eHam.net News

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Ham On a Hog: Ham Radio Rider to Doffo Winery via Harley Road Glide Ultra:

Posted: 01 Jul 2016 06:52 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37094


Besides motorcycles, and a few other things, I really enjoy ham radio. I
have since I was about 12 years old, though there was a multi-decade break
due to family life and work. Now that I'm back for a few years, I do
operate from home but, even more, enjoy battery powered activity in the
great outdoors. Whether camping, four-wheeling or motorcycling, I like
bringing a radio, or two, sitting back with a cold one and reaching out on
the airwaves to chat with interesting people and see how far my signal will
take me. After last year's successful Moto DX Safari in which I went with
friends ham radio camping with an Icom IC-7200 on a Honda Gold Wing, I
decided to reprise the idea this year. Only this time I rode a 2016
Harley-Davidson CVO Road Glide Ultra to Temecula, Calif., to try out Icom
America's brand new IC-7300 rig with all the trimmings. The Ultra was a
great choice, with its cavernous top case and panniers, to store gear,
super-comfortable cockpit and its smooth and powerful ride that simply ate
up the 150-mile, mostly freeway, ride to my destination.


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Ham Radio Operators Make 1,184 Calls in 24 Hours in Hannibal:

Posted: 01 Jul 2016 06:50 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37093


Members of the Hannibal and Quincy, Ill., amateur radio clubs spent 24
hours making a total of 1,184 contacts from 1 p.m. June 25 to 1 p.m. June
26, contacting people in all 50 states and Canada.
They were competing in their annual Field Day, which shows their
capabilities to operate under emergency conditions. "If they had to be paid
(for these contacts) it would have been over $10,000," said Don Vary,
president of the Hannibal Amateur Radio Club. For Field Day, the Hannibal
club partners with the Western Illinois Amateur Radio Club of Quincy, Ill.
Field Day was at the Marion County Ambulance District Training Center, 142
Jaycee Drive in Hannibal, where 22 radio operators made the contacts. Cliff
Ahrens of the local club was among five radio operators who did Morse code
contacts, reporting he was joined by Jim Funk, Dave Scranton, Doug Baker
and Ted Smith. Together they made 786 contacts with Morse code, Ahrens
said. "We were busy." During Field Day, the hams also made 381 contacts on
the phone and 17 digitally, bringing the total to 1,184, Ahrens said. After
all the records are finalized, the local operators will be informed if they
won in Missouri. Vary said in 2015 the local clubs won first place in the
emergency operations centers category. This is the category in which they
competed again this year, Ahrens said.


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Past ARRL Roanoke Division Director, Honorary Vice President W4PWF (SK):

Posted: 01 Jul 2016 09:49 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37092


Past ARRL Roanoke Division Director Dennis Bodson, W4PWF, of
Arlington, Virginia, died on July 1. He would have turned 77 this
month. Bodson had been recovering from recent surgery, but his death
was unexpected.


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Propagation Forecast Bulletin #27 de K7RA:

Posted: 01 Jul 2016 09:48 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37091


Eight days with no sunspots, at least so far. Average daily sunspot
number for our reporting week was down 33.6 points to 0. Earlier in
this month we saw four days with a blank Sun (sunspot number of 0)
from June 3-6. There were no sunspots during all of Field Day weekend. The
last time we saw a blank Sun (before June 2016) was 2014. Just
one day, on July 17, 2014. Sunspot number was 0, and only for one
day. Prior to that, there were just two days in 2011, on January 27,
and on August 14.