Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
![]() |
|||
|
|||
![]()
eHam.net News
/////////////////////////////////////////// Ellis County Amateur Radio Operators Lend Hand in Tornado Efforts: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 04:16 PM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36159 WAXAHACHIE -- Throughout most of the day and into the night on December 26, 2015, Ellis County Amateur Radio club members that are part of the Ellis County Amateur Radio Emergency Service, http://www.elliscountyares.org/, used their communications skills to keep track of tornado activity that came through the county. Hams were strategically placed while storm spotting. They moved where the storm(s) moved keeping a safe distance. The information that was gathered was then passed on to NOAA weather personnel who rely on ham radio operators to report accurate and timely information. Had Internet and cell phones failed, ham radios would still be functional. Guest speakers for the January 21, 2016 meeting were Dave Grieg N3BUO and Gary Pannell WA5FWC. They gave a presentation on antennas, DX logging and programming. Dxing is where ham radio enthusiasts work stations outside their own country. Gary stated, "It's one thing to talk to South Africa and get a QSL card. (These cards are fun to collect from all over the world and act as written confirmation that there was a contact made.) If I want to send one back that costs $2 to send overseas, which can get quite expensive. If you use a logging system, you can reach a lot more countries with three different modes of communication." Gary uses a program called N1MM for contesting as well as DXKeeper. DXKeeper is a free, comprehensive amateur logging software that records and manages contacts commonly known as QSOs. He went on to say, "If you really want to be a Dxer, I suggest you work CW (Morse Code). It's so easy to work and opens the world up." /////////////////////////////////////////// Vijayawada Ham Operators Make a Mark at IFR: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 04:15 PM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36158 Ham Radio operators from the city played a key role in the synergy that contributed to the grand success of the International Fleet Review (IFR) organised in Visakhapatnam. Members of the IFR Ham Radio Communication team shared their exciting experience. "We were entrusted with the task of providing communication network in all key points during the IFR," says Arza Ramesh Babu, a Ham radio operator who coordinated with other team members. Mr. Ramesh Babu first identified and mobilised active Ham Radio operators in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State and constituted a 23-member IRF Ham Radio expert team that headed to Visakhapatnam with personal Ham equipment on February 4. They carted equipment like HF, VHF, Repeater, Software Defined Radios, and antennas and batteries, and established Ham Radio communication links in 11 key points identified by the district administration. /////////////////////////////////////////// The Curiosity Mars Rover is Leaving a Secret Code In the Dirt: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 04:15 PM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36157 There's a fun little "Easter Egg" secret that's literally been leaving its mark on the surface of Mars since 2012. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers behind the Mars Curiosity rover figured out how to mark their Martian territory with the letters J-P-L, just in case little green men want to know who they're dealing with. On a recent tour of the lab in Pasadena, California, JPL spokesperson Mark Razze said that Curiosity needed to have holes in its six wheels, so that dirt could escape and not clump up inside its wheel wells -- a problem that doomed a previous rover named Spirit. They weren't satisfied with simple, meaningless holes. They wanted the holes to read JPL, Razze explained, and NASA didn't. So they did it anyway, in Morse code. The dots and dashes that the JPL holes leave on the Martian surface should stick around for quite a while, since the thin Martian atmosphere slows erosion by the wind. /////////////////////////////////////////// Nashville Actor Set for Frequency Reboot: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 04:14 PM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36156 "Nashville" alum Riley Smith is set for the lead in The CW's reboot of 2000 movie "Frequency". According to Deadline, the actor plays the role of Frank Sullivan, played by Dennis Quaid in the New Line flick. Written by Jeremy Carver (the "Supernatural" showrunner), the series will center on "Raimy, a female police detective in 2016 who discovers that she is able to speak via a ham radio with her estranged father, Frank Sullivan (Smith), also a detective, who died in 1996. "Seen in 1996, Frank Sullivan has been undercover for two years. The strain of the assignment effectively destroyed his marriage and separated him from his little girl, Raimy, but he gets a new chance at building a relationship with her when she begins communicating with him from 20 years in the future. The two forge a new relationship while working together on an unresolved murder case, but unintended consequences of the 'butterfly effect' wreak havoc in the present day." The original film, which took place in 1999 New York, co-starred Jim Caviezel as the sibling who discovers he can communicate with his [younger] father via ham radio. /////////////////////////////////////////// This Is The Most Dangerous Way To Listen to the Radio: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 04:13 PM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36155 Step one: get some jump wires. Step two: put on insulating gloves. Step three: put the jump wires on a radio antenna. AM radio towers are giant beasts thanks to the way AM radio works: amplitude modulation. The more power, the higher the band of the radio. This means that they are essentially radiating out broadcasts with lots and lots of energy, as opposed to FM radio. But just how dangerous are those towers? This Michigan State University Amateur Radio Club demo should give you a rough idea. By attaching a jump cable to the tower, the amateur radio club at the university essentially shorts out the tower briefly. When that happens, the arc of electricity firing off the tower then carries enough strength to actually unleash the audio. There's about 50,000 watts in that tower and briefly in that arc. Hence, all the safety gear on the operator of this temporary unlicensed broadcast. /////////////////////////////////////////// Scientists Find Evidence of Gravitational Waves Predicted by Einstein: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:43 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36154 After decades of searching, scientists announced Thursday that they have detected gravitational waves -- essentially ripples in the fabric of space-time -- that had been predicted by Einstein. An international team of astrophysicists said that they detected the waves from the distant crash of two black holes, using a $1.1 billion instrument. The Ligo Collaboration was behind the discovery and it has been accepted for publication in the journal Physical Review Letters. "We have detected gravitational waves," Caltech's David H. Reitze, executive director of the LIGO Laboratory, told journalists at a news conference in Washington, DC. Their existence was first demonstrated in the 1970s and 1980s by Joseph Taylor, Jr., and colleagues. In 1974, Taylor and Russell Hulse discovered a binary system composed of a pulsar in orbit around a neutron star. Taylor and Joel M. Weisberg in 1982 found that the orbit of the pulsar was slowly shrinking over time because of the release of energy in the form of gravitational waves. For discovering the pulsar and showing that it would make possible this particular gravitational wave measurement, Hulse and Taylor were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics. /////////////////////////////////////////// DX News -- ARRL DX Bulletin #6: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:37 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36153 This week's bulletin was made possible with information provided by QRZ DX, OPDX, The Daily DX, DXNL, Contest Corral from QST and the ARRL Contest Calendar and WA7BNM web sites. Thanks to all. /////////////////////////////////////////// Just Ahead In Radiosport: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:37 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36152 Just Ahead In Radiosport: /////////////////////////////////////////// US House Subcommittee to Consider Amateur Radio Parity Act: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:36 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36151 The Amateur Radio Parity Act, H.R. 1301, was among three bills that the US House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology considered in a Thursday, February 11 "markup" session. Subcommittee members voted to send the measure to the House Energy and Commerce Committee for further consideration. /////////////////////////////////////////// New ARRL President Happy to Be Part of 'Exciting Times for Amateur Radio:' Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:36 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36150 Making his inaugural ARRL National Convention appearance this week as ARRL President, Rick Roderick, K5UR, said he's looking forward to meeting many League members in person at Orlando. The 2016 ARRL National Convention on February 12-14, is hosted by the Orlando HamCation, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. /////////////////////////////////////////// Matt Holden, K0BBC, Tapped as ARRL Dakota Division Vice Director: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:35 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36149 ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, has appointed Matt Holden, K0BBC, to serve as Dakota Division Vice Director, effective February 4. Holden, an ARRL Life Member who lives in Bloomington, Minnesota, succeeds former Vice Director Kent Olson, KA0LDG. Olson became the Dakota Division Director when former Director Greg Widin, K0GW, was elected as ARRL First Vice President at the ARRL Board of Directors' Annual Meeting in mid-January. Holden, 46, will serve out the remainder of the current term of office, which ends on January 1, 2017. /////////////////////////////////////////// National Parks On the Air Update: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:34 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36148 Congratulations to Gary Stone, N5PHT, who just wrapped up 10 days of operating at Chickasaw National Recreation Area (RC05) in Oklahoma. From January 29 to February 8, Gary made 1718 contacts with 1361 unique call signs. He worked all 50 states and just missed WAS on CW (no Wyoming). /////////////////////////////////////////// ARRL Signs New Memorandum of Understanding with the American Red Cross: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:35 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36147 The ARRL and the American Red Cross have signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The document, signed in January, succeeds the one agreed to in 2010; it will remain in place for the next 5 years. The MoU spells out how League Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) volunteers will interface with the Red Cross in the event that ARES teams are asked by the Red Cross to assist in a disaster or emergency response. /////////////////////////////////////////// Army And Air Force MARS Communications Exercise Set for February 12: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:34 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36146 The first quarterly Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) US Department of Defense communications exercise of 2016 (COMEX 16-1) is set for February 12. The scenario will be a loss of electrical power, landline telephone and cell service, and Internet. The exercise will get under way at 1200 UTC and run for 12 hours. Individual radio amateurs and Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) groups will be encouraged to participate. /////////////////////////////////////////// Severe Weather Cuts Short South Georgia VP8SGI DXpedition: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:34 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36145 Stormy weather that plagued the final days of the South Georgia VP8SGI DXpedition visit eventually led to the operation being cut short to ensure the safety of the team. Chief Pilot Toni Gonzalez, EA5RM, reported on February 7 that the DXpeditioners had returned to the R/V Braveheart "for security reasons." VP8SGI had planned to shut down South Georgia operations the following day, after a little longer than 9 days there. "VP8SGI is now QRT," he concluded. /////////////////////////////////////////// VHF Groups Join Forces to Sponsor 'Super Conference:' Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:30 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36144 The Southeastern VHF Society (SVHFS),North East Weak Signal Group (NEWS), and Mount Airy VHF Radio Club (Pack Rats)are cosponsoring a VHF Super Conference, hosted by the Grid Pirates Contest Group (K8GP) and Directive Systems and Engineering. The conference will take place April 15-17 in Sterling, Virginia. /////////////////////////////////////////// QCWA Honors ARRL President Emeritus Harry Dannals, W2HD: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:33 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36143 The Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) has honored ARRL President Emeritus Harry Dannals, W2HD, for his 70 years as a radio amateur. QCWA Chapter 155 in Charlottesville, Virginia -- where Dannals lives -- hosted a celebratory luncheon for Dannals on February 3. /////////////////////////////////////////// ARRL 2016 International DX Contest (CW) is February 20-21: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:33 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36142 No contest season is complete without the running of our annual ARRL International DX Contest. The CW event is February 20-21; the phone event is 2 weeks later on the weekend of March 5-6. /////////////////////////////////////////// Icom America Donates IC-9100 Transceiver to ARRL Headquarters Station W1HQ: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:32 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36141 Icom America has donated an IC-9100 transceiver for installation at W1HQ, the ARRL Headquarters station that's used by staff and volunteers. The transceiver was provided courtesy of Icom America Senior Sales Manager, Ray Novak, N9JA, and it includes the optional 1.2 GHz module. /////////////////////////////////////////// Hamvention Extends Awards Nominations Deadline to March 1: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:31 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36140 Dayton Hamvention has extended the deadline to March 1 to accept nominations for its 2016 awards program. /////////////////////////////////////////// North American 'RST' Stations On the Air Activity Set for February / March: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:32 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36139 The "RST" stations will take to the airwaves in February and March from several locations in Alaska, Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, with members of the North Country DX Association (NCDXA) at the helm. All call signs will have "RST" suffixes: KL7RST, VY1RST, VE8RST, and VY0RST. The idea is to further promote Amateur Radio in that part of the world. /////////////////////////////////////////// University Radio Club Donates J-37 Key to B-29 Radio Restoration Project: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:31 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36138 The Amateur Radio Club of the University of Arkansas W5YM), which celebrates its centennial this year, has donated a J-37 telegraph key to be used in a radio position under restoration on board "Fifi," a World War II vintage B-29 Flying Fortress. Members of the Rockwell-Collins Amateur Radio Club have been recreating a radio operator's position on the aircraft. /////////////////////////////////////////// IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Honors Ulrich Rohde, N1UL: Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:29 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36137 Ulrich Rohde, N1UL, has been honored with the 2016 Microwave Application Award by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He was credited with "Significant contributions to the development of low-noise oscillators." The Microwave Application Award recognizes an individual, or a team, for an outstanding application of microwave theory and techniques that have been put into practice within the past decade. /////////////////////////////////////////// In Brief... Posted: 11 Feb 2016 09:29 AM PST http://www.eham.net/articles/36136 Visalia 2016 Top Band Dinner Set for April 15: The Top Band Dinner at the International DX Convention in Visalia, California, will take place on April 15 in the ballroom of the Marriott hotel adjacent to the Visalia Convention Center. Craig Thompson, K9CT, will present, "Top Band from Palmyra, K5P." Check-in for the buffet dinner starts at 6:30 PM. |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
![]() |
||||
Thread | Forum | |||
eHam.net News for Wednesday 10 February 2016 | Info | |||
eHam.net News for Tuesday 9 February 2016 | Info | |||
eHam.net News for Friday 5 February 2016 | Info | |||
eHam.net News for Thursday 4 February 2016 | Info | |||
eHam.net News for Friday 14 February 2014 | Info |