http://www.eham.net/ eHam.net Newsfeed http://www.eham.net/articles/21969 http://www.eham.net/articles/21969 The ability to make contact with the outside world, in virtually any circumstance, is one of the benefits of amateur (ham) radio. Members of the Princeton Amateur Radio Club brought that point home Saturday and Sunday, when they set up their equipment at the City-County Park to participate in American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day activities. The field day included a contest element, where local clubs received points for successfully making contacts with other amateur radio stations across the country, and internationally. "I heard somebody in Denmark on there a while ago," club member Richard Blackburn said Saturday afternoon. A handful of ham operators from the area camped under tents near the park's front entrance, with fans going full-blast against a three-digit heat index. The station was set up at about noon Saturday and scheduled to be operational into Sunday morning. The goal of the event, the climax of the ARRL-sponsored Amateur Radio Week, was to showcase the versatility and portability of an amateur radio system. "The main thing to do is testing your emergency capabilities," said Mike Taylor, president of the local club. The county's ham operators proved valuable in the immediate aftermath of January's ice storm, when most other forms of communication were silenced. "If there wasn't a cell phone, as there wasn't then, if there wasn't a telephone, or any other way, there's always ham radio," Taylor said. Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:06:13 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21968 http://www.eham.net/articles/21968 It was a perfect Field Day weekend from where I stood. The weather was warm, skies clear, the space weather was calm, and there was enough propagation to make a domestic contest interesting. I had no plans, so on Saturday I went to the web site and used the Field Day Station Locator. The one I landed at (W7AUX) listed a contact number, a cell phone at the site. I inquired if they needed a CW op, was told "We could use any operators," and drove up to the site north of Seattle. I had a lot of fun on 20 meter CW. Sporadic E even helped out, and the 6 meter station made a number of contacts with other Field Day stations in the western U.S. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21967 http://www.eham.net/articles/21967 This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by NC1L, the OPDX Bulletin, DXNL, 425 DX News, The Daily DX, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21960 http://www.eham.net/articles/21960 Amateur radio operators tend to be easy to spot, said Jason Foster, president of the nonprofit Montgomery Amateur Radio Club. With one or several antennas up to 100 feet tall outside their homes, or even on top of their cars, amateur radio operators, also known as "hams," are often thought to be older people who are not ready to embrace modern communications technology. Over the weekend, 25 hams participated in the Field Day at Montgomery College's Germantown campus. The event drew hams of all ages who competed against hams from around the country to try to make as many contacts with other hams as they can in 24 hours from temporary stations set up in trucks. The participants proved hams aren't outdated, though instant messaging, texting, and social networking Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are the rage. But according to Allen Pitts, spokesman for the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio operators, the hobby is gaining popularity -- and technological advancement. About 100,000 of the 665,000 licensed hams in the U.S., received their license in the last four years and more hams are experimenting with digital technologies, Pitts said. Hams are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to use radio frequencies located above AM frequencies to broadcast for a variety of purposes, including providing back-up communication for emergency response organizations, weather reporting, participating in worldwide and national contests, and simply chatting with other hams. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:56:37 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21959 http://www.eham.net/articles/21959 Hazelwood radio operator connects to others worldwide: Helen Schlarman wasn't hamming it up when it came to broadcasting directions to James McDonnell Park from her amateur radio station, call letters WOAKI. Her voice was clear and concise. "I have to do this periodically," Schlarman said Saturday while seated under a warm pavilion crowded with other ham radio operators. The St. Louis and Suburban Radio Club was holding a two-day "Field Day" at the park - part training exercise, part showcase for ham radio - as part of Amateur Radio Week nationwide. At 88, Schlarman, of Hazelwood, is the oldest member of the club, but she says she's a novice behind the microphone. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:55:19 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21958 http://www.eham.net/articles/21958 Jupiter is a source of powerful bursts of natural radio waves that can produce exotic sounds when picked up on Earth using simple antennas and shortwave receivers. Even though human ears can't hear the radio waves directly, they make an exciting listening experience when converted to audio signals by a receiver. It's not E.T. phoning home. The shortwave radio signals from Jupiter aren't a sign of extraterrestrial intelligence. The emissions are generated naturally by plasma instabilities in Jupiter's magnetosphere. Pulsing power beam. Most space physicists say that ionized gas in the upper atmosphere above Jupiter's magnetic poles sometimes behaves like a powerful radio laser or maser. The radiation can be so intense that Jupiter frequently outshines the Sun as a source of radio energy at ham radio wavelengths. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:47:17 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21957 http://www.eham.net/articles/21957 This Week on the Radio: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:44:36 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21956 http://www.eham.net/articles/21956 On Monday, June 29, US Supreme Court Justice David Souter -- in one his last official duties on the high court -- swore in Julius Genachowski as the new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski, who clerked for Souter after finishing law school, will complete the four years remaining in the term of outgoing FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. On June 25, the US Senate confirmed both Genachowski and current FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell -- Genachowski for his initial term and McDowell for his first full term. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:44:19 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21955 http://www.eham.net/articles/21955 Radiosport fans are gearing up for the summer's biggest competition: The IARU HF World Championships. Calling the 24 hour long contest "an HF operator's delight," ARRL Contest Branch Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, explained that the contest will allow amateurs plenty of opportunity to work DX from all around the globe on CW and SSB, as well as make QSOs with many IARU Member-Society club stations and officials. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:44:03 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21954 http://www.eham.net/articles/21954 This feature -- including convenient Web links to useful information -- is a concise monthly update of some of the things ARRL is doing on behalf of its members. This installment covers the month of June. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:43:41 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21953 http://www.eham.net/articles/21953 It's an event that some groups take very seriously, planning all year long for. Still, others just use the date to get together, make a few contacts and enjoy each other's company. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:42:58 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21952 http://www.eham.net/articles/21952 The July 2009 issue of QST had a one page overview of some of the major pieces of equipment introduced at the Dayton Hamvention. There is no way a single person can track down everything on display that's new in the time available, but QST Technical Editor Joel Hallas, W1ZR, did find quite a bit more -- much more than can be squeezed into the available QST page. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:42:41 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21951 http://www.eham.net/articles/21951 Larry E. Price, W4RA, was honored at an evening reception following the first full day of Ham Radio 2009 convention activities in Friedrichshafen, Germany on Friday, June 26. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:42:24 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21950 http://www.eham.net/articles/21950 ARRL Continuing Education Course Registration remains open through Sunday, July 26, 2009, for these online course sessions beginning on Friday, August 7, 2009: Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:42:01 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21949 http://www.eham.net/articles/21949 The ARRL Annual Report for 2008, now available online and in print, reviews the major events of the year and documents the renewed growth of both the ARRL and the activities of the Amateur Radio Service. In 2008, the ARRL experienced a growth in membership, ending the year with 154,627 members, an increase of 0.7 percent from 2007. The growth was the greatest among International members and in the League's Northwestern, Rocky Mountain and Delta Divisions. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:41:47 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21943 http://www.eham.net/articles/21943 This is the segment from the Local channel 6 Time Warner news which was broadcasted on July 1st 2009. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:46:02 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21937 http://www.eham.net/articles/21937 The first week in July here in Traverse City, we hold "The National Cherry Festival". I am the "Director of Communications" for the Festival and I handle all the UHF Radios and cell phones during the 8 day festival. I will also this year be setting up a OCF Dipole from my Comm Trailer and will have my HF rig on-site (local repeaters too on 2M & 440). Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:15:06 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21935 http://www.eham.net/articles/21935 Freak accident claims life of Niles telecommunications specialist. NILES -- Despite his pursuit of a profession that involved scaling radio communications towers, some of them hundreds of feet high, Larry Prelog wasn't one to take risks, a family member and acquaintance said Tuesday. That's why his death on Sunday at the Borgess Medical Center in Kalamazoo, a day after a tower collapsed during a Field Day competition near Watervliet, was so difficult to accept. Prelog's daughter, Mindy Bittle, of Akron, Ohio, said the 57-year-old Prelog had a 40-year background in telecommunications tower installations and had climbed towers as high as 500 feet. Although he never discussed the dangers of his profession with his family, he didn't take chances when he was on a job, Bittle said. "He was very meticulous about being safe," she said. "He didn't talk about the dangers. Why would he want us to worry?" The competition he was involved in Saturday was nothing new, she added, pointing out he had taken part in the annual event for decades. Contrary to the impression some might have, Matt Severin, public information officer for the Blossomland Amateur Radio Association, said Field Day is not about who climbs towers the fastest. Instead, it involves amateur radio operators who attempt to position equipment on towers that result in the most radio contacts over a 24-hour period. "The antenna installation, there's no competition in putting those up. We set those up on Friday night or Saturday morning," he said. "Larry was a very particular, safety-type person. He always made sure things were done properly and safely." The tower Prelog was on was 30 feet high, not 60 feet as stated in initial reports, Severin said. He said the accident occurred when the lower portion of the tower collapsed. "This was an accident, a tragic freak accident," he said. "The tower essentially folded at the base." Prelog had been a ham radio operator since his teenage years, his daughter said. A telecommunications specialist, he worked most recently for Lakeland Regional Health Care System, she said. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:44:36 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21934 http://www.eham.net/articles/21934 BENTONVILLE - Ham radios remain an important tool even in a cell phone world. During a disaster when cell phone towers were damaged or there was no power, how could an area communicate with the outside world. The answer: amateur or ham radio. Ham radio operators in Benton County joined thousands across the country that held exercises Saturday to demonstrate their emergency communication abilities. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:09:23 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21933 http://www.eham.net/articles/21933 FAIRFIELD - Joseph J. Phillips Jr., former Enquirer education reporter and amateur radio columnist, died June 20 of a pulmonary embolism at his home here. He was 68. Mr. Phillips retired from a 28-year career as an English teacher for the Princeton Schools in 1999. He reported on education for The Enquirer in 1970-1971. During the 1980s, he wrote a twice-monthly column for the paper called "Ham call." Mr. Phillips was active in amateur radio since 1959. "These people are hobbyists but it's pretty serious business," said his niece Molly McDonough Carson of Oak Park, Ill. Ham radio operators maintain a network that serve as a massive civilian emergency mobilization tool. Mr. Phillips built radios and wireless communication devices that could respond in the event of communications failure. As a child, Carson was impressed that her uncle could listen in on conversations of Russian cosmonauts. In 1984 Mr. Phillips became the public information officer for the Ohio Area Repeater Council. Repeaters are ham radio operators who retransmit amateur signals. The OARC coordinates and maintains records of activities of repeaters in Ohio, which it provides to the Federal Communications Commission. Mr. Phillips developed the first Ohio Repeater Directory - a list of operators - which is in its 24th printing. He also organized the Ohio Section of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and was elected to six terms as manager. Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:06:35 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21929 http://www.eham.net/articles/21929 FERRYSBURG — The local ham radio club took to the field Saturday and Sunday to test emergency radio communications. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21927 http://www.eham.net/articles/21927 Crescenta Valley club has a Field Day recruiting new hams for communication. In the wake of a massive emergency and communications breakdown, when land, mobile and satellite phones become inoperable, ham radio could be the only means of communication, operators said. Following the Northridge earthquake, 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, thousands of amateur radio operators, virtually all of them unpaid, hunkered down and assisted in relief efforts, said Mark Gershen, whose calls sign is KF6YAN. "Ham radio is the only fail-safe means of communication," said Gershen, president of the Crescenta Valley Radio Club. The club wrapped up Amateur Radio Week with the annual Field Day, a 24-hour event that began Saturday morning at Deukmejian Wilderness Park. They joined more than 30,000 amateur radio operators in North America who spent the weekend demonstrating their abilities and recruiting new hams. Part emergency exercise, part public-awareness campaign, operators across the country competed, with points awarded for the numbers of contacts made. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:29:33 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21926 http://www.eham.net/articles/21926 ''Whiskey three oscar kilo, whiskey three oscar kilo,'' Jeff Welsh called into the ham radio microphone Sunday, the transmitting station set up almost literally in the middle of a field -- it was at the Plainfield Township Farmer's Grove, a well-kept picnic area off Route 191. Welsh was asking for other ''hams'' on the air to contact his station, W30K, the call-sign for the Delaware-Lehigh Amateur Radio Club, as part of Amateur Radio Field Day, an emergency-preparedness drill conducted by 1,500 clubs across the United States and Canada. The Allentown resident was among 38 club members participating in the 24-hour event that began at 2 p.m. Saturday. Some of the hams pulled all-nighters at the grove, working the radios, keeping generators running as part of the simulation, contacting as many other participants as possible across the two countries. The annual drill helps ham operators stay sharp and ready to swing into action when called upon by emergency management agencies, members said. Amateur Radio Field Day Photos Ham operators, some from the Lehigh Valley, provided essential communications following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, club member Ed Pitosky of Bethlehem Township said. Cell phone towers had been located atop the World Trade Center buildings. Ham radio also went to work in New Orleans after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said club member Bob Wiseman of North Whitehall Township. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:28:08 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21925 http://www.eham.net/articles/21925 MARION - The Marion Amateur Radio Club took part in the 2009 American Radio Relay League Field Day, held throughout North America and in different parts of the world, on Saturday at Sawyer-Ludwig Park. The field day enables members to share their enthusiasm of amateur radios with the public. They also demonstrate what they do, which members say can be the most effective way of communicating when natural disasters or other circumstances render more technological methods useless. Mike Floyd, public information officer for the club, has had his amateur radio license for about five years. He regularly sends out radio broadcasts about the weather and is among local residents who help law enforcement spot nasty weather heading Marion County's way. "We have a saying," said Floyd. "When all else fails we have ham radio." The club also serves as the Amateur Radio Emergency Services, which helps provide communications in disaster situations such as if a bad storm disrupted electrical power and telephone lines. Marion County Sheriff Tim Bailey, for the past few years, has made club members special deputies which means that they can cross police lines and help out if needed. Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:26:45 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21924 http://www.eham.net/articles/21924 Chuck Ward likes to dial his technology down a notch. He's a ham radio guy. And this is the time of year when Ward is in hog heaven as he and the Cape Fear Amateur Radio Society compete in national Field Day. The 61-year-old Morse code expert was among the 25 radio operators who gathered at Methodist University on Saturday and Sunday for the 24-hour event. "Cell phones, the Internet, computers are OK. It's that time of change in the world." Ward said Sunday. "This is just an old skill I want to keep alive." The object of the competition was to communicate with as many other ham radio operators throughout the U.S., trading signals reports and location information. Conversations were kept brief, be it through pecking out Morse codes or talking. "It's like any other hobby," said Ward, past president of the local club, "This hobby is technical and very challenging." Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:25:16 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21920 http://www.eham.net/articles/21920 WATERVLIET TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — An experienced installer of ham radio equipment has died after a 60-foot-high radio tower he was scaling during an antenna-installation competition collapsed beneath him. Berrien County Sheriff Paul Bailey says 57-year-old Larry Prelog of Niles died Sunday, a day after falling during the event in Watervliet Township, about 60 miles south-southwest of Grand Rapids. Prelog and several others were competing to install antenna towers that receive amateur radio transmissions from around the world. Bailey tells The Herald-Palladium of St. Joseph such towers are stabilized with guy wires. It's not known why the structure that Prelog was climbing gave way. Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:21:56 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21919 http://www.eham.net/articles/21919 Professional and amateur ham radio users flocked Saturday to Tallahassee's J. Lee Vause Park during Amateur Radio Field Day. More than several dozen people, many belonging to the Tallahassee Amateur Radio Society, attended the outdoor event. The Field Day tradition is a two-day operation in which ham radio operators simulate emergency situations and use their equipment to contact other users around the county and beyond. Field Day takes place the last weekend of June. "Amateur radio is very important because if the infrastructure fails and there wasn't any communication, we can (still) talk because we have backup generators and batteries," said Dan Moniz, president of Tallahassee Amateur Radio Society. "We generally end up having to supply our services to law enforcement, the cities, the counties and Red Cross." Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:10:14 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21918 http://www.eham.net/articles/21918 Helping others was an instinct that came naturally for retired physician and amateur ham radio operator Dr. Earl Weston. A longtime Detroit general practitioner and surgeon specializing in industrial medicine, Dr. Weston was credited on several occasions with saving the lives of distressed boaters in the Caribbean by radioing their nautical locations to the Coast Guard from inside the radio room in his home. He died Tuesday of congestive heart failure at the Sanctuary at St. Joseph Village, an assisted-living center in Ypsilanti. He was 97. Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:10:09 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21917 http://www.eham.net/articles/21917 MARION - In 1835, a New York University professor named Samuel Morse proved that signals could be transmitted by wire. It would be about 150 years later before the first text message was sent and longer before it became common-place among cell phone users. A few ham radio operators gathered at Sawyer-Ludwig Park on Saturday took joy in proving that new doesn't necessarily mean best. It was designed to be a face-off, texters vs. Morse coders, similar to a segment of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno aired in 2005. The Marion event was drawn to attract members of the public to the 2009 American Radio Relay League Field Day, held the fourth weekend in June each year across North America and different parts of the world. Bill Finnegan, a Marion County common pleas judge who also teaches Morse code, didn't know about the competition until he read about it in the paper. He would find himself on the receiving end as Mike Hansgen sent. "I never texted," said Finnegan, who said he doesn't even own a cell phone. "I don't know how fast they go." Hansgen, however, would later admit he was confident. He does text and figured he could beat it. Finnegan and Hansgen, members of the Marion Amateur Radio Club, would first have to wait for any competition to arrive. Jamie Russell, who said he can text fairly fast, would face off against Hansgen in sending as Alec Ogg waited to receive the message. Hansgen appeared done, but Finnegan looked up and shook his head no. "You could have sent it slower," he said as he told his partner that he didn't get the message. Hansgen, who sent it at 26 words per minute, dropped his speed down to 18 words per minute. Ogg raised his hand. He read the message, a Will Rogers quote that goes, "An onion can make people cry, but there has never been a vegetable to make them laugh." Russell tried it again, then a few other competitors would try. Texters would be defeated every time as one radio club member laughed and said, "19th century beats 21st century." "Even though morse code is old it's still pretty efficient," said Russell. "I was a lot slower than I thought I'd be. I text a lot." Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:10:03 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21908 http://www.eham.net/articles/21908 Local amateur ham radio operators are gathering this weekend in Doney Park for the annual American Radio Relay League's Field Day, where they set up their own field communication stations and contact thousands of other operators on the continent. The 24-hour event starts today at 11 a.m. and will conclude Sunday at 11 a.m. Although Field Day is a competition that brings together the community of amateur ham radio operators, it is also a practical trial run for emergency communication skills used during disaster situations. "It's important because it's kind of a preparedness in case there was an emergency event, and it kind of gets us all together and allows us all to get our radios and our antennas fine-tuned, to make sure we can operate on emergency," said Jeff Kosmicki, the president of the Coconino Amateur Radio Club (CARC). Dan Boonev, the area emergency coordinator for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service and secretary of the CARC, said the two components are mixed together in a point system and in mentality. "We get a point for every contact that we make, but in an emergency situation, that would represent a message going out to some other part of the country," he said. Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:11:28 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21900 http://www.eham.net/articles/21900 PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Dogs bay at it. Lovers swoon under it. And some people like to bounce their voices off it. A radio dish at Stanford is powerful enough to bounce signals off the moon, a tricky endeavor. The first two are easy, but sending a voice signal 239,200 miles to the moon and back is not quite as simple. On Saturday, amateur radio buffs or "hams," as they call themselves, will hold a global bounce-fest, using as many giant parabolic antenna radio telescopes as they can borrow around the world. Not that one needs an excuse to hold a moon-bounce, but this one is being held as a kind of advance celebration of the 40th anniversary next month of the Apollo 11 mission. Moon-bouncing, also known as Earth-Moon-Earth communications, or E.M.E. requires a higher grade of ham-radio technology than that used for traditional earth-bound communication across parts of the radio spectrum approved by governments for amateur use. Only about 1,000 hams worldwide have stations capable of moon-bouncing. Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:39:08 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21899 http://www.eham.net/articles/21899 GM CQ That's amateur, or ham, radio speak for, "Good morning, calling any station." Simple abbreviations connect operators to a world that is part science experiment, part public service and a complete lifestyle for this unique and diverse network. This unorthodox hobby still has a strong following with the American Radio Relay League, tallying 660,000 active hams in the U.S. Sat, 27 Jun 2009 00:37:34 +0000 http://www.eham.net/articles/21883 http://www.eham.net/articles/21883 WorldVoice Radio [iTunes link] is a cool little iPhone app that may help do for podcasting what Twitter did for web publishing -- make it easy to send out short, frequent messages. Of course, there's a difference, since WorldVoice Radio does this by letting you publish short podcasts from your iPhone. If you've used Utterli or Audioboo, you have the general idea. The app, which was created by Kai Cherry and RnSK Softronics, has just arrived in the App Store. Kai is an occasional guest on the TUAW Talkcast, and he asked a few of the TUAW bloggers to join his beta testing team for WorldVoice Radio. (In the unlikely case that you're not familiar with the concept of beta testing, it's about getting a group of users together to make sure that an app is bug-free and functional prior to going to market.) Follow along as I give you a first look at this intriguing app, and as I beta-test WorldVoice Radio. How to describe WorldVoice Radio? I like to think of it as ham radio for the modern age (the actual hobby of amateur radio sadly seems to be dying a slow death -- yes, I am a ham (KC0EZH)). The app page in iTunes calls it "shortwave radio for the 21st century," and the app is complete with radio tuning sounds as you flip through the "frequencies" to visit stations that have been set up by other WorldVoice Radio users. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:26:52 +0000