What is the most important aspect of life?  Having fun! (Of course!).

Perhaps it is unusual to wax philosophical in an amateur radio forum, but I am going out on a limb to share a perspective that hopefully is refreshingly new and full of life:  Systems thinking — an amateur radio approach.

What I’m sharing herein, I find very intense, invigorating, challenging, and motivational! The more I think about amateur radio with this perspective–the Systems Thinking perspective–the more fun I’m able to define, and then accomplish.

In my opinion, this approach to life is REVOLUTIONARY! Why isn’t this knowledge distributed far and wide?  Why aren’t these precepts taught in the schools for young children, so that they can be equipped for a life full of accomplished purpose?  Perhaps it is due to the deceptive simplicity of approaching life with the perspective of Systems Thinking.

SYSTEMS THINKING AND AMATEUR RADIO

Amateur Radio as a Service – a System, not a Collection

What is Systems Thinking?

In a very simplistic sense, a system is any group of parts that make up one complex whole.  Each part cannot function as the whole, and each part interacts with other parts, such that this behavior affects that end result which is expressed by the whole.

Think about a motorcycle.  Let’s play with that thought: I disassemble my motorbike in your living room.  Once the bike completely taken apart and the parts are scattered all over your living room floor, can any one of those parts support my riding it out to the countryside, and back again?  No.  Only the bike can act, when it is made whole again, as a motorbike.  But, even if the individual parts, doing their part well, try to be the bike all by themselves, but fail, in the end realize that the parts are very important.  Each part has a place and a job.  Each part belongs.

By now, as you think about this, you probably realize that there is a difference between collections, and systems, of course.  A bag of rocks is not a system.  A motorcycle is a system.  A bag of motorbike parts is not a motorbike.  The assembly of the motorbike parts does make a motorcycle.

What does this have to do with amateur radio?

The amateur radio service (hobby) is a system, not a collection.  There are many parts–and one of the most important component of the amateur radio system is you and me.  We interact with each other, exchanging knowledge, reports, friendships; we each function, lending our functioning the the autonomous self, the amateur radio service.

It takes more than one of us to make up the amateur radio service.  It would take at least two amateur radio operators, at the most extreme emaciated existence as a public service. It is obvious that one ham, all by herself, does not make the amateur radio service.  No one of us is the amateur radio service, by ourselves.  We need each other in order to have a ham radio community–the amateur radio service.  Ourselves, our radios, antennas, computers, knowledge, schedules, and so on, are all parts of the big system with which we participate in our community.

Let that sink in.

Ponder the long-term repercussions of this revelation:  We need each other, and we need our resources (time, skills, knowledge, radios, etc.).

How do we shape our System?  What will elevate our System so that it is effective?  And, so we begin to do this, SYSTEMS THINKING.

Please read, and ponder these thoughts, as you read through this article:

https://thesystemsthinker.com/a-lifetime-of-systems-thinking/

Additionally, you should check out this video–it is  great!

Bonus (not necessary but still VERY good deeper dive):

In my estimation, Dr. Russell Ackoff is amazingly wise, and inspiring!

SYSTEMS THINKING

At the moment, I am studying and trying to implement system thinking.  It is the topic I am mostly studying right now.

The following is an introduction to Systems Thinking:

https://thesystemsthinker.com/

Download this useful paper that helps you understand system thinking:

http://nw7us.us/systems-thinking/Introduction-to-Systems-Thinking-IMS013Epk.pdf

I would very much like to hear your thoughts on all of this.  Seriously.  Take your time.  But, let’s start wading through this pool of refreshing water…

Happy New Year!

Tomas Hood
NW7US

Addendum:  I do not necessary agree with every perspective, conclusion, or point made by Dr. Russell Ackoff.  Never-the-less, the overarching idea of systems thinking seems valid, and is worth considering.

After seeing some videos about small HF transceivers for Summits On The Air (SOTA), I feel I need to set the record straight.

The following video shows the World’s Smallest SOTA Transceiver in use. Of course, it uses the UHF spectrum because shorter wavelengths enable smaller ham radio stations.

The radio shown in the video is the NKTech NK-M1 UHF transceiver.

This radio is a 16-channel UHF transceiver, available from multiple online vendors. I programmed it to operate in the 70 cm band on 446.0 MHz.

73 Bob K0NR

The post The Truth About Tiny SOTA Transceivers appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

In case you weren’t able to join us live on New Year’s Eve, you can watch it here. Lots of friends and fun moments.
https://youtu.be/iQtY3bbbEyM?t=7983

 Once again I am looking back over the year and as most of you will agree it sure has been a year of changes! I'm not going to get into any politics or pandemic stuff but I will say that COVID has really affected the ham radio world. The Amateur radio community has in my humble opinion reacted to the pandemic in a very positive way. Club meetings are now online, clubs have a system of checking in on their club members throughout the week, worldwide there have been many "stayathome" call signs, we even had a virtual hamfest, radio dealers have in some areas gone to curbside pickup or bolstered their online presence. This list could go on and on but kudos to the radio community for stepping up and making a difference during this very strange time. 

Closer to home what does VE9KK's year in review look like? Let's start with the 2020 goals I set out 3 main goals for myself: 

- Register for CWop's academy code course.

- Get involved with the local radio club.

-Contacting some DXpeditions. 

So how did I do.....I did register for the CWops academy and was set up for the fall class. I received an email with the expectations of the students. They suggest that an hour per day is needed along with the online scheduled meetings. As the start time drew closer the home dynamics changed as my wife was now working from home in our home office/hobby room. I also was busier with the home reno's than I thought I would be. It would be tough to practice in the home office and with the Renos, time was very limited. I decided early to give up my spot so another person with the time commitment could use that slot. These courses are very popular and fill up fast and I did not want to put forth only a half effort. Because of this, I wanted to spend more of my free time using CW. 

The club involvement was derailed by COVID as the clubs up this way stopped all meetings and really did not get well into the pandemic. 

Contacting DXpeditions again COVID for the most part derailed that goal. 

The below picture is from club log and shows my 2020 operations by mode. It would seem my goal of getting more involved in CW was a success. In 2014 my CW op's was 5.44% and in 2020 it jumped to 55.98. I am not sure where the SSB stat comes from as I was never on SSB. 

Closing out 2020, here are the top five blog posts at k0nr.com during the year. Some people may see this as a lazy way of creating one more blog post for the year without much work. This is definitely true. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Leading the list is this blog post…a perennial favorite that seems to make the top five each year.

Getting Started on 2m SSB

This is another popular article that explains some of the details behind the 2-meter band plan. This particular article is tuned for Colorado but there it also provides a link to an article that covers the topic for the USA.

Choose Your 2m Frequency Wisely

New on the blog this year,  I wrote this article about the Yaesu FT-4XR handheld transceiver. Spoiler Alert: Buy this one instead of the Baofeng.

What About the Yaesu FT-4XR?

Coming from nowhere, this article talks about an alternative firmware package for the popular Tytera MD-380 transceiver. I don’t know why this is getting so many hits but it might just be people searching for the TyMD380toolz, which seems to have disappeared.

TyMD380toolz for Tytera MD-380

The fifth-place post is one of my personal favorites that talks about proper kerchunking of repeaters. It even introduced a new Q-signal for kerchunking, although I must admit it may not be catching on.

Proper Kerchunking

Editor’s Choice

I am going to add one more post to this list. No extra charge. This one announced that Joyce/K0JJW achieved Mountain Goat status in the Summits On The Air program. You Go, Grrrrl.

New SOTA Mountain Goat: Joyce/K0JJW

The post Top Five K0NR Blog Posts for 2020 appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

The Arkansas River Headwaters is a unique recreation area that follows the upper Arkansas River in Colorado, extending roughly from Leadville to Pueblo. POTA has it listed as the Arkansas River Headwaters State Park, but the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website shows it as the Arkansas Headwaters Recreation Area. This area is a bit unique, a cooperative effort involving Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the Bureau of Land Management, and the US Forest Service. See map here.

Joyce/K0JJW and I decided to activate this park earlier this week, enjoying a nice sunny day. We operated from the Collegiate Peaks Overlook, which has a picnic area and an excellent view of Mount Princeton and adjacent peaks.

For POTA, our standard station configuration is the Yaesu FT-991 transceiver driving an end-fed halfwave antenna, usually on 20m or 15m. We have a collection of end-fed halfwave antennas that cover 40m and up.  We have bigger and smaller transceivers available to us, but the FT-991 is small enough to be portable but includes an antenna tuner and has 100 watts of output available. (Typically, we run about 50 watts of RF output on battery power.) Our power source is a Bioenno 12V 20aH LFP battery.  This battery is lightweight and compact, capable of running the FT-991 for hours.

Bob working VE4RBH and AG7KO on 20 meters.

We set up our station on a convenient picnic table. We had hoped to lash the mast to a conveniently-located post or tree, but none were present. Our backup plan was the drive-on mount, held by the front tire of the truck. The 20m band was alive so we just set up on that band and never looked back. We also worked some of the locals on 2m FM. It is always fun to see who shows up on that band.

Here’s Joyce working AA5UY in Louisiana.

I don’t think we have really optimized our POTA setup but we have found an approach that works well. Never underestimate a properly-fed halfwave antenna up in the air.

73 Bob K0NR

The post POTA: Arkansas River Headwaters State Park (K-1208) appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

So we have all enjoyed the odd bargain direct from China, Tax free! But come the 1st January 2021 here in the UK things are about to change.

 A few people are thinking that small purchases won't be affected. Sorry, they will. The £15 VAT-free limit is being abolished. Even if you only want £1 rubber glass hammer along with a  matching left-handed spanner, the firm will have to register and pay the tax up front.

The only saving grace is that private sales between individuals, and gifts, will still be tax-free up to £39.

With goods sold via on-line marketplaces like ebay, Amazon etc, the onus will be on the marketplace, not the individual trader, to register for VAT.. Whatever, it's the consumer that will suffer.