@caulktel yep, there are some Arduino programs that work with EZGPIB: egirland.blogspot.no/2014/03/arduin… let me know if you want tro try it
BridgeCom Systems @BridgeComSys
Why be a #hamr? hackaday.com/2015/10/23/why… fb.me/1XuB6X9dU
This morning a friend of mine forwarded me an e-mail that was originally posted to the Elecraft_K3 Yahoo Group. Basically, it’s yet another rant about how most hams nowadays dress like slobs and need to take a bath. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting really sick of this kind of talk.
In this e-mail, our friend says,
Frankly I wish I could get back every penny I’ve spent on the hobby since I got licensed and spend it all on a month long lavish vacation with my wife in the South Pacific or maybe a new telescope. The vacation will happen but getting every penny back that I’ve spent on ham radio won’t. The obscenities, the QRM, the vicious and malicious nonsense, the on air drunks & druggies & the shear (sic) ignorance and stupidity of the American ham radio community of today is simply embarrassing. I rarely use my station these days, I have other hobbies I enjoy more.
I feel very sorry for this guy that he can’t see beyond the few miscreants that we have in this hobby. Personally, I just blow them off and don’t let it affect my enjoyment of amateur radio.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I attended the Dayton Hamvention last week. I met so many great people and had so much fun that I’m not about to let a few badly-behaving hams ruin it for me.
My advice is that you do the same. Why dwell on the bad things, when there are plenty of great people in ham radio and more cool and interesting things to do than one could ever do in a lifetime?
Amateur radio fans celebrate “original social network.” MAYS LANDING – William McCord clicked the receiver on his ham radio and sent a greeting out into the ether. This time only static replied. But sometimes he reaches people across South Jersey or even across the Atlantic Ocean. McCord, of Middle Township, and Bob Webb, of Northfield, gave a presentation on amateur radio to children Saturday at the Jersey Shore Children’s Museum in the Hamilton Mall. The Southern Counties Amateur Radio Association is a regular presenter at the nonprofit museum.
Neighborhood with unusual blackout wants answers. SAVOY — People in this neighborhood are no longer dealing with a mysterious technology problem. Key fobs, garage door openers, and other devices for more than 20 houses weren’t working for about a week. Those work now, but the people there still don’t know what was causing the problem. Kathi Gorrell uses the internet to work from home, but the interference made that drop out, too. She says everything started working again Wednesday night for her and everyone else in the neighborhood. The problem is solved, but the mystery isn’t. Still, Gorrell says she’d rather have it that way. As to what actually happened, ham radio expert Ben Fisher has been trying to help with that. He’s been tracking down signals with his equipment and says it was probably coming from an electronic device in someone’s house.
Here are a couple of items from yesterday’s ARRL Letter:
FCC Enforcement Bureau Field Resources Poised to ShrinkAccording to an internal FCC Enforcement Bureau (EB) memorandum, the Bureau plans to ask the full Commission to cut two-thirds of its field offices and eliminate nearly one-half of its field agents. At the same time, the Bureau would develop a so-called “Tiger Team” of field agents as a flexible strike force it could deploy as needed. In the March 10 memorandum to Enforcement Bureau field staff — obtained by ARRL and others — EB Chief Travis LeBlanc and FCC Managing Director Jon Wilkins cited the need to take “a fresh look” at the Bureau’s 20-year-old operating model in light of technology changes and tighter budgets. ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, expressed dismay at the proposals.
“The ARRL is concerned that there is already no sense of urgency in the FCC’s enforcement activities targeting spectrum polluters, such as utilities with noisy power lines, or the few violators in our own ranks,” Sumner said. “It is troubling to see recommendations for such drastic reductions in the Commission’s geographic footprint and the number of field agents at a time when the Field staff is facing ever-increasing challenges.”
The EB and the Office of the Managing Director initiated an effort last fall to modernize the Bureau’s field operations, the memorandum said.
“This project sought to ensure that the Field’s structure, operations, expenses, and equipment were properly aligned with the Commission’s overall mission and resources,” LeBlanc and Wilkins said. The Commission hired outside consultants to analyze the EB’s current “operating model,” gathering input from employees, outside experts, and internal and external stakeholders.
Under its “Phase I” field modernization scheme, the Bureau will recommend to the full Commission that it adjust the primary focus of its reduced field office complement to RF spectrum enforcement. The EB will also recommend “adjusting” the number of field agents from 63 to 33. To compensate, part of that field staff complement would include what the EB called a “Tiger Team” of agents “flexible enough to support other high-priority initiatives.” Under the plan, all field agents would have to have electrical engineering backgrounds “to support the primary focus on RF spectrum enforcement.” The Bureau will also propose standardizing its investigatory and sanctioning processes.
Management would not be spared. Under the recommendations, the EB field organization chart would shrink from 21 to 5 director positions, and from 10 to 3 administrative support positions.
Under the proposals, the field office would reduce its “geographic footprint,” from 24 sites to 8 sites and would “pre-position” equipment in several other strategic locations. Offices slated to stay under the plan would be New York City; Columbia, Maryland — the site of the Bureau’s HF Direction-Finding Center; Chicago; Atlanta; Miami; Dallas; Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The EB would deploy equipment in or near several other cities, initially to include Kansas City, Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Seattle, San Juan, Anchorage, Honolulu, and Billings, Montana.
Part of the plan calls for the EB to establish “beneficial partnerships between the Field and other organizations that may support increasing our effectiveness.”
During a March 4 US House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology Committee hearing on the FCC’s FY2016 budget, Rep Michael Pompeo (R-KS) pressed Wilkins on whether the FCC intended to close any field offices and eliminate any personnel. Wilkins attempted to dodge offering a direct answer, and hedged on whether any cuts were planned. He also said the Bureau had not yet received a final report from the outside consultant it had worked with. US Rep Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR), chairs the subcommittee.
A copy of the memorandum was sent to National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) Local 209 President Ana Curtis. The NTEU represents many FCC staff members.
ITU Smart Sustainable Development Model Report Touts Amateur Radio’s AdvantagesThe use of Amateur Radio in disaster preparedness and response was among “best practices” cited in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Smart Sustainable Development Model Report for 2015. International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) President Tim Ellam, VE6SH/G4HUA, is a member of the Smart Sustainable Development Model Advisory Board, which prepared the report, published in January. The IARU is an ITU sector member.
“I strongly believe that telecommunications and [information and communication technologies] are critical to saving lives as well as integrating communities and countries into the global economy, particularly as we enter the post-2015 development era,” ITU Telecommunication Development Bureau Director Brahima Sanou said in the preface to the report, which deemed Amateur Radio operators “well suited to respond in times of crisis.”
“The resource of the Amateur Radio Service should continue to be utilized as new technologies are developed,” the report said. “However, the best asset the Amateur Radio Service brings to emergency communications transcends technology. It provides skilled people ‘on the ground’ who can communicate using whatever technology is available.”
The report cited trained volunteers and existing allocated spectrum as Amateur Radio’s primary resources. “Amateur Radio services can be used in any area with an active population of radio amateurs, and is uniquely suited to situations in which other communication networks have been disrupted,” the report said, noting that Amateur Radio “involves a community-driven response to disasters.” Read more.
This morning, I received the following e-mail from a reader:
I came across your 2014 April Fool’s post while searching for something else but I was curious enough to check it out. Admittedly, I noticed the “April 1” date and, as for many others, “Dotty Dasher” gave it away.
Despite the tongue-in-cheek report, there were parts that struck a nerve, specifically “We’re beginning to think that if an applicant passes an amateur radio license exam it should mean that he or she actually knows something”
Some of your readers seemed put off by this, and I didn’t think it was funny at all…because it’s true. I know *several* operators who raced through online study guides and got their Extra Class licenses yet cannot tell the difference between a resistor, capacitor, and diode. When I gently asked about the need to know those things, one op said “It’s not about knowing this stuff since I have no intention of building anything”.
Yikes, but then again, he might have a point.
My newest rig is from 1968 and I’ve never worked the WARC bands so it’s hard for me to think of the hobby as plug and play. I’d much rather pick up a 1950s boatanchor at a hamfest than a 1990s synthesized transceiver. Which has the greater chance of being able to be made to work? How would someone replace a 128 pin surface mount microprocessor chip that hasn’t been made in 20 years?
Sorry for the rambling, but your article said more about the direction of amateur radio than most people might realize.
I replied:
Thanks for your e-mail. It’s really difficult to devise a test that can’t be passed by rote memorization, and even if you did do that, then it would be so hard to pass that it would turn away people that should be hams. That’s really not a good approach if you ask me.
What I tell those who pass the tests without at least wanting to learn the material is that they’re really cheating themselves. No matter how good the radios get, you still have to assemble the station and get everything hooked up properly. That takes some knowledge. You also have to know something to use all the features that modern transceivers have. And what happens when something goes wrong? You have to know enough to troubleshoot the problem.
Sure, they could probably fool around and make some contacts, but they’re certainly not going to get the best out of their equipment if they really know nothing. I think that, in the end, those that truly don’t know anything, don’t stick in the hobby.
Having said that, I think you’re cheating yourself–and not just a little–by not taking advantage of the newer technology. Let’s just take one feature – digital signal processing. Digital signal processing makes HF operation so much more enjoyable, especially if you can’t afford to go with the likes of Drake or Collins gear.
You’re right that fixing one of these digitally-synthesized radios is no easy chore, but the flip side of that is that the electronics in these radios is much more reliable than the electronics in tube gear. Chances are that you’ll never need to replace that 128-pin surface-mount device, and if you really had to, you could find someone with the equipment to do it for you, or even figure out how to do it yourself.
At any rate, I think there’s room in this hobby for all of us, including those that used to be called “appliance operators,” lovers of vintage radio, and those that are playing with new technology. It is, after all, just a hobby.
Shortly after this April Fool’s post, I wrote that it might be a good thing to make the General Class and Extra Class tests a little more difficult. I’m not criticizing the question pool committee, though. They have a very tough job as it is. It might be something to think about though.
What do you think?
On the ARRL PR mailing list, the topic of whether or not we’re “amateurs” came up again, and that morphed into a discussion of the term “amateur radio.” The impetus for this discussion was an article in the The Daily Progress of Charlottesville, VA that quotes Harry Dannals, W2HD, who was president of the ARRL from 1972 to 1982. He says,
The only thing I think is wrong about all this is the word amateur. That makes us sound like raw beginners. Not true. It only means we’re not being compensated financially for what we’re doing. Some radio amateurs are among the most professional and capable people I know.
My complaint with the term “amateur radio,” is not that we’re amateurs, but that we’re about much more than radio. Not only that, many people tend to confuse the word “radio” with “radio broadcasting.”
Compare the term “amateur radio operator” with the term “maker” or even “hacker.” If you were a kid or young adult, which would you rather be? Maker or hacker has more swagger to it, while amateur radio operator is something quaint, something one’s uncle or grandfather used to do.
Paul, N5IUT, said, “A name like Amateur is what you make it.” I disagree. As the saying goes, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. “Amateur radio” is not quite a sow’s ear, but it sure ain’t a silk purse, either.
Perhaps we’re all making too big a deal out of this, though. John, N3SPW, notes, “Don’t worry so much about the words. It’s more about what you actually do.” There’s a lot of truth in that.
What do you think? How do people react when you say that you’re an amateur radio operator? Would you like our hobby to have a more modern name or are you fine with what we have now?
In the December 2014 issue of QST, Dave, K1ZZ, writes about “Creative Tension” in the Personal Visions column and discusses some of the threats to amateur radio. He’s right on in what he’s written, but I’d like to add my own outlook on at least one topic.
Under the heading “Demonstrating our Relevance,” he writes:
One threat is our perceived irrelevance. It is in our DNA to want to put our capabilities to practical use; the ARRL was founded as a network of stations willing and able to relay messages at a time when, for most people, rapid long-distance communications was a novelty. Today, we still possess a unique ability to communicate independent of any infrastructure. It may be seldom needed, but we shouldn’t be defensive about that. Aren’t skills at communicating by radio at least as valuable to society as are skills at throwing, kicking, and hitting balls of various sizes?
While K1ZZ is certainly correct that amateur radio still brings something to the table, it’s obvious to me that my radio communication skills are not as valuable to society as the ability to throw, kick, or hit a ball. If it were, we’d have Major League Ham Radio, and the top stars would be pulling down salaries of a million bucks or more.
How can we be more valuable? Someone, maybe not the ARRL, but certainly with their support, needs to set up an organization like AMSAT for emergency communications. Instead of just doing what we’ve done in the past, this group would explore ways that amateur radio operators can be more valuable to served agencies. I would envision this group monitoring developments in academia and participating in international conferences, as well as working on practical solutions for emergency communications problems.
In addition—and I’ve said this many times before—emergency communications is only one of the five “purposes” of amateur radio, as set forth in Part 97.1 of the rules that govern amateur radio. The other four purposes stress its recreational and educational uses, and point out “the amateur’s unique ability to enhance international goodwill.”
Let’s not forget these when we talk up amateur radio. For example, in education these days, a lot of people are talking about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) programs. Amateur radio can certainly be a relevant and valuable part of a STEM program.
So, let’s not even consider for a second that amateur radio is not relevant in today’s world. Rather, let’s explore ways to make sure that it is.
The January 2015 issue of Contact is out, and the “Last Word” column in that newsletter asks, “ARRL’s Centennial is now over. The candles have been blown out of the birthday cake, and now that the Centennial QSO Party is over, the bands seem awfully quiet in comparison. The inevitable question that hangs in the air is, ‘now what?'”
The answer, of course, is that now we’ve looked back and celebrated our past for the past year, it’s time to look forward. On the ARRL PR mailing list, Ward, N0AX, writes that we are “freed from having our story be about the past. Time to look to the future by talking up the forward-looking activities and technology!”
I couldn’t agree more. Personally, I plan to try a couple of new things this year, one of them being digital voice, and a group of local hams plans to play around with mesh networking. The past is a springboard for the future, and the key is to have fun with ham radio.
While waiting in the doctor’s office today, I got to thinking about some of the issues that amateur radio is facing today. Here’s the list I came up with:
I’m not trying to be negative here, but rather positive. Instead of complaining about the problems, I’m thinking that if I could identify one or two things that we could really do something about we could improve our situation.
That being the case, what do you think of this list? Is there anything that you would add? Perhaps if I can refine this list, I’ll put up a survey here, and maybe even do a random mailing to hams in the FCC database.
This morning I got an e-mail from a reader:
Our local club is trying to attract new members, and to that end we’re contemplating a mass-mailing to licensed hams in our area. But my thought is, why not include the preppers as well? Why not reach out to the prepper community to help them learn how to communicate during emergencies? Granted, ham radio may not be the focus of their lives, but, does that matter? Plant the seeds of interest via an outreach and see where it goes from there!
I didn’t want to dissuade him from recruiting preppers, but I don’t think that they’re a fertile ground for recruiting amateur radio club members—at least not the kind he really wants. The reason for this is that their primary concern is prepping and not amateur radio.
Most preppers don’t really care about the technology, per se. If they could use tin cans and string, they’d use tin cans and string. That’s not a knock on preppers, but I think in an amateur radio club, you want people that are truly interested in the technology.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy to have preppers in my classes, have them download my study guides, and help them when they have questions. While I don’t have any real numbers, I’d say that my study guides have been used by hundreds, if not thousands of preppers to get their licenses. Many prepper sites link to KB6NU.Com, and when I find those links, I thank them, and in some cases, try to correct some misconceptions that they have about amateur radio. I just don’t think that many preppers are going to go beyond buying an HT and putting it in their “SHTF” kit.
Having said all that, I’d be happy if I was completely off-track here. Has your club had any experience trying to recruit preppers? If so, what’s been your experience?
