KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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Amateur radio in the news: Hackable ham radio, ham radio at the museum, club hosts Scouts

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The Most Hackable Handheld Ham Radio Yet

The [Quansheng] UV-K5, released last year, might be the most hackable handheld ever, with a small army of dedicated hams adding a raft of software-based improvements and new features. I had to have one, and $30 later, I did.

Like Baofeng’s 5R, Quansheng’s K5 as a radio transceiver is fine. (I’m using K5 here to refer to both the original K5 and the new K5(8) model.) The key technical distinction between the 5R and K5 is a seemingly minor design choice. With Baofeng’s 5R, the firmware resides in read-only memory. But Quansheng stores the K5’s firmware in flash memory and made it possible to rewrite that memory with the same USB programming cable used to assign frequencies to preset channels.

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ICHMS collaborates with IRARC

CASPIAN, MI – The Iron County Historical & Museum Society (ICHMS) will have two new exhibits this summer thanks to a collaboration with the Iron Range Amateur Radio Club (IRARC) and a grant from the Crystal Falls/Dickinson Area Community Foundation. “We couldn’t be any more excited about this collaboration and the exhibits that will come from it”, states museum director Kathlene Long. The club members are in here helping build the exhibits and are bringing their expertise along with their own artifacts to build these exhibits in time for this coming summer season.

Railroad depot building
The Stager Depot at the Iron County Historical Museum in Caspian, MI.

The Club is building a working ham radio station in the museum. It will be fully functional. Museum visitors will be able to see the exhibit and signs will help visitors understand the importance ham radios – and amateur operators – have played in our county’s, and our country’s history. They will also learn why they continue to be so important. In addition, the Club is recreating a display of a vintage WIKB studio from pieces they have collected over the years. All of this is being paid for, in part, from a $500 grant from the Crystal Falls/Dickinson Area Community Foundation. “All in all, this is a lot of moving parts finally coming together to make this happen.” Long explains.

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SIERA hosts Scout amateur radio merit badge day

METROPOLIS, IL — Boy Scouts talked to amateur radio operators as far away as Puerto Rico and Arizona during a radio merit badge class hosted by the Southernmost Illinois Emergency Radio Association (SIERA). Five scouts from Troop 2007, out of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Paducah, attended the class on Saturday, March 23, at Trinity Church in Metropolis.

Scouts experimented with tuning forks and a wave generator and had the opportunity to talk on both handy-talkie and high-frequency base radios during the class. They also learned about the science and mechanics of radio as well as important safety measures.

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Yet another *OTA: Scout Camps on the Air

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From K2BSA:

K2BSA has established a SCOTA committee that is currently working on an award program. Watch for an announcement by the end of 2023.

 7/3/2023

The work of the Scout Camps on the Air (SCOTA) Committee is well underway. It has been over a decade since Matt KR8E had the idea of SCOTA, the program is finally getting the necessary attention. The most recent additions to the SCOTA Committee have been three active youth Radio Scouters. Their ideas and energy have been a great addition. Currently, the Committee is working on building the database of BSA owned camps/leased and is reaching out to each council for this information. The program’s purpose is to encourage the general radio amateur population to contact Scout stations as well as encouraging station preparedness and camp to camp communications.

The program is being built around the concept of BSA owned/leased camps (SCOTA) and scout radio activities outside of BSA owned/leased camps defined as Scout Stations on the Air. (SSOTA). Each council will likely start with one SSOTA which covers all the area of a council outside of a SCOTA. Below are some of the initial thoughts around the award structure. Feedback to the committee is appreciated.

The Committee is also working with multiple social media platforms to increase awareness of SCOTA among the general amateur radio population. This will likely become a global effort and the SCOTA committee looks forward to working along with other National Scouting Organizations to develop a true World Radio Scouting program.

You can join the SCOTA IO (google group)  interest group by emailing [email protected].

Scout Camps On The Air (SCOTA) Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/scoutcamps

Scout Camps On The Air (SCOTA) Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/scoutcamps

Twitter: @SCOTA_k2bsa

Instagram: scota_k2bsa

The Committee is looking for help with software development.

For more information, go to https://k2bsa.net/scout-camps-on-the-air/.

Amateur radio in the news: Kids discover new (old?) way to communicate, training scouts

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Young students discover a different form of communication

In a year that has often been isolating, eight students from Foxboro are exploring a different way to communicate. They are taking a virtual course in Morse code through the [CWops] CW Academy.

Liam Polis, 11, a sixth-grader who is home-schooled this year, said his mother signed him up for the class, and at first, he wasn’t sure about it, but then found it to be fun. “It’s different than other classes because we learn on our own and then check in with the teacher, but it’s fun. I learned a lot about the history and use of Morse code and also the letters: a, e, i, o, s, t, n, m, y, l and number 1 for week one,” Liam said.

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When Scoutmasters Got Trained to be Amateur Radio Operators

Did you know that amateur radio supplies can come in handy when the grid is down? In case you didn’t realize this fact before, now you do! Scott deMasi, the assistant scoutmaster, knew the right way to respond to such an alarming situation with the power down in Kingwood’s subdivision in Texas. In 2017, the devastating Hurricane Harvey (Category 4) had wreaked havoc in many parts of the region, including Scott deMasi’s subdivision.

After the water level decreased, the two assistant scoutmasters, David Godell and Scott deMasi, sat down and worked for a solution to effectively communicate with their troop of a hundred scouts. Scott deMasi had spent 15 years as an amateur radio operator and knew the effectiveness of the ham radio in times where one’s survival is at risk. The task left was to train their troop of 100 scouts and their parents to maneuver ham radios. With the power down and roads flooded with water, operating a ham radio was indeed a lifesaving skill.

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Mississippi Valley Amateur Radio holds training in WXOW’s parking lot

LA CRESCENT, Minn. – The Mississippi Valley Amateur Radio Association set up camp in the WXOW parking lot on Saturday for the day. Vice President Bill Klein-Schmidt explained they can set up anywhere they want and they try to do it as often as they can.

“Basically what we are doing today is what they call the Minnesota QSO party and what that consists of is us trying to contact as many counties in the state of Minnesota that we can in a certain period of time,” said Klein-Schmidt.

He said trainings also help them practice setting up their gear quickly and in cold, bad weather. It is important because if communication were ever to go down, they would still be able to communicate with people through ham radio.

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Scouts send their name in Morse Code during JOTA

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Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) was this last weekend. According to the Scouting website, “Jamboree-on-the-Air, or JOTA, is the largest Scouting event in the world. It is held annually the third full weekend in October. JOTA uses amateur radio to link Scouts and hams around the world, around the nation, and in your own community.”

It’s hard to get younger kids to make contacts during JOTA, but one thing that they can do is to send their names in Morse Code.I have a sheet that spells out the dits and dahs of the alphabet (shown below), and after showing a youngster how to send one character, they quickly pick up how to send the other characters.

At the 2019 Pacific Skyline Council’s JOTA event, kids enjoyed sending their names in Morse Code.

Walter, K6WRU, Radio Scouting Chair for the Pacific Skyline Council, reported that this was a popular activity at their Jamboree on the Air activity held in Los Altos, CA this weekend. He noted, “I was worried that the keyer speed might be a bit fast, but kids fingers are fast.”

He goes on to report, “We had 21 youth visit and they all enjoyed spelling their names in Morse code and in the phonetic alphabet. We also had ARDF (fox hunting) and on-air conversations on VHF and HF.”

Radio direction finding was also popular at the Pacific Skyline Council JOTA this year.

 

From my Twitter feed: Scouting, Arduino, prototypes

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ke5wma's avatarPaul Griffith @ke5wma
Radio Scouting Mentoring Brochure k2bsa.net/mentoring-broc… via @K2BSA_Scouting

 

socketwench's avatarSocketwench @socketwench
First the SkyPi, and now an Arduino shield based rig. #hamradio is about to get interesting again. g7kse.co.uk/kanga-sudden-a…

 

caulktel's avatarJoel KB6QVI @caulktel
Proto Advantage – @NT7S @la3pna proto-advantage.com/store/

Scouts can now earn Morse Code interpreter strip

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BSA Morse Code Interpreter StripAccording to K2BSA:

The Boy Scouts of America introduced a Morse Code Interpreter Strip for wear on youth and adult uniforms to designate those who are proficient in Morse Code. It denotes their availability for emergency communications and other types of supporting communication for Scouting and the community.

The patch design (shown above) spells out the word M-O-R-S-E in Morse Code.

According to Scouting Magazine:

The Morse Code interpreter strip designates those who are proficient in Morse Code and denotes their availability for emergency communications and other types of  supporting communication for Scouting and the community. Youth and adults may wear this strip if they show their knowledge of Morse Code  by:

  1. Carrying on a five-minute conversation in Morse Code at a speed of at least 5  words per minute.
  2. Copying correctly a two-minute message sent in Morse Code at a minimum of 5 words per minute. Copying means writing the message down as it is received.
  3. Sending a 25 word written document in Morse Code at a minimum of 5 words per minute.

These requirements closely match those of other interpreter strips.

Ham radio and Boy’s Life

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Click on the image to see all the detail.

The magazine cover at right is from the January 1959 issue of Boy’s Life, a magazine send to all Boy Scouts. Dave, W9OCM, shared this with members of the Glowbugs mailing list, a mailing for hams who enjoy working with vacuum tube circuits.

Of course, this unleashed a flood of memories and comments. Dave himself comments:

In February 1959, I was 13 and just beginning to figure out radio.  In some ways, I’m still trying to figure out radio….just not 13.  I wouldn’t be licensed until 2 years later 04/61 as KNØHSD.

Tom, N0JMY says,

If you go to http://tinyurl.com/7oqrezk you can read the article  by W1UED (click on the appropriate line in the contents).  Also, there’s a National ad on the contents page. [[All the ads are interesting to read…..Dan]]  I was alive then, but it wasn’t until the late winter of ’67-68 that I picked up a Boy’s Life mag out of boredom and stumbled onto an article called “Hamming it Up”.  And the rest is, as they say, “hay-seedery.”

Jon, K1NV, comments,

I’m getting a little teary, seeing a copy of “Boys Life” for the first time in about 50+ years. There was a ton of practical info to satisfy any American boy’s interests.  I was torn between stamp collecting, astronomy, model airplanes, and, yes, radio.   My stack of “Boys Life” magazines fed these interests.

We couldn’t afford the shortwave set kit  but the official Boy Scout crystal set got things going for me until I graduated to the Philco console with two shortwave bands in the mid-fifties. After learning code with flags and flashlights as a Boy Scout, the novice ticket arrived early in 1959.

Bill, KU8H, says,

My experience with Boy’s Life is from the late 50s and early 60s. They did help set the hook for my interest in electronics in general – ham radio in particular. The oatmeal box with home made capacitor and a crystal detector was from Boy’s Life. I don’t remember which issue(s). That was more than two weeks ago! <evil grin>.

They also fed my interest in the outdoor life in the woods. When people want a campfire or a fireplace lit to this day…I’m their go-to man. One paper match no matter the wind. No gasoline, kerosene, nor other artificial accelerants.

People are sometimes critical of Boy Scouts, and I often joke about my very short career as a Scout, but you have to hand it to them in many respects. They exposed boys to a wide range of activities, many of which stick with them for a lifetime.