- — Another ARRL member lost
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at 4/22/25 7:21amLast week, I went to lunch with a ham friend of mine. This fellow has been a ham for more than 60 years, and an ARRL member for most of that time. As we were waiting for our food, he says to me, “My ARRL membership is up soon, and I don’t think that I’m going to renew.” When I asked him why, he said, “Well, it used to be that you sent them 30 bucks and you got a book. Now, you send them 60 bucks, and you get nothing.” It’s more than just that, though. He said that he hardly reads QST anymore. “There’s just not that much of interest to me in QST,” he said. And, he went on, you have to read it with a special reader. This, and a recent episode of the DX Mentor podcast featuring ARRL CEO David Minster, NA2AA, has got me thinking that the reason ARRL membership is shrinking is that it’s losing touch with its membership and with potential members. Two things stuck out for me. The first was Minster’s description of his operation of the super station on Bonaire during some DX contest. I suppose it’s a normal thing for a rich guy like him, who is pulling down $350,000 a year from the ARRL, but how many hams are going to get a chance to do this? The second thing that stuck out is that at about the 1:33:30 mark, DX Mentor host, Bill, AJ8B, commented, “It appears to me that there’s a real strong growth in The Technician Class license. So, overall, that’s got to be pretty exciting.” Minster re-directed the conversation immediately into a discussion of ARRL membership. He said, “I get asked the question pretty regularly that you know, there’s 750,000 hams and there are only 150,000 in the ARRL. (Note: It’s well below 150,000 right now.) You guys are terrible.” He tried to blow this off by noting that many members of the Mormon Church and Orthodox Jewish communities get licensed for emergency preparedness and disaster communications. At He said flat out, “They’re not hams.” To blow off anyone with an amateur radio license as “not a real ham” just doesn’t seem like the right attitude to me, and isn’t emergency and preparedness communications supposed to be one of the pillars of amateur radio? Now, he did go on to say that new Techs need mentors to help them get more involved with amateur radio. I agree completely with him on that, and I tell everyone that takes my class to consider me their mentor, and if they ever have a question or need help, to contact me. I’m proud of the fact that many people who’ve taken my classes are now active hams and having fun with amateur radio. At any rate, the impression I get is that Minster isn’t all that concerned with membership. He certainly didn’t give any indication of that in his DX Mentor appearance, and I don’t see the ARRL taking any serious steps to increase membership. Instead of truly being the national association for amateur radio, theyre becoming an ever-smaller association of guys they consider to be real hams. Theyve lost touch with long-time members like my friend and who knows how many potential members. What this means is that, in the future, ARRL membership will continue to fall, both in the percentage of licensed radio amateurs and absolute numbers.- — Buttons are back, baby!
- at 4/21/25 8:43amSeveral years ago, I got a good deal on a Flex 6400 and thought I’d give it a try. It’s a great radio, and I enjoyed using it, but after a couple of years, I decided to give it up and buy an Icom IC-7610 instead. The main reason was the user interface—the IC-7610 has real knobs and buttons instead of just a computer screen to control its functions. Maybe I’m just being old school (I am certainly getting old), but I prefer real knobs and buttons, even if those knobs and buttons are just providing digital inputs to the processor controlling the radio. Recently, I’ve run across a couple of articles that back me up on this. The first, “Touchscreens are out, and tactile controls are back,” is an interview in IEEE Spectrum with Rachel Plotnick, an associate professor of cinema and media studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, and a leading expert on buttons and how people interact with them. She says that while touchscreens are a useful interface, people are becoming somewhat fatigued by the use of them. “People seem to have a hunger for physical buttons,” she says, “both because you don’t always have to look at them—you can feel your way around for them when you don’t want to directly pay attention to them—but also because they offer a greater range of tactility and feedback.” She also said something else I found interesting. “Buttons tend to offer you a really limited range of possibilities in terms of what you can do. Maybe that simplicity of limiting our field of choices offers more safety in certain situations.” I might say that it also makes the user interface more straightforward and easy to understand and use. Take the receiver incremental tuning (RIT) control, for example. I use this control frequently on my IC-7610, I press a button to turn it on and a knob to set the offset. On the Flex, however, using the SmartSDR software, I’d have to go to the X/RIT menu, click on the RIT button on the screen, then set the offset by clicking right or left arrows or by typing in a text box. It’s just not as simple to do as on the IC-7610, so I found myself using that control less often. On my IC-7610, the RIT controls are conveniently located in the lower right-hand corner. The second article is “Subaru is bringing back physical knobs and buttons in its cars.” The article begins, “To the relief of practically anybody who drives a car regularly, Japanese carmaker Subaru has brought back physical buttons and knobs for its 2026 Outback midsize SUV. Its yet another sign that carmakers are finally starting to listen, ditching massive touchscreens that have taken over a vast number of vehicle controls in favor of tactile buttons, switches, and knobs.” Of course, touchscreens are the appropriate choice for many transceiver functions. The IC-7610 touch screen not only displays the waterfall, but also lets you select a signal by touching it on the screen. That works great for me. The lesson to be learned here is that a good user interface can help increase sales. These days, almost all of the radios from the major manufacturers are so good that the average ham can’t really detect a difference in performance. That leaves the user interface as one of the differentiating features, and you’d think that a more usable user interface would sell more radios. And, it appears that physical, tactile buttons and knobs are going to be a part of that user interface.
- — Will tariffs affect the cost of ham gear?
- at 4/17/25 9:29amA friend of mine asked me the other day how the proposed tariffs will affect the cost of ham gear. Not being an economics guy, I really have no clue, except to say that prices will probably go up. Well, today I came across an email from Connect Systems, who import radios for digital communications. Heres their analysis: Tariffs The mark-up for amateur products in not very high. The following is how we figure the cost of the product: CS750 cost to manufacture.$115.00 Shipping..$15.50 Credit Card Cost $9.56 Tariffs at 25% .$28.75 Total out of pocket cost.$168.81 Selling Price $239.00 Profit = 239 168 = $71 Now lets assume the tariffs are at 100%. The analysis is now as follows: CS750 cost to manufacture.$115.00 Shipping..$15.50 Credit Card Cost $9.56 Tariffs at 100% $115.00 Total out of pocket cost.$255.06 Selling Price .$239.00 Profit = 239 255.06 = $(16.06) If I dont change the selling price, I would loose $16.06 for each radio sold. The above analysis does not cover the cost of things such as cost of running the on-line store, salary, and other business expenses. While I do not expect the tariffs to be set at 100%, I would be very surprised if the tariffs do not increase from the current rate. We anticipated the tariffs and we bought a large stock of our standard products. We will keep the price the same until we run out of stock. While I cannot predict the selling price in the future because I do not know what the tariff rates are going to be, you can expect some type of increase. When you buy direct from a Chinese company, you will not see a price increase. However, the tariffs are going to be paid by you before it is delivered. Of course, who knows what the final tariffs, if any, will be, but this is something to keep in mind. It was reported this morning that car sales have jumped in anticipation of the tariffs raising automobile prices. Crazy times.
- — Random Notes: KB6NU at the South Pole, operating W7P, RF in the shack.
- at 4/9/25 7:09amAmateur radio antennas at the NSF Amundson-Scott South Pole Station. KB6NU at the South Pole (well, my study guides anyway) A week ago, I got the following email from David Williams, whos working at the United States Antarctic Program NSF Amundson-Scott South Pole Station. According to their website, the station is the southernmost year-round research station in the world, and supports scientific studies in astronomy, astrophysics, aeronomy, auroral studies, geospace research, meteorology, geomagnetism, seismology, earth-tide measurements and glaciology. The stations geographic location allows unique astronomical observations, benefiting from clear, dry air and the absence of light pollution. David writes: Greetings, I want to thank you for writing your study guide- A few of us down here for Winter are going for Ham radio licenses and part of the study materials we are using includes your PDFs. Our equipment down here requires a General class at minimum. We would use it to contact McMurdo Station in an emergency. I’m very new to the hobby but it’s really interesting to learn about! We will all go for our licenses after a few weeks of study likely. How cool is that? Im glad that theyre able to use my study guides, and I hope that a bunch of them get their licenses. Operating W7P Yesterday, I operated as W7P for the first time. W7P is one of the call signs being used for the Narwhal Amateur Radio Society’s Polio on the Air special event, which is commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Salk polio vaccine. Other call signs for the special event include W7O, W7L, and W7I. So far, Im the only CW operator. Last night, I made 25 contacts on 7035 kHz in about an hour. I worked stations as far west as North Dakota and as far east as Spain (my only DX contact). It was a lot of fun. The even runs through Saturday, and Im scheduled to operate tonight and Thursday night at 0000 UTC. You can listen for me again on 7035 kHz. RF in the shack Something wonky is going on with my trusty Cobra antenna, and Im not sure what exactly. Somehow, Ive started to get RF in the shack. I do run the ladder line right into the shack, but the antennas been up for nearly 10 years now, and this hasnt been a problem. One thing that Ive been thinking about doing is to connect the 450Ω feed line to a balun outside and run coax into the shack. Im also thinking that maybe I should rebuild the antenna. That would clean the contacts. If you have any thoughts about this, please leave a comment below or email me directly.
- — Teaching a one-day Tech class (2025 edition)
- at 4/6/25 3:19pmIn 2017, I gave a presentation on teaching a one-day Tech class at Dayton. Yesterday, I gave an updated version of this presentation to a dozen folks via Zoom. The presentation was organized by Bob, WA3PZO, president of the Holmesburg ARC. I was originally going to present in person and then teach a class at the Philadelphia Maker Faire. Unfortunately, the class fell through, so we moved it to Zoom.
- — On CW, no one knows you’re a dog
- at 4/2/25 4:44pmPicture found on the QRZ.Com page of a fellow I just worked. :)
- — Voice-activated Morse key uses AI
- at 4/1/25 9:47amThis just in from the CWops mailing list. I knew someone would come up with a good use for AI in ham radio. Happy April Fools Day!
- — Ham Radio Ireland magazine relaunched
- at 3/31/25 9:30amI received the following email a couple of days ago: Following many requests over the last year we have relaunched Ham Radio Ireland, Irelands only independent amateur radio magazine. We have just published our April 2025 issue, and it may be downloaded for free. Back issues of the magazine are also available. If you wish to contribute articles to our magazine we would be delighted to include them. Articles should be submitted in Word format and be 1.5 2 pages or more with good quality photographs (not compressed). We hope you enjoy this free e-Magazine and our intention is to publish every two months from here onwards. Please feel free to share with friends and other groups/clubs and social media. Steve EI5DD We covered this story on the ICQ Podcast several episodes ago, and as a result, I sent them an article on my POTA antenna experiments, which they included in the April 2025 issue. This issue also includes articles on: Diodes Hex beam antennas Bunkers on the Air and more
- — Amateur radio in the news: Club edition
- at 3/29/25 8:01amHere are four stories about amateur radio clubs that recently made their local newspapers. I think that each of them has a lesson that could help your club be successful. The first lesson is to include food in your club activities. Food brings out members. SaddleBrook Amateur Radio Club Monthly Breakfast The SaddleBrooke Amateur Radio Club met at SaddleBrooke Ranch on Friday, February 21 for a monthly breakfast at Bistro Veinte. Fourteen members attended the popular club breakfast gathering. The excellent food and service served in a conference room adjacent to the cafe was enjoyed by all. read more The second lesson is to provide some kind of public service. In this case, the Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club is donating a set of amateur radio books to their public library. The catch is that some libraries will not accept this kind of donation. Our library here in Ann Arbor, MI is one of them. Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club Donates Books To Local Library, GC Makers Space The Andrew Johnson Amateur Radio Club is hoping to spur more local interest and public awareness of amateur radio operations. The club recently presented several educational books on the subject to the Greeneville-Greene County Public Library and to Greene County Makers Space. Two sets of books were purchased and donated to both the library and the GCMS, club officials note in a news release. read more When your club earns recognition of any kind, issue a press release. It raises the clubs profile and could draw in some new members. HC Amateur Radio Club earns recognition The Hill Country Amateur Radio Club has been recognized as a “Special Service Club” by the American Radio Relay League, the countrys primary educational, advocacy and representative organization of the craft of Ham Radio. Hill Country Amateur Radio Club serves the greater Hill Country region, with training, outreach and emergency communications, and has done so for decades. read more This is an example of a club profile. You can sometimes get a local paper to write such a profile by pitching the story to them. Nothing amateur about radio Good afternoon. Welcome to the AA0RC Repeater. The time is 3:33 p.m. The automated greeting crackles through the radio on Dan “WZ9W” Schnaare’s desk in response to a call sent by Rick “KF0JCP” Smith from a handheld radio just outside of Schnaare’s Ham Shack in Centralia. The signal traveled about 20 miles to the Radio Repeater in Mexico, before being sent back. “KF0JCP, WZ9W,” Schnaare confirms. Schnaare and Smith are members of Audrain Emergency Communications Inc. serving as vice president and treasurer, respectively. AECI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization consisting of 30 amateur radio operators who meet monthly at the Help Center in Mexico. They are dedicated to their craft, teaching and practicing nearly every day. read more
- — ICQPodcast Episode 452 – Disqualified ARRL board nominees tell their stories
- at 3/23/25 10:59amIn 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: ISS FM Repeater, APRS Digipeater Could Be Sunset in Two Years ISS Astronauts Reject Call for Early Retirement of the ISS VOA, Other International News Services, Marked for Cuts Questions Loom After Cuts at United States Weather Agency FCC Seeks Public Suggestions On Possible Deregulation Work at Repeater Site Costs Ham His County Job In Washington State From my point of view, the big news is this episodes 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 years 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 Im 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 its not a positive thing.)
- — Videos: Single sideband, HAMNET update, HF propagation
- at 3/21/25 9:30pmIntroduction to SSB This is an Air Traffic Command instructional video describing the theory behind single side band (SSB) modulation. Dig that jazzy intro music! HAMNet Update HAMNET (Highspeed Amateur radio Multimedia NETwork) is a fully-independent amateur radio wireless network that provides data services. Its a wireless internet, so to speak. It covers many regions in Europe and is even now growing fast beyond its European border. Hamnet is using international coordinated IP-address space of the AMPRNet (44.0.0.0/8) and Autonomous System (AS) numbers out of the 16-bit and 32-bit private AS number space to interconnect active regions by external Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing. Here is an up date on HAMNET given at the recent FOSDEM conference. Rohde & Schwarz on HF Propagation Rohde & Schwarz produces some of the finest RF instrumentation in the world. They also produce great videos on RF topics. This one explains HF propagation.
- — I used to think that I was the biggest thorn in the ARRL’s side, but…
- at 3/20/25 9:25amI used to think that I was the biggest thorn in the ARRLs side, but I now cede this title to my friend, Frank Howell, K4FMH. Since the beginning of the year, Frank has written a number blog posts, which I can only describe as scathing. Hes gotten the attention of the ARRLs CEO, too. ARRL CEO, David Minster, NA2AA, ends his April column with the admonition, Reading the baseless conspiracy theories about ARRL does nothing to promote or protect amateur radio. Are they baseless, though? Ill let you read Franks meticulously-researched posts and decide for yourself. In his January 18, 2025 post, Many ARRL members couldn’t get there from here…So they left. Here’s how to get them back, describes what he thinks is a major flow in how ARRL governance is organized and how that has led to a decrease in membership. His two main suggestions to remedy this are: Replace the CEO with a COO hired from the non-profit sector. Elect the President and other Officers directly by the membership. Franks January 31, 2025 post, They went down, down, down..and the flames are higher … but it’s not too late, addresses the decline in ARRL membership. Frank notes that the percentage of licensed radio amateurs who are also ARRL members is now close to 16%. And yet, the only visible attempts at increasing membership are a raffle for new and renewing members that will benefit only a single ham and cheap coffee mugs for those renewing for three years. The March 3, 2025 post, Election Ethics and Bylaws of the ARRL: Are They Being Applied to Everyone? addresses what Frank sees as a possible conflict of interest. He notes that the ARRL CEO does a little moonlighting as a real estate agent, even though By-Law 35 clearly states that the [CEOs] entire time shall be devoted to the duties as set forth above. Frank asks, Why is there such a different emphasis on election ethics while allowing a clear and specific violation of Bylaw 35 to go unchecked? In Franks latest post, Only the Shadow (Board) Knows…, he addresses what some refer to as the shadow board. Frank describes the shadow board as a a subset of Division Directors who I’m told have teamed-up with the non-voting Board member CEO and President to form a caucus. Frank notes: It is not authorized in the Bylaws.This group’s shadow actions circumvent public disclosure of League business discussions. Why? One source states below it is because they fear some Directors will actually tell their member constituents—you know, the dues-paying ones who vote for them—what is on the horizon for ARRL actions in the future. Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, Frank thinks that the existence and actions of the shadow board are in violation of IRS rules for governance of charitable organizations. If youre concerned about how the current board of directors and officers are running the ARRL, I hope that you will read Franks blog posts and raise a little cain with your director. I think youll find that these issues are not as baseless as the ARRL CEO would have you believe.
- — A reader writes about his concerns with the ARRL
- at 3/10/25 9:42amOn Mar 7, 2025, a reader wrote: Greetings, Im almost 50-year amateur , and a Life Member of the ARRL . I wanted to comment on your ideas how the League could improve its image . I believe the ARRL has become a publishing firm with prices higher than a hawks nest. My first Repeater Directory was handed to me by Harry Dannals, who was the ARRL director at that time. It was free as a member. Today, the Directory with shipping is around $30. Maybe because of my age, QST has become a magazine with articles that I cant really understand. Im familiar with coil and capacitor technology, which my R.L. Drake gear used. It served me well, and I was pretty much able to troubleshoot it. I still try to help hams in my area—Kalamazoo, MI—with antenna problems. Im still the best on Home Made Tilts for a tip-over Tower . I am a retired tool and die maker from GM. I have many more concerns about the ARRL. I will not quit, though, being a Life Member. I replied: Hi, Thanks for your email. I am also a long-time ham—53, going on 54, years for me. I found your comment about QST interesting. While you find that the magazine has “articles that [you] really can’t understand,” there are others that don’t find it technical enough. A friend of mine, who has been a ham longer than me and a retired electronics engineer, told me the other day that he just didn’t find QST interesting anymore. To be fair, the ARRL has a tough job because amateur radio is such an expansive hobby. There are folks who just operate CW with vintage equipment and others who are pushing the boundaries with data modes at microwave frequencies. It seems to some of us, however, that the ARRL has given up on some aspects of the hobby and are not providing the leadership that it should be providing for all radio amateurs. One example of this is the membership crisis—and I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic by calling it a crisis. Membership has been dropping like a rock. See this blog post by my friend Frank, K4FMH, for a good analysis of the data. Not only is membership dropping in terms of absolute numbers, but also as a percentage of licensed radio amateurs. The percentage of licensed radio amateurs who are also ARRL members is now south of 20%. How can the ARRL call itself the “national association for amateur radio” when less than 1 in 5 hams are ARRL members? It appears to me that they either don’t care about membership levels or have just given up. My membership was set to expire at the end of March, and several weeks ago, I got a letter from the League asking me to renew. I could either renew at $59/year or $174/three years. Seriously? They’re only offering me a discount of $1/year to renew for three years? They did say that they’d send me a coffee mug for renewing for three years, but I already have a cheap ARRL mug that I never use from when I renewed for three years three years ago. Their latest attempt to increase membership is a raffle of a dream station. Hams get “tickets when they join or renew their memberships, and life members, like you, are given chances when you donate at least $50 to the Diamond Club. This is all well and good, but I highly doubt that it’s going to increase membership at all, much less make up the deficit. I’ll be interested to read about the effectiveness of the raffle in the 2025 Annual Report. Aside from the three-year discount and the raffle, I don’t see any other efforts to increase membership. There is nothing mentioned in the Membership, Marketing and Communications section of the 2023 Annual Report (the 2024 annual report isnt out yet), except that the ARRL had a presence at the Dayton Hamvention, Huntsville Hamfest, Northeast HamXposition, and Pacificon. That’s fine, but just showing up isn’t going to increase membership, and I would argue, that those events cater to older and more traditional hams and not the kind of people that we want to get into ham radio and become ARRL members. Well, that’s enough (probably more than you bargained for ) for now. I’d be happy to hear more about what you think. 73! Dan, KB6NU p.s. I did renew my membership, but for only a single year. I figure that Ill get a better return my money by investing that $115 in a CD or maybe some Costco stock than I would by paying for an extra two years of ARRL membership.
- — Operating Notes: Why do people tune up on your frequency?
- at 3/7/25 9:05amA couple of days ago, I was calling CQ on 40 meters, when someone decided they wanted to tune up on my frequency. He had a very strong signal, so it was unlikely that he hadnt heard me calling CQ. The band wasnt crowded, so I simply moved up a kHz and began calling again, but I just dont understand why people do that. After one or two calls on my new frequency, I get a call from the guy who tuned up on top of me earlier. I know this because he told me that if Id waited another 10 seconds, he would have answered my CQ earlier. I explained to him that there was no way for me to know if he was going to call me or not, and that more often than not, stations tuning up tend to just disappear. All I knew is that there was a strong station tuning up on my frequency, and not only that, his tuning up was preventing other stations from calling me. He seemed to get the idea and apologized. Ham radio is no place for politics We proceeded to have a generally nice contact. At one point, however, he mentioned that he had watched Trumps speech earlier, and while I forget his exact words, I got the impression that he generally approved of the speech. I was a bit taken aback at this. Its just not good practice to discuss politics on the air, especially on CW! I simply ignored the comment and moved on to other topics. Id suggest that you do the same, whether these comments are made on 40-meter CW or 2-meter FM. CQ SALK On Mastodon last night, I saw a post from N3VEM about the Narwhal Amateur Radio Societys Polio on the Air operating event. According to the NARS website, the operating event is a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the April 12, 1955 US approval of the Salk polio vaccine. It will run from April 5 19, 2025. Being a member of a Rotary club here in Ann Arbor, this really piqued my interest. Rotary International has been working to eradicate polio for nearly 40 years now, and as a result of our efforts to vaccinate children all over the world, were very close to doing so. And, in the past, Ive set up and operated a special event station to commemorate the founding of Rotary and make people aware of our End Polio Now project. NARS will be operating five special event stations—W7P, W7O, W7L, W7I, and W0O—during that time. They also say, Make contact with one, get a QSL card. Make contact with all five, get five QSL cards—and something really neat happens if you collect all five! One of the unique aspects of this special operating event is that you can sign up to use one of the special event callsigns as well as hunt the special event stations. See the Polio on the Air web page for details on how to do so. I plan to sign up for several hours and operate CW, of course.
- — Was I wrong?
- at 2/27/25 9:29amLast Saturday, at a ham swap that I attended, Scott, N8SY, our division director, came up to my table and extended his hand. I just couldn’t shake it, though. When I didn’t reciprocate, he asked, “You’re not going to shake my hand?” I said, “No.” He asked why, and I said that it was because of the way he voted on the disqualifications and the By-Law 18 modifications. He started to try and explain his votes, but I have heard his explanations before, and they just dont make sense to me. I told him that I didn’t want to talk to him about that just then. He said, “OK,” and went on his way. Was I wrong to spurn him like that? Personally, I don’t think being congenial about it would have been the right thing to do. I wanted him to see how angry I was about the way he voted. Ive asked a couple of friends about this. One said: I think you have to express your views as you see fit. You weren’t an asshat. Yiu just didn’t shake his hand. And, you calmly told him why. It was an adult approach, IMHO. You let him know that his vote was not appreciated. He needs to know that how he votes is being watched by his voting constituency. Ill ask you, though. Was I wrong? UPDATE 3/7/25 Thanks for all your comments. So far, seven have said that I wasnt wrong, five that I was. I do hope that he got the message that I—and many others—are very angry with the way he voted.
- — The ARRL elections this year are a sham
- at 9/29/24 7:10pmI’ve always recommended that hams join the ARRL, but recent events have certainly tested my resolve. The ARRL seems to lurch from calamity to calamity. Earlier this year, there was the decision to discontinue sending copies of the print version of QST to members. Then, in May, there was the cyber attack on the ARRL’s shaky IT infrastructure. The latest debacle is this year’s board of directors election. Every year, the ARRL conducts elections for five of the 15 directorships. This year, candidates in three of these elections have been disqualified, for somewhat dubious reasons, in my humble opinion. Officially, these candidates were disqualified for violating one of the ARRL’s election rules. They all share a common characteristic, though: they are all critical of the current board and CEO, David Minster, NA2AA. Whatever the real reason, these disqualifications have turned this year’s elections into a sham. N3JT Disqualified! The first disqualification that I became aware of was that of Jim Talens, N3JT. At first glance, Jim seemed like a great candidate. Professionally, Jim was an attorney for the FCC for 22 years and has both BSEE and MBA degrees. He is an active radio amateur and is one of the founders of CWops, a group devoted to furthering the use of Morse Code. He had hoped to run for Roanoke Division director. Jim lives in Virginia for about half the year and in Florida for the other half. He says that by law, he is both a legal resident of Virginia and Florida. His FCC license shows his Virginia address. His long-time home of 49 years and his primary station are located in Virginia. He pays real estate taxes in Virginia. He pays personal property taxes in Virginia. His cars are registered in Virginia. The signatories to his nomination were all in Virginia. When he submitted his nomination petition, he was a full member in Virginia, and not living in Florida. Despite this, the Ethics & Elections Committee decided—wrongfully in Jim’s opinion—that he was not a resident of Virginia, and therefore, not eligible to run in the Roanoke Division. ARRL By-Law 18 requires that a candidate must be a “Full member of the division.” The problem is that the by-law doesn’t define what that phrase means. In the absence of that definition, the committee just made up its own rule for political expediency rather than apply common sense, law, or fairness. Sounds pretty shady, doesn’t it? Would Jim have been disqualified if he hadn’t been so critical of the ARRL? Over and above that, should the Ethics and Elections Committee have the power to disqualify a candidate when the bylaw isn’t specific about what constitutes residency in a division? K1VR Disqualified! Fred Hopengarten, K1VR was disqualified on even shakier grounds. In his case, he submitted his nominating petition 24 hours before the deadline (noon of August 16), but inadvertently failed to attach the pages containing the signatures of ten or more members of the New England Division. He was informed of this fact by email at 11:05 am the next day, less than an hour before the deadline. He didn’t see this email until after noon, and when he did, he immediately replied with the signatures. But, he was 27 minutes late. This is the reason he was disqualified. I don’t know about you, but this sounds pretty shady to me. Could it be because Fred supports policies that buck the current trend on the ARRL board? K7REX Disqualified! This is another disturbing case. Dan Marler, K7REX, is as good a candidate as you’d want. He currently serves as Idaho Section Manager, has served as Section Emergency Coordinator, and is the founder of the Radio Amateur Training Planning and Activities Committee (RATPAC). He is a retired computer systems administrator for a Fortune-500 company and would bring a much-needed understanding of IT management to the League. In an email—which I haven’t seen, to be honest—Dan made several statements that the Ethics & Elections Committee took issue with. The committee specifically demanded that he retract several statements. Here’s the message that he sent to the members of the Northwest Division listing the supposedly offending statements and his responses: Members of the Northwestern Division of our League I have received a demand from the Ethics & Elections Committee to retract certain statements in my last email message within 24 hours or suffer the consequences. The complaints of the Committee are unfounded in my good faith view. But since they have the power to disqualify me if I do not comply with their demand, I offer each statement, their complaint, and my justification to them. I believe my statements contain nothing inaccurate, false or personally accusatory. Accordingly, I leave it to you to hear both sides in fairness. Each of the five specific statements questioned by the E&E state my opinion and belief as to certain matters that I believe do or may adversely impact the ARRL and invites potential voters to evaluate whether they share my concerns as to those matters. Excessive employee turnover, expensive compensation, a decision to engage in the sale of amateur radio equipment that competes with the League’s advertisers, the extended absence of IT leadership that may have contributed to a $1,000,000 ransomware attack that resulted in damage to the League’s finances and operation, and the unacceptability of handicapping Directors by withholding financial information are what they demand is retracted. For your information as a voter, you decide. as to each of my stated opinions below: My Statement 1. If you are concerned about historically high personnel turnover in Headquarters, where over 50 League employees have left since the arrival of the present CEO, your views align with mine. E&E’s COMPLAINT: As we discussed, there have been people leave the ARRL, but this was through natural attrition and not due to the arrival of the present CEO. It has been long known that we would experience a higher number of retirements since there was a large increase of employees hired in the 1970’s and 1980’s. This along with the natural attrition of employees leaving for better pay or advancements in their particular fields of employment has caused our employee numbers to fluctuate some but is not the fault of the CEO. MY RESPONSE: The statement that employee turnover for the prescribed period of time is historically high is accurate. The statement that over 50 League employees have terminated their employment during the prescribed time period is accurate. The statement does not identify any reason for the turnover or attribute responsibility for the historically high turnover to any specific cause or person. Your objection is based on the false assertion that the statement attributes cause of the historically high turnover to the “CEO.” The reference to the “CEO” merely establishes the time period during which the employee turnover is excessive; it does not attribute the turnover to anyone. As there are neither inaccuracies nor anything false in the statement, my answer stating both sides of this issue here should settle the concern. My Statement 2. If you are concerned that an annual salary of $350K plus benefits for the ARRL CEO is substantially above what is warranted, your views align with mine. E&E’s COMPLAINT: As we discussed, Mr Minster is not making $350,000 at this time. His salary is $315,000. This figure was verified today and is correct. MY RESPONSE: The statement expresses my concern that the compensation for Mr. Minster exceeds that which is justified for his position and responsibilities. The dollar amount is sourced from multiple Directors who advised that the Administration & Finance Committee approved a $100,000 salary increase to Mr. Minster’s initial base salary of $250,000. If that compensation package has been modified, it appears the modification is unknown to multiple members of the Board. If the $350,000 amount is not current, and if no increase to the $315,000 salary amount has been formally or informally agreed to, I have no objection to correcting the dollar amount, but a concern about executive compensation being too high will not be withdrawn or restated. I ask for verification of Mr. Minster’s current salary and benefits and any approved increases that have not yet taken effect. This will allow me to accurately respond to the membership. My Statement 3. If you think there is no need for the League to sell antennas competing with its advertisers, your views align with mine. E&E’s COMPLAINT: As we discussed, we are selling “kits” to encourage folks to get back into building again. These “kits” are also being used for our STEM projects for students and teachers as well. Our advertisers do not have issues with us doing this, therefore there is no competition. MY RESPONSE: The statement accurately reflects my concern that the ARRL, financially dependent on advertising revenue, has or may have erred by choosing to sell amateur radio equipment similar to that offered by the ARRL’s advertisers. All antennas require some assembly, so attempting to differentiate the League’s offering by characterizing it as a “kit” is disingenuous. I would point out that JK Antennas’ JK803 is also a “kit”. The ARRL’s rationale for offering the “kit” doesn’t alter the fact that it is amateur radio equipment of a type available from the ARRL’s advertisers. The fact, if true, that none of the ARRL’s advertisers have publicly, or perhaps privately, objected to the ARRL’s conduct does not alter the reality that the ARRL is selling a product, an antenna, that is offered by multiple ARRL advertisers. It is competition whether anyone complains about it or not: a rose by any other name As there are neither inaccuracies nor anything false in the statement, my answer here should settle the concern. But members should decide. My Statement 4. If you feel that not having an Information Technology Manager for the majority of the present CEOs term is unacceptable and may have contributed to the ransomware attack damage, your views align with mine. E&E’s COMPLAINT: As we discussed with this question and question 1, employment today is much different than it was for you and me. Young adults today jump from one job to another regularly for advancement, benefits or just plain old salary increase. The loyalty to stick to a single employer as you and I did in the past is not the philosophy of today. Today, these young adults, many of them in high-tech jobs, go to the highest bidder and the ARRL isn’t usually the highest. So, to imply that this is the CEO’s fault is something that just isn’t so. MY RESPONSE: Once again, you are inferring causation, which I did not assert. I made no statement or implication that any of the foregoing was the fault of the current CEO. That said, lacking an IT manager for an organization of the size and importance of the ARRL for a substantial period of time, in this case a period measured by the term of the current CEO, is unacceptable because of the risk that the absence of such leadership, oversight, and knowledge poses to the organization. My statement also conveys my belief and concern that the absence of such a Manager for such an extended period of time reasonably could have contributed to the lack of maintenance or installation of protocols that could have prevented a $1,000,000 ransomware attack. As an aside, your comments regarding young adults are remarkably wide of the mark, as neither of the two IT managers since 2016 met the definition of young. My statement contains nothing inaccurate, false or personally accusatory Accordingly, I leave it to the voters having sent the E&E concerns. My Statement 5. “ If you feel that keeping any League financial information from ARRL Directors is unacceptable, your views align with mine. “ E&E’s COMPLAINT: As we discussed, this is a very misleading statement. If you or I are asked for information at a meeting that we aren’t able to provide immediately with but was willing to get that information and report back at a later time, is that refusing to give you the information? If the person wanting specific financial information demands information on the spot as has been a few times by a specific Director, is that fair to state later that you asked for and was refused the information? MY RESPONSE: My statement accurately reflects my belief that failing to provide financial information to the Board of Directors is unacceptable. Although my statement does not explicitly allege that such conduct has occurred, in fact I previously provided the Ethics & Elections Committee with multiple, verifiable instances in which financial information had been withheld from or denied not delayed to Directors. E&E Chairman Baker did not disagree or advise me that any of those examples were not true and further advised me that he would allow them to stand. There are multiple Directors prepared to publicly verify the accuracy of those instances. It is my opinion that my original statements do not contain any inaccurate, false, personal accusatory comments. I leave it to you to evaluate the validity of E&Es complaints. Please make your own decisions. I thank you for your time, your consideration and I again ask for your vote for Northwestern Division Director. Apparently, that wasnt good enough for the committee. In a letter dated September 28, 2024, Dan was disqualified. It’s not clear if he was being disqualified for not retracting all of the statements or just the statement about the CEO’s salary. In any case, we see again the high-handedness of the E&E Committee, and again I have to say that this all sounds pretty shady to me. Is this really the best thing for amateur radio? At this point, all three candidates plan to appeal these decisions by the Ethics & Elections Committee. It is doubtful that appealing will get them reinstated, but I think it’s worth going through the process, if only to emphasize the shadiness of what’s going on. Over and above this, though, I really wonder how the powers that be can justify to themselves the shabby handling of these candidates? Do they really think that they’re fooling anyone with these political machinations? Do they reallly think what they’re doing is good for the ARRL, much less for amateur radio in general? It’s really sad that it’s come to this.
- — Tinkering with an antenna
- at 9/28/24 1:50pmI don’t know that I’d call Clay Mitchell, W8JNZ (SK), my mentor exactly, but I did look up to him, both as a ham and as a person. I’ll always remember one thing that he told me. “Dan,” he said, “one of the best ways to learn about something is to ‘tinker’ with it.” He’d gotten this bit of advice from Dr. Richard Crane, W8CWN, who taught physics at the University of Michigan and was a a well-known science educator and great tinkerer. I applied this bit of wisdom to the antenna that I use for portable ops. It’s nothing fancy—just a 66-ft. doublet—but by tinkering with it over the years, it’s a much better antenna than it was when I first built it. It started with a KX1 It all started about 20 years ago when I decided that I wanted to operate portable and bought and built an Elecraft KX-1. Out of the box, the KX1 covers 40 meters and 20 meters, and you can buy an option to add 80 meters and 30 meters to the radio. I also purchased and built the optional automatic antenna tuner. The user manual for the KX1 antenna tuner suggested using a wire antenna of 24 28 feet and one or more radials of at least 1/8-wavelength. It also suggests connecting these directly to the radio without a feed line. I cut four, 24-ft. lengths of wire from a spool of wire-wrap wire that I had scavenged from the dumpster of one of my employers, purchased a BNC-binding post adapter, connected the driven element to the red binding post and the three radials to the black binding post. The KX1 antenna featured a 24-ft. driven element and three 24-ft. radials. The tuner found a match for this antenna, but I was never really thrilled with the performance. I made some contacts, but with only 4 watts output, most of those contacts were a struggle. I struggled with this setup for a couple of years, but since I was really enjoying portable operation, I decided that some tinkering was in order. A new antenna is born In 2007, my 66-ft. doublet was born. Our club here in Ann Arbor, MI, ARROW, conducts mini-Field Days the we call AMP Team meetings every month. (AMP is short for ARROW Mobile and Portable.) We haul all kinds of radio gear out to a park and set up and operate. The gear you’ll find at one of these events includes HF, VHF, UHF, and even some microwave gear. Some club members, for example, are experimenting with AREDN mesh networking, and these meetings are a good place to test out their nodes without having to worry if their node’s antenna is line-of-sight with another node. As I was contemplating what to use for an antenna for one of these outings, I scanned the shelves in my shack for antenna-making materials. I still had a fair amount of wire-wrap wire that I could use for the antenna itself, but what to use for feed line? When my eyes lit on a spool of twisted-pair wire, I thought why not give that a try? I cut two 33-ft. lengths of wire-wrap wire for the antenna elements and one 33-ft. length of twisted-pair wire to use as feed line. As this was going to be an experimental antenna, I didn’t care too much how kludgey the thing looked. For the center insulator, I dug a ceramic dog bone insulator out of my box of antenna parts. To connect the feed line to the antenna elements, I used a couple of small wire nuts. Rev. A of my POTA antenna used wire-wrap wire for the elements, a ceramic dogbone insulator, and twisted-pair wire for the feed line. Cutting a 33-ft. length of wire for the feed line was actually a mistake. I figured that if I made the twisted pair feed line a half-wavelength long, then I’d have a relatively low impedance at the rig. Instead, in my haste, I cut it too short. 33 feet is only a quarter wavelength at 40 meters, which theoretically should have yielded a high impedance at the antenna input. In practice, however, the KX-1 managed to tune that antenna and feed line on 40 meters and 20 meters just fine. That just goes to show how much I know. To hang up the antenna, I made a small loop at the end of each wire, and to that I tied some mason twine. I threw that twine up into a tree using a weighted tennis ball, and pulled up the antenna. One problem with this approach is that I was never able to get the antenna up all that high. Sometimes the antenna was less than 15 feet off the ground. Another problem is that it took a long time to do this. It takes time to get two lines up into trees, raise the antenna, then tie off the lines. Not to mention that you need two trees relative close to one another. Sometimes, I would set up this antenna as an inverted-V, but I still had to find an appropriate tree for this. Enter the KX3 In 2015, I bought a used KX3. Being a KX1 user, I had subscribed to the Elecraft-KX mailing list, and when someone offered to sell a KX3 with antenna tuner for about $1,200, I jumped on it. At first, I had visions of outfitting with with a PX3 band scope and some kind of amplifier to make a base station out of it, but when I found a good deal on a Flex 6400, I decided against that approach. The KX3 would be devoted to portable operation. Because the KX3 antenna tuner has a wider range than the KX1 antenna tuner, I wasn’t anticipating any problems with it tuning the doublet. And, in fact, that was the case. The KX3 easily tunes the doublet on all bands between 40 meters and 10 meters. POTA improvements Improvements to the antenna accelerated once I started operating Parks on the Air (POTA). One of the first improvements was to purchase a 10-meter, telescoping, Spiderbeam fiberglass mast. With the Spiderbeam mast, I no longer have to throw lines up into trees. I slide a small eyelet into the top section of the telescoping mast and attach the center insulator of the antenna to the eyelet. I extend the mast and operate the doublet as an inverted V. No trees needed. To anchor the telescoping mast, I pound three garden stakes into the ground at 120-degree intervals around the mast, then put a strap around the stakes and mast to hold the mast upright. This arrangement is much easier to set up than others that I’ve seen that use ropes and tent stakes, and it is very stable. It’s certainly stable enough for a two- or three-hour POTA activation. To anchor the elements, I use two-pound exercise weights that I bought for a buck each at a local thrift shop. Using the weights, it’s easy to extend the elements to whatever length I need quickly. Overall, setting up the antenna is very quick. I can be on the air within 20 minutes of arriving at a park. The next improvement that I thought I’d make is to find a center insulator that would provide better strain relief for the feed line. Searching the internet, I found a 3D-printed center insulator by an eBay seller who calls himself thecrazyham. He didn’t have anything designed for a twisted-pair feed line, but I guessed that a center insulator designed for 300 Ω twinlead would work just fine. It did work just fine, and as a bonus, it only cost five dollars! After acquiring the new center insulator, my friend, Rick, K8BMA gave me some 26-ga. Poly-STEALTH antenna wire. I cut two, 33-ft. lengths and connected them to the feed line with wire nuts again. I hadn’t had any trouble with the wire-wrap wire I was using, but this wire was made with antennas in mind. It’s really first-rate stuff. I don’t think it works any better than the wire-wrap wire, but it coils up neatly and fits nicely into the small toolbox I use to carry around POTA station. Rev. B. of my POTA antenna uses Poly-STEALTH antenna wire and a 3D-printed center insulator. A “real” feed line Whenever I was asked about my POTA antenna, I would brag about the twisted-pair feed line. I was rather proud that I thought to use twisted-pair wire as a feed line, and that it actually worked. But, a couple of months ago, my friend Paul, KW1L, bought a Cobra antenna. Before putting it up at his house, he asked if we could take it on a POTA activation and try it out. I agreed, and one morning, we took it up to the Island Lake Recreation Area. Band conditions were good that morning, but even so, it seemed like the antenna was performing at least a little better than my doublet. Paul said, “Well, sure, it’s because the Cobra antenna has a real feed line.” So, I decided to try a “real feed line” on my doublet. It just so happened that I had a 100-ft. roll of 300 Ω twinlead that I purchased at a dollar store many years ago. I cut off a 35-ft. hunk of it, soldered it to the antenna elements, and put some banana plugs on the other end of it. After using this antenna for a couple of months now, I feel that I have to swallow my pride a little and say that the antenna with the 300 Ω feed line does work a little better than it did with the twisted-pair feed line. I’m guessing that it’s because the twisted-pair feedline has a higher loss than the twinlead. The major difference between the Rev B and this Rev C antenna is the 300-ohm twinlead feed line. My latest improvement is to use a 4:1 balun between the feedline and the antenna tuner. Until just recently, I was connecting the feedline directly to the KX3 antenna tuner, but the fellow who sells Cobra antennas recommends using a 4:1 balun, so I thought that doing so might improve my antenna’s performance as well. Several years ago, I purchased a couple of W1CG current balun kits at a hamfest, and now was the time to build one. This is a really great kit, and if you ever see one at a hamfest or wherever, buy it. The New Jersey QRP Club that sponsored this kit is now defunct (despite the website still being online), and the kits are no longer available. (I’ve been thinking about kitting up some and selling them, but that’s a discussion for another day.) The instruction manual is still available, though, and it’s not hard to find the parts. If you’re at all interested in baluns and how they work, you should download the instructions. They contain a great description of how baluns work and the difference between voltage baluns and current baluns. At any rate, I built one of the kits, and have started to use the balun on my POTA activations. I can’t say for sure how much the balun has improved my results, but it certainly hasn’t hurt them, so I’m going to continue to use it. Tinkering gets results If you take away only one thing from this article, take away the idea that tinkering with something gets results. The antenna that I’m using today is basically the same antenna that I built 20 years ago, but the tweaks that I’ve made have significantly improved its performance and its ease of use. One final note: I recognize that much of my success is due to the magic of the Elecraft antenna tuner. I have used this antenna with other antenna tuners, including the inexpensive Z-match tuners you can get from Ali Express or Amazon. It should also work well with the Emtech ZM-2 antenna tuner. If you purchase and tinker with this antenna and one of these tuners, please let me know how it works out for you.
- — An inside look at the ARRL IT crisis
- at 9/25/24 7:18pmI was just going to let this go, but after I watched this video, I just had to write about it. The video below is a recording of a presentation by Mickey Baker, N4MB to the Southeastern DX Club. Discussion of the IT situation starts at about the 16:00 minute mark. It’s truly amazing to me that these systems were being run so poorly. I’ll just mention one of the points here. Apparently, Logbook of the World (LoTW) the ARRL hired the original developer who released LoTW in 2003 with no testing and no user documentation. In addition, LoTW is running on versions of CentOS (Linux) and SAP MaxDB—both of which has been unsupported for more than 5 years. As one person on our club mailing list put it, CentOS is end-of-life now, after Red Hat pulled the plug on it. . . running an OS after the vendor stops providing security updates is bad practice. I think it was very courageous of Director Baker, to come forward with this information. If he wasn’t on the ARRL CEO’s sh*t list, he certainly is now. Another factoid in this video is really concerning. In the Q&A portion of the video, Baker mentions that he estimates that there’s been a 15 18% membership loss due to requiring members to pay extra for the print version of QST. I predicted that the League would take a hit for doing this, but I didn’t think it would be that drastic. A 15% loss of members would put the percentage of licensed radio amateurs who are also ARRL members well under 20%. And, so it goes
- — Are these changes good or bad (or just “meh”) for the ARRL and amateur radio?
- at 9/19/24 3:08pmA couple of days ago, a reader, who is a “sorter” for the ARRL Incoming QSL Bureau, emailed me about the ARRL’s decision to end funding for the bureaus at the end of this year. In an email dated Friday, June 21, 2024, Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, Radiosport and Regulatory Information Manager, informed the Incoming QSL Bureau managers that the ARRL Board of Directors had decided that the bureaus would have to recoup their full expenses from shared charges to the participants themselves. According to the June 2024 Standard Operating Guidelines for Incoming QSL bureaus, the funding for many expenses, including PO box rental and other postal expenses, office supplies, printing, and mileage, was to have ended on July 31, 20204, but that date has been pushed back to the end of the year. My reader was a little upset about this because this decision was made with little or no input from the bureau managers, and they were quite caught off guard by this decision. Not only that, the ARRL is putting the entire burden of how to recoup expenses on the bureau managers. In essence, this makes the bureau managers and sorters, not the ARRL itself, the bad guys in this scenario. I told him that this really didn’t surprise me as this kind of thing seems to be standard operating procedure for the ARRL. My reader was also a little upset that the ARRL will continue to tout the QSL Bureau as a member benefit, when in reality, it’s the members and volunteers that will be footing the bill. When I asked if he had any idea how much this was actually costing the ARRL every year, he didn’t really know. Honestly, I’m not sure how big a deal this really is. With the advent of Logbook of the World, paper QSLs are slowly becoming a thing of the past, in much the same way that AM phone has become a historic curiosity. Even so, I do sympathize with the volunteers who were not asked for any input and are now expected to squeeze more money out of their users. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the QSL Bureau volunteers quit over this slight from ARRL HQ. Nor would I be surprised if the ARRL lost some members over the increase in fees. There are always hams out there just looking for an excuse to quit the League. As I’ve said in the past, the ARRL needs to get serious about how to increase membership, not lose membership. Anyway, what do you think? Are you a QSL bureau user? If so, how do you feel about paying more for the service? If you’re not a QSL Bureau user, do you think I’m making a big deal about nothing?
- — A bookish life in amateur radio
- at 9/15/24 4:44pmThe 2023 ARRL Handbook is the 100th edition of this essential reference. I enjoy reading essays, so when I saw a collection of essays from Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays, on the new books shelf at my local library, I checked it out. The essays were fine, although I’m not sure that I agree with David Brooks, who called the essays “funny” and full of “charming banter.” One essay in the book, “The Bookish Life,” did catch my eye. The essay discusses lists of books that a “well-read” person might be expected to have read. Epstein notes the difficulties with such lists and writes, Such lists reveal a yearning for a direct route to wisdom. Brace yourself for the bad news: none is available. If one wanted to establish expertise in a restricted field—economics, say, or art history, or botany—such a list might be useful. I’m thinking that such a list might be useful for amateur radio, and I don’t think that I’ve ever seen such a list. So, let’s start one. Scanning my bookshelves, I offer the following: The ARRL Handbook The ARRL Antenna Book The ARRL Operating Manual The Art of Electronics, 3d edition. Horowitz and Hill. Electronic and Radio Engineering, 4th edition, Terman. Antennas, 2d edition, Kraus Experimental Methods in RF Design, Revised Edition; Hayward, Campbell, and Larkin. I have not actually read all of these books, so I cant claim to be a bookish radio amateur. I have cracked them open on occasion, though. Some Ive cracked open more than others. Ive never owned a copy of Experimental Methods, but every time its mentioned, it seems to be mentioned with a certain reverence. Thats why Ive included it in this list. Its no longer in print, though, which is curious. If its such a great book, youd think that the ARRL would continue selling it. Anyway, Id like to get your nomination for the essential amateur radio book list. Please comment below or email me directly.
- — Articles: Scrappy circuits, ham radio inspires student, why measurements are important, why copper is important
- at 9/12/24 4:30amHere are some articles I found intersting. The first details a cheap way to teach kids (and adults, too!) about circuits….Dan Scrappy circuits Circuit components made from dollar-store items. The best dollar you can spend on a child’s STEAM education is to take them to the dollar store, buy an electronic item, and then take it apart. Learning how a handheld fan, LED light, remote control, or headphones work will help show how wind turbines, traffic lights, speakers, keyboards, and other modern devices function. The next step is to take apart a dollar store item and make it better — combine two items, replace a switch, create something new and unique. Scrappy Circuits is the perfect way to get started. I first developed Scrappy Circuits with Chris Connors and Eva Luna while working at Xraise, an education outreach program at Cornell University. What began as an exploration of DIY switches ended later as a self-made invention system sourced from a fifty-cent LED tea light. Educators can build it with their class for about $20. Anyone with access to office supplies and a dollar store can make the five Core Bricks for about $1. Here’s how to create each one. …read more I think that we short-change ham radio’s usefulness in getting people to pursue STEM careers…..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. …read more I’ve always been something of a measurement nerd……Dan Why measurements are important Practically everything you use in your everyday life works because of measurement science. Without precise measurements, your car wouldn’t run, your phone wouldn’t work, hospitals couldn’t function, and the ATM would fail. NIST is the national measurement institute of the United States. Most people in the U.S. have no idea that there is a single organization within the federal government that makes sure all measurements in the U.S. are correct and trustworthy — and that they are accepted by other governments worldwide. …read more Copper is one of those things that we take for granted…..Dan Copper: Conductivity Benefits and Environmental Impact Most circuit designers probably aren’t thinking about, much less worrying about, the metal copper. But as the electrification of the world continues, copper conductors used in applications from microchips, other components and circuit boards, to household, industrial, and automotive wiring, and critical workhorses like batteries and electric motors, points to the need to spotlight its starring role. …read more
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