5840 1648 Polka Radio. SINPO 24432.
5880 1715 Radio Rock Revolution. SINPO 54444.
6210 1655 Radio King Shortwave. SINPO 44433.
6290 1700 Radio Akenzo. SINPO 54444.
6300 1635 Kiss AM. SINPO 54444.
6380 1642 Radio Pandora. SINPO 44433. Heard on 6375 at 1725 (54444).
6935 1708 Coast FM Classic Gold via relay. SINPO 54444.
Having convinced myself that QSL cards are indeed an important detail in our daily amateur radio lives, the question becomes how can this practice be saved and restored? Assuming the cost of a printed QSL card purchased in bulk is around 30 cents each, and an optional envelope 20 cents, we’re looking at roughly 50 cents before postage. First-class postage these days costs 73 cents though post card stamps are 56 cents so there are a few options for savings.
But these numbers aren’t static. The rise in postal rates has been steady and frequent and there’s no reason to believe that might slow down. The current worst case situation for QSLs is sending a card, in an envelope, with an SASE inside. That comes to $2.16 per QSL at today’s rate. Send 500 of those a year and you’re out more than a thousand dollars, an expensive proposition for any of us.
That’s the main reason why “free” Logbook of the World confirmations seemed like such a good deal. And it is, if your interest is only collecting ARRL awards. But LoTW provides only a check mark on a big spreadsheet intended for ARRL awards. There’s no place for photos, personal notes, equipment, antenna or how much power was used, etc. And as we have seen this last summer, LoTW comes with the possibility of problems. We know now the original system, which is still in use today, was assembled with baling wire and duct tape twenty years ago and there is apparently nothing to replace it on the immediate horizon. It’s free, for now, but rumblings and rumors persist that ARRL will one day assign a fee to use it.
We need a completely new service, and it’s probably best if it’s not from ARRL, that permits storage and retrieval of QSL card images. These could be from a static image that could be edited to add pertinent QSO data along with comments, etc. Someone would log into the system, see that they have waiting QSLs that hadn’t been viewed, and have the option of downloading those images or simply viewing them online. It would be nearly the same as traditional QSLing, but without the postal burden - or the actual paper card.
Of course the ARRL (and others) won’t accept these confirmations for award credit, but who cares if you aren’t interested in ARRL credit? And if you are, you can continue to use LoTW too. No harm, no foul. A system like this would provide an option to inexpensively send a reasonable facsimile of an actual QSL card complete with photo, comments, and everything that makes a QSL card special.
While there are services now that allow these to be sent via email, I think it best that whatever comes next be a service where retrieval is optional and doesn’t come via unsolicited email. I simply want to log-in on occasion, and download whatever is available for me. I’d be willing to pay $20-$30 a year for such a service so I think there is a potential business opportunity here for someone, doesn’t matter where, to jump on and build something fresh and new.
Let’s fix this and resume the quaint, cozy practice of collecting QSL cards.
After a lovely day yesterday on Lochnagar and Conachcraig, I was looking to see where I could go today. There was a swimming competition on, in addition to the usual activities, so I needed to be back for 3pm. Last week when I was on An Socach, the others went to Carn a’Gheoidh, and I remembered them leaving later than me but arriving at the top at the same time. Sure enough when I check all the times, it looked doable to get there and back in time. The longest part is the drive to Glenshee ski centre, and that’s right at the limit of the electric car - returning home with 20 miles range still makes me a little nervous!
The weather forecast had it cloudy with chance of showers and reasonably breezy. It did rain a little on the way out but was dry when I arrived. I wasted about 10 minutes getting a parking ticket from the cafe - I should’ve just opened the link in the car park when I was up the hill and had signal, like I did with Glas Maol.
The track follows up the ski maintenance tracks, which are quite steep to start. There’s a shortcut across part way up which I just walked right past. My Inreach mini started beeping as I’d gone of course and so I backtracked and found it. It was a small track at right angles to the main path just behind a fence, so not too obvious, so thanks to the Garmin!
I was soon in the cloud and did check on the inreach every so often to make sure I was heading in the right direction. I doesn’t have topo maps, and just a line but it has a compass and so points in the right direction and is enough to make sure you’re following the right path.
I didn’t see much on the way up, other than about 20m around me, mostly looking like the photo. In exposed places the wind picked up a lot and gave me a good push. At one point I was about 3m from a small loch and I didn’t realise until I was right upon it. The track was decent and only in a few places was it boggy but nothing like The Buck. The final ascent to the summit is steep again after a while of walking on the mostly flat plateau. At this point the wind was howling and I was glad there was a cairn at the top.
I setup behind the cairn, which was a very good shelter from the wind, had a sandwich and then got on the air. I thought I’d try a bit more power on 2m and see if I could get any further than usual. I’d brought the Kenwood V71 and battery. This is the first time I’ve taken it out with me, and I also haven’t used it much at home, so I was hoping I wouldn’t get into any operating issues with it! I had the slim G, and was glad I hadn’t brought the yagi to try and setup in the wind.
I now wonder if I’d setup the mast on the outside of the cairn pointing into the wind, if I could’ve made it more vertical. Particularly as right at the end the antenna got blown off and I ended up holding it with my arm to finish the QSO - I didn’t do an EMF assessment on that setup…
It was a little slow to start, but eventually I’d work 9 stations, including GM4OAS 90 miles to the west in Mallaig. I did find the lowest squelch on the V71 was quite high and not breaking for several stations. I eventually turned it off and then heard several locals and others. I do wonder how many had been replying to my CQs before. Did 50W make any difference? The map looks remarkably similar to when I was on Glas Maol, and that was with the 5W D72 handheld. Technically, it’s 10 dB which is 1.x S points, and on Glas Maol GM4OAS gave me 32 and this time he gave me 42, so whilst not more power, I was readable more? I do like the form factor of using the mobile rig with the fist mic, means I can position things easier than being tied directly to the end of the mast, but probably for the most part it makes no real difference and it’s all in my head!
Keeping an eye on the time, I needed to pack up and head back. The wind was still relentless and on the top I had to lean into it. I was grateful of my big hood as I followed the path back down. It’s amazing how you can forget some of the details of the walk on the way back, being surprised that I had to climb up and down a few places which I didn’t remember on the way up to the summit! For a few moments the wind seemed to blow the clouds away and there was even a hint of sunshine coming through. The view opened up and I could see all around. Certainly not the spectacular views of last week, but enjoyable for the few moments. Back down to the car and back home.
I think this summit and Glas Maol would make a nice day trip out, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with the option of a hot lunch at the ski centre cafe. For 6 and 8 pointers, they have fairly easy and short walks, and both great locations for 2m, particularly to the south. Doing both would be 14 points, and a lot less walking and climbing than my 14 point day yesterday on Lochnagar and Conachcraig!
One of the most universal experiences of any Linux or Unix user is working through... After the big hill, it was time to do the small one - Conachcraig. It certainly looked small from Lochnagar summit but it’s still a respectable 865m tall.
It felt like a short, straight up route on a nice track. I turned and looked back at Lochnagar and could see the cloud hovering over the summit, although not submerging it.
The rock formations on Conachcraig are interesting to look at, I haven’t really got a good photo of them so you’ll have to go there yourself. Unsurprisingly, no-one else was at this summit with me and I ducked down behind a rock to keep out the wind whilst I setup again on 2m.
Thanks again to Fraser, MM0EFI, and Chris, 2M0RVZ for their contacts on both summits, then with Simon, GM4JXP, and finally Richie, GM1LKD, in Aberdeen I was set. It was now 3:05pm, and I needed to be home by 5pm, and with an hour+ drive, it was time to pack up and head back to my bike.
The downhill bike ride back only took 20 minutes, and was a great way to end the trip. 28 km all in, and home in time!
It seems that even a basic but sound understanding of transformers challenges lots of hams, and even online experts that have been heard to brag of their qualifications so as to intimidate others who might question their words.
So at ARRL EFHW (hfkits.com) antenna kit transformer – revised design #1 – part 2 I estimated that at a current of 4Arms marked the onset of non-linear B-H response, ie the onset of saturation.
One online expert proposed a method that would rate this transformer at maximum 4^2*50=800W at which magnetic saturation would occur.
The referenced article estimated saturation at more like 17000W.
Let’s talk about some really basic transformer concepts.
The diagram above from Wikepedia shows a rectangular magnetic core with two windings, a primary and secondary on opposite limbs of the core.
Note the phase polarity markings (+ / -) and the direction of (conventional) alternating current.
Above is an example power transformer for discussion, 240V 50Hz 100VA, n=Vs/Vp=1/20, rated primary current 0.416A, core mass around 800g, estimated core loss at 1W/kg is 0.8W, for a simple explanation, leakage is assumed zero and rated load is assumed purely resistive. Note that an AC power transformer is typically rated for primary voltage, frequency and VA, and that they are operated into the low end of BH saturation, a compromise between weight, dissipation and efficiency (and cost of course).
Let’s assume that it is a good design, and for a first analysis, let’s ignore flux leakage, ie flux due to current in one winding that does not induce voltage in the other winding (does not ‘cut’ the other winding). Let’s analyse it with no load and rated load.
With load load, assume zero current flows in the secondary.
The primary winding acts like an iron cored inductor, when voltage is applied, current flows. The current produces magnetic flux and a voltage induced in the primary winding which by Lenz’s law opposes the voltage that created the current.
The current that flows with no-load is known as the magnetising current, it establishes magnetic flux in the core. In a good design, the magnetising current is small wrt rated current. We can extend that and talk of the corresponding magnetising impedance and the magnetising admittance.
For the example 50Hz transformer shown, the magnitude of magnetising current is 12mA, 2.9% of rated current. Magnetising current is a component of primary current in a loaded transformer.
You might at first think that the magnetising impedance Zm is purely inductive, but that would make it lossless and nothing is lossless. In the example case, the phase of Zm is 74°, Zm=5556+j19213Ω.
Magnetising force is given by \(mmf=n(I_p +0.012 \angle -74° – \frac{I_s}{n})=n 0.012 \angle -74° \text{At/m}\).
So, when rated current flows in the secondary, it induces a voltage component in the primary winding that opposes the voltage induced in the primary by the magnetising current component, so more primary current flows… rated primary current in a zero leakage scenario.
Print the diagram and annotate it with a pencil, and work through Lenz’s law and the direction of current. Sure, I could have done it, but you will learn more by working through the solutions, you will remember it better, and get confidence in your growing analytical capability.
So, the primary current under rated load is the load current divided by the turns ratio, plus the magnetising current. In this example, Ip=0.416-0.012∠-74°.
Why does the core not saturate?
You need to calculate the net magnetising force by adding the primary and secondary magnetising force components. In this case, recalling that Is=Ip/n for our scenario, \(mmf=n(I_p +0.012 \angle -74° – \frac{I_s}{n})=n 0.012 \angle -74° \text{At/m}\), the same as the no-load magnetising force.
Note that when leakage inductance and winding resistance are factored in, loaded magnetising force is usually a little less than no-load.
Two common causes:
Because the B-H response is non-linear, a small increase in primary voltage creates a disproportionate increase in core less (due to higher flux density).
Sure, it is being driven to higher voltage and or lower frequencies than the design point, both of which contribute to saturation. Changing the load impedance does not directly cause magnetic saturation.
Probably not. Naive users often incorrectly blame overheating of the ferrite core beyond the Curie point as magnetic saturation.
Watch out, Gen X-ers — there’s a nostalgia overload heading your way, courtesy of this... From W5XX:
The Jackson ARC invites you to this year’s ARRL Day in the Park this
coming Saturday from 9:00 am until 2:00 pm at Old Trace Park. The folks
at Ridgeland Parks and Recreation graciously allowed us to use their
Recreation Center adjacent to the main parking lot. This will be a fun
time of fellowship and food (Dutch Treat from Food Truck). At noon
there will be a few comments by W5XX followed by multiple door prizes.
In addition, Flea Market tables will be available, or you can tailgate
in the parking lot. For those interested, the Mississippi State Fair
will be open for “after Day in the Park fun and games.”
Old Trace Park is located at 422 Post Road in Ridgeland. To get there
follow the signs to the Bill Waller Craft Center on Rice Road and then
continue on Rice Road a short distance until you get to a stop sign at
the intersection with Post Road. Take a right on Post Road and Old
Trace Park will then be the second right. The Rec Center will be on the
right side of the large parking lot as you drive in. For further
information contact AK5J at cell 601-709-6740 or email ak5j@arrl.net.
Talk-In: 146.64 (77 Hz) linked to 146.76 (77 Hz)
Best 73 de W5XX
This event happens seasonally, on the 3rd full weekend of the month (Saturday & Sunday UTC). These are ‘activity weekends’ where the main purpose is to get out in the parks, and have as much fun as possible.
Hope to get you in my Logs during the upcoming event….
73bob
The other day I was packing the car to go on a little trip an hour out of the city to see the Milky Way. I briefly entertained the idea of bringing my radio gear with me to get on air to make some noise.
I resisted the urge, mainly because thinking about this didn't fill me with joy, rather it made me groan.
Now to be absolutely clear, I adore going out into the scrub with my radio gear. I love getting on air and making noise. I like doing this with friends.
If the time spent is about amateur radio, in other words, if I'm doing this with other amateurs, preparation and set up are part of the experience.
However, if I'm on my own, or with my non-amateur SO, significant other, then preparation and set up often take more time than the actual on-air activity and by the time that things are humming along, we're ready to do something else, fine food, nice view, coffee, you name it, anything other than radio.
So, how can I make the preparation and set up to be something much less time consuming? I don't really want to take over our car and bolt the radio back into it, nor do I want to strap a multi-tap antenna to the roof. At the other end, I also have no desire to bring a wire, look for a tree, do some throwing, find a place to sit and do the rest of the preparation to get on air.
In other words, I want my cake and eat it too.
What might that look like?
One of my fellow amateurs has a telescopic whip, looks like a transistor radio antenna on steroids, but using that requires that you bring something to tune it, given that the ground is going to influence the antenna in unexpected ways.
I could go out and buy a QRP radio with an in-built tuner, make the whip as long as it goes, perhaps even make it into a vertical dipole by combining two and start playing, but I'm not there yet.
Of course I'm not the first to try any of this. The Parks On The Air and Summits On The Air activators are all over this type of activity, hopefully they've written some of their learnings down. I confess that I haven't found anything yet.
How much of this have you achieved? What compromises did you make, what modes do you use when you're operating like this, mind you, I can hear my friend Charles NK8O from here, "Use Morse Onno", so I can take that as a given.
All I need to do is learn it.
I'm Onno VK6FLAB
A word of warning before watching this very cool video on soldering: it may make... 
Zero Retries is an independent newsletter promoting technological innovation that is occurring in Amateur Radio, and Amateur Radio as (literally) a license to experiment with and learn about radio technology. Radios are computers - with antennas! Now in its fourth year of publication, with 2100+ subscribers.
20th Century Amateur Radio Organizations Struggle in the 21st Century
Comments for This Issue (redirect to Comments page)
Web version of this issue - https://www.zeroretries.org/p/zero-retries-0172
Commentary by Editor Steve Stroh N8GNJ
My thanks to Ryan Tolboom N2BP for upgrading from a free subscriber to Zero Retries to a Founding Member Annual Subscriber this past week!
Founding members are listed in every issue of Zero Retries!
My thanks to Prefers to Remain Anonymous 3A for upgrading from a free subscriber to Zero Retries to a Paid Subscriber… back in June 2023, but I failed to properly record and acknowledge it then. Apologies!
Financial support from Zero Retries readers is a significant vote of support for the continued publication of Zero Retries.
Pacificon 2024 in San Ramon, California, USA on 2024-10-18 thru 20 in 2 weeks. Tina KD7WSF and I plan to attend Pacificon 2024 (which makes it “major” to us).
My presentation at Pacificon 2024 - Tracking Technological Innovation in Amateur Radio will be on Saturday 2024-10-19 from 16:00 - 16:50 in Contra Costa Salon 2.
See the Zero Retries Guide to Zero Retries Interesting Events for additional events.
Our household experienced “the crud” this week. Not exactly flu, and not COVID-19, but “something” got my wife Tina and I late last week and as a result we’ve both had very low energy, body aches, lots of coughing, etc. It’s persisted into this week, so this won’t be a big issue of Zero Retries. A trusted Zero Retries advisor told me “don’t apologize so much”. Point taken, so I’m just offering this brief explanation.
I grew up in Northwest Ohio and October became my favorite month. In that area, October was usually cooler, but with (blessed) low humidity, bright days, and crisp, clear nights. On the southern shore of Lake Erie, there was usually a light breeze, which moved the dry leaves around with a delightful sound, and occasionally there were snow flurries. October in Northern Ohio was near perfect for me, as are the summers here in Northwest Washington. In a more perfect living arrangement, we would spend October in an extended visit back to my hometown Port Clinton, Ohio.
Have a great weekend, all of you co-conspirators in Zero Retries Interesting Amateur Radio activities!
Steve N8GNJ
By Steve Stroh N8GNJ
Some thoughts about communications in emergency situations, in this era.
Here in Zero Retries, I’m not personally equipped to tell the stories of Amateur Radio emergency communications during and after Hurricane Helene, and per the above, especially not equipped this past week. I’ll leave that story for others who are so equipped and have been following those developments more closely. One passing mention that unfortunately I didn’t bookmark was one Amateur Radio Operator in the affected area that pragmatically decided that the situation was a communications emergency in progress, and thus in his mind he was justified in programming a number of portable radios on Amateur Radio (simplex, if I recall correctly) frequencies and handing them out to his neighbors to provide basic communications.
Here in the US, the devastating amount of rain and resulting floods resulting from Hurricane Helene centered on Western North Carolina will require years to repair. Many communities and individual households are completely cut off, accessible only by air, and by mule train. Some small communities were simply scrubbed from the landscape by floodwaters powerful enough to remove entire houses whole.
Some of the most widespread damage that will be the slowest to repair will be to the electrical power grid in Western North Carolina. Unlike a more typical disaster with damage to transmission lines, poles, and towers… in this event floodwaters damaged the transmission infrastructure - the substations, the transformers, etc. Those will be much tougher to restore than the usual restoration of transmission lines.
I’ll guess that there will be similar structural damage to wired communications infrastructure, especially fiber optic facilities given that fiber networks typically require regeneration and distribution every 30 miles or so. If you know what to look for, “fiber huts” are pretty ubiquitous, and looking at them, you can tell that they’re simply not equipped to be waterproof when floodwaters completely submerged them.
What I will note is that in the immediate aftermath, Starlink was the only communications system that I saw mentioned in the general reporting from the area. That bears out my experiments and observations from Zero Retries 0157 - Just In Time for Meadow Day Anniversary - Starlink Mini.
I’ll guess that Starlink Mini with its ability to be powered by 12 volts, USB-C, mains power, or solar panels, and its compact size, will quickly become known as the communications system of choice in the aftermath of emergencies. Once you have a Starlink terminal up and running, its Wi-Fi gives you access to Internet at broadband speeds. Thus, turning on “Voice over Wi-Fi” on your mobile phone and connecting to Starlink Wi-Fi instantly restores your personal communications with the rest of the world. While the built-in Wi-Fi is limited, Starlink Mini also has an integral Ethernet port so more capable Wi-Fi could be added.
One of the more interesting stories I saw mentioned as part of aftermath of Hurricane Helene was individual helicopter owners / pilots flying to the region and of their own volition, begin rescuing people and dropping supplies like bottled water to people that were completely isolated where there were no accessible roads. For a time, there was no central authority asserted for such operations, and some regrettable “authority assertions” by emergency management agencies saying in effect “we don’t want your (helicopter) help - we’ll get to the affected folks when we get to them”.
The common theme I saw in much of the disjointed recovery effort was a lack of widespread communications capability - from individuals to organizations and even to mighty Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The helicopter pilots were an example; from what I observed there was no authority (via their airband radios) to check in with - there was no airfield nearby (temporary or permanent). It was amazing to me that watching one YouTube video, a couple with a four place helicopter found their way to rescue a family with a baby, and they only knew where to find this family via a post on social media.
I get… I really do… that the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Helene is what Incident Command System (ICS) was designed for. And ICS is a part of formal Amateur Radio emergency communications organizations and of course, public safety organizations. And one of the biggest parts of ICS is in being trained to understand that in trying to help… you don’t become part of the emergency you’re trying to help with. One of the prime tenets of ICS is “thou shall not self-deploy”.
But… people do self-deploy because they strongly feel that they are in a position to help. One memorable example was the Cajun Navy formed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Interestingly, the ad-hoc Cajun Navy is now a formal organization - Cajun Navy Relief. I’ll guess that one primary motivation for “doing something” is that such folks don’t want imagine a future where they might have been able to help, including save lives, and didn’t do so.
But ICS is only as good as the number of people that are trained for it (and regularly, re-train for it). Knowing my personal limitations, mostly my inability to do the necessary training, but also my health issues, are reasons I decided to opt out of participation in emergency communications organizations in my area.
ICS also heavily relies on (standardized) resources that are prearranged to be deployed - standardized radio frequencies, prepositioned supplies and systems, formal infrastructure, etc.
Solely in my opinion, where ICS falls down is in being able, or sometimes willingness, to make use of ad-hoc help that becomes available such as the private helicopters that just started showing up. Given the lack of coordination and the unwelcoming initial reception that private helicopter pilots received from emergency management officials, I’ll guess that personal helicopters weren’t part of the ICS planning for Western North Carolina.
What I’m observing (and this is a very preliminary, bleeding edge observation) is that for the first time, ubiquitous communications over a widespread disaster area are now accessible to everyone who have resources that they wish to contribute and to be coordinated. The Starlink Mini unit has truly changed communications. Starlink Mini can be carried and used by anyone from the mule trains to personal helicopter pilots. I’ve seen Starlink Mini being suction-cupped to vehicle sunroofs, to backpacks, to integrated battery / protective cases such as the Star-Batt Mini which is only one of many such units to combine a battery and easy storage, protection, and deployment of a Starlink Mini.
With a Starlink Mini, and its integrated Wi-Fi, you can check in on a phone app to a website and start seeing where you can help, and stay in communication. Again, I’m not positing that one should do so… don’t show up and end up becoming part of the emergency… But now… such a thing is possible, and the idea of “second responders” should, I think, begin to be considered.
And… Meshtastic. Many… perhaps in the end most of the Comments and Reply Comments about FCC Docket 24-240 (see Zero Retries 0170 - The non Power Players in the 902-928 MHz Band - Meshtastic and Amateur Radio) were from individuals, families, and community’s use of Meshtastic as a messaging system that doesn’t require any infrastructure. And (unlike Amateur Radio and GMRS) Meshtastic is usable by anyone without regard to having secured a formal license to use it. Many comments about Meshtastic mentioned that they became involved with Meshtastic to be able to use it in an emergency.
Perhaps that argument about keeping 902-928 MHz usable for unlicensed systems like Meshtastic carries more weight now with a visceral example of why unlicensed, ad-hoc data / messaging systems like Meshtastic need a band like 902-928 MHz to operate.
By Steve Stroh N8GNJ
I posit that Amateur Radio politics within Amateur Radio organizations has a lot to do with the structures of those organizations that were built for the previous century.
Here in Zero Retries, I’m not personally equipped to, or inclined to discuss the vagaries of Amateur Radio politics - until it becomes impossible to ignore and becomes so significant that it’s difficult to not mention.
In my opinion, the ARRL, by disqualifying by fiat, three challengers to incumbent directors of ARRL Divisions, is close to, or has become an illegitimate organization, effectively without a representative government.
Zero Retries Pseudostaffer Dan Romanchik KB6NU tells this story better than I can in his blog post - The ARRL elections this year are a sham:
I’ve always recommended that hams join the ARRL, but recent events have certainly tested my resolve. The ARRL seems to lurch from calamity to calamity.
…
The latest debacle is this year’s board of directors election. Every year, the ARRL conducts elections for five of the 15 directorships. This year, candidates in three of these elections have been disqualified, for somewhat dubious reasons, in my humble opinion.
Officially, these candidates were disqualified for violating one of the ARRL’s election rules. They all share a common characteristic, though: they are all critical of the current board and CEO, David Minster, NA2AA. Whatever the real reason, these disqualifications have turned this year’s elections into a sham.
This issue affected me directly. I advocated for significant change within the ARRL Northwestern Division as, in my opinion, the current director has been ineffectual. Dan Marler K7REX was nominated for Northwestern Division Director, and I endorsed him in Zero Retries 0166 - ARRL Division Elections - My Endorsements For Northwestern Division.
K7REX was certainly outspoken in his criticisms of the current directions and leadership of the ARRL, and communicated those concerns to the Northwestern Division membership. I read K7REX’s points, and agreed with all of them, and the day that voting was opened for Northwestern Division Director, I voted for K7REX. But, never mind, as KB6NU reports:
K7REX Disqualified!
This is another disturbing case. Dan Marler, K7REX, is as good a candidate as you’d want. He currently serves as Idaho Section Manager, has served as Section Emergency Coordinator, and is the founder of the Radio Amateur Training Planning and Activities Committee (RATPAC). He is a retired computer systems administrator for a Fortune-500 company and would bring a much-needed understanding of IT management to the League.
…
In a letter dated September 28, 2024, Dan was disqualified. It’s not clear if he was being disqualified for not retracting all of the statements or just the statement about the CEO’s salary. In any case, we see again the high-handedness of the E&E Committee, and again I have to say that this all sounds pretty shady to me.
The result of that disqualification isn’t that elections for Northwestern Division (and the other divisions where the same thing happened) will be re-opened and conducted again… it’s that the incumbent director was declared to be re-elected.
This is a classic case of winning a battle, but ultimately losing a war. This kind of… I’ll just say it… corruption is corrosive and in a closed system such as ARRL membership, there’s effectively no relief as it’s unlikely that anyone cares deeply enough to initiate a class action lawsuit to save what, in my opinion, will soon be revealed to be a dying organization as membership numbers (and revenue from “dues”) plummets by crisis proportions.
This matters because as much as I am disgusted by this corruption, it’s impossible to overlook that ARRL was one of only two national organizations involved with Amateur Radio to file substantive comments in FCC Docket 24-240. There will come a time when ARRL will inevitably contract to the point where it cannot afford full time legal representation in Washington to, among other things, file substantive comments with the FCC and act as a “quick, local response” when issues involving Amateur Radio come up at the FCC.
While I observe this impending collapse within the ARRL, I can’t suggest anything to do about it. I don’t think it can be fixed, and it certainly seems like the current ARRL leadership doesn’t see anything that needs to be fixed. The issues with ARRL are, in my opinion, structural from its being founded in the 20th century and that mindset severely contrasting with the realities of the 21st century, such as being a publisher of periodicals behind a paywall, and selling mostly print books in an era where that model of information transmission is rapidly being deprecated. That’s just not a sustainable financial model in the 21st century.
This issue isn’t confined to ARRL. Two Amateur Radio technical organizations have similar structural issues from having been founded (late) in the 20th century - TAPR and AMSAT.
TAPR receives most of its revenue (I’ve been informed) to sustain its operations by selling small kit products. But in the 21st century, “organizations” like TAPR are no longer required to put such products into the hands of Amateur Radio Operators. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of one-person businesses providing products of similar scope into Amateur Radio. Indeed in the last couple of years, TAPR elected two board members who are such one person businesses. TAPR canceled its beloved Digital Communications Conference (DCC) for 2024, with no information provided about that decision or the future of the DCC. TAPR’s primary communications to its audience have diminished to an occasional post on various mailing lists, periodic updates on its website, and a quarterly newsletter. TAPR’s quarterly PSR has always been one of the best parts of TAPR, but a quarterly newsletter in an era of daily YouTube videos really seems out of step with the communications realities (and expectations) of the 21st century.
AMSAT has an even more profound issue of an extremely small membership (if I recall correctly from my last period of membership, around 2000 individuals) and like ARRL, restricts its primary publication behind a paywall. This policy has diminishing returns that if someone interested in satellite communications cannot view “the good stuff” that discusses exactly, and in depth what value AMSAT is to Amateur Radio, they’re simply not inclined to join and support AMSAT. And without new members coming into the organization, it’s not sustainable in the long term.
Contrast the above issues with the following examples of organizations founded in the 21st century, taking advantage of the capabilities of the 21st century, without being beholden to the issues of the 20th century such maintaining an expensive headquarters like ARRL instead of a virtual organization that 21st century technology has made possible. None of these examples “replace” entirely the “20th century organizations”, but they’re not attempting to.
SARC Communicator
Surrey (British Columbia, Canada) Amateur Radio Communications (SARC) bimonthly “newsletterzine” The Communicator is, in my opinion, fully equal to magazines such as QST and the late CQ Magazine. Again, the goal of SARC with The Communicator isn’t to rival QST or CQ, but it does serve as an informative, general, interesting, substantive publication that gives a good flavor of Amateur Radio activities, technology, and the general spirit of fun about playing with radio technology with an Amateur Radio license. Unlike ARRL, RAC, RSGB, and AMSAT, it entices those interested in Amateur Radio into Amateur Radio because, if someone is curious about Amateur Radio, all of The Communicator can be read online, for free.
Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications (DLARC)
DLARC is a grant funded project of the Internet Archive that is an extensive online archive of Amateur Radio (and radio, and communications, in general) material available for free. All material in DLARC has been digitized and normalized - no oddball formats, and all text materials have been converted to text so that you can do keyword and phrase searches.
NARS - Narwhal Amateur Radio Society, NR7WL
… is a refreshingly different kind of Amateur Radio organization than we’re used to:
Purpose
The Narwhal Amateur Radio Society (“NARS”) is an amateur radio club not tied to a particular geographic region, with membership open both to licensed amateur radio operators and those who have not yet chosen to pursue such a license. NARS exists for three main purposes:
To diversify the field and practice of amateur radio and radio frequency experimentation through education, evangelism, and activism;
To foster joy, goodwill, understanding, and experiential enlightenment of all people in radio, computer, electronic, and related disciplines; and
To serve as a stalwart opponent of the use of amateur radio as an accessory to state violence and oppression.
As part of the Narwhal Pincushion, we follow the Narwhal Code of Conduct at all times.
In creating a system of mesh network communications using unlicensed spectrum, Meshtastic could be thought of as a 21st century equivalent to TAPR being created to popularize and promote packet radio technology within Amateur Radio. Meshtastic is a project, not a product, and a “light” organization - no membership, no dues, no officers, etc. Just promoting a new technology for the greater good and experimentation with radio technology by individuals and small groups.
Similar to TAPR’s original vision, two decentralized / distributed projects for promoting open source technology are Open Research Institute (ORI) and HamOpen.
It’s also becoming more common to, like TAPR’s origin, to create new organizations or simply virtual, open source projects for powerful, foundational technology such as as M17 Project, APRS Foundation, DIRE WOLF, G8BPQ BBS, MMDVM, etc.
As for Space Communications, I posit that if someone wants to learn more about hands-on space communications, there’s more “entry level”, interesting information available on how to “build something involving satellite communications” from SatNOGS and TinyGS than from AMSAT, which mostly offers information about joining the organization than about personal involvement in satellite communications. In fairness, AMSAT-UK provides extensive information about getting involved in Amateur Radio satellite communications on their website that isn’t hidden behind a paywall.
A Zero Retries advisor has often reminded me that Amateur Radio is merely a microcosm of society, and thus not immune from, or apart from the severe, compressed, complicated structural changes in society that have been wrought by the introduction of the Internet (and its disruptive business models and social media). So just as we mourn, but move on from the death of a beloved local newspaper or the National Geographic Society becoming just another media brand name, we should accept the wise words of Dr. Suess:
Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
By Orv Beach W6BI
(From the AREDN website)
The biggest change in this release if you haven't been keeping tabs on AREDN, is the "new UI". The User Interface or UI is how data is presented to a person. The old UI, written in LUA not only looked old, it was hampering the implementation of new features. Now written in JavaScript, among other things it's more economical on bandwidth used to display the user interface. It's also much easier to add new features. The new UI has taken 6 months and the work of many, many people. We’d like to thank everyone involved with developing, documenting, and especially debugging this; we really appreciate our community!
Because it's new, navigating around it may initially be a challenge. Steve, AB7PA, keeper of the AREDN docs, has done a stellar job in documenting the new UI. It's highly recommended you at least skim them, here: http://docs.arednmesh.org/en/latest/ Within the new UI you will also find a Help button for every dialog. Please press it and read the inline help at least once. Finally, we recorded a walk through of the new UI which you can find here:
(note that there have been a few minor changes since we did this).
After upgrading, you may be returned to the old UI or you might see the new UI. In either case you will see a green button in the upper-right-hand corner of your browser window which lets you toggle between them. In the new UI you will initially be in Guest mode. To log into Admin mode, click on the little guy in the upper-right-hand corner, click on Login and enter the node's password (no need for a user name).
Devices running nightly builds will only notify about new nightly builds; going forward the same behavior will hold for devices running production release code; they'll only notify on detection of new production releases. Regardless all builds will be available in a refreshed update list.
If a watchdog timer is enabled, recommend disabling during updates. If the watchdog kicks off during an update it could derail the update process.
New UI. All the enhancements below are in the new UI only. The old UI remains unchanged.
New custom UI when first installing nodes.
Ability to remove unused tunnels
Added a weight to tunnels, now on a per-tunnel basis (the "weight" artificially degrades the tunnel's ETX; if an RF also route exists and its ETX value is better, it will be preferred)
Themes support: default, high contrast, color-blind, dark, and light.
Portable themes let you set a theme on your localnode and see it on every other node. So if you’re color blind for example, you can set that once and see that theme on every node you visit.
If a node can get to http://downloads.aredenmesh.org it will indicate if a code update is available. Nightly nodes will be notified of nightly updates, while release nodes will be notified of release updates.
Added update progress indicator when downloading or uploading firmware.
Added ability to switch between 12 hour and 24 hour displays
DHCP aliases are now rewritten when DHCP range changes
Now show metric units if your locale isn't "en-us" or “en-gb”
Added the option to prevent LQM from blocking poorly performing links. This allows you to keep LQM active and let it manage link performance, without it shutting down crucial connections.
Added topic-sensitive help in every configuration dialog.
Added always-running NTPD option
Added GPS support (see https://github.com/kn6plv/WhereAndWhen for how to install a GPS receiver) which is shared by all DtD connected nodes.
Ubiquiti Nanobeam 5AC WA
Support for newer Mikrotik devices that use the newer Mikrotik v7 bootloader
Fixed Ubiquiti AC devices failing WiFi scan if on 10MHz
Fixed time drifting problem on Basebox 5, QRT 5, non-AC mANT 19S
User firewall rules are now preserved across upgrades
Fix supernode locator. Now correctly finds the closest one.
Just a heads-up - this is what will happen in the first nightly build after this production release:
The old UI will be removed from the software. Having both of them there impacts the older 32 MB devices and going forward keeping both UI’s compatible isn’t possible.
A secondary NTP server option will be added
WiFi scanning of non-mesh and multiple wifi devices will be supported
Support for different wireless WAN client encryptions will be added
Those of you who like to run nightlies may want to hold off for a few releases after this production release; there are a lot of changes queued up for the next nightly build (more than shown above) and there's apt to be some breakage for a bit.
The way the tunnel addresses are allocated has changed in the new UI. In some unlikely cases you may need to remove a tunnel and re-add it.
While we provide both UIs in this release, trying to use both interchangeably can cause problems. Once you start using the new UI, please don’t go back and use the old one.
There remain problems with the TP-Link CPE710.
GL.iNet GL-B1300 does not support negative channels on the 2.4 GHz band.
The Litebeam M5 is no longer supported.
If you’re not yet licensed as an Amateur Radio Operator, and would like to join the fun by literally having a license to experiment with radio technology, check out
Join the Fun on Amateur Radio for some pointers.
Zero Retries Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) — In development 2023-02.
In its mission to highlight technological innovation in Amateur Radio, promote Amateur Radio to techies as a literal license to experiment with radio technology, and make Amateur Radio more relevant to society in the 2020s and beyond, Zero Retries is published via email and web, and is available to everyone at no cost. Zero Retries is proud not to participate in the Amateur Radio Publishing Industrial Complex, which hides Amateur Radio content behind paywalls.
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2024-10-04
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I’ve been eyeing Lochnagar GM/ES-008 for a while, and this Thursday’s forecast was looking reasonable, so decided to take the day off. It’s little neighbour, Conachcraig GM/ES-019, is asking to be activated at the same time. I was going to take the common route starting at Glenmuick, but Fraser, MM0EFI, suggested biking from Balmoral castle.
As I was trying to fit this into the family schedule, any time I could save would be an advantage. I used plotaroute to figure out the times for the biking and hiking sections, matching the speed I think I move at, plus the drive back and forth, it looked like the cycle route would be the quickest. 8:05 hrs for the cycle route vs. 8:40 for the walk from Glenmuick (times include driving). I considered cycling from Glenmuick but supposedly the path isn’t great beyond the forest, so not really worth it.
Was only a few degrees at the start in Crathie car park, but cycling generally uphill and in the sun I was soon roasting! It was around 1:15 cycle up to the intersection of Lochnagar and Conachcraig and I’d had enough of the bike! Much of the route is a gentle incline but there are areas where it’s steeper and much less enjoyable.
I met a nice German couple on the way up Lochnagar. They’d been in Scotland for nearly 3 weeks and had brillant weather all round. Climbed Ben Nevis, Ben Lomond and visited several cities and towns.
“Of course the weather is always like this”.
A german ham I know told me: “Nice German” is as redundant as “false error” or “undead zombie”. His choice of words. Enough chit-chat, I had a schedule to keep and kept going.
I’ve not been on a popular summit for a while and was surprised to see so many people on a random Thursday. I say so many people, it probably it was about 15, but compared to zero to two, it seemed a lot.
The forecast had said cloudy in the afternoon and I was due on the summit at 1300 local so I was hoping it would stay clear. I wasn’t disappointed.
I waited my turn in the queue to take photos at the summit, offering to take those of others. The wind was strong at this point and you wanted to be sure of your footing whilst scrambling about on the top. The views were incredible in all directions, and anyone on a summit in GM/ES would’ve had a great day.
I’d made it to the top ahead of schedule but I spent a long time admiring the views and walking around. The wind was strong so I looked for somewhere sheltered and away from the main path to setup, but ended up just sitting on the grass to one side. With my back to the wind it wasn’t too bad. I setup the slim G on the 6m mast and used my HT to call CQ. I was hoping to qualify the summit on 2m and in short order to keep on my way. I also noticed the clouds rolling in from the south. Got 5 in the log, mostly the locals plus Jace MM7VXJ who called when I was eating a biscuit. Credit to Jace for trying to relay messages to Jack, GM4COX, who was a 59 for me but think I was a 01 for him, and he wanted to move to sideband. I was surprised not to get anyone else further south.
Time to head back. I should’ve taken a photo of Conachcraig from the summit, as it looked tiny from atop Lochnagar! All around the cliff edges are openings that just drop away, and on a lovely sunny day they’re interesting to look at but if it were cloudy these are a literal death trap!
Back down, passed my bike, and then up to the next summit.
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