You know, I personally find it ALWAYS pays to READ the previous posts before writing (see Page 2 of thsi question's responses, for instance).

But for those who blithly type away, entranced by their own knowledge and prose, I will reprint the Amateur Radio population as a percentage of the Total US Population, 1930-present.  Please note the data source this time, Northcountry...

-------------------------------------------------
Year   US Population   #Hams    Percent of Pop.

1930    123,202,624    19,000     0.0154
1940    132,164,569    56,000     0.0424  
1950    151,325,798    87,000     0.0575        
1960    179,323,175    230,000    0.128    
1970    203,211,926    263,918    0.130        
1980    226,545,805    393,353    0.174    
1990    248,709,873    502,677    0.202  
2000    281,421,906    682,240    0.242    

Assumed population
2006   (300,000,000)   661,081    0.220

Data Source: "ARS licensing Trends as of 1/30/06"
published on QRZ.COM by K3UD George McCouch
-------------------------------------------------

I wish I could separate the columns, but no amount of "cut and paste" has allowed me to do so. As you can see, the overall trend in the Amateur Radio
Service is GROWTH, not DEATH.

73,

---* Ken

Northcountry,

I always document my references.  It's in the post (BELOW THE STATS).  I took the data and crunched the percentages by decade.

73,

---* Ken

The most interesting fact about amateur radio dying is
that its mostly fiction. What is the actual fraction
of the US population that holds amateur licences and
how has that changed since "The Golden Age Of Radio?"

"NORTHCOUNTRY" (phunny callsign) ask for statistics.  Here the are:

-------------------------------------------------
Year    US Population   #Hams    Percent of Pop.

1930    123,202,624    19,000     0.0154
1940    132,164,569    56,000     0.0424  
1950    151,325,798    87,000     0.0575        
1960    179,323,175    230,000    0.128    
1970    203,211,926    263,918    0.130        
1980    226,545,805    393,353    0.174    
1990    248,709,873    502,677    0.202  
2000    281,421,906    682,240    0.242    

Assumed population
2006   (300,000,000)   661,081    0.220

-------------------------------------------------
Data Source: "ARS licensing Trends as of 1/30/06"
published on QRZ.COM by K3UD George McCouch
-------------------------------------------------

As you can see, the overall trend in the Amateur Radio
Service is GROWTH, not DEATH.

Of course, there are many more statistical models and
growth curves and ages distribtions, etc., etc. one
can generate to make his or her point, but the
fundamental fact of this simple percentage of the US
population who are hams is the most relevant.

73,

---* Ken

This is a good question. I have a very similar siutation at my folks' condo. I tried to connect rigs and antenna to the AC ground via the recepticle only to find that it was an extremely poor.  It is a DC ground, no doubt, but not a a very good RF ground.  Since there is no effect grounding in the building all the electronic equipment plugged into the AC supply my the tenants creates an incessent "hum" on the line.

For a balanced antenna, true 4:1 balun isolation is necessary.

73,

---* Ken WI7B

Kim,

The best LEO is AO-51 for FM work.  I just worked it on a lunchtime flyby.  Huge signals, and 3 QSOs lasting over 10 minutes with a 3-element yagi on the roof of my SUV.  You can track it for your location on the AMSAT website.

73,

---* Ken

Mike KE5HJO,

It's NOT THAT HARD to QSO on the LEOs or FM satellites.  I've made AMSAT South African Award easily with a 70 cm 3-element yagi supported in a camera mini-tripod on the roof of my car during lunch break at work. I tune up my dual-band rig by adjusting the downlink frequency for Doppler shift, and turn my yagi maybe two or three times during a pass.  I use "Nova for Windows" to calculate the orbits and pass times.

I paid $16 for the tripod at Circuit City, and $29 for the Arrow 3-element yagi.  That's $45 total for more than a hundred QSOs and counting.  In fact, I'm about to go outside in 30 minutes for an AO-51 flyby and do it again!

So, you can go to the AMSAT site, check out what they say, and check who has awards on the birds.  I've got one, South Africa US-92.

jUst do iT!

73,

---* Ken

I guess my first post here was too obtuse.  I'll repeat it.

Turn on the amp and wait three (3) seconds, then turn on your plate votlage and current and tune up to the power needed for the QSO.

73,

---* Ken

Hold on.  You're confusing two different things here.

(1) These 811-A tubes have tungsten filaments containing a small trace of thorium. A thin layer of thorium atoms forms on the outside of the wire when heated, serving as an efficient source of electrons. The thorium slowly evaporates from the wire surface, while new thorium atoms diffuse to the surface to replace them.

(2) "Getters" are small, circular troughs filled with metals that oxidize quickly, with barium being the most common. Once the tube envelope is evacuated and sealed, the getter is heated to a high temperature causing the material to evaporate, adsorbing/reacting with any residual gases and usually leaving a silver-colored metallic deposit on the inside of the envelope of the tube.

73,

---* Ken

If this amp is built as an Ameritron 811 circuit, this is how you do it:

(1) Tune your rig with a dummy load (NOT on the air, thank you)
(2) Switch on the the amp's main power (the filaments light).
(3) Wait three (3) seconds.
(4) Switch on the plate voltage and current.
(5) Tune up the amp to the power needed for the QSO with a dummy load (NOT on the air, thank you)
(6) key or talk into your rig.

Thorium is added to electron-producing filaments to increase their emission.  These type filaments are used not only for vacuum tubes, but also for ultra-high vacuum ionization gauges to measure pressures below 10-8 atmospheres.  They will accurately measure pressure below even 10-13 atmospheres.  I use them daily in my work.

Remeber that thorium is a radioactive compound.  Dispose of your burn-out or broken 811s properly.  DO NOT let kids play with them and don't just throw them in the trash for disposal in your local landfill.

73,


---* Ken WI7B
 

AO-24 is the present AO-29 (and not FO-29). Launched as AO-24, after the failure of the main mission it was scrubbed.  Then it assumed a new mission upon reactivation of it SSB and CW abilities at 2.4 GHz, thus becoming AO-29  But you're bringing up a less known and intriguing history of the Oscar series of satellites. They are not really a uniquely numbered series. There were actually THREE (3) OSCAR-29 satellites!

(1) 12 May 1993 Oscar 29 Program: Oscar. Launch Site: Kourou . Launch Vehicle: Ariane 42L. Mass: 154 kg. Perigee: 17,222 km. Apogee: 36,834 km. Inclination: 1.4 deg. Operated by Radio Amateur Club de LeSpace.

(2) 28 March 1995 Oscar 29 Program: Oscar. Launch Site: Plesetsk . Launch Vehicle: Start. FAILURE: Fell in Sea of Okhotsk. UNAMSAT was an AMSAT Microsat class amateur radio satellite built by UNAM, the Autonomous University of Mexico.

(3) 17 August 1996 Fuji-OSCAR-29 aka Fuji-3 and JAS-2
Launch Site: Tanegashima Space Center of NASDA, Tanegashima Island, Japan. Launch Vehicle: Japanese H-II No. 4 .Mass: 50 kg.  Orbit: Polar LEO (Low Earth Orbit) Inclination:


73,

---* Ken


 

 

No, they're not the same.

The little known Oscar 29 is A0-29 (Arsene-OSCAR 29), launched in 1993 and sponsored by Club de l'Espace from Kourou Space Center. Its packet system was never implemented because the 2 meter transponder failed soon after launch. Then it was used to relay SSB and CW signals on 2.4 GHz for several months until this transponder failed as well.

FO-29 (Fuji-Oscar 29) is still operational and utilizes both SSB and CW.

73,

---* Ken
 

This is all strange to me.  I've been using Nova for Windows for 1.5 years, and AO-27 is directly listed in it.  And the Keplerian updates all list it.  What's up?

As you may know, AO-27 has been abused by a number of maritime interests.  Some fishing crews use 2m rigs illegally and end up ignorantly tuning right into the up- and down-links to AO-27.  Since AO-27 does not require a PL tone, you get to hear all kinds of non-ham commmunication during some Pacific Ocean fly-by...especially during the fishing seasons.

73,


---* Ken

Aircraft used commercial AM radio stations for navigation. This continued through the early 1960s when VOR systems finally became widespread (though AM stations are still marked on U.S. aviation charts).

Since pilots needed AM receivers, the leap to using AM transceivers was not great.  AM was, of course, the first means of avionic telephonic communication.

VOR itself uses a main signal that is AM and broadcast in phase-arrays with a secondary FM signal. The phase difference between them the AM and FM signals give angular direction to an airfield.


However, SSB is used in the Air Force.  The former General LeMay was a major advocate of using SSB in the NORAD's B-52 squadrons in the 1950's.

73,

---* Ken

Go here...

=> http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/

and predict for ISS.  The two will be close enough for the next week not to need separate Keplerian elements.

Running a vertical will definitely let you take advantage of the multi-wave, low angle take-off over salt water. As everyone is saying try 15-17m day/40m night.

If the skipper will allow you, drop a slightly weighted, bare-wire counterpoise over the stern and let it drag behind.  You can't beat 1,000 kms of salt water as a grounding plane!

Semper Paratus,

---* Ken