eHam.net News for Wednesday 7 December 2016
 

eHam.net News

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Ham Operator Team Claims Top Spot in Maine:

Posted: 06 Dec 2016 04:02 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38181


An East Boothbay Ham radio team made more contacts than any other team
during the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) Field Day June 25. The team,
consisting of Al Sirois of East Boothbay, his brother Ron, of Salem,
Massachusetts, Will Brinegar of Southport and Ron Scribner of Pittston made
more short wave radio contacts than the other 22 Maine teams during the
24-hour test period. The league sponsors the annual field day to prepare
amateur short wave radio operators for coordinating emergency
communications during an actual disaster. During past catastrophes like
the 9/11 terrorist attack, Oklahoma City bombing and Maine Ice Storm, ham
radio operators coordinated emergency rescue responses between local, state
and federal rescue teams. Sirois hosted the event last summer so other
licensed amateur radio operators could test their skills during the
worldwide exercise.


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Ham Operators Participate in NWS Exercise:

Posted: 06 Dec 2016 04:01 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38180


Thirteen operators of the WX4PTC amateur radio station at the Peachtree
City Weather Forecast Office made 475 contacts with other hams and NWS
offices over a 24-hour span last weekend.
Operators made contacts with stations from Florida, to California, to
Washington, to Maine and most states in between. "Our northernmost contact
was a station just west of Edmonton, Alberta and our southernmost was a
station in Puerto Rico," according to a participant. Hams made contacts
with 40 other NWS offices and the Amateur Headquarters in Newington, Conn.


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An Amateur Radio Repeater Using an RTL-SDR and a Raspberry Pi:

Posted: 06 Dec 2016 04:01 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38179


An amateur radio repeater used to be a complex assemblage of equipment that
would easily fill a 19 rack. There would be a receiver and a separate
transmitter, usually repurposed from commercial units, a home-made logic
unit with a microprocessor to keep an eye on everything, and a hefty set of
filters to stop the transmitter output swamping the receiver. Then there
would have been an array of power supply units to provide continued working
during power outages, probably with an associated bank of lead-acid cells.
More recent repeaters have been commercial repeater units. The big radio
manufacturers have spotted a market in amateur radio, and particularly as
they have each pursued their own digital standards there has been something
of an effort to provide repeater equipment to drive sales of digital
transceivers. But what if you fancy setting up a simple repeater and you
have neither a shed full of old radios or a hotline to the sales department
of a large Japanese manufacturer? If you are [Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC], you
make your own low-powered repeater using an RTL-SDR, a low-pass filter, and
a Raspberry Pi.


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Ham Talk Live #42 Hurricane Watch Net:

Posted: 06 Dec 2016 03:53 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38178


Coming your way on Ham Talk Live! this
Thursday night is Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, the
manager of the Hurricane Watch Net. We'll be
talking Emergency Communications, how the HWN
works, and how you can help!


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Tom Gallagher, NY2RF on Ham Nation:

Posted: 06 Dec 2016 03:53 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38177


TOM GALLAGHER NY2RF, ARRL CEO is featured guest
on this week's Ham Nation, Ham Radio's most
popular HD webcast viewed on Leo Laporte's
network. Tom will be talking about the Special Event
this Saturday commemorating the 95th anniversary of
the first TransAtlantic two way transmission from
Greenwich, Ct to Scotland.