Ham Radio in the News – 5/30/12

May 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

China/PhillipinesHam radio pulled into territorial dispute. China is using amateur radio to claim sovereignty of Scarborough Reef. The Chinese say that in 1990 a German ham was told  by the Philippine ambassador that the reef was not within Philippine territory.

Amateur radio essential tool. Behind the scenes at every Drivesouth Rally of Otago a team of local amateur radio enthusiasts works tirelessly to keep track of every car. Their support is vital to the three-day event, which started last night, as there is either unreliable or no cellphone reception where many of rally’s stages are held.

W6G Salutes Golden Gate Anniversary. The San Francisco Amateur Radio Club helped mark the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge by contacting other amateur radio operators this Memorial Day weekend.

Filed Under: Amateur Radio in the News, DX, Public Service, Special Events

Ham Radio in the News – October 31, 2001

October 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Here is the latest Ham Radio in the News:

99-year-old Ham radio operator still tuned in. This story speaks for itself. I hope I’m still making QSOs when I’m 99.

KL7OT Makes a Contact

Arlene “Buddy” Clay, 99, with her Ham radio set up. After 67 years living along the Kuskokwim River, in January she moved from Aniak to the Primrose Retirement Community in Wasilla. (from The Frontiersman)

Radio club helps to make Halloween a treat. I like this article because it describes ham radio providing a public service that is not emergency communications. I also like the name of the newspaper: The Daily Gleaner.

150 years ago, a primitive Internet united the USA. While not directly related to ham radio, this article puts our current communications technology in perspective. The telegraph was the invention that set the stage for today’s Internet.

Filed Under: Amateur Radio in the News, People, Public Service

I Believe in Ham Radio

April 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

WPSU, public radio from Penn State University, has a feature they call, “This I Believe.” It allows their listeners to tell others about their personal philosophy and core values. I Believe is based on the 1950s radio program of the same name and the media project (launched in 2005) from This I Believe, Inc. and Atlantic Public Media.

The latest program in this series is by Ellwood Brem, K3VY, who believes in ham radio. He says,

I believe the world would be a more peaceful place if we were all amateur radio operators. I’m an amateur radio operator — sometimes called a ham radio operator — and I’ve been one for forty-nine years. I delight at talking on my short wave radio to people all over the world.

You can listen to the entire essay if you go to the PSU website.

Filed Under: People, Public Service

Ears to Our World

November 22, 2010 by 1 Comment

Thanks to Paul, KW1L, for suggesting this……..Dan

BBC’s Digital Planet reports on the organization, Ears to Our World, which brings wind-up short wave radios to some of the most inhospitable parts of the world. As the report notes, there are many remote places that have no Internet access and that shortwave radio is still a way to link them to the rest of the world.

Filed Under: Public Service Tagged With:

NTS Going Digital?

February 15, 2010 by 1 Comment

From Jay Nugent, WB8TKL, AEC Washtenaw — NTS Liasion & Packet Operations, Michigan Section ASM for Digital Technologies:

Over the last couple weeks the Michigan Section National Traffic System (NTS-Digital) has been experimenting with using the digital mode “Olivia” on 75-meters to pass NTS formatted messages. Attendance has varied from just a handfull of participants to a dozen or more. This is a new mode for traffic handling and Net operations, so there are a number of bugs and procedures to be worked out.

Users are invited to fire up their HF rigs and digital decoders and follow along as these traffic nets evolve. And please check-in if you are able and willing. The next net will be held using Olivia 500/8 near 3583 KHz on Feb 16th at 2100 hours local.

Contact Jay for the latest net report and updates to their evolving operating procedure.

Filed Under: Public Service Tagged With:

Catching Up

April 20, 2008 by Leave a Comment

I can’t decide whether I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to blog much or whether I’m just slowing down. It’s probably a little of each. And doing so much creates so much blog fodder that it can be overwhelming. There’s so much to write about, you can’t figure out where to start.

So, what I’m going to do here is just report quickly on a bunch of things that I’ve been doing lately. I’ll come back to some and write more about them later. Others, I won’t.

More QSLs from Stations Whose Callsigns Spell Words
Sorry to bother you again with this, but for some reason, this fascinates me. Below, you’ll see the latest three that I’ve added to my collection: K5SEE, N4SHY, and K2DOT.

K5SEE QSLN4SHY QSLK2DOT QSL

I heard K7OIL on PSK the other night, but wasn’t able to work him. :(

Even more Boy Scouts This Year!
Last year, we had about 120 Boy Scouts attend the 2007 Radio Merit Badge Day. Man, that was crazy. This year was even more crazy. This year, more than 150 showed up! I got Michelle, KD8GWX, to capture some of the craziness on video, and I promise to edit that tape real soon now. Stay tuned for that.

This year, I was partnered with Mark, W8MP. Mark is a really great operator, and he’s great with kids. He convinced one guy, Paul, WA9URF, to stay on the air for more than an hour and talk to more than 40 of the Scouts. Thanks, Mark and Paul!

Thanks to all the other hams that helped out (in no particular order): Pat, W8LNO; Dave, KC8TQB; Ralph, AA8RK; Jeff, W8SGZ; George, K8GEO; Don, K0QEA; and, of course, Jack, WT8N, who really organized the whole thing (and paid for breakfast, to boot).

2008 General Class
For the past couple of months, I’ve been teaching a General Class license course. As always, this class was a lot different than the classes I’ve had in the past. For one thing, a lot of them dropped out this time. There were a dozen who started back in January, but by the end we were down to just five or six.

Life intruded for a couple of them—one student’s wife (or daughter) broke her leg, for example. For some, the material was just over their heads at this point. But, a bunch of them just quit coming. I feel kind of bad about that.

Like last year, a couple of them passed the test before the class ended. Congratulations, Arvid, KC8VGO, and Ian, N8SPE! Arvid was in my very first class five years ago, and he passed back then, but just couldn’t get the code. I’m happy that he finally got his General ticket.

One thing I did differently this time is to have a class project. Five or six of the students built the DC40A QRP transceiver. Building them has taken a bit longer than I anticipated. Even though the class is over, we’re still finishing up the kits. Even so, I think it’s been a great experience for the students.

Ham Radio at the Hands-On Museum
We’re still working on setting up a ham radio station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. One development is that we’re applying for a grant from the IEEE Foundation. We’ll also be applying to the ARRL Foundation.

The IEEE Foundation wants to give money to projects that promote engineering as a career. That’s our slant, anyway. We titled our project, “Kids Connect to Wireless Technology.”

That’s all for now. Gotta go rake the leaves off the lawn and fertilize.

Filed Under: Classes/Testing/Licensing, Elmering, Public Service, QSLs

Want to Get Your Community Involved in Amateur Radio? Get Involved in Your Community!

September 5, 2007 by Leave a Comment

I often hear hams lament that their communities show little interest in amateur radio. While this may be true, these hams have to realize that community involvement is a two-way street. To get communities involved in amateur radio, amateur radio needs to be involved with the community.

I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking about. Here in Ann Arbor, MI our amateur radio club worked with the local Red Cross and maintained a station there in the 1980s and early 1990s. For reasons too complicated to get into here, this partnership was severed in the late 1990s.

Even so, we often talked about what we’d have to do to re-establish the mutually beneficial relationship that we once had. Unfortunately, we really didn’t know who to talk to at the Red Cross, and the attempts we made to try to get back in their good graces were fruitless.

That is until I joined the Ann Arbor Rotary Club in March 2006. It just so happened that one of the guys that joined the club at the same time I did was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Red Cross. Not only that, but he was very interested in re-establishing an amateur radio capability at the local chapter.

The result is that our club is now working with them again. We have helped them install their 47 MHz radios at the chapter headquarters and in their emergency response vehicles. Having finished that project, we are now in the process of setting up the amateur radio station. While we may have eventually been successful without the contact I made at the Rotary Club, my guess is that this contact greatly accelerated the effort.

Another example is our work with the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. This is a science museum that gives kids (and adults, too) some real, hands-on experience with science and technology. There are, for example, exhibits that help kids learn about electricity, springs, weather, electricity, and other topics in science and technology.

When the executive director of the museum spoke to our Rotary Club, the thought occurred to me that this would be a great place for an amateur radio station. I met with the director, who is also a Rotary Club member, and he was very enthusiastic about the possibilities. The result is that we are going to be operating a series of special events throughout the fall of this year, with a goal of setting up a permanent station at the museum in 2008.

I’m sure that my involvement with the Rotary Club was a big part of the enthusiastic reception they gave me and amateur radio. Membership in the Rotary Club, and other community service clubs, such as Kiwanis or the Optimists, give one, if not instant credibility, at least some measure of it. So, my advice is that if you want to get your community involved in amateur radio, perhaps you should first get involved with your community, and one way to do that is to join a service club.

Filed Under: Clubs, Public Service