KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

Kids

New video touts amateur radio

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Yesterday, I received kind of an odd e-mail from a group calling itself the World Genesis Foundation. It asked if I would “share the news about a new educational video about Amateur Radio.” Here’s the video:

To be honest, I didn’t watch all 32 minutes, but it seems like a decent video, if a bit “new-age-y,” and it’s aimed at attracting young people into the hobby.

I’m more intrigued by the sponsor of the video, the World Genesis Foundation. It has a very fancy website, but not a lot of substance. It touts some kind of relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), but isn’t specific about that relationship. On their home page, they list three “highlighted projects,” but the link to the very first one is broken.

I guess I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, though. The video, and the accompanying website, RadioQRV.Com, could help attract more young people into amateur radio, and that could be a good thing.

December is Youth on the Air (YOTA) Month

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This is from the Southgate Amateur Radio News. I’m trying to arrange a sked with one or more of them with our station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, WA2HOM…Dan

Youth on the Air (YOTA)After the success of the Youngsters On The Air events in the summer, we decided that it’s time to do some more action! During the whole month of December several countries will become active with YOTA as suffix in the callsign.

The idea for this is to break the ice for some youngsters and take the microphone in the hand.  As seen over the years the YOTA-group is growing fast and every week more youngsters are asking to participate.

You want to hear us on the air?  Listen for Youngsters On The Air callsigns in the whole month of December! At least 17 stations from 14 countries with young HAM’s will be active. We would be happy if you try to work one or more of the following callsigns:

EA7URA/YOTA
EI0YOTA
ES5YOTA
ES9YOTA
LY5YOTA
OH2YOTA
OK2YOTA
OM9YOTA
OM13YOTA
ON4YOTA
PA6YOTA
S513YOTA
SN0YOTA
SH9YOTA
YO0YOTA
YL13YOTA
YL2013YOTA

A special Youngsters On The Air Award is available.

Lisa Leenders PA2LS
IARU Region 1 Youth Coordinator

Amateur radio in the news: Rotary donates to children’s museum, Waukegan ham charged with interference, more than just a hobby

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Kids enjoying the exhibits at the Duluth Children's Museum.
Kids enjoying the exhibits at the Duluth Children’s Museum.

Rotary Club of Duluth makes $2,000 donation. Duluth Children’s Museum will use the money to obtain more equipment for the amateur radio communication programming that derived directly from the DCM’s recent Space Station event.

Unfortunately, this item was very short on details, but I’m trying to follow up with the museum to see if I can make contact with the hams in Duluth who are working with the museum there….Dan

Waukegan man charged with making racially offensive radio transmissions. An amateur radio operator from Waukegan was arrested Tuesday after authorities said he breached security and used racially offensive language on a Lake County Sheriff’s Office corrections radio communications system, officials said. Raymond J. Kelly, 24, of the 4800 block of Eastwood Court, was charged with two counts of tampering with jail communications, as well as one count of harassment through electronic communications, said Sara Balmes, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office.

I was really sorry to read this…Dan

More than a hobby. Being an amateur radio operator is a great hobby for some, but last week, those hobbyists proved just how important their pastime activity can be in an emergency situation.

Ham radio in the news: Nobel prize winner, social media (old school), JOTA

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Laid groundwork for cholesterol drugs – From ham radios to Nobel Prize for local scientist. A Nobel Laureate recently spoke about “How to win a Nobel Prize” on Sept. 11 at Chestnut Hill College’s 20th anniversary of its Biomedical Lecture Series. Dr. Michael S. Brown, 72, who grew up in Elkins Park, said an amateur radio operating license obtained at the age of 13, while a student at Thomas Williams Junior High School in Wyncote, sparked his passion for science.

Ham radio: it’s social media old school style. Long ago, before Facebook, Twitter and email, ham radio operators were the original social media geeks. And they’re still out there, in greater numbers than ever, chatting and messaging each other all over the world without an Internet connection or even a telephone line.

Scouts learn technology through radio. Local boy and girl scouts came from all over the Southern Tier and beyond to learn about technology at the Kopernik Observatory. Jamboree on the Air taught scouts how to communicate with each other using amateur radios on Saturday. Scouts learned how to send and receive digital pictures and even spoke with other scouts as far away as Florida.

Amateur radio in the news: GA ISS contact (video), ABQ hams reach out

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Students at a school in Alpharetta, GA got to talk with a U.S. astronaut in real time via ham radio as he passed over Mill Springs Academy onboard the International Space Station on Wednesday.

Local hams ‘reach out and touch someone’ around the globe. When Larry Elkin of Rio Rancho was going to college in New York, he picked up a radio transmission astronaut John Glenn sent from orbit around Earth. Now, Elkin is president of the High Desert Amateur Radio Club of New Mexico Inc., a local group that aims to educate people about amateur radio operation and is available to help with emergency communication.

101-year-old Bill Finch (W4EHF, SK) was Senior Games competitor, amateur radio enthusiast. Bill Finch was as charmingly timeless as the hobbies he pursued. He was an amateur radio aficionado well into his 90s and an athlete whose prowess in the Senior Games may well stand the test of time.

Bill seems like someone I’d want to know….Dan

Amateur radio in the news: students earn licenses, tower exemptions, making friends

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Petal teacher helps students earn amateur radio licenses. Petal High School Information Technology teacher Brad Amacker helped his students earn amateur radio licenses thanks to a grant he received during the 2012-13 school year. Amacker received the Mississippi Professional Educators Classroom Grant Award. He was recognized for this award at the August 13th school board meeting.

City supports exemptions for towers used by amateur radio operators. Garry Schwartz says his 19-metre amateur radio tower has been up for so long, most people don’t notice it unless he decorates it for Christmas. Schwartz, president of the Saskatoon Amateur Radio Club, is happy that the city seems prepared to relax restrictions for amateur radio towers despite more restrictive rules pending for new commercial antenna towers. “I’m pleased with the results,” Schwartz said Tuesday after a meeting of the city’s planning and operations committee. Schwartz said his antenna has been in place for 40 years.

Making friends a world away. Marilynn Jordan was the guest speaker at the Crestline-Lake Gregory Rotary Club’s morning program on July 25, and she spoke to members about how easy it is today to enjoy the amateur radio hobby. “It’s really a lot of fun,” she said. “I’ve spoken to radio operators in Greenland, Finland and all over South America. Everyone speaks English, so it’s very easy for us to talk with other ham radio operators.”

Amateur radio in the news: reaching out to kids, ILLW, Lancaster Count Fair

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The Owensboro ARC hosts a children’s program at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History where kids can learn the Phonetic Alphabet while making crafts.
The Owensboro ARC hosts a children’s program at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History where kids can learn the Phonetic Alphabet while making crafts.

Owensboro ARC reaches out to younger audience. The Owensboro Amateur Radio Club  hosts a children’s program at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History where kids can learn the Phonetic Alphabet while making crafts. “We are trying to get younger folks interested,” Walt Shipman, KI4OYH, said Thursday. “It’s where it starts.”

I like this idea! It might be something we can do down at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum….Dan

Lighthouse to go international. Radio operators from around the world will be including the Oak Orchard Lighthouse (NY) in International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend, Aug. 17 and 18. It is the first time the lighthouse is participating in the event fully.

Keeping an eye on the sky. If you go to the Lancaster County (NE) Super Fair, you’ll probably see guys in golf carts and green jackets offering rides to those in need. Those guys are members of the Lincoln Amateur Radio Club. Members of the club are also trained storm spotters — many involved in the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency, and they know exactly what to do if severe weather hits.

 

Operating notes: public service, helping people have fun with amateur radio

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Bicycle TourThis past weekend was a big weekend here at KB6NU. On Saturday, I and more than a dozen of my ham radio brethren provided communications for the Ann Arbor Bicycle Touring Society’s One Helluva Ride. There were close to 2,000 riders, and our efforts helped keeped the ride running smoothly.

Of course, it helped that the weather was just perfect. It was sunny and the high temperature for the day was in the low 80s. That helped keep the number of flat tires and exhausted riders to a minimum.

Even so, kudos to Jeff, W8SGZ, the ARROW organizer for the event. He did a great job of organizing the event.

An old friend on the repeater
Yesterday, while walking down to the museum,  I happened to catch an old friend, Chuck, K8HBI, on the ARROW repeater. I hadn’t heard Chuck on the air for quite a while, and I didn’t recognize him at first, partly because he’d changed callsigns. K8HBI used to be his father’s callsign. Chuck was K9HBI.

I don’t know if his father has passed or just let his license expire (although I suspect the former), but Chuck now has his dad’s callsign. Since I talked with him last, Chuck has retired, and now has more time for amateur radio. I was happy to offer my assistance in getting him back on the air.

As we were talking, Chuck happened to mention that his daughter had gotten a tattoo with both callsigns in honor of her father and grandfather. I suggested to Chuck that now his daughter should get her license and then the K9HBI callsign.

New friends
At the museum, I met what I hope will be a new friend – eleven year-old Alex. His mother had e-mailed me, saying that her son had expressed some interest in amateur radio and could they come down to the museum to see our station. Of course, I replied!

Alex and his mother stayed for over an hour. He asked me to make a CW contact, and he seemed at least somewhat interested in learning the code. We also made a phone contact, and he had fun chatting with Bob, N2AF, in New Jersey.

As they were about to leave, his mother leaned over and said to me, “Thanks so much. He rarely sits still for so long. He really must be interested in amateur radio.”

On the way home, I met another new friend on the ARROW repeater. After giving out a call, Fred, WA8LJL, came back to me. Fred’s not a newbie, but he said that he has been off the air for a while. He just purchased a new handheld and was in the process of programming its channels when he heard my call. I was his first contact in many years.

All of this was very enjoyable for me. While I certainly do enjoy the technology, I enjoy helping other people get into the hobby and get more out of the hobby even more.

Putting up another antenna

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When I got home from the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum on Saturday, I called up my friend Mark, W8MP. I wanted to tell him about my contact with OG3077F, a Finn who has successfully worked all 3,077 U.S. counties. As it turned out, Mark has worked him several times. I should have suspected this. Mark seems to know everyone.

As we continued our conversation, he mentioned that one of his son’s friends had put up an antenna and that they were going over there to help him tune it up that afternoon, and he asked if I’d like to join them. Mark’s son, Brian, is KD8EEH, and his friend, Alec, is KD8RGP. To be honest, I was a little hesitant. I was kind of tired after walking home from the museum, but Mark twisted my arm a little, so I agreed to head over there.

On the phone, Mark suggested that I might want to bring over some coax and some other kinds of antenna-making stuff, so that if we needed to make modifications, we’d have the wherewithal to do it. So, I loaded my crate of antenna parts, my toolbox, my 100-ft. tape measure, and a spool of coax into my Mini.

When I got there, I found that Alec was way ahead of us. He actually had already set up a 20m dipole. One end was suspended from an old, now unused power pole at the back of Alec’s backyard. The other was suspended by a rope draped over a downspout.

The construction was actually quite ingenious. For the center insulator, Alec had drilled some holes in a small block of wood that provided both strain relief for the wires and a way to mount an SO-239 connector. I wish I’d taken a picture of it. The end insulators were made from some scrap plastic.

The Budwig HQ-1 center insulator is a great way to build a dipole
The Budwig HQ-1 center insulator is a great way to build a dipole

Ingenious though it was, I suggested that we might wan to rebuild the antenna with an HQ-1 center insulator (right) to make it more reliable. While we were at it, I also suggested that we use a set of HQ-2 insulators for the ends. Mark got the boys working on disassembling the current antenna and rebuilding it with the new insulators, and in a short time, it was back up in the air.

Because Alec had already routed the coax down to the basement, we all tromped down there to see how well it tuned. Yipes! It looked to be way long. So, we lowered it, shortened each side by six inches and tromped back down stairs. We were closer this time, but it still needed to be shorter, especially since we were tuning this for the phone portion of the band. We shortened it by another six inches, and bingo, this time we got a nice dip right around 14.25 MHz.

Flush with success, someone suggested that we might want to add 40m elements to the dipole. This sounded like a good idea to me, and I told them about the 30m/40m dipole that I have. After a little discussion about whether to use feet or meters to calculate antenna length (we decided on inches as my tape measure is ruled in feet and inches), Alec started scrounging around for some wire.

At first this looked like it was going to be a problem. There was one 28-ft. length, and a couple of other odd lengths, but it wasn’t clear that we were going to be able to make two, 33.5-ft. lengths from the pieces we had. We finally did figure it out, though, and the antenna was lowered, and Alec attached these elements to the center insulator.

As it turned out, there were some convenient supports for these elements that allowed this dipole to be oriented nearly perpendicular to the 20m dipole. On one end, the boys used a tree, and at the other end, the wire was draped over another a downspout on the opposite side of the house.

We again tromped downstairs to check the resonance. Again, we were quite long. We lowered the antenna and shortened it by six inches on each end, then measured again. This time, the resonant point was just below 7 MHz. This time, we shortened the antenna by nine inches on each side, and the resonant point was just about in the middle of the General Class portion of the 40m phone band.

Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so we told Alec to get on the radio and see if we could make any contacts. Tuning around, Alec found a few stations working the Missouri QSO Party. He called a couple of them, and worked them on the first call.

At that, we called our efforts a success, and went upstairs to eat some take-out curry that Alec’s parents had gotten for us. Over dinner, we all patted ourselves on the back. I’m sure that Alec is in for a lot of fun on 20m and 40m.