that every signal he touched, turned into a QSO! Read More...

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National Parks on the Air and Scouting

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Icom has been a sponsor of Scouting for over 15 years by supporting Jamboree on the Air, and more recently with the station loan program for Scout councils/camps, and as the official transceiver supplier for the K2BSA National Scout Jamboree operation.  Given that background, I was fascinated to learn about the ARRL’s year-long program promoting the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. It’s called National Parks on the Air.

Scouting and National Parks

PrintThe great outdoors and Scouting go together like peas and carrots!  And it appears that the ARRL recognizes this as well as I see Youth/Scouting involvement as one of the items on the “Five Star Activator” award. Read More...