Stories you’ll find in our May, 2018 issue:

TSM Reviews: FlexRadio 6400M All-Mode HF+6 Transceiver
By Mark Haverstock K8MSH

While computer control has become integrated into amateur radio transceivers in recent years, there is still a substantial faction of amateur radio operators who want to hold onto the traditional buttons and knobs of their radios. FlexRadio’s new additions to the Signature Series give amateurs both options. The base Flex 6400 model is computer controlled, but they’ve also created an M version (M for Maestro) with traditional knobs, buttons and a touch display screen as well. The 6400M is an improved version of the 6300, with better specs, processors, and costs $500 less—at a price tag of $2000. It borrows features from both the 6300 and 6500 (both of which were recently discontinued). Note that the 6400 and 6400M models are identical, with the exception of the Maestro control interface. But, you’ll need to find a little extra table space at the operator’s position—it is bigger than a breadbox, with both the basic 6400 and the M versions have the same footprint and measure 7 x 14 x 13.125 inches. Mark unpacks the details of this modern and very capable HF+6 transceiver

Giving Undersea Cable its Just Deserts – 160 Years Past Due
By Richard Fisher KI6SN

Marconi got the hoopla for the first trans-Atlantic wireless communication. His transmission of the Morse letter S sped through the airwaves between the Canadian maritime province of Newfoundland and Cornwall, England, in the waning days of 1901. But 43 years earlier – in 1858 – it was New York businessman Cyrus Field who was the impetus behind the remarkable achievement of the first telegraphy Communications between two continents—Newfoundland to Ireland—under the sea. Why no such accolades for Cyrus in reciting the technological achievements in communication of the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, 160 years ago, no less? Richard dives deep to find an amazing web of undersea cables stretching around the entire globe—an vital part of modern communications.

TSM Reviews: Yaesu FTM-750DR VHF/UHF Transceiver
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV

Yaesu recently introduced and is now shipping another System Fusion transceiver – the FTM-7250 mobile. As this month’s installment of Digitally Speaking covers connectors and genders, perhaps the simplest way to describe the ‘7250 is for you to imagine that the FTM-3200 (VHF) and FTM-3207 (UHF) monobanders got together and had a baby. With the April release of the FTM-7250, Yaesu now offers a total of eight radios, with an even split between entry-level transceivers with “core” features and those with advanced-level feature sets. Think about that for a moment. Eight radios, plus two repeaters and two different networking concepts. That’s a fairly diverse selection of equipment – not to mention the various means of third-party support for this DV methodology – that is only four years old, from the time of its full release.

Free-to-Air Satellite-TV List Update
By Mike Kohl

Free-to-Air (FTA) satellite-TV enthusiasts sometimes have a challenge keeping track of satellite names and positions. Throughout the years aerospace companies merge, creating new names for their fleet, or launch a new series of satellites, reflecting advances in technology. This month, Mike has created an updated list for North American FTA viewers covering eastern Atlantic arc satellites from 1.0 degrees West longitude, across our domestic satellite arc, and extending to 166 East, which can be received by those with a 3 to 4 meter C-band dish from unobstructed locations on the West Coast. In addition to updating the list of names to reflect mergers and acquisitions in the industry and new satellites replacing old, Mike gives you tips on aligning fixed and steerable dishes.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Sublette County, Wyoming; Washoe County, Nevada

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
USS Portland HYDRA System

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Military Base Profile: Edwards AFB (KEDW)

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Doing Battle with STANAG 4285

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

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
West Point Cadets Launch Two Balloons

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
Goes Inta / Goes Outta

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Feed Line Ferrite Chokes—Noise Reduction that Beats the Best DSP?

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Gospell AM/FM/SW/DRM Receiver

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
The Switch in May

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Jeff White, Secretary-Treasurer NASB
Shortwave Broadcasters and Listeners to Meet in Indiana

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Voice of Greece, Radio Tirana, and Country Music on Shortwave

Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Stan Nelson KB5VL
NAVSPASUR Revisited

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
Bill Oliver—Quiet Giant of Longwave

Adventures in Radio Restorations
By Rich Post KB8TAD
A Not-so-Scarce Hallicrafters: Model SX-99

In the 1990s while living in eastern Montana, I had the amazing experience of reuniting two soldiers that served in the Devil’s Brigade. They both trained near Helena, Montana.

One day, I was operating on the amateur radio shortwave Ten-Meter band, and a gentleman answered my, “CQ, CQ, CQ, this is N7PMS in Montana, Over”. I took notes of our conversation.

The next day, when again I called for any station to answer my call for a conversation, another fellow, from Canada, answered me. I learned something amazing: Both of these two men mentioned that, during World War Two, they both were in the same special forces unit, training near Helena, Montana.

One of these Veterans served in the Canadian Armed Forces, and the other in the American Armed Forces. Listen to my story, for the full details of this amazing experience I had as an amateur radio operator.

Jump to 3:22 if you wish to skip my introduction to the story, during which I give some background on when and so on:
https://youtu.be/YFMplHjxy6s?t=3m22s

This certainly was one of the most memorable moments in my amateur radio hobby experience! The joy of reuniting friends is good.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Special_Service_Force:

The 1st Special Service Force (also called The Devil’s Brigade, The Black Devils, The Black Devils’ Brigade, and Freddie’s Freighters), was an elite American-Canadian commando unit in World War II, under command of the United States Fifth Army. The unit was organized in 1942 and trained at Fort William Henry Harrison near Helena, Montana in the United States. The Force served in the Aleutian Islands, and fought in Italy, and southern France before being disbanded in December 1944.

The modern American and Canadian special operations forces trace their heritage to this unit. In 2013, the United States Congress passed a bill to award the 1st Special Service Force the Congressional Gold Medal.

Thank you for watching, and sharing. Comments are welcome: do you have a memorable moment in your radio hobby experience on the air?

73 de NW7US

If the ham community continues to maintain a rigid stance on the ARRL’s expanded HF petition, it will lose! The youth of today have no need for antiquated communication techniques that require they take the time to study and pass a test. Today’s world is not lacking for communication ability — quite the contrary — and today’s young folks are very adept at navigating it, and staying in touch and up to date much more than we ever were.

What about power down emergency situations? Cellular comms not reliable in disasters? The youth of today figure they will deal with that when the time arrives. Misguided? Perhaps, but that is what the ham community is up against, plus we do not go out of our way to try to improve/modernize our image much. Local nets are typically check-ins (for numbers), morning coffee, work travel hand waves, weather-at-my-house type conversations, not what today’s average youth find appealing.

Today they can pick up a cell phone and do any of those with a few keystrokes, and beyond that, no propagation concerns, noise is rarely an issue, imaging is instantaneous and unrestricted (no need for Dad’s Playboy!), and lest we forget: NO STUDY/NO TEST. Instant gratification goes a long way in selling a product.

The ham community is, in their eyes for old guys and gals who have nothing much to do, are not socially connected, are willing to work hard at making connections, and satisfied with a less than fantastic communication environment. I am not saying they or we are incorrect, just that is the state of affairs at the outset. We have yet to discuss the varied equipment and its uses, range limitations of that equipment, maintenance requirements, and on top of all of that software, connecting cables, and computer considerations. The fact that we can talk around the world no longer holds the mystique of our youth. They have been able to do that since birth, almost.

All I am trying to say here is simply this: our ham equipment is state-of-the-art, capable of doing a wonderful job when the situation allows, skill prevails, or just plain old LUCK takes over. The ham community for the most part is a melting pot of great people worldwide, and there is a self-satisfaction in accomplishing that particular DX contact, copying the satellite telemetry, or finding out how old Joe is across town. How much of that satisfaction is common knowledge to the youth of today? If we want the “Hobby” to continue and flourish, we have got to make it more appealing, open our world wider to theirs, prove the value and worth of what we do “for fun” and social connection, and introduce them to that self-satisfaction we enjoy.

There truly is hope. It is not all doom and gloom. We have a local 13-year old calling a 2m net here every Friday night. He and his dad got their ticket the same day. Hmmm, maybe that says something?

That to me appears to be the crux of our APPEAL problem. If it takes opening up a section of HF for them to experience it, then I am all for it. Allow the young folks we have the opportunity to show off to their peers, the proverbial “WOOHOO!” made that contact moment, or a “that is a station in a country far flung from here” moment! And hopefully the resultant, “WOW! That is cool” moment. If we fail to pass this on successfully then our greatest fear may become reality someday, “A world without communication!” And who among us really wants that?

Hello and welcome to Linux in the Ham Shack. This is Episode 218 and in it your hosts take a deep dive in to the world of serial devices and the Universal Serial Bus. Lots of information here about how to configure your Linux systems to work properly and more efficiently with USB devices for fun, work and ham radio. We also have announcements and feedback. Thank you for listening, and please take a moment to drop a few dollars into our tip jar at the Hamvention 2018 GoFundMe campaign. Hope to see you in Ohio in May!

73 de the LHS Crew

This is my reply to many responses that I have been receiving on my original blog entry, located at this AmateurRadio.com website,(my shortened URL: https://g.nw7us.us/arrl2fccR2) as well as to the original video, posted in that blog entry.

I wish to reply to all of those who are against the idea of expanding the privileges of the Technician-class licensee, the expansions including the ability to operate Voice and Digital in limited slices in a subset of lower-than-Ten-Meter amateur radio shortwave allocations.

It seems to me, that…

…the issue is not one of Technician-class licensees wanting more privileges, as a whole. What the ARRL is addressing is the *lack* of desire by most current Techs to upgrade.

The logic behind the idea of expanding privileges concludes that if you give them a taste of lower-shortwave propagation and excitement (by moving past the CW-only restriction on the lower tech allocations), then they *will* want to upgrade.

This logic is already proven as applicable by the fact that the General class exists! All that this proposal will do is allow the Tech to experience what could be very attractive–just like for the General.  If it worked in the past with Novice, Technician, General, Advanced, and Amateur Extra (exposing to all of HF, even if by way of a CW-only requirement), then it will work, now.  The difference is that the CW-only requirement on lower HF bands is highly restrictive because the mode is no longer needed to operate on any frequency, and, most will not take the time to learn it just to see if they WANT to explore the lower HF bands, or ever upgrade.

The bottom line is that we should make the Tech ticket more relevant. The expansion is not dumbing down, nor does it give away the farm.

I discuss this original point in the two videos that were lower down in the original post:

and,

Thanks for reading, watching the videos, and having a useful dialog about this very important change to the amateur radio regulations in the USA.

P.S., 

That aside: This may, in the long term, reveal one of two possible truths:

1. There is no real need for three license classes. Two would suffice. General and Amateur Extra, or Technician (merged with General) and Amateur Extra.

2. There is no real need for three license classes. One would suffice. Make the test hard enough to cover the Extra-class material, and all material under that class, and merge everyone into one tested class. I believe that this has been tried in other countries, and it appears to work well.

I’ll be crucified for stating those ideas, but, hey, this is just a hobby.

73 de NW7US dit dit