KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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ICQPodcast Episode 452 – Disqualified ARRL board nominees tell their stories

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In this episode, I join Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest amateur/ham radio news:

From my point of view, the big news is this episode’s feature, which starts at approximately the 1:25:00 mark. In the feature, Frank K4FMH and I interview the three hams who were disqualified from last year’s ARRL board elections. They are:

  • Jim Talens, N3JT
  • Dan Marler, K7REX
  • Fred Hopengarten, K1VR

Each of them tells the story of how they came to be disqualified, and I’m sure that these stories are sure to raise an eyebrow or two. After hearing their stories, we all discuss how the recent board decision to modfy ByLaw 18 will make the ARRL even less democratic and what that might mean for ARRL membership. (TL;DR it’s not a positive thing.)

Amateur radio in the news: STEM students get licenses, eclipse news

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I’ve been falling a bit behind in my “amateur radio in the news” posts. These are from the beginning of April, but still worth blogging about, I think……Dan

STEM Club Members Earn HAM Radio Licenses

[GREENVILLE, IL] Members of the Greenville Junior High School STEM Club have obtained their Amateur HAM Radio licenses, after attending sessions led by the Okaw Valley Amateur Radio Club.

The students immersed themselves in learning radio communications principles, regulations, and practical skills. Okaw Valley members believe the partnership by the two groups showcases the importance of community collaboration in enriching educational experiences.

Attainment of the licenses not only equips students with valuable skills, but also opens doors to opportunities in emergency communication and public service.

Earning their licenses were Milan Hustedde, Jay Neer,  Ryder Johnson, Nolan Prater, Lukas Simmonds,  Ezra Van Middendorp,  Jackson Wood.

…read more

Tooele students have out-of-this-world conversation with astronaut

TOOELE, Utah — Excitement filled the air as students from the Tooele County School District had the extraordinary opportunity to connect directly with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Thanks to the amateur radio on the stations, students from the district gathered at Blue Peak High School and posed questions Monday to astronaut Mike Barratt in live ham radio contact.

…read more and watch video

see also “Utah students use ham radio to connect with astronaut during eclipse”

BBC – Total solar eclipse: The 4-minute window into the Sun’s secrets

About halfway down is this section:

Radio listening party

The Sun’s activity can disrupt almost all our communications, including the humble long-wave radio. Energy from the Sun charges a region in the upper atmosphere called the ionosphere, which helps radio transmissions whizz around the planet. But when the Moon blocks the Sun, the ionosphere is affected.

To test what that does to radio, hundreds of amateur radio operators will join a listening party and send signals to each other across the world, competing for the most connections. They might communicate in Morse code or even speak.

The results could help scientists better understand radio communications used by emergency workers, airplanes, and ships, as well as GPS, according to Nathaniel Frissell at University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, who is running the party.

…read more

ICQ Podcast Episode 428 – ICQPodcast Live

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

Amateur radio videos: Make the most of solar cycle 25, backyard ISS contact, build a mini-HF loading coil

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How to make the most of Solar Cycle 25

It’s no secret that the bands have been in great shape lately. In this video, W3LPL shows how to make the most of it.

Michigan ham talks to astronauts aboard the ISS from his backyard

This video has been gotten a lot of press, but I think it’s pretty cool, so I’m posting it here. It’s kind of cool that KB8M happens to be in Michigan, my home state.  You can tell how geeked Doug was about the contact.

How to build a mini HF loading coil

Here’s another video on how to build your own version of a Buddipole or Wolf River loading coil. VA5MUD has a lot more interesting videos on his YouTube channel, Mr MuDs Radio Time.

Amateur radio in the news: ISS contact on the TODAY Show, Indian students launch satellite, VA club prepares for emergency

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ISS contact on The TODAY Show


NBC TODAY Show reporter Harry Smith covers a PA high school contact with the space station. What’s nice about this is that you can tell that it’s really a professional production.

Somaiya students’ amateur radio satellite takes to the skies

[MUMBAI] An amateur radio satellite created by students and named ‘Somaiya Beliefsat-0’ was successfully launched on New Year’s Eve at 9.10 am from Sriharikota’s premier launch pad. The satellite serves as a payload on the PSLV-C58 mission’s PSLV Orbital Experimental Module (POEM) platform.

With the launch of the satellite, Somaiya Beliefsat-0 pays tribute to 100 years of the HAM radio in India and endeavours to succeed its predecessor. “HAMSAT was decommissioned in 2016,” said Umesh Shinde, the faculty coordinator for the mission. “Now Somaiya Beliefsat-0, positioned in a 350-km orbit with a 9.6-degree inclination, is set to become a crucial player in the realm of global amateur radio.”

…read more

ESARC Participates in Emergency Preparedness Exercise

[VIRGINIA] The Eastern Shore Amateur Radio Club participated in an emergency communications preparedness exercise on December 13, 2023.  The exercise, known as a “Shelter Test,” involved setting up and operating emergency radio communications using amateur (ham) radio to communicate with similar operations throughout the county.

The club coordinated its December 2023 Shelter Test from the Accomack County Emergency Operations Center (“EOC”), on Beacon Road, Melfa (near the airport) and from the Northampton County EOC in Eastville.

From the Emergency Operations Centers, the radio operators established reliable communications between the two county EOCS and with several of the locations that will be used as shelters in times of emergency on the Eastern Shore.  In the event of a hurricane, or other major disaster, the counties have established several shelters located around the counties.  These are locations where residents could go for food, medical care and short-term housing.  See graphic for Accomack County shelter map which is available on the Accomack County Web Site or the Hurricane Preparedness Guide on Shoredailynews.com.

…read more

Amateur radio in the news: 8 yo talks to ISS, QSLs a highlight of ham history

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This story has been making rounds, so you may have seen it already, but I think it’s still a good story…Dan

Broadstairs eight-year-old to feature on NASA website after radio chat with ISS astronaut

A Broadstairs eight-year-old has chatted with an astronaut aboard the International Space Station and a recording of the conversation will feature on the NASA website.

Isabella Payne spoke to Astronaut Kjell Lindgren as the ISS flew overhead last week.

The youngster was with dad Matthew who is a license holding amateur radio enthusiast and tutor. He and Isabella are both members of Hilderstone Radio Society.

Matthew said: “Isabella has been a member of the radio club ever since she was born and has been playing with the radio since she was six. Because I have the full licence she can sit on my knee and use the radio to speak to people as long as I am controlling it. Everyone at the club can do that. She has been involved in a few radio events, Children On The Air events, and will hopefully go for her own licence soon.

…read more

QSL ‘calling card’ a highlight of ham radio history

BLOOMINGTON — The McLean County Museum of History works hard to collect, preserve and document the stories of the people who have contributed to and had an impact on McLean County history. This element of the museum’s mission is supported by the generosity of the many individuals who donate items to its ever-growing collection. A great example of this can be seen in the unique cartoon donated by the estate of Eugene Umstattd.

…read more

Salt Lake Crossroads: Amateur Radio Club

No matter what the video star says, radio isn’t going anywhere for the Salt Lake Crossroads Amateur Radio Club (SLCARC). T Michael Smith, one of the founders of the club, and outreach team members James Bennett and Mike McAinsh explain the appeal of radio in preparation for their Craft Lake City DIY Festival appearance: “With so much to learn and do in ham radio, you will never become bored with all it has to offer,” they say.

SLCARC was founded in 2014 to assist Salt Lake City Emergency Management in disaster communication, but the club offers various options to explore the multifaceted hobby in depth. From helping new hams with “mic fright” to offering a location to obtain licenses, SLCARC is a space for everyone. “Whether you’ve been licensed for years or are just starting out in the hobby, you will find a welcoming community of hams at Crossroads who will help answer your questions, provide help with putting up antennas or programming that new radio and make you feel welcome on air,” the team says, emphasizing the club’s focus on making radio accessible to users with disabilities.

At the DIY Festival, SLCARC will be demonstrating how little you need to get involved, with explanations on homemade antennas and how to transform your computer into a receiver. “We hope to inspire our visitors to pay more attention to their personal and neighborhood emergency preparedness,” the club says.

…read more

A little of this, a little of that: 8-yo talks to astronauts, SHF transceiver from ICOM, Raspberry Pi logic analyzer

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8-year-old girl in Kent, England, has an out of this world story to tell her friends

This is a great story. Kjell Lindgren has been doing a great job on the ISS amateur radio station.

ICOM debuts SHF transceiver

Icom showed a mockup of this transceiver, capable of operation at up to 10 GHz at Dayton. Apparently, it got a good enough response that they’re going to start manufacturing it. How much would you pay for a rig like this?

$4 Logic Analyzer Based on Raspberry Pi Pico

In a recent EE Journal, Steven Leibson writes:

Here’s a truly inspired project. Dr. Agustín Gimenez Bernad, a Senior Developer in ServiZurich S.A. in Spain, has created one of the most brilliant hacks I’ve seen yet. He’s built a 24-bit logic analyzer that samples at 100 Msamples/sec and stores 32K samples from nothing more than a $4 Raspberry Pi Pico board and some clever code. There’s a lot to learn from this project, which is posted with some very fine documentation on GitHub, but if you just need a $4 logic analyzer, there’s still a lot to be admired.

For four bucks, why wouldn’t you want to have a logic analyzer in your shack, especially if you do any microcontroller projects at all.

RS0ISS to transmit SSTV images from the ISS June 9 and 10

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From Southgate ARC…

An example of an SSTV image sent last year by RS0ISS.

Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) plan to transmit slow-scan TV (SSTV) images on 145.800 MHz FM on Wednesday, June 9, 2021 and Thursday, June 10, 2021.

The transmissions, which will use SSTV mode PD120, are part of the Moscow Aviation Institute SSTV experiment (MAI-75) and will be made from RS0ISS in the Russian Service Module of the ISS using a Kenwood
TM-D710 transceiver.

The tentative schedule calls for transmissions on June 9 from 0935 UTC until 1350 UTC and on June 10 from 0855 UTC until 1550 UTC. Dates and times are subject to change.

Hams on Earth should be able to receive the signals on a handheld transceiver using a quarter-wave whip antenna, with FM filters set for 25 kHz channel spacing.

Predicted ISS pass times are available via the AMSAT website at,
https://www.amsat.org/track/ .

Additional information is available on the Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station (ARISS) SSTV blog at
https://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/, and tips for SSTV beginners are
available on the AMSAT-UK website at
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/.

Interesting stuff I found in my inbox

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I’m on a lot of ham radio mailing lists, and people are constantly sending me interesting things to read and to watch. Here are some of the coolest from the past couple of weeks…..Dan

Smallest transceiver ever?

This is very cool. Adam, K6ARK, has designed a surface-mount version of the Pixie transceiver. (There are many different designs, but to get an idea of what a Pixie is, here’s a circuit description of a more recent design.) What’s really amazing about this video is the number of contacts that Adam makes with this little radio out in the boonies. I mean we’re talking less than a watt output and a receiver that’s as wide as a barn door. Very impressive.

Beginner’s Guide to the NanoVNA

The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to the NanoVNA by Martin Svaco, 9A2JK is a wonderful introduction to this cool, little instrument. It not only includes instructions on how to use a NanoVNA, there is a short history of the instrument and the different version out there as well as a brief theory of operation. If you have a NanoVNA, you should get this guide.

Easy ISS SSTV Reception

I know that this is a little late for this series of ISS SSTV transmissions, but I’m sure that they’ll do it again sooner or later.

Amateur radio in the news: Hammarlund, ham radio on the ISS, two kids work the South Pole

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Now, that’s a soldering iron! Worker at the Hammarlund Mars Hill plant assembles a variable capacitor.

Ham radio operators honor legacy of Mars Hill company

During the 1950’s and ’60’s, when the Hammarlund Manufacturing Company had a factory just west of Mars Hill College, the town could have been considered a world center of advanced electronic technology. With a company motto of “Quality Without Compromise,” almost 90% of American WWII wartime military electronic equipment employed Hammarlund capacitors. They also built U.S. Navy search radar installed on aircraft carriers, battleships and cruisers.

Hammarlund was one of the three leading brands of radio communications equipment at the time, along with Hallicrafters and Collins Radio. These three companies dominated in providing state of the art electronics equipment to the U.S. military, large and small corporations, and to private individuals who had the means and taste to own the very best.

….read more

Living in space can get lonely. What helps? Talking to random people over ham radio

The International Space Station cost more than $100 billion. A ham radio set can be had for a few hundred bucks. Perhaps that explains, in part, the appeal of having one of humankind’s greatest scientific inventions communicate with Earth via technology that’s more than 100 years old.

NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock, Expedition 24 flight engineer, used a ham radio system in the Zvezda Service Module of the International Space Station in 2010.(NASA)

…read more

Two Kids, a Ham Radio, and the World at Their Fingertips

CLARK, NJ – A brown house with lots of glass panels, hidden in overgrowth for years, situated across from Manny’s Diner on Raritan Road, was recently demolished and will soon be replaced by apartments. In the 1950s, the house was home to Jules and John Madey, two brothers who grew up spending hours in their basement using a ham radio that one day connected with a navy substation in the South Pole.

…read more