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This is a welfare check on you. Please leave a comment on how you are faring, what is happening in your situation with the lock-down.

Are you quarantined? Working from home? Did you lose your job? How are you doing during this crazy time?

What is going on with you during this challenging situation?

I talk about what I’m doing, too.  I’m quarantined at home.  I can work from home, as I am a senior software engineer.  I can do my job by remote access to a virtual workstation, through a secure VPN connection.  I’m blessed that I still can work during this lock-down.

But, I have a medical emergency – a dental problem – and trying to be seen by a dentist is difficult, because all of the local dentists were told to shut down their daily business and quarantine.  Only emergency appointments are being made!  I was finally, after two days of phone calls, able to schedule an emergency visit to my dentist!

I want to know: How do you use amateur radio, now that we are all stuck at home?  Are you using ham radio more, now?  Less?

Please leave a comment to let me know how you are doing, and answer the other questions, too.  I hope to hear from you.

I hope to meet you on the shortwave amateur radio bands.  I am usually using Olivia, or Morse code CW.  More information about Olivia: http://OliviaDigitalMode.net.

Be healthy, be safe, stay sane!

Stories you’ll find in our February, 2020 issue:

A Tale of Two Radios: CommRadio CTX-10 vs. Elecraft KX2
By Thomas Witherspoon K4SWL

A longtime ham and shortwave listener who enjoys taking his hobby into the field, Thomas was intrigued by two seemingly different transceivers that also appeared to have a lot in common. Which would be better for his purposes and why? Both offer low-power and battery-operated portability, but with a totally different design approach. Thomas examines the pros and cons of the CommRadio CTX-10 and the Elecraft KX2, not the least of which in the monetary component.

TSM Reviews: SDRplay RSPdx Software Defined Radio
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW

SDRplay Limited is a UK-based company that has been developing cutting-edge software defined radios since 2014 with its RSP1 model. In the ensuing years, newer models have offered advanced reception features on receivers capable of tuning from 1 kHz to 2 GHz at moderate price levels. In this review Larry takes a look at the company’s latest product, the SDRplay RSPdx and compares it with lower level SDRplay editions.

Radio in the Pre-Broadcast Era Series:
The Trailblazers of Commercial Radio Manufacturing in the 1920s
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Beneath the dust accumulated over 100 years of consumer-entertainment radio broadcasting are the names of literally hundreds of manufacturers who have largely disappeared since the AM band gold rush of 1920. Richard takes a look at the radios available 100 years ago and finds a long list of names that urgently filled a huge void in practical receivers that could capture the signals of the handful of commercial broadcast stations that burst onto the airwaves early in the second decade of the 20th Century.

TSM Annual Review of Books for Shortwave Listeners
Klingenfuss 2020 Shortwave Frequency Guide
Reviewed by Bob Grove W8JHD

Joerg Klingenfuss never disappoints serious shortwave listeners with his exhaustive databases, and these two latest releases are no exception.

2020 World Radio Television Handbook
Reviewed by Gayle Van Horn W4GVH

The 74th edition of World Radio TV Handbook continues to be a comprehensive reference book. It remains the gold standard as the most authoritative for a global radio and television audience and the gem of the broadcast industry.

Global Radio Guide
Reviewed by Ken Reitz KS4ZR

The Winter 2019-20 edition of the Global Radio Guide, now 500 pages, includes many full length articles on shortwave listening today, but the best part is the Global Radio Frequency Guide that makes tuning in to signals from around the globe faster and easier than ever.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Nassau County, New York and TIS Stations

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Federal Monitoring Mysteries

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Monitoring the Australian Wildfires

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman
HF Steps Up in Australian Fire Emergency

Shortwave Utility Logs
Compiled by Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Morphing the Planned Hexagon-type Antenna into a 2-Element Quad

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
DV: How Low Can You Go?

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Floods, Pestilence and Interference?

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
2020 DRM Shortwave Report: Trials and Tribulations

World of Shortwave Listening
By Andrew Yoder
MW/SW Pirates; Carrier Sleuth and SWL Fest 2020

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Vatican Radio; BBC and WBCQ

Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Stan Nelson KB5VL
Geminids 2019 and Quadrantids 2020

Adventures in Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
The Reflex: Crosley Trirdyn Special

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

Welcome to the 320th installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts cover amateur radio and the recent earthquake in Puerto Rico and fires in Australia, Bitcoin, ARRL awards, Huawei, TensorFlow, Tucnak, Gridtracker and a whole lot more. Thank you for listening to our program and we hope you have a fantastic week.

73 de The LHS Crew

January 11, 2020. (Brandon, MS): For Immediate Release

Information Contact: Frank Howell K4FMH [email protected]

A fan favorite from the internationally known video podcast, Ham Nation, kicks off the 2020 programs for the Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Club. “We are delighted to have George Thomas W5JDX, star of the Solder Smoke segment on Ham Nation and founder of AmateurLogic.tv, give our first presentation on January 14, 2020,” said Frank Howell K4FMH, Vice President for Programming. Ham Nation Founder Bob Heil K9EID says that Smoke & Solder is by far the most popular segment of the show according to email and other feedback. George’s topic will be, “DIY Projects Using Arduino and Raspberry Pi,” beginning at 7:00pm at the Rankin County Extension Service and EOC Building. CMSARA President Quinton Frasier KW5TON added, “I’m excited to see George W5JDX in person this month at our meeting. It’s unusual that we could get him to give a live talk since he’s so busy with Ham Nation, Amateur Logic TV, and his day job of RF Engineer for many radio stations in the Central Mississippi area.”

George W5JDX is only the first well known ham to headline this year’s program agenda, added Frank K4FMH. “We will follow George with the prolific author, broadcaster, and ham radio operator Don Keith N4KC in February.” Don’s recent book, Firing Point, was made into a very popular movie, Hunter Killer, with others on the way. He is a prolific author of books about shortwave and amateur radio, one of which is The Amateur Radio Dictionary: The Most Complete Glossary of Ham Radio Terms Ever Compiled. Don’s February presentation via Skype will be on Ham Radio Lingo. Our year will backend with Rob Sherwood NC0B, producer of the Holy Grail of receiver measurement ratings, the Sherwood Tables. Rob’s talk, also via Skype, is titled, “How to Use My Tables.” These are very well-known amateur radio operators but we have much more during the year planned for presentations.

“We wanted to blend some well-known ham speakers that we do not regularly get to experience in a club setting with informative topics from both our own members and other area hams,” Frank K4FMH said. “I think we’ve done that.” Topics and speakers include operations on six meters (Mike Duke K5XU), WSPR (J.D. Toony K5HH), APRS (Mike McKay APRS), and digital modes on HF (Eddie Pettis N5JGK and Carolyn Irons KJ5RC). We will also cover preparing for contest operations (John Struemph  K1JHS), establishing basic test equipment on your workbench (Tom Brown AE5I) and a festival of pictures of CMSARA member shacks during a program called Shack Night!. Frank K4FMH said, “I’m very pleased to have area hams who are affiliated with the Jackson ARC and the Vicksburg ARC to deliver top flight presentations to our membership and meeting attendees.” The ability to have an interchange of ideas and experiences from area hams is a real benefit to maintaining a vibrant club.

CMSARA welcomes non-members, hams who are visiting the area, and groups from nearby cities to join us at the Rankin County Extension Service auditorium where we have plenty of seating, good audio-visual equipment, and Internet access. We keep the “business” end of our club to a minimum and include a half-hour of pre-program fellowship as well as after the program itself. VE Testing is available every month with the exceptions of June and December due to Field Day planning and our Christmas Party respectively. The club has periodically had car pools of hams from as far away as the Starkville and Columbus areas attend CMSARA programs.

J.D. Toony K5HH, Vice President of Special Events added, “This will be an exciting year for radio amateurs in the Central Mississippi area. Not only for this month program agenda but for the multiple outings we are planning, a group Field Day, our new involvement with the Girl Scouts program, and a new repeater Net for new hams.” CMSARA welcomes visitors so get a car pool together and come visit us! Our website at http://centralmsham.club has updated information as well as via our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/CMSARA/), e-mail ([email protected]) and telephone (601-345-1654).The Central Mississippi Amateur Radio Association is a non-profit 501(c)(3) status Mississippi  corporation serving counties in the Central Mississippi area. We focus on promoting having fun within the hobby and serving our communities through emergency and public service communications. We meet monthly on the second Tuesday at the Rankin County Extension Service / EOC Building, 601 Marquette Road, Brandon, MS 39042. Contact us at 601-345-1654 or at [email protected] for additional information. Any program changes will be communicated via the club website and Facebook page.

Meme: Car and Woman Arguing, 73

“Best regardses” and “Best regards’s”

That’s silly, of course. We who speak and write in the English language know that you should not pluralize a word that is already in its plural form. “Best regards” means, “I wish you the best of regards.” It is implied that there is more than one regard. Perhaps there are a few, perhaps many more. It then is clear that we wouldn’t normally pluralize “regards,” into, “regardses.”

It is also silly to say that the best of regards owns something.  How can a regard let alone a group of regards own anything?  So, why “73’s” when written?

Old SWLer QSL Card With 73’s

The usage of “73” comes from early landline telegraph (typically railroad telegraphy landlines). Originally devised in the era of telegraphs, 73 and other numbers were used to speed up the transmission of common messages over landlines by mapping common messages to these specific numbers.  And, numbers were quicker to send than the longer messages the numbers replaced.

QST, April 1935, on page 60, contains a short article on the origin of the amateur radio vernacular, 73. This article was a summation of another article that appeared in the “December Bulletin from the Navy Department Office of the Chief of Naval Operations,” published December of 1934.

A skilled landline Morse code operator, in action.

Here’s a quotation from that Navy article:

“It appears from a research of telegraph histories that in 1859 the [land-line] telegraph people held a convention, and one of its features was a discussion as to the saving of ‘line time.’

A committee was appointed to devise a code to reduce standard expressions to symbols or figures. This committee worked out a figure code, from figure 1 to 92.

Most of these figure symbols became obsolescent, but a few remain to this date, such as 4, which means “Where shall I go ahead?’. Figure 9 means ‘wire,’ the wire chief being on the wire and that everyone should close their keys. Symbol 13 means ‘I don’t understand’; 22 is ‘love and a kiss’; 30 means ‘good night’ or ‘the end.’

The symbol most often used now is 73, which means ‘my compliments’ and 92 is for the word ‘deliver.’ The other figures in between the forgoing have fallen into almost complete disuse.”

We can see, then, that “73” mapped to “best regards” or “my compliments” and was intended as a general valediction for transmitted messages.  That’s why it is silly to say, “73s,” as that maps to, “best regardses” – 73s adds the plural to a plural.  (And, don’t make it possessive, as in using, “73’s” – a regard cannot own something).

Cartoon: Jeeves, there is no plural for 73…

For reference and some more interesting background on this, see http://www.signalharbor.com/73.html

An example of on-the-air conversation (or, QSO—“QSO” is the shorthand Q-code for, “two-way exchange of communications”) illustrates proper usage of 73. When saying your goodbye, you would tap out the Morse code as follows:

TNX FER FB QSO. C U AGN. 73 ES HPY NEW YR.

That is interpreted as, “Thanks for the fine-business chat. I hope to see you again for another chat. Best regards and happy new year.”

This, if you choose to throw around shorthand Morse code number codes when you are speaking, you wouldn’t say, “73s.” You would say, “73.”

The Old Man Hiram Percy Maxim 1AW used 73’s on his QSL cards.

My friend, David Edenfield, opined, “This idea is beyond turning into glue from the dead horse it’s beating again. This is so petty to be concerned with this. Even the Old Man Hiram Percy Maxim 1AW used 73s on his QSL cards.”

Well, even Hiram Percy Maxim has been incorrect and incorrectly used grammar. (chuckle)

There is something to be said about teaching new amateur radio operators the best of our traditions, history, skills, procedures, protocols, ethics, and culture. There’s no rational argument that can make a case that allowing these aspects of our service and hobby to degrade over time (by the lack of Elmering) is a good way to see our service and hobby thrive and progress.

I don’t see any slippage from high standards as being a good strategy for nurturing growth, progress, and effectiveness of our service and hobby. Keeping some level of excellence in every aspect of our hobby can only be beneficial.

In this case, how many new hams that learn to repeat ham lingo know anything of the history behind the common “73?” My dead horse turned glue is educational and it is my belief that educating about origins elevates the current.

73 – NW7US

NW7US QSL Card (circa 2019)

..

Nothing to do with the election, or Brexit – you’ll be pleased to hear! TX Factor episode 25 is now live at www.txfactor.co.uk. We look at more new and innovative AR products from this year’s UK Hamfest, including a potted history of the ever-popular and much revered range of transceivers and kits from Electraft with co-founder Eric Swartz WA6HHQ.

In this modern era of connectivity, we take the ever-present Internet for granted; it’s always there and continues to deliver our data from A to B without issue. But what would happen if that vital link failed? We visit Southampton and Portsmouth on the UK’s south coast to see how two city councils, assisted by a group of dedicated amateurs, plan to maintain their communications infrastructure via radio links alone, should the Internet go down.

Wishing you a Happy Christmas and a radio active New year from all at TX Factor.

Stories you’ll find in our December, 2019 issue:

Before Radio’s First Century: “Pre-Broadcasting” Activity in North America
By John Schneider W9FGH

For many decades, the prevailing myth has been that broadcasting in the United States first occurred on the night of November 2, 1920. According to this general conviction, no broadcasting took place anywhere before that date, but then, in a brilliant stroke of genius, it was suddenly invented that night by the Westinghouse Corporation when its new station, KDKA, broadcast the Harding-Cox election returns. Nothing could be farther from the truth! By 1920, experimental broadcasting had already been happening around the US for many years. John takes a look at the country’s transition from that early experimentation to formal broadcasting.

Radio’s Role During Pearl Harbor’s ‘Day of Infamy’
By Scott A. Caldwell

Diplomatic relations between the United States and the Japanese Empire had steadily deteriorated in the years that followed the First World War. On May 7, 1940 the US Navy Fleet reluctantly relocated its operating headquarters from San Pedro, California to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered the redeployment as vital because it represented a significant military deterrent to the growing Japanese bellicosity. However, there was great concern and opposition to this action that was headed by Admiral James O. Richardson, Commander-in-Chief US Fleet, who believed that they would be unnecessarily exposed to attack from the Japanese Navy. Seven months later a price would be paid.

Those Regulated Power Supplies from Heathkit and Others
By Rich Post KB8TAD

In recent columns on testing and restoring the National SW-3, FB-7 and the HRO Senior, Rich initially used metered regulated power supplies in place of the matching “doghouse” power supplies to keep those vintage National supplies from possible overloads and damage before full restoration of the receivers. In his previous column on the HRO, he mentioned replacing the entire HRO power pack with a totally voltage-regulated supply since varying the RF gain control changed the set’s current draw somewhat and thus the B+ on both the oscillator and the mixer. As promised, he takes a second look at that supply.

Novice-era Hamming Today: Still a Thrill
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

Cory’s first amateur radio station consisted of a solid-state Realistic (Radio Shack) DX-150A general coverage receiver and a gently used Heathkit DX-20 transmitter, that incorporated three tubes to produce 20 Watts out. He used a set of house switches in a metal box to swap the antenna between the receiver and transmitter, plus mute the receiver when transmitting. It was not the best solution, but it was cheap, and it worked. If you, like Cory, have a hankering to revisit your old Novice operator days, it can still be done—with vintage gear or even their modern equivalent. Cory explains how you can start your own Novice-era memories.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Tillamook County, Oregon; Vintage Scanner Crystals

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Scanning Projects

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Monitoring the DoD High Frequency Global Communications System

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman
HF Utility in Troubled Ukraine

Shortwave Utility Logs
By Mike Chace-Ortiz and Hugh Stegman

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Planet Alignment and Sunspot Cycles Linked?

Digital Voice
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
Three Short Subjects for New Hams

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
A Log-Periodic Tragedy

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Free-to-Air Satellite TV Update

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Largest Sunspot in Solar Sunspot Cycle 24

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Online SDRs: Impacting the Way We Listen to Shortwave

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Shortwave Listening Past and Present

Amateur Radio Satellites
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
Amateur Radio Satellite Primer (Part VI)

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey N2AFX
LF Info: 101

Adventures in Radio Restorations
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Helping Dan: A Silvertone 6230A Farm Set

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber
Feedlines: Getting There from Here

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.