- — Wanna work with satellites? Get an amateur radio license
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at 7/26/24 8:31amIn the June 2024 issue of IEEE Spectrum, the article, “The LEO Satellite Industry Needs More Engineers,” pointed out the need for more engineers to work in this burgeoning industry. It points out that the LEO satellite market is expected to grow from US $4 billion in 2022 to US $7 billion in 2031. The article then focuses on the efforts of the IEEE Low-Earth-Orbit Satellites and Systems (LEO SatS) project. The article points out that it has held a number of workshops and other events to educate engineers and students about opportunities in the industry, but it makes no mention of amateur radio. I think that’s a mistake, and I’ve just emailed the leader of the program, Witold Kinsner, reminding him of the role that amateur radio could play. Where else can students get actual experience with LEO satellites? Not only is there AMSAT, but many student groups have sent up their own LEO satellites in the past. The article points out that LEO SatS has also sponsored a workshop on ground stations. I would refer them to the SatNOGS, which is building a network of open-source ground stations. Incorporating amateur radio into the work of LEO SatS would be a win-win for LEO SatS and amateur radio. Aspiring satellite engineers would get hands-on experience with the technology, amateur radio satellite projects would get access to the latest technology, and the satellite industry would eventually get some trained engineers and technicians.- — ARRL Member Bulletin on second board meeting of 2024
- at 7/24/24 7:25amYesterday, the ARRL published a report on the second board meeting of the year. There’s a lot to like here: I like the new mission statement. ARRL’s mission is to promote and protect the art, science, and enjoyment of amateur radio, and to develop the next generation of radio amateurs” is short and to the point, and I like the emphasis on developing the next generation of radio amateurs. The report notes that the president will appoint a study group to review the current structure of ARRL governance and the Field Organization.” This is long overdue. Of course, there are some things that I would rethink: It almost seems like they’re giving up on increasing membership. Instead of increasing membership, the report says that they will be trying to , “develop new sources of revenue and seek support from donors and grants from both public and private organizations.” Without more members, I don’t think the ARRL will be successful. Targeting middle- and high-school STEM education programs is a good thing, but I think that targeting a little older and more technically sophisticated audience, like those I encountered at the HOPE Conference might be a more effective strategy for developing the next generation of radio amateurs. Aside from the mission statement, there’s nothing in the report that points to the ARRL taking a leadership position in technology development. This is a technical hobby, and the hobby’s “national organization” should take a leadership role in the technology. That’s all for now. Here’s the complete report. The bolding was all done by the ARRL ARRL Board Completes 2024 Second Meeting, Approves Report to Advance a 3-Year Strategy ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, gaveled in the 2024 Second Meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors on Friday, July 19, in Windsor, Connecticut. The Board meeting was preceded by standing committee meetings held on Thursday, including Administration & Finance chaired by Rocky Mountain Division Director Jeff Ryan, K0RM; Emergency Communications and Field Services chaired by Great Lakes Division Director Scott Yonally, N8SY, and Programs & Services chaired by Dakota Division Director Bill Lippert, AC0W. President Roderick recognized new Officers and Board members including First Vice President Kristen McIntyre, K6WX (January 2024), Second Vice President Mike Ritz, W7VO (January 2024), Hudson Division Director Ed Wilson, N2XDD (July 2024), Northwestern Division Director Mark Tharp, KB7HDX (January 2024), Northwestern Division Vice Director Michael Sterba, KG7HQ (February 2024; not present), Pacific Division Director Tony Marcin, W7XM (January 2024), and Pacific Division Vice Director John Litz, NZ6Q (April 2024). Here are highlights of some of the actions taken at the meeting: Strategy The Board unanimously accepted a report establishing a 3-year strategy for ARRL, and recognized the efforts of the Strategy Working Group. They authorized CEO David A. Minster, NA2AA, to proceed with further planning. The report included a revised mission statement: ARRL’s mission is to promote and protect the art, science, and enjoyment of amateur radio, and to develop the next generation of radio amateurs. The strategy articulates continued commitment and enhancements to our existing advocacies: Promoting Amateur Radio Protecting Amateur Radio A new advocacy is being created, committing ARRL to develop the next generation of radio amateurs through the expansion of existing programs and the creation of curriculum-based initiatives targeted at middle and high school STEM education programs: Inspiring and Educating Youth The strategy calls for investments in Information Technology to continue along the path of ARRL’s Digital Transformation. This will include evaluating membership models, content delivery methods, and next generation software products along with the infrastructure improvements required to support them: Serving Members and Driving Growth Through Technology In committing to dramatically expanding our capabilities and activities in the STEM education space and investing in upgrades and additions to our Information Technology platform, we recognize that revenue from membership dues is insufficient to fund these initiatives. In fact, dues contribute less than half the revenue required to operate ARRL. Efforts are required to develop new sources of revenue and seek support from donors and grants from both public and private organizations: Expanding Our Means and Financial Capability The Board requested the President establish the ARRL Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC), acknowledging the importance of providing information technology-based services to ARRL members, and to improve and protect ARRL systems. The ITAC will engage experts in the field of IT to help oversee the development, operations, and evolution of the ARRL IT system infrastructure and applications. The Board reassigned the Logbook of The World® (LoTW®) Maintenance Committee to the newly established Information Technology Advisory Committee (ITAC). ITAC will support the Maintenance Committee’s responsibilities with LoTW® development, including technical changes and future upgrades to the system. Advocacy The Board recommended and authorized the creation of additional publications, including books and online resources, and products, such as antenna kits, to help expand ARRLs commitment to help hams who are faced with limits on station building capabilities due to space limitations and/or limited resources. Governance The Board requested that the President appoint a study group to review the current structure of ARRL governance and the Field Organization and suggest changes that would improve the organization and better support the membership. The Board requested that the President establish an ad hoc committee to review the ARRL Director’s Workbook and establish an annual review process to keep the document up to date with Board practice and procedure. The Board approved expanding the policy for recording roll call votes to being required for any pending motions pertaining to ARRL governance documents. Trademarks Following recent review of ARRL’s trademarks and the completion of related registrations and trademark renewals, the Board requested the CEO to provide a report at its next meeting consisting of efforts and actions taken during 2024 to identify, remedy, and protect the use of its trademarks by other parties. The complete minutes of the 2024 Second Meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors will be available soon on the ARRL website. The next meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors will be January 17 18, 2025.
- — Random stuff: Make your first CW contacts, subscribe to the ORI newsletter, FD publicity
- at 7/22/24 1:16pmGet the ORI newsletter Open Research Institute, Inc. (ORI) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) research and development organization which provides all of its work to the general public under the principles of open source and open access to research. Their projects include, but are not limited to, amateur radio projects. The amateur radio projects include Ribbit, a new digital text messaging mode for VHF/UHF simplex and repeater communication, and RF BitBanger, a low-power high-frequency digital radio. To stay informed on these and other projects, go to https://www.openresearch.institute/newsletter-subscription/ and subscribe to their newsletter. On that page, you’ll also find links to back issues. Field Day gets many mentions This year, Field Day got more publicity this year than any year that I can remember. My Google Alerts was almost overflowing with links to stories in local newspapers. One of the stories that got mentioned a lot was “Colorado’s ham radio operators are ready for an emergency—just don’t call them amateurs.” It’s worth reading.
- — UR5CDX paddle worth a look
- at 7/19/24 7:53amI got this short review from my friend, Mike, K8XF. Mike is a former ships radio electronics officer, a great CW operator, and has a collection of dozens of straight keys, paddles, and bugs. Recently, he purchased a CT-73MX from Yury, UR5CDX, and I asked him to do a short review. As you’ll see, he highly recommends this key. The CT-73MX from Yury, UR5CDX. I enjoy using well built paddles that wont move around your desk. If you do as well, consider the CT-73MX from Yury, UR5CDX. This Ukrainian paddle has a square base and is chrome plated. I chose this model because it is heavier than the brass model. The plating is excellent, and this paddle can be adjusted for sending easily. This paddle is not as expensive ($178) as a Begali and is built very well. For an additional charge, you can have your call inscribed on a small plate placed on top of the base in front of the paddle. I did not do that. Yury makes several other models, so be sure to visit his website. His QTH is in the center of Ukraine and so far has not been hit by Russian drones. Yury ships all orders via Poland due to the war. Via Poland, it took over three weeks to receive this paddle.
- — Nothing lasts forever
- at 7/17/24 1:33pmEarlier this afternoon, I looked out my office window and noticed that something didn’t look quite right. For one thing, there was an odd shadow on the office window. So, I put on some shoes and went out to investigate. What I found was that my cobra antenna had come down. Further investigation showed that the problem was with the end insulator. After being up in the air for nearly nine years, it just gave out. I’d say that nine years is decent service life for an insulator made from a Dollar Store cutting board. As a temporary fix, I think that I’m going to stick the support rope through the hole at the bottom of the photo and get it back up in the air while I ponder how to replace it. Any ideas for the type of material that I should use?
- — Back to the future: Are hackers the future of amateur radio?
- at 7/15/24 3:24pmLast fall, under the aegis of Ham Radio Village, I was awarded a grant to take my one-day Tech class on the road. Ham Radio Village believes that more people in technical fields should have amateur radio licenses and that amateur radio is underrepresented in the hacker, STEM/STEAM, and maker communities. Currently, there is little outreach to these communities about the benefits of amateur radio in their fields. Enter the “ham radio evangelist.” In October of 2o23, we applied for and were awarded an $18,000 grant to reach out beyond the boundaries of traditional amateur radio communities, including scientific, engineering, hacker, maker, and STEM/STEAM focused conferences where attendees might have an interest in amateur radio (e.g., DEFCON, GRCon, Maker Faire, IEEE Communications Conference). This grant provides funding to both educate these communities about amateur radio and to streamline the process of obtaining an amateur radio license. If accepted, HRV will give a talk about amateur radio, teach a one-day Technician Class license course, and offer a Volunteer Examiner test session at an event. These activities will provide these new hams with a lifelong hobby that aligns with their professional and technical interests. And, it will also enable these new hams to bring their experiences and ideas to amateur radio, thereby advancing the hobby. HOPE couldn’t have gone any better HOPE XV was the first event at which we evangelized ham radio. In my mind, it couldn’t have gone any better. On Friday, I gave a talk entitled “Ham Radio for Hackers.” (Click here to see the slides.) I wandered in about 10 minutes before the talk was to start at 1:00 pm. There were already so many people there that I thought I was in the wrong room. Adding to my confusion, was the fact that the slide announcing the previous talk was still up on the screen. I turned around and started heading out, but caught myself before I left the room. This had to be the place, and indeed it was. In the talk, I explained some of the basics of amateur radio, discussed some of the projects that radio amateurs are currently hacking on, and then how to get a hacking, errrr ham radio license. I probably could have gone into a little more depth on some of the projects, but in general, I think that the talk was very well-received. Tech class yields 25 new hams On Saturday, I held my one-day Tech class. I was concerned that attendance would be poor because: They scheduled the class on Saturday, and there were lots of other interesting talks being held that day. They scheduled the class to start at 10:30 am, which could have thrown off my timing. As it turned out, the class went really well. The students asked lots of questions—which caused the class to run about an hour longer than usual—but they were all good questions. 25 hackers passed the test and got their licenses. There were some failures, but it’s unclear whether those people were in the class or not. We invited anyone to show up at 5:00 pm and take the test, whether they were in the class or not. I’m going to claim that 100% of the students passed the test. I can say that all those who passed the test were very excited that they did. Many of them came up to me after the class and thanked me. I can also say that this group was much younger than normal. I’m guessing that there were only two students over the age of 50. There was a good number of women, too. I counted at least six women. I think that this is a great start to the ham radio evangelist program. Not only did we license 25 new hams, they all seem very interested in the hobby. I also talked to a lot of different people about the program. One fellow, a young guy working with the Philadelphia Maker Faire, invited me to contact him about doing a class next spring. So, onward and upward! I think the hackers at HOPE are just the kind of people we want to get into the hobby. They’re young and interested in hacking ham radio. It will be fun to see what they can do.
- — There is HOPE for amateur radio
- at 7/12/24 2:29pmI’m here at Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) XV, theh hacker conference run by 2600 magazine. Earlier this afternoon, I gave a talk entitled “Ham Radio for Hackers.” See my slides below. I’ll be writing more about my experiences here in a future post.
- — A trio of ARRL announcements: LOTW back online, grant applications due, NTS performance evaluation
- at 7/6/24 2:29pmHere are a trio of recent announcements from the ARRL: LOTW back online On July 1, the ARRL returned Logbook of The World (LoTW) to service! They noted that during a brief LOTW opening 6600 logs were uploaded, but not processed until they were sure that the system was functioning properly. They also ask that you not call ARRL Headquarters to report issues you are having with LoTW. Instead, contact support at LoTW-help@arrl.org. They conclude the announcement with, We appreciate your patience as we worked through the challenges keeping LoTW from returning to service. We know the importance of LoTW to our members, and to the tens of thousands of LoTW users who are not ARRL members. Personally, I think that they did a pretty good job with getting LOTW back online. It was definitely a difficult task. ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program July 25 The ARRL Foundation Club Grant Program—funded by Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)—is an opportunity for clubs to apply for grants up to $25,000 to fund projects in areas that will motivate and develop active radio amateurs, with an emphasis given to projects that are of a “transformational” nature. The application period is NOW OPEN and runs through Friday July 26, 2024 at 4:00PM Eastern Time. Clubs across the country are encouraged to apply, even if your club is not an ARRL Affiliated Club or not a 501(c)(3) organization—all are welcome to apply. Grant recipients will be required to share progress reports and updates with ARRL. It seems like the ARRL should have made this announcement a lot sooner to give clubs a better shot at meeting the deadline, but perhaps those clubs who have been working on big projects have been working on their proposals all along. We’ll see. ARRL developing performance analysis program for NTS Amateur Radio Daily reports that: The National Traffic System (NTS) will soon be evaluated with new tools to help improve system performance. The ARRL is developing a web-based Performance Analysis Tool (PAT) to ultimately improve speed and accuracy of the traffic system. Additional training materials will also be developed to improve NTS performance. Once the new tools are complete, the ARRL will hold a test exercise to measure their effectiveness. Source: July 2024 ARRL NTS Letter I don’t know about this one. Maybe I just haven’t kept up with what’s happening with NTS lately, though.
- — M1MRB and yours truly discuss troubleshooting
- at 7/5/24 6:48pmThe latest episode of the ICQ Podcast features a discussion between Martin, M1MRB, and yours truly share our experiences with troubleshooting electronic equipment. Our discussion starts at 59:40 of the podcast. I think you’ll enjoy it. I’d love to hear your troubleshooting tips. Please comment below.
- — How to troubleshoot a jumper wire
- at 7/4/24 12:28pmTuesday, my friend Paul, KW1L, texted me, and asked if I could come over to his house and help him with his new antenna. He had just purchased and installed a Cobra Ultra-Lite Junior, and he didn’t think that it was performing as well as it should. The suspect jumper wire. I won’t go into all of the details, but one of the checks he had made was to measure the continuity of the feed line, which is 80 feet of 18-gauge, 450 Ω ladder line. To do this, he connected the jumper wire in the photo at right across the ladder line in his shack and then measured the resistance at the antenna feed point. The measurement that he came up with was 16 Ω. Well, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) says that the resistance of 18-gauge solid wire should be about .0064 Ω/ft. Using that figure, the resistance should be somewhere near 1 Ω. So, Paul asked me to bring over my DMM, which I did yesterday. We dropped the antenna, put my Fluke 79 across the feed point, and measured close to 16 Ω. It didnt make much sense, but the only reasonable explanation was that the problem with this measurement was the jumper wire. This was somewhat troubling to Paul, as he had a sentimental attachment to this jumper wire. It was given to him by a fellow who worked for him at Xerox, and he pointed out to me how well-made it was. He noted, for example, that each end of the wire had been tinned before it was screwed to the alligator clip. I agreed that it was well-made, but certainly one or both of the connections could have oxidized, resulting in a high-resistance connection. And guess what? When I measured the resistance of the jumper, it turned out to be about 15 Ω! I then unscrewed the wire at one end and measured again. It measured 15 Ω. I unscrewed the wire at the other end, and voilá, I measured 0 Ω. I screwed the alligator clips back on, and the overall resistance was near 0 Ω again. My guess is that the second connection was a little loose, and that over the years, some oxidation built up on both the wire and the alligator clip. Whenever we do something like this, Paul likes to ask, “So, what did we learn from this?” In this case, I think what we learned is that even jumper wires can go bad. It’s also a validation of the KB6NU Theory of Electronic Failures, i.e. at least 80% of the problems associated with electronic equipment are problems with cables or connectors.
- — POTA: QSO video, antenna update, 20-meter noise
- at 7/2/24 12:53pmYesterday, I operated from the Silver Lake Day Use Area of US-3322, Pinckney State Recreation Area. This is a great park, and in many respects, I like it a lot more than US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area. It’s just a little further from my house than Island Lake, and I think I’ll be spending more time at US-3322, now that I’ve hit 1,000 QSOs at US-3315. One of the 40 contacts I made was with Jim, N4JAW. He’s not only a very active POTA operator, but also very active on Mastodon. Yesterday, after I returned home, I was pleasantly surprised to find this video posted to Mastodon. I’m re-posting it here with Jim’s permission. Not so twisted anymore As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been contemplating ditching the twisted-pair feedline I have been using on my POTA doublet antenna, after having such good success with my friend Paul’s Cobra antenna. That antenna uses 450 Ω ladder line. I happened to have a 100-ft. roll of high-quality, 300 Ω twinlead, so I thought I’d give that a go. I’ve used this antenna twice now, and while it’s hard to prove conclusively that the antenna works better with with the 300 Ω feedline, it “feels” as if it’s working better. Of course, it could just be that band conditions have been better during my last two activations. That’s why I’d like to actually make some measurements. It’s not that easy, though. There are a couple of articles online that explain how to use an antenna analyzer to do this (1, 2), and I’ll give these a go once I’ve read and digested this material. The downside to using 300 Ω twinlead is that it’s bulkier and less flexible than twisted-pair wire. It also seems more sensitive to environmental factors, such as touching the ground. But, taking a little care when setting up the antenna takes care of those issues. QRN?? At the park? It wasn’t all good news yesterday, though. There’s something at the park generating a hellacious noise on 20 meters. The noise is so bad that the band is practically unusable. This noise is somewhat noticeable on the other bands, but just barely, and certainly not enough to make the bands unusable. That being the case, every one of the 40 contacts I made yesterday were on bands other than 20 meters. I started out on 40 meters, then jumped to 17 meters, which fortunately was open and active. I tried 15 meters, too, and made a few contacts there, but it wasn’t very active, so I moved back to 17 meters. This noise is new. Last Thursday was the first time I’d noticed it. I would have made a recording of it, but I didn’t have an audio recorder handy on my phone. I will do next time I get to that part of the Pinckney Recreation Area. On Mastodon, someone suggested that the noise was coming from a solar inverter. I hadn’t thought about that at the park, so I wasn’t really looking for solar panels, but I’m guessing that this is correct. Next time I’m there, I’m going to have to walk around and see if I see any. I might bring a small radio, too, to see if I can pinpoint the noise source. Even if I do find the noise source, I’m not sure what I can do about it. I suppose that I can point this out to the park officials, but I’m not sure what, if anything, they’ll be motivated to do about it. Stay tuned for more on this. If you have any ideas of what I should look for, please let me know.
- — Transparency?
- at 6/29/24 7:06amA couple of weeks ago, I received an email with a link to the draft agenda for the second meeting of the ARRL Board of Directors. It reads: Draft AgendaARRL Board of Directors2024 Second MeetingJuly 19-20, 2024 Roll Call Moment of Silence Courtesies Consideration of the agenda of the meeting Receipt and consideration of financial reports Motion to Adopt Consent Agenda Receipt of Officer’s reports Consideration of items removed from Consent Agenda Consideration of recommendations of the Standing Committees Consideration of additional recommendations as contained in reports Proposals for amendments to Articles of Association and Bylaws Directors’ motions Any other business Closing courtesies Adjournment If you can figure out what they’re going to discuss from reading this, you’re a better ham than I am. So, I contacted my director, Scott Yonally, N8SY. I wrote, “I bet you guys received a more detailed agenda than this. Anything that you’d care to share? He wrote back: For full “Transparency” (sic) there’s very little difference between what I get to what you get. I’m sure that you are aware of the issues Headquarters has had recently, and I’m sure that particular topic will consume a huge slice of the Board’s time this time around. This response is hardly transparent, if you ask me. I tried a second time to get more information out of him, especially item 11, Proposals for amendments to Articles of Association and Bylaws.” If you recall, it was an issue with proposed amendments to the articles of association and bylaws that raised a big stink last time. Unfortunately, he went silent on me. If it really is true that the directors don’t get much more than this draft agenda, then that means the directors are going into this meeting very much unprepared. That doesn’t sound good to me. I’m guessing—and this is only a guess—that N8SY isn’t sharing because I’ve been critical of the ARRL in the past. If so, I wish he’d just say that. Anyway, if you have concerns that you’d like the ARRL board to consider, be sure to get in touch with your division director. If you have concerns about the proposed amendments to the articles of association and bylaws, perhaps you can cajole more information out of your division director. By the way, if you are an ARRL member, you can have meeting agendas and minutes sent to you. First, log in to the ARRL website, then go to www.arrl.org/opt-in-out and check the box next to “ARRL Board meeting agendas and minutes.” You can also email ARRL Members Services at members@arrl.org.
- — Finally! My Extra Class study guide is available in all formats
- at 6/26/24 1:09pmMy No Nonsense Extra Class License Study Guide is finally available in all formats, including: PDF. You can read this version on practically any device. ePub. You can sideload this version to Kindles, Nooks, and read it with ePub applications. Kindle. Purchase this version to have it appear in your Amazon digital library and read it on Kindle readers or tablets. Print. Get this version if you want to read it in print.
- — POTA: 1,000 Qs!
- at 6/21/24 7:15amYours truly after working #1,000 at US-3315. Photo: Paul, KW1L. One of the genius things about Parks on the Air is the awards program. There are all kinds of awards to choose from, and they are all automatically awarded. You don’t have to submit QSL cards or pay fees. They just appear on your awards page, and you can pick and choose which ones mean something to you. I’ve never been much of a wall paper chaser, so, aside from the Rhino Rover award that my friend, Tom, W8TAM, helped me achieve, the 24 awards that I have somehow managed to accumulate don’t really mean that much to me. Yesterday, though, I reached a milestone that brought a smile to my face (as you can see by the photo at right). I hit 1,000 contacts from US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area. It’s been very hot here in the Midwest, but somehow, I managed to cajole Paul, KW1L, and Rick, K8BMA to accompany me to the park. We left my house just before 9 am, and despite some slow traffic, we managed to get to the park and get set up by 10 am. Yesterday, instead of using my 66-ft. doublet, we set up Paul’s new Cobra antenna. Despite its claim to being “ultra light,” it was a bit heavy for my fiberglass mast. We solved that problem by not using the top two sections of the mast. Our antenna for this activation was a new Cobra antenna. Photo: Paul, KW1L. I don’t know if it was band conditions (I was calling CQ on 14.062 MHz), or the antenna, or a combination of both, but I began working them one after another right off the bat. I made the first 10 contacts in less than 10 minutes. I made the 45 contacts I needed to reach 1,000 in just a little over an hour, and I was up to 55 contacts at 11:25, at which point, we decided to eat lunch. The contacts we made were literally all over the map. Somehow, the skip was short enough to work into New York and Pennsylvania, but also south to Florida, east to Prince Edward Island, and west to British Columbia. QSO map for my June 20, 2024 activation of US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area. After lunch, we switched to 15 meters to see what band conditions were like there. Right away, I got a call from an OK2 station, but not much afterwards. We pounded out another six contacts before calling it quits. It was starting to get hot out there, and any extra contacts would just be anti-climactic. Paul likes to ask, “So, what did we learn from this?” One thing I may have learned is that using twisted-pair wire may not be the best feed line for my POTA antenna. I think that I have to give some credit to the Cobra antenna for the good results we had yesterday, and its feed line is 450 Ω ladder line. The feed line loss for 450 Ω ladder line has got to be less than the feed line loss of my twisted-pair feed line. I think I’ll try to find some 300 Ω twin lead and see what kind of results I get. Is there an easy way to measure feedline loss? Has anyone already measured the losses of 300 Ω, 450 Ω, and twisted pair feed lines and compared the results? As for POTA, it’s onwards and upwards. I have 315 contacts from the Pinckney State Recreation Area (US-3322). It’s only a little further away from my house than the Island Lake Recreation Area, and in some ways, is a nicer park. I’m thinking that if I can get out 2-3 times a week, I can get to 1,000 contacts from there by the end of the season.
- — ARDC looking for new Technology Manager
- at 6/20/24 9:32pmAt Dayton this year, I learned that ARDC’s Technology Director had left the foundation. Now, my former employer is in the market for someone to replace him. You can find all the details on the ARDC website. This is a challenging position. The web page reads: ARDC seeks an experienced Technology Department Manager to join our team and lead all technology efforts. These include, but are not limited to, overseeing the following department initiatives and personnel management: Activities of 44Net, and IPv4 address space allocated to amateur radio; Open-source software development projects; and General internal IT system administration, including streamlining existing systems and helpdesk. In addition to having solid management experience in a technical field, this person must also be an excellent communicator – able to write policy, wrangle volunteers, and manage open-source technology development that includes staff, volunteers, and contractors. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated the ability to effectively communicate with executive-level management on a regular basis. It is expected you will prepare management reports and complex technical documents that are well written, appropriately and effectively organized, accurate, and comprehensive, meeting all professional standards. The page also notes: Experience and history with amateur radio and the Internet is required. Many of the people we work with, projects we take on, and communities we make grants to are rooted in amateur radio, and our particular realm of focus intersects heavily with the information technology and hacker communities. Applicants without an active amateur radio license will not be considered. Experience working with nonprofits and/or open-source technology projects is required. There are nuances of working in nonprofit and community-driven environments, including participation in open-source technology projects, that can only be learned through experience – such as collaborative decision-making and best practices in engaging with open-source development. Experience in one or both of these areas is required for this role; applicants without such experience will not be considered.
- — Operating Notes: POTA, Friday, June 14: Beautiful day, 45 contacts
- at 6/17/24 8:19amMy operating position on Friday, 6/14 at US-3315. It’s a good thing that I’m a better operator than I am a photographer. Where: US-3315, Island Lake Recreation Area (near Brighton, MI) When: 3:00 pm – 6:00 pm (1830 – 2230 UTC) Who: I was solo today. Weather: Sunny, low 80s, BEAUTIFUL! Rig: Elecraft KX-3, 66-ft. doublet antenna The traffic was really bad on the way to US-3315 on Friday. Part of the reason for this is that I got started a little later than usual. I didn’t leave the house until 2:00 pm. As I sat in traffic, I hoped that this wasn’t a bad omen for this activation. Fortunately, it wasn’t. I started on 40 meters for this activation, but there didn’t seem to be a lot of activity, so after one contact, I switched to 20 meters. 20 was open, so that proved to be a good move. I made my first 10 contacts in less than a half hour. After about an hour and 15 minutes, I decided to try 15 meters. I made a couple of park-to-park (P2P) contacts and was spotted on ReverseBeacon Network (RBN) by several Europeans. I kept banging on 15 meters for a while and made some more contacts, including F5SGI, my first POTA DX contact in a while. About 2035Z, I switched to 17 meters. I made a couple of contacts there and then went back to 20 meters to finish out the day. Overall, I mad 45 contacts in about three hours of operating time. For most of that time, my rate was over 16 contacts/hour. This beat my previous rate of 14/hour last time. As far as total contacts go, I’m now just 45 away from 1,000 total contacts at US-3315. I hope to hit that sometime this week.
- — ICQ Podcast Episode 432 – Dayton Hamvention 2024 Part 2
- at 6/16/24 1:22pmIn this episode, I joined Martin Butler M1MRB, Caryn Eve Murray KD2GUT, Edmund Spicer M0MNG, and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. The topics we discuss in this episode include: ARRL Affiliated Club in MS Donates 3D Printer, Books, to Local Library In Midst of Cyclone, Man Missing for 4 Years Returns Home Changes to the Four-year Planning Rule in England PRESENTER One-Day Tech Class a Success ARRL Gives Its Account Of Recent Network Shutdown Russia Withdraws From Worldwide Flora & Fauna Fair waring….This episode kind of long, even for us. We think you’ll enjoy it, though. The feature for this episode includes interviews from the Dayton Hamvention.
- — June 1, 2024 One-Day Tech Class a Success
- at 6/10/24 6:36amMy latest One-Day Tech Class took place on Saturday, June 1. There were only 13 in this class, fewer than most classes that I teach. I think the main reason for this is that the university school year had already ended, so there were only a couple of students in this class. Students in my June 1, 2024 one-day Tech class taking the license exam. Nine of the thirteen passed the test. This is a little lower than usual, but one of the students was a ten-year-old who seemed more intent on playing with a yo-yo than actually getting a license. Another was a young man who didn’t miss by much. He took the test again on Saturday, at our club’s regularly-scheduled test session. So, if you don’t count the ten-year-old—and I generally don’t count anyone that young—then the final result is 10/12, which is much closer to my usual pass rate. I got a kick out of one guy in the class. He was so afraid that he had failed the test. As he was waiting for his exam to be scored, he asked me about one of the questions. Unfortunately, he had chosen the wrong answer, and when I told him this, he got even more anxious. In the end, all of his worrying was for naught, though. He passed with a score of 30/35. As always, thanks to the VEs who came to administer the test. These included (in alphabetical order by call sign) Dinesh AB3DC, Ed AB8OJ, Don AC8TO, Steve AC8YA, and Mark W8FSA, I’ll next be teaching at Hackers on Planet Earth (HOPE) in New York City in July. If you know someone who would like to take the class, have them contact me, and I’ll email them when the date is set. After that, I’ll be teaching at DEFCON in Las Vegas in August.
- — Operating Notes: LOTW still down, lots of dahs
- at 6/9/24 7:33amA couple of days ago, it occurred to me that I hadn’t backed up my computer log or uploaded to Logbook of the World (LOTW) for a while. The backup went well, but when I tried to upload my latest contacts to LOTW, I got an error message. It puzzled me for a bit, but then I remembered that the ARRL had been hacked about a month ago, and that LOTW probably was still down. I tried just now to log in to LOTW via the ARRL website. There was no notice on the LOTW home page, but when I clicked on the login link, nothing happens, and the attempt just times out. I think it would be a courtesy to note that LOTW is still down and that you can’t log in just yet, but it’s not that big a deal. Lots of dahs I recently worked Miloš, OM0MM. If you’re a CW operator, you know that’s a lot of dahs (14, to be exact). I actually had to listen to it a couple of times before I copied the call correctly. Being a Slovak-American, whenever I work an OM station, I like to send them an email. I asked Milos if this was a vanity call sign. He replied: Ahoj Dan, Thank you for nice QSO and for an email. Sorry for my bad English. About my call, yes I requested for this call sign and I lucikly get it My father (OM0EE) recommended it to me because I am only a CW operator, and I liked the idea of all dashes. So you have a Slovak roots? Very nice to hear that. You are the first Slovak ham in USA I have met. Miloš OM0MM Of course, Miloš’ English is a lot better than my Slovak, so no worries there. In making this off-air contact, I feel that I’m doing my part to enhance international goodwill” as describe in Part §97.1(e). Pro tip While it is sad that more Americans don’t know more than one language, it would be difficult for U.S. hams to master all the languages out there. Having said that, when I want to gauge how well a ham that I’ve contacted is comfortable with English, I look at their QRZ.Com page. If it’s written in English, then I reach out to them in English, as I did with Miloš. I have also tried doing a Google translate to send an email, but my results have been mixed. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m sending a Google translation (I always note that I used Google to translate the message) or what, but I get fewer replies with a translated email.
- — From the Fediverse: Ham gallery, M17 mailing list, 44-ft. doublet
- at 6/6/24 7:03amI’ve quit Twitter/X, and am now part of the Fediverse. There are quite a few radio amateurs in the Fediverse, and if you’d like to follow me there, you can follow @kb6nu@mastodon.radio. Mastodon.radio is a space for radio amateurs and SWLs, but it’s not the only radio-focused Fediverse server. It connects with the servers listed on fediverse.radio, including mastodon.hams.social, a server here in the U.S. Mastodon seems to have a much higher signal-to-noise ratio than Twitter. Here’s a few links I found and things I learned on Mastodon last night: K8CX Ham Gallery. K8CX has an interesting collection of photos from Dayton, DX sound clips, and a QSL card museum. I’ve submitted a couple photos of me and the ICQ Podcast crew at Dayton 2024. M17 Users mailing list. The home page for this mailing list says, “The primary assumption of this mailing list is that M17 is (in June, 2024) in usable (enough) form for actual deployment and use in amateur radio.” They believe that all the pieces are there now. Typically, to use M17, youll have to be somewhat of an experimenter to work around the inevitable glitches in using M17, but in the opinion of this list founder, all the pieces are there now. 44-foot doublet. Last night, there was some discussion of portable antennas, mainly the 44-ft. doublet antenna. This is the antenna that L. B. Cebik describes on the web page, 1 Wire, 7 Bands, 2 Directions, or The 44 Doublet as a 40-10 Meter Antenna.” There’s a similar antenna out there called the NorCal Doublet. The NorCal Doublet uses ribbon cable as the feedline to reduce weight. These two antennas look like they’d be worth experimenting with. The NorCal Doublet. See you in the Fediverse!
- — ARRL making headway on antenna legislation, looking for help
- at 6/4/24 6:31pmI received this from Fred Hopengarten, K1VR, yesterday via the CWops mailing list: While ARRL suffered on other fronts recently, the ARRL Legislative Activities Committee enjoyed a big win. On May 14th, the Vice-Chair of the relevant subject matter committee in the U.S. Congress (Rep. Randy Weber, R-TX-14) signed on as a co-sponsor of H.R. 4006, our bill to aid HOA residents. We now hope to get others on the relevant sub-committee of the House Energy & Commerce Committee to co-sponsor (“to sign on to”) our bill. Can you help? To find a list of the members of the Sub-committee on Communications & Technology, see https://democrats-energycommerce.house.gov/subcommittees/communications-and-technology . Do you know any of these people? Even if you don’t live in a district listed, if you are member of a club based in that district, please let me know. If you would like to see a copy of the bill, just ask me. Your two ARRL volunteer lawyers engaged in lobbying this bill in Washington are Gulf Director John Robert Stratton, N5AUS, and me. The bill has already been introduced in the Senate with both a Republican and a Democrat as co-sponsors. If you can help us lobby another member of the House Communications & Technology subcommittee, please let me know. CWOps #57 Fred Hopengarten, Esq. K1VR Hopengarten@post.harvard.edu
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