eHam.net News

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Ham Radio Enthusiast Holly Bevan Celebrates 100th Birthday:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 05:12 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36440


Margaret Holly Bevan is on the air every weekday morning by 6 a.m. She
covers it all -- weather, traffic reports, everything except politics and
religion. You won't hear Bevan chatting on your favorite radio station, but
she has a world-wide audience. Bevan, whose call is N3MB, mans a ham radio
network. And even though she celebrated her 100th birthday last week, she
doesn't intend to hang up her microphone any time soon. Bevan's friends
from the Anne Arundel Radio Club hosted a birthday party Sunday to
celebrate the milestone. "The radio club has been my family for years and
years," she said. She joined the club when few women were involved in ham
radios. Bevan took her first ham radio class in 1979 so she could
communicate with her son Michael while he was onboard a Navy ship. She
explained while he was home on leave, he told them (his parents) about ham
radios and then told them he'd signed them up to take 12-week course to
learn how to operate a ham radio and get a FCC license. They went. "We were
very obedient parents," she said. Bevan enjoyed it and kept advancing all
the way up to the "extra" certification, which is the highest level. "My
husband couldn't do the (Morse) code. He couldn't distinguish between a
dash and dot," she said. Bevan celebrated her 99th birthday conversing with
ham radio operators from around the world. "All day long I was on the
radio," she said.


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Weather Spotter's Goal is to Keep Community Safe:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 05:12 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36439


For weather spotter Tim Ahrens, the number one goal is keeping the
community safe. Goal number two, of course, is getting as close as safely
possible to severe weather. "The first time I came in contact with a funnel
cloud, it was this rush of adrenaline," he said. "Time just sort of stops."
Ahrens, a former firefighter who now works full time as a patient care
technician at Boone Hospital, became trained as a weather spotter at 15
years old. Since then, he has become a licensed HAM radio operator and has
taken several advanced courses on radar and weather patterns provided by
the National Weather Service. He said there are about 20 spotters in
Audrain County, although not all of them are active. To monitor weather
patterns, Ahrens has an application called Radar Scope installed on his
phone and on his laptop, which he brings along in his car whenever he is
chasing a storm or other serious weather event. "We're the eyes on the
ground," Ahrens explained. "When I see an interesting weather pattern on
our radar, I start following it and relay that information to the weather
service through the HAM radio. "With a tornado, they can see rotation on
the radar, but they can't see if a tornado has actually touched down, so I
provide that information." Ahrens and his weather spotter partner, Ryan
Clifford, also survey the damage after a storm and take photographs, which
they upload to their Facebook page, Mid Missouri Storm Chasers. The page
allows Ahrens and Clifford to interact with the community, providing quick
updates about weather conditions and answering weather-related questions.


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Our Sun Could Get Angrier Than We Thought:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 05:11 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36438


Fresh research has revealed that powerful solar storms known
as "superflares" are generated via the same process as common solar flares
produced by our Sun. These superflares are capable of posing a significant
threat to our advanced technology, and seriously harming Earth's protective
ozone layer. Earth's atmosphere is bombarded by charged particles from the
Sun on a constant basis. Periodically, our star throws off what is known as
a solar flare. Most of the time the only visible effect of these solar
storms are stunning aurora that manifest around Earth's higher latitudes.
However, one event in mankind's recorded history highlighted the
significance of the threat posed by powerful solar activity. On Sept. 2,
1859, Earth's magnetic field was struck with the first particles cast out
by a titanic solar storm that had exploded from our Sun the previous day.
The interference caused by the event threw the worldwide telegraph network
into disarray, and based on ice core samples retrieved from Greenland,
caused significant damage to Earth's protective ozone layer. The powerful
storm is now referred to as the Carrington Event. Should such an eruption
occur today, its ability to interfere with our electronics and power
supplies would cause a far greater amount of damage owing to our complete
reliance on technology in almost every facet of our lives. Four years ago
the Kepler Space Telescope discovered an entirely new breed of solar
activity -- a class of solar storms known as superflares, that are believed
to be on average 10,000 times more powerful than the Carrington Event of
1859.


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The Way It Was: Recalling the Dawn of Amateur Radio:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 05:11 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36437


I graduated from high school in 1935, just about the time when radio was
still very new. Amateur radio operators were having fun building their own
transmitters and competing to see who had the best ones. The government
assigned certain frequencies just for amateur use. Some frequencies would
only reach a short distance, while others sent signals that bounced off
certain layers in the atmosphere and reached halfway around the world. I
tried to get into that, but it required the ability to transmit and receive
a minimum of 10 words per minute Morse code in order to get a license. I
just barely managed 10, when the minimum was raised to 12, and I quit
trying. My high school classmates George and Ed had their licenses. A third
classmate, Joe, got into ham radio, and that led to his getting a job in
the police radio department of a nearby city. Another friend and neighbor,
Pete, was not much interested in talking to other "hams," as he was in
being able to build a working transmitter. So he built a "rig," and needed
some way to see if it worked before applying for a license. For a very
brief time, he used someone else's call letters. Of course that was not
legal and he could have been in trouble, but he was on the air for such a
short time that it did not matter. During the war, he served as radio
operator on a destroyer, and I still have a few letters he sent me. At
about that time, our family radio had shortwave capability, and I could
listen to the chimes of Big Ben directly from London, as well as music from
Czechoslovakia. I even had the opportunity to talk to a ham in Australia,
from the home of one of my friends with a shortwave transmitter.


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DX News -- ARRL DX Bulletin #12:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:46 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36436


This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by
DL1NX, QRZ DX, OPDX, The Daily DX, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and
the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all.


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Just Ahead In Radiosport:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:45 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36435


Just Ahead In Radiosport:


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ARRL HF Band Planning Committee Seeks Suggestions on Region 2 HF Band Plan:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:45 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36434


The ARRL Board of Directors' HF Band Planning Committee is inviting
input from the US Amateur Radio community regarding possible changes to
the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) Region 2 Band Plan.


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SBE Urges FCC to Improve Medium-Wave Noise Environment:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:44 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36433


The Society of Broadcast Engineers (SBE) has told
the FCC that the regulatory agency needs to take another tack in its
efforts to tackle AM broadcast band revitalization. If the FCC takes
the SBE's advice, the result could be less noise in the MF and HF
Amateur Radio bands.


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Puerto Rico ARES Volunteers Take Part in Caribe Wave 2016 Exercise:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:44 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36432


For the second year, Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers
in Puerto Rico took part in the annual Caribe Wave exercise (formerly
known as the Large Atlantic Tsunami Exercise -- LANTEX), a tsunami
communication drill undertaken on different dates on the US East Coast,
in Canada, on the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean Basin. The
object of Caribe Wave is to test the reliability of communication
systems and protocols among tsunami alert centers and to help emergency
management agencies to improve their preparedness to execute a tsunami
alert.


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National Parks On the Air Update:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:43 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36431


National Parks Week is April 16-24, a happy alignment for National
Parks on the Air operators, as World Amateur Radio Day is April 18.


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Hamvention Announces 2016 Award Winners:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:43 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36430


Nobel Laureate Joe Taylor, K1JT, of Princeton, New Jersey, has been
named as the 2016 Dayton Hamvention Amateur of the Year. Hamvention
announced the recipients of the Amateur
of the Year, Technical Achievement, Special Achievement, and Club of
the Year awards on March 18.


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UC Berkeley Trains, Tests Hundreds of New Hams:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:43 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36429


Ham radio-related courses taught at the University of California
Berkeley Campus and a follow-on "Annual VE Mega-Session" may be one
reason that California continues to lead the nation in the number of
Amateur Radio licensees.


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FOX-1C and FOX-1D Satellites Ready for Payload Integration:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:42 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36428


AMSAT reports that its Fox-1C (Fox-1Cliff -- named in honor of the late
AMSAT pioneer and benefactor Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR) and Fox-1D
satellites are ready for delivery to Spaceflight Industries for
integration into the SHERPA payload dispenser, which will be making its
maiden flight. Fox-1Cliff and Fox-1D successfully finished
environmental testing on February 8.


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'Amateur Radio Roundtable' Connects Live with Heard Island DXpedition:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:41 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36427


W5KUB's "Amateur Radio Roundtable" webcast scored a live, audio-only
interview on March 22 with the leader
of the Heard Island VK0EK DXpedition, Bob
Schmieder, KK6EK -- believed to be a first in ham radio news media
history. The VK0EK DXpedition team got under way on March 23.


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Kosovo Activity in CQ WPX SSB Will Help to Train Young Hams:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:41 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36426


Z60A in Kosovo, the headquarters station of SHRAK, the newest International
Amateur Radio
Union (IARU) member society, will be on the air
leading up to and during the CQ World Wide WPX SSB Contest the weekend of
March 26-27.


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In Brief...

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:42 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36425


Well-Known Contester Gary R. Senesac, AL9A, SK: Contesting luminary
Gary Senesac, AL9A (ex-KC9UM), of Wasilla, Alaska, died suddenly on
March 15 while vacationing in Florida. An ARRL Life Member, he was 72.
Senesac, an Illinois native, moved to Alaska in 2003 after he retired,
and his was a familiar call sign in many operating events. During the
ARRL Centennial in 2014, he took part in the W1AW/KL7 operation. "Gary
was an avid contester," said fellow Alaskan Corliss Kimmel, AL1G, "and
he was an excellent contester. He was also very technically
knowledgeable and helpful to anyone who needed advice."


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ARRL Introduces Three New E-Books:

Posted: 24 Mar 2016 10:40 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/36424


ARRL has introduced three new e-books to its growing digital library.
The newest titles available in the popular Amazon Kindle format.