Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 352
Turn your Android phone into a modern Ham Radio transceiver
Free, open source software & hardware homebrew VHF radio.
KV4P
NASA, NOAA: Sun reaches maximum phase in 11-year solar cycle
This announcement doesn’t mean that this is the peak of solar activity we’ll see this solar cycle.
NASA
Scientists say they’ve figured out a way to intercept alien radio signals
It could be used to pick up on communications that weren’t intended to reach deep space.
The Byte
How Ham Radio endures – and remains a disaster lifeline – in the iPhone era
When disaster strikes, and conventional communication systems fail, Amateur Ham Radio operators step in to bridge the gap.
ZDNet
Radio towers causing problems for residents of northern Kentucky neighborhood
Residents of a northern Kentucky neighborhood said radio signals from nearby towers are causing all kinds of issues.
Spectrum News 1
USA Radio Orienteering Championship concludes
Medals were awarded to the top three finishers in each class of competition.
The Sun Times News
The future of emcomm
There are two important technology disruptions showing up in North Carolina: satellite-based internet (Starlink) and mobile-phone-to-satellite text messaging.
K0NR
Do you name your radios?
Lucy and Linus, the brother and sister, are both Yaesu VX-7s that were my workhorse HTs during the 2013 Southern Alberta Floods.
QRPer
Jamboree On The Air brings Scouts around the world together
Jamboree On The Air is the world’s largest Scouting event.
ARRL
Making your first simplex contact on Ham Radio
Simplex is essentially one radio communicating directly with another on the same frequency, with no need for repeaters or additional equipment.
Ham Radio Prep
Video
How net control radio operators saved lives after Hurricane Helene
Tonight I welcome Dan, K2DMG, and Thomas, K4SWL, who live in one of the several areas that were devastated by Hurricane Helene.
Ham Radio 2.0
The Truth about SWR: Debunking the myths and misunderstandings
Is there really such a thing as perfect SWR and does it really matter?
DX Engineering
Sunset flight over Mount Olympus with Ham Radio operations
Conducted 2-meter FM radio operations throughout the flight.
W7NY
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Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.
The Future of Emcomm
Here comes Starlink!
I’ve been reading a number of reports from the areas affected by the two major hurricanes (Helene and Milton). The North Carolina experience is particularly interesting because people have experienced the loss of communication and electrical service for several weeks. I can imagine this same thing happening in other parts of the country, including my area.
There are two important technology disruptions showing up in North Carolina: satellite-based internet (Starlink) and mobile-phone-to-satellite (SMS) text messaging. Starlink is having a significant impact during this incident, while mobile phone satellite messaging is still emerging. Steve N8GNJ has some worthy thoughts on these topics in Zero Retires 173. Although I have served in many ARES/RACES deployments over the years, I don’t consider myself an expert in this area. I’d appreciate comments from Emcomm folks who have spent more time thinking about this.
Types of Emergency Communication
Most relevant emergency comms lump into 1) short-range comms (< 5 miles) between family, friends, and neighbors. 2) medium-range comms (50 miles) to obtain information and resources. 3) long-range comms (beyond 50 miles) to connect with distant family, friends, and resources.
- Short-Range Comms: This is the type of communication that is well served by mobile phones, except when the mobile networks are down. This is happening a lot in North Carolina. Lightly licensed VHF/UHF radios such as FRS and GMRS can be used to replace your mobile phone. Think: wanting to call your neighbor 3 miles away to see if they are OK or can provide something you need. (I have a few FRS/GMRS radios in my stash to share with neighbors. See TIDRadio TD-H3) VHF/UHF ham radio is, of course, even better for this, except the parties involved need to be licensed. (OK, you can operate unlicensed in a true emergency, but that has other issues. See The Talisman Radio.)
- Medium-Range Comms: This is a great fit for VHF/UHF ham radio using repeaters or highly-capable base stations. GMRS repeaters can also serve this need. These communications will typically be about situational awareness and resource availability in the surrounding area. For example, someone on the local ham repeater may know whether the highway is open to the place you want to drive.
- Long-Range Comms: Historically, this has been done by HF ham radio and a lot of emergency traffic is still handled this way. The shift that is happening is that setting up a Starlink earth station feeding a local WiFi network can help a lot of people in a very effective manner. Compare passing a formal piece of health-and-welfare traffic via ham radio to letting a non-licensed person simply get Wi-Fi access to their email or text messaging app. Hams are doing this, but many unlicensed techie folks have set up these systems and freely shared them with the public.
Mobile Satellite Messaging
Various providers now offer a basic text messaging capability using smartphones talking to satellites. Today, this capability is often limited to emergencies (“SOS”), and it is relatively slow. With time, this capability will certainly improve and basic satellite texting will be ubiquitous on smartphones. This will be great for checking in with distant friends and families, but it may not be that useful for Short Range and Medium Range comms. Someday, it might include voice comms, but in the near term, it is probably just text-based.
Evan K2EJT provides some useful tips based on his experience here in this video. However, he doesn’t address the Starlink capability.
Summary
While much of the public appreciates the usefulness of ham radio during emergencies, I am already hearing questions like “Doesn’t Starlink cover this need?” My view is that Starlink (and similar commercial sats) is very useful and will play an important emcomm role, but it does not cover all of the communication needs during incidents such as hurricanes, blizzards, wildfires, earthquakes, etc. Emcomm folks (ARES and RACES) will need to adapt their approach to take this into account.
Those are my thoughts. What do you think?
73 Bob K0NR
The post The Future of Emcomm appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.
Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].
LHS Episode #557: LHS Invades LFH
Hello and welcome to Episode #557 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts were invited to partner with the guys over at Live Free and Ham for a collaboration episode. It's mostly a fluff piece about Linux in the Ham Shack but we all had a good time and we hope you have as much fun listening. Thanks for being a part of the show and have a great week.
73 de The LHS Crew
Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].
Amateur Radio Weekly – Issue 351
Through Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Amateur Radio triumphs when all else fails
While some residents in hurricane-impacted areas can’t send texts or make calls, Amateur Radio enthusiasts are helping communicate requests for help and messages between loved ones.
WIRED
grid.radio
Location data including grid squares without the need for a data connection.
grid.radio
Antenna radiation pattern using WSPR
Using Grafana to capture the antenna radiation pattern of my Hustler 4BTV.
VE9KK
Delaware Packet Network (DEPN)
The DEPN objective is to promote and document the development of Community-Based RF-Linked Amateur Radio AX.25 and VARA Terrestrial Packet Network within the State of Delaware.
DEPN
20th century Amateur Radio organizations struggle in the 21st century
This issue isn’t confined to ARRL.
Zero Retries
International Beacon Project
These beacons help both Amateur and commercial high-frequency radio users assess the current condition of the ionosphere.
NCDXF/IARU
The Titanic 40m field expedient backpack portable antenna
Could a replica of Titanic’s giant antenna, downsized for the 40-meter band, be an effective Ham Radio antenna?
Ham Radio Outside the Box
Father of the radar detector, dead at 74
Mike Valentines connection with such technology goes all the way back to his childhood interest in Amateur Radio.
Adventure Rider
Review: Radioddity QT80 10m Radio
It cleverly walks a line between being a CB (channelized) radio, and a channelized/VFO capable Amateur Radio.
The SWLing Post
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station contact opportunity
Message to US educators: Call for proposals – new proposal window is October 7th, 2024 – November 17th, 2024
ARISS
Video
Receiving microwave signals from deep-space
David Prutchi explores how deep space exploration creates new and exciting opportunities in Ham Radio.
Supercon
1 Watt 2160 km QSO
Thanks to Peter OZ8CTH for this nice QSO.
Ali TA3IIF
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Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.
YADD – Maritime HF Activity Revisited
Before the HF maritime CW bands were closed back in the ‘90s, I spent many enjoyable hours listening to ships and maritime coastal stations all over the world while they exchanged CW messages or sent position and weather reports using the old AMVER system. It was a constant delight to hear various ship Radio Officers (ROs) using their keyers, bugs and good old hand keys to demonstrate their unique fists to the world, especially when using the latter two! Fists ranged from simply superb to downright awful, making one wonder if the ship’s oiler had been enlisted to send the nightly traffic! It was particularly interesting to plot their positions, as many of the vessels eventually showed up in the Port of Vancouver, an easy drive to where I was living at the time.
At 41,000 tons and 225m, she's a big ship, earlier named the ICARUS |
The AGIOS GEORGIOS S nears Kakinada, India, in the Bay of Bengal |
MOL CHARISMA - 21,000 tons and 316m long |
Registered in the Bahamas, the MOL CHARISMA was in the Aleutian Island chain near Dutch Harbor, Alaska, bound for Prince Rupert, BC. |
The ORIENT CHALLENGE - 183m |
The 'lakers' were very reliable QSLers |
Laker STEWART J CORT |
One of the group members, GM4SLV, has set up a wonderful website called YaDDNet devoted to collecting and posting listener's decoded loggings in realtime. One of YADD's features is the ability to automatically upload decoded signals, similar to PSK Reporter. It's an easy 30-second job to configure YADD to upload your spots to the net. His site also contains the latest MMSI look-up file used by YADD which is updated in real time from the latest log postings ... presently at 72,626 vessels!
Clicking on any of the uploaded ship names displayed in the real time YaDDNet log, automatically takes you to an online vessel-tracking site which usually has a picture of the ship along with all of its information, including its present position.
If you set up YADD to do some listening, I'd strongly urge you to also set it up so that your decoded spots are uploaded to the YaDDNet page in real time. Your latest logs will also keep the MMSI database up-to-date for all YADD users worldwide.
Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
Grand Harbour on Grand Manan Island light show.
Last evening we were treated to a nice light show courtesy of the active sun.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].
Antenna radiation pattern using WSPR
In a previous post, I mentioned I had purchased a Zachtek WSPR desktop transmitter. I found a great site one can use to go over the data collected regarding your WSPR transmissions. The site is called Grafana GUI and can be accessed at the WSPR live site. The Grafana dashboard gives you information on solar weather from 5 minutes to 1 year. Station-specific information such as antenna radiation pattern, spot data per band and time, map of where your signal is heard and finally it can be used for receiving and transmitting signals. I use the TX data as I do not yet have a stand-alone WSPR receiver. There is a ton of information you can gather, my advice is to visit the site and look around. I ran my WSPR transmitter for almost 24 hours and below I have included the Kp index for that time period as well as the antenna radiation pattern of my Hustler 4BTV.
Click on all pictures to enlarge.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].