PlanetHam.org

I spent some time re-arranging the station area in the basement cubby-hole after unloading the jed-clampett-mobile in the days following Field Day.  Here’s a picture to remember it by, because I’m sure it will soon again be covered by several years of miscellaneous unrelated items.  Things seem to find their way their over time.   Here’s what [...]

PC World magazine has published an article titled 'When Networks Fail, Hams to the Rescue'

Fred Kennedy ZL1BYP has published a progress report on the KiwiSAT Amateur Radio Satellite being built in New Zealand

The new Dorset 2 metre D-STAR repeater GB7MM will be switched on today Wednesday 9th July at 1800UTC

The Portage County Amateur Radio Service (PCARS) announces the first Ohio State Parks On The Air Contest to be held on Saturday, September 6, 2008

Nicole Stott, KE5GJN is just one of the ham radio astronauts named for the remaining space shuttle flights to the International Space Station during 2009 and 2010 - plus one scheduled flight to the Hubble Space Telescope

Information is no longer being collected about the purchasers of radio transmitters in New Zealand. Radio Dealers in New Zealand used to have to supply the MED with details of who they sold certain types of transmitter to, this is now no longer the case

Weekly IOTA News - compiled by the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club

A team from Kilmarnock and Loudoun ARC will be active from Kerrera Island EU008, west coast of Scotland, for the RSGB IOTA contest

A new DXpedition is being planned to The Selvagens Islands (IOTA AF 047)

IARU Region 2 (the Americas) has appointed new Emergency Communications and Monitoring System Coordinators

Group ready to help provide emergency communications: Ever think about what would happen if a disaster hit DuPage County? Lisle resident Kent TeVault already has a plan. "You don't want to dwell on the awful things that can happen," he said. "But someone has to, and that's what we do." By "we" TeVault means Amateur Radio Emergency Services, a group he volunteered to head in late 2007. Since then, the local ARES service team has grown to about 20 members from Lisle and surrounding areas. The team is prepared to help local law enforcement in emergency situations, whether that means setting up channels of communication for first responders, relaying information to other amateur radio controllers or offering additional support in an emergency. For instance, when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana in 2005, ARES service teams relayed requests for help when those who were stranded could not reach 911 call centers, according to the organization's Web site.

Amateur radio operators are “used all the time” when thunderstorms move through Rockwall County. Yet, though the lightning from storms in the county Saturday night shut down their local participation for a few hours in the national annual American Amateur Radio Field Day Saturday, it was not a severe enough storm to call into play their storm-spotting network. They keep an antenna mounted at the Rockwall County Sheriff’s office, and on short notice can immediately staff it with an operator and radio to apprise deputies of storms and tornados. Last weekend though was about the ability to set up in the field, using stand-alone power, and make as many contacts as possible. About 20 licensed operators of the Rockwall Amateur Radio Club and the Trinity Valley Amateur Radio Club from Kaufman, and about six people new to amateur radio, gathered inside and outside the former Royse City Middle School to ride the waves. Amateur radio operaters explore the the frequencies and band widths at the various times of year and days which allow communications thousands of miles away. It is a hobby, and sometimes the only, or a main method of commucation during disasters, such as 9/11 or hurricanes.

Muscle Shoals, AL, July 7, 2008—Creative Services Software, Inc. (CSS) today announced a maintenance release of the company’s radio control software. Version 3.76.15 of both PacTerm (for Timewave/AEA TNCs) and PKTerm (for Kantronics TNCs) is now available for download at no charge for customers with current maintenance contracts.

Ok, I’m a bit out of touch how to implement this on a OS-X machine - ideas?  Clients?  Software?   Assistance appreciated!   73   Steve K9ZW     —— copied material from several net sources and from emails sent to me:       CWirc - Morse Code over the Internet Now you can send and receive morse code via the Internet thanks to CWirc, an X-Chat plugin for sending and [...]

The Whitman Amateur Radio Club has produced a special edition Field Day 2008 Newsletter available via its web site. The nine-page newsletter highlights the club's activities during Field Day, listing the call signs of 39 club members and ten ham visitors. It also showcases their two youngest visitors: 6-year-old Patrick and 8-year-old Colben, who made contacts on 2-meter FM. Congratulations to the Whitman ARC for a job well-done!

A rather large unexpected (by us) Pacific storm settled onto Summit County pounding the Ten Mile Range for 36hrs with heavy rains and low clouds making a safe passage over peaks 8-9 all but impossible. After spending a wet night on the mountain we decided to save our adventure for another day. Not wanting to attract more lightning than we already experienced hence no radio contacts were attempted.

I've often felt that you can tell a lot about countries by the way they manage amateur radio and communication in general.

Look at this story

News from Roger, G3SXW about his activity this weekend! Olof, G0CKV's location can be tracked via APRS here

I was curious and measured the velocity of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), eHam, and QRZ websites. Compete [Web2.0] defined velocity as, "Velocity is an effective way to measure the impact of planned (or unplanned) events, such as new advertising campaigns, product/service launches or general site growth. Simply choose an event date as the starting point to see how it has affected a site's attention over time." Time is currency and holding attention is value. Field Day 2008 produced a neglible velocity bump. In contrast, QRZ is effectively holding attention when compared to the ARRL and eHam, overall with Field Day included. The QTH for ham radio operators is QRZ?

July looks to be a busy month for Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS). On Friday, July 4, members of the Austin Amateur Radio Club (AARC) facilitated a successful ARISS contact between the International Space Station (ISS) and Cub Scout Pack #304 and Blackland Prairie Elementary School in Round Rock, Texas. Before an audience of 100, 10 Cub Scouts asked nearly 20 questions of Greg Chamitoff, KD5PKZ. Chamitoff launched into space on May 31 on the space shuttle Discovery and took over on the ISS for Garrett Reisman, KE5HAE. Chamitoff is scheduled to return to Earth in November.

This is a short blog update sharing the status of my current projects in progress. I needed to do this to attempt to prioritise my efforts.

Cumbrian Q1SR near clone, all components have been procured, the PCB layout is probably 80% complete, steps to move this project forward:

• Finish PCB layout
• Run off Gerbers and send to Andrew for checking
• Print top and bottom foils and check footprints against actual components
• Make any minor mods required
• Send Gerbers off for manufacture

Priority: points 1 & 2 must be towards the top of the list!

HPSDR Pheonix, waiting for the remainder of parts to arrive from Al in the States, missed taemspeak this week, so not sure of latest status, however from last week’s teamspeak Al was waiting for a couple of long lead items to arrive before dispatch of kits to alpha builders.

• As soon a the remaining parts arrive, construction will re-commence.
• I don’t believe the 125Mhz clock will be part of this kit, and I assuming Phil has a solution to this issue?

HPSDR Penelope / CSDR integration, waiting for a ‘rigrunner’ to arrive before hooking up the individual supplies, this item has been outstanding for over 4 weeks now!

• Install rigrunner
• Hook-up interconnections
• Install new software and commission
• Test on air

This list may not happen, depending on the progress of Pheonix, if Pheonix flickers into life soon, I’ll bypass the Penelope / CSDR integration and wait for the arrival of Mercury J

Cumbrian magnetic loop controller, as predicted this is a slow ongoing project, bubbling along in the background, however with the arrival of the K2 the background noise on 20M with my 132’ doublet is over S9! I’m sure the loop will help here, so this project may see some progress shortly.

Gate Dip Oscillator, I have yet to mention this new piece of test gear on the blog, but suffice to say I’m pulling on together from parts from the junk box, the hardware is finished, PCB etched and drilled, just need some time soldering the few components required. This however is another background task.

DSP-10, This build is slowly progressing, the DSP has been ‘boxed’ the RF PCB is about 85% complete, and is currently on hold due to missing components, basically lack of funds have stalled this build. This project is once again a background task J

High Performance Analog Defined Radio (HPADR), this is a new project, hinted at a couple of posts ago, basically I’m about to embark on a new radio build, based around Martein’s excellent work. I predict the front end boards will be with me with a couple of months, this will mark the start of the build. I am currently intending to develop my own user interface, and am learning a lot through research of graphic displays and touch panels, I am nearing completion of my selection, and following Martein’s advice I will probably be ordering an EA eDIP320-8 intelligent module, it has a number of interfaces and I will probably hook it upto my generic PIC development environment and control it through I2C. More to follow on this shortly J

Sat here in front of the screen and not in the shack, I reasonably confident the above list represents what is currently on the bench here in Cumbria (although I might have missed something), as you can see there’s a lot going on, but as always I’m learning new things at every step. Isn’t that what the hobby is all about, it is for me.

End of update.

Emily Stewart, KC0PTL, a 17 year old from Leavenworth, Kansas, has been named the 2008 Young Ham of the Year (YHOTY), announced YHOTY Award Administrator Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF. Emily was selected based on her commitment to Amateur Radio, along with leadership, outreach, and her technical and public service achievements of the Amateur Radio Service to others. She will receive her award as part of the Huntsville Hamfest. More than two dozen young people were nominated for this award, now in its 22nd year.

Small, but successful Field Day operation at Yale Field - Yale's historic baseball stadium. More info at the new Club blog: W1YU.blogspot.com.

New version of both the Foundation and Intermediate syllabus have been released which will take effect from 1st June 2009

Miles Mann WF1F has posted the latest ISS Amateur Radio Status Report which raises the prospect of Digital Voice on the ISS

An International Space Station Expedition 17 ARISS school contact has been planned with participants from the City of Ottawa Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on 09 July

Smart Metering could become a serious threat for amateur radio, when wide band is used

Mustapha, DL1BDF is reporting some bad news for radio amateurs in Algeria

Tired of listening to the Snoop Doggie Dog or Liberace on your I-Pod? Wouldn't you like to be able to carry with you the kinds of ham radio conversations that you listen to while in your radio shack? Tune in to SolderSmoke!

Inventor Trevor Baylis has hit out at the 'horrible cruelty' of Robert Mugabe in banning Zimbabweans from using his wind-up radio

LEHMAN TWP. -- The Murgas Amateur Radio Club of Wilkes-Barre had its 29th annual “Hamfest” Sunday at the Luzerne County Fairgrounds. Vendors, also known as “tailgaters,” sold new and used ham radios, computers and electronic equipment from tables alongside their vehicles. Visitors to the Hamfest at the Luzerne County Fairgrounds had the opportunity to look over a variety of transmitting devices and other electronic items Saturday morning. Sarah Reed of Bethel, Berks County, said she didn’t mind driving two hours to get to the event. Accompanied by her boyfriend, Matt Miller, Reed, an amateur radio operator or “ham,” said she’s been attending the Hamfest for years. Although Reed belongs to another amateur radio club in her area, she also likes to support the Murgas Club. “I just like coming and looking around,” she said. “I get a kick out of all the stuff.” Money from admission ticket sales and rentals of vendor booths are used to pay for club-sponsored activities such as the annual “Field Day” at Moon Lake Park. The event, which trains for disaster preparedness, attracts hams from around the state. A portion of the proceeds also goes to support the Murgas Scholarship, which is administered by the Foundation for Amateur Radio. The Murgas Amateur Radio Club has about 100 members, said chairman Carol Nygren. The club provides public service communications each year in support of the Wilkes-Barre Triathlon, the Wilkes-Barre YMCA Duathlon and local walks to support diabetes and multiple sclerosis awareness and research. Part of what attracts people to amateur radio is the ability to communicate across the country, around the globe, or even with astronauts on space missions.

When communications networks go down, hams can get communities connected. Normally, in a time of crisis, an "amateur" is not the first person you might call. But when communications networks go down, amateur radio operators -- or hams -- and their gear can get communities connected to the outside world via the radio waves. During the recent Field Day activities hosted by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), ham operators and clubs across North America spent 48 hours demonstrating their communications abilities. After a 24-hour setup period, groups had a second 24-hour window to make as many contacts as possible around the world using voice or Morse Code (knows as Continuous Wave in ham parlance) over varying frequencies. In the case of the Nashua Area Radio Club (NARC), which set up camp at Wasserman Park in Merrimack, New Hampshire, a group made some 1,165 contacts over the 20m band, one in Australia. More important than potential bragging rights for making the most contacts, NARC and other teams participating in Field Day proved they're ready to set up 24/7 communications sites when disaster strikes. To wit, at the Wasserman Park site the group from NARC erected two 70-foot towers complete with various antenna beams, set up tents and campers to house people and gear, and self-powered the site with a gas generator. Many similar camps are currently operating in flood-ravaged parts of the Midwest, says Don Grant, a NARC member that uses the handle N1UBD and was involved in the setup of the Wasserman Park site. Hams also helped maintain communications in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Hams work in conjunction with other volunteer groups such as the Military Affiliated Radio Stations (MARS) and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), both of which work with state and local officials to coordinate communications during emergencies. The ham sites can be used to relay information over voice (both analog and digital, the latter offering greater privacy) or data -- even e-mail.

When electricity and phone service in New Orleans went down during Hurricane Katrina, ham radio operators, running on batteries and generators, kept communications open. They relayed a distress call from a rooftop in New Orleans through a nationwide network of amateur (ham) radio operators from Louisiana to Oregon to Utah to Baton Rouge. Emergency responders then rescued the 15 stranded people. The nation’s ham radio operators stepped up to aid in emergency communications in the aftermath of the disaster, and the White House even mentioned them in its report “The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina: Lessons Learned, Appendix B: What Went Right.” Katrina is an extreme example of ham radio’s ability as an emergency tool, but the Johnson County Radio Amateurs Club is serious about practicing in case it is ever needed.

Read his comment here.

Field Day 2008 goes down in the memory book as stellar ham radio fun. I gained a little more experience especially in the use of N1MM contest logger. Likewise, solving technical issues on the fly, is important as well. We learned how-to breakdown N1MM into separate band categories after reading the instructions. Also, we adapted our 20-Meter CW station using a different type of paddle/keyer because of a missing interface cable.

Thanks for the comment and I'm looking forward to good reads at VU2SGW. Hope too see you in the log in the very near future.

73 from the shackadelic.

The Portage County Amateur Radio Service (PCARS) announces the first Ohio State Parks On The Air Contest to be held on Saturday, September 6, 2008, from the hours of noon to eight p.m. EDT (1600 UTC to 2400 UTC).

Here is another gem from Jean Shepherd. He describes his discovery of CW at age 6 or 7, his first shortwave receiver, and his discovery of amateur radio. Plus, some Army Signal Corps madness.

Click here for the mp3 audio file: Shepherd, Morse, Ham Radio

Steve (N0TU), Peanut and Rooster are at it again. This time the Old Goat Trio are back on Mount Herman for the 2008 ARRL Field Day. Steve made another one of his fun and interesting ham radio videos. Take a look at it on Steve's blog.

73, Bob K0NR

The KY1N Memorial List Scheduled Amateur Radio Volunteer Examinations - CT MA ME NH RI VT 7/07/08 Jim, WW1Y, Editor Date Time Contact Location Phone 07/08/08 19:00 Lawrence Polowy, KU1L Thomaston CT 860-283-4089 07/09/08 19:30 *James Weckback, W1EQW Framingham MA 508-435-6487 07/10/08 17:00 Steven Ewald, WV1X Newington CT 860-594-0265 07/10/08 19:00 Louis Mester, W1CH Providence RI 401-263-6045 07/10/08 19:00 Kevin Cellini, N1KGM Trumbull CT 203-268-5015 07/11/08 18:30 Ralph T Stetson III, KD1R Burlington VT 802-878-6454 07/12/08 08:45 William J Needham, K1WN Braintree MA 781-843-4400 07/12/08 09:00 Ben Fleck, K2LYE Falmouth MA 508-540-2583 07/12/08 09:30 Ernest Laug, KA1NGG Stamford CT 203-348-3993 07/12/08 09:00 Norm Smith, NY1B Union ME 207-354-6853 07/13/08 12:00 Bob Quinn, WV1A Gloucester MA 978-283-4660 07/15/08 19:00 Orrin Riggott, AB1EL Portland CT 860-223-8867 07/16/08 19:00 Robert E Moreland, KA1ZMF Milford CT 203-934-4059 07/17/08 19:30 Louis Harris, N1UEC Canton MA 508-668-0858 07/17/08 18:30 John Ruggiero, N2YHK Worcester MA 508-982-0617 07/19/08 09:00 Bryce Rumery, K1GAX South Portland ME 207-799-1116 07/21/08 19:00 Richard Strycharz Jr, KD1XP Amherst MA 413-665-2211 07/21/08 19:00 Arthur Denault, KB1CNB Fall River MA 774-644-3469 07/22/08 12:00 Adam Woodbury, K1ADW Bedford MA 781-271-3062 07/23/08 19:30 Nick Altenbernd, KA1MQX Cambridge MA 617-253-3776 07/23/08 19:00 *Paul Upham, KD1YH Shirley MA 978-597-6535 07/24/08 18:00 Bryce Rumery, K1GAX South Portland ME 207-799-1116 07/25/08 18:00 David Cote, WA1DC Holyoke MA 413-575-2950 07/26/08 09:00 William D Wilson, K1IN Bloomfield CT 860-869-1059 07/26/08 09:00 Kenneth Carr, KB1AWV Cranston RI 401-828-1665 07/26/08 12:00 +Daniel Lee, W1DFL Danvers MA 978-352-4513

This year, as we have done for at least the last five years, our amateur radio club provided communications for the JayCee’s Ann Arbor Fourth of July Parade. Last year, I tried to get a small flag they were handing out to kids to mount on my HT antenna, but was rebuffed, the woman saying, “These are for kids.”

Well, this year, I brought my own.  Got a lot of great comments on it, too. :)

I've gotten a bit behind after my burst with the three-part series about the ARRL June VHF QSO party. Things have been a bit quiet in radioland for me, and in fact, a quick look at my log shows very few contacts at all after the aforementioned contest. The most exciting contact I had was with TO5E in St. Bart's on July 3, which was a new DXCC entity on 6m for me. Unfortunately, unless a miracle happens at some point over the next few hours, I won't be able to work CY0X on Sable Island. St. Bart's is a relatively new DXCC entity, and I'd previously worked them on some other bands so working them on 6m is nice, but folks live there and it's pretty easy to get to and operate from. I was a little disappointed about missing CY0X on 6m, since although it's existed as a DXCC entity for a long time, I've never managed to work it on 6m. This time, I only heard it once, very weakly, when I was at the radio, so I'll have to wait for the next time.

As I'm sure most of you know, last weekend was ARRL Field Day, but for the first time since I became a ham, I didn't participate at all. We were in Florida to celebrate my mother-in-law's upcoming 90th birthday, and while I did consider taking the small radio with me and attempting to make a few contacts, I realized that we weren't going to have much spare time (I did have about 90 minutes free, which I spent getting a little bit of a suntan while lying around the hotel pool) but more importantly, since we were trying to avoid checking our bags (our trip to Florida was Friday to Sunday), I realized that there was just no way that I'd get the radio and even the smallest antenna I have (the Buddistick) into the carry-on bag I was taking. The past two trips that I've gone down I've taking the radio and operated from Lido Key, which is IOTA NA-034, but unfortunately it didn't work out this time. The closest I got to operating was when I happened to drive past what I realized was the Sarasota Emergency Radio Club's Field Day site. I'd looked it up prior to going to Florida, but  never had a chance to stop by. By pure chance, a route back to the hotel from one of the family functions took me right by there. The next morning, there was a blurb about them on TV, and I'm really sorry that I didn't have a little more spare time to at least stop by.

Despite the fact that I've managed to get a five-day weekend out of the Fourth of July holiday (with the holiday falling on a Friday and my company giving me Monday off as well, I took Thursday the third off to give myself even more time), I haven't really gotten much done on the radio. 6m has been open to at least somewhere every day, but I've had enough things to do that I never seemed to have managed to gotten on the radio as much as I'd like.

As a follow-up, about a month ago I posted a poll asking how folks read this blog. I got 25 responses of which 11 were via an RSS feed and the rest were pretty evenly split between those of you who visit here directly, people who get the feed via email (if you'd like to do that, there's a link right on the main page at the blog website where you can sign up), people who read this via another website (I'd be curious to hear from those of you who do that rather than come here directly; either leave a comment or email me directly) and those of you who read it via the N0HR tool bar. Thanks to those of you who participated.

On a personal note, some of you know that my son, Justin (KC2MCS) has been suffering with a rather serious back problem for well over 2 years. After trying everything else, he's scheduled to have spinal fusion surgery in a little over a week. We are, as they say, cautiously optimistic that this will allow him to get back to a normal life.

I'm teaching myself SH5 written by Dmitriy Gulyaev UA4WLI. This particular screenshot is my CQ WPX 2008 CW summary. It is broken down by band then categorized into QSOs, Time, and Moves. I can measure for the first time the efficacy of my search and pounce strategy. Furthermore, one is given several functions in order to analyze log data, absolutely fascinating. What does this mean too me? I have a visualization(s) of KA3DRR contest production broken down by band and discreetly categorized into useful data sets. Admittedly, I have not peered into the portable document file (pdf) but I just could not wait. Thanks Dmitri, UA4WLI for taking KA3DRR to the next level of RadioSport science. Contest on.

RACES, SKYWARN, and ARES will participate in a statewide hurricane drill on Monday, August 4, 2008. [Full story]

It's probably fair to say that the weather dominated the event for the clubs and groups out in the field. Those of us who, for one reason or another, were not able to get out portable, probably had a lucky escape.

I noticed Dave, G3YMC of the Bracknell club refer to the event as VHF Field Day (Aquatics) and the Newquay group, G4ADV/P were not able to be active owing to the very severe weather that they encountered at their site.

Because we had a lot to try and do this weekend, I had to regretfully turn down a very welcome invitation to operate with the Windmill CG, G0FBB/P. I did try to get on and make a few contacts through the weekend though.

On 50MHz, the bands were initially quiet - though of course I struggle to hear the weaker signals on the band, owing to the S5-6 noise level here. First stations worked were M0XXT/P and G5XV/P - both comparatively local and indeed, I worked them both on 6m, 2m and 70cms. Sunday morning saw a little more distant portable activity and I was able to work T99C/P, YT1W, S56A and S52LW.

On 2m, there was nothing really distant, but I was pleased to work MM0CPS/P from IO84 and OQ4U from JO20. Honour was saved by working G0FBB/P on both 2m and 70cms.

Best DX as usual, on 432MHz was PA6NL over in JO21 as well as a nice crop of G portables.

In total, I made around 35 QSOs across the various bands, which was done in fairly short order. I was sorry to miss 70MHz, but wasn't around at the correct time.

A particular pleasure was to have a number of people say that they enjoyed the Radcom column or this blog - kind words which are warmly appreciated.

Congratulations to everyone who braved the elements and I look forward to reading the results in due course.

I had a nice e-mail from my friend, Steph, F5NZY who lives in Paris.

Like me, Steph's been interested in using solar power to power his station. He has a splendidly large solar panel which charges a lead-acid battery! Most of the time, he uses the battery to power an FT817. I'm trying to persuade him to run a bit more power!

I picked up this link up from Scot, KA3DRR and RadioDawg over at the shackadelic.  There’s a project going on to port TR over to Windows.  The product appears to still be in beta testing, and I understand there are still some outstanding issues with CAT control for certain radios.   The hardware requirements appear to [...]

Peanut, Rooster and Steve — the GoatHiker share their Field Day in this video:

Visit Steve, N0TU’s blog for more video adventure from the field.

73 de Jeff

Working this last week (actually very little radio work) on Washington Island Wisconsin (WI-001L) it again became so very obvious that if an amateur’s station can hear the other guy, then you have a great chance of being able to work them. It isn’t transmitter power you need first, but that ability to identify the other [...]

SuitSat appears on the cover of the June issue of Under the Hood, a supplemental issue of the EE Times

The New Zealand Amateur Radio Frequency Management Technical Advisory Group (FMTAG) has published suggestions for D-STAR simplex frequencies and invites comments

Here's another interesting video from Randy, K7AGE, in which he pays a visit to Beijing and takes a look at amateur radio in China

Weekly IOTA News - compiled by OPDX