eHam.net News for Wednesday 9 March 2016
 

eHam.net News

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Atlanta area Students to Talk with Space Station Astronauts:

Posted: 08 Mar 2016 04:09 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36321


Students from five metro Atlanta classrooms are scheduled to speak with
astronauts aboard the International Space Station this morning. Students
will ask questions via amateur radio communications as the space station
passes overhead at 11 a.m. at Fernbank Science Center. Schools selected to
participate a Taylor Road Middle School (Fulton County), Brown Middle
School (Atlanta Public Schools), West Jackson Elementary (Jackson County),
Russell Elementary (Cobb County) and Memorial Middle School STEM Academy
for Environment Studies (Rockdale County).


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Lewis and Clark Historic Site Welcomes Ham Radio Operators:

Posted: 08 Mar 2016 04:08 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36320


HARTFORD -- To help celebrate the National Park Service's centennial, the
Lewis and Clark State Historic Site is welcoming amateur radio operators
for a special event March 19. Radio enthusiasts will demonstrate emergency
and portable communications while making contact with other stations across
the United States. Radio operators are setting up National Parks on the Air
stations throughout 2016 at national parks, historic trails and
battlefields. Although it is a state of Illinois site, the Lewis and Clark
site in Hartford is the first stop on the Lewis and Clark National Historic
Trail. The event on Saturday, March 19, runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors
will learn how "ham" radio operators provide backup communications for
everything from the American Red Cross to the Federal Emergency Management
Agency to the International Space Station. Their slogan is "When All Else
Fails, Ham Radio Works."


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How Low Can You Go? The World of QRP Operation:

Posted: 08 Mar 2016 04:08 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36319


Newly minted hams like me generally find themselves asking, "What now?"
after getting their tickets. Amateur radio has a lot of different
sub-disciplines, ranging from volunteering for public service gigs to
contesting, the closest thing the hobby has to a full-contact sport. But as
I explore my options in the world of ham radio, I keep coming back to the
one discipline that seems like the purest technical expression of the art
and science of radio communication - low-power operation, or what's known
to hams as QRP. With QRP you can literally talk with someone across the
planet on less power than it takes to run a night-light using a radio you
built in an Altoids tin. Now that's a challenge I can sink my teeth into.
QRP takes its name from the Q-codes developed as shorthand by early Morse
operators. QRP mean "Reduce power" or when posed as a question, "Shall I
reduce power?" It has gradually morphed into a catch-all term that
describes the whole field of low-power operation. Not surprisingly, there's
no hard and fast rule as to what constitutes QRP, but like a lot of things
in life, you know it when you see it. Generally, any radio capable of
transmitting at 5 watts or less would be considered a QRP rig, although
some argue for anything below 10 watts. In the end these limits are
academic, because most QRP aficionados like to work with much lower power,
typically only a watt or two. Extreme QRP, called QRPp, lives below a watt
and sometimes is best measured in milliwatts; for some serious
over-achievers, it's even measured in microwatts.