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.
Amateur Radio: The Ultimate STEM Activity
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.
A Winning Combination
Ding. The sound rang through the house. I was up in the kitchen, my shift for the day having come and gone, but the small sound from downstairs could have been a gunshot for the immediate effect it had. All conversation stopped and every set of eyes in the room snapped over to the small computer monitor glowing in the corner. The screen showed the combined logs for the weekend and the top line showed highlighted text. The small ding, the source of our excitement, was from one of a set of call bells, like what you might find at the front desk of a hotel, placed at each of the six stations downstairs, poised to be struck each time a new multiplier entered the log.
IC-7300 – The Shack’s Newest Addition
I was recently enjoying an afternoon in the shack, and while the HF bands were a bit flat that day, I still had fun looking at pictures of fellow amateurs’ stations as shown on the various ham radio websites. It’s always fun to see how various shacks are configured.
I tend to study the ergonomics of each layout, down to the vintage and models shown. Before long, I came across a picture of a guy’s re-staged novice day station. The receiver shown was far better than my trusty Hallicrafters S38, but it was this fellow’s novice transmitter that caught my eye! It was the mighty Ameco AC-1. This small-framed two-tube powerhouse featured crystal controls (novices could not use VFOs back then), two tubes (6V6 and 6L6) and plug-in coils for 80 or 40 meters–my choice (it did not cover 15). I spent my hard earned $20 on this baby, which may as well have been $2000 to this young op. Within minutes of my delivery, I had my soldering iron hot to the touch, and began building what was my very first kit project. The next day I completed the transmitter, plugged it into the AC outlet, and watched my new (and only) HF transmitter go up in smoke… a lot of very black, acrid, foul smelling smoke! My bedroom was spared the embarrassment and cost of a full-blown, working fire. I cannot recall there being actual flames, but I learned what burning insulated wire smelled like. My youthful and distressingly intrepid ego went up in smoke in that moment as well! The AC1 never fully recovered and my ego took a lot longer to be restored, such as it was for a 15 year old east coast kid.
New Challenges / New Rig! IC-9100
In some ways, 1966 seems like a week ago! I vividly recall a sunny Sunday afternoon out on Long Island at a schoolmate’s house, as I prepared myself for what would be my very first QSO. I had not yet assembled a station of my own, but Donny had a pretty nice one, so I was slowly tuning his receiver on the 40 Meter Novice Band. I had a handful of crystals that would establish my transmit frequency, as transmitter VFO’s were not allowed to be used by Novice Class operators.
I had slowly called CQ and before long, I received a response from a fellow in Paducah, KY. I had an instant case of ‘key fright’, and, armed with a Boy Scout Morse Code guide, used it to decipher letters that I was unsure of. It was a very intense few minutes as we traded the needed information for a complete QSO. The memory of that on-air encounter was worth every awkward second, and destined to be high on my list of firsts.
The New Icom Rig In My Shack: IC-7610
When it comes to Amateur Radio, I am an HF “meat and potatoes” guy. When I was first licensed in the mid-sixties CW and “phone”-along with some RTTY, was the “main event” for most.
We each have our favorite modes. Mine has always been CW. I see it as a language fluency–an art form, if you will.
CW is still my personal preference. Using this mode, I enjoy random QSO’s “rag chewing” with like-minded acquaintances and new friends about various topics such as family, geography, weather and the like. I also like chasing DX as well, and will switch to S SB on six meters to increase my grid square count.
Is Your Digital Repeater Ham Friendly?
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!
Amateur Radio Emergency Communications — Be Prepared
Earlier on this blog, I wrote about Emergency Communications — Amateur Radio’s Role. In that post I touched on the things that I feel make amateur radio ideal for emergency communications:
- Communication Options — Amateur radio offers frequencies from HF to VHF to UHF as well as communication modes from CW to D-STAR. That range of options allows local, regional, or national communications in times of need.
- Volunteers — The number of licensed amateur radio operators has never been greater. They are eager to get involved to help out in any situation.
- Training — There are plenty of training options available from introductory courses to management courses. That includes ARRL courses as well as FEMA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), Incident Command System (ICS), and National Incident Management System (NIMS) training.
- Experience — ARRL Field Day is a great way to test your club’s ability to get a station on the air, make contacts, and get everyone involved. Hopefully, you also have other events that you’re supporting in addition to your routine repeater and equipment maintenance.
I also pointed out in that blog post that there can often be a big gap between technical skills and the human skills that we bring to any emergency. It’s all well and good that we have the radios, training, and experience but if we can’t mesh with the existing first responder organization, we’re not really helping. And, in fact, we may be hindering their effectiveness.
Dayton Hamvention® 2017 — Change for the Better
They say that change is inevitable, but I was beginning to have my doubts about Hamvention®. I should not have.
The Dayton Amateur Radio Association (DARA) started the event in 1952 with 600 in attendance, and moved to HARA Arena in 1964, where attendance climbed to near 30 thousand.
Now they have moved to the Greene County Fairgrounds in Xenia, Ohio. What a fantastic venue and what a great job by DARA in getting this huge event up and running.
Hams to Japan – #H2JA
We’re really excited to hold the Hams to Japan Sweepstakes and wanted to incorporate it into the mix at the Hamvention® booth this year. A kiosk was placed at the from of our booth, allowing visitors to sign up while at Hamvention®. We have had great participation so far and only expect more until our final drawing. The grand prize drawing, a trip for two to 2017 Tokyo Hamfair or an IC-7300, will announce the second week of July.
D-STAR Live 2017 — All About D-STAR from A to Z
It has been a while since my blog post titled “D-STAR — It’s not just for the kids.” I was thinking about that this past weekend during D-STAR Live. It isn’t just for the kids, but it is easy enough for anyone to get engaged. Plus, there are so many different aspects to explore and they were all on display during this four-hour information packed session.
View the Recording
I’ll provide a quick summary here. But, you can find the recording at the bottom of this blog. It’s divided into four segments to cover the full four hours.