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Author Topic: Cool PBS program on hams.  (Read 989 times)

MONITORING

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #15 on: December 04, 2022, 01:25:38 PM »

Quote
You made this same post in the past day or so, and it disappeared. What's illegal is transmitting on ham radio without identifying. If those hams who were "harassing" were identifying with their call signs, any op can get their address on the Zed and pin point it with Google Earth. So why is a bounty needed to locate them unless they were identifying with calls such as Monitoring.

Hello Hal.  Just a witness to the offer, not part of it. 

I'm not sure what the op plans on doing if the bounty results in a location(s).  If it has to do with threats, intimidation or violence, that is not lawful - callsign or no callsign.  As far as the amateur rules are concerned, I wondered if this might be a violation (by the person receiving the money) under 97.113 (a) (3).

Not everyone is listed on Zed.  Many have PO Boxes and mail drops.  Not helpful, even when the harassers use callsigns.
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N8YX

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #16 on: December 05, 2022, 03:11:53 PM »

I'm very cozy with FT8.

In before the haters.
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KC8KTN

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #17 on: December 06, 2022, 05:27:04 PM »

Hope they did not monitor 7200. Wow.
Nuff Said
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N8YX

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #18 on: December 09, 2022, 10:27:04 AM »

Hope they did not monitor 7200. Wow.
Nuff Said
I've had some good conversations with many of the regulars.

The trick is to talk to the sane ones and ignore the lidiots.
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KC8KTN

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #19 on: December 09, 2022, 05:29:01 PM »

I agree that good advice goes for just about everything....
P. S. SOMETIMES it is fun just to lusten top 7200.
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KA4WJA

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #20 on: January 09, 2023, 03:10:43 PM »

Christine, et al,
Yes...Thanks for sharing this!

I wish to contribute here, and give my opinions....but, I don't want this to come off as critical, rather just as suggestions for anyone that does participate in any ham radio promotions, student films or otherwise.  :)
Also, don't want to drift this too far off topic, so I'll try to wrap it all up in a bow...(I will try... hi hi)


First off... Any positive promotion of amateur radio is good!  So, this video is good!

 

1)  I do have a couple minor opinions, that are no big deal:
a)  I thought the music soundtrack was pretty weird....sort-of made this appear as more of a "sci-fi" student film, rather than a documentary.
b)  I know EME / Moonbounce signals are weak and warbley (yes, I've done 2m CW EME), and even with stations like Lance's, SSB EME is rare (and very weak and warbley), so I wonder why they didn't just show CW EME?

Just saying these things would've been easy fixes....and, of course the music soundtrack was the choice of the film makers, but maybe if they got a bit more of an education of what amateur radio is and heard more/clearer signals, they may think it a serious service rather than something bordering on 1960's "Star Trek"....again, just my personal opinions here.  :)

 

2)  And, a couple other opinions / thoughts, that might be taken wrong by those featured in the video, but I do hope we all (including they themselves) can take in a positive way...

a)  Nobody mentioned the 5 basic proposes of the amateur radio service (you know, Part 97.1).  At best, this seems short-sided, and at worst, this gives the impression that amateur radio is just a hobby for semi-geeky guys.
an amateur radio service having a fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:

{(a) Recognition and enhancement of the value of the amateur service to the public as a voluntary noncommercial communication service, particularly with respect to providing emergency communications.
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur's proven ability to contribute to the advancement of the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators, technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur's unique ability to enhance international goodwill.}



b)  Except for when KR7Q was operating portable with POTA, the other signals heard from the receivers (even the 2m FM) were noisy with only fair readability.   Now, those of us that are experienced HF ops have no problem with these signals and can certainly have good QSO's / rag chews with these S/N's, but....

But, for the general public (especially those that you may be trying to entice into amateur radio), wouldn't it be better to show ham radio comms with better S/N's?  And, most of the background audio / nat sound on the video were off-freq, or both weak/noisy and off-freq...(also, KR7Q, maybe even tune in the other station a bit better there, 'cuz AL7KC was a tiny bit off from zero-beat...again, not a big deal for me, but for promoting / marketing ham radio to the public, having an SSB signal tuned-in precisely can make a difference.)

Again, for us, it's no big deal....but for the general public and especially when wishing to promote amateur radio, clearly readable signals would be better examples.



3)  As for the film's claim that Lance was the first to contact a ham in outer space....yes, this is true!
Sorry Jaye, I didn't know "old Rocky", but I think there may be some semblance of a "fish story" there? hi hi
 
I am quite skeptical about the first space contact claim however.  Old Rocky (w6bme) had confessed to me once that he'd worked every amateur that went to space.  Mostly, those hams were from russia.  Rocky was in his triple digits when he passed.  So yeah, I am both skeptical of the claim and also very curious who would have been the first as there did in deed have to be a first :)   I didn't enter the amateur radio ranks until the 1990's but man that had to be exciting!

Jaye

(although, it is technically possible that some Soviet cosmonaut was a ham and brought his/her ham rig aboard a Soyuz, etc., and worked some ham / hams on the ground....I've never heard even a tiny rumor of this, so unless someone has a QSL card from a Soviet ham / cosmonaut, that pre-dates the Dec 1983 contacts, I discount their claims....and, therefore Lance was the first, and good for him!)

And, in that vein, while Lance was the first, myself and almost 300 others did also work W5LFL on that mission. 
https://www.amsat.org/first-ham-in-space-amsat-life-member-owen-garriott-w5lfl-sk/

Due to work and logistic issues, I missed Owen, W5LFL's first operating day's pass(es) over Florida....but I made two-way contact with him, twice, over the next couple days....and, this was a few years prior to me putting together my own 2m EME station!

I worked W5LFL with my homebrew turnstyle (built my me and best friend KA4WJB...and except for the coax, built from materials bought at Home Depot and hardware store, in just a couple hours!)....no EME array at that time, so no az/el rotors, no tracking programs, no computer/computers at all...just me, my 2m FM rig, a SS IPA and 2m tube amp...and, calculating (by hand and scientific calculator) his orbits and knowing when his orbital passes would put him within range....and, success...
(I was a Physics major after all...hi hi)

Remember, this was > 39 years ago....in late 1983....just as some were using dial-in bulletin-boards, but still 5 - 6 years before the "internet"...(heck, 3 years before even the old NSFNET) and while some hams on EME (or OSCAR) did have tracking programs....most antenna pointing was done manually (whether by buttons on rotor controllers, or old "arm-strong" method)!



Have a look at this page....you'll see my call, KA4WJA, second column third from the bottom. (NOT posting this to brag, but rather to show just how few got a two-contact, with 10's of thousands calling at once ---- 100's of thousands calling in just a couple hours....that's a real out-of-this-world pile-up!)

https://www.amsat.org/first-ham-in-space-amsat-life-member-owen-garriott-w5lfl-sk/

Here in Florida, which is pretty densely populated, I believe there were only 3 hams that were able to make two-way contacts with W5LFL (two at random in the pile-up...and one by sked)   Myself, KA4WJA;   WA4LZR, the Motorola Amateur Radio Club (in Plantation, FL...who built his radio), with their large tracking array, worked him via a sked;   and W5HUQ (in Jacksonville, FL) with his 2m EME array, working W5LFL as he was east of Florida, over the ocean.

Spacelab's (shuttle mission with a laboratory in the cargo bay) orbit at ~ 135nm high, depending on the shuttle's attitude and hence his antenna's pointing, gave W5LFL a maximum coverage area only a few hundred miles across, so those hams in sparsely populated areas didn't have too much trouble working him....but, with literally 10's of thousands of hams calling him ---- thousands and thousands at a time in many areas....those in densely populated areas had many competitors in the pile-up!  Of course using FM gave advantage to those with the stronger signal into his shuttle-window-mounted antenna, whizzing away around the planet at > 17,000 miles per hour....which meant using a circularly-polarized antenna with a wide and clean pattern, such as a turnsytle or a quadrifilar helix antenna....although those with huge (high gain) linearly-polarized 2m antenna arrays, such as the larger 2m EME arrays, did have some success, but not as good as they thought they would, it was the guys with good VHF Oscar arrays and those (like me) that used a well-made tunrstyle or quadrifilar helix, with well-executed circular polarity had better success.   :)

The reason I'm writing this here is not to brag about old news....nope....but, rather to point out that hams have been trying to work stations (rare, weak, unusual, etc....or just your friends across the state, etc.), for many decades --- decades before I was even born!   
And, it boils down to understanding your use / application and choosing the antenna (and time/mode, etc.) that best suits your particular situation! 
Which is something I've been studying, teaching, and practicing, since the 1970's....and something that many hams still forget to do....
(many install an antenna 'cuz they heard someone else had one, or 'cuz they saw it advertised, etc....rather than thinking ---- rather than thinking about what antenna would be "best" for their application / fit their needs (and fit in their yards and fit in their budget)!

That's why I writing all of this....to try again, to drive home the point that until and unless someone understands radiowave propagation and antenna systems patterns, etc. (even just a cursory understanding) ...and applies that knowledge to their situation / their application, then their results (good, bad, or sporadic) are usually by happenstance....and "issues" are blamed on "propagation", "noise", etc. 

Just saying, whether we're talking about NVIS comms between N. Georgia and Nashville (which we just got done helping a fellow ham with   https://www.eham.net/community/smf/index.php/topic,137960.msg1282663.html#msg1282663 ), or wondering if someone with a huge / high-gain EME array had an advantage in (not much of advantage) working a ham in space (in the old space shuttle, or the ISS)! 


So....yes, I did drift a ways off the original topic, but did follow the gist of the discussion....so, I do hope this helps some?

73,
John,  KA4WJA


P.S.  It was when I read about "Moonbounce" in the early 1970's, that I decided to pursue amateur radio....took me a few years, but I did it!   
And, in this vein, regarding Lance, WA1JXN/7.....the first time I heard Lance off the moon, was in 1980 or 1981 (?), when I was in college in Mass.....Lance was in Montana and set-up a sked with another ham in northeast US (at his moonset, as he didn't have elevation control).....at WPI we had an old TS-700s, with a homebrew CW audio filter, and a pair of old 11-element Cushcraft yagi's....we rigged two more into an array (think we used old Times FM-8 coax) and placed a pre-amp outside at the antenna array....and being on top of a 5-story building on top of one of the larger hills within 10 miles, we had an excellent horizon...and, while we knew what callsigns were being sent, we did need to copy them....well, I never heard a peep from the station a couple hundred miles away, but I did hear WA1JXN/7 off-the-moon, from Montana....weak and fading, but I did copy his callsign a few times!

It was the next week that filled out the subscription form for the old "Lunar Letter", and while it took me another 5 to 7 years (1985 - 1988) to design and build my own 2m EME station, I did so....and in addition to hearing my own echos off-the-moon, I did work a dozen stations or so, on 2m CW EME, on random (no skeds), before business took over my life, hi hi...

Just thought I'd share this last off-topic tidbit....to show the decades-long desire to work moonbounce might be seem weird by today's standards of ham radio, but go back to the early 1970's, when I read about this "moonbounce" and casual interest in radio, antennas, radiowaves, etc. (and my SWL and CB radio interest) faded away, and interest in ham radio, antennas, and radiowave propagation became my passion!  And, I've been studying them ever since!  :)
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K4CUA

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Re: Cool PBS program on hams.
« Reply #21 on: January 12, 2023, 06:59:32 PM »

I think they sorta get it then, but I can tell they still wonder why the radio op didn't use his cell phone back in 1912 - at least his satellite phone???

A cell phone is a radio communicating through a repeater.  More complicated and advanced, sure, but the principal is the same.
 That radio op used the model of "cell phone" available at the time -- a CW key.

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