- 2024 10 Metre SOTA Challenge
- Hams Help Community Radio Station Get Back on Air
- Global Response to Signals from Irelands 1st Satellite
- Tradition Carries on in Sweden
- A DXPedition Before a DXPedition
Operating
Things I’m working on and things I should be working on
As usual, I have a lot of projects that I’m working……and a bunch that I should be working on.
Projects that I’m currently working on include:
A chapter on POTA for the next edition of the RSGB Radio Amateur Operating Manual. I don’t have to write an entire book on the topic—it’s only going to be a few pages—but sometimes deciding what to include and what to leave out is harder than just writing more.
- Ham evangelist. What’s a ham evangelist, you ask? Well, I got a grant from ARDC, my former employer, to take my one-day Tech class on the road, brining amateur radio to places that should have more amateur radio. We’re in the process now of identifying those places.
- Raspberry Pi Pico version of the K3NG Keyer. I’m going to try to make a Raspberry Pi Pico do what the Arduino Nano does and more. Right now, I’m just focusing on learning Python.
Projects that I should be working on or will shortly have to start working include:
- The 2024 edition of the No Nonsense Extra Class License Study Guide. The NCVEC has just published the updated question pool, and I’ll need to get started on that sooner or later.
- An outline for a book on microcontroller projects that I’ve been talking to the RSGB about.
- Lining up panelists for a forum at Dayton 2024 on different methods for learning Morse Code.
- Various projects around the house. There are enough of those to keep me busy for years.
Random thoughts: The case for paper, CB for youth engagement, POTA/SOTA safety
The case for paper
As most of you know by now, the ARRL is going to start charging extra for the print version of QST in January—even if your membership expires after that date. While I am generally in favor of magazines going digital, paper does have its advantages.
For example, I’ve recently been plowing through my stack of paper QSTs, looking for interesting things before I toss them. In the process, I’ve come across several items of interest, including articles on building an inline RF current sensor and building a short vertical for 160 meters.
I’m not sure that you’d get this kind of serendipitous occurrence with digital magazines.
CB for youth engagement?
On reddit, someone asked if anyone had any information on successful programs for youth engagement. Someone replied, “Heard of a ham club that gave out old CB radios to young people in the area, and helped them with setting them up. Within 2 years, most of them were licensed hams!”
I think that in addition to just helping them get set up, you might also want to give the kids some structured activities, like showing them how to run a net or maybe do a hidden transmitter hunt, if such a thing is possible with CB radios. You’ll also want to be available if, or should I say when, there are problems with the radios.
This sounds like an interesting idea to me. I asked for more details. Have any of you heard of something like this?
SOTA/POTA Safety
A couple of weeks ago, I joined a Long Island CW Club Zoom meeting on portable operation. It was a great meeting, and a lot of good ideas were mentioned.
One of the best, I thought, was the reminder to be safe when doing a Parks on the Air (POTA) or Summits on the Air (SOTA) activation. One of the things that I do is to attached caution tape to my inverted-V antenna where there’s any chance that someone could come into contact with it.
Another fellow mentioned that he wears a blaze orange vest when he heads into the woods. This had not occurred to me, as I have been operating from open areas where no hunters are allowed. But, if there’s any chance that you might come into contact with hunters on your POTA/SOTA adventures, the orange vest is a good idea.
Amateur radio in the news: Club POTA activation; POTA, SOTA and JOTA; Skywarn in Knox County, TN
This looks like a fun thing that you might want to do with your club….Dan
Is ham radio still a thing?
[SUSSEX COUNTY, DELAWARE] Amateur radio, aka ham radio, has been around for more than 100 years. While it started as a way regular citizens could experiment with Morse Code communication, it soon became wireless voice communication. With modern technologies like cellphones and the internet, it would seem there is no need for radio communication. But, ask any one of the almost 2,000 Federal Communications Commission-licensed ham radio operators in Delaware, and they will tell you it’s more than a hobby. For many, it is a part of everyday life.
October was especially busy for local ham radio operators. A group of hams from the Nanticoke Amateur Radio Club set up their equipment Oct. 7 at Redden State Forest just south of Georgetown. The purpose of the event was to give the operators experience in setting up an operational field station completely off the grid. They spent several hours in Parks on the Air conversations with other hams, many of whom were located in a variety of parks and public lands around the globe.
More club fun…Dan
Ham radio group installs new equipment at Silver Star summit
[KELOWNA, BRITISH COLUMBIA] Radio repeater equipment was recently replaced at the summit of Silver Star mountain by local ham radio operators. As far as we know, no pigs were harmed in the adventure.
Ham radio is not for people who love pork — it’s a well known term for amateur radio operators such as the Vernon North Okanagan Radio Amateur Club.
On Oct. 21 and 22, the group replaced equipment and operated a demonstration and educational radio station as part of the international scouting movement’s Jamboree on the Air, and participated in Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air radio sport activations.
National Weather Service SKYWARN volunteers spot storms in Knox County. Want to join?
[KNOXVILLE, TN] Between 1870 and Aug. 7 of this year, there have been 338 tornadoes observed across the 40 counties monitored by the National Weather Service office in Morristown.
Fifty-five of those tornadoes touched down on a single day: April 27, 2011.
During severe events like that violent spring tornado outbreak, the Morristown office relies on its powerful radar to warn the public. But its other greatest tool for keeping the public safe is a bevy of amateur radio operators called SKYWARN, the National Weather Service’s eyes on the ground.
“Our greatest technology that we use here is our radar, and I would say the SKYWARN spotter network is a pretty close second,” said Anthony Cavallucci, a warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “I think a lot of people just automatically assume we know what’s happening on the ground, and we really don’t until somebody reports it. Those reports are really quite helpful.”
Let the innovation begin! FCC eliminates baud rate limitation
This email from the FCC showed up in my email this afternoon. Let the innovation begin!
For Immediate Release
FCC ADOPTS RULES TO MODERNIZE AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE AND FOSTER INNOVATION
WASHINGTON, November 13, 2023—The Federal Communications Commission today adopted new rules to incentivize innovation and experimentation in the amateur radio bands by removing outdated restrictions and providing licensees with the flexibility to use modern digital emissions.
The Report and Order adopted today eliminates the baud rate limitation—the rate at which the carrier waveform amplitude, frequency, and/or phase is varied to transmit information—in certain amateur radio bands. Instead, the Commission establishes a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limitation in the applicable amateur radio bands. The changes will enable the amateur radio community to operate more efficiently, including in support of emergency situations when appropriate, and foster experimentation, which is a core principle of the amateur radio service.
The FCC also adopted a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking which proposes and seeks comment on the removal of the baud rate – sometimes called the symbol rate—limitation in the VHF and UHF bands and in the 2200 meter and 630 meter bands, which the Commission allocated for amateur radio use after it released the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in 2016. It also seeks comment on the appropriate bandwidth limitation for the 2200 meter band, the 630 meter band, and the VHF/UHF bands.
Amateur radio in the news: Repeater upgrades, POTA in DE, HamSCI
$70,000 Upgrade Coming To Skywarn Ham Systems In The Ozarks
Almost $70,000 are on the way to expand and upgrade the Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn Ham Radio Repeater System. The 49-repeater group, which includes KRMS Radio and TV, serves as a system which provides ground-level eye-witness updates to the National Weather Service in Springfield stretching from Lake of the Ozarks to Branson and from Lebanon to Joplin. Funding from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications will pass through the Southern Missouri Emergency Communications Fund to provide for the upgrades. The project is expected to take about 10 months to complete.
Is ham radio still a thing?
[DELAWARE] Ham radio, also known as amateur radio, has been around for more than 100 years. While it started as a way regular citizens could experiment with Morse code communication, it soon became wireless voice communication. With modern technologies such as cell phones and the internet, it would seem there is no need for radio communication. But ask any one of the almost 2,000 FCC-licensed ham radio operators in Delaware, and they will say it’s more than a thing. For many, it is a part of every day.
The month of October has been especially busy for ham radio. On Saturday, Oct. 7, a group of “hams” from the Nanticoke Amateur Radio Club set up their equipment at Redden State Forest just south of Georgetown. The purpose of the event was to give the operators experience in setting up an operational field station completely off the grid. They then spent several hours in “Parks On The Air” (POTA) conversation with other hams, many of whom were located in a variety of parks and public lands around the globe. The parks communication has become very popular, organizers said, and many operators can be found in a park using either Morse code or voice mode to make as many contacts as they can around the world
Ham Radios Crowdsourced Ionospheric Science During Eclipse
On 14 October, millions of people in North, Central, and South America peered through safety glasses and other viewing aids at the partially obscured Sun. Simultaneously, thousands of folks experienced the annular solar eclipse in a different way: through transmissions sent and received over amateur radios.
Before, during, and after the eclipse, ham radio operators pinged signals off the ionosphere and connected to people hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. The experiment, part of the Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI), is gathering hundreds of thousands of those contacts to investigate how the ionosphere responds to the temporary loss of sunlight during an eclipse.
“This is our way of remote sensing the ionosphere,” said Nathaniel Frissell (call sign W2NAF), a space physicist and electrical engineer at the University of Scranton (W3USR) in Pennsylvania and the lead HamSCI organizer. “People have been doing this for about 100 years, and it’s gamified,” he said. “We used this idea to create a ham radio contest that would actually be a scientific experiment.”
Random thoughts and ideas: If I’d only…, embedded Python programming, get a free email.radio email address
If I’d only kept my butt in the chair a little longer…
…I might have come in first in the QRP category for the 2023 Michigan QSO Party. I only operated for 7-1/2 hours, not all 12 hours.
Embedded Python programming resources
- What’s the Difference Between Python and MicroPython?April 17, 2023
The differences between the Python and MicroPython programming languages are minute, but they make a powerful difference. - How to Program Hardware with MicroPython: A Beginner’s Guide
June 4, 2020
C isn’t the only programming language for microcontrollers. This article covers the compatible hardware and workflow steps when programming with a different option—MicroPython… - An Introduction to MicroPython and Microcontrollers
May 14, 2020
Microcontrollers don’t have to be programmed in C. MicroPython works just fine. - Python’s Big Push into the Embedded Space
Aug. 29, 2018
Python is very popular in many areas from machine learning to powering websites, but it’s also great for embedded applications.
Get a free email address from email.radio
The email.radio website says,
email.radio is dedicated to providing free email hosting for all licensed ham radio operators (globally). You will get a (free!) email @email.radio address, that is 1GB, which you can ask to expand later on.
Unlike the ARRL forwarding service this appears to be a real email account. I’ve just applied for an address, and I’ll post here with my experience once I’ve got it.
ICQ Podcast Episode 416 – Amateur Radio Someone Else’s Problem
In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news, including:
This episode’s feature is Amateur Radio, Someone Else’s Problem. In this feature, Martin, M1MRB, and Colin, M6BOY, discuss what rank-and-file amateurs to help amateur radio grow and prosper.
Amateur radio videos: FCC to replace symbol rate limits with bandwidth limits, K5ATA’s vision for the role of ham radio in STEM education, rain gutter POTA antenna
FCC to lift symbol rate limitations
This is a topic that’s been in the news lately. The FCC is planning to remove the baud rate limitation on digital transmissions and replace it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limitation. This video goes into quite some detail on this.
K5ATA’s vision for the role of ham radio in STEM education
Steve, K5ATA, ARRL Education and Learning Manager, gave the keynote speech at the 2023 ARRL Pacific Division Ham Radio Convention Pacificon. I love the vision. The question now is how to turn that vision into reality.
POTA activation rain gutter
Mr MUD, VA5MUD, forgot to bring an antenna to one of his latest POTA activations. That didn’t stop him, though. As he shows in this video, he simply clips a wire to a nearby rain gutter.
ICQ Podcast Episode 414 – Simple Test Gear You Can Build
In Episode 414, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss:
We would like to thank our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit – http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate
The episode’s feature is Simple Test Gear You Can Build.