In this episode we bring back Rick England, KC6UFT, the designer of the 18650 battery tester.  In a previous episode, Rick told us all about the need to test 18650, and other batteries, under load to determine their health.  Rick has refined his tester design and shares his experiences and learnings with us on this episode.  You will learn all about the proper way to test these popular lithium batteries and plans for making the testers available.

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PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1332 - Full Version Release Date: September 7, 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, Marvin Turner, W0MET, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, William Savacool, K2SAV, Joshua Marler, AA4WX, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:44:53 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1332 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service 1. FCC: FCC Rule Grants Drone Operators Spectrum Access For Navigation 2. AMSAT: Japanese Company Takes First Step Toward Removing Space Junk 3. AMSAT: The Starliner Spacecraft Has Started To Emit Strange Noises 4. AMSAT: Halibut Electronics Releases New EggNOGS Kit For Satellite Antennas 5. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over 6. WIA: Wireless Shimano Derailleurs Subject To Hacking 7. BB: Los Angeles Transit Agency Fears Revenue Hit If FCC Approves Spectrum Plan 8. ARRL: ARRL Utah Section Expanding Emergency Communication Capabilities 9. ARRL: Hams Respond As Hawaii Threatened By Three Major Storms 10. ARRL: September Is National Preparedness Month: Have A Go Kit 11. ARRL: Hawaiian Islands Grid Madness 2024 / Pacificon, Hosting The 2024 ARRL Pacific Division Convention 12. Czech Republic Youth On The Air Adventure Camp Winds Down 13. Incident Command System Adopted By ARES Into Its Traning 14. Patricia Nelson KE0QXD, Silent Key 15. Hams In India Reunite A Man With His Family Who Thought He Was Dead 16. $1 Million Payment Made By ARRL To Ransomware Hackers 17. A Spectrum Of Experience Is Provided By A Childrens Museum 18. MIssissippi Emergency Communicator 19. Faster, More Energy Efficient Operation Promised By New Transistor 20. ARRL: ARRL VEC Services Update During Systems Disruption 21. ARRL: Volunteer Monitoring Program Monthly Report 22. ARRL: Pacificon 2024 Convention Announced 23. ARRL: Upcoming RadioSport Contest Listing and Upcoming Conventions 24. AMSAT: Polaris Dawn is set for a historic launch and first commercial space walk 25. WIA: German Astronomer Johanness Kepler drew sunspots without knowing it 26. ITU: International Telecommunications Union updates its global treaty to enhance radio spectrum use worldwide 27. ARRL: ARRL Club Grants will be awarded in November 28. ARRL: Estate planning for hams - What happens to all your stuff? 29. ARRL: New England Vice Director K9HI presented with signed citation from Massachusetts Governor 30. Memorandum of Understanding is signed by the FCC and the Privacy Commissioner of Canada Plus these Special Features This Week: * Working Amateur Radio Satellites with Bruce Paige, KK5DO - AMSAT Satellite News - Get an update from AMSAT and what's new with all those amateur satellites in orbit *Australia's own Onno Benshop, VK6FLAB, and Foundations of Amateur Radio finds Onno Implementing the KISS, or Keep It Simple Stupid, principle to amateur radio, and takes a look at what happens to a new piece of computer gear when you plug it in * The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with all the latest news on DXpeditions, DX, upcoming Radio Sport contests, and more * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL with Solar Prognosticator Tadd Cook, K7RA in Seattle, Washington * Our own amateur radio historian, Will Rogers, K5WLR, returns with another edition of A Century Of Amateur Radio. This week, Will takes us back to see how the vacuum tube revolutionized radio, changing it more than any other single invention. This week we take a close up look at the invention of The Audion ----- 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.

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

To get into the hobby of amateur radio is easy, but that doesn't mean it's simple. I was introduced to the hobby three times.

The first time I was a Sea Scout in the Netherlands. It was JOTA, the annual Jamboree On The Air and radio amateurs across the planet were set up at various Scouting locations with their stations showing off how to make contact with far away places.

My memory of it is brief. I recall a green heavy army tent with radios on a table. There was noise everywhere. I was told that I was hearing a station in Brazil, which seemed incongruous, given that I was standing on an island surrounded by other Sea Scouts, a place where I had been camping and sailing for several years.

We trooped out of the tent and ten minutes later I broke a finger playing a game where you sat on a mast trying to upend the other person using a canvas bag with a jib in it. I was unceremoniously upended and landed poorly and broke the middle finger on my right hand. Being a teenager that was of course a source of immediate ridicule and innuendo and getting a dink, that's Aussie slang for getting a ride on the back of the pushbike of my boatswain to the local hospital, after rowing from the island to the mainland caused me to completely forget that amateur radio experience.

The second time I came across the hobby was through my then manager, Ian, whom I now know as VK6KIH, but at the time he was a quiet spoken man thrust into the role of manager. The introduction came in the form of a Daihatsu Charade with a massive, what I suspect, was a 40m HF whip. The amateur radio aspect made little or no impression. The antenna, clearly much too large for such a tiny vehicle, did. I don't recall ever talking about amateur radio or even seeing his setup. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I ever have.

The third time I came across the hobby was at a dinner table surrounded by fellow "dogcow" geeks. One of them, Meg, then with the callsign VK6LUX showed us her brand new shiny purchase, a drone, that could be controlled remotely via WiFi on 2.4 GHz. She went on to tell us that the range was pretty limited because it was WiFi, but because she was a radio amateur, she was going to experiment with an amplifier. This was permitted because as I learnt, the 2.4 GHz WiFi frequencies are shared with amateur radio. You might know it as the 13cm band.

I asked about this thing called amateur radio. I wanted to know what was involved, how would you become one, what would it cost, you know, all the things everyone always asks. I was told that there'd be a course in two weeks with an exam the weekend after. I asked if we needed a group booking and was told to "just rock up".

So I did.

I got my license in 2010 and my world changed forever. I will add, just to make sure that if you're planning to do this, that during my course I discovered that my license wouldn't permit my use of the 13cm band, so I'd have to upgrade. I promptly purchased the requisite course material and started reading. In the mean time I got distracted by the activities at a local club, then I bought a radio, then I was told I wasn't a real amateur because I only had a beginners' license, so to prove a point, I started having fun with my license. I haven't stopped since.

Now, some, or maybe all of this, I've shared before. Here's something new.

I'm a so-called A.F.O.L, or an Adult Fan Of Lego. It's not a guilty pleasure, I'm happy to admit it. I have too much Lego around me. My oldest set is from 1964, House with Garage, number 324-2. It's not complete any longer, the car is long gone, the garage door weights are broken off, but it has pride of place in my living room. History does not reveal how I came into possession of it. Best I can reconstruct is that in the deep dark corners of Australia it takes a little while for kits to arrive, since I was born after the kit came into existence. I do know that I had it before 1976.

The other day I was watching a documentary about Lego and one thing stood out to me. I'll share the entire quote by Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen the then President and CEO of The Lego Group:

"During the 1990s, we kept thinking that much more should be done for the adult "hobbyist builders," as we called them at the time. Most people on the management team thought we should concentrate on children instead, but I felt that a person could have an inner child at any age."

Why this is important is because of my activities as a radio amateur. We as a community keep saying that we should grow, that we're losing too many people, that we need to engage with S.T.E.M., or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Whilst that may be true and whilst JOTA and Scouting might give us exposure to fresh new people, there's a massive community of adults who already know about our hobby. They just don't yet know how it might interact with them, personally, or how they might find it interesting, or engaging, rewarding, and all the other things that you as an amateur already know about.

So, if there's Adult Fans Of Lego, why not Adult Fans Of Amateur Radio?

While thinking about that, how would you talk to them, how would you go about finding them, relating their interests to our hobby, finding common ground and discovering even more things that we can add to the thousands of amateur activities we already know about?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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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.

73 de The LHS Crew

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PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1331 - Full Version Release Date: August 31, 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, Joshua Marler, AA4WX, Will Rogers, K5WLR, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, William Savacool, K2SAV, Chris Perrine, KB2MOB, Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:43:50 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1331 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service 1. AMSAT: The Indian Space Research Organisation Successfully Launches Satellites 2. AMSAT: SpaceX Transporter-11 Launches 116 Satellites, Including OreSat0.5 3. AMSAT: Polaris Dawn Set For Historic Launch And First Commercial Spacewalk 4. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over 5. WIA: The Fairy Tale Of 22 YLs And Their Friends 6. WIA: German Astronomer Johannes Kepler Drew Sunspots 7. ITU: International Telecommunications Union Updates Global Treaty To Enhance Radio Spectrum Use 8. ARRL: Resilience Through Amateur Radio For National Preparedness Month 9. ARRL: ARRL Club Grants Will Be Awarded In November 10. ARRL: Estate Planning for Hams (What happens to all your stuff?) 11. ARRL: The U.S. National Science Foundation National Radio Astronomy Observatory Provide Education Access 12. ARRL: New England Division Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI, Presented Signed Citation From Mass.Governor 13. ARRL: The 25th Anniversary Of Route 66 On The Air Will Have A New Twist This Year 14. ARRL: The League Paid A Hefty Ransom In The Recent Cyberattack. We Bring You Their Press Release 15. A Spectrum Of Experience Is Provided By A Local Childrens Museum 16. Incident Command System Training Adopted By ARES 17. Czech Republic Adventure Had By Youngsters On The Air (YOTA) Camp 18. More Energy Efficient Operation Is Promised By New Faster Transistor 19. Volunteer Patricia Nelson, KE0QXD Trainer, Radio Host SK 20. Memorandum of Understanding Between The FCC And Privacy Commissioner Of Canada 21. Upcoming ARRL regional conventions, and upcoming contests listing 22. RW: Voice of America shutters its Marianas Shortwave transmission sites 23. FCC: FCC proposes modernizing the 3.5 GigaHertz band rules for CB radio service 24. HACK: CanadaArm 2 scores milestone by catching its 50th spacecraft 25. FCC: FCC approves launch of V band satellites for phone access 26. FCC: FCC clears SpaceX to upgrade its first generation Starlink Satellites 27. ARRL: Candidates named for ARRL Director and Vice Director elections 28. ARRL: ARRL IT Security incident report to members 29. ARRL: ARRL expands its online publication archive 30. ARRL: ARRL comments, and opens comment period on proposed changes to the 902-928 megahertz band 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 lose more than half of your membership. * The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with all the latest news on DXpeditions, DX, Radio Sport, upcoming contests, and more.. * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Will Rogers, K5WLR will be here with another edition of A Century Of Amateur Radio. This week he brings back in time to the nineteen twenties to look at Aerials, Attachments, and Audibility. ----- 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.

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

The other day I lamented to a fellow amateur that my shack was not functioning well. Specifically, my main workstation died three months ago and ever since I've been struggling to reclaim my productivity. One aspect of that is my desk. For half a decade or so I've had my computer clamped to a rolling lectern. It allowed me to move around my office as my mood and the light from the window changed.

During the weekly net I'd move my lectern and computer next to my radio and host the net whilst logging on my computer.

That's no longer possible because of a number of reasons, so instead I was trying to accomplish the same thing on a tiny 13 inch screen which didn't work for me. My friend asked me why I hadn't just extended the microphone lead from my radio, so I could sit at my now stationary computer and still key the microphone. I located an Ethernet joiner, an Ethernet cable and did just that. Simple. Job done.

Then I started wondering why I wasn't on HF with my station and if there was a simple solution that was eluding me. Spoiler alert, it still eludes me. The requirements are not too complicated, well at least in my mind they're not.

I want to operate on HF. I want the computer to not be physically, or specifically, electrically connected to the radio, in any way. I need to be able to use logging software that tracks the radio band, mode and frequency. I'd like to use digital modes, I'd like to have a computer controlled voice keyer and I do not want to run Windows and if I can at all help it, I'd like to spend as little time as possible doing this without spending an arm and a leg.

So, then I started wondering what this looks like for other people. What kinds of compromises have you made in your shack? What have you accomplished and how did you get there? What choices of hardware and software did you make, and why? Did you give up, or face the challenge head on? How did you gather information and how did you find out what others did?

Not for a moment do I think that this is a simple thing to solve, but it's clear to me that I'm so far down the complicated rabbit hole that I'd like someone to show me the light at the end of the tunnel to make some progress.

Of course I've not been idle while all this is happening. I configured a Raspberry Pi, a small single board computer, to talk to my radio via USB. I connected a sound card to the audio connector on my radio. Theoretically this should give me all that I need, but the difference between theory and practice is common knowledge, in theory it works, in practice it doesn't. The Pi is a few years old, but it's not doing much at all. It connects to my network wirelessly, so my main computer isn't physically connected to the radio, but it's still pretty unreliable and I have to say, calling CQ, either using voice or digital modes, should be rock solid. You don't want your radio to keep transmitting after it's supposed to and other little issues like that.

So, how did you do this? I'm interested to know. I'm not the first person to run into this issue and I'm not the last. Your experience might help me and it might help others. Drop me an email, cq@vk6flab.com and I look forward to hearing about your adventures.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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Hello and welcome to Epiosde 553 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this short topics episode, the hosts discuss the recent troubles and resolutions at the ARRL, a RISC-V tablet that runs Ubuntu, the new version of LibreOffice, a Microsoft flaw that breaks things (shocker), and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

73 de The LHS Crew

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In this episode we meet Morten LB0FI, Kjetil LB4FH, Tobias DL3MHT, and Bård (Bob) LB5JJ from the European Ham Radio Show on YouTube.  Walt, K4OGO, was not able to make the show this time.

The European Ham Radio show is hosted by Morten and the team talks about many aspects of ham radio on their weekly YouTube show.  Topics include radios, antennas, homebrew and a big dose of portable operating.  We were invited to join them on their show a few months ago and had such a great time, we wanted to introduce them to our HRWB audience. 

We hope you enjoy the discussion of ham radio from a European perspective.

 

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PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1330 - Full Version Release Date: August 24, 2024 Here is a summary of the news trending This Week in Amateur Radio. This week's edition is anchored by Denny Haight, NZ8D, Chris Perrine, KB2FAF, Dave Wilson, WA2HOY, Don Hulick, K2ATJ Rich Lawrence, KB2MOB, Joshua Marler, AA4WX, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, Marvin Turner, W0MET, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:40:57 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1330 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service 1. RW: Voice Of America Is Shuttering Its Marianas Shortwave Site 2. FCC: FCC Proposes Modernizing 3.5 GHz Band Rules for Citizens Broadband Radio Service 3. HACK: Canadarm2 Scores Milestone With Catching Its 50th Spacecraft 4. AMSAT: Upcoming AMSAT Symposium Issues Its First Call for Papers 5. AMSAT: AMSAT Board of Directors Election Underway 6. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts from All Over 7. FCC: FCC Approves Launch Of V Band Satellites 8. WIA: Alabama Broadcasters Association Name Carl Sampieri As Its 2024 Engineer Of The Year 9. WIA: Moon Is Moving Away From Earth Will Lengthen The Hours In A Day 10. FCC: FCC Clears SpaceX To Upgrade First Generation Starlink Satellites 11. ARRL: ARRL Board Establishes Information Technology Advisory Committee 12. ARRL: Candidates Named for ARRL Director and Vice Director Elections 13. ARRL: ARRL IT Security Incident - Report to Members 14. ARRL: Hurricane Ernesto Operations Come To A Conclusion 15. ARRL: Club Grant Program Update From The ARRL Foundation 16. ARRL: ARRL Expands Publications Archive 17. ARRL: Lost and Found: Earth Moon Earth Worked All Continents Award Application 18. New repeater system to serve emergency communications constructed in British Columbia, Canada 19. International Young Ladies Group renew friendships in Europe 20. The HEMA awards are launched in New Zealand 21. 2024 Slidell, Louisiana, EOC Hamfest is announced 22. The 17th annual Ohio State Parks On The Air contest will be held September 7th 23. Upcoming contests and regional conventions listing 24. AMSAT: NASA seeks student missions to send to space in 2026 and beyond 25. WIA: Radio Amateurs of Canada reports phishing attempts 26. WIA: Radio New Zealand Pacific activates new shortwave transmitters 27. ARRL: ARRL urges protecting the amateur radio 902-908 megahertz band 28. ARRL: Solar Cycle 25 producing record high sunspot numbers 29. Feedback is sought on new proposed radio rules in India 30. Longwave radio broadcasts to debut from the Arctic Circle from Finland Radio 252 31. Stranded ISS astronauts will finally ride home on a Dragon Spacecraft in 2025 32. Bidding opens for World Radiosport Team Championships 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 explain what he means when he says, "In The Beginning There Was The Contact". * The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with all the latest news on active or upcoming DXpeditions, RadioSport, DX in general, upcoming contests, and more. * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Will Rogers, K5WLR - This week, Will takes us back in time to the early issues of QST magazine and talks about how humor played a prominent role in QST, in a segment he entitled, Humor, Poetry, and Rotten Rants. ----- 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.

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Hello and welcome to the 552nd episode of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts take a preliminary deep dive into the Proxmox virtualization environment. Proxmox is a replacement for VMware ESXi or other virtualization platforms. Topics include features, installation procedure, VM configuration, networking and disk provisioning options, ESXi migration and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

The International Amateur Radio Union or IARU, is the governing body of our community. It represents us on the world stage through the International Telecommunications Union, the ITU. As I've discussed before, it consists of four separate organisations working together, the International Amateur Radio Union, the global body, and three regional ones, Region 1, 2 and 3, each representing the hobby of amateur radio. Previously I've looked at the constitution of the IARU to get a sense of its purpose in the world.

At the time I mentioned the notion of comparing the four organisations against each other, since ostensibly they're doing the same thing for a different part of the world.

Each of these regional bodies was created separately by different groups of people and their constitutions reflect that. The Global IARU constitution, last updated in 1989 consists of nine pages. The IARU Region 1 constitution, with proposed amendments from 2020 has 31 pages, the English version of the Region 2 constitution, since there's also a Spanish one, was amended in 2019 has six pages including two copies of Article 2, and refers regularly to the Global IARU constitution and finally, Region 3, amended in 2012 has 15 pages.

What is striking at first glance is just how poorly these documents are constructed. Formatting, inconsistent spelling, indentation, general layout and all are lacking attention to detail. I think that this reflects poorly on the internal workings of the IARU, but I digress.

Curiously, the Region 3 website has a whole section on proposed changes to the constitution. Many of those changes are around the election of officials and voting procedures. It also includes the use of modern communications like email and remote conference facilities on internet platforms. One paragraph stood out: "It was also realised that changes would need to be made to formally recognise that we will (as happened at the online conference in 2021) have females as well as males taking responsible positions in IARU Region 3."

It must have come as quite a shock to the delegates to learn that there are females in our hobby. This must have already happened in Region 1, since there is a reference to "he/she" in relation to being elected. Mind you, use of the word "they" must not have occurred to the authors.

But don't worry, we shouldn't rush these things, the International body and the Region 2 constitutions both use "he" for roles. I will point out that the International body has a weasel clause where it states, among other things, "words importing only the masculine gender include the feminine gender and the neutral gender". It's a good start, but falls short of standards expected today.

If you're not sure what all the fuss is about, let me illustrate:

"The term of office of the President shall be for a period of five years from the date of ratification of porcupine nomination, and porcupine shall remain in office until the nomination of porcupine successor has been ratified."

If that felt jarring for you, you might get some sense of what it feels like for someone reading that with gender pronouns that don't match the text.

A better solution would be:

"The term of office of the President shall be for a period of five years from the date of ratification of their nomination, and they shall remain in office until the nomination of their successor has been ratified."

It's not the first time we've struck this type of issue. It's high time that we did something about it. Over a year ago, I pointed out that OM, Old Man, and XYL, eX Young Lady, were derogatory and we should replace them with OP, operator, and SO, significant other. A year before that I proposed a revision of the Amateur's Code to make its language inclusive and reflective of the wider community in which we operate.

I've had discussions with people who identify across the gender spectrum about much of this and the overwhelming feedback I received is that our community is Old White Men clamouring to grow the hobby without a clue that the words they use are part of the problem.

So, credit to Region 1 for implementing some of this and to Region 3 for starting this conversation. I don't doubt that there are members in the Global IARU and Region 2 who would like to see this implemented and to you I say: It's time, high time, to review what language our community uses to identify itself to the wider community. More generally, as the governing and representative global bodies you should be leading the way and providing guidance to the member societies.

So, next time you promote our community, refer to others, link to articles, and attempt to encourage participation, you should take a moment and ask yourself if what you're saying is truly speaking to people who are not Old White Men and if that's the case, what you might do to embrace the wider community.

The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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PODCAST: This Week in Amateur Radio Edition #1329 - Full Version Release Date: August 17, 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, Eric Zittel, KD2RJX, Marvin Turner, W0MET, William Savacool, K2SAV, Joshua Marler, AA4WX, Will Rogers, K5WLR, George Bowen, W2XBS, and Jessica Bowen, KC2VWX. Produced and edited by George Bowen, W2XBS. Approximate Running Time: 1:27:21 Podcast Download: https://bit.ly/TWIAR1329 Trending headlines in this week's bulletin service 1. AMSAT: Quarter Century Wireless Association Awards AMSAT Youth and Education Programs $2,500 2. AMSAT: AMSAT-EA’s GENESIS-A Launched 3. AMSAT: NASA Seeks Student Missions To Send To Space in 2026, and Beyond 4. AMSAT: Satellite Shorts From All Over 5. WIA: Radio Amateurs of Canada Report Phishing Attempts 6. WIA: Radio New Zealand Pacific Activates New Shortwave Transmitters 7. ARRL: ARRL Urges Protecting The Amateur Radio 902-928 MegaHertz Band 8. ARRL: Solar Cycle 25 Producing Record High Sunspot Numbers 9. ARRL: Amateur Radio Active As Hurricane Ernesto Heads For Bermuda 10. ARRL: HAARP Is Conducting A Research Campaign August 13-16 And Continuing On August 18-20 11. Feedback Is Sought On New Proposed Radio Rules In India 12. Longwave Radio Broadcasts To Debut From The Arctic Circle 13. Stranded ISS Astronauts May Finally Ride Home On A Dragon Spacecraft Next Year 14. Bidding Opens For World Radiosport Team Championships 15. Wireless Workshop Assists India's Police Communications 16. New Cubesats Give Amateurs More Options 17. FCC: FCC Fines New York City Individual $2.3 Million For Unlicensed Broadcasting On FM 18. ARRL: David Galletly, KM2O, Named Vice Director of the ARRL Hudson Division 19. K1USN CW contest is announced 20. Upcoming contests and regional convention listings 21. WIA: Dog Day Afternoon is coming to amateur radio 22. ARRL: Andy Milluzzi, KK4LWR is appointed Vice Director of the ARRL Southeastern Division 23. ARRL: W1AW will change frequency to 17 meters for CW practice 24. ARRL: New York City High School helps license young hams 25. FCC: FCC fines New York City individual $2.3 million for unlicensed broadcasting on FM 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 about internet access across the high frequency bands * The DX Corner with Bill Salyers, AJ8B with news on DXpeditions, DX, Radio Sport, upcoming contests and more. * Weekly Propagation Forecast from the ARRL * Will Rogers, K5WLR - Will returns with another edition of A Century of Amateur Radio. This week, Will takes us aboard the Wayback Machine to the year 1915 to witness how the amateurs of the era proposed offering communications in times of emergencies to the government, in a segment entitled, 'A Patriotic and Dignified Effort' ----- 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.

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

Getting started in our hobby can be a challenge. Even if you've got a shiny new license and you've been taught what the legal requirements are, you might even have your first radio, but after that it might feel like you're all on your own in this bright and shiny new world.

It doesn't have to be that way.

First thing to know is that you are exactly where all other amateurs have been before you. In other words, don't stress too much about what you don't know or what mistakes you might make. I recently read a comment from a new amateur who was so scared of making a mistake that they hadn't made their first contact. You should know that there is a massive difference between making an accidental mistake and knowingly interfering with another service.

Here's some mistakes I've made.

My license permits a maximum power level of 10 Watts. I dutifully set-up my radio to do just that, made my first contact on HF using 10 Watts, only to learn later that power levels are set separately for HF, 6m, VHF and UHF on my specific radio. So, the second time I keyed up my microphone, I was using 50 Watts. Not only that, I didn't quite understand how to set-up my radio for repeater use, so I keyed up on the output frequency and happily talked to the other station, blissfully unaware that I wasn't actually using the repeater.

It wasn't until several years later that I learnt that the minimum power level was 5 Watts on all bands, except UHF, where it is 2 Watts. And as icing on the cake, one day I managed a 2m contact across about 70 km, from my car. It wasn't until later in the night that I discovered that all the settings on my radio had reset and it was again using 50 Watts.

Another time I was in the club radio shack and having some fun with the club station. I tuned to a 2m frequency and called CQ. Didn't hear anything. Then I discovered that I'd missed a decimal point and was actually transmitting on the 20m band, where I'm not permitted with my license.

Each of those things are outside the restrictions of my license, but made by mistake, not on purpose. Instead of stressing about it, I went, oops, and carried on with a new lesson learnt. I will point out that I'm certain that there are more, mistakes, feel free to let me know.

Those concerns aside, finding people to talk to is another barrier to entry. We have all these bands and there's nobody about. It reminds me of a funny story I've shared before, told by Wally VK6YS, now SK. In his early amateur radio days he operated from Cockatoo Island, an island off the north coast of Western Australia, near Yampi Sound, which is where his callsign came from. With a new radio and transverter for 6m, Wally had been calling CQ for weeks, but nobody would talk to him. Occasionally he'd hear a faint voice in the background. Meanwhile it transpired that amateurs across Japan were getting upset that he wasn't responding to their 20 and 40 over 9 signal reports. His transmission was getting out just fine, his receiver wasn't working nearly as well. Turns out that during manufacturing, a pin on the back of his transverter hadn't been soldered correctly. Oops. Once he fixed that, he worked 150 Japanese stations on the first day and a lifelong love of the 6m band was born.

One hard learnt lesson is that the bands are constantly changing. If you cannot hear anything on one band, try another. If the band is quiet, it's likely because the conditions for that band are bad, but generally this is only true on HF. On VHF and UHF, the opposite is often true. Some bands, like 10m and 6m behave more like VHF, but not always. 20m can go from brilliant to abysmal and back in seconds, sometimes during the contact.

Each band has its own idiosyncrasies that you'll need to explore before you can hope to improve your chances of success and even years of playing will often get you surprises. I recall trying, for giggles only, to call CQ on a pretty quiet band only to score an unexpected contact with a Central European station on the other side of the globe.

A good rule of thumb is to go where the action is. If you can hear others, they're much more likely to hear you. While this is not universally true, it's a good starting point.

Of course, you don't need to physically have a radio to experience any of this. There are many websites that provide you with access to radio tuners. If you search for WebSDR or KiwiSDR you'll come across hundreds of online receivers that you can tune and operate on the frequencies they support using just your web browser. Some have the ability to decode digital modes within the web page, so you won't even have to install any extra software to play.

You might think that using such a receiver is not really amateur radio, but I'd like to point out that a transceiver is both a transmitter and a receiver. You can get the receiver right there in your web browser. The transmitter is a little more complex, but technically also possible. Many amateur clubs have a remote accessible station which will allow you to get started.

That kills two birds with one stone, you get to interact with the people in the club and you get to play on-air without needing to figure out just which radio to get and what antenna to connect it to and where to put either.

Other places to find new friends are of course social media, the so-called fediverse, a collection of social networking services that can communicate with each other, has several communities. You can get started at https://mastodon.radio and https://lemmy.radio. There's plenty of other on-air activities like Nets, discussion groups where you can get to know other amateurs. I run a weekly Net for new and returning amateurs called F-troop on Saturday morning midnight UTC for an hour, where you can say hello and ask questions. We pass the microphone around a circle, so everyone gets a go. You'll find more information at https://ftroop.groups.io.

Getting started does not have to be a daunting experience. Get on-air, make noise and before you know it, you'll have forgotten just how much you worried about things that really didn't cause any issues in the big picture.

If you're still stuck, drop me an email, cq@vk6flab.com and I'll attempt to point you in the right direction.

What are you waiting for?

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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In this episode we talk with Alan Wolke, W2AEW, an expert in electronic test equipment.  Alan has a fantastic YouTube channel where he educates us about test equipment, circuit design and electronics theory.  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.

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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. ----- 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.

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Foundations of Amateur Radio

Internet access across HF radio

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.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB

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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.

73 de The LHS Crew

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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.

73 de The LHS Crew

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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. ----- 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.

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