eHam.net News

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Of Hyperbands and Hams:

Posted: 16 Feb 2016 04:49 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36185


We don't talk often of the Hyperband or the role amateur radio plays in our
profession. While many have tried, including me (it seems so easy) no one
has ever adequately put words around why we often have such affection for a
profession that -- when laid out in black and white -- really doesn't stack
up to what the skill set might bring in rewards elsewhere. Broadcast
engineers often stay in the profession for a lifetime. Maybe you are the
kind whose heart flutters at night when cold bridging a tower and the field
intensity meter brings in your co-channel acquaintances like a ton of
bricks, messing up your null. Maybe you reminisce about the days when a car
radio, console radio -- or your "special" DC-30 MHz radio -- brought in
stations from places you may never visit. As a Ham, you may have discovered
the Hyperband while playing with 160-meter receive antennas. The 1610-1700
kHz Hyperband is next door to the 1800-2000 MHz Ham band. In Ham
vernacular, 160-meters is the "gentleman's band" or "top band" for all
those romantic radio reasons. It's the place where a guy or gal with desire
to restore a legacy AM rig can legally use it. Practically, it is Ham
radio's only medium wave allocation (5W EIRP at 472-479 kHz hardly counts).


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Storm Spotters Serve as Weather Service's Eye In Sky:

Posted: 16 Feb 2016 04:49 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36184


There's one thing that Ellen Ramsey and Alfreda Alexander want to make
clear - they don't chase storms. They look for them. As trained storm
spotters, the two Aviation and Missile Command employees working in the G3
Operations-Protection Division, Emergency Management have attended the
Skywarn Program offered by the National Weather Service in Huntsville
primarily because it was training they could use in their work of informing
AMCOM employees about weather dangers. They also took the training for
personal reasons - so they are aware of the conditions of impending bad
weather. Not every young person who attends the Skywarn Program will become
a meteorologist. But both Ramsey and Alexander think it's a good idea for
parents to take their children - from about fifth-grade and up - to the
two-hour class because it encourages weather awareness. "Citizens who
attend the class can volunteer to become official storm spotters or they
can simply go and learn for their personal weather awareness. A lot of
first responders, police officers and amateur radio operators take the
course, but it's open to any citizen who wants to learn about the weather
in this area."


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NASA Releases Year-Long Timelapse of Solar Activity:

Posted: 16 Feb 2016 04:48 PM PST
http://www.eham.net/articles/36183


SDO keeps a 24-hour eye on the entire disk of the sun, with a prime view of
the graceful dance of solar material coursing through the sun's atmosphere,
the corona.