News
Northern California DX Foundation to Offer Grants to Mitigate QRM:
by AB7RG 2023-05-30The Northern California DX Foundation is preparing to offer 100,000 dollars in grants to help mitigate deliberate interference in amateur radio activities. "NCDXF will entertain grant proposals from individuals and/or groups that specifically outline their approach to identify bad actors. A group of directors led by Craig Thompson (K9CT) and Don Greenbaum (N1DG) will weigh the probability of success of these proposals as well as monitor the progress of the grantees.
Journals for Field Day, Club Histories, and DXpeditions:
by KI6GIG 2023-05-29Improve the permanence of your radio club activities using journals. The history of many community organizations can range from outstanding to non-existent. Some have a designated historian while others may have a sparkplug volunteer willing to take on the responsibility. Other times, a special effort is made for a commemorative moment, say a special anniversary of the group's founding. This type of ad hoc effort can be spotty at best. Often it starts with recovering newsletters, meeting minutes, and interviewing longstanding members. But even if full recovery were possible, organization histories often lack the human touch that runs deeper than the facts, figures, and chronology of records. Journal writing is one way to record and preserve the reflective human feelings of the day.
Barrie Amateur Radio Club Ready to Ham It Up at Field Day:
by AB7RG 2023-05-29The American Radio Relay League and the Radio Amateurs of Canada Field Day is held annually during the fourth full weekend in June. This year's event will be held on Saturday, June 24 and Sunday, June 25, beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday and running until 2 p.m. Sunday. This is Amateur Ham Radio's version of an open house. Licensed amateur radio operators from Barrie will be communicating on site with other operators around North America and beyond.
No Cellphone? No Problem! Vintage Radio Enthusiasts Prepping for Disaster:
by AB7RG 2023-05-28There's an ancient fable that Glenn Morrison, a pony-tailed, 75-year-old who lives in the California desert, likes to tell to prove a point. As the lesson goes, one industrious ant readies for winter by stocking up on food and supplies, while an aimless grasshopper wastes time and doesn't plan ahead. When the cold weather finally arrives, the ant is "fat and happy", but the grasshopper starves. In this telling, Morrison is the ant, and those who don’t brace themselves for future emergencies -- they're the grasshoppers. Morrison is in the business of being prepared. He's the president of the Desert Rats (or the Radio Amateur Transmitting Society), a club based in Palm Springs that’s dedicated to everything ham radio. The old-school technology has been around for more than a century. In lieu of smartphones and laptops, ham radio operators use handheld or larger "base station" radios to communicate over radio frequencies. The retro devices can range from the size of a walkie-talkie to the heft of a boxy, 20th-century VCR. Generations after its invention, one of ham radio's biggest draws for hobbyists is its usefulness in an emergency -- think wildfires, earthquakes or another pandemic. If disaster strikes and internet or cellular networks fail, radio operators could spring into action and help with emergency response communications, and be able to keep in contact with their own networks.
Montrose Amateur Radio Club Sponsors Tailgate Party:
by AB7RG 2023-05-30The Montrose Amateur Radio Club will hold its annual tailgate party on June 3, 2023 at the Lions Pavilion, Confluence Park, Delta from 8 - 11 a.m. The tailgate party is an opportunity to buy, sell, and trade amateur radio equipment and socialize with area hams. Those interested in ham radio can learn more about the hobby and pick up some good equipment at bargain prices.
Experts Compete to Decipher Message from Mars:
by AB7RG 2023-05-29(ANSA) - ROME, MAY 28 - The competition to decode a message from Mars that reached Earth on the evening of May 24 has started: the data, collected by radio telescopes at 21:16 Italian time, have already been processed and made available online at the website of the project 'A Sign in Space'. In the space of a few hours, more than 1,300 people from all over the world, Italy included, took up this challenge, an experiment on the margins between science, art and science fiction, according to the National Astrophysics Institute (INAF), which set it up from an idea from the artist Daniela de Paulis, in collaboration with the European Space Agency, the SETI Institute, and the Green Bank Observatory.
AmateurLogic 181: is Here:
by VK3PB 2023-05-28AmateurLogic 181: George and Mike's Excellent Adventure: George and Mike cover the premiere Hamfest of the season, Hamvention 2023. Visits with friends and vendors. Plus some great new finds you may not be aware of. Hamvention is always a fun, entertaining event and this year was no different.
OAW: Local Students Connect with US Astronaut on ISS via Ham Radio:
by AB7RG 2023-05-27St. Francis Xavier Catholic High School students in grade 9 science are getting a unique opportunity through the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, program.
