eHam.net News

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Sinbad Desert Amateur Radio Club Christmas:

Posted: 22 Dec 2015 04:03 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35836


The Sinbad Desert Amateur Radio Club (SDARC) annual prime rib dinner and
election of club officers was held December 3, 2015 at the Emery County
Sheriffs Office Annex. While eating delicious meat, potatoes, salads and
desserts the group enjoyed the camaraderie of club members frequently heard
or talked to by short wave radios. Many of the members attending were from
Emery and Carbon Counties.


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Antenna Donation Aids Emergency Communications:

Posted: 22 Dec 2015 04:03 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35835


Six antennas now sit atop Moraga's new Town Council Chambers at 335 Rheem
Boulevard. The antennas and the two-way radios they are connected with link
town employees or emergency communicators to police, public works and
amateur radio operators across Lamorinda and throughout northern
California. Moraga Rotary donated approximately $1,700 a few years ago to
purchase one of the antennas for Emergency Operations Center use, according
to Rotarian Gary Irwin. The radio setup allows the town of Moraga to
connect with amateur radio operators across California and even around the
world in event of an emergency. The donated antenna originally sat on the
town hall roof; its signal was fed into the town's earlier Emergency
Operations site, which was a small storage room in the planning department.
Its recent placement atop the town chamber building by Lamorinda Area Radio
Interest Group volunteers finally gives the antenna a permanent place,
Police Chief Robert Priebe said, adding that Rotary members have been very
patient with the entire process, from the original installation, its
removal and current installation. In November, LARIG volunteers completed
the installation of six new rooftop antennas on Moraga's town chamber
building. Each antenna connects with a two-way radio inside the council
chambers. The antennas will eventually be painted "sky grey" to minimize
their visual impact. Priebe says the Rotary-donated radio and antenna, no
longer waiting for a place to go, will become "a major communications tool
for gathering and dispersing information in event of emergency when time is
always of the essence."


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Tech Team Advancing Use of Amateur Radio in Emergency Communications:

Posted: 22 Dec 2015 04:02 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35834


Researchers at the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and
Technology are preparing to send an amateur radio transponder into a
geosynchronous orbit in 2017. "Seven days a week, 24 hours a day, 365 days
a year, a new ham band will be available for the Americas," said Robert
McGwier, a research professor in the Bradley Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering and the Hume Center's director of research. "It will
allow rapid deployment to disaster areas and support long-haul
communications for first responders." This would be the first amateur
or "ham" radio payload in a geosynchronous orbit, and would significantly
enhance communications capabilities for amateur radio operators, in
particular following natural disasters or other emergency situations. The
Hume Center team met with Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator
Craig Fugate in September to discuss the project. There are more than 2
million amateur radio operators around the world, and the community has a
long history of assisting with emergency communications when traditional
communications networks collapse, because they typically rely on cell
towers and the Internet. Ham radio signals require only compact, mobile
equipment that can be easily transported to an emergency site. "Hams show
up at every disaster, no matter what," said McGwier, referring to amateur
radio operators. After events like Hurricane Katrina and the Indian Ocean
tsunami, "for days, the only way that people communicated out of those
communities was amateur radio." In fact, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency signed an agreement in 2014 with the American Radio Relay League,
also known as ARRL, that describes how the two organizations will work
together to provide disaster relief, and the Federal Communications
Commission has specific regulations authorizing the use of amateur radio in
situations which threaten life or property.


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We're Entering a 'Solar Minimum' What It Means, and How It Influenced 2015:

Posted: 22 Dec 2015 04:02 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/35833


The sun erupted with two notable space weather events in 2015: the
geomagnetic storms on June 22 and March 17. They lit up the northern skies
with beautiful aurora, which in some places continued for days. But 2015
was also a relatively quiet year for space weather. To find out why, we
need to look at the bigger picture for the answer. The sun is a variable
star. It changes in luminosity and production of sunspots on what's called
a solar cycle. Dark sunspots are indicators of very strong magnetic fields
on the surface of the sun. These regions actually inhibit the motion of
plasma and cause distinct areas to appear dark because they are relatively
cool. Historically, sunspots have been observed and recorded by astronomers
since 1611, and the sunspot cycle has been documented back to the
mid-1700's. As they monitored the sun over the decades, astronomers
discovered that sunspots come and go in a period of approximately 11 years,
as the Sun's magnetic field waxes and wanes in its intensity. Recent cycles
have been quite strong, with Cycle 19 in the 1950's being the largest in
the 265-year record. Long periods of solar minimum also became apparent,
identified by E. Walter Maunder (the Maunder Minimum) and later John Dalton
(the Dalton Minimum). These are prolonged intervals with little to no spots
on the surface of the sun.