KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

TAPR to hold mini Digtal Communications Conference on Saturday, December 9

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TAPRUnable to hold its traditional, in-person Digital Communications Conference (DCC) this year, Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR) will hold a one day online Mini-DCC on December 9 followed by the annual TAPR membership meeting. So mark your calendars for Saturday, December 9, from 1700 to 2230 UTC (1200 to 1730 EST, 0900 to 1430 PST). Login details for the meeting will be available on the TAPR website prior to December 9.

Planned presentations include:

*    TAPR SDR Development Progress and Challenges by David Larsen, KV0S

*    Developments in ka9q-radio by Phil Karn, KA9Q

*    An Open Source Wideband HF Receiver Design by David Witten, KD0EAG

*    An Inexpensive GPSDO for HF Receivers by John Ackermann, N8UR

*    Current Open Source Digital Voice Techniques by Walter Holmes, K5WH

*    A Low Cost FreeDV-based ESP32 Radio Interface by Mooneer Salem, K6AQ

*   ESP32 APRS and LoRA Hardware by Jason Rausch, K4APR

The annual TAPR membership meeting will occur following the presentations.

Amateur radio in the news: Club POTA activation; POTA, SOTA and JOTA; Skywarn in Knox County, TN

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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.

…read more

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.

Photo: NORAC.

…read more

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.”

…read more

Will AI help us have more fun with amateur radio?

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“HAL, let’s work 20-meter FT8 this afternoon.”

In this morning’s email was a message from Inc. magazine with links to some articles in the magazine. At the top of the list was, “4 Unimaginable Ways A.I. Will Change Your Life Within the Next 5 Years, According to Bill Gates.” Gates says that in the next five years, you will have your own artificial intelligence assistant, or agent, that will be a frequent voice in your ear and will help you with everything from deciding where to go on vacation to managing your friendships and more. Let’s think for a minute about Gates’ 4 Ways and how they might help us enjoy amateur radio more.

1. You won’t bother with software or operating systems anymore.

How cool would this be. You could simply tell your AI amateur radio assistant, “Let’s operate 20-meter FT8 this afternoon,” and the agent would set up the radio and begin looking for contacts. If the band wasn’t open, it would come back and tell you, “I’m sorry, Dave, but propagation on 20 meters is terrible this afternoon. May I suggest 30 meters instead?”

2. Your agent will be a frequent voice in your ear.

Gates believes that most of us will wear at least one earbud most of the time so that our agents can talk to us whenever they need to. So, for example, it might be monitoring the activity on 6 meters and notify you when the band is open. Or, you might want it to notify you when a particular contest or operating event is coming up so that you don’t miss it. “Dave,” it might say, “remember that the 2-meter club net is at 8 pm tonight.”

3. Your agent will get involved in your personal relationships.

We often don’t think of amateur radio as having a personal aspect, but it really does. For example, don’t we enjoy talking to some people more than others? Your personal agent could monitor your club’s 2-meter repeater or 40-meter CW and notify you when your friends are on the air.

Gates also notes that you could have your AI assistant talk to your friends’ assistants and set up lunch for you. Well, you could also use that capability to set up an on-air sked.

4. It might even help you solve personal problems.

The article notes, “One of the most intriguing predictions Gates made is that your agent could also become your therapist” While many hams probably do need therapy, I’m not so sure how applicable this will be to amateur radio.

What I could see happening is using an AI assistant to help you choose your next rig or maybe help you troubleshoot a problem. Here are some scenarios:

  1. You ask your AI assistant what rig you should buy next. Since it already knows what bands you like to operate—and the state of your finances—it can analyze all the options and find a radio that meets your operating needs and fits into your budget.
  2. You might describe your backyard and the bands that you want to operate, and your AI Assistant could come back with antenna suggestions.
  3. You ask your AI assistant about a problem that you’re having with your rig. It comes back with, “Dave, if you would just RTFM, you will find the answer on page 67 of the operating manual.” Or, after scanning the appropriate online forums, it would tell you, “Dave, several other owners seem to be having a similar problem. Here’s what they’ve done….”

All of this sounds kind of fun to me, but I can understand some of you having reservations. What do you think? Can you think of other ways an AI assistant would make amateur radio more fun for you?

Random thoughts: DLARC on Radio Survivor podcast, open-source software packaging, speed key test

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Podcast peeks behind the scenes at DLARC

Radio Survivor is a podcast that covers anything related to radio, including amateur radio. In a recent episode, they interview Kay, K6KJN, curator of the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC).

SatDump Gains Notable Updates

I found this on Amateur Radio Daily:

SatDump, a popular piece of software used to decode imagery from weather satellites such as NOAA-18 and others, has gained significant updates to the way it processes and projects received images on maps. Imagery projections are much more accurate as a result of recent code refactors. A detailed deep-dive into the changes have been published.

SatDump is available for all major platforms.

This looks like a pretty cool program. I’ve added this to my list of projects to get up and running one of these days.

Speed key test

I forget on which mailing list or forum this came up, but the talk rolled around to the poor fists of some operators who use bugs and cootie keys. Someone mentioned that Navy radio operators had to pass a “speed key” test before they were allowed to use a bug on the air, and when they passed the test, they were given a certificate, like the one at right. Then, someone, with tongue firmly in cheek, suggested that hams should have to pass a similar test.

I realize that the logistics of developing and administering a speed key test for radio amateurs—not to mention enforcing it fairly—would make it an impossibility. Even so, I would encourage straight key users and cootie key users to test their fists. You can use either fldigi or a a program called Precision FistCheck to do this. Improving one’s sending not only makes it easier for the other operator to work you, but should also help you make more contacts.

Let the innovation begin! FCC eliminates baud rate limitation

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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

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$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.

…read more

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

…read more

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.”

…read more

Random thoughts and ideas: If I’d only…, embedded Python programming, get a free email.radio email address

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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

Python programming is popular for AI, web, and amateur radio applications, and it can also be used for embedded applications. Here’s a list of articles from electronic design on programming in Python:

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

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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.

Who knew? Bart Simpson’s Aunt Selma is a ham radio operator

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I added Disney+ onto my hulu subscription several months ago, and while casting around for things to watch on the service, I found The Simpsons—all 34 seasons. I had never watched many episodes of The Simpsons, but my wife and I quickly got hooked. Somehow, it’s funny, disgusting, and heart-warming all at the same time.

We’re now making our way through Season 4. In episode 13, Bart’s Aunt Selma expresses a a desire to have a child. In the scene below, at about the 12:50 mark, Selma (on the left) is discussing this desire with her sisters, Marge Simpson (center, blue hair), and Patty (right). Patty asks, “Why do you want a baby so bad?” Selma replies, “I got a lot of love to give, and right now, my only outlet is my ham radio,” and gestures towards the radio, which we see from behind.

The next shot shows the radio from the front:

I can’t tell if it’s an Icom, a Yaesu, or a Kenwood. Maybe it’s a Heathkit! This episode was first aired in 1992, so it couldn’t have been an Elecraft.

So, Aunt Selma enters the pantheon of TV characters who also were hams. These include:

  • Herman Munster, played by Fred Gwynne in The Munsters (1964-1966)
  • ALF (1986-1990)
  • Mike Baxter, played by Tim Allen in Last Man Standing (2011-2021)

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

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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.

You can find the complete text of the Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DOC-397992A1.pdf.

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.