eHam.net News

///////////////////////////////////////////
Ham Radio Operators Assist with Georgia Jewel Trail Race:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 06:13 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40166


Area ham operators, over a 24-hour period, recently provided the staff of
the Georgia Jewel trail race on the Pinhoti Trail with the status of the
approximately 257 runners while they were on the trail. This has become an
annual event for area hams. The ham operators, using their own
communications equipment, manned the Dalton Amateur Radio Club's
communication trailer at the convention center. Other remote locations
along the trail were also manned. Repeaters located in Murray and Gordon
counties were used on VHF and UHF frequencies. Also used was a HF Winlink
gateway belonging to Greg Williams to transmit data.


///////////////////////////////////////////
Weird IP Networks: Internet via Birds and Ham Radios:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 06:12 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40165


If you're reading this, you have internet access. You probably have it
either through a local cable or fibre ISP or through your cell phone
provider. We all have one (usually both) of these. Speedy. Reliable
(mostly). Boring. What happens when that infrastructure goes down? Maybe
the power goes out somewhere along the network. Maybe a cell tower gets
attacked by Godzilla. Who knows? Dangers lurk around every corner. In those
cases, when your traditional network connection fails you, you're going to
need a backup. Something to get you back up, online and moving data around.
And, what the heck, we might as well do it all with as much flair and
pizzazz as possible. There are two options that jump out at me as ideally
suited for just such a Godzilla-based-network-outage scenario. The first is
AMPRNet. The AMateur Packet Radio Network. At first, sure, it sounds like a
crazy idea. But did you know that the TCP/IP protocol was in use via
amateur radio (ham) before the internet was accessible to the public? It's
true!


///////////////////////////////////////////
From Ham Op to The Weather Channel, Dan Atkinson Lived Life On Airwaves:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 06:12 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40164


Four decades ago, Dan Atkinson began entering the living rooms of millions.
From Montgomery to Atlanta, he discussed weather. From WSFA to The Weather
Channel, he became the face and source to trust. Atkinson, 71, died on
Tuesday from complications due to Parkinson's disease. Born July 4, 1946,
Atkinson is survived by his wife of 23 years, Cynthia, his sons Daniel
Atkinson III of Suwanee, Georgia, and Joshua Atkinson of Auburn; daughter
Joy Atkinson of Auburn; grandsons Cole, Ryan and Chase Atkinson, of
Suwanee, Georgia. A life in broadcasting was started at an early age. At
13, Atkinson learned Morse Code and became a licensed ham radio operator, a
hobby that ignited a lifelong interest in broadcasting.


///////////////////////////////////////////
Amateur Radio Operators Connect Puerto Rico to Outside World:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 06:11 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40163


KAPOLEI, OAHU (HawaiiNewsNow) -- Through his Ham radio in his home in
Kapolei, Darren Holbrook helped a Maui family get a message to relatives in
Puerto Rico. "I put them in contact with a club in Florida who were sending
radio telegrams to Puerto Rico. The next day their family members got in
contact with them and told them everything is okay," he said. With no
electricity and spotty cell service, people in Puerto Rico can't
communicate with the outside world to let loved ones know of their
situation. But Ham radios can work anywhere. "I can hook the radio up to a
car battery, to a solar panel. I can throw a wire up in a tree and I can
communicate long distances," Holbrook said. The Red Cross asked for 50 Ham
radio volunteers to go to Puerto Rico and fan out across the island. "We
got over 400 volunteers in the first 24 hours. We put the call out Sunday
night and were swamped Monday evening," said Thomas Gallagher, head of the
American Radio Relay League. Those operators will collect short messages
from people in Puerto Rico and send them to the Red Cross.


///////////////////////////////////////////
To Understand Future Solar Activity, One Has to Know the Past:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 06:10 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40162


Short-term funding strategies present serious problems for programs like
solar activity studies, where observations and analysis span decades or
longer. Solar activity waxes and wanes in 10- to 11-year cycles; this is
now general public knowledge. However, we know this only because of
existing long-term records. Thanks to these histories, we also know that
properties of solar cycles vary on timescales of 100 years and even longer.
Thus, some of the most important processes on the Sun may take decades if
not centuries to reveal themselves [Owens, 2013]. This long timescale means
that some issues are not resolved, or even identified, at the time when
data are acquired. Synoptic observations of solar activity, programs that
span many years, feed future research to solve these issues. However,
present-day research funding schemes tend to focus on providing effective
funding for rapidly changing research goals. Funding agencies and the
National Academies emphasize short grants, lasting 3-5 years, as the prime
vehicle for funding scientific research, a duration that is too short to
ensure the survival of synoptic programs. Even records of past solar
activity that come from isotopic sources such as ice cores and tree rings
rely on establishing a relationship between radiocarbon measurements and
the direct observations of solar activity. Because the natural circulation
of carbon in Earth's atmosphere was affected by the explosive increase in
the use of fossil fuel at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, only
historical observations of solar activity can be used for calibrating
radiocarbon data. The absolute radiocarbon standard is based on 1890 wood.


///////////////////////////////////////////
Puerto Rico Bound: Ham Radio Operators Relay Hurricane Maria Survivor Info:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 12:18 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40161


WASHINGTON -- The American Radio Relay League is sending amateur radio
operators to Puerto Rico to help distribute information about the status of
Hurricane Maria survivors. Volunteers headed out to the island Thursday
from Atlanta. ARRL's CEO Tom Gallagher of the National Association for
Amateur Radio said the ham radio volunteers are working under the American
Red Cross. On the ground in Puerto Rico, volunteers with ARRL will relay
information about hurricane survivors in or near Red Cross shelters to the
U.S. mainland. People who haven't heard from loved ones on the island can
search the Red Cross' Safe and Well website to search for survivors who
have registered and reported themselves as "safe and well."


///////////////////////////////////////////
Propagation Forecast Bulletin #38 de K7RA:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 10:32 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40160


Over the past week we saw solar indices decline. Lower activity
persists, and the uptick in solar activity on September 2 to 10,
when sunspot numbers were 71, 96, 122, 122, 79, 94, 89, 49 and 38
and solar flux was 100, 120, 140, 121, 133, 129, 117, 107 and 100
will probably not be seen again til the upside after solar minimum,
perhaps in 2021 or 2022.


///////////////////////////////////////////
MacLoggerDX Version 6.14 Released:

Posted: 29 Sep 2017 10:33 AM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40159


Dog Park Software is pleased to announce that version 6.14 of
MacLoggerDX has been released.