TWIAR News Feed

///////////////////////////////////////////
Ham-fisted: Chap's radio app (HRD) killed remotely after posting bad review

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 03:51 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2hFfXfo

A US ham radio software developer has admitted a support staffer disabled a
customer's copy of its application after he posted a negative review online.

The owners of HRD Software today told The Register they have since
reinstated the user's license, claiming the revenge move was made by an
outside support staffer.

Here's what happened: a bloke called Jim Giercyk in Greenville, South
Carolina, US, downloaded and installed an update for his Ham Radio Deluxe
application. Next, the program inexplicably stopped working, so Giercyk
contacted HRD's support team for help.

Then, according to a log of the conversation between Giercyk and the
support agent, the country rock musician was told his copy had been
disabled remotely in response to a negative online review he had posted in
September.

///////////////////////////////////////////
Commemorative Fessenden Christmas Eve 600-Meter Transmissions Set

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 03:49 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2h9Th8b

Brian Justin, WA1ZMS, of Forest, Virginia, will once again put his
600-meter experimental station on the air for a Christmas Eve commemorative
transmission. The transmissions from WI2XLQ on 486 kHz will mark the 110th
anniversary of Reginald Fessenden’s first audio broadcast on the airwaves.

Historic accounts say Fessenden played the violin — or a recording of
violin music — and read a brief Bible verse. It’s been reported that other
radio experimenters and shipboard operators who heard Fessenden’s broadcast
were astounded.

Justin will use a MOPA-design transmitter built largely with vintage parts
to replicate early vacuum-tube equipment; not a Fessenden-period
transmitter, it uses a UV-202 tube for the power amplifier. He will conduct
a run-up to the event starting at around mid-day Eastern Time on Friday,
December 23. The “official� Christmas event will begin on Christmas Eve,
Saturday, December 24, at 0001 UTC (the evening of December 23 in US time
zones) and will continue for at least 24 hours. Justin plans to repeat the
commemorative transmissions on New Year’s Eve and on New Year’s Day.

///////////////////////////////////////////
Christmas Eve SAQ Alexanderson Alternator Transmission Set

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 03:49 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2h7R9wc

The Alexander Association has announced that it plans to have Alexanderson
alternator transmitter SAQ on the air for its traditional Christmas Eve
transmission. The 200 kW Alexanderson alternator will transmit on 17.2 kHz
on the morning of Christmas Eve, December 24, starting with transmitter
tune-up at around 0730 UTC. The message transmission will take place at
0800 UTC.

“Since the plant is old, there is always the risk that the transmission
will be cancelled on short notice,� the Association said in an
announcement. Repairs following an early October fire in the longwave
antenna, attributed to arcing, had put the Christmas Eve transmission in
jeopardy this year.



///////////////////////////////////////////
FEMA to Conduct Interoperability Exercise Using 60 Meters

Posted: 20 Dec 2016 03:49 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2ha081y

FEMA Region X will conduct an interoperability communications exercise on
December 21 that will use 60 meters. The “COMMEX� will consist of radio
check-ins from authorized state, tribal, federal, and Amateur Radio
stations to test HF interoperability in case of an emergency or disaster
response. FEMA Region X is made up of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

“Cities, counties, tribes, authorized Federal agencies and amateur
operators that support jurisdictional emergency management organizations
are welcome to participate,� Laura Goudreau, KG7BQX, Regional Emergency
Communications Coordinator for FEMA Region X, said in announcing the
exercise. “The coordination and authorization of this net between Federal
stations and amateur licensees has been coordinated and authorized by the
NTIA and the FCC.� Federal participants will include Department of Homeland
Security, the US Coast Guard, FEMA, the US Army, the Military Auxiliary
Radio System (MARS), Civil Air Patrol, and the Department of Commerce.

The net will include a digital component, intended as a one-way broadcast
to test FEMA’s ability to send messages and for remote stations to receive
them. To ensure compatibility with Amateur Radio stations, digital
transmissions will follow ARRL’s recommendations for the use of digital
modes on 60 meters.

///////////////////////////////////////////
Recalling a pre-war English Christmas (Illinois)

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 10:11 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2hO4pET

Mom came to Rockford in March 1946 as a war bride from the UK. A year later
she got a job working for the Rockford Morning Star. She worked there for
most of the next 35 years.

Although she was a talented writer, she never wrote a story for the
newspaper. She was a proofreader in the proof room, a tiny, narrow enclave
on the edge of the noisy composing room where men set type on Linotype
machines.

Working for a newspaper seemed natural. Her father, Charles Daniels, was
the chief stereotyper on the Bristol (UK) Evening World; his brother, Tom
Daniels, did the same job at the Montreal Star.

The story I'm about to share with you is from a newsletter published by an
amateur radio operators club. Dad, or W9CZB, asked her to submit an article
about how Christmas was celebrated in England before World War II. Mom died
in 1984, and I thought she should finally get a byline. She wrote this in
December 1949.

///////////////////////////////////////////
How to Read, Draw and Understand Circuit Diagrams

Posted: 19 Dec 2016 10:08 PM PST
http://bit.ly/2i3LXuX

Many new comers to Ham Radio find trying to read and understand a circuit
diagram a very daunting task, I have heard some people say that they will
never understand how circuits work and how they interact with other
circuitry.

I was once like that too; none of us was born with knowledge of radio we
all need to learn it. The key to understanding is to build simple circuits
and understand the laws that tie them all together.

How do you start to learn what component do and how do they achieve it.
First of all you must understand that Ham radio is a technical hobby that
brings people together from all over the World it's like a giant social
network, every one of those people started somewhere, and here is what I
did to help my understanding.

The first law we need to learn is ohms law and how voltage current and
resistance is calculated in a simple circuit. You need to buy some
resistors, bread board, which is an experimental piece of board where you
connect component together by essentially pressing their leads down through
the board, small compression clips hold the wires in place. You will also
need a meter to measure the various electronic quantities.