Author Archive
ETH075 – RFinder
If you are anything like me you have used those little repeater directories and strained your eyes in the process. I use to hate trying to find a repeater to use while I was on a trip. Most of the time, while I was on a trip, the town that I was in didn’t have any repeaters in it, but the next town over did. Maybe it was two towns over, or the third of fourth town that I look at in the directory. Either way, it was a pain in the…well you know.
Bob had the same thinking that I did all those years ago, but he acted on it. He went and digitized all the repeater data that was available and made it into an Android app. It is now available to IPhone, Android and on the web for just a small fee.
RFinder is the official repeater directory of Canada, the United Kingdom as well as 13 other countries. This year the ARRL partnered with RFinder to print the 2017 ARRL repeater directory. This years directory has 10,000 more listings and is the first time that the ARRL has crowd sourced the repeater information. The data that RFinder uses comes from many different places including Repeater societies, club websites and directly from repeater owners.
For more information about RFinder, hear it from Bob himself in the latest episode of the Everything Ham Radio Podcast at http://www.everythinghamradio.com/podcast/75
ETH074 – 13 Colonies Special Event with Bob Josuweit, WA3PZO
It is hard to believe that June is almost over and Independence day will be here in less that ten days! It is time for that long weekend off, where families and friends get together to have a bar-b-que and “party” together. While celebrating the day is good, celebrating the week is even better, and that is exactly what we talk about in this interview.
This special event started back in 2009 and has grown every year since. Operators from each of the original 13 colonies will be on the air from Jul 1 through Jul 7 at different times. You can be part of this special event by making contact with any or all of the 13 colony stations or the two bonus stations.
Check out the show notes and listen to the episode for more information
Operating Bicycle Mobile with Mike Nickolaus, NF0N – ETH073
Thinking back to when I was a kid, I used to love riding my bike. My friends and I would get up early every morning and go riding our bikes for about an hour before school started. Then after school we would leave and ride our bike for another two hours or so until it was time to go home for supper.
I wasn’t a ham back then, but I sure loved that bike. Fast forward a few years to my junior year of high school when I got my ham license. I didn’t ride my bike so much anymore, because I didn’t live in town anymore and would’ve been a seven mile ride to and from school and on roads that probably were not the best roads to ride on.
I did start to merge the hobbies somewhat around this time though, however it isn’t anywhere near what Mike and the rest of his club does on theirs. I would clip an HT to my belt and the speaker mic to my shirt and that was the about it.
In today’s episode, Mike talks with me about how he does it, how he operates while being Bicycle mobile. We talk about some of his experiences and some contacts he has made.
Arduino Projects for Amateur Radio with Glen Popiel – ETH072
Do you want to get back to the original roots of Amateur Radio? Maybe you are a new ham and you have a DIY side? Maybe you just want to try something new? There are so many things that you can do with an Arduino that cost only $4 or so! Anything from a morse code keyer to a 40m QRP CW Radio and a whole lot in between. You can even do things with an Arduino that has nothing to do with amateur radio but you will find a use for.
In this episode with talk with Glen Popiel, KW5GP the author of the ARRL published books, Arduino for Ham Radio and his new book that just came out, More Arduino for Ham Radio. He is also the author of the ham mesh networking book, High Speed Multimedia for Amateur Radio.
We had a great conversation and it made me literally go to the ARRL website and buy his new Arduino book while we were recording! Check out the show notes of this episode to listen and to get more information about what we talked about. There are also links to his books that you can go to to buy one for yourself.
Field Day 2017 with Ian Kahn, KM4IK – ETH071
The biggest hamfest is over, but the biggest ham radio on the air event is quickly approaching! Yes I am talking about Field Day 2017! Back in episode 67, I had Ian on and we talked about PSK31. During that interview he mentioned that he was the Field Day Chair for his radio club, the North Fulton Amateur Radio League, so I asked him to come back and talk to us about Field Day.
We had a great conversation about what Field Day is, some general information about it, what its like to be the Field Day Chairperson and be in charge of planning the event for your club and wrap it up with things that his club does during Field Day and what goes on afterwards.
Check out the show notes of this episode for more information about things that we talk about, links that we mention and probably some that we didn’t. The show notes can be found at:
Remote Controlled Vehicles and Ham Radio, A Marriage of Two Hobbies – ETH070
Ever since I was a little kid I have loved air planes. It doesn’t matter if it was riding in them, watching them, or flying them. Over the years, I have bought several little cheap-o toys-r-us style RC planes, I have a RC Boat, and as I’m sure most young boys, Ive had several RC Cars.
When I first got my license and found out that you could marry amateur radio with remote controlled vehicles it really got me interested. Then the questions came to mind, why would you want to marry these two hobbies? The first thing that came to mind, because of the little bit of experience with RC cars, was the frequency issues. There was many times growing up where a friend and I would have RC cars and if both our transmitters were on, they would interfere with each other.
Shortly after I started my blog, about a year before my podcast, Remote Controlled vehicles was one of the topics that I wanted to talk about in an article since about month one, but here two and a half years later, I still haven’t done anything on the topic.
That changed a couple weeks ago when a George with the Hamradio 360 podcast got me in contact with a friend of his that was a ham and enjoyed using RC vehicles as well.
In this episode of the Everything Ham Radio Podcast, #70, we talk with Jason Howard, K6DNG. We talk about his experiences with using RC Planes and Drones and how you can use ham radio to control your vehicles with. Even though with the way technology is now, it really isn’t necessary.
http://www.everythinghamradio.com/podcast/70
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Hamvention Is Here – ETH069
With Hamvention already on top of us, I figured I’d throw my two cents worth into the mix with everybody else’s. In this episode of the Everything Ham Radio Podcast, we talk about some of the interesting things that are going to be going on at this years Hamvention at it’s new location in Xenia, OH.
DARA teamed up with The Miami Valley Mesh Alliance (MVMA) to setup a Mesh network on channel -2 at 10 MHz bandwidth. The SSID is AREDN-10-v3.
We talk about all of my fellow podcasters/youtubers that are there and what they have going on and where they are at.
Lastly, we discussed some of the interesting forum topics that are going on during the weekend. To listen to the episode as well as check out all the links and further information on the topic, check out the show notes at: