KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

Amateur Radio in the News

Ham radio in the news – Jamboree on the Air 2011 edition

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Here are three news items on this weekend’s Jamboree on the Air. More on JOTA at the Hands-On Museum later.

Local Boy Scouts Take To The Airwaves To Communicate With Other Scout Groups. This is a story about the operation at K3BSA. We worked them yesterday.

Scouts Dial into Past with Ham Radios. Ugggh. Yet another article calling ham radio antiquated. Maybe some members of the Magic Valley Amateur Radio Club can reply to this article and set readers straight.

Boy Scouts communicating through two-way radio. Here’s a TV spot on the same JOTA operation in Magic Valley. This report is much better than the newspaper article. The accompanying video shows the Scouts were very interested in the operation.

Ham radio in the news – October 14, 2011

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Here’s another edition of Ham Radio in the News:

Gloucester County 4-H club leader encourages ham radio hobby. I liked this article because it didn’t talk only about emergency communications. It quotes Corey Sickles, WA3UUV, president of the Gloucester County 4-H Amateur Radio Club, as saying, “It ties into that whole engineering, how do things work, mindset.”

Museum welcomes “spook” donation. No, this does not have anything to do with Halloween. Instead, it describes the donation to a Coventry (England) Herbert Art Gallery and Museum of a radio “used during the Second World War by one of Coventry’s “secret listeners” to help defend the country…The national treasure was used by the city’s very own secret ‘spook’ – Frederick Arthur Noakes (Arthur) – between 1940 and 1945. He was one of at least four secret listeners in Coventry who were recruited by MI5 for their ability to read Morse code under difficult conditions, use and maintain a shortwave radio and their steadfast ability to keep a secret.”

Ham Radio in the News – 9/25/11

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Here are a few more articles about ham radio that have appeared in newspapers around the country:

  1. It’s basically about….helping people in emergencies. A lifetime interest turned into a lifetime hobby, and now Richard Nielsen is using his skills in amateur radio to potentially save lives in an emergency.
  2. What a ham!: Amateur radio operators provide vital communication. In times of emergency, when communications lines are down and power is out, when a natural disaster disrupts telephone and cell phone systems, amateur radio operators, or hams, take to the airwaves to provide vital communication.
  3. In age of technology, ham radios can still be vital communication. The ground shaking for a few seconds in Central Pennsylvania was far from a disaster, but having a reliable means of communications is necessary for emergency responders – especially when a real disaster strikes.

I guess it’s our emergency communications capabilities that make the news, but I really wish that newspaper articles would quit emphasizing that over all the other aspects of the hobby.

I also wish that newspapers would stop calling ham radio “old technology.” Sure, amateur radio has been around a long time, but the radios we use today are hardly “old technology.”

Ham Radio in the News – September 9, 2011

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Radio days are here to stay. Members of the Swindon and District Amateur Radio Club find amateur radio still a challenge.

Amateur radio gives Merritt Island students out-of-this-world thrill. Students at Merritt Island High (Merritt Island, FL) make contact with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

55 Plus Centre 20 years young. The Thunder Bay [Ontario, Canada] 55 Plus Centre celebrated its 20th anniversary by unveiling of a brand-new, world-class ham radio station for use by participants.

Ham Radio in the News – September 2, 2011

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Here are three more news stories. Not surprisingly, these three are about emcomm preparations for Hurricane Irene……Dan

Ham radio operators use new tools to keep communication open. The “new tool” is packet radio. A short video accompanies this story.

Ham Radio Operators Fill the Void ‘When All Else Fails’. Ham radio operators set up shop at the East Granby Emergency Operations Center in anticipation of Hurricane Irene.

Ham Radio helps residents in Hurricanes stay in the know. This video shows a TV report by WPTV, West Palm Beach, FL.

Ham Radio in the News – Lighthouse Edition

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Montage Lighthouse, Australia
The Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia spent three nights on Montague Island to celebrate International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend.

The weekend of August 20-21 was International Lighthouse Weekend, and as ham radio operators are wont to do, there were a number of special event stations set up at lightouses around the world. I worked three in the U.S. from the WA2HOM and one in Germany from here at my home station.

Here are some news stories about lighthouse operations in various places:

Ham radio at lighthouse (Crescent City, CA, USA)

Light banter hits the airwaves (Williamstown, Australia)

Calling the world from Montague Island on Lighthouse Weekend (Australia)

Calling the world from the lighthouse (Gibraltar)

 

Ham Radio in the News – August 22, 2011

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When Pigs Fly. A blog posting by a reporter—who also happens to be a ham radio operator—on the art of QRPing.

70 years of ribbing, hamming and wedded bliss. Bob and Dorothy Truhlar attribute their long marriage to a healthy sense of humor, as well as a clear division of duties, and a common interest in ham radio. And, they both admit, a bit of blackberry brandy every now and then doesn’t hurt.

Ham radio verification cards on exhibit at Harford Community College. This exhibit features QSL cards as examples of an “operator’s personality and home life.”

Amateur Radio in the News – August 8, 2011

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The news has been a little slow. I only have two items this week:

Keller radio operator contacts people around the globe. Lanny Phillips, W5BOS, is profiled in this news story. In his 58 years as a ham, he’s worked every country and has a QSL collection of over 30,000 cards.

Webelos continue learning skills, Scouting principles year-round at 3-day camp. Ham radio is one of the activities Scouts are exposed to at camp.

Yet Another Silly Post Calling Ham Radio an “Obsolete” Technology

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Ars Technica has posted yet another silly article, “Dead media walking? ‘Obsolete’ communications systems live on,” declaring amateur radio to be an outdated technology. Fortunately, many hams, like myself, have commented on the article to set the record straight. One comment that I liked was from someone using the name cream wobbly:

I like the way you completely gloss over the rise of Internet-like technologies over the amateur radio bands, packet radio being at the inception of this; and any other developments that have arisen from amateur radio, such as SDR, the basis of the Joint Tactical Radio System. Others have commented on the disaster preparedness of radio amateurs, too. If this were /. you’d’ve been instructed to hand in your geek card, Mr. Lasar. Sheesh.

I’d encourage everyone who reads this to head on over there and add a comment of your own.