AmateurRadio.com

Every fall, I take the deep-discharge marine battery out of the pop-up camper and put it safely in the basement for winter storage. I’ve never used it for ham radio purposes, mostly because I’ve never needed it and it’s tied up for most of the summer.

Recently we had a “long-ish” power outage (not uncommon during snowy, windy Maine winters). While we had plenty of heat from the fireplace, it didn’t take long for the batteries in our various phones and tablets to kick the bucket.

Luckily, Verizon’s data network is very robust and almost never goes down — even during extended power outages. Other than listening to the local ham radio repeaters and public safety scanner traffic, we rely on Internet access to check on power restoration and keep track of the weather.

I figured it was time to put that unused high-capacity battery to some good use in the off-season.

I decided to order a 12-volt plug socket with eyelet terminals. There were quite a few choices on Amazon but the reviews of the NOCO GC018 struck me as particularly good and I didn’t have to wait for it to arrive from China. The price was right at just under $7 shipped (with Prime) and 232 great reviews didn’t hurt, either.

I wasn’t familiar with the NOCO brand, but what immediately impressed me was how well made it was. It feels like it will last awhile and the connections are very solid. The 3/8″ eyelets aren’t flimsy and they’re low-set to minimize bending. Unlike other options, it has an in-line 15A blade-type automotive fuse which I usually keep on hand. The fuse is well-protected from moisture and the socket has a durable end cap.

I wouldn’t plug a 100w HF rig into the socket, but a 25w mobile radio should’t draw more than 10 amps. A small “pocket-sized” 175-watt inverter would work great with this setup.

To create my charging hub, I used a little Bestek splitter with two 12v sockets and two 5v USB outlets (one 1.0A, the other 2.1A). I would’t use it to power anything with a substantial current draw, but it works great for charging multiple low-power devices. While a 12-volt cigarette lighter socket isn’t the best connector around, it’s the defacto standard for 12-volt consumer devices. Just don’t charge the deep-discharge battery indoors!

My rough math says the battery should be good for well over 150 hours of continuous phone charging. That should last us for most any power-free scenario short of complete and utter societal breakdown — and if that’s the case, I probably won’t be needing my cell phone!

What does your household emergency power setup look like?

The long-awaited tenth episode is finally here.

txfactor.co.uk

Mike Marsh returns to his old school in Ottery St Mary, Devon to learn how science lessons have changed since he was a lad.

Bob keeps his feet firmly on the ground in his native Cornwall to see why the letter ‘K’ has been making its presence felt. While he’s there, he visits Goonhilly Earth Station to meet Arthur, the satellite dish that made history in the early 1960s and its modern-day equivalent.

Steve Venner G0TAN shows us the ins and outs of the Yeasu FT-991 all-band transceiver.

And the folks at TX Factor make a plea for help.

Hope you enjoy it!

73

TX Factor Team

Ham Talk LIVE! Episode 2
w/ Don Wilbanks, AE5DW
Amateur Radio Newsline and Ham Nation

Thursday, 25 February 2016
9:00 PM Eastern Time (02:00 UTC)

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

The ARRL reported today that the FCC is seeking comments on a Petition for Rule Making that asks the FCC to grant lifetime Amateur Radio licenses. Mark Krotz, N7MK, of Mesa, Arizona, submitted the petition in November, 2015.

The petition, RM 11760, notes that the FCC currently issues lifetime General Radiotelephone Operator License. The petition also notes that the Federal Aviation Administration issues permanent airmen certificates.

Here is an excerpt from the petition:

Amateur radio operators wishing to make a comment on the petition may do so here.

From this week’s Amateur Radio Newsline Headlines:

• We look back at this month’s Orlando Hamcation, the second largest gathering of amateurs after Dayton Hamvention. It wasn’t just the 70th such Hamcation; it was also the 2016 ARRL National Convention.
• The amateur community is mourning the death of David Lefavour, W7GOX, of Los Lunas, New Mexico, who was a member of the Hurricane Watch Net for more than 20 years, and who served as its net manager between 2006 and 2009. He had also served as a net controller for the Maritime Mobile Service Network.
• The only thing real about the earthquake in Utah earlier this month was the response it got from hams and other emergency team members. But that’s what made the mock drill such a success.

What is APRS Caching?

APRS Caching of socialhams is aiming at giving the well known GeoCaching concept an amateur radio touch. The idea behind APRS Caching is to connect the fascination of GeoCaching with amateur radio. Thus, APRS Caching gives radio amateurs the opportunity to rediscover their fields of interest. The socialhams platform provides the following concept as well as the needed infrastructure. APRS Caching can be regarded as a user-friendly project and is according to the Ham Spirit open to criticism, support and change.

How does APRS Caching work?

Basically the APRS Caching system resembles the main features of GeoCaching. There are so called caches, which have to be searched for by the logger. After having found the cache the logger can make an entry in the logbook. The difference between APRS Caching and GeoCaching is that the logbook entry is carried out by APRS. This makes it possible to verify the logger’s actual presence at the coordinates of the cache.

What cache types are these?

There are single-stage, two-stage and other caches. Single-stage caches provide the ultimate target coordinates where the cache can be logged. Two-stage caches first provide the stage 1 coordinates where you get the target coordinates in some way or other, depending on the cache type. Currently “other caches” are the traditional GeoCaches.

Below is a small excerpt of cache types:

Single-stage caches

APRS – An APRS cache has to be an APRS station that sends its position to the APRS net in regular intervals. APRS stations can be iGate, mobiles, portables, weather stations etc.

Two-stage caches

Audio – The idea behind this kind of cache is to hide an audio recorder module, that plays an audio signal by pushing a button or any other kind of activation. The goal is to use a digital mode such as CW, PSK31 etc as audio signal. There are no limits to your imagination.

How can I join?

In order to be able to join APRS Caching as owner or logger, you first need to register on the platform socialhams. Registration on socialhams is free, requires a valid ham radio callsign, though. As a logger you can start immediately after registration. If you wish to contribute your own cache, this has to be done using the APRS Caching feature. As a logger you need to be able to send out your current geographical location using APRS. It doesn’t matter whether this is done via radio transmission or a feed-in in the APRS-IS. This means you can use your ham radio equipment or a mobile phone with a suitable APRS App for this.

Radio hams become living caches

Everybody who is familiar with GeoCaching knows that GeoCaches hold a static geographical position. The reason for this is based on several details. On the one hand, GeoCaches are meant to show loggers interesting locations and long forgotten places. On the other hand, GeoCaches cannot update their location in real-time. This is where socialhams APRS Caching comes in and allows on update of the geographical position of an APRS cache thanks to the global APRS network that can be reached via radio from nearly everywhere. This enables radio hams whether portable or mobile to function as living cache.

The average GeoCache experienced radio amateur should not experience any difficulties with the APRS Caching System. Inexperienced radio amateurs will find detailed descriptions and assistance on various GeoCaching sites relating to this topic. Once you are familiar with the basic GeoCaching concept, the APRS Caching will represent an exciting extension for you. It will certainly bring about unexpected challenges but most of all a lot of fun for radio enthusiasts.

Join the community now on https://www.socialhams.net to experience this novelty. If you have any questions concerning APRS Caching or socialhams in general, feel free to contact me at [email protected].

With over 120 cosponsors in the House and Senate, the Amateur Radio Parity Act (ARPA) is gaining momentum. The House version, HR 1301, has been favorably reported out by the House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and is on its way to the full House Energy and Commerce committee for consideration. This is great news, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Colorado ham Kurt Fehlhauer, KUØO, has created an easy-to-use website to help hams tweet their support for ARPA to their representative and senators. SupportParity.com lists the cosponsors of the bill and makes it easy to tweet your member of Congress to thank them for their support — or encourage them to sign on.

Visit SupportParity.com to see where your members of Congress stand and let them know that your support the bill.