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Friday, April 1, 2016
- LHS Episode #165: Knifey Spoony
We're back at it again, producing podcasts, drinking, laughing, having way too much fun. We hope you do at least a couple of those things when you listen to the show. This time around the topics include the UK selling spectrum, a California university ham factory, cartoons, a Debian Summer of Code project, tax reimbursement [...]
- Portable Ops 13/45: Sing it with me….YyyyyMCAaaaa
On Tuesday and Thursday nights my daughter takes Tae kwon do at the local YMCA. I typically run a few miles while she in class, but last night I decided to setup portable and play a little radio. The SKCC sprints run from 7-9pm once a month...
- AO-73 Funcube and AO-85 Fox 1 Satellites Collide
In a shocking turn of events in the amateur satellite community, AMSAT-NA is claiming AMSAT-UK steered their AO-73 Funcube satellite into the AMSAT-NA AO-85 Fox 1 bird. NORAD satellite tracking […]
- March 2016 QRP Operating Wrap-Up
I have had a pretty active month on the radio, so I wanted to record a little recap of the month.Total QSO's all modes: 82Total CW QSO's: 41Total PSK31 QSO's: 41Total SKCC QSO's: 34Total SKCC Members: 32Total SKCC States Worked: 18I worked a lot of PSK...
- The Joys Of HF
It seems that contesting clubs in Manitoba and New England want to show non-hams, new hams and all hams, the 'joys of HF radio'. In a beta test of their idea, called 'Discover the HF Experience', participants in Manitoba will have the opportunity to get on HF by operating K1K, in Massachusetts, remotely, from the Garden City Canada Inn located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Saturday, April 2nd.
Future events will take place in Massachusetts from the Yankee Clipper Contest Club's venue on April 10th and a much larger operation, featuring four operating positions at Dayton in May, at the ARRL's Expo site. Full details of all operations can be found here.
The idea was the brainchild of Gerry Hull, W1VE who, along with Cary Rubenfeld, VE4EA, has brought his idea to life.
"Our amateur population is at an all-time high, but most new hams are getting a Technician ticket, getting on VHF and UHF, and hanging out with like-minded friends," Hull said. The limitations on what Technician licensees can do often leads to boredom, Hull said, "and they drop out of the hobby. They never get the exposure to HF ham radio, and as any veteran radio amateur can tell you, that's a lifelong exploration."
Now I fully concur that far too many of our newest amateurs land on VHF or UHF and never move, almost totally unaware of what HF radio is all about. Being exposed to HF radio is a great idea, yet ... and maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I'm not sure that this 'first experience' is best done via remote operation. From my own initial exposure to ham radio, seeing the magic happen in a basement or attic radio shack, complete with glowing dials and a wall full of QSL's from all over the world, was enough to hook me for life. I'm pretty sure that same feeling can't be conveyed by sitting in front of a laptop and pushing a few keys.
I am not a fan of 'remotes' but from what I have seen, this may be one of the better examples and if it grabs and convinces even a few to explore HF on their own, that would be a good thing ... then all we'd have to do is get them on CW !
- National Amateur Radio Equipment Manufacturers Recommendation
Last week the National Amateur Radio Manufacturers' Association met in Orlando, Florida. The annual invitation-only event is an industry get-together of major companies that make amateur radio equipment where trends […]
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