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QRZ Forums - Amateur Radio News for Thursday 28 June 2012
QRZ Forums - Amateur Radio News
/////////////////////////////////////////// New Release: Ham Radio Deluxe v5.23 Posted: 27 Jun 2012 07:26 PM PDT http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...3&goto=newpost Tampa FL, St. Paul MN, Pittsburgh PA – June 27, 2012 HRD Software, LLC announces the release of Ham Radio Deluxe 5.23. HRD developers have been working to dramatically improve the callsign lookup function and address some maintenance items. HRD 5.23 and the preliminary manual are on the web site ready for download. Mike Carper, WA9PIE, said, “The feedback from our beta-testers indicates that this release is the best version ever of the Ham Radio Deluxe Suite.” This version of Ham Radio Deluxe features powerful new options for callsign lookup. Users can set the priority of lookup sources like QRZ.com, their logbook entries, CD databases, and Logbook’s country index. “Our users provided us valuable insight about how they’re more confident in the data in their logbook than the CD and online data sources. It only made sense to allow them to choose the priority,” Mike added. Users are also prompted when lookup sources don’t agree about the country location of stations they are adding to their log. This enables the user to make a choice about which country should be logged. The company invites hams to visit the company’s YouTube channel for a demonstration of these new features. Rick Ruhl, W4PC, said, “Erik Gawtry, KC0WWC, really showed his stuff in this release. I feel Erik is one of the best programmers in the country and I think the hams will be amazed at the magic he has done for this release. Hams also have been key players with both their input and support of our new company. Every hamfest that we attend we meet so many new friends and supporters.” This concludes development of the v5.x product roadmap. The company has also continued development of v6.0 and intends to release it by the end of summer 2012. Version 6.x will have many new features which will include FSK support, a new QSL and awards tracking interface, improved cluster filters, label printing, and the Super Sweeper in Digital Master. Super Sweeper will allow multiple signals to be decoded in a single window. A discounted pre-buy of version 6.0 is being offered for $59.95. This includes technical support for v5.2. Those that have purchased or will purchase the 5.X support will still get one year of support from the date of the 6.0 release. You can purchase and download the product at http://www.ham-radio-deluxe.com. HRD Downloads: http://www.ham-radio-deluxe.com HRD Forum: http://forums.hrdsoftwarellc.com HRD on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/HRDsoftware /////////////////////////////////////////// When All Else Fails: Hams prepare for emergencies during Field Day 2012 Posted: 27 Jun 2012 06:35 PM PDT http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php...2&goto=newpost ham_radio_5a_thumb.jpg Times-Mirror Staff Photo/Michelle Stevens Gene May of the Loudoun Amateur Radio Group writes down the call sign of another amateur “ham” radio operator for a 24-hour contest called Ham Radio Field Day in Lovettsville June 24. Tue., Jun. 26 by Alicia Constant Voices and static mingled on the airwaves as amateur radio operators baked in the heat Saturday. “QR-Zed.” “Kilo Echo Four, Oscar Kilo Yankee.” “Oscar Kilo Yankee?” With contact established, the Lovettsville radio operator repeats the full call sign to the voice that originates from a Canadian boat. The operator made contact as part of Field Day, a 24-hour contest where thousands of amateur radio operators, called “hams,” practice communicating off the grid with other hams in the United States and Canada. Around 60 hams in Loudoun County participated in two Field Day events, one at Park View High School in Sterling and the other in Lovettsville. On Field Day, each amateur radio club attempts to earn points by making contacts and logging “call signs” – the unique letter and number code the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses to each ham radio operator. The Loudoun Amateur Radio Group (LARG) in Lovettsville made nearly 4,500 contacts, and the Sterling Park Amateur Radio Club made around 2,000 contacts as radio operators worked in shifts through Saturday night into Sunday afternoon. The groups’ more unusual contacts included a 737 pilot over Utah and a ham in Puerto Rico. Using ham radio satellites, a signal from Loudoun County can reach a radius of more than 1,000 miles. The hallmark achievement: making contact with the International Space Station, where many of the astronauts are also ham radio operators. In an era of Facebook, cell phones and Skype, ham radio is a little-known form of communication. Yet hams pride themselves on being the first to contact the outside world after a large-scale natural disaster that knocks out the Internet and cell phone towers. Field Day allows hams to practice setting up their stations on solar, generator, and battery power. The National Association for Amateur Radio proudly asserts that amateur radio gets the message through “when all else fails.” Ham radio attracts a fiercely loyal following, with around 700,000 operators across the country and 3 million around the world. “Everyone’s experience getting into ham radio is different,” said Chris P., a ham who participated in the LARG Field Day event. (He requested his last name be withheld because he works for the federal government.) Chris is proud to carry his great-grandfather’s call sign, though he says interest in ham radio “skipped two generations” in his family. He first became a ham in high school, when he got his license through the Boy Scouts. When he was deployed overseas during the 1990s, he would travel to a Military Auxiliary Radio Service (MARS) station to call home. The MARS operator would radio a ham in his hometown and ask him to connect Chris to his family via telephone: “This was before the days of video chat, and you’d call up for about five minutes and say, ‘Hey, Mom, guess where I am?’” Several years ago, he decided to get re-certified as a ham operator, and he’s been involved ever since. Through the course of a year, hams participate in a variety of events, from launching and chasing weather balloons to volunteering as trained weather spotters for the National Weather Service’s Skywarn. Hams provide vital information to Skywarn because they’re able to communicate directly from the ground, said LARG Field Day Chairman Gary Quinn: “When a ham operator can look out the window and call the weather service and say, ‘Yes that’s a tornado,’ it validates their data.” When a disaster strikes, Quinn said, “We know before the general public. We’re the ones pushing out the information.” http://www.loudountimes.com/index.ph...s_during_2012/ Attached Images ham_radio_5a_thumb.jpg (21.2 KB) |
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