KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

Emergency Communications / Public Service

Videos: HS ham club in NH, yet another Heathkit history, Cruz thanks ham radio

By Leave a Comment

Students go hands on with ham radio

Here’s a nice news story about a new ham club at a high school in New Hampshire.

Yet another Heathkit history

Here’s another YouTube video on the history of Heathkit. The author has disabled embedding, so you have to watch it on YouTube.

Heathkit advertisement from the 1950s.

Senator Ted Cruz on Ham Radio

In this short video, Cruz thanks ham radio operators for their service. This has gotten some people excited because I believe that Cruz is the chair of the Senate committee working on the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act. I’d be more excited if Cruz would sign on as a co-sponsor, but he has not yet. So, at this point, these are just words.

Amateur radio videos: Giving back, eliminating RFI, tall tower construction

By Leave a Comment

Giving back to amateur radio (and your community)

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you know that I’m a big believer in giving back to our hobby and to my community. In this RATPAC video, Marty Woll, N6VI, a former assistant emergency coordinator and past ARRL Southwest Division director, offers many suggestions on how to do this.

Eliminate your high noise floor

 

A link to this video appeared on the amateur radio subreddit this morning. It shows you how to build a filter to eliminate any RFI coming in through the power line.

Constructing very tall towers

Watch this video before you put up a really tall tower of your own. If you’re curious about what it’s like to actually work on one of these towers, watch this video.

ICQPodcast Episode #464: Q&A Plus

By Leave a Comment

ICQ Podcast logo.In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss:

This episode’s feature is Q&A Plus.

ICQPodcast Episode 448: Did you Know – Q and A

By Leave a Comment

In this episode, I joined join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss:

The January 2025 issue of Ham Radio Ireland is now online and includes articles on POTA, a Meshtastic project, how to get started using the QO-100 satellite, and several others. I’ve just submitted an article to them on how I’ve improved my POTA antenna over the years by tinkering with it. Links to the 2023 issues are also available on line.

Amateur radio in the news: Use WSPR to find crashed plane?, BBC’s Time to Transmit

By Leave a Comment

How ghost radio signals could hold the key to finding missing flight MH370

Transmissions from amateur radio enthusiasts may hold the key to locating the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines jet that vanished a decade ago in one of the greatest aviation mysteries.

…read more

BBC: Time to Transmit

BBC reporter Stephen Coates travels to Tunisia to meet contestants in the International Morse Code championships in Tunisia. For a week, they will face each other off tapping at tiny Morse machines so fast that it sounds almost like a sung language.

The Belarusians are the team to beat. But the Romanians are hot on their heels. And you never know what the Albanians might pull off at the last minute. Or the competitor who has just arrived from Tokyo.

…listen to the report

Amateur radio is one of the options mentioned in this article…..Dan

Communication technology: Options for staying connected for next year’s storm season

With the end of hurricane season having just passed, Floridians look back at the flurry of severe storms that hit Florida’s Gulf Coast and anticipate the potential strength and frequency of storms to come. While many people know to get non-perishable food and clean water before a hurricane, not as many people consider how they can be technologically prepared for the storm and the days the follow.

Amateur radio in the news: MFJ, turn an Android phone into an HT, Delta County emcomm

By Leave a Comment

Starkville man ends reign as king of ham radio parts: ‘It was rough trying to say goodbye’

In 1972, Martin Jue was a young entrepreneur who decided to use his electrical engineering expertise to start a new business, MFJ Enterprises, in Starkville, his adopted hometown.

The cottage industry he cultivated grew into a global enterprise that catered to ham radio enthusiasts, which will be missed now that he has shut down manufacturing operations and is gradually unloading the remaining merchandise.

…read more

Turn your Android phone into a ham radio with this open-source project

Vance Vagell, an experienced UX professional at Google, is the brains behind the kv4p HT project. Distributed under the GPL 3.0, the kv4p HT is a homebrew VHF ham radio that can be attached to an Android smartphone via a USB-C port for turning it into a portable radio transceiver.

…read more

Delta County ham radio group ready for emergencies

ESCANABA, Mich. (WLUC) – An old form of communication is vital in hurricane recovery efforts as amateur radio operators across North Carolina and Florida connect rural areas with needed resources. A similar safety net operates across Michigan and the Upper Peninsula to keep residents safe.

Bob Petersen, a licensed amateur or ham radio operator, says his “shack in a box” can mobilize emergency radio communications in just 15 minutes. “It works great for emergency communications because I can quickly and easily go where the communication is needed,” Petersen said.

While Petersen‘s “shack” is portable, the main radio shack is in the Antique Village at the U.P. State Fairgrounds in Escanaba. That’s where Petersen and other amateur radio operators in the Delta County Amateur Radio Society coordinate communications on the state-wide emergency radio net.

…read more (and watch video)

Random stuff: Make your first CW contacts, subscribe to the ORI newsletter, FD publicity

By Leave a Comment

Get the ORI newsletter

Open Research Institute, Inc. (ORI) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of open source and open access to research. Their projects include, but are not limited to, amateur radio projects. The amateur radio projects include Ribbit, a new digital text messaging mode for VHF/UHF simplex and repeater communication, and RF BitBanger, a low-power high-frequency digital radio.

To stay informed on these and other projects, go to https://www.openresearch.institute/newsletter-subscription/ and subscribe to their newsletter. On that page, you’ll also find links to back issues.

Field Day gets many mentions

This year, Field Day got more publicity this year than any year that I can remember. My Google Alerts was almost overflowing with links to stories in local newspapers. One of the stories that got mentioned a lot was “Colorado’s ham radio operators are ready for an emergency—just don’t call them amateurs.” It’s worth reading.

 

A different kind of public service for ham radio clubs

By Leave a Comment

Amateur radio is supposed to be all about public service, but it doesn’t always have to include radio. At this year’s Ann Arbor Creativity and Making Expo, I ran into Dale Grover of Maker Works, a non-profit makerspace here in Ann Arbor, MI. He mentioned that he’d recently gotten a grant to repair assistive devices for people with communication and access needs.

These devices are used in schools that generally don’t have a big budget for repair. It seemed like a good opportunity for ARROW members to use their electronic skills for a good cause, so I told him that I’d try to find some volunteers to help out.

I got a great response to my call for volunteers, and yesterday afternoon, four ARROW members met at Maker Works to fix assistive devices. Shown below is Paul, KW1L; Rick, K8BMA; and Ron, K8RCF. Yours truly is taking the picture.

Three men sitting at a workbench.
Typically, devices have a big switch that the user presses to play a pre-recorded message. The problems are generally easy to diagnose, and the repairs are generally simple repairs. Rick, for example, replaced the plugs on several of the devices, and Paul and Ron replaced the speakers in several of the units.

One of the devices that I tackled came with a note that read, “Won’t play or record, even with a new battery.”

A defective battery clip in an electronic device.As we all know, the first step in troubleshooting is to verify the problem. So, I obtained a new battery and opened the battery compartment. As shown in the photo at right, it was clear that the problem was a defective battery clip. Somehow, someone managed to tear the negative contact off the clip. I replaced the battery clip and brought the device back to life!

Overall, we probably fixed close to ten devices, including the pushbutton switches. We probably could have fixed more, but it took us some time to learn how to disassemble and then reassemble the devices.

Even though the fixes are usually simple, they can also be a bit frustrating. For example, the device that I replaced the battery clip on wouldn’t go back together very easily. It looked to me as though the screws holding the device together just aren’t long enough. Other devices had similar design issues.

Our first repair session was a fun and interesting exercise, and we plan to go back in the future. There are many more devices to fix. I asked Dale, our contact at Maker Works, if we might schedule an evening session so that our members who are still working can attend. After all, why should us retired guys have all the fun?

Having said all that, I have to believe that there are public-service opportunities like this in your community that your clubs could help with. Keep your eyes open and get your clubs involved. If there’s an expense, for say equipment or replacement parts, you can always apply for a club grant from the ARRL or ARDC. I’d be happy to help you write the proposal, if you need help.

If you do find similar opportunities, please let me know, and I’ll spotlight them here on my blog. These kinds of projects provide a real public service even if they don’t involve radio.

Amateur radio in the news: A teen’s passion for radio, a ham’s view of the Boston Marathon, pico balloon makes it to Italy

By Leave a Comment

A Stroudsburg teens’ passion for radio

[Stroudsburg, Monroe County, PA (WBRE/WYOU)] In this week’s Here’s to You Kid segment, 28/22 News met a young ham radio operator. It’s not only his hobby, what he does also involves helping save lives.

Young man operating a radio.
Samuel Thrall, W3GZ, has a passion for radio.

14-year-old Samuel Thrall, W3GZ,  is a member of the Eastern Pennsylvania Amateur Radio Association (EPARA.) He passed three levels of the FCC Amateur Radio Licensing exam and now helps at the Monroe County Public Safety Center.

What interested him in ham radio in the first place is simple. “The scientific aspect of it is very interesting because it’s a technology we use on a daily basis. Our phones are all powered by radio just with computers built into them,” Samuel explained.

…read more and watch the video

As a ham radio operator, Lacy, of Middleburgh, had interesting perspective on Boston Marathon

[Middleburgh, MA] There are an estimated half a million spectators along the Boston Marathon course in any given year. If you’ve run the race, you know what a half-million voices stretched over 26.2 miles of Massachusetts roads sound like.

Of the over 9,000 volunteers that work Boston, over 300 serve as the voice of the marathon in their own way, but also serve as the eyes and ears. For the last two years, Matt Lacy of Middleburgh has been one of them. On Monday, he took up his assigned station at Mile 11 as one of the amateur (ham) radio operators who play an important role from start to finish by providing a communication network that supplements the other public safety personnel and resources vital to this massive enterprise.

“For the ham radio folks, it’s the premiere public service event, the chance for us to get the experience doing one of these events, having to report to whatever levels we need to, working within the confines of whatever section of the course we’re on,” Lacy said on Wednesday.

…read more

TAG students launch solar-powered balloon

[Iowa Falls, IA] Riverbend Middle School TAG (Talented and Gifted) students launched a solar-powered balloon on April 5 from the school, after a presentation and help from amateur ham radio operator Jim Emmert of Pella. The balloon named PENS-p22 traveled across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco, Algeria the Mediterranean Sea, Italy, and the Adriatic Sea.

The “pico balloon” launched by the students made it all the way to Italy.

“I am constantly on the lookout for guest speakers, fascinating projects or unique things that we could learn about,” TAG teacher Amanda Fjeld said. “I value exposing students to new topics and projects of any kind. I am constantly brainstorming ideas and often ask others for engaging project ideas. My friend Jen, who is from Pella, told me about Jim’s Solar Balloon program, so I reached out to him. I was especially excited because I lack knowledge in the world of solar technology and weather patterns but want to expose students to more science-related opportunities.”

Emmert is a retired teacher who lives in Pella and travels to different schools teaching students about amateur radio, earth science, balloons, and GPS technology. He also launches Pico balloons and gives predictions and tracking to the students.

“Our students spent about three hours on the morning of April 5 learning and launching the balloon,” Fjeld said. “It was one of the few times I have had all of the students in TAG in 6th, 7th and 8th grade come together on one project, so it was encouraging to see them interact and work together.”

…read more

ICQ Podcast Episode 428 – ICQPodcast Live

By 1 Comment

In this episode, I joined Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT and Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and we discussed: