Ukraine

Amateur radio in the news: young ham to pursue engineering career, young people still drawn to ham radio in Ohio, ham club sends aid to Ukraine

March 5, 2024 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

I often think that instead of emcomm, we should be playing up the educational aspect of amateur radio and how it encourages young people to get into engineering…..Dan

Ham Radio Inspired This Scranton University Student to Pursue Engineering

Many college students participate in sports, listen to music, or play video games in their spare time, but IEEE Student Member Gerard Piccini prefers amateur radio, also known as ham radio. He’s been involved with the two-way radio communication, which uses designated frequencies, since his uncle introduced him to it when he was a youngster. His call sign is KD2ZHK.

Piccini, from Monroe Township, N.J., is pursuing an electrical engineering degree at the University of Scranton, in Pennsylvania. The junior is president of the university’s W3USR amateur radio club. He’s also a member of Scranton’s IEEE student branch, the IEEE Club.

Here’s another story about young people in amateur radio….Dan

The Athens County Amateur Radio Association finds that young people are still drawn to old-school communication

ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – Long before cell phones and the internet, ham radios were linking people around the world. And this old-school technology continues to fascinate hobbyists of all ages in the Athens County Amateur Radio Association.

“What really brought me into radio is the fact it’s such a unique hobby,” said Josh Senefeld. “Everyone uses (wireless communications) every day without even realizing it.”

Senefeld first became interested in the world of amateur radio at age 13 after he became a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol. Four years later, he got his amateur radio license. Now 20, Senefeld is one of the younger members of the Athens County Amateur Radio Association, though it is open to people of all ages.

I like this story a lot because, as the article points out, we are the Amateur Radio Service, and that amateur radio and has a “unique ability to enhance international goodwill” (§ 97.1(e))…..Dan

The Bosque Amateur Radio Club is connecting people in Ukraine. Here’s how.

There’s a reason the Federal Communications Commission refers to HAM radio operators as the Amateur Radio Service. If you ask Bosque Amateur Radio Club members Bill Kent, Larry Elkin, Art Nichols, Terry Zipes and the club’s president, Jerry Aceto, the answer is rooted in a shared fundamental belief: to help those in need.

“We have a saying,” Kent explained. “When all else fails, HAM radio works.”

But it’s not just the radios that work on behalf of the public; their operators do as well. For nearly the past two years, the Bosque Amateur Radio Club has been working on behalf of Care4Ukraine.org, providing the group with radios and instructions on how to build handmade antennas so its members can communicate in the field.

Amateur radio in the news: Ukraine uses SDR, Winter FD in NC, SkyWarn in TX

April 4, 2023 By Dan KB6NU 1 Comment

Ukraine Uses Off-The-Shelf Electronics To Target Russian Communications

A nonprofit organization based in the U.S. is supplying Ukrainian forces with advanced electronic warfare gear assembled from simple off-the-shelf components. The secret is a new technology known as Software Defined Radio (SDR) which can locate Russian radio emitters, from command centers to drone operators. Previously this sort of capability required expensive, high-grade military equipment.

Serge Sklyarenko says his organization, American Ukrainian Aid Foundation, based in New York, is supplying Ukrainian intelligence with a number of the versatile SDR radio kits.

“The beauty of them is they are software defined, meaning they can be reprogrammed in the field to suit a multitude of use cases,” Sklyarenko told me.

Eastern Carolina amateur radio club puts emergency response skills to the test

WITN, Greenville, NC, reports on Winter Field Day.

‘Eyes on the ground’

CEDAR CREEK LAKE (TX)–When bad weather is on the horizon, Cedar Creek Amateur Radio Club (CCARC) members such as Charles Wells and Charles Ligon stand ready as amateur radio operators (or “ham”) to help protect the region.

The club has a group called ARES, which stands for Amateur Radio Emergency Services. “In the event there is an emergency, we will gather together on the air,” Ligon says. “We do a lot of storm spotting for the National Weather Service (NWS).” The weather service’s Fort Worth office has a link to club members and gets confirmation on the radio, Ligon adds. “We’re their eyes on the ground.”

ICQ Podcast Episode 373 – Hamzilla 2022

March 31, 2022 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

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.

Amateur radio in the news: WTWW broadcasting to Ukraine, ME couple listen to Ukrainian invasion on SW radio, Fillmore SkyWarn

March 29, 2022 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

East Boothbay couple listening to Ukrainian invasion on shortwave radio

[WISCASSET, ME] An East Boothbay couple is hearing about the Russian invasion of Ukraine a little sooner than most. For the past month, Al and Shirley Sirois have been glued to HF (high frequency) or shortwave radio transmissions between people around the world and Ukrainians. On March 4, they heard conversations between the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) and Ukrainians during the attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which caught on fire. The Siroises listened until transmission propagation began to wane. In Maine, Al says the best time to listen is between 3 to 6 p.m.

Fillmore Skywarn — local weather spotters

With spring approaching, many of us begin thinking more about the possibility of severe weather. Thanks to Fillmore Skywarn, a volunteer storm spotting group, we can rest a little easier. The storm spotters stress safety as the highest priority as they look for storms; people are placed to the side or in back of storms and never cross a bridge without knowing there is another way out of the area. Their job is to observe the storm and report it to the proper emergency authorities. Club leader Jim Miller emphasized that they are NOT storm chasers. Brian Stockman added, “We try not to become a victim!”

Amateur radio in the news: Hams tune into ionospheric waves, Australian radio hams help out after floods

March 27, 2022 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

Ham Radio Operators Tune In to Giant Waves in the Earth’s Ionosphere

The very upper layer of our atmosphere is electrically charged and sometimes the electrons up there clump up and form giant waves larger than Texas that zip around the Earth faster than a jet plane! A team of researchers from NASA’s Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation (HamSCI) has observed these giant waves, called Large-Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances, or LSTIDs, for the first time. Volunteers from the amateur radio community collected the data.

The distance that amateur radio operators can communicate
with each other changes over time, tracing a wave-like
pattern (red dots). Credit: Frissell et al. 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2022GL097879

This new technique for observing these LSTIDs and vividly demonstrates their effect on radio communications. It can help us understand where these waves come from, and how the layers of our atmosphere interact. These results were published in the American Geophysical Union journal Geophysical Research Letters. If you love amateur radio and like to get involved with the HamSci citizen science project, visit https://hamsci.org/.

Gorham residents among those reaching out to Ukrainians

Support from all over Maine is being sent to Ukraine as residents of the Pine Tree State pitch in with donation drives, benefit dinners and concerts to help the victims of the Russian invasion of its Eastern European neighbor.

One Gorham resident has lent moral support through direct contact with a Ukrainian man. Ham radio buff Bob Parsons got through this week to Volody Leshkulich, who was somewhere in the area of Kyiv, the capital city under attack by Russian forces. Leshkulich speaks English.

“They are hanging in there. That’s just about all he said. He wasn’t going to elaborate,” said Parsons, who broadcasts from his home via an antenna on a 55-foot tower using the call letters KA1KSQ.

Australian radio hams help out after floods

When natural disasters hit, amateur radio operators can be the first to transmit calls for help to the rest of the world. But in recent weeks, radio amateurs in flood-affected areas have watched helplessly as all their vital gear has been washed away.

However, a club on the New South Wales-Victoria border has stepped up to help. “We saw a need,” North East Victoria Amateur Radio Club (NEVARC) secretary Frank Scott VK2BFC said.

“So we’ve created a fund to try and assist these operators who may have lost all their equipment and in some way try and replace it.”

Amateur radio in the news: Erie (PA) ham charged with making bomb threats, British hams urge Ukrainians to stay safe,

March 9, 2022 By Dan KB6NU Leave a Comment

Erie man charged with airing bomb threats, bogus weather reports waives misdemeanor counts

An amateur radio operator in Erie accused by county authorities of using a radio emergency frequency to broadcast threats and false weather reports waived two misdemeanor charges to court on Thursday after the bulk of the charges he faced in two criminal complaints were withdrawn at his preliminary hearing.

Richard L. Wagner, 61, waived to court one first-degree misdemeanor count of terroristic threats in a criminal case filed against him in October, and one first-degree misdemeanor count of terroristic threats in a criminal case filed on Feb. 14, according to online court docket information.

Wagner remained in the Erie County Prison on $250,000 bond in the second case late last week.

Harborough radio enthusiasts urge their airwave comrades in Ukraine – please stay safe

Worried radio enthusiasts in Market Harborough and across south Leicestershire are urging their airwave comrades 1,600 miles away in war-torn Ukraine – please , stay safe. The heartrending plea is being sent out to besieged radio hams fearing for their families and their lives in the devastated Eastern European country days after the Russian military invasion.

This afternoon Peter Rivers, 67, secretary of Welland Valley Amateur Radio Society, told the Harborough Mail. It’s obviously a very worrying situation out there at the moment. Our hearts go out to our amateur radio colleagues in Ukraine.”

New emergency communications hub installed

The Redwood Coast Seniors facility in Fort Bragg now has both an amateur radio station and an amateur radio repeater covering the North Coast Area. It already hosts MCN’s community WiFi and a KZYX satellite studio. The advantage of amateur radio is that it works even when the phone, cell service, and internet are down. These radios link to the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) at the sheriff’s department in Ukiah, and since the Senior Center has its generator, this amateur radio communications facility can operate when power, phone, and internet are unavailable.

The most recent addition is the repeater station, previously housed in a private residence. Jonathan Peakall and Dennis Kelly, long-time amateur radio licensees, and John Skinner from the Senior Center installed the equipment and the antenna last month. “This is a great location for the repeater, and we are pleased that the Senior Center can host it for the community,” says Peakall.

Amateur radio in the news: Ukrainians jam Russian military frequency, Columbiana HS students learn STEM skills with amateur radio, ham radio still connecting people

March 2, 2022 By Dan KB6NU 4 Comments

Ukrainian, Russian radio enthusiasts battle over alleged Russian military frequency

The frequency of a suspected Russian military shortwave radio broadcast, known as the “buzzer” for its recognizable repeating channel marker, has become the battleground for rival Russian and Ukrainian radio enthusiasts, who have been attempting to hijack the frequency to play memes and propaganda.

The UBV-76 transmission, which can be listened to at 4625khz on shortwave radio, is suspected to be used by the Russian military for relaying coded messages to military forces. The signal has been transmitted since the late 1970s, during the height of the cold war.

With tensions between Russia and Ukraine mounting, enthusiasts noted that the encrypted radio messages were becoming much more frequent.

Since the end of November, listeners reported that encrypted radio messages had become a frequent occurrence. The cryptic messages can be picked up hundreds of miles away using strong antennae.

Following this flurry of military radio activity, enthusiasts decided to take to the airwaves themselves, flooding the frequency with memes, propaganda, and pirated music. Radio enthusiasts, including many users suspected to be based in Ukraine, are using internet-based radio transmitters to blast songs such as Korean viral-hit “Gangnam Style”, MGMT’s “Little Dark Age”, and other hits.

Columbiana students gain STEM skills with ham radio

COLUMBIANA, OH — While serving as a school resource officer Sergeant Wade Boley took an interest in students’ lessons involving the electromagnetic spectrum. Boley approached middle school science teacher Ashlee Sherwood and offered to help.

“I offered to do a lab for the teacher on the electromagnetic spectrum,” Boley explained. “The kids loved it.”

Boley introduced night vision, alternative light sources and other tools showing how the items use the electromagnetic spectrum.

In Fall of 2018 Boley started the Columbiana Clippers Amateur Radio Club known as K8LPS.

Now, every Tuesday students gather around a HF ham radio with 100 watts of power output donated by Graft Electric in the high school biology room.

Ham radio is still connecting people around the world today

ARKANSAS, USA — Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of us had to get creative when it came to staying connecting to friends, family and work.

From social distancing to zoom calls, we often ended up creating memories in ways we never expected. For some, the memories were created turning to a technology originally created in the 1800s, ham radio, and it’s still connecting people around the world today.

Some say the renaissance of ham radio can be attributed to the pandemic related lock downs and social distancing.