KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog

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IARU Assumes Custody of Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio
Amateur

Posted: 25 May 2016 12:16 PM PDT
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The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) has become the custodian of
the operating standards guide Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio
Amateur.Â*Over the last 8 years, the booklet Ethics and Operating Procedures
for the Radio Amateur has become a respected work describing the best
standards of operating on the amateur bands, the IARU said in a news
release.

Ethics and Operating Procedures for the Radio Amateur is available as a PDF
document in more than 25 languages. PowerPoint presentations are also
available that you can use to help you give a presentation on the topic.
The authors stated goal is, to improve, where necessary, the behavior on
the bands in matters of ethics and operating procedures, and make available
to the newcomers in the hobby a document covering these subjects in detail.
The guide was accepted by the IARU Administrative Council in 2008 as the
recommended manual covering the subject of ethics and operational
procedures.


While I think the booklet Â*generally gives good advice, I take exception to
some of it. For example, in Section II.9.6, it says,

While replying to a CQ, do not send the call of the station you are calling
more than once, better still is not to send it at all (you can trust the
operator knows his own call).Â*

The authors give this advice in several places. While not sending a calling
stations callsign is standard operating procedure for contests and DX work,
I dont think this is the right way to reply to a CQ in day-to-day
operation. If you are replying to my CQ and don’t send my call, how do I
know that it is me that you’re calling. Â*And, in poor conditions, it may be
necessary to call more than once to ensure that I know that you’re calling
me.
Another example can be found in section, II.9.16. Here, the authors say to
never sign /QRP.’ This is perfectly legal here in the U.S., and I see no
reason not to do so if you want to alert the other operator that youre
running low power.

The post IARU Assumes Custody of Ethics and Operating Procedures for the
Radio Amateur appeared first on KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.


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Dayton 2016: QRP-ARCIs Four Days in May (FDIM)

Posted: 25 May 2016 12:00 PM PDT
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For the past sever years, Ive been attending the QRP-ARCIs Four Days in May
(FDIM), which is held in conjunction with the Dayton Hamvention.
FDIMÂ*includes a number of different events, the biggest being the seminar
held on Thursday, the day before the Hamvention.

The seminar features a number of talks, and this year, the lineup included:

Elecraft Shrinking the Multi-Mode HF Transceiver,Â*Eric Swartz, WA6HHQ.
Elecraft likes to introduce new products at FDIM, and this year was no
exception. The introduction of the new KX2Â*got this years FDIM off to a
rousing start. I actually got to see it up close and personal, as one of
the field testers, Bruce, N7RR, was sitting two rows in front of me, and he
passed his unit around for folks to have a look. Its a pretty cool little
radio, at about half the size of a KX3. To make the radio smaller, they did
have to make some compromises, though. The KX2 only covers 80m 10m (no
160m or 6m), and theres not an IQ output. Even so, lots of folks in the
audience were buzzing about it.
WSPR and the Raspberry Pi, Scott Cowling, WA2DFI andÂ*Zoltan Doczi, HA7DCD.
To be honest, this talk didnt do much for me. WSPR is kind of cool, and
building an add-on board for the Raspberry Pi toÂ*run it is kind of cool,
but I still cant work up a lot of enthusiasm for it.
2016 The Year of the Portable OperatorÂ*From IOTA to SOTA to NPOTA, Guy
Hamblen, N7UN. This was a great talk, and its gotten me interested in doing
some NPOTA activations this year. Unfortunately, there arent many NPOTA
sites that I can activate in SE Michigan. Its pretty much the same for SOTA
activations. Michigan is flat, flat, flat.
Occams Scrip Â*the minimalist measurement mindset, Paul Darlington, M0XPD.
Despite the need to explain the title of his talk, and his use of flowery
language (well, he is English, after all), I mostly enjoyed Darllingtons
talk. His theme was certainly right on. QRP is all about minimalism, and
that mindset should translate into how we think about RF measurements as
well. I would offer a caveat, though. Einstein is credited with saying,
Everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler. Id paraphrase
that, If somethings too simple, it simply wont work.
Troubleshooting and Repair Techniques, Mike Bryce, WB8VGE. This talk was a
chronicle of Mikes adventures in repairing old equipment. It was a real
hoot, and almost the opposite of M0XPDs talk. Mike used decidedly more
down-to-earth language than M0XPD, in a flat midwestern accent. Lots of
good tips for fixing various and assorted problems.
Thermatron Homebrew Ideas and Techniques, Grayson Evans, TA2ZGE/KJ7UM.
Aside from a few new wrinkles, TA2ZGE gave this talk about building
circuits with tubes (devices that he insists on calling thermatrons) at
FDIM a couple of years ago. It was fairly interesting, but having heard
this talk before, I think that Id rather have heard something else.


The only other FDIM event that I participated in was Vendor Night on
Thursday evening. I didnt sell as many books as Id hoped, but I did make
contact with several ham radio instructors. I also got to meet several
readers, and that was fun.

In addition to those, I had a kid come up and take a look at the General
Class study guide. He told me that he was going to take the General Class
test the next day and was wondering if he should buy the study guide. I
asked him if he was passing the online tests, and when he answered yes, I
told him to save his money.

He came back some time later and asked about taking the Extra Class test.
He said that he hadnt really studied for it, but I told him to take it
anyway. It wasnt going to cost him anything, so why not? I heard later that
he passed the test.

The post Dayton 2016: QRP-ARCIs Four Days in May (FDIM) appeared first on
KB6NUs Ham Radio Blog.