In this episode we talk with Alan Wolke, W2AEW, an expert in electronic test equipment.Β Alan has a fantastic YouTube channel where he educates us about test equipment, circuit design and electronics theory.Β Alan talks about the projects on his bench and discusses the use of various types of electronic test equipment and has advice for setting up your own electronics workbench.
PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1328 - Full Version
Release Date: August 10, 2024
Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Joshua Marler, AA4WX, Marvin Turner, W0MET, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Denny Haight, NZ8D, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX.
Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS.
Approximate Running Time: 1:41:20
Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1328
Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service
1. AMSAT: ROBUSTA-3A Is Now In Orbit
2. AMSAT: Small Satellites of the Future Grow Larger
3. AMSAT: ASRTU-1 Scheduled for November Launch
4. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over
5. WIA: Dog day Afternoon IS Coming To Amateur Radio
6. ARRL: Andy Milluzzi, KK4LWR, Appointed Vice Director Of ARRL Southeastern Division
7. ARRL: W1AW To QSY On 17 Meters For CW
8. ARRL: Carter Craigie, N3AO, Silent Key
9. ARRL: Amateur Radio Serves As Hurricane Debby Dumps Heavy Rain On The East Coast
10. ARRL: New York High School Helps License Young Hams
11. ARRL: 27th Annual International Lighthouse / Lightship Weekend Coming Up August 17/18
12. ARRL: Navajo Code Talkers Day Coming Up
13. FCC: FCC Approves Missing and Endangered Alert Code
14. FCC: FCC Fines New York City Individual $2.3 Million For Unlicensed Broadcasting On FM
15. Straight Key Night Founder Barry Kirkwood, ZL1DD SK
16. Southern India Landslides Have Hams Assisting Rescue Efforts
17. New Satellites For Cellular Broadband Is Approved By The FCC
18. Flannan Islands DXPedition Cancelled Due To Weather Hazards
19. ARRL: Upcoming Contests and Regional Conventions.
20. Monthly Volunteer Monitoring Report
21. FCC: Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking for reallocation of portions of the 900 MegaHertz band
22. ARRL: David Galletly, KM2O, is named Vice Director of the Hudson Division
23. AMSAT: SpaceX to develop Enhanced Dragon Spacecraft For Deorbiting The International Space Station
24. WIA: Adidas develops a new RF trackable Soccer Ball
25. ARRL: ARRL Teachers Institute on Wireless Technology adds a new third level
26. ARRL: Generational legacies are carried on in the new ARRL Teachers Institute Beta Program
27. ARRL: 2024 USA and IARU Region 2 Radio Orienteering Championship Set
28. ARRL: 2024 Olympics special event station is on the air now
29. RAC: Canada wildfires communications preparedness strategies
30. FCC: FCC releases updated wireless speed test app to improve mobile broadband
31. FCC: Senate advances $7 billion bill renewing the popular internet discount program for low income help
Plus these Special Features This Week:
* Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News
* Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will answer the question "What kind of a hobby is amateur radio?"
* The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with all the latest news on DXpeditions, DX, RadioSport, upcoming contests, and more..
* Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL
* Will Rogers, K5WLR - The Century Of Amateur Radio - This week Will takes us aboard The Wayback Machine to the year 1916, when everyone was sharing very little spectrum and QRM was everywhere, and to witness something called The 9XE Rock Island Test.
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Website: https://www.twiar.net
X: https://x.com/TWIAR
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Automated (Full): https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
Automated (1-hour): https://www.twiar.net/TWIAR1HR.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
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This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com.
Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space!
Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.
In the mid 1980's there was this thing called a Bulletin Board System or BBS. You would connect your computer to a gadget called an acoustic coupler that you would sit next to a telephone. You'd pick up the handset, dial a phone number and wait until there was a squeal in your ear. Then you'd push the handset into the rubber cups on the coupler and watch as your computer started putting characters on your screen.
Now, truth be told, my first foray was the next generation of this, an actual modem where you didn't actually have to touch the telephone, instead, the device could dial on your behalf using so-called AT commands.
And if we're being totally honest, I never actually connected to a BBS. My adventures with global communications started with Usenet News in 1990, but I'm here to make a point, I promise.
Amateur radio is a hobby that is for experimentation. One such experiment is a thing called packet radio. Before you roll your eyes about ancient technology, this gets very cool, very fast.
At its most basic, packet radio is about digital radio communication. Until not that long ago to play you needed a thing called a TNC or a Terminal Node Controller. When I got my license in 2010 I was told that this was a magic box to make digital communication possible between a radio and other radios and amateurs.
Right now, many people are playing with WSPR, Weak Signal Propagation Reporter as well as FT8, both examples of things intended to get specific chunks of information exchanged between two stations. What if I want to chat, or send a file, or a picture?
There are tools like "js8call" which is experimenting with the idea of using FT8 to chat, but what if I told you that there's a better way?
Written by John WB2OSZ, named after a canine that became extinct 9,500 years ago, "direwolf", is software that implements an expensive piece of 1980's hardware, a TNC, that runs just fine on a $5 Raspberry pi. It's been around for over a decade, the oldest date I can find is March 2013 though undated versions before that exist.
It's an example of a so-called software-modem, simple to get started, and it implements the essential pieces of packet radio. It's currently running connected to my radio and I can see packets of information scrolling past. In this case I'm tuned to the local APRS, or Automatic Packet Reporting System frequency of 145.175 MHz.
It's the same information that you can see if you point your web browser at aprs.fi
While that's great, it's just the beginning. Tune to another 2m or 70cm frequency and you can use it to connect to a BBS being run by a local amateur, or, you can tune to a HF frequency and connect to one run somewhere else.
Direwolf also supports a technology called KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, yes really, developed by Brian WB6RQN, Phil KA9Q, Mike K3MC and others. KISS allows you to connect a modem, like direwolf, to a computer and use technologies like TCP/IP, the primary language of the internet, across a radio link, any radio link.
Let me say that again with different words. You can use your HF radio to browse the internet. No proprietary modes in sight, weak signal, error correction included, all open source, all free, all ready to go.
While we're singing its praises, direwolf can also act as an iGate, an interface between radio and services like aprs.fi, a digipeter that receives and re-transmits APRS data and plenty more.
It gets better.
What if you wanted to use something like RTTY, PSK31, Olivia or some other mode? You could use "fldigi" instead of direwolf since it too supports KISS.
To be fair, there are lots of moving parts here and I've glossed over plenty. This isn't intended to discuss precisely how to do this, rather that it's possible at all and has been for quite some time.
I can't wait to attempt to browse the internet using my radio, for nothing other than the thrill of attempting it.
I wonder if I can do this with Morse Code as the underlying protocol. Only one way to find out.
It's time once again for The Weekender. This is our departure into the world of hedonism, random topic excursions, whimsy and (hopefully) knowledge. Thanks for listening and, if you happen to get a chance, feel free to call us or e-mail and send us some feedback. Tell us how we're doing. We'd love to hear from you.
Hello and welcome to Episode 550 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short topics episode, the hosts discuss an award for GNU Radio, traffic nets, a new release of OBS, the aftermath of Crowdstrike, M17 hardware, the latest Linux Mint and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.
PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1327 - Full Version
Release Date: August 3, 2024
Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Denny Haight, NZ8D, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Josh Marler, AA4WX, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, William Savocool, K2SAV, Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Rich Lawrence, KB2FAF, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX.
Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS.
Approximate Running Time: 1:38:37
Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1327
Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service
1. AMSAT: TEVEL Satellites Begin Atmospheric Reentry and Decommissioning
2. AMSAT: Ariane 6 Launches PariSat: Young Engineers Test Heat Dissipation
3. AMSAT: SpaceX to Develop Enhanced Dragon Spacecraft For ISS Deorbit
4. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over
5. WIA: So Who Listens To BBC Content Internationally?
6. WIA: A New Emergency Alert System Event Code Is Coming Soon In The United States
7. WIA: Adidas Develops RF Trackable Soccer Ball
8. ARRL: ARRL Teachers Institute On Wireless Technology Adds Third Level
9. ARRL: Generational Legacy Carried On In ARRL Teachers Institute
10. ARRL: 2024 USA and IARU Region 2 Radio Orienteering Championships Set For October
11. ARRL: 2024 Olympics Special Event Station On The Air Now
12. ARRL: Rule Changes Announced for ARRL International EME Contest
13. Indian Ham Radio Advocate, Sudip Kumar Nanda, Passes During Visit To The US - SK
14. Canada Wildfires Communications Preparedness Strategies
15. DxPedition To Bouvet Island 3Y0K Interviewing For Transport Ship
16. UK Feast Of Amateur Radio Convention Sponsored By The RSGB
17. New Hampshire Radio Club Hosted By Telephone Museum
18. FCC: US Court Blocks Biden Administration Net Neutrality Rules
19. FCC: FCC Releases Updated Speed Test App To Improve Mobile Broadband Accuracy
20. FCC: Senate Advances $7 Billion Bill Renewing Popular FCC Internet Discount Program
21. AMSAT: AMSAT mail alias service to end August 31st, 2024
22. WIA: US/European broadcasters in talks with car manufacturers to keep AM Medium Wave Broadcast In Cars
23. ARRL: ARRL Board of Directors completes second meeting for 2024 and approves reports - PART ONE
24. ARRL: ARRL: Board of Directors completes second meeting for 2024 and approves reports - PART TWO
25. ARRL: Special Report: Ham Radio during the upcoming Hurricane Season - PART ONE
26. ARRL: Special Report: Ham Radio during the upcoming Hurricane Season - PART TWO
27. Intercontinental traffic net is looking for new net controls
28. UK Regulator Ofcom seeks input on shared amateur radio spectrum
29. ARRL: Monthly Volunteer Monitoring Report
Plus these Special Features This Week:
* Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News
* Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will answer the question, Does The International Amateur Union Actually Represent You?
* The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with all the latest news on DXpeditions, RadioSport DX, upcoming contests, and more.
* Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL
* Will Rogers - K5WLR - The History of Amateur Radio - A Century of Amateur Radio. This week, Will takes us on board The Wayback Machine to go back to, the early nineteen hundreds. Where we will be witnessing the beginnings of QST Magazine.
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Website: https://www.twiar.net
X: https://x.com/TWIAR
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari
YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWIARYouTube
RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2
Automated (Full): https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
Automated (1-hour): https://www.twiar.net/TWIAR1HR.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
-----
This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com.
Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space!
Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.
Having been a licensed member of this community since 2010 I feel qualified to answer a recurring question: "What kind of hobby is amateur radio?"
The single best answer I can give is that it's big. The deeper you become involved, the bigger it gets. I stole the phrase, "amateur radio is 1000 hobbies in one" and I've remarked that I suspect that it's underselling the experience. Point being, whatever you've heard about amateur radio is likely true and guaranteed to be only part of the story.
There was a time when amateur radio was a concept regularly seen in general discussion. That's no longer the case, but you'll soon discover that amateurs are everywhere and the things we get up to still make the headlines from time to time.
That said, as a community we tend to use complex language and in specific ways. For example, a radio amateur is unlikely to broadcast, instead they transmit. From the outside looking in the two are synonymous, but within amateur radio the two couldn't be more different. Broadcasting is one to many, transmitting is one to one. Broadcasting separates the operator from the equipment, transmitting has the operator actively engaged with it.
Amateur radio is about curiosity, about trying things, about learning and sharing, it's about technology, electronics, nature and physics, it's about software and hardware, about camping and competing and plenty more and with that come friendships that seem to last a lifetime, perhaps forged in the fire of fascination, perhaps made almost perchance in passing. I have more amateur friends than not and among us we have a massive variety of interests.
Unlike most hobbies, you need to obtain a government issued license to become a fully licensed amateur, as-in, be permitted to transmit. For some this requirement might be a deterrent, but once you understand why, since radio waves don't stop at political boundaries and every human shares the same radio spectrum, licensing becomes a necessity, not an obstacle. That said, you can start long before then by receiving, no license required.
Amateur radio is a global activity. It's centrally regulated, but administered locally in each country and locality. As a result I cannot tell you specifically how much things will cost where you are, but the fees are generally not cost prohibitive and in many cases they are low or even free.
You become licensed by completing a training course, passing an exam and receiving a certification that lasts for life. Once you are certified you can apply for a callsign and operate an amateur station. The closest equivalent to a callsign outside the hobby is a car license plate. It's a unique combination of letters and numbers that identify an amateur. For example, my callsign is VK6FLAB, said phonetically, it's Victor Kilo Six Foxtrot Lima Alpha Bravo. We use phonetics because often individual letters are lost due to interference which comes in many different forms. Depending on where you are, a callsign might be subject to a renewal fee.
If doing a course and passing an exam seems scary, getting started at the introductory level is generally a weekend worth of effort. That introduces the notion that there are different levels, or to use an amateur phrase, classes, which, again depending on where you are, permit different access to the radio spectrum where your WiFi, mobile phone, garage door opener, emergency services, aviation, satellite and free to air television all share the same limited resources with radio amateurs. The higher your license class, the more access you get, but the more you become responsible for. Again, using a car analogy, you graduate from moped to car to truck.
If you've come across this hobby before, you should consider that one of the historic international license requirements hasn't existed for decades, namely Morse code. Mind you, some countries still require Morse, but their numbers are dwindling rapidly.
There is an often repeated concept that amateur radio is old white men sitting in the dark talking to each other about the weather, their station and their ailments. While there's some of that around, you'll soon discover that there's people from all walks of life, all ages and interests and backgrounds. Given that this is a global experience, you do not need to limit your interactions to the people within your local community.
I've been contributing a weekly article about amateur radio since 2011. Detailing the many and varied aspects of this hobby and if you're curious about what you might find here, warts and all, jump in. There are two series of articles, "What use is an F-call?", which covers 2011 to 2015 when it was renamed to "Foundations of Amateur Radio". Available as an audio podcast, as text, as email and there are eBooks too.
You'll find plenty of amateur radio resources online and social media communities with different interests and sensibilities. As with any community, amateur radio has its share of gatekeepers who hark back to the days of yore, some literally, some in their language and behaviour. Don't let that dissuade you from exploring this magical community.
Feel free to drop me an email, cq@vk6flab.com and I'll do my best to answer any burning questions you're left with.
In this episode we meet Scott, N1VG, the owner of Argent Data Systems.Β Scott is a long time maker and innovator that has brought several ham radio and commercial communications products to market including TNC's (Terminal Node Controllers), APRS trackers, weather stations and even a LED illuminated hula hoop !
We talk about Scott's inspiration, design and manufacturing process and learn what it's like to start up a ham radio businses from scratch.Β
PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1326 - Full Version
Release Date: July 27, 2024
Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, Marvin Turner, W0MET, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX.
Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS.
Approximate Running Time: 1:35:20
Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1326
Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service
1. AMSAT: AMSAT Mail Alias Service to End August 31st, 2024
2. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over
3. WIA: US and European Broadcasters In Talks With Car Manufacturers To Keep AM Radio
4. ARRL: ARRL Board Completes 2024 Second Meeting, Approves Report To Advance A 3 Year Strategy-PART 1
5. ARRL: ARRL Board Completes 2024 Second Meeting, Approves Report To Advance A 3 Year Strategy-PART 2
6. ARRL: Massachusetts Maritime Academy Advanced Studies and Leadership Program Gets Radio Training
7. ARRL: ARRL Southeastern Division Vice Director Jeff Beals, WA4AW, SK
8. ARRL: Ted Rappaport, N9NB, Elected to IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Hall of Fame
9. ARRL: Ham Radio During Hurricane Season - PART ONE (By Sierra Harrup, W5DX)
10. ARRL: Ham Radio During Hurricane Season - PART TWO
11. ARRL: Field Day Entries Deadline Was July 23, 2024
12. Special Event Honoring Elmers Is Searching For Activators
13. Amateur Radio Is Added To A College Curriculum In India
14. Radio Waves Emitted By Solar Flares Are Tracked By NASA
15. First N Class License Issued In Germany
16. Intercontinental Traffic Net Is Looking For Net Controls
17. Mobile Direct To Device Is Explored By Ofcom In The United Kingdom
18. Indonesia's 79th Year Of Independence Is Celebrated By A DXpedition
19. United Kingdom Regulator Ofcom Seeks Input On Shared Spectrum
20. Boeing Starliner Astronauts Remain Stranded On The International Space Station
21. ARRL: Upcoming RadioSport Contests and Regional Conventions
22. RAC: Call for nominations for RAC Board of Directors
23. ARW: Super long range Wi-Fi works at a range of 1.8 miles
24. SPACEX: 20 Starlink satellites rained down on earth
25. ARRL: ARRL announces leadership changes in the Hudson Division / WB0JJK Delaware Section Manager, SK
26. ARRL: Amateur radio supports the Oregon Disaster Airlift Team during joint exercise
27. ARRL: Amateur radio participates in the world's largest naval exercise
28. ARRL: 32 amateurs from clubs across central New York support the Boilermaker Road Race
29. OFCOM: UK Ofcom posts a video offering a close up look at recent amateur radio licensing changes
30. FCC: New York City FCC Field Office charges 13 landowners that are connected with broadcast radio pirates
31. NASA: NASA finds Plasma Bubbles in the ionosphere are tied to radio frequency interference
Plus these Special Features This Week:
* Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News
* Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will talk about how "Being A Maverick Is Part Of The Deal."
* The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with news on DXpeditions, DX, upcoming Radio Sport contests, and more..
* Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL
* Will Rogers, K5WLR, returns with a brand new edition of A Century Of Amateur Radio. This week Will takes us aboard The Wayback Machine to visit 1915 and the establishment of amateur radio trunk lines. When the ARRL main goal was to establish reliable relaying across the entire country.
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Website: https://www.twiar.net
X: https://x.com/TWIAR
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari
YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWIARYouTube
RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2
Automated (Full): https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
Automated (1-hour): https://www.twiar.net/TWIAR1HR.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
-----
This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com.
Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space!
Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.
The International Amateur Radio Union or IARU was formed on the 18th of April 1925 in Paris. Today, split into four organisations, consisting of one for each of the three ITU Regions, and the International Secretariat, are said to coordinate their efforts to represent the globe spanning activity of amateur radio.
Each organisation has its own constitution, which at some point I might compare, but for now I'll focus on the International Secretariat.
Last updated on the 9th of May, 1989, the constitution has nine pages detailing how the IARU works. After defining its name, it describes its purpose.
Its objectives shall be the protection, promotion, and advancement of the Amateur and Amateur-Satellite Services within the framework of regulations established by the International Telecommunication Union, and to provide support to Member-Societies in the pursuit of these objectives at the national level, with special reference to the following:
a) representation of the interests of amateur radio at and between conferences and meetings of international telecommunications organizations;
b) encouragement of agreements between national amateur radio societies on matters of common interest;
c) enhancement of amateur radio as a means of technical self-training for young people;
d) promotion of technical and scientific investigations in the field of radiocommunication;
e) promotion of amateur radio as a means of providing relief in the event of natural disasters;
f) encouragement of international goodwill and friendship;
g) support of Member-Societies in developing amateur radio as a valuable national resource, particularly in developing countries; and
h) development of amateur radio in those countries not represented by Member-Societies.
Those are lofty goals and no doubt they have changed over the past century. The objectives as described have been in effect for over 35 years, so we can safely say that they are part and parcel of the current workings of the IARU. This leads me to several questions, mostly uncomfortable ones.
Over the years I have witnessed the incessant cry for the growth of the hobby in the face of apparent global decline. What I haven't seen is any evidence of the IARU actually doing much towards its own objectives. At this point you might well be chomping at the bit to enlighten me, please do, and you might well be right that the IARU is doing stuff, but the key here is seeing evidence. As I keep saying, if you don't write it down, it didn't happen. You do this for contacts between stations, why should the IARU be any different?
While the IARU is a recognised United Nations organisation, it's entirely volunteer run and paid for by its members. The International Secretariat is funded by its three regional organisations, which in turn are funded by the member societies in each country like the WIA in Australia, ARRL in the U.S., RSGB in the U.K., JARL in Japan and VERON in the Netherlands; over 160 organisations in all. Those in turn are funded by their members. For a decade or more I contributed to the funding of the IARU through my WIA membership. I note, as an aside, that organisations like the Radio Amateur Society of Australia or RASA and the European Radio Amateurs' Organization or EURAO, which are not recognised by the IARU, do not fund it, unless they're making donations on the side.
That's important because this hobby, despite its amateur nature, runs on money. If you want to help the IARU, the only way to do so is as a volunteer. That's great if you have money to pay for food and housing, less so if you don't. Similarly, member societies are also, by enlarge, run by volunteers, each doing so in the face of big business and government attempts to increase their spectrum allocation at the expense of amateur radio at every turn.
This leaves us with an organisation with lofty goals to foster, promote and grow our community, funded and run by volunteers, with in my opinion little to show for its century history.
Is this the best model? Is this how we make a robust, representative and effective organisation?
Speaking of representative, in 2018 Don G3BJ, former president of the RSGB and then president of the Region 1 IARU, talked in some detail about how the IARU operates in an enlightening video you can find on YouTube called "RSGB Convention lecture 2018 - So what has the IARU ever done for us?".
In that lecture Don makes the statement that "the ARRL provides significant additional funding" and "without that [the] IARU would be in very serious problems".
If you're not a member of the ARRL, what does that mean? How much is significant funding? Is it real money, or is it paper money in the form of office space provided within the ARRL offices in Connecticut? If a member of the IARU International Secretariat is also a member and office bearer of the ARRL, does that buy access? For example in 2021 the ARRL executive committee nominated their past president to become the Secretary of the IARU, which at least according to the ARRL, it "has the right and obligation to".
I don't know how you feel about that, but it makes me uncomfortable and here in Australia I can't say that I feel represented, even if I was a current and paid up member of the WIA, which I'm not. I think organisations like the member societies and the IARU have a very important role to play in our hobby, but what I don't see is evidence that they are.
No doubt I'll get emails telling me to step up. I would if I had a functioning money tree in my backyard.
Transparency is an issue in our community. I left the WIA because I felt that there was no transparency. The ARRL had a wide ranging security breach recently and whilst it has written a great many words on the subject, most of them are, at least in my professional opinion, the opposite of transparent. I have yet to see the operating budget for the WIA, the ARRL or the IARU, despite having paid money into at least two of those.
So, what of the future of our hobby? What does representation in a modern global community look like and does the structure of our hobby need scrutiny and discussion?
Hello and welcome to the 549th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this deep dive episode, the hosts go over their own personal histories with studying for the various amateur radio exams. Also discussed are open source software and other online resources for learning information and techniques for passing your ham radio tests. Then we try to pass the exams again as licensed hams. Hilarity ensues. We hope to hear you on the air soon and we also hope you have a great week.
PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1325 - Full Version
Release Date: July 20, 2024
Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Denny Haight, NZ8D, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX.
Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS.
Approximate Running Time: 1:33:42
Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1325
Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service
1. RAC: Call For Nominations Of Candidates For Board Of Directors Of Radio Amateurs of Canada
2. AMSAT: NASA Discovers Strange Spectral Formations Cover LEO Orbits
3. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over
4. WIA: Texas Radio Stations and Cell Sites Still Off Air From Hurricane Beryl
5. ARW: Super Long Range Wi-Fi Works At A Range Of 1.8 Miles
6. SPACEx: US Court Rejects Challenges To FCC Approval Of SpaceX Satellites
7. SPACEx: 20 Starlink Satellites Rained Down On Earth
8. NASA: Happy Birthday, Meatball! NASAβs Iconic Logo Turns 65
9. ARRL: ARRL Announces Leadership Changes In The Hudson Division / WB0JJX Former Delaware SM, SK
10. ARRL: Amateur Radio Supports Oregon Disaster Airlift Response Team
11. ARRL: ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator Services Update During Systems Disruption
12. ARRL: Voices From The ARRL Teachers Institute On Wireless Technology
13. ARRL: Get On The Air During VHF Contest Season
14. ARRL: HamCon: Zion 2024
15. ARRL: Amateur Radio Participates In Worldβs Largest Naval Exercise
16. ARRL: 32 Hams From Clubs Across Central NY Provide Communications For The Boilermaker Road Race
17. ARRL: Dave Kalter Memorial Youth DX Adventure Will Participate In A Special Event As K3Y On July 27th, 2024
18. ARRL: ARRL Cyberattack Exposed Employees' Sensitive Data
19. UK Ofcom Video Offers A Close Up Look At License Changes
20. New York FCC Offices Charges Thirteen Landowners Connected With Radio Pirates
21. NASA Finds Plasma Bubbles In The Ionosphere Is Tied To Interference
22. CW Operators In New Zealand Demonstrate Basic CW Sending
23. Saint Paul Island DxPedition Team Makes Preparations
24. GQRP Club, a low-power amateur radio club in the UK will celebrate its 50 year anniversary in September 2024
25. ARRL: The ARRL Club Grant deadline is fast approaching
26. ARRL: Upcoming RadioSport Contests and Regional Conventions
27. RAC: Radio Amateurs of Canada grants and scholarships are now available
28. RAC: Innovation Science & Economic Development Canada Updates amateur radio exam questions
29. AMSAT: Scientists discover that moon dust can be made into lego bricks to construct buildings on the moon
30. WIA: Ham Radio Friedrichshafen held at Lake Constance In Germany sets a new record
31. ARRL: 2024 ARRL Field Day Log deadline is approaching
32. Brazilian amateurs mark their radio leagues 90th anniversary
33. Student built satellites are launched from California Space Command
34. WIA: Wireless Institute seek input on the future of the 40 meter band plan
Plus these Special Features This Week:
* Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News
* Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will tell us how to Plan for contest success!
* The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with all the latest news on Radio Sport, DXpeditions, DX, upcoming contests, and more
* Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL
* Will Rogers, K5WLR, returns with another edition of The Century Of Amateur Radio. This week Will takes us aboard The Wayback Machine to the early 1900's, as we witness amateurs getting organized, and the early formation of the American Radio Relay League.
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Website: https://www.twiar.net
X: https://x.com/TWIAR
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari
YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWIARYouTube
RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2
Automated (Full): https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
Automated (1-hour): https://www.twiar.net/TWIAR1HR.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
-----
Visit our website at www.twiar.net for program audio, and daily for the latest amateur radio and technology news.
You can air This Week in Amateur Radio on your repeater! Built in identification breaks every 10 minutes or less.
This Week in Amateur Radio is heard on the air on nets and repeaters as a bulletin service all across North America, and all around the world on amateur radio repeater systems, weekends on WA0RCR on 1860 (160 Meters), and more.
This Week in Amateur Radio is portable too! The bulletin/news service is available and built for air on local repeaters (check with your local clubs to see if their repeater is carrying the news service) and can be downloaded for air as a weekly podcast to your digital device from just about everywhere. This Week in Amateur Radio is also carried on a number of LPFM stations, so check the low power FM stations in your area.
You can also stream the program to your favorite digital device by visiting our web site www.twiar.net. Or, just ask Siri, Alexa, or your Google Nest to play This Week in Amateur Radio!
This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com.
Also, please feel free to follow us by joining our popular group on Facebook, and follow our feed on X!
Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space!
Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.
The story goes that the name of our hobby, at least in some parts of the world, ham radio, stems from the notion that we as a community were perceived as being ham-fisted in our ability to operate a Morse key. We apparently claimed that slur and made it our own. I've never actually been able to verify this narrative, but it goes to the heart of what it is to be part of the hobby of amateur radio, as opposed to Professional radio, which is what I once heard someone refer to themselves as.
This notion that we are playing outside our sandbox, that we're doing something less than real, that we're somehow not whole as a result is absurd, especially in the context of how we are an integral part of how spectrum is allocated around the globe. It's fun to remember that playing outside the box, trialling things, exploring, inventing and learning, is the reason we're here.
The whole thing is incremental, much like learning to walk, sometimes you fall flat on your face, yet here you are perambulating like a champ. As an aside, did you know that how you get up off the floor is pretty much how you learnt to do it as a toddler, it might not be the most efficient, but it's how you do it. Speaking of falling down, making mistakes on-air is part and parcel of being an amateur. There's no protocol police, nobody to issue a fine if you make a mistake, just dust yourself off and try again.
The urge to optimise pervades our hobby. We optimise our antennas, our gear, the time and band we choose to communicate on, the modes we use, the places we operate from, even how we participate in contests, all of it is a cycle of optimisation.
During contests I've regularly attempted to flex my imagination to optimise my activities. For example, the VK Shires contest rewards you for combinations of shires, so, I created a map of all the shires, then looked for places to activate, preferably on or near borders, so I could change shire with minimal effort. There are contests that reward different maidenhead locators, so I set about finding spots where you could activate four at once. By the way, a maidenhead locator is an amateur radio geo-locator which I'll dig into some other time. Contesters regularly use multiple radios to optimise their ability to talk to stations that double their points, so-called multipliers.
Over the years I've come across many different excuses for getting on-air and making noise. Popular activities like Parks On The Air, or POTA, Summits On The Air or SOTA, and plenty of others are all programs that aim to get you out of your shack, set up your station at a particular location and make contact with anyone and everyone. On occasion you'll hear a station combining activities, doing both a POTA and a SOTA activation because the summit is inside the boundaries of a national park.
Ian M0TRT took this idea to a whole new level. He wondered if you could qualify for multiple programs simultaneously and if so, how many. Gathering data from Summits, Parks, Islands, Beaches and Bunkers on the Air, together with UK Castle and Lighthouse awards and adding World Wide Flora and Fauna or WWFF, eight programs in all, he set about exploring. For some programs like Castles, Lighthouses and Bunkers you need to be within 1 km of the entity and summits need to be activated within 25 meters altitude from the peak. For other programs, beaches, parks and islands plenty of extra work was needed. Ian's code is available on GitHub, in the "weeaaoa" or "Worked Everything Everywhere All At Once Award" repository.
If you have time to head out to the beach just east of Devil's Point near Plymouth you'll be able to activate 21 different programs at the same time. The Maidenhead locator is IO70WI06.
As with any outdoor amateur radio activity, take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints and kill nothing but time. Be mindful of creating obstacles and trip hazards for your fellow humans and be prepared to have a park ranger turn up as soon as you sit down.
Oh, and if you think that's not in the spirit of amateur radio, you haven't been paying attention.
It's time once again for The Weekender. This is our departure into the world of hedonism, random topic excursions, whimsy and (hopefully) knowledge. Thanks for listening and, if you happen to get a chance, feel free to call us or e-mail and send us some feedback. Tell us how we're doing. We'd love to hear from you.
In this episode we meet famous YouTuber, Randy, K7AGE, and Hoodview ARC VP Josh, K7OSH, to talk about our Field Day experiences and what makes a good club Field Day event.Β Josh is the Field Day Chairman of the Hoodview ARC and organized a great FD event.Β Randy came up to join us for the FD weekend, did some operating and shot some great videos of the event.Β Β
The rest of the HRWB crew described their Field Day experiences from mobile to portable.Β We discuss what worked and what could be improved.
Hello and welcome to the 547th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts cover short topics including the return of Logbook of the World, gaming with FT-8, the RegreSSHion vulnerability that affects many systems, Nobara Linux 39, Linux running on Google Drive, the latest version of AllStar Link and much, much more. Thanks for listening and we hope you have a great week.
PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1324 - Full Version
Release Date: July 13, 2024
Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Denny Haight, NZ8D, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Don Hulick, K2ATJ, Joshua Marler, AA4WX, Marvin Turner, W0MET, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX.
Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS.
Approximate Running Time: 1:38:52
Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1324
Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service
1. RAC: RAC Grants and Scholarships Available Now!
2. RAC: Innovation Science & Economic Development Canada Gives Notice of Update of HR Radio Exam Questions
3. AMSAT: Firefly Delivers New Amateur Satellites to Orbit
4. AMSAT: LEGO Bricks Printed out of Space Dust
5. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over
6. WIA: Ham Radio Friedrichshafen Held At Lake Constance Germany Sets Records
7. WIA: Perseids Meteor Shower Is Coming Up
8. ARRL: Hurricane Beryl Aftermath and Update
9. ARRL: ARRL Appears On The Weather Channel
10. ARRL: 2024 ARRL Field Day Log Deadline Approaching
11. ARRL: Celebrating the invention of Software Defined Radio
12. ARRL: Oscar Norris W4OXH Becomes A Silent Key
13. ARRL: Special Event W3A To Activate To Commemorate Live TV Transmission From The Moon
14. Brazilian Amateurs Mark Their Radio Leagues 90th Anniversary
15. Youth On Youth Violence Is Intervened By Indian Amateur Radio Club
16. Radio and Communications Museum Encounters Unexpected Expenses
17. Student Built Satellites Launched From California
18. Amateurs In Texas Prepare For Moon Day Demonstration
19. AMSAT: Argentine Satellite May Be Dying...Can You Help?
20. Youth On The Air National radio shack renamed to honor Bob Heil, K9EID
21. ARRL Upcoming radio sport contests and national convention listing
22. WIA - US Congress may mandate AM radio in cars. Manufacturers respond
23. ARRL - The ARRL issues a Call For Nominations for ARRL Director and Vice Director - Part One
24. ARRL - The ARRL issues a Call For Nominations for ARRL Director and Vice Director - Part Two
25. ARRL - The ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinators services update during the league service disruption
26. ARRL - New ARRL Section Managers are announced
27. ARRL - Monthly Volunteer Monitor Report
Plus these Special Features This Week:
* Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News
* Foundations of Amateur Radio with Onno Benschop VK6FLAB, will tell us all about Australian Callsigns
* The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B in the DX Corner, with all the latest news on Radio Sport, DXpeditions, DX in general, upcoming contests, and more
* Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL
* Will Rogers - K5WLR - returns with another edition of A Century Of Amateur Radio. This week, Will takes us back to the witness the very first radio regulations being put into place in an episode he calls The First Regulations, The end of free range hams
-----
Website: https://www.twiar.net
X: https://x.com/TWIAR
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/twiari
YouTube: https://bit.ly/TWIARYouTube
RSS News: https://twiar.net/?feed=rss2
Automated (Full): https://twiar.net/TWIARHAM.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
Automated (1-hour): https://www.twiar.net/TWIAR1HR.mp3 (Static file, updated weekly)
-----
Visit our website at www.twiar.net for program audio, and daily for the latest amateur radio and technology news.
You can air This Week in Amateur Radio on your repeater! Built in identification breaks every 10 minutes or less.
This Week in Amateur Radio is heard on the air on nets and repeaters as a bulletin service all across North America, and all around the world on amateur radio repeater systems, weekends on WA0RCR on 1860 (160 Meters), and more.
This Week in Amateur Radio is portable too! The bulletin/news service is available and built for air on local repeaters (check with your local clubs to see if their repeater is carrying the news service) and can be downloaded for air as a weekly podcast to your digital device from just about everywhere. This Week in Amateur Radio is also carried on a number of LPFM stations, so check the low power FM stations in your area.
You can also stream the program to your favorite digital device by visiting our web site www.twiar.net. Or, just ask Siri, Alexa, or your Google Nest to play This Week in Amateur Radio!
This Week in Amateur Radio is produced by Community Video Associates in upstate New York, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. If you would like to volunteer with us as a news anchor or special segment producer please get in touch with our Executive Producer, George, via email at w2xbs77@gmail.com.
Also, please feel free to follow us by joining our popular group on Facebook, and follow our feed on X!
Thanks to FortifiedNet.net for the server space!
Thanks to Archive.org for the audio space.
One of my recurring, you might call it, regrets, but probably not quite that strong, is that I often find myself discovering that an amateur radio contest came and went, or worse, I found out on the day, preferably at midnight UTC when many contests start, which happens to be 8 am Saturday morning where I live, right when my weekly radio net for new and returning amateurs, F-troop, begins.
Often by that time I already have plans for the weekend and now I know I'm missing out on some or other activity that might encourage me to go outside and get fresh air whilst playing radio.
Don't get me wrong, it's my own responsibility to manage my time, but that doesn't explain what's going on, so I started exploring what might be causing this. I mean, it shouldn't be that hard, there's pretty much a contest on every weekend, so I could sort out my radio and get on-air to make noise at any point of any day. That this doesn't happen can only partially be explained by the state of my shack, which I have yet to get working the way I want, but it doesn't explain everything.
I'm subscribed to several contest calendars. The most prominent of these is one maintained by Bruce WA7BNM. The contestcalendar.com website is a great place to start. Another is the personal site of prolific contester and contest manager, Alan VK4SN. Both sites offer a calendar feed file that you can subscribe to.
So, subscribe to the calendar, job done, right?
Unfortunately not. As it happens, for several years I have in fact subscribed to both those calendars. I even shared these with my partner, which results in a fun exchange at the breakfast table that goes something like this: "Hey, do you need the car on Saturday?" "Why?" "Well there's an amateur contest on."
So, my partner is often more aware of contests than I am and supposedly I'm the amateur in this household.
It occurs to me that I need an alert to point at an upcoming contest. Preferably one that I can configure that's specific to me. I don't tend to look that far into the future, I have plenty of stuff that needs to happen today without worrying about next month.
I started exploring what I might do about this. Be the change you want to see, so I contacted Bruce and asked what views he might hold on the addition of an alarm in the calendar file he publishes. I also asked if there was a way to configure what contests are visible in that file.
Whilst hunting through his site, I discovered that there's plenty of Australian contests not on the site, so I created a list of contests I know about that I thought should be on the calendar.
I might point out that Bruce's job isn't easy. Trying to get information out of contest managers can sometimes be like powering a spark-gap transmitter using a pushbike.
Here's an example of one contest that has an algorithm to determine when the next contest is, I kid you not. There's a Winter, Spring and Summer version of this contest, for Winter, when the June solstice is on a weekday (Monday through Friday), the weekend following shall be the weekend of the event, if not, that weekend shall be the weekend of the event. The Spring and Summer versions are even more involved, counting forwards or backwards four weekends from the December solstice. It helpfully includes a link to the solstice dates for this century, because really, that's how the dates are determined.
If I'm feeling particularly sparky, I might even make a calculator, since the contest manager for that contest hasn't announced the dates for the next contest, though my previous experiences whilst attempting to calculate moon bounce windows using the Python Astropy package was challenging. I did find PyEphym which has several solstice and equinox functions.
So, now all I need to do is make my shack work as I want it, bolt a radio back in my car, win lotto and something else, I forget what.