February 201 4, Issue 2, Volume 62
From Your Editor Benjamin Straw, KC9UNS
Have you checked out the the clubs web page lately? If not go to www.w9lj.org for a look. In particular click on MORE, then scroll down to the OPERATING AIDS page for some helpful tools that will help you with propagation, DX spotting, QSLing and more. Speaking of more, I hope everyone is staying warm and not braking ones back shoveling all this snow we have been getting.
UPCOMING EVENTS
I don’t remember if I added this last month or not but NASA posted a video showing the sun flipping its poles. Thought I would share the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UtVo7-yJA
2900 W 93rd Ave. Crown Point, In. General Meeting 7:30pm Board: 6:30pm
Trend to look out for
Very recently there has been some news articles being reported from the media about Ham operators being responsible for interrupting communications on emergency frequencies. Some of which have no facts behind them. “A so-called radio pirate has been accused of hijacking police over the airways.” “They confiscated his ham radio” said newschannel5.com. We all know what type of radio he had, a motorola that was decommissioned or a chinese radio. Its not that hard to get them, go to a hamfest or even Amazon.com, hell on black friday had an HT for $30 shipped. We reported in one of the previous issues of Short Skip that an IL man was arrested for doing almost the same thing, the media reported him as being a ham, but in fact the person in question relinquished his licence. What we need to do is start correcting and making the news media redact stories that are false and or leave details left out. Our hobby does not need to be bashed and most certainly banned, because some local government had a issue.
Meeting
Jan 1 0, 201 3 Lake County EMA Building
Hamfest
Sat Feb 22, 201 4 LaPorte County Cabin Fever Hamfest
LaPorte Civic Auditorium 1 001 Ridge St. LaPorte, IN
Sat Mar 8, 201 4 Terre Haute Hamfest and Computer Expo
Dede Activity Center Indiana State University
Net
LCARC Weekly Information Net
Straight Up Podcasts
Clubs VHF & UHF Repeaters Before getting into this great hobby I once hosted some podcasts, What is a podcast you Every Thursday @ 8pm say? Well it is a show that is intended to be downloaded from the internet and listened on a computer or portable music player such as an iPod, MP3 player or Smartphone. At the time I had… well a ton of time so I started creating these “Podcasts”. Now with little or no time and other hobbies including this one, it went to the wayside, But I still listen to my favorite podcasts including ones about amateur radio, technology, sci fi, storytelling, and useless information. I encourage you to check out the following shows and please report back to me what you listen to or if you like the shows.
Radioactive Ham Podcast - radioactiveham.com Radiolab - radiolab.org/series/podcasts/ Ham Nation - twit.tv/hn The Moth: True Stories told Live - themoth.org ICQ Amateur Ham podcast - icqpodcast.com Tartis chronicles (Doctor who) - tardischronicles.com Useless Information Podcast - uselessinformation.libsyn.com Good Job Brain - goodjobbrain.com Still Untitled: The Adam Savage Project(The guy from Mythbusters) - tested.com/podcast/still-untitled-the-adam-savage-project/ AmateurLogic.TV - amateurlogic.tv/blog
In this Issue of Short Skip 2. Meeting Minutes 3 - 4. Ham News 5. Best and Worst, ESD 6. RFI, Quits Hobby 7. Licenses?, Antennas
ARTICLES N EEDED!!! If you have anything pertaining to amateur radio that you would like to contribute to, and share with others in Short Skip, we would be happy to include your offering in any future edition. Anything you would like. Hints and kinks, antennas, technical talk, operating tips, public service, classic Matt KC9YNM radio, club activities, etc., would be heartily welcomed!!! All articles must be Bob WD9FNY in by the 23rd of every month. Copyright Cliff WA8ZAZ rules and permission apply to all submissions. Please send your submission to: KC9UNS / Short Skip Editor If we missed your birthday or kc9uns@gmail.com I hope you enjoy this month’s Short Skip as much as I did putting it together!
get it wrong, please let us know
Meeting Minutes
201 4 Officers President: ................. KB9HO
Benjamin Straw, KC9UNS
Meeting called to order at 7:35 PM
Treasure Report:
Russ McComb Vice President: ...... WD9EZB Bob Wiberg
Old Business:
Secretary: ............. KC9UNS
Attendance: Members: 7
No Treasurer Report
Benjamin Straw
None
New Business:
Russ KB9HO let the members know the board will be adding a bylaw to allow no less than 4 Directors and or Officers to cancel a meeting due to weather or any other unforeseen event. The announcement of said cancellation of meeting would be sent out via email and facebook. It will also be announced on clubs repeater. Mark K9MQ will write up said bylaw.
Program:
John W9WY showed off his Astro Saber P25 Motorola HT and talked about digital
Treasurer: ................ KF9EX Jim Harney Trustee: ..................... WV9O Marv Boetcher
Directors Bill Young ................. N9QLS Ken Brown ................ KE9TC Bob Nelms ............ WD9FNY
Mark Skowronski .......... K9MQ John Gianotti ................. W9WY Carter Garcia ............. KC9YGU
Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM local.
Editorial Staff Editor-in-Chief ...... KC9UNS Benjamin Straw
(kc9uns@gmail.com)
Club Resources
W9LJ/R ......................... 1 47.000 + PL 1 31 .8 W9LJ/R (St. John) ..... 1 47.240 + PL 1 31 .8 W9LJ/R ......................... 442.075 + PL 1 31 .8 Repeater Nets Thursday Night @ 8 pm: LCARC Weekly Infomation Net
Meetings
Feb 1 4, 201 3 BOARD MEETING LCEMA OFFICE, 2900 93rd Ave Crown Point (41 .449555,-87.36893) (Across from Gov. Ctr.) 6:30 p.m. Feb 1 4, 201 3 CLUB MEETING 2900 93rd Ave Crown Point (41 .449555,-87.36893) (Across from Gov. Ctr.) 7:30 p.m. LCARC is an IRS-certified 501 (c)3 charitable organization and donations are deductible pursuant to the IRS rules. If you have working radio equipment and ancillary equipment that you can and wish to donate to the club, please contact one of the board members and we will be happy to talk to you about the process. Many companies will either grant or match employee’s gifts to nonprofit organizations like LCARC.Please determine if your com pany is among these and contact a board member so we may help fund and grow LCARC. We cannot accept certain donations, and have to place some restrictions around them (no hazardous materials, nothing we could not sell, etc.). If you are interested, look me, or any other board member up at one of the meetings, or contact us via email (our addresses at the end of this newsletter)
Vol. 62 No. 2
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A M AT E U R R AD I O N E W S
recipients for these awards. Winners are typically announced following the Board's July meeting. More information http://www.arrl.org/arrl-award-nominations The ARRL is inviting nominations http://www.arrl.org/arrl-award-nominations about these awards is on the ARRL for awards that recognize educational and website, or contact Steve Ewald technological pursuits in Amateur Radio. wv1 x@arrl.org, WV1 X, (860) 594-0265 at ARRL Headquarters. Nominations also are open for the League's premier award to honor a young Source: ARRL Amateur Radio licensee. ===================== Repeater Owners Now May Submit - The Hiram Percy Maxim Award Repeater Directory Updates Directly to recognizes a radio amateur and ARRL ARRL member under age 21 whose accomplishments and contributions are of Repeater owners now may submit the most exemplary nature within the http://www.arrl.org/repeaters updated framework of Amateur Radio activities. information for use in the ARRL Repeater Nominations for this award need to be Directory, TravelPlus and other products made through your ARRL Section Manager http://www.arrl.org/sections, who directly to the ARRL via the League's will then forward the nomination to ARRL website. Repeater owners or trustees can use the new web page to notify the ARRL Headquarters by March 31 , 201 4. of changes to existing repeaters, such as - The ARRL Herb S. Brier Instructor of the new CTCSS frequencies or call sign changes. The web page cannot be used to Year Award honors an ARRL volunteer add new or uncoordinated repeaters, Amateur Radio instructor or an ARRL professional classroom teacher who uses however. creative instructional approaches and reflects the highest values of the Amateur "This new capability is intended for repeaters that are already on the air, as a Radio community. The award highlights means to keep our information as accurate quality of and commitment to licensing instruction. Nominations are due by March as possible throughout the year," said Steve Ford, WB8IMY, ARRL Publications 1 5, 201 4. Manager. Ford was quick to point out that sending information directly to the ARRL - The ARRL Microwave Development Award pays tribute to a radio amateur or does not relieve repeater owners of their group of radio amateurs who contribute to obligation to communicate with their coordinators. the development of the Amateur Radio microwave bands. The nomination "We are simply collecting the most up-todeadline is March 31 , 201 4. date information for use in books and software, and only for those instances - The ARRL Technical Service Award where something has recently changed," recognizes a radio amateur or group of Ford stressed. "This isn't meant to be a radio amateurs who provide Amateur substitute for notifying your coordinator. It Radio technical assistance or training to others. The nomination deadline is March also isn't a substitute for formal coordination of a new repeater. Only 31 , 201 4. repeater coordinators can do that." - The ARRL Technical Innovation Award is Source: ARRL granted to a radio amateur or group of radio amateurs who develop and apply ===================== new technical ideas or techniques in Amateur Radio. The nomination deadline is CQRLOG 1 .7.0 has been released! This version has one feature requested by many March 31 , 201 4. users & online log upload. It supports - The Knight Distinguished Service Award HamQTH, ClubLog and HRDLog.net. I've was established to recognize exceptionally been using HamQTH upload for a week or two and it works very well. How to enable notable contributions by a Section and set online log upload is described in Manager to the health and vitality of the ARRL. The nomination deadline is April 30, updated help files. There are also o few more new features and lot of bugfixes. 301 4. More in download section. This version solved problem with building The ARRL Board of Directors selects Nominations Solicited for Six ARRL Awards
Vol. 62 No. 2
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packages for Debian unstable, Ubuntu 1 3.1 0 and Ubuntu 1 4.04. Packages for Precise, Quantal and Raring are already created, Launchpad is working on packages for Saucy and Trusty. cqrlog.com ===================== W1 00AW On the Air!
At the stroke of midnight (Eastern time) on January 1 , 201 4, the Hiram Percy Maxim Memorial station W1 AW at ARRL Headquarters in Newington, CT, took to the airwaves with the special ARRL Centennial call sign W1 00AW. ARRL Chief Executive Officer Dave Sumner, K1 ZZ and Membership and Volunteer Programs Manager Dave Patton, NN1 N, were at the helm through the wee hours of the New Year's Day morning. Daylight hours saw Station Manager Joe Carcia, NJ1 Q; Chief Operations Officer Harold Kramer, WJ1 B; Membership and Volunteer Programs Assistant Manager Norm Fusaro, W3IZ; Public Relations Manager Sean Kutzko; KX9X and QST Editor in Chief Steve Ford, WB8IMY, taking their turns at the operating positions. By mid-afternoon there were several thousand contacts in the log on SSB, CW and RTTY. "This is just the beginning," said Sean Kutzko, KX9X. "Hams will hear W1 00AW throughout 201 4 on every mode possible. When you hear us, spot us on the cluster!" W1 00AW contacts will be uploaded to Logbook of The World. Postal QSLs will be acknowledged as well. ===================== Eastern VHF-UHF-Microwave Conference Set for April 1 1 -1 3 The 40th Eastern VHF-UHF-Microwave Conference will take place April 1 1 -1 3 at the Baymont Inn and Suites, 20 Taylor Street in Manchester, Connecticut, sponsored by the Eastern VHF/UHF Society and the North East Weak Signal Group (NEWS). Online registration is available. Banquet speaker will be Dave Olean, K1 WHS. Registration is $25 before April 1 , $30 after April 1 and at the door. Banquet tickets are $28 and must be ordered before April 1 . Additional conference presentations are welcome. Contact Paul Wade, W1 GHZ. For more information, contact Mark Casey, K1 MAP. — AMSAT News Service
3
Canada to Get Five 60 Meter Channels Industry Canada has granted Amateur Radio operators there the use of five 60 meter channels on a non-interference basis. The center-channel frequencies harmonize with those available to US radio amateurs on 60 meters: 5332 kHz, 5348 kHz, 5358.5 kHz, 5373 kHz, and 5405 kHz. “[G]iven that use of these frequencies was requested, in part, to allow for cross-border communications in times of emergency,” Industry Canada said, “harmonization of the frequencies with the United States would facilitate such communications between the Canadian and the US Amateur Radio communities.” Amateur stations will be restricted to USB, data, RTTY and CW modes, with a maximum bandwidth of 2.8 kHz, and a maximum power output of 1 00 W ERP — the same the US allows. “Canadian amateur operations shall not cause interference to fixed and mobile operations in Canada or in other countries,” Industry Canada ruled, “and, if such interference occurs, the Amateur Service may be required to cease operations. The Amateur Service in Canada may not claim protection from interference by the fixed and mobile operations of other countries.” — Thanks to Industry Canada and Bryan Rawlings, VE3QN ===================== North Korea Still Tops The DX Magazine's Most Wanted Survey The DX Magazine has published the results of its most-wanted DXCC entities, and, once again, North Korea (P5) is number 1 . Here are the Top 1 0 overall worldwide results, as they appeared in The DX Magazine’s January/February 201 4 issue. 201 3 Prefix/Entity (201 2) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
P5 North Korea (1 ) KP1 Navassa Island (2) 3Y/B Bouvet (3) FT5W Crozet (6) FT5Z Amsterdam (4) VK0/H Heard Island (5) BS7H Scarborough (7) ZS8M Marion Island (9) VP8/S South Sandwich (8) FT5T Tromelin Island (1 0)
with Tromelin and Amsterdam, both scheduled for major DXpeditions.”
the FUNcube MSE is to allow students to witness heat transfer by radiation firsthand in an environment — space — where The complete Top 1 00 Most Wanted list is convection and conduction are not available on the DX Publishing website. present.” The continental rankings appear in the January/February issue of DX Magazine; Spencer called the FUNcube MSE “an band/mode breakdowns will be published exceptional educational resource,” and he in the March/April 201 4 issue. praised AMSAT-UK’s efforts. “It’s now our turn to gain as much as we can from their ===================== efforts, and I hope the Guide will help you New Guide Promotes FUNcube-1 's get started.” Educational Value AMSAT-UK said its FUNcube project was A new FUNcube guide developed by designed “to create an educational ARRL Education & Technology Program CubeSat which is intended to enthuse, (ETP) Director Mark Spencer, WA8SME, excite and educate students about radio, aims to maximize the educational focus of space, physics and electronics. It will also the tiny AO-73 satellite. Spencer’s support educational science, technology, Pragmatic Guide for Using the FUNcube engineering, and mathematics (STEM) (AO-73) Materials Science Experiment in initiatives.” FUNcube-1 was put into orbit the Classroom prompts readers to dig as a standalone 1 U (1 0 × 1 0 × 1 0 beyond AO-73’s Amateur Radio centimeters) CubeSat. The follow-on transponder and telemetry uploads and FUNcube-2 will be part of the UKube-1 3U downloads and “take a closer look at what spacecraft. is really going on” as the satellite orbits Earth. The diminutive spacecraft includes Visit ARRL’s Classroom Library: Satellite an AMSAT-UK-developed materials Communications page, which includes a science experiment (MSE). Spencer’s link to the new guide, for more information guide helps teachers and students to on bringing space into the classroom. analyze telemetry and apply the laws of AMSAT-UK has put out its own FUNcube thermodynamics to examine how heat is Handbook to provide some practical radiated into space from materials having advice to interested hams and classroom different surface finishes. teachers on how to access and use the satellite’s onboard MSE. “The primary mission of the FUNcube is education, and the MSE is the focus of that ===================== mission,” Spencer said. When it’s not in If you never heard of Shackbox educational mode the spacecraft switches (http://shackbox.net/): this is a Linux on an Amateur Radio SSB/CW inverting distribution specifically designed for ham transponder (435.1 50U435.1 30 MHz LSB radio operators. F0FAK, the creator of this up/1 45.950U1 45.970 MHz USB down). “I distro, writes on Google+: know there is an ongoing discussion of the value of cubesat telemetry when compared I am pleased to announce you that to transponder operations,” he said. “[Y]ou Shackbox, get finally a major update after just might find that an occasional look at all these years of silence, with sdr, the telemetry will help you better gnuradio and more, all out of the box. The understand satellites and make you a beta release will be soon available for free better satellite operator.” for you guys for test, you will be the first to get the download link. As Spencer explained, the FUNcube-1 MSE includes two separate experiments — shackboxIf some of you already use/ used one using the thermally isolated aluminum it, thx for share your comments, and thx to bars mounted on one face of the satellite, all for your support, during all theses years, and the second using four aluminum bars shackbox air got more than 20 000 that form part of the satellite’s body in the download! Considering that shackbox was corners of the cube. MSE data are created just for a friend who was fighting transmitted via a 2 meter downlink installing linux, it s quite amazing :) Very (1 45.935 MHz BPSK) and decoded and happy to share this first post, this first good displayed by the AMSAT-UK Dashboard news with you for my first day in your software. community :)
“Collecting the data is only part of the If you’re interested in Linux, also visit the education mission,” Spencer said. “The “Linux in the ham shack” podcasts. Good “It is interesting to note that the same 1 0 other — and more meaningful part — is stuff. places are there for both 201 2 and 201 3,” interpreting the data.” That, he explained, starts with a thermodynamics refresher. “In QRZ DX/The DX Magazine Editor Carl, Smith N4AA, said. “[T]here are a few slight the broadest terms, thermodynamics is the changes in ranking, but it is the same 1 0. study of how heat moves from one place to another,” he continued. “The purpose of That should change somewhat for 201 4
Vol. 62 No. 2
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China’s Best and Worst of 201 3 Hans Van Rijsse PD0AC
One year ago I posted “China’s Best and Worst of 201 2“. Anything changed? Yes, I added a few devices, added links, and changed text where needed.
2.the ‘old’ Wouxun KG-UV920R – false start due to unreliable rotary encoders and disappointing harmonic suppression. Still sold here and there, which is why I still list it.
This is list is put together purely on technical data gathered during laband real life tests. Price/performance is another thing. Even I kept some of the equipment I labeled ‘worst’ just because they’re fun; always make up your own mind. The Baofeng UV-3R is a good example.
Undecided: I don’t know where to put the Wouxun KG-950P. The radio was too good to be listed under ‘The Worst’, but not good enough to be added under ‘The Best’.
Category Dual Band HTs
Category Dual Band Antennas
The best: 1 . Wouxun KG-UVD1 P / KG-UVD6P (no flaws, but relatively expensive) 2. Baofeng UV-B5 / UV-B6 (very close to perfect and dirt cheap) 3. Quansheng TG-UV2 (great battery life, but lacks DTMF) 4. iRadio UV-588 (simple but reliable companion) 5. Baofeng UV-82 (bigger case, 1 Watt more output power than the UV5R on both bands) 6. Baofeng UV-5R (fair share of flaws, but good price/performance)
The best: 1 . The Baofeng UV-B5 / UV-B6 stock antenna. Hard to beat. 2. The famous $3.79 antenna (as good as any for a rock bottom price) 3. Nagoya NA-701 (good performer, sturdy) 4. Nagoya NA-666 (good performer but easily bent) The worst: 1 . Nagoya NA-773 (this one will destroy your PA module for sure) 2. All other extendable antennas.
The worst: 1 . Waccom WUV-6R (expensive Wouxun look-a-like, too much phase Category Test / Repair Equipment noise, poor front end) 2.Baofeng UV-3R (worst harmonic suppression ever, front end not much The best: either, volume bug) 1 . Rigol DSA-81 5TG (finally an affordable spectrum analyzer, no real flaws) Category Dual Band / Quad band Mobiles 2. Atten ADS-1 1 02CAL (Digital Storage Oscilloscope for unbelievable The best: little money. Stock probes suck though.) 1 . Wouxun KG-UV920P (still a few loose ends, but getting there) 3.The 5-in-1 multimeter from eBay. (‘Can Do It All’ for little money) 2. Polmar DB-50 / Powerwerx DB-750X (would compete for first place is it 4. MF-47D analog multimeter (retro, cheap, but accurate) wasn’t for the poor microphone) The worst: The worst: 1 . Victor VC2002 Function Generator (no DDS, limited range.) 1 . The ‘old’ Anytone AT-588UV / AT-5888UV – so many flaws that you can’t sell it without being unscrupulous. Still sold here and there, which is For links and reviews of the radios talked about visit Hans blog why I still list it. hamgear.wordpress.com
Protect your gear from ESD Dan Romanchik, KB6NU
Electrostatic discharge, or ESD for short, has been a concern for anyone involved in electronics ever since we made the transition from vacuum tubes to transistors. I was schooled about ESD when I worked as a test engineer for a company called Doric Scientific shortly after I got out of engineering school, and I wrote about it when I was an editor for Test&Measurment World magazine back in the 1 990s. If anything, it's even more of a concern today as electronic components get ever smaller. In 1 991 , Bryan P. Bergeron, NU1 N, published a two-part series on ESD (part 1 : http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/91 0401 9.pdf, part 2: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/tis/info/pdf/91 05028.pdf) in QST. His suggestions about how to prevent ESD damage are as good now as they were 20 years ago: - Consider using a room humidifier to increase the relative humidity in your shack, or wherever you work on electronic equipment to 65% RH or higher. - Use grounded wrist straps when handling ESD-sensitive devices. - Use grounded, anti-ESD work mats when working on electronic equipment. - Use a grounded soldering iron and anti-static tools. - Use anti-static bags and containers for storing and transporting electronic equipment. - Connect the chassis of all your gear to a good earth ground. - Consider purchasing a desktop ionizer to neutralize static buildup on your workbench. I might also add consider grounding the chairs that you use in your shack or discharging yourself after getting up from the chair in your shack. I know that the worst electrostatic discharges that I experience are after I get up from my chair. You can even buy ESDsafe chairs (http://www.all-spec.com/products/Benches_and_Chairs%7CChairs_and_Accessories%7CCHR-00/), but they are kind of expensive. Personally, I use an anti-static mat that I originally purchased for use with a computer keyboard and a wrist strap that was given to me by an ESD consultant when I worked for the magazine. I use these religiously when building kits or working on any solid-state gear. It's not hard to find anti-static products. RadioShack sells a wrist strap for only $1 .23 (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=21 03245)! You can find a whole range of anti-static products on Amazon, too. Wherever you get them, they're a good investment. =================================================== When he's not worrying about ESD, Dan, KB6NU enjoys teaching amateur radio classes and working CW on the HF bands. For more information about his operating activities and his "No-Nonsense" series of amateur radio license study guides, go to KB6NU.Com or e-mail cwgeek@kb6nu.com.
Vol. 62 No. 2
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Ham Dismantles Home To Stop Rampant RFI K5PO HamHijinks.com
SPRINGDALE, Ark. — Springdale resident Kelvin Trotman has a problem with noise, but not the typical kind found in many neighborhoods. Kelvin can’t hear a neighbor practicing the drums during the football game, and instead of loud, drunken parties until 2 a.m., his neighbors are quiet and respectful—yet Kelvin’s home is assaulted by noise.
In an effort to locate the source, Trotman began circling his house with a small AM radio trying to “sniff out” the RFI source. He found it—in his doorbell, which he promptly ripped off the exterior wall. “But the next day it was back—this time on 1 5 meters—and way worse and even louder!” said Trotman. He went on the hunt again, this time taking a sledgehammer to his new 55” plasma TV and literally punting a paper shredder into his back lot.
The noise didn’t stop. Over the course of the next couple construction_manKelvin, an amateur radio operator, has a days, Trotman destroyed three desktop computers, six house literally bathed in radio frequency-based noise. Most smoke detectors, 34 various CFL and LED light bulbs, two people would never even notice this kind of noise in their 30 amp switching power supplies, an electric fence around home, but as a radio aficionado, it’s simply devastating. his neighbor’s house, some 1 2v “wall wart” power supplies, his girlfriend’s new iPhone and charger, his main bathroom In the amateur radio world, this noise is called RFI, or radio toilet (he kind of got carried away on that one), and finished frequency interference. As it turns out, the myriad of by using a quarter stick of dynamite to blow up the pump electronic and powered devices that litter the modern for his water well. home, also have the bad habit of spewing noisy RFI that can be heard mostly on radio equipment. All said and done, Trotman has dismantled almost everything in his house that plugged into a wall or was “The noise first started when I installed a new “off center powered by commercial mains. “The noise!” shrieked fed” antenna suggested to me by Andre Holzmen. He really Troman, “I just couldn’t kill it!” liked the multi-band performance and simplicity of the OCF dipole so I figured ‘Why not?’… Well, he is an idiot. And it Trotman stated he is now formalizing plans to move into brought me nothing but trouble!” said Trotman. rural Franklin County on some land that has been in his family for years. “It’s about 1 30 acres without a powerline At first, Trotman says the new antenna helped him bag in sight!” he says. what they refer to as “Gud DX.” “I’m leaving it all behind! The hussle and bussle of this city “For a few days, it was fine,” said Trotman. “Then on about life… and the noise. Oh lord, the noise!” the fourth day I picked up an obnoxious 40 dB over S9 signal on 40 meters. It blew my headphones off my dang ### hamhijinks.com head!”
Ham Quits Hobby Over Funny Phonetics K5KVN HamHijinks.com
NORFOLK, Va. - Mitch Eversdale blames it on “Three Lovely Ladies.” Those are the phonetics a ham in Michigan used when talking to a station with a callsign suffix of “TLL.” And it was the last straw for the long-time ham radio operator. I_quit“It happens all the time and I’m sick of it. Just the other day, I was tuning around 40m and someone made ‘WB’ into ‘Wild Bill,’” said Eversdale. A retired Navy radio operator, Eversdale admits he’s a “hardcore traditional man” when it comes to phonetics. “Can you imagine saying something that ridiculous on a Navy frequency? I believe you’d get thrown into the drink if you did,” he says. His ham radio friends, like Benny Roddenfall, have told him he needs to lighten up. “I don’t know why he gets so worked up about it. Heck, he nearly punched me at the club meeting last week when I referred to QST Magazine as “Q Street,” says Roddenfall. After overhearing the contact between the Michigan ham and the station ending in “TLL,” Eversdale says he’s through with being on-air. “I’ll focus my attention on a hobby that takes things more seriously, like embroidery. There’s a hobby that can’t get things wrong.” ### hamhijinks.com
Vol. 62 No. 2
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What? A Record Level of US Ham Licenses? Bob KØNR
The ARRL just reported that the number of FCC amateur radio licenses hit an all time high of 71 7,201 at the end of 201 3. Since we all know that the interwebz has made ham radio communication obsolete, this is a difficult statistic to comprehend. Joe Speroni AH0A keeps a useful collection of ham licensing statistics including the ability to generate plots of the data. I used Joe’s site to generate this plot of total US amateur licenses versus time. Note that the vertical axis does not start at zero, so the plot tends to exaggerate the amount of change. From this plot, we see that the number of licenses was in decline from about 2003 to 2007. The no code Technician license was introduced in 1 991 which is earlier than the data on this chart. The FCC completely dropped the Morse Code requirement from all license classes in 2007, as indicated on the chart. (See Wikipedia for the exact dates.) The decline in licenses was reversed at that time and has been growing ever since. There is an interesting inflection point in 201 0 that coincides with the release of a new Technician License question pool. The line is noticeably less steep after this point, which seems to imply that something happened to slow down the rate of new licenses. Over the last ten years, Technician licenses have grown slightly as a percent of the total, going from 47% to 49%. So about half of US licenses are Technician. The grandfathered Novice and Advanced class licenses are in a slow decline and currently represent 2% and 8% (respectively) of the total licenses. The percent of General licenses has grown slightly over the past ten years, from 21 % to 23%. Extra class licenses showed the most growth over the decade, going from 1 5% to 1 9% of total licenses. While it’s encouraging to see continued growth in the number of ham radio licenses, these statistics immediately raise a number of questions: • How many of these licensees are Silent Keys and their FCC license is just clocking time until it hits the 1 0 year expiration date? • Given the aging ham population, when will we hit a demographic brick wall and see the number of licenses decline? • How many of these licensees are actively involved in ham radio? I have a number of friends that keep their FCC license current but are never on the air. • Clearly, the 1 0 year license term will tend to mask any decline for a while but it seems that sooner or later the numbers will flatten off and probably start to decline. I don’t know of anyone that has collected and analyzed the age distribution of hams, so I am basing this on what I see at radio club meetings and major ham radio events. How many of these licensees are active? Really difficult to say. It seems that in the 21 st century, people have many activities to choose from and their interest in any one of them may fade in and out. Not everyone is a Full Up 24/7 Ham Radio Enthusiast. In the mean time, I am going to keep teaching Tech license classes and helping people get started in a hobby that I find to be a lot of fun. Remember the The Universal Purpose of Amateur Radio: To Have Fun Messing Around with Radios. 73, Bob K0NR, Visit my blog at K0NR.com
WIFI
ANYTONE LUMINOUS ANTENNA
Seller’s description:
1 . All of our items are brand new. 2. When transmitting antenna will be luminous. 3. Color of light: Purple. 4. Brand: AnyTone. 5. Model: SRH-1 443. 6. Gain: 2.1 5dBi. (Yeah, right!) 7. Band: Dual Band VHF/UHF. 8. Frequency: 1 44/430MHz. 9. Max Power: 1 0Watts. 1 0. Impedance: 50ohm. 1 1 . V.S.W.R: Less than 1 .5. 1 2. Style: Luminous thumb short antenna. 1 3. Connector Type: SMA-M or SMA-F. 1 4. Polarization: Vertical. 1 5. Radiation: Omni. 1 6. Antenna length: 88mm. 1 7. Net weight: 20g.
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