KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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ARRL newsletter feature ideas for instructors and PR for Field Day

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In the last couple of days, I’ve gotten e-mails announcing the latest issues of Radio Waves and Contact, the ARRL newsletters for instructors and public information officers (PIOs). Both have some interesting items.
Radio Waves

The Spring 2016 issue of Radio Waves includes articles on using amateur radio in home schooling, ARISS activities, Girl Scout amateur radio activities (including information on the Girl Scout Radio and Wireless Technology patch), and links to other online instructional resources.

One that I found interesting was a link to the Tait Radio Academy. It offers a number of free courses on different aspects of land mobile radio (LMR) technology, including basic radio awareness, P25, and DMR. As I’ve been getting interested in DMR lately, I’ve started viewing the videos in this course.

arrl-contactThe June 2016 issue of Contact features short articles on Field Day and Dayton. The Field Day article gives the following advice:

  • Get your social media platforms going and earn that new 100 point bonus for engaging the public and your local media on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. Be sure to post lots of photos and short video of your team having fun.
  • If you’re hosting a PR table this year, do more than lay out pamphlets; you will have far greater impact with your visitors if you have a team dedicated to welcoming visitors and showing them around your site. Those team members should be friendly and outgoing, and be able to steer your visitors to relevant areas of your Field Day site based on what your visitors tell you they’re curious about.
  • If you’re going to post signs on the street to drive visitors to your site, be sure to include the phrases “Open House” and “Public Welcome.” Not everybody understands what a Field Day is, but the term Open House is very common.

Dayton 2016: N1SPY at the CWOps’ booth

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dayton-2016As usual, I had a blast at the Dayton Hamvention this year. I have lots of stories to tell, and rather than write one big long post, I’m going to write a series of shorter stories. Here’s one of them…Dan

On of the most memorable experiences of Dayton 2016 happened on Saturday morning, as I was manning the CWOps booth. About 11:30, Tommy, N1SPY, and his father walk up. I guessed that he was about 10, 12 years old, and he said that he’d recently gotten his General Class license. After congratulating him on that achievement, he told me that he plans to learn Morse Code.

So, I give him he spiel about the CWOps club, and we talk a little bit about about operating Morse Code. As we were discussing keys, and how I think that it’s important to have a key and practice sending as well as receiving, a woman came up the booth and asked me a question. I talked to her for a couple minutes, then turn back to the N1SPY, who I noticed was still standing there.

The father, Ivan, No2CW, says, “My son just recognized your call. He used your study guides.” How cool is that? Then, he asks if I’ll sign his book for him. So, I sign his book, shake his hand, and tell him thatif he ever hears me on the air, to make sure to call me, especially since I collect QSL cards from stations whose callsigns spell words! I certainly will be listening for him.

ICQ Podcast 211 discusses young hams, Hara Arena

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icqpodcastI was part of the panel for episode 211 of the ICQ Podcast, and had a blast, as usual. We discussed:

I suggested we cover the story on the ARRL conducting a survey on how to attract more youth to contesting. To be honest, my first reaction to the story was, “Do we really need more contesters?” On second thought, though, it’s probably a good thing to do whatever we need to do to get everyone more active. The survey isn’t just for youth, and I urge everyone to take the survey.

I also suggested the story on the Hara Arena. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I think amateur radio should be embarrassed that it’s premiere event is held in such a poor facility. Last year, there were placards in the main entrance touting that changes would be coming, but I rather doubt that I’ll see any when I venture down there in a couple of days.

What I find amusing are the number of old-timers who defend Hara Arena. They say, “It’s part of the Dayton experience!” That may be, but they’re not thinking of the number of people who would attend if the place wasn’t such a dump. Shouldn’t the “Dayton experience” be for everyone, not just those who are brave enough to risk using a Hara Arena restroom?

Do we need more youth in ham radio contesting?

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ARRL logo type_17This just in from GL Division Director Dale Williams, WA8EFK:

The ARRL Contest Advisory Committee is studying how to get more youth involved in the contesting aspects of our hobby and has designed a very thorough survey to solicit input. The committee would like as many people to take the survey as possible and requests that you take the survey and also ask any youth you know, whether they are hams or not, to take it as well. The survey asks different questions that depend on the answers you submit and will only take a few minutes to complete.

The link to the survey is: tinyurl.com/YouthHamRadio.

Please help them to gather data by taking the survey, asking others to take it, and sharing this email with your friends and clubs.

Thanks and 73,

Dale WA8EFK

As an aside, does anyone else have a problem with calling kids “youth?” It’s perfectly correct, but it seems kind of stilted to me. I’m far from being a kid, but if I was younger, I’m not sure I’d like to be called a youth.

As another aside, do we really want to be encouraging youth to participate in contests? One might say that there are already enough contesters on the bands during contest weekends as it is.

ICQPodcast discusses K1JT, VOA, and RSGB

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icqpodcastI once again joined the ICQPodcast panel for episode 209. We discussed the following:

I talked a little bit about the D-STAR satellite in a previous post. Of the other topics, the dynamiting of the VOA towers and the changeover at the RSGB (and more importantly for U.S. amateurs at the ARRL) are the most interesting.

On the ICQPodcast, Marin, W9ICQ/M1MRB said that watching the demolition video (see below) nearly brought him to tears. I wasn’t quite so affected, but I do find it sad that the antennas weren’t being used anymore and that there were no plans to use them in the future. It’s just another indication of the decline of shortwave broadcasting. At least they won’t be putting up an apartment complex or a shopping mall; the land is slated to be a wildlife preserve.

I don’t have much to say about the new RSGB CEO, but what I find interesting is that both the RSGB and the ARRL are gaining new CEOs at the same time. I recently listened to the QSO Today interview of NY2RF, the ARRL’s new CEO, and he certainly said all the right things. The times they are a’changin’

Amateur radio in the news: HS club, Frequency pilot, HOA opposition

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Eye on Education: Bishop Ryan HS Competes in School Roundup. For the first time, Bishop Ryan school is getting competitive with their ham radio, entering into the “School Club Roundup” competition. “The idea here is to talk to high schools, middle schools and universities all over the world on it the same week,” said Joe Ferrara, a Bishop Ryan teacher.

Frequency pilot show ordered. The CW’s first official pilot orders for this development season include a reimagining of the New Line Cinema film Frequency. But whereas that 2000 film starred Jim Caviezel as a homicide detective who communicates with his long-dead firefighter father (Dennis Quaid) via a ham radio, the CW’s redo follows a female police detective who discovers she is able to speak via ham radio with her estranged father — who died 20 years prior and also was a detective. As they forge a new relationship while working together on an unresolved murder case, unintended consequences of the “butterfly effect” wreak havoc in the present day.

HOA trade group fights bill that would ease ham radio restriction. In a disaster, it is often the only dependable means of two-way communication, but an organization that supports homeowner associations across the United States is opposing a bill that would prevent HOAs from banning amateur radio operation. Community Association Institute, whose 1,100 Illinois chapter members include association managers, board members, and unit owners, says the Amateur Radio Parity Act is “unnecessary” because the Federal Communications Commission has said it will not get involved with HOA rules that, says the FCC, are “contractual agreements between private parties.”

It’s certainly not a slam dunk for the Amateur Radio Parity Act….Dan

Amateur radio in the news: Junior-high kids learn code, Skywarn, digital TV

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Massena junior high school students honing skills in Morse code, ham radio operation. Some J.W. Leary Junior High School students have discovered the joys of communication using technology that’s more than 170 years old. Seventh-grade social studies teacher Tony Cafarella has incorporated Morse code and ham radio into his class as an after-school activity. Students with parental permission, under the supervision of Mr. Cafarella, a licensed ham radio operator, can talk to various countries and log the contact on a map, gaining a sense of geography and science. They’re also learning from scratch how to interpret the dots and dashes of Morse code.

National Weather Service invites hams to event. The sound of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” filled the conference room at the National Weather Service Office in North Platte on Dec. 4. Meteorologist Bill Taylor laughed and shook his head before walking out of the room. “I told you,” said Kevin Curtis to Taylor, who apparently didn’t believe that there was an amateur radio station out there playing Michael Jackson.

The sound faded as Larry Petska, of Hershey, turned the radio dial to find something he actually wanted to listen to. It wasn’t music the men were after — it was other weather service offices. Every year, the NWS offices across the country invite ham radio operators in for an event called Skywarn Recognition Day.

Amateur Radio Operators Convert to Digital Television – Part 1. Ham TV has evolved, moving from mechanical scanning to all-electronic operation, then color, and eventually to digital video and most recently, high-definition imaging. And while commercial television entities have routinely spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in retrofitting analog plants for digital broadcasting, hams—being an ingenious and creative lot—have managed to go digital on the cheap.

Getting  youngsters into ham radio…again

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A couple of days ago, I got an e-mail from Bruce, N7RR. It covered a lot of ground, including the lack of copyediting in our question pools and getting youngsters involved in amateur radio.

Personally, I’m actually getting less interested in working with younger kids, although I do fully support those who are working with them. The big reason for this is that I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m just not very good at working with kids. I’ve tried twice to set up an amateur radio club at local middle schools, but was spectacularly unsuccessful both times.

Part of the reason I was unsuccessful is that I wasn’t able to get much support from the schools or other hams. For example, last school year, our local school district set up a middle school STEM program. I sent the powers that be an e-mail asking if the school might be interested in making an amateur radio club part of the program. Not only did I not get a positive response, when I asked the members of our ham radio club if any of them would be willing to help me with this school club, I didn’t get a single volunteer. I can’t do things like this by myself.

Having said that, I have had teenagers and college students (I live in Ann Arbor, MI, home of the University of Michigan) in my classes, and many now have ham licenses. I do Elmer these young people as much as I can (or as much as they want), and many are now active amateur radio operators.

These young people are “makers” and hackers, and I think focusing on this group of people is going to be more successful than just trying to attract random kids from a middle school population. To this end, I’m going to be teaching some electronics–not amateur radio–classes at the local library. They just opened up a hacker space there, and I think this should be a lot of fun. I just taught a class on how to use a digital multimeter, and two of the five who attended, already had an amateur radio connection. I think that with a little push, I could turn those two into hams.

Finally on this topic, Bob, K0NR, a fellow blogger and ham radio instructor, has an interesting viewpoint. About half of his students are between 30 and 54, and he says, “This age range is more equipped and ready to be ham radio operators [than younger kids] and are still young enough to be around for a while.” The situation he describes in his blog post is pretty much what I’ve experienced in my classes, although I think that my demographic skews a bit younger than Bob’s, but not by much. I certainly think this idea is something worth pursuing.

We really need more data. I think I’ll e-mail the ARRL and see if I can get them interested in setting up some kind of study.

From my Twitter feed: receive NOAA sats, talk to Santa

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QuadrusSDR's avatar
New Post: How to receive NOAA satellite signals buff.ly/1MOvL45 pic.twitter.com/5lJ7QfPs35
Radiomarine's avatar
See RADIOMARINE.ORG for info on how to earn the coveted Radiotelegraph Operator License. Come to KSM and take the license exam!
VoiceOfHamRadio's avatar
Kids Talk to Santa Claus on Ham Radio! ow.ly/UF56v #santanet #talktosanta #hamradio #amateurradio

Operating Notes: No JOTA joy, twin YLs

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Radio Scouting EmblemNo JOTA joy

Yesterday, I prepared to entertain some Boy Scouts for the 2015 Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) at WA2HOM, our club station at the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum. The museum folks had notified the local Scout groups, and they thought they were going to get a big turnout.

Instead, no one showed up. I was there from 10:00 am until 1:30 pm, and not a single Scout showed up.

The problem, of course, is that it was football Saturday here in Ann Arbor, home of the University of Michigan. Not only that, U-M’s opponent yesterday was Michigan State, so the town was especially packed, and getting in and out of town was difficult indeed. Undoubtedly, that deterred many from coming.

It’s too bad that it didn’t work out. Band conditions were decent for a change, and I heard many JOTA stations on the air this year. It could have been a fun experience for the Scouts.

Twin YLs

Friday night, I had an interesting contact with Barb, K1EIR. First of all, Barb is a YL. You don’t run into too many YL CW ops. Second, she said that she read my blog often. I always like to chat with blog readers. Third, she has a twin sister, Betsey, who is also an amateur radio operator, callsign K1EIC. Fourth, Betsey is the CT SM.

I asked her if sister was also a CW op, but unfortunately, she is not, at least not an active CW op. Oh well, you can’t have everything.