eHam.net News

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Freeport Man Keeps Ham Radio Operators Returning:

Posted: 10 Mar 2017 04:10 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38791


FREEPORT, Ill. (AP) - If you were to walk into Jim Dorsey's one-bedroom
apartment, you might not expect to see 30 to 50 people gather there each
Friday night. Dorsey, 69, runs Friday Night Fun Net, a weekly gathering of
ham radio operators. Dorsey's net draws people from Freeport to Michigan to
his living room via radio waves. As many as 120 people in a single night
have tuned in to Dorsey's frequency to swap stories. Dorsey, who is legally
blind, got his ham radio license in 2004 after memorizing all the questions
to the test. His love for radio goes back to when he was growing up in
Ridott. Overall, there are 68 people with amateur radio call signs in
Freeport, according to radioreference.com. "Radio has always been my
thing," he said. "I've been interested in it since I was a young man. I
listen to more radio than I watch TV."


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Coquitlam Amateur Radio Operator to Take to the Airwaves at Vimy Ridge:

Posted: 10 Mar 2017 04:09 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38790


A Coquitlam man will play a unique role next month at the 100th anniversary
commemorative services at Vimy Ridge, France. Between April 1 and 9, Keith
Witney and 13 other Canadians -- as well as two French citizens -- will run
an amateur radio station near the historic battleground to tell the world
about Canada's contribution. The Canadians' success at the German-held Vimy
Ridge, in April 1917, proved a turning point in the Great War and put the
country on the map for its military prowess. Historians have described Vimy
as "the moment when Canada leapt in spirit from colony to nation." In 1922,
a liberated France recognized the war effort by ceding 250 acres of the
former battle site to Canada for a national memorial. Already, Witney has
travelled to the memorial park twice to prepare for his group to take to
the airwaves for the 10-day, 24/7 project. (Vimy holds a special place for
amateur radio enthusiasts in Canada as it was the base for the wireless
operations of the Canadian Corps of Signals after the ridge fell to the
Allies.) The amateur operators running the commemorative radio station --
many of them experienced contesters and Dxpeditioners who are organized
under the Vimy Commemorative Station Society, a B.C. non-profit group --
will use the special call sign of TM100VIMY during their stint.


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Veteran, Longtime Hurricane Watch Member Don Kay, K0IND, (SK) at 89:

Posted: 10 Mar 2017 04:09 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38789


Don Kay's weather and radio hobbies converged in 1965, when he became one
of the original members of the Hurricane Watch Net, a group of ham
operators who provide communications support to the National Hurricane
Center. PANAMA CITY BEACH -- Embedded in Col. Don Kay's ham radio call
sign, K0IND, is the word "kind." It is a subtly fitting tribute for a man
who completed five tours in Vietnam and spent the rest of his life helping
save lives through a hurricane communications network. Kay, 89, an Air
Force veteran and resident of Panama City Beach, died March 1 at a VA
hospital in Springfield after battling lung cancer for several years. "A
lot of what Dad did was volunteer," said Vickie Willis, Kay's daughter. "It
was something he enjoyed. ... The whole premise of what he did was saving
lives."


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Foundations of Amateur Radio -- #92:

Posted: 10 Mar 2017 03:53 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/38788


One of the things many Amateurs appear to
take for granted is that their signal sounds
just the way that they expect it to. Basing
your signal on verbal reports from others
will give you some idea of what is going on.
There is a better way. If you could actually
hear what is going on, what could you learn
from your own signal?