This Week in Amateur Radio News for Sunday 22 October 2017

[TWIAR via rec.radio.info Admin]

TWIAR News Feed

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Kansas City firefighter uses Ham Radio skills to help Puerto Rico

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 11:06 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2irJ08W

Jeremy Dougherty admits that his wife wasn’t always a huge fan of his Ham
Radio hobby.

“She teases me a lot,” Dougherty smiles. “She says, ‘This is an old man
hobby. Who does ham radio?’”

Dougherty is a Kansas City firefighter who picked up Ham Radio just a
couple of years ago for fun. But when hurricane winds toppled Puerto Rico’s
communication towers last month, Dougherty quickly answered the call from
the American Red Cross for licensed Ham Radio operators on the island.

“It was really like I was landing in a war zone,” Dougherty recalled.

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Radio Club reflects on past accomplishments, looks to future (Tennessee)

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 07:01 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2yEqjmc

In a room tucked under Neyland Stadium, the UT Amateur Radio Club reaches
over 200 countries.

Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, involves the use of the radio
frequency spectrum for non-commercial purposes, like exchanging messages,
private recreation and radio sport. The term “amateur” is used mainly to
distinguish the hobby from private broadcasting and public safety
broadcasting.

Members of the Amateur Radio Club meet weekly in East Stadium Hall, where
they have an antenna and a radio system to broadcast from UT campus.

The UT Amateur Radio Club started in 1947 in response to a rise in interest
of satellite and radio following the end of World War II.

Bobbie Williams, adviser and trustee of the UT Amateur Radio Club, said
that after World War II, extra radio equipment began to be donated to
facilities for research and education on improving satellite signals.

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Retro radios are what hes tuned in to (New York)

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 06:48 PM PDT
https://nwsdy.li/2yXH2E4

It’s a scene Terry Adelwerth has witnessed multiple times: A car pulls into
a radio swap meet in upstate Rochester, and before the driver has a chance
to shift into park, people surround the vehicle and are pulling on the door
handles. “He’s rolling to a stop and they’re opening his doors and grabbing
stuff,” Adelwerth said.

Adelwerth’s wife, Deborah, jokingly called those eager people “vultures,”
but they’re radio enthusiasts, anxious to be the first to lay claim to a
needed part or an old-fashioned gem.

Adelwerth, 59, of Center Moriches, isn’t quite that aggressive when it
comes to antique radios. But he said he understands the impulse. It’s not
easy to find replacement radio tubes from the 1920s, or a General Electric
tombstone-style or RCA cathedral-style radio from the 1930s that is still
in working condition. When he joins collectors at Long Island’s monthly
radio swap meets in Seaford, or at the bigger regional ones he attends each
spring and fall in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, Adelwerth is also hoping to
score.

“I always found radio fascinating, in that you could hear stuff from around
the world,” said Adelwerth, who is more interested in the physical radios
than he is in the history of radio programming. “It’s just interesting that
all this stuff is traveling through the airwaves, and here I have this box
and I can hear it.”

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Local Radios Value Demonstrated During Emergencies

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 06:15 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2gA8n82

Oct 2017 California Wildfire satellite image
Local Radio’s Value Demonstrated During Emergencies

by Paul Riismandel on October 19, 2017 in Commercial Radio, Community
Radio, Emergencies, LPFM, Noncommercial Radio
The local service of radio grows enormously in value when disaster strikes
a community. This is what we’ve seen with the wildfires that have swept
through the Northern California counties of Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake
and Solano beginning last week. Fast moving and unpredictable, these deadly
fires also took out communications infrastructure like cell towers,
internet and cable TV, leaving radio as one of the most reliable sources of
potentially life-saving information.

Commercial and non-commercial stations stepped up to offer emergency
information to residents and first responders. Large Bay Area stations
offered coverage, but often it was smaller, locally-owned stations that
could better serve the hyper-local information needs, able to report the
conditions on the ground in specific towns, cities and neighborhoods, from
what roads are shut down, to what kind of donations were most in need at
specific emergency shelters.

My San Francisco-based colleague Jennifer Waits reported hearing an
emergency services press conference on “Sauvignon Rock” station KVYN-FM The
Vine in Napa, which also ran a bilingual call-in show where residents could
get answers regarding local emergency services. In addition emergency
information was broadcast on Sonoma Community Radio KSVY and country
station KZST in Sonoma.

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ARRL, Heil Sound Help Volunteers Communicate in Puerto Rico

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 06:12 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2gzNOsh

The American Radio Relay League recently responded to a call from the Red
Cross requesting 50 trained radio operators and 25 radio kits to be sent to
Puerto Rico to help with Hurricane Maria’s aftermath.
The majority of the U.S. territory is off the grid — electricity, cell
phone service and Internet access are all still spotty, but this makes ham
radio an ideal communications solution because it does not use cellular
technology to operate and can be powered by generators, batteries or solar,
according to a press release from Heil Sound.
ARRL shipped gear from Connecticut to initial staging and then on to San
Juan, Puerto Rico, but once on the island, volunteers identified a need for
headsets; power generators, heavy machinery and other disaster recovery
equipment produce a high level of ambient noise.
In turn, ARRL asked Heil Sound to contribute, and the company provided 25
Pro7 headsets.

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Amateur radio recognized in Norwegian resource register

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:44 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2yGGzDw

Norway's national amateur radio society NRRL report they are now recorded
in the Common Resource Register used by the main rescue centers and the
police

A Google English translation of the NRRL report reads:

BarentsWatch has developed a common resource register, which is used by,
among others, the main rescue centers and the police for an overview of the
operational resources that can be used in various events.

The operational resources of NRRL are now registered in the registry and
the authorities can therefore easily get an overview of what we can deliver
in different crisis situations.

In resource registers, resource owners and resource users can exchange data
on their capabilities and get an overview of available resources. By
insight and common understanding of situations, resources can be exploited
efficiently, and one can achieve significant time savings.

It is hoped that the registry may seem motivating to get ten operational
solutions around the country, especially regarding emergency relations in
major events. The devices that today can deliver resources to rescue
services at very short notice are marked as green. This is true now in
Troms, Oslo and Eastern police districts. In the rest of the country we are
yellow indicating "reduced operational ability", except in Agder that has
no registered activity and Trøndelag, which has not yet been registered.

In the foreseeable future, any need for emergency services from the
southern federal service should therefore be covered from the districts,
until groups in southern Norway establish some emergency preparedness.

NRRL http://tinyurl.com/NorwayNRRL

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Family mourn grandad who fled to Northern Ireland after Kuwait invasion

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:44 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2yFmrTK

A Ballycastle grandfather who fled Iraq's invasion of Kuwait over 25 years
ago before making Northern Ireland his home has passed away from cancer.

Marvi Kashkoush died peacefully aged 68 on Saturday night at the Causeway
Hospital after fighting his illness for 13 months longer than his doctors
expected.

A family notice said he was the "beloved husband of Edith and much loved
father of Christopher and Michael, father-in-law to Danielle and Arlene as
well as loving grandfather of Sophia and Ariana."

Photographer Kevin McAuley, his close friend of 27 years, said he
remembered a true friend who shared a common passion for amateur radio.

Posting his tribute on social media, Mr McAuley said he first met Mr
Kashkoush after knocking on his door with a journalist for a story.

"The family had fled Kuwait during its invasion by Iraq in 1990 and ended
up in Ballycastle," he recalled.

"Having no idea what sort of a reception we would get, we knocked the door
around 2pm and left at about 6pm, the rest was history."

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DARPA Software Defined Radio (SDR) Hackfest Selects Teams To Explore
Cyber-Physical Intersection Of SDR And Drone Technology

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:33 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2zFr2Uz

The increased use of wireless and internet-enabled devices – from computers
to home appliances – and the data they generate are creating opportunities
and challenges for the defense and commercial sectors. To help explore and
better understand the complex relationship created by the intersection of
physical and cyber technology within the ever more congested
electromagnetic spectrum, DARPA program manager Tom Rondeau embarked on a
year-long effort to build an engaged community of engineers and scientists
operating within relevant technical areas. The results of these efforts
will culminate in November during the weeklong DARPA Bay Area Software
Defined Radio (SDR) Hackfest at NASA Ames Conference Center in Moffett
Field, California. Teams from across the country will come together to
explore the cyber-physical interplay of SDR and unmanned aerial vehicles,
or UAVs, during the Hackfest.

Eight teams from academia, industry, and the SDR enthusiast community have
been selected to participate in the Hackfest. Featuring a broad range of
backgrounds and technical expertise – from ham radio to 3D printing – each
team will be challenged to exercise its SDR hacking skills with the goal of
controlling a UAV through a specific set of operations. The challenges,
known as the Hackfest Missions, will conclude with a final flight test on
November 17, in which each team will have an opportunity to showcase a
week’s worth of development and collaboration in front of a panel of judges.

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Scientists in Alaska Attempt to Produce Artificial Aurora

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:24 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2ir65Zc

Sometimes, experiments don’t work out as planned.

In late September, Christopher Fallen and technicians at the High Frequency
Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) near Gakona, Alaska, switched on a
giant array of 180 antennas. They were hoping to produce radio-induced
airglow, also known as artificial aurora, as a way to better understand the
mechanics of natural aurora.

Such airglow would be difficult to see with the naked eye, so Fallen had
set up two low-light video cameras to capture it. And he tweeted his plans,
in the off chance that someone else might catch a glimpse. After all, some
of the most impressive artificial aurora displays to date have been
produced at HAARP.

But the sky was too cloudy. And by the time it was dark enough, the
ionosphere had deteriorated too much, with relatively few electrons per
cubic centimeter. Fallen wasn’t able to generate any airglow during four
days of experiments.

But not all was lost. He had also embedded images into the powerful radio
wave that HAARP uses to heat a patch of the ionosphere, and alerted amateur
radio enthusiasts through Twitter. As the experiment ran, his feed began to
light up with tweets from listeners who were sending the images back to him.

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Nevada County Amateur Radio Services operators assist in fire emergencies
(California)

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:19 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2hWVktG

Representing Nevada County Amateur Radio Services and with the approval of
the county Office of Emergency Services, Jason Eaton (KJ6HNP) and Cal
McKitrick (AI6MC) responded to the Red Cross request for assistance at the
First Baptist Church shelter set up to assist area fire evacuees.

The amateur radio operators assignment was from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., handling
any requests for health and welfare or other necessary message requests
deemed necessary by the shelter managers. By morning, the number of shelter
occupants was minimal. Evacuees started returning home as electricity was
restored in areas cleared from evacuation status.

Amateur radio operators have also played crucial roles in the aftermath of
the Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where the Red Cross partnered with the
American Radio Relay League, which sent two 25-person teams of highly
qualified operators.


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Court Won't Force Broadcasters to Translate Emergency Alerts

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:14 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2yKcKDM

A federal court has said the FCC was within its authority to seek more
input before deciding whether to require broadcasters to simulcast
emergency alert information in languages other than English.

The Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council (MMTC) and the League
of United Latin American Citizens and League of Latin American Citizens
(LULAC) had challenged that FCC decision, both on statutory grounds and as
arbitrary and capricious.

The case dates from 2005, when MMTC filed the petition to the FCC to
require broadcasters "to offer life-saving emergency information in Spanish
and other widely spoken languages during and immediately after emergencies
such as hurricanes."

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (with
one partial dissent) rejected the appeal, concluding that the FCC's
decision not to mandate bilingual simulcasts and instead gather more
information was consistent with statute, "reasonable and reasonably
explained."

"Alert originators can (and sometimes do) compose and transmit alerts in
languages in addition to English. And broadcasters in those circumstances
then automatically broadcast the alerts in those other languages as well,"
wrote Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the opinion. "But as petitioners concede,
the FCC lacks authority over alert originators and therefore cannot compel
alert originators to transmit alerts in languages in addition to English.

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FCC Hits at Unlicensed Signals Up and Down East Coast

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:07 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2yEEwzN

The FCC continues to call attention to its enforcement activities against
alleged operators of unlicensed FM signals that exceed legal limits,
including the use of notices to landlords and owners of properties where
such signals originate.

The latest list includes more than a dozen notices of unlicensed operation
in Florida, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Three appear related to a single operation that allegedly caused
interference to a translator in the Boston area. The FCC notified Quinton
and Michelle Joseph of Dorchester Center, Mass., that broadcasts heard
around Boston on 105.3 MHz exceeded legal limits. That frequency is
occupied by a translator serving WPKZ(AM) in Fitchburg. The commission said
it sourced interfering signals to a commercial building owned by New
Fellowship Baptist Church, which also received a notice.

The commission lately has been including landlords and property owners in
its enforcement efforts against radio piracy.

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Bidding is Now Open for the 12th Annual ARRL On-Line Auction!

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 02:00 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2gVtf6C

The 12th Annual ARRL On-Line Auction is on, with more than 250 items up for
bid this year. The list includes QST Product Review gear — already ARRL Lab
tested — as well as vintage books, previously owned gear, and
one-of-a-kinds. The ARRL Lab team also has contributed four of the very
popular “mystery boxes.”

Some of the premier Product Review items up for bid include the FlexRadio
Systems FLEX-6500 SDR transceiver and updated SmartSDR software for
Windows, Elecraft KX2 HF QRP transceiver, Kenwood TH-D74A analog and D-STAR
VHF/UHF transceiver, and the Yaesu FT-891 HF and 6-meter transceiver.

Among the book offerings this year are The World of Ham Radio 1901-1950, a
special 1942 defense edition of The Radio Amateur’s Handbook, and
Fundamental of SSB by Collins.

Proceeds from the yearly On-Line Auction benefit ARRL education programs.
These include activities to license new hams, strengthen Amateur Radio
Emergency Service (ARES) training, offer continuing technical and operating
education, and create instructional materials.

All bidders must register. Your arrl.org user ID and password will not work
on the auction site. If you have registered for past auctions, you may use
the same log-in information. If you have forgotten, simply click the “Help”
tab, and you’ll find instructions as to how to retrieve your password or
user ID. At the same time, take the opportunity to make sure that you
update address and other information if you plan to bid. The auction site
only accepts Visa and MasterCard credit cards.

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Caribbean Telecommunications Union Head Calls for "New Generation" of Hams

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 01:54 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2x1r4nJ

In remarks made on International Disaster Reduction Day, Friday, October
13, Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU) Secretary-General Bernadette
Lewis described Amateur Radio as a “bedrock of sustained communications”
during emergencies, and strongly suggested cultivating a new and younger
generation of radio amateurs to carry this role forward. She spoke as part
of a panel on emergency telecommunications during the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunication Development
Conference 2017 (WTDC-17), now under way in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The
CTU, she said, has been considering the role of Amateur Radio in light of
this “very, very, violent hurricane season.”

“Amateur Radio has been a staple, and it is because of…the Amateur Radio
operators in the region that we get a lot of the information that we need,”
she told her audience. Her presentation defined Amateur Radio as one
component of the coordination of preparedness, response, and recovery
efforts on the part of national emergency management agencies.

Moderator Vanessa Gray later asked Lewis what “one concrete step” could be
taken to make better use of information and communication technologies
(ICT) for disaster management.

“We really have to cultivate a new generation of Amateur Radio operators,”
Lewis replied without hesitation. “We found that they are all on the
northern side of 50.”

“Amateur Radio has been the bedrock of sustained communications during such
emergencies,” she continued, “and one of the things we’re looking at is
actually facilitating this process of having a network of
disaster-resistant centers that that, in times when you don’t have a
disaster, could be used for training new operators and generating that
interest across the region.”

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"Force of 50" Volunteers Puerto Rico Hurricane Recovery Mission Ends

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 01:42 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2ywX6LC

The 22 “Force of 50” radio amateurs who deployed to Puerto Rico earlier
this month as American Red Cross volunteers have ended their mission and
will be back on the US mainland by week’s end. They had been in Puerto Rico
for about 3 weeks.

“The Force of 50 volunteers demonstrated an extraordinary range of skills
possessed by this accomplished team,” said ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher, NY2RF.
“There was no task that they wouldn’t tackle. It also demonstrated the
generosity of these volunteers, who not only performed their roles as
communicators, but also engaged the population with their many acts of
personal kindness.”

Val Hotzfeld, NV9L, who filed situation reports documenting the team’s
activities, said the volunteers accomplished everything they went to Puerto
Rico to do, “and then some.” She said that the Red Cross felt they had
exceeded all expectations.

“We opened a lot of peoples’ eyes when we started going to the ESF-2
communications task force meetings. They had no idea of our capabilities,”
Hotzfeld told ARRL. “When they heard what we’d accomplished, we were
swarmed; everybody was wanting us.”

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via HACKADAY: Spy Tech: Stealing a Moon Probe

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 01:42 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2yv8OaF

Ever hear of the Soviet Luna program? In the west, it was often called
Lunik, if you heard about it at all. Luna was a series of unmanned moon
probes launched between 1959 and 1976. There were at least 24 of them, and
15 were successful. Most of the failures were not reported or named. Luna
craft have a number of firsts, but the one we are interested in is that it
may have been the first space vehicle to be stolen — at least temporarily —
in a cold war caper worthy of a James Bond novel.


Luna-1 Payload
Around 1960, the Soviet Union toured several countries with exhibits of
their industrial and technological accomplishments. One of the items on
display was the upper stage of a Luna vehicle with windows cut out to show
the payload inside. At first, the CIA suspected the vehicle was just a
model. But they wanted to be sure.

The story is laid out in a CIA document from 1967 that was only
declassified in 1994. Even then, the document has a lot of redactions in
it. The paper is sparse on how they managed it, but when the exhibit closed
— somehow — a group of intelligence operatives wound up inside the
exhibition hall alone for 24 hours.

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RadFxSat (Fox-1B) FM Satellite Set to Launch in November

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 01:42 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2gTqUZR

The next AMSAT Fox-1 satellite, RadFxSat (Fox-1B), is scheduled to launch
on November 10 at 0947 UTC. RadFxSat (Fox-1B), which will carry a 435/145
MHz FM transponder, is one of four CubeSats making up the NASA ELaNa XIV
mission, riding as secondary payloads aboard the Joint Polar Satellite
System-1 (JPSS-1) mission. JPSS-1 will launch on a Delta II vehicle from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.

RadFxSat is a partnership with Vanderbilt University Institute for Space
and Defense Electronics (ISDE) and hosts four payloads for the study of
radiation effects on commercial off-the-shelf components. It will carry a
Fox-1 style FM U/V repeater with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS)
and a downlink on 145.960 MHz. Satellite and experiment telemetry will be
downlinked via the DUV subaudible telemetry stream, which can be decoded
using FoxTelem software. — Thanks to AMSAT-NA, via Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

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David Trachtenberg, N4WWL, Confirmed as Principal Deputy Undersecretary of
Defense for Policy

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 01:34 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2zhyLqE

The US Senate today confirmed ARRL member David Trachtenberg, N4WWL, of
Burke, Virginia, as the next Principal Deputy Under Secretary of Defense
for Policy. Trachtenberg, 60, is the president and CEO of Shortwaver
Consulting LLC, a national security consultancy. He is National Planning
Coordinator and Northeast Division Director for USAF MARS, and is active in
the Pentagon Amateur Radio Club (PARC).

Trachtenberg has prior service in several Department of Defense posts, most
recently as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for
International Security Policy. In that role, he was responsible for issues
relating to NATO, Europe, Russia, and Eurasia; technology security;
counter-proliferation; missile defense; nuclear forces; and arms control.
Trachtenberg also was a professional staff member with the House Armed
Services Committee.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University
of Southern California and a master’s degree in foreign service from
Georgetown University. — Thanks to Gary Sessums, KC5QCN

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via HACKADAY: 3D Printed Dashboard CB Mount is Convoy Ready

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:08 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2yZeQks

Some may be surprised to hear that CB radio is alive and well in the 21st
century. From disaster response to operating in areas without reliable
communication infrastructure, there are plenty of reasons people are still
reaching for their radio and not their smartphone. Unfortunately, modern
automotive interior design doesn’t have such an enlightened view. It’s hard
enough to get decent cup holders in some cars, let alone a spot to hang
your microphone.

When presented with this problem in his Subaru Forester, [Alex Loizou] did
what any modern hacker would, he 3D printed a mount that snaps into the
stock dash. No drilling was required to attach his radio mount, it simply
replaces a decorative trim piece that wasn’t doing anything anyway.
Obviously this particular mount would only really work on the same year and
make of vehicle as [Alex] has, but this is a good demonstration of how 3D
printing can be used to adapt to existing hardware.

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California Fire Situation Improves

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:08 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2hO7Iw1

San Francisco Section District Emergency Coordinator Len Gwinn, WA6KLK, in
the Redwood Valley told ARRL this week that Amateur Radio volunteers in
Mendocino and Lake counties have stood down, and things are “kind of back
to normal, in that no emergency stations are being operated.” Gwinn, who
spent more than 3 decades with Cal Fire and a few more years as a
volunteer, said the sound of the wildfire in the Redwood Valley was
remarkable.

“Never, ever had I heard a fire like this,” he told ARRL. “[T]he roar of
the fire was something else from 2 miles away the first night,” he
recounted. “Transformers and propane tanks going off like a war zone. Some
shook my house!”

Gwinn said this week that skies are still smoky but clearing. Mendocino
County Sheriff Tom Allman told him that hams were a saving grace in keeping
hospitals and some other organizations linked when there was no other
communication.

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Chinese CAS-4A and CAS-4B Amateur Radio Satellite Transponders Activated

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:08 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2yBBcrg

The Amateur Radio linear (SSB/CW) inverting transponders on the CAS-4A and
CAS-4B satellites were activated on October 18. CAMSAT’s Amateur Radio
payloads piggybacked on the optical remote-sensing micro-satellites OVS-1A
(CAS-4A) and OVS-1B (CAS-4B), launched on June 15.

CAS-4A (call sign BJ1SK) has a CW telemetry beacon on 145.855 MHz, and 4.8
kB GMSK telemetry on 145.835 MHz. The uplink is 435.220 MHz, the downlink
is 145.870 MHz (20-kHz passband).

CAS-4B (call sign BJ1SL) has a CW telemetry beacon on 145.910 MHz, and 4.8
kB GMSK telemetry at 145.890 MHz. The uplink is 435.280 MHz, the downlink
is 145.925 MHz (20-kHz passband). — Thanks to Southgate Amateur Radio News
via AMSAT-UK

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via HACKADAY: Snazzy Balun Lets Ham Use Off-The-Shelf Coax

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:08 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2ytuXF6

It’s a dilemma many hams face: it’s easy to find yourself with a big spool
of RG-11 coax cable, usually after a big cable TV wiring project. It can be
tempting to use it in antenna projects, but the characteristic impedance of
RG-11 is 75 Ω, whereas the ham world is geared to 50 Ω. Not willing to
waste a bounty of free coax, one ham built a custom 1:1 current balun for a
75 Ω dipole.

Converting between balanced and unbalanced signals is the job of a balun,
and it’s where the device derives its name. For hams, baluns are
particularly useful to connect a dipole antenna, which is naturally
balanced, to an unbalanced coax feedline. The balun [NV2K] built is a
bifilar 1:1 design, with two parallel wires wound onto a ferrite core. To
tweak the characteristic impedance to the 75 Ω needed for his antenna and
feedline, [NV2K] added short lengths of Teflon insulation to one of the
conductors, which is as fussy a bit of work as we’ve seen in a while. We
appreciate the careful winding of the choke and the care taken to make this
both mechanically and electrically sound, and not letting that RG-11 go to
waste is a plus.

With as much effort as hams put into antenna design, there’s a surprising
dearth of Hackaday articles on the subject. We’ve talked a bit about the
Yagi-Uda antenna, and we’ve showcased a cool magnetic loop antenna, but
there’s precious little about the humble dipole.

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Focus on Emergency Communication at Pacificon 2017

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:05 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2zk2Jdx

Emergency communication will be a prominent part of the program at
Pacificon 2017, the ARRL Pacific Division Convention, October 20-22 in San
Ramon, California, sponsored by the Mount Diablo Amateur Radio Club.

National SATERN Liaison Bill Feist, WB8BZH, will speak on Saturday and
Sunday. The Saturday session will cover “SATERN and Amateur Radio Emergency
Communications in the 21st Century,” while the Sunday session will address
The Salvation Army and SATERN disaster response to Hurricanes Harvey and
Irma.

Other public service-related programs include “Communications
Infrastructure for Special Events — Supporting the Wildflower Triathlon” by
Kenneth Finnegan, W6KWF. “SKYWARN Training” will be offered by Brian Garcia
of the National Weather Service; NorCal Founder Paul Young, K6PDY, and Ron
Bunch, W4FEK, Mount Diablo ARC Emergency Communications.

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500-foot communications tower collapses in north Lincoln (Nebraska)

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:05 PM PDT
http://bit.ly/2xdTbQY

A 500-foot-tall communications tower in north Lincoln collapsed Friday
morning, knocking out television, phone, internet and other service for
some customers.

The tower at 4100 Industrial Avenue, near 27th and Superior streets, was
leased by a number of companies.

"It's just chaos," said a woman who works at the tower site who declined to
give her name. "I've got customers coming out of my ears."

She said several businesses that lease space on the tower had already been
to the site to inspect the damage and look into alternatives.

The tower is owned by David Bratcher, who could not be reached for comment.

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New Ham Bands Spring to Life; Veteran LF Experimenter Denied Amateur Access
to 2200 Meters

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:05 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2ytv2XS

Amateur Radio’s two newest bands came to life on Friday the 13th. Both 630
meters (472-479 kHz) and 2200 meters (135.7-137.8 kHz) now are available to
radio amateurs who have notified the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) of
their intention to operate and did not hear anything back during the
ensuing 30 days.

“Many of us filed notices with the Utilities Technology Council on
September 15, the day the notification procedure was announced,” said Fritz
Raab, W1FR, who coordinated the ARRL WD2XSH 630-Meter Experiment. “We did
not expect to hear from the UTC unless they were objecting to amateur
operation. Much to our surprise, on Friday, October 13, a number of
operators received ‘okay’ notices. So, the first amateur operations
commenced that night.”

Some Denied Access to 2200 Meters

UTC e-mails went out to an undermined number of US radio amateurs who had
notified the Council, but not everyone got the thumbs up. One of those
thwarted in his hopes of operating under his Amateur Radio license on 2200
meters was John Andrews, W1TAG, a long-wave veteran with thousands of hours
on the band over the past 15 years or so under his FCC Part 5 Experimental
license.

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via the ARRL: NCDXF Announces Major Support for Baker Island DXpedition

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:05 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2yumfqv

The Northern California DX Foundation (NCDXF) has announced a major
contribution to the Baker Island DXpedition planned for June 2018 by the
Dateline DX Association. Baker-Howland is #4 on the Club Log’s DXCC Most
Wanted list, and likely will move up by one place after the Bouvet
DXpedition next year. In 2016, NCDXF invested $156,000 to support
DXpeditions activating five of the ten most-needed entities, putting nearly
one-half million contacts into DXers’ logs.

“It is possible that the Bouvet and Baker DXpeditions could add another
200,000 QSOs to that number!” NCDXF Vice President Glenn Johnson, W0GJ,
said. “NCDXF’s primary purpose is to help fund well-organized DXpeditions
to rare, difficult, and expensive entities, like Baker Island, Johnson said.

“During the last 45 years, NCDXF has granted over $1.1 million to hundreds
of DXpeditions — helping to put an ‘all-time new one’ (ATNO) in the log and
make DX happen for thousands of DXers worldwide.”

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via HACKADAY: A Web-Based Modem

Posted: 21 Oct 2017 12:05 PM PDT
http://ift.tt/2zzdolC

If you are beyond a certain age, you will recall when getting on the
Internet was preceded by strange buzzing and squawking noises. Modems used
tones to transmit and receive data across ordinary telephone lines. There
were lots of tricks used to keep edging the speed of modem up until — at
the end — you could download (but not upload) at a blazing 56,000 bits per
second. [Martin Kirkholt Melhus] decided to recreate a modem. In a Web
browser. No kidding.

We started to say something about a modem in the cloud, but that wouldn’t
really be accurate. The modem uses the HTML 5 audio API, so it really runs
in the browser. We would have been really surprised if [Martin] had cooked
up a modem able to interact with a real modem, but as you might expect, the
browser modem only communicates with other instances of itself. If you want
a brief introduction to HTML 5 audio, you might enjoy the video below.


Still, the work is impressive and if you look at the code on GitHub, it
isn’t as complicated as you’d expect. You can also check out a live demo.
The tones reminded us of some of the multitone encodings that ham radio
operators use, such as MFSK.