While the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station conduct experiments nearly 250 miles above earth, John Brier, KG4AKV, is on a mission of his own closer to home. The Raleigh, North Carolina ham hopes to fulfill a personal goal: have a voice QSO with a member of the ISS crew.

Brier hasn’t always been active since becoming licensed at age 15, but his interest was renewed two years ago after listening to a school radio contact through the ARISS program. Later, he successfully received a satellite image from the space station and began making contacts through SO-50, an easy-to-work voice satellite. He developed a keen interest in satellite communications, especially with the ISS.

“I listen to them talking to schools almost every month and I really like receiving the slow-scan TV images they send out a few times a year,” he says.

Brier has an active YouTube channel where he features videos of his satellite work. He also started a blog about communicating with the ISS, including hints for receiving slow-scan TV signals from space.

Even if he isn’t ultimately successful in making a two-way contact, he won’t be too disappointed. “I enjoy just receiving them, too,” Brier says.

What is the proper (and most efficient) technique for creating Morse code by hand, using a manual Morse code key? Ham radio operators find Morse code (and the ‘CW’ mode, or ‘Continuous Wave’ keying mode) very useful, even though Morse code is no longer required as part of the licensing process. Morse code is highly effective in weak-signal radio work. And, preppers love Morse code because it is the most efficient way to communicate when there is a major disaster that could wipe out the communications infrastructure.

While this military film is antique, the vintage information is timeless, as the material is applicable to Morse code, even today.

More about Morse code, at my website: http://cw.hfradio.org

Thank you for watching, commenting, and most of all, for subscribing. By subscribing, you will be kept in the loop for new videos and more… my YouTube Channel: https://YouTube.com/NW7US

See my Video Playlist for related Morse code vidoes:

It’s a call-in talk show about ham radio!Ham Talk LIVE! Episode 3
w/ Gary Pearce, KN4AQ
Ham Radio Now

Thursday, 3 March 2016
9:00 PM Eastern Time (02:00 UTC)

Listen to this episode LIVE (and to all previous episodes) in the player below:

It’s often been said that amateur radio is a hobby consisting of many sub-hobbies.  This is true when you consider the different modes we use (like RTTY, CW, PSK), technical endeavors like equipment design and building, special operating techniques like satellite and moonbounce, different bands each with their own characteristics and fans like LF, HF, VHF/UHF, and microwave, and activity based sub-hobbies like contesting and DXing.  It’s multidimensional and there is often overlap between the various sub-hobbies.

Unfortunately there’s a detrimental sub-hobby that’s been around a long time, perhaps as far back as when there was spark and a new mode called CW was emerging.  It’s complaining about what everyone else is doing or how they’re doing it.

I was reminded of this on an unnamed social networking site that starts with the letter F and rhymes with the word crook.  Perhaps you’ve been there.  A poster in an amateur radio group couldn’t make sense out of people sending and receiving CW using computers, and quipped that operating this way was taking the “radio out of radio”.  Never mind that you can’t do this sort of operating without a radio.  The most vocal complainers in amateur radio tend to rant about amateurs who don’t operate CW, so it was ironic that this complaint was about people actually operating CW but not in a way that the poster and others like to do it.  As expected, the discussion was lively with many people lamenting over this operating method, and a lesser few defending it.

Any time I look an amateur radio activity, I ask a few basic questions:

1. Is someone getting enjoyment out of it?
2. Is it not harming anyone else and not detracting from anyone’s enjoyment of the hobby?
3. Does it positively reflect amateur radio, both within the amateur radio community and the general public, or at least not reflect negatively on the hobby?
4. Is it spectrally and resource efficient, and reasonable from an engineering perspective?
5. Is it consistent with the spirit and nature of amateur radio?

If you can answer YES to all of these questions, I see no reason to complain about the activity.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years about amateur radio, it’s that if you’re more concerned about what others are doing, and not what you’re doing, and having fun doing it, it’s a sure fire way to be unhappy in amateur radio.

Dave Savidge, AF5DN, lives in a neighborhood governed by a highly-restrictive homeowners’ association (HOA). Many of these neighborhoods have strict “no antenna” policies purportedly to protect the aesthetics of the community.

The Texan ham needed to hit a repeater some distance away, so he built a stealth J-pole antenna disguised as a flowering vine. The design allows him to hide the 2-meter antenna in plain sight on his front balcony — while also providing a nice decorative touch!

The base of the J-pole sits in a split-PVC holder, embedded in a poured concrete base. This provides weight and stability in the bottom of the flower pot. The J-pole is held in the PVC holder by a hose clamp. There is a hole cut in the bottom of the pot to feed through the coax leading to a low-profile weather-proof MFJ window antenna feedthrough.

The flowers were sourced from his local Michaels craft store. The other components are readily available at Home Depot and Lowes. There are many great J-pole plans available free online, including this 2m/440 dual-band “Copper Cactus” from N7QVC.

Amateur Radio Weekly, a curated ham radio newsletter, celebrated its one hundredth issue on Saturday, February 27.

Cale Mooth, K4HCK, got the idea for the newsletter back in 2014. The Nashville ham had seen e-mail newsletters from Cooper Press like JavaScript Weekly and wanted to create something similar for the amateur radio community.

“Nothing like that seemed to exist in the ham world,” Mooth says. “Hams are great builders and engineers, but I think we leave a lot to be desired in the marketing effort. Ham Radio is a hobby, so we’re also limited in the amount of time we spend with it. The idea for a quick, weekly summary of what’s happening in ham radio was the main driver.”

When Mooth began publishing his weekly newsletter, he never dreamed it would become so successful.

“The first two issues or so were sent to my email address and that was about it,” he says. “To see the readership grow and to receive feedback from not only the local ham community but from all around the world has been amazing.”

“I think what really makes the newsletter appealing is the curated nature of the stories,” Mooth says. “It’s not a randomized, unmonitored feed. I’m constantly looking for interesting, and most importantly, material that might be useful to another ham.”

Mooth says he’s not completely sure what’s next for Amateur Radio Weekly, but he has some ideas.

“Specialized versions of the newsletter is interesting to me,” he says. “Separate issues dedicated entirely to emcomm, contesting, etc. Something with more of an editorial aspect to it would be a lot of fun. Now I just need to figure out how to add more hours to the day!”

Despite being busy with his job in product management at a software company, he’s still having a great time. When it comes to online content, he loves to find diamonds in the rough.

“My favorite thing is running across a random ham that has posted a great review or how-to article on their blog,” he says. “It’s often more personal and compelling than what you might find from a professional publication.”

Mooth sees Amateur Radio Weekly as his contribution toward making sure hams get the useful and relevant information they need, no matter which facet of ham radio they enjoy.

“Ultimately, it’s all about lifting up the ham community and promoting the hobby,” he says.