eHam.net News

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Hams In Space Part 2: The Manned Spaceflights:

Posted: 01 Nov 2016 05:15 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37886


Whether it's trying to make contacts across the planet with a transmitter
that would have a hard time lighting an LED, or blasting signals into space
and bouncing them off the moon, amateur radio operators have always been on
the forefront of communications technology. As mankind took to space in the
1950s and 1960s, hams went along for the ride with the first private
satellites. But as successful as the OSCAR satellites were, they were still
at best only beacons or repeaters in space. What was needed was the human
touch - a real live operator making contacts with people on the ground,
showing the capabilities of amateur radio while generating public interest
in the space program. What was needed was a ham in space. The first attempt
to get an amateur radio station into space with a licensed operator started
in the waning days of the Apollo era. Owen Garriott (W5LFL) had a Ph.D. in
electrical engineering at the time he was selected as one of the first six
scientist-astronauts in 1965. He trained for and eventually flew on Skylab
3 in 1973. Late in the run-up to his mission, Garriott made a formal
proposal to take along a ham rig so he could make contacts from orbit. NASA
liked the idea, but because the idea came up so late in the mission cycle,
there was no time to get the gear properly certified for spaceflight and
the proposal was rejected. Fortunately, Garriott would have another mission
and another chance to become the first ham in space. Garriott was selected
as a mission specialist for STS-9, the Spacelab-1 mission that flew on
shuttle Columbia in 1983. Properly prepared this time, Garriott went aloft
with a Motorola MX-300 handheld transceiver for the 2-meter band. The
antenna was a bit of a compromise; no provision had been made on the
Shuttle for an external antenna, so a cavity antenna was mounted to one of
the windows with Velcro. The lucky ham to log the first contact (QSO) with
an astronaut in orbit was Lance Collister (WA1JXN) of Montana.


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Put that Amateur Radio License to Use on 915 MHz:

Posted: 01 Nov 2016 05:15 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37885


Amateur radio enthusiasts in the US will be interested in Faraday, an
open-source digital radio that runs on 915 MHz, which amateur radio
enthusiasts may know better as the 33 cm band. You can transmit on 915 MHz
without a license (in the US), taking advantage of the Industrial,
Scientific, and Medical (ISM) exemption. This means that there's commodity
hardware available for sending and receiving, which is a plus. But you
can't do so with any real power unless you have an amateur radio license.
And that's what makes Faraday interesting -- it makes it very easy to
transmit and receive digital data, with decent power and range, if you're
licensed. The band is currently under-utilized, so go nuts!


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Amateur Radio vs Emergency Radio:

Posted: 01 Nov 2016 05:14 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37884


Ham Radio is one fun thing and we all know what best we can do with it.
Few get involved in the amateur radio for some of the reasons.
Communication with ham radios has been one positive communication because
it is very helpful in and reliable in emergencies with greater efficiency.
No doubt plenty people start their initial career as hams. We cannot say
that amateur radio is the same as emergency radio. They both have their own
characteristics and have only a few things in common. The things that make
DX radios unique of make them differ from emergency radio includes
Frequency, FM, and AM are the traditional bands that are the operations of
emergency radio. Shortwave occurrences are also accessible in some rare
cases which are actually used to inform people about the climate conditions
or about any about to occur disaster. One of the problems such bands are
facing is the unavailability of frequency during the disaster time and
similarly internet and mobile networks are also very likely to go down, but
the most important thing about the ham radio is that they are operational
in disaster conditions also, which is a big plus. This is it is known as
the most efficient medium. Most of the people are using it to form rescue
teams and inform people about any discrepancies happening around. Ham radio
is simpler than any other technology if we take other modern devices; it is
user-friendly and efficient. It can tell us the types of communication
modes all around our country, it is not restricted to the neighborhood
only. There are no advertisements in the broadcasting and no hindrances
occur in any crucial moment, neither any sort of interruption. The data we
receive from ham is more clear and precise and easy to interpret and is
very objective. There are no language barriers because it has plenty modes
to bring out the signal for the interpretation and most importantly it
includes the code named as Morse code.


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Ham Talk Live #38 -- Contact Sport N3BB:

Posted: 01 Nov 2016 01:40 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/37883


Thursday night at 9 pm Eastern time on Ham
Talk Live, listen to noted author J.K.
George, N3BB talk about his book entitled
"Contact Sport". The book is a ham radio
story about the WRTC championships. He will
also take your questions LIVE during the
show. To listen, tune in at hamtalklive.com.
Just hit the play button.