December 2015

Happy New Year, everyone!  Not a lot of ham radio news this month.  The last activity ( other than a club meeting) that I attended was the Grant Amateur Radio Club's hamfest in Georgetown, Ohio, back in early November.

But it will be a busy year coming up, and I'm looking forward to it.  Dale and I will be attending the ARRL Board Meeting in January, where we'll find out more about our legislative efforts in 2016.  Be prepared to do some more letter-writing and e-mailing once the various pieces of legislation start making their way forward towards a vote.  If we want to get the antenna bills passed, we'll need to be very active in contacting Congress.  We'll let you know!

About the time you're reading this, the National Parks on the Air activity will be underway.  There is already a long list of stations who will be on the air starting January 1st.  Check it out on the ARRL website.  And get active.  There should be lots of contacts for you to make.

And as we go into 2016, we'll be around to your club meetings and hamfests, asking what we can do to facilitate your activities in ham radio.  Let us know your concerns, your interests, and especially your successes in whatever projects and activities you take on.  Invite us to your meetings.  Depending on our schedules, we'd love to come and meet all of you. 

73,

Tom W8WTD

October, 2015

My word for the month is "persistence."  It's a good concept for just about any time, but I use it to refer to the efforts of so many people around the ARRL's legislative efforts for the Amateur Radio Parity Act. 

Here's a quick story about persistence.  One member of Congress was approached by a delegation of hams over a year ago.  Follow-up efforts took place.  Then the letter-writing campaign from the League started.  And at least one individual with a personal link made contact.  Just last month, after more than a year of consideration, that member became one of our co-sponsors.  Meanwhile, across the U.S., more and more members of Congress continue to sign on as co-sponsors.  It didn't happen all at once.  Besides the letters, many people took the time to personally contact their representatives through visits or phone calls.  Those efforts are still paying off.  The first contact is not always the one that convinces.  But the continuing contacts, and increasing number of constituents advocating the position seems to make the difference.

I think we can be successful in this effort.  But it's going to require some persistence on the part of all of us.  Thank your rep if he or she has signed on.  Keep writing emails if they haven't.  When the bill comes up for a vote, be sure to make a phone call or send an e-mail of continued encouragement.  Don't give up.  We can do this!

73,

Tom

W8WTD

Remote control

When we first decided to visit family over the holidays, I knew it would impact operating Red Badges on the Air.  There's always a few free hours during a visit, but the idea of taking along a rig, putting up a temporary antenna in the snow and ice, and being limited to maybe one band was not very appealing.  Then it hit me--remote control.  The results, a modest list of contacts for the couple of hours I had, were well worth it.
The experiment was a good one.  Which software to use?  I already had tried controlling my Yaesu with their software.  I like the idea that the graphic shows the radio just as it looks, with every button just where it is on the real one.
So rig control was the easy part.  Audio was harder.  I had an old MFJ sound interface I used years ago for digital modes.  Turns out I could adapt that.  Never did work out all the bugs, especially some RF in the transmitted audio.  But there was only so much time to get this done.  As it was, people heard me.  That's what counts.
Computer to computer software was TeamViewer, which worked pretty well.  Good thing about that program is that it will handle two-way audio as well.
Of course, Murphy had to pay me a visit. My main computer developed a problem which I'll have to deal with when I get home.  Fortunately I could press some backups into service.
All in all, a satisfying experience.  I was able to surprise some individuals with additional points for their Centennial operation, and advanced my knowledge of remote control.  If you have comments or questions, please let me hear from you.  73.

Election Results

The official announcement will come from ARRL very soon, but I heard today that I was elected Vice Director for the Great Lakes Division.  Thanks for your support.

Red Badges on the Air

For those of you who are trying to get more points in the ARRL Centennial QSO Party, here's a tentative schedule of when I plan to participate on Saturday, Nov. 22.  From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., I will try to be on 40 m SSB, somewhere between 7.210 and 7.190, depending on where I can get a clear frequency.  From 11:30 until noon, I'll be on six meters, for those of you near Cincinnati.  FM mode on the national calling frequency, 52.525.  If someone wants to do SSB, I can move down if you let me know.

From 1-3 p.m., I plan to be on 15 meters, on or near 21.335.

I can do digital modes, and if you contact me via e-mail I'll try to make a contact with you.

Putting the "Relay" back in radio

There were many, many variations of the "SET," simulated emergency test, throughout the Great Lakes Region this month, I'm sure.  And while I didn't get to many of them, I know you all found lots of good information about our preparedness as hams, a lot good, some not so good.  Systems we think work sometimes don't.  But the good thing is, we fix the ones that don't work.

The one drill I did participate in was with my home club, and it was to check out our various paths of communications back to the Red Cross in Cincinnati.  Red Cross has recently reorganized nationally, and states and regions are the way they are thinking.  So our Cincinnati-Dayton region has more than thirty-five counties to oversee.  Direct ham radio communication is not always possible, when your north-south distance stretches over 180 miles.  That's where the "relay" comes in.  For instance, I was in the far northern counties, 100+ miles from Cincinnati, and depended on the folks at the Dayton chapter for relaying information back to Cincinnati.  Other stations jumped in with relaying from their parts of the countryside as well.

Technology also played a part.  These new DMR radios that we have started playing with are great.  Using the Ohio Talkgroup, we were able to talk back and forth from the Chapter in Cincinnati to various mobiles throughout the area.  Nice stuff. 

So we have various paths to use.  If technology fails us, we can still do what Hiram Percy Maxim, W1AW, taught us, and "relay" the messages.  But when the technology is up and running, that direct communication is powerful.

Whatever form your SET took, I hope you were able to participate and learn new things about ham radio.

The familiar, the old, and the really, really new

While Tuesday was quite a busy day for me in terms of amateur radio, that's probably not that much different than most of you.  But I wanted to reflect on what it means.

First, the familiar.  Was on 40 meter SSB with a new friend I met at the Kentucky hamfests I attended over the past several weeks.  Nothing remarkable there, except that's it nice that we have those bands and we can use them.  It's nice also to know that we can immediately find something in common with people through ham radio. 

The old has to do with repair.  Three of us tackled a project that needed to be done for our club.  The rotor stopped indicating direction, and we have an exercise coming up where we will need either all of the beams (6 meters, 2 meters and 440) or at least one of them.  Preparations are going on all over the country for the fall SET (Simulated Emergency Test) and sometimes that includes repair of equipment that has become faulty or balky or just plain doesn't work.  Not a remarkable circumstance in itself, but something that we just "do" as hams.  After all, as we've been pointing out to congressional representatives across the country, we maintain a lot of equipment for hams to use.  And we keep it in good repair.

Finally, last evening it was remarkable to see a dozen people in a conference room struggling to make sense out of programming for DMR radios.  Yes, it's hard and sometimes puzzling, but no one was giving up.  Instead, there is this desire among hams to learn new things, and to get the latest equipment --not just because it's new, but because it might lead us somewhere new.  We might be on the leading edge of something new for ham radio or science in general.  No, we won't be the individuals who make a discovery that no one else has made.  But in participating in these aspects of the hobby, we collectively make it possible for new discoveries to be made.  Which new technology interests you?