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Dayton Hamvention 2026: Day 3, Friday, May 15 – Forums

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Hamvention 2026 logoThe forums at this year’s Hamvention were pretty good—and I’m not just saying this because I was on the schedule. I spent most of Friday morning cruising the vendor booths and schmoozing with people I know. I stopped by the CWops booth, the Amateur Radio Digital Communication (ARDC) booth, and the Youth on the Air (YOTA) booth. In the afternoon, though, I spent most of my time attending the forums.

The first talk I attended was the Long Island CW Club (LICW) presentation, “Our CW Journeys.” I was interested in this talk because I’m in the process of updating my CW book and wanted to learn more about their process.

The presentation consisted of several “testimonials” from members how they learned Morse code by taking LICW classes and participating in LICW activities. The stories were very intriguing, and kudos to LICW for helping people have fun with Morse code.

Next, I stopped by the “Amateur Radio and the Law” forum to say a quick hello to Fred, K1VR, and Bob, K3RF. I didn’t stop to hear the talk, though, as my next stop was the “Hackers in Ham Radio” forum.

This forum was a panel discussion, led by Jeremy, KD8TUO. The discussion was a bit unorganized, but they did talk about how the hacker and ham radio communities intersect. I think that these two communities should intersect even more, and as part of Ham Radio Village, I’m helping to do that. Hackers are the kind of people that we want in ham radio.

The final forum of the day for me was “The Latest from ARDC: Grants and 44Net.” At this forum, folks from ARDC talked a great deal about their latest development, 44Net Connect. It’s taken ARDC a while to get to this point, but it looks to me like they’ve made connecting to 44Net a lot easier than it has been in the past, and I’m looking forward to see what use hams make of it.

There were also short presentations by a couple of their grantees, including the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC) and AMSAT. It’s always great to hear what other grantees are doing. ARDC has made a real difference in amateur radio, and I’m happy to say that it looks like they will continue to do so.

How do we encourage more experimentation in amateur radio?

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WARNING: What follows is a partly-baked idea.
Please help me more fully bake it. 😀

In January, I hooked up again with Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), joining their Grant Evaluation Team (GET). Today at our GET meeting, we heard from ARDC’s board president, Bdale Garbee, KB0G, who spoke to us about ARDC’s values and  mission.

One of those values is encouraging experimentation. Experimentation is part of the fabric of amateur radio. Part 97.1 (b) notes that one of the bases and purposes of amateur radio is the “continuation and extension of the amateur’s proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.” Recognizing this, many of ARDC’s grants go to groups who are developing amateur radio and digital communications technology.

Many bemoan the fact that there isn’t much experimentation going on in amateur radio and that hams don’t build their own gear anymore. I’m not so sure that’s really true, though. There are lots of ongoing projects that are “advancing the state of the radio art.” The M17 Project and FreeDV are two projects that have been funded by ARDC grants. WSJT-X has been around a long time, but the developers are still pushing it forward. Commercially, QRP Labs and HF Signals are both developing interesting hardware and software. And, there are still some QRP clubs, such as the Four State QRP Group (4SQRP), CalQRP, and the Michigan QRP Club that promote home brewing and experimentation.

Perhaps what’s needed is something like “Experimenting 101 for Ham Radio Operators.” This would be kind of the opposite to what I’ve been doing lately, that is teaching ham radio to hackers.  This would be more along the lines of teaching hacking to ham radio operators.

Along those lines, here are some partly-baked ideas that have come to mind:

  • Is it possible to teach people how to become good experimenters? What are some of the characteristics of a good hacker?
  • Could we set up some kind of “ecosystem” to promote hacking in ham radio? I envision this ecosystem giving both financial and psychological support to ham radio hackers.
  • What do I mean about financial support? Well, inevitably hackers are going to blow things up at some point. Our hacker ecosystem could perhaps help soften the financial losses somehow.
  • What do I mean by psychological support? Having a hack go wrong can take a mental toll on a hacker. Our ecosystem would help the nascent hacker get over the disappointment and discouragement and get on with their hacking. I’m not sure how exactly, but providing some kind of support group would go a long way.
  • Parts of this ecosystem may already be in place in the form of makerspaces and public libraries. Maybe I could get an ARDC grant to develop this kind of class to be taught at one of the two makerspaces here in Ann Arbor.

As I say, these are partly-baked thoughts. Please comment if you have any thoughts about this.

More new hams!

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In the past two weeks, I’ve taught two one-day Tech classes. The first was at the University of Michigan on Saturday, October 5, 2024. We chose that date because it was the first Saturday this fall when there wasn’t a U-M home football game.

Football games are a big deal around here as you might expect. The university has the largest American football stadium in the world, and won the national championship last year (but this year they aren’t doing quite so well).

My classes are always a mix of university students and the general public. for this class, there were 15 students and 5 folks that signed up via my website. When all was said and done, 16 passed the test (with one passing the General test as well). Of the four that failed, at least two did not prepare at all before the class. James, AE8JF, who headed up the VE team, said, “A couple people that I talked to that failed said that they hadn’t prepared.” *sighs*

Jawning in Philadelphia

This past weekend, I taught a one-day Tech class at JawnCon at Arcadia University in the suburbs of Philadelphia. This is only the second year for JawnCon, and they only sold 250 tickets, so I wasn’t expecting a big class. That being the case, I was pleasantly surprised to find 10 or so in the classroom when it was time to get started.

Dan, KB6NU, in front of a chalkboard.
One of the unique things about teaching at JawnCon was the real chalkboard. Photo: Nicole, AD2IM.

Like all the classes I’ve taught at cons, people wander in and out. I’m OK with that, although it does hurt one’s chances of passing the test. Seven folks stuck with me the whole way, and all seven passed the test.

One of the problems with these con classes is getting information to prospective students. While some students are able to pass the test if they come in cold, they really increase their chances of passing the test if they read through the study guide before the class. Often, some of the people that show up for the class haven’t downloaded the study guide (it’s free!).

Case in point: A young guy showed up just before lunch and sat down close to the front. I chatted with him a bit and asked if he’d gotten the study guide. When a perplexed look crossed his face, I gave him the URL. He downloaded it right away. Despite sitting through the rest of the class, he failed by two questions.  I gotta think that if he’d been in the class from the start, or had gotten the study guide before the class, he would have passed.

Of course, I couldn’t have done either of these classes without a VE team. Thanks to all the ARROW VEs that showed up on October 5 and to Nicole, AD2IM and Ed, N2XDD for organizing the team for JawnCon.

A nice mention by ARDC

In their last grantee roundup, ARDC gave us a nice shoutout. They wrote:

Classroom scene
Photo: Ed, N2XDD.

Ham Radio Village (K0HRV): Amateur Radio Evangelist
The Ham Radio Village (K0HRV) distributes quality educational content, offers hand-on amateur radio experiences, and hosts license testing sessions. Last year, K0HRV received an ARDC grant for the Amateur Radio Evangelist project, aimed at attending conferences to introduce attendees to amateur radio as a lifelong hobby. Recently, the evangelists made their first stop at Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE XV), where Dan Romanchik (KB6NU) gave a well-received talk titled Ham Radio for Hackers, where he discussed amateur radio basics, showcased amateur radio projects interesting to hackers, and provided information on getting an amateur radio license. The next day, Dan gave a one-day Technician class to an engaged audience who readily asked questions, followed by a testing session, where 25 hackers got their Technician ticket! To learn more about Amateur Radio Evangelist at HOPE XV, check out Dan’s blog post, as well as a related blog post from Hackaday.

Onward and upward

Even thought the grant was supposed to cover only four conferences, the Ham Radio Village treasurer thinks we can squeeze in a fifth. So, I’ll be headed to Provo, UT for SaintCon in a week and a half, and after that, possibly B-Sides Delaware in early November. That’s a lot of teaching in just over a month, but I really love doing it. In fact, I’m planning to submit another grant proposal for next year and ask for enough funds for six of these events.

Amateur radio videos: ARDC community meeting, Hamvention award winners, send texts over VHF/UHF

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ARDC Community Meeting 2024-02-24

Here’s the latest update from ARDC on their activities.

Hamvention 2024 award winners

The winners this year include:

  • Special Achievement Award: Anthony Luscre, K8ZT
  • Technical Achievement: Ward Silver, N0AX
  • Club of the Year: Young Ladies Radio League
  • Amateur of the Year: Edward Engleman, KG8CX

Text over radio with Rattlegram

This might be something interesting to try on a repeater that’s not very active.

ICQ Podcast Episode 401- MFJ8504 Review and Understanding HF Controls

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In this episode, i joined Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the following:

Other news includes:

This episode’s feature is MFJ8504 Review and Understanding HF Controls.

ICQ Podcast Episode 373 – Hamzilla 2022

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In this episode, I joined Colin Butler, M6BOY; Edmund Spicer, M0MNG; Ed Durrant DD5LP; and Leslie Butterfield, G0CIB to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. The news items included:

The episode’s feature was on Hamzilla 2022.

ARDC issues two new requests for proposals

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Calling all educators and ham clubs!

Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is pleased to announce two requests for proposals (RFPs), designed to support amateur radio clubs as well as teachers who are interested in educating the next generation about amateur radio and digital communication science.

The RFP for Amateur Radio Clubs seeks to support projects happening at amateur radio clubs. For this year, such grants are restricted to clubs inside of the United States. Grants in this category will be reviewed in two grant windows – the first one is short (starts now and ends on May 1, 2021), and the second one will run throughout the summer:

Summer Fall
Submissions due: May 1, 2021 August 1, 2021
Distribution target: July 1, 2021 October 1, 2021

More information, including a Q+A about eligibility and requirements, can be found in the RFP for Supporting Amateur Radio Clubs.

The RFP for Education Projects is open to educational organizations both in the US and internationally. This granting window has one cycle, with distributions targeted for August 1, 2021 – ideally before the 2021-2022 school year starts.

Submissions due: June 1, 2021
Distribution target: August 1, 2021
As with the RFP for Amateur Radio Clubs, more information can be found in the Education Project RFP.

Please note that the timeframes listed above apply primarily to organizations that are 501(c)(3)s or part of a school or government entity based in the US. Grants to other kinds of organizations may require additional administration and thus may take a longer to process.

Some Q&A about these RFPs

Thinking back on some questions that have come up at our community discussions, there are some high-level questions I imagine some folks will have. Here are answers to some of those.

Why is the Education Projects RFP open to international applicants, while the RFP for Supporting Amateur Radio Clubs is only open to applicants in the US?

In order to most effectively get funds to amateur radio clubs internationally, we are looking to partner with organizations who can help to distribute such grants to clubs in their local area. We also have an exciting announcement about this brewing…so stay tuned! In the meantime, please direct any questions to [email protected].

How much do you plan to give to each one of these categories?

ARDC is purposefully not setting a floor or limit on the number of grants that we will give in either category, or on the amounts given for each grant. The quality and quantity of applications that we get will determine the answers. With this in mind – we challenge you to tell as many people you know to help us get the word out!

If you have more questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out:

[email protected].

We look very forward to seeing your proposals!

Learn how to get amateur radio grants Saturday February 6!

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Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) is an organization whose mission is to “support, promote, and enhance digital communication and broader communication science and technology, to promote Amateur Radio, scientific research, experimentation, education, development, open access, and innovation in information and communication technology.” They have a bunch of money that they raised by selling some of the IP addresses that were initially allotted to amateur radio.

TOMORROW, Saturday, February 6, they will be holding a community meeting to inform folks about their activities. Consider attending if you think that you mighth be interested in applying for a grant from ARDC. Here’s the memo:

From: Rosy Wolfe <[email protected]>

Hello, ARDC Grantees!

I hope this new year is off to a good start and that all is well in your
world, or at least as well as it can be given pandemic times.

I’m writing with some invitations – which are both for you and extend to other amateur radio enthusiasts in your communities.

# Invitation 1: Please join us for our next community meeting!

  • Saturday, 06 Feb 2021
  • * 18:00 GMT (10am PT / 1pm ET / 7pm CET)

Join us by signing up here: https://www.ampr.org/feb-6-meeting-sign-up/

In this meeting, we’ll cover:

  • Highlights from 2020
  • Grantmaking goals in 2021
  • Introductions of new Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Grants Advisory Committee (GAC) Members
  • Survey results from our latest survey, discussed below
  • Questions from our attendees.

We held a similar meeting on 10 Oct. 2020, which was primarily for
people using 44net addresses.

This one is intended for a much broader audience. So – please tell your
friends! We also plan to record this meeting for those who can’t make it.

# Invitation 2: Please take and share this survey!

Leading up to the meeting, we’re also asking amateur radio enthusiasts to give us their thoughts in this survey. Please share it with other hams you know. As with the last survey, the aim is to get to know the people we aim to support through our grantmaking. And like our upcoming meeting, it too is meant for a broader audience.

That’s all for now! Looking forward to sharing more with everyone soon.

Thank you for all that you do.

All the best,
Rosy
ARDC Executive Director

I plan to attend myself.