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This Week in Amateur Radio News for Sunday 8 January 2017
TWIAR News Feed
/////////////////////////////////////////// GigaParts opens new distribution center in Las Vegas Posted: 08 Jan 2017 01:10 PM PST http://bit.ly/2iXjFlW After Amateur Electronic Supply went out of business in July, GigaParts began hiring the AES staff in Las Vegas and working on moving the operation to a new location less than 5 minutes from the famous Las Vegas Strip and just 3 miles from the former AES building. Although the retail showroom won't be ready for visitors for another few months, starting today, the Las Vegas store becomes the primary distribution center for GigaParts shipments to the western half of the US. That means fast, affordable shipping to the huge population of hams in California and other western states, without sales tax! Former AES customers will see some familiar faces at GigaParts Las Vegas, including AES’s former shipping manager, Terry Spaulding, and store manager, Julio Suarez. "I'm excited to be back and I'm looking forward to helping all of my old friends again," said Julio. "AES was iconic in ham radio and it was sad to see it die off, but we have an opportunity with GigaParts to do things better than we ever could before," he continued. /////////////////////////////////////////// 60m band allocated in Kazakhstan Posted: 08 Jan 2017 01:03 PM PST http://bit.ly/2i7W8gN According to the letter from the state enterprise 'Committee on state control in sphere of telecommunications, informatization and mass media' which is the radio spectrum management authority in Kazakhstan with the outbound # 16-1/1824-i dated 22nd of December 2016, the amateur radio service in Kazakhstan has been allocated the 5351.5 - 5366.5 kHz band (60m) on the secondary basis. This allocation is received after the Association of the Amateur Radio Services of Kazakhstan has addressed the issue to the Minister on information and communications of Kazakhstan, Mr. D. A. Abayev, in order to allow allocation of the band based on resolutions of the WRC-15. Thus, now the Kazakhstani radio amateurs have received the new HF band for their use. /////////////////////////////////////////// Amateur radio headed to Pickaway-Ross Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:58 PM PST http://ohne.ws/2iS5opU Pickaway-Ross Career and Technology Center science instructor David Pentecost has a philosophy that he always tries to live by. "If you don't take a chance, you don't have a chance," he says. With that in mind, a recent chance he took in partnership with engineering program instructor Mark Johnston appears poised to pay off for the school and some of its students as they prepare to enter the world of amateur radio — what many people prefer to call ham radio, although Pentecost is not fond of that phrase. Acting on something that has been kicked around as a possibility for a couple of years now, Pentecost sent a grant request to the Amateur Radio Relay League seeking funds for amateur radio station equipment with the intent of augmenting the engineering program and attracting interested students into the world of wireless communication and other related technologies. /////////////////////////////////////////// Talking about the importance of amateur radio with Ken Howard Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:48 PM PST http://twiar.net/2017/01/08/talking-...ward-kentucky/ Amateur radio, also known as “ham” radio, is a popular hobby for many across the world and has been around for over 100 years.* Amateur radio is a form of communication using just a radio and antenna to contact and talk with people around the world using FCC allocated frequencies.* Don’t let the word “amateur” fool you though.* For decades, it has aided communication in many emergency situations, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. “I can talk from here to California or wherever with only my radio and antenna.* There’s no internet, no landline, and no satellite required.* If all communication infrastructure goes down, you can still use ham radio to communicate.” says Ken Howard. Ken Howard is the Volunteer Ham Radio Operator for the EOC in Stanton.* He has been working with amateur radios for over 20 years.* Howard’s goal is to bring more attention to the hobby and to get more young people involved.* “There’s no age limit to get an operators license so it’s a great way to get kids interested in technology.* The way technology is these days, you can’t get enough knowledge about it.” To demonstrate the efficiency of amateur radio, Howard made contact with another operator in Garrard County named Jim.* Communication was reached with incredible speed and ease.* “That’s why all this equipment is here in the EOC.* If something were to happen and communication was lost, we could still talk to Frankfort using this.* I could get a message there faster than dialing a phone number.” To use ham radio, a license is required.* To obtain a license, you must pass an administered exam in one of the three levels; Technician class, General class, and Extra class.* Technician class is the most popular choice for newcomers and with it, you will be allowed to communicate mainly locally using your radio.* General class allows you to use higher frequencies for your communication.* The highest level available is Extra class, which allows you to use all frequencies, including some specially allocated to Extra’s only.* Anyone interested in becoming licensed can find study materials for all of the levels online, including practice exams to help you.* There is also the Pioneer Amateur Radio Club based in Winchester for those interested in learning more. Howard will be holding a meeting on February 9 at 7 p.m. in the EOC building in Stanton.* The meeting will be open to the public and everyone, including current ham radio operators in the county, are invited to come.* There will be discussion on the future of ham radio and getting more people interested. If you would like to know more about amateur radio or would like to get information on testing location and dates, you can visit, www.arrl.org. /////////////////////////////////////////// Ely connects via ham radio to North Country Scenic Trail (Minnesota) Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:43 PM PST http://bit.ly/2i7GFNH BROADCASTING via ham radio from a snowy Sheridan Street was George Burger. Through the local ham radio club, Ely was part of a national event sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. George Burger, a member of the Vermilion Range Amateur Radio Club, set up a radio on Dec. 31 just off Sheridan Street, which happens to be part of the North Country Scenic Trail (a National Park Unit), and participated in an activation of the North Country Scenic Trail. /////////////////////////////////////////// Roland man tapping into global airwaves (Arkansas) Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:33 PM PST http://bit.ly/2iSugMu For more than 15 years, Mike Cole's blindness has failed to dilute his still-growing passion for the amateur-radio world. A 1974 Southside High School graduate who has lived in Roland since 1987, the 60-year-old Cole has used his ham radio equipment to communicate with fellow ham operators who live in Canada, Japan, Afghanistan, Argentina, Germany, Aruba, Amsterdam, New Zealand and, in his words, "over the North Pole in arctic Russia," among other regions. More than 30,000 of Cole's ham radio contacts are stored in his amateur radio system, which includes store-bought equipment that rests alongside computers, transmitters and receivers he has rebuilt over the years. "Amateur radio gives me something to do; it's a hobby, and it's also a useful tool for the community," said Cole, whose ham handle is W5TMC. "With amateur radio, you get to get on the air and talk to people who are from all over the country, and with people from all over the world. When some of those people come stateside, they will call me and my wife, Melisia, and we will go meet them to go eat with them. /////////////////////////////////////////// Winter Field Day is Just Ahead Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:24 PM PST http://bit.ly/2i7Fduy Field Day is not just for summertime anymore. Winter Field Day, sponsored by the Winter Field Day Association (WFDA), will take place over the January 28-29 weekend, and it can be a terrific time to prep for ARRL Field Day in June. The annual event’s stated purpose is to encourage emergency operating preparedness in the winter, but it’s also an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy the great outdoors. According to the WFDA, getting ready for emergency communication in a winter environment is just as important as the preparations and practice that take place each June during ARRL Field Day, and — let’s face it — it’s not cold and snowy everywhere during the winter months. Your local climate could be quite the opposite. “Don’t let those winter doldrums keep you locked up in the house,” the WFDA says. “Get out and play some radio!” The WFDA said it believes that maintaining operating skills should not be limited to fair-weather scenarios. /////////////////////////////////////////// Company bricks software of customer who complained about it online Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:24 PM PST http://bit.ly/2iSAa05 A software company in Tampa, Florida, has been called out for intentionally “bricking” a copy of its software, or making it non-functional, on the computer of a customer who had complained about it online. Ham Radio Deluxe, as the name suggests, produces software for ham radio enthusiasts, including support for radio control and log keeping. But that support apparently didn’t extend to working properly on Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 10 operating software, and that’s where the story starts. A customer who goes by the call sign N2SUB took to the forums on eHam.net to call out the compatibility problems the software has in Windows 10, despite the company claiming that it was compatible. The customer didn’t hold back, writing that “If [Ham Radio Deluxe has] known problems, like compatibility issues with Microsoft products, you need to release a hotfix. It would take a day to create a script to do all of the things your page says to do, and it would be idiot proof” before adding “Know what you’re getting before you drop the money on software that, in my opinion, is not mature.” /////////////////////////////////////////// Broadcasting Mode Switching Rankling Listeners Posted: 08 Jan 2017 12:12 PM PST http://ift.tt/2iZvTY5 Norway is going forward with plans to replace its national FM broadcasting network with digital-mode outlets by the end of 2017 — the first nation to do so across the board. Norway’s Ministry of Culture first proposed the switch more than 5 years ago. The first official switchover to digital audio broadcasting is set for January 11 (at 11:11:11 AM) in Nordland, and the change will take place state by state. Norway already offers 25 national digital channels and only five on analog FM. Local radio stations outside of major cities in Norway will continue to broadcast on FM. A typical DAB signal occupies approximately 1.5 MHz of spectrum wide and is comprised of 1500 individual carriers. The signal then can be subdivided into multiple digital program streams. DAB employs a Coded Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex (COFDM) modulation scheme, a form of spread spectrum. Transmitted data are shared among the individual carriers to minimize selective fading due to multipath effects. /////////////////////////////////////////// via HACKADAY: The Poynting Vector Antenna Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:50 AM PST http://ift.tt/2iOfje1 Radio amateurs are inventive people, and though not all of them choose to follow it there is a healthy culture of buildng radio equipment among them. In particular the field of antennas is where you’ll find a lot of their work, because the barrier to entry can be as low as the cost of a reel of wire. Over the years a number of innovative antenna designs have come from radio amateurs’ experimentation, and it’s one of the more recent we’d like to share with you today following a [Southgate ARC] story about a book describing its theory (Here’s an Amazon link to the book itself). The Poynting Vector antenna has been one of those novel designs on the fringes for a while now, it has been variously described as the “Super-T”, or the “flute”. Its party piece is tiny dimensions, a fraction of the size of a conventional dipole, and it achieves that by the interaction between a magnetic field across the plates of a capacitor in a tuned circuit and the electric field between a very short pair of dipole radiators. The trade-off is that it has an extremely high Q and thus a narrow bandwidth, and since its feeder can become part of its resonant circuit it is notoriously difficult to match to a transmitter. [Alan MacDonald, VE3TET] and [Paul Birke, VE3PVB] have a detailed page on the development of their Poynting antenna which takes the reader through the details of its theory and the development of their practical version. /////////////////////////////////////////// FCC Dismisses Two Petitions from Radio Amateurs Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:55 AM PST http://ift.tt/2iUMxYS The FCC has turned down two petitions filed in 2016, each seeking similar changes in the Part 97 Amateur Service rules. James Edwin Whedbee, N0ECN, of Gladstone, Missouri, had asked the Commission to amend the rules to reduce the number of Amateur Radio operator classes to Technician, General, and Amateur Extra by merging remaining Novice class licensees into the Technician class and all Advanced class licensees into the Amateur Extra class. In a somewhat related petition, Jeffrey H. Siegell, WB2YRL, of Burke, Virginia, had requested that the FCC grant Advanced class license holders Morse code operating privileges equivalent to those enjoyed by Amateur Extra class licensees. “Thus, Mr. Siegell’s proposed rule change is subsumed within the changes Mr. Whedbee requests, so our analysis is the same for both proposals,” the FCC said in dismissing the two petitions on January 5. /////////////////////////////////////////// 630 Meters Becoming a "Mainstream Amateur Band, Experiment Coordinator Says Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:55 AM PST http://ift.tt/2hXp0Z1 The coordinator of the ARRL’s WD2XSH 600-Meter Experimental Group — Fritz Raab, W1FR — said in his latest quarterly report that 630 meters is becoming quite active, with both Amateur Radio and Part 5 Experimental stations taking advantage of the band, which is still not available in the US. “Band activity has been very high, and there are often more WSPR stations — more than 110 stations — on 472 kHz than on 80 or 160 meters!” Raab said. WSPR, which stands for “Weak Signal Propagation Reporter,” is software designed for transmitting and receiving low-power transmissions to test propagation paths on MF and HF. “In a sense, 630 meters has become a mainstream ham band, in spite of not being authorized in the US,” Raab said. To boost activity, a second annual Midwinter 630-Meter Operating Activity Night will take place on February 4-5. Details will be announced. /////////////////////////////////////////// via HACKADAY: Visualization of a Phased Array Antenna System Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:40 AM PST http://ift.tt/2if3wol Phased array antenna systems are at the cusp of ubiquity. We now see Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna systems on WiFi routers. Soon phased array weather radar systems will help to predict the weather and keep air travel safe, and phased array base stations will be the backbone of 5G which is the next generation of wireless data communication. But what is a phased array antenna system? How do they work? With the help of 1024 LEDs we’ll show you. It’s good to first review what phased array antenna technology has been used for in the past, where it is today, and where it is going, then we will show you how it all works. /////////////////////////////////////////// via HACKADAY: A Ten Turn Pot, For Not A Lot Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:40 AM PST http://ift.tt/2iGGNow If you have a traditional regulated power supply that you want to make adjustable, you’ll have somewhere in the circuit a feedback line driven by a potential divider across the output. That divider will probably incorporate a variable resistor, which you’ll adjust to select your desired voltage. The problem with using a standard pot to adjust something like a power supply is that a large voltage range is spread across a relatively small angle. The tiniest movement of the shaft results in too large a voltage change for real fine-tuning, so clearly a better means of adjustment is called for. And in many cases that need is satisfied with a ten-turn potentiometer, simply a pot with a 10 to 1 reduction drive built-in. /////////////////////////////////////////// Radio Club of America Announces New "Wireless Women" Section on Website Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:40 AM PST http://ift.tt/2iIWBVj In an effort to encourage more participation of women and girls in the wireless industry, the Radio Club of America (RCA) has created a new “Wireless Women” section on its website, designed to assist women considering careers in wireless and encouraging them to get involved in technology. Information includes resources such as “Notable Women in Wireless,” “RCA’s Vivian Carr Award,” and “Professional Wireless Organizations for Women,” as well as web resources for females of all ages interested in wireless. There’s also a list of universities that have an engineering focus and significant female enrollment. “RCA has a long history of recognizing the achievements of women in wireless,” RCA President Tim Duffy, K3LR, said. “Three former RCA presidents are women, and we have many female officers, directors, and committee members. We created the Vivian Carr award in 2014 to recognize women who have contributed significantly to the wireless industry, and Director Carole Perry [WB2MGP] has led RCA’s effort to educate youth about wireless for decades.” /////////////////////////////////////////// Boy Scouts Radio Merit Badge Requirements to Include Amateur Radio Direction Finding Option Posted: 08 Jan 2017 11:40 AM PST http://ift.tt/2iPVN0n The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) have updated the requirements for the Radio Merit Badge for 2017. A new option for the Radio Merit Badge is Amateur Radio Direction Finding (ARDF). ARRL ARDF Coordinator Joe Moell, K0OV, said he’s “really excited” about the move, and he credited Jamboree on the Air Coordinator (JOTA) and K2BSA trustee Jim Wilson, K5ND, with being the “spark plug” behind the ARDF addition. “Jim visited a training session at the USA ARDF Championships in Texas last April and realized what an excellent activity that on-foot hidden transmitter hunting can be for Scouts,” Moell recounted. “Working with Brian Coleman, KB0MAP, Jim authored the new ARDF Radio Merit Badge syllabus, which was then reviewed by several leaders of US ARDF community.” |
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